I bought a crappy old house built in the 1920s a few years into my marriage. There were so many things wrong with it. Water intrusion, leaking pipes, roots in the sewer line… on and on. But it was our house, and we loved it. One issue was that the water heater was tiny, and […]

Every gas furnace data plate/tag has a specification for the temperature rise through that furnace. It is shown in a range like 50-80° or 45-75°. Those two numbers are the lowest recommended temperature rise; the highest allowed temperature rise through the furnace is usually a 30° difference. When possible, we want to get the rise toward […]

This article is part 5 of a 5-part series on troubleshooting by Senior Refrigeration and HVAC tech Jeremy Smith. This step might be the most challenging part of troubleshooting. We've got a “Most Likely candidate” for the trouble, but we don't know for certain that's what is wrong. So, we have to combine our customer […]