Comments on: Heater woes.

Question: Heater woes.

Darth Fedor — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:26:51 -0800

Can I fix my gas heater without hurting myself? My apartment's gas heater stopped working today. I took a look at it--the LED indicator flashes steadily, and the chart for LED indicator interpretation says that that means "Line voltage (115V) polarity reversed."

I don't know anything about heaters, but I am fairly proficient at splicing, crimping wires etc.

The heater has an automatic electric ignition system--no pilot light.

To my untrained eye, a reversed polarity sounds like a fairly isolated problem, and if I can fix it myself immediately without having to call for help, I'd prefer it.

Is this something I can safely fix myself? If so, how?

It's cold in here.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:29:56 -0800

Is the question not more likely to be 'how can the polarity of my heater suddenly switch?'

That is not really as trivial a situation as you are suggesting the fix would be. Also, in a lot of countries it would be illegal for an unqualified person to mess with a gas heater. If there was any subsequent incident/damage, you may be in significantly more hot water than you don't have available to you now.

By: 45moore45

45moore45 — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:30:59 -0800

No. Call your landlord and put in a work order request. I guarantee you no landlord wants you messing around with a fire hazard. There is no charge to you to submit a work order request. I am sure buried in your lease somewhere is something mentioning messing around with wiring/plumbing, etc.

By: winston

winston — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:48:34 -0800

Hm. Maybe if you want extra fast service, you could call the landlord and say that you're considering fixing it yourself. :-)

But I'd say if it suddenly stopped working, it's more complicated than reversed polarity.

By: Darth Fedor

Darth Fedor — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:55:56 -0800

Advice taken. Thanks guys.

By: dhammond

dhammond — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:56:26 -0800

In theory, you can, but you almost certainly should not. As 45moore45 pointed out, it could very well be a violation of your lease (not to mention, quite possibly dangerous if you don't know exactly what you're doing).

By: bystander

bystander — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:16:44 -0800

I'm not quite sure how the polarity on an AC current could reverse? I suspect it is something a bit more serious.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:23:41 -0800

75% chance of not getting blown up. Act accordingly.

By: jayder

jayder — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:32:02 -0800

When you're dead, you'll wish you had gone to the trouble to have the work done by someone qualified.

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:17:01 -0800

Make sure the ground wire on the control board is secure. This message isn't talking about the polarity from the wall current, it's referring to the secondaries on the transformer (DC output to power the controls/valve).