So my tenant calls me today at noon time and says they haven’t had heat since midnight.
I asked why they didn’t call sooner, they said they didn’t want to bother me in the middle of the night. :biggrin
Anyway, I’m just learning the terminology, but it’s a furnace that uses an automatic igniter. Some sort of a “glow plug” that heats up and that ignites the burners. No pilot flame.
So the furnace does NOTHING. Turning the thermostat has no effect. No clicks. Just absolutely nothing. Turning power off/on does nothing.
This is the reason why I got “service contracts” for my rentals.
As they are carried by fuel companies or utilities, calls are taken 24/7, I don’t have to be bothered, as tenants had called late at night, and I don’t have to keep myself up to date on technical issues.
One nice thing is they do a maintenance once a year, and depending on the contract you have, covers labor and materials for many things that could go wrong. For instance, I rented a SFH to a tenant that lets the oil run too low before fillups, which gums up the furnace, requiring numerous service calls. I was surprised the fuel company went there numerous times to do service, did not not cancel me, given the competitive nature of the business.
If I didn’t have the service contract, the tenant could’ve called “code enforecement” for lack of heat, even if ultimately proved to be his fault.
I just had this company do a thorough cleaning and service of the furnaces… so we’re discussing things.
For now, I guess I like to be called first. If I can’t handle it, or don’t want to, then I call the furnace company.
Like today, the same problem happened again (as posted above).
This time, I went to the apartment and called the furnace guy… he walked me through resetting the switch. Now we have to figure out why the switch keeps “tripping”.