If there is one thing in life I can count on, our appliances will break when my husband is out of town. When we lived in Toronto the pilot light on our ancient hot water furnace system would go. I would be on the phone with him crawling in damp, dark, dirty spaces with a barbeque lighter hoping not to blow the house up. The hotwater heater went while he was away and he was none to pleased with my solution- rental water heater.
Last winter, the furnace stopped working during one of the coldest, snowiest weeks. I had no choice but to call in a repairman. He was a nice fellow and within 5 min he told me that I had a problem with the pilot light and a particular part in the furnace. This was a well known problem where the pilot light burns a hole through some part. He said he might be able to fix it but it is hard to get ahold of the part, it is likely to keep happening and it could take weeks to get a new part. The part was expensive plus labor. He suggested a new furnance. I said Really, the furnance is only 9 yrs old and is hi efficiency. He shrugged. I said Okay, really believing i was going to have to get a new furnance, it was freezing outside. I said could you see if you can get the part and how much it will cost, get back to me and I will make a decision. He said fine.
I immediately went on the internet and it seemed like the info he gave me was nonsense. I kept the gas fireplace on and when my husband came home through a google search he discovered the outside vent was covered with snow, therefore the pilot light wouldn't stay on. Savings from google: thousands.
Recently our dryer broke down, my husband found a you tube video that took him through the diagnostics and with a $30 part we were back up and running. Thank goodness for google or who nows how many times I would have been ripped off????
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