Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Outdoor Wood Stove

Last week it snowed and the power went out for about three hours. While we were “powerless” Linda and I heard a “Ker-thunk” in the basement and couldn’t figure out what it was. We never did get to the bottom of it but soon there-after our outdoor wood stove quite working. By that I mean there was still heat in the box and the garage circuit was operating but the house circuit was "tits up."

By feeling the supply and return lines at the stove heat could be felt… but in the heat exchanger in the basement there was only a chilly sixty degrees. "Ah-ha!" I summarized, my technically adept mind clicking into passing gear. "it can only be one of two things. Either the line is plugged or the pump has quit working." When I turned on the spigot at the heat exchanger and only a trickle came out….”Must be plugged,” I concluded.

So I closed the valves to the supply and return lines and disconnected the two plastic lines that ran from the outdoor stove to the house. Then I went into the basement and hooked a hose from the main well input pipe to the return and supply lines spigot. You know those little rubber sealing gaskets? Well I was short one and when I turned on the pressure water flew everywhere. Unfortunately Linda was downstairs at the furnace and called me on the cell phone in a panic. I told her to turn the spigots off. You see, I had already derived empirically that there was barely any water coming out the disconnected return line.. “Darn line is plugged," I sagely concluded, stroking my jaw with certainty..

So I went downstairs and Linda was mopping up the water and giving me hell for the mess. I told her I had to go and buy a “Snake” to clear out the stoppage. She was livid and told me to quit trying to save two cents and call the plumber…. We had already spent 3K to fix the valve on the April Air Unit, a sump pump and new linoleum for the two rooms that suffered big time water damage two weeks ago.

I told her to relax, and I’d be back to fix the problem. So I went into Westfield bought the snake and returned. Now I needed fifty feet but the most they had was a twenty foot one. So I came back and snaked it out as best I could. Then I went back down into the basement and this time made sure I had an O-Ring for the hose and hooked it back up and turned on the water pressure. Then I went upstairs and out to the stove in time to see a plume of water squirting out of the disconnected return line. “Yes! Yes! I said overjoyed…“The water pressure blew the stoppage out.

So I hooked everything back up and turned on the power. To my disappointment the pump wasn’t working even though the water was now flowing. So I went to Stephen’s Point and $125 dollars later, plus gas, I was back to replace the pump.

As I went to install it I noticed a flow arrow on the pump. "Why is it pointing that way?" I asked myself. The flow is in the other direction. I checked the old pump and sure enough the flow pointed the opposite way. "No problem, just turn the pump I concluded…" However, the pump would not fit truned around because it was not symmetrical and one side stuck out further than the other and there was insufficient boiler clearance. This meant I had to either go back and get a new pump or install an elbow to get more clearance. I adopted option number two, got the parts and installed them to see if everything fit. They did and the pump seemed to be working, but the fitting were leaking and it was dark and I was all wet and cold and my frustration level meter was pegging in the red.

So I turned off the valves, shut down the electricity and came inside. Switching to the gas back-up I said,"screw it….I’ll finish up in the morning…" So here I am… Will let you know tomorrow how it all turns out… Life on the farm….Sheesh! If it ain’t one thing its another.