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#1
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
It's fall, I'm trying to get a bunch of things done before winter sets
in. My OLD Lennox Electric Forced air whole house heater (was installed in 1970) has the original Lennox Thermostat. It's the round dial-type with a slider on top of the dial that you set to desired temperature. Mercury bulb inside. It worked well until the end of last winter, when I noticed that if I set it at 68 degrees, it might go to 72 degrees or so until it shut down the heater. Wifey has turned the heater back on and I am back with the beast not shutting down at 68 degrees (Oh, it will occassionally, I think). Anyway, is there a way to fix this....or do I just need to buy a new thermostat. If I buy a new one, any suggestions? I do not want one of the programmable "bells and whistles," model. Just another basic would be fine. Meanwhile, wife is very happy with the heater shutting off in the mid-70s range...me, not so much. |
#2
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
Snap the round cover off. There are places to prop a spirit
level, if the stat is tilted, it will perform high or low. Make sure the stat is level to the earth. -- Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus www.lds.org .. "tim birr" wrote in message ... It's fall, I'm trying to get a bunch of things done before winter sets in. My OLD Lennox Electric Forced air whole house heater (was installed in 1970) has the original Lennox Thermostat. It's the round dial-type with a slider on top of the dial that you set to desired temperature. Mercury bulb inside. It worked well until the end of last winter, when I noticed that if I set it at 68 degrees, it might go to 72 degrees or so until it shut down the heater. Wifey has turned the heater back on and I am back with the beast not shutting down at 68 degrees (Oh, it will occassionally, I think). Anyway, is there a way to fix this....or do I just need to buy a new thermostat. If I buy a new one, any suggestions? I do not want one of the programmable "bells and whistles," model. Just another basic would be fine. Meanwhile, wife is very happy with the heater shutting off in the mid-70s range...me, not so much. |
#3
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
tim birr wrote:
It's fall, I'm trying to get a bunch of things done before winter sets in. My OLD Lennox Electric Forced air whole house heater (was installed in 1970) has the original Lennox Thermostat. It's the round dial-type with a slider on top of the dial that you set to desired temperature. Mercury bulb inside. It worked well until the end of last winter, when I noticed that if I set it at 68 degrees, it might go to 72 degrees or so until it shut down the heater. Wifey has turned the heater back on and I am back with the beast not shutting down at 68 degrees (Oh, it will occassionally, I think). Anyway, is there a way to fix this....or do I just need to buy a new thermostat. If I buy a new one, any suggestions? I do not want one of the programmable "bells and whistles," model. Just another basic would be fine. Meanwhile, wife is very happy with the heater shutting off in the mid-70s range...me, not so much. make sure that whatever holds the mercury switch to the spring is not letting it slide around. Dito for whatever holds the spring to the case. Clean the gunk out of the spring (bi-metalic temp sensor). As long as you don't break the glass, there's hardly anything to go wring. I got a programmable one with the new furnace. I started out setting it back to 65 at night, but soon found that I was leaving it at 65 all the time and manually poking it down lower if I'm feeling too hot. If your house is "leaky" and you're not home (predictably) most of the time, timed setback might be useful. |
#4
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
On 10/31/2011 2:55 PM, tim birr wrote:
.... It's the round dial-type with a slider on top of the dial that you set to desired temperature. Mercury bulb inside. It worked well until the end of last winter, when I noticed that if I set it at 68 degrees, it might go to 72 degrees or so until it shut down the heater. .... Anyway, is there a way to fix this....or do I just need to buy a new thermostat. If I buy a new one, any suggestions? I do not want one of the programmable "bells and whistles," model. .... You can try the cleaning mentioned, but it's not likely going to help. If the mercury isn't nice and shiny any longer, it becomes more "sticky" and it takes more to get it to flip, in effect increasing the hysteresis. Happened to the old classic Honeywell here a year or so ago; I put up with it until changed out the old system this year. I looked some locally, the old-style are essentially a thing of the past and while still possible, seemed that they were more expensive than the inexpensive digitals. Contractor used a plain-vanilla White-Rodgers (sp? "d" or no-d?) on these systems; seem fine. No idea what they are cost-wise... -- |
#5
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
On Oct 31, 6:32*pm, dpb wrote:
On 10/31/2011 2:55 PM, tim birr wrote: ... It's the round dial-type with a slider on top of the dial that you set to desired temperature. Mercury bulb inside. *It worked well until the end of last winter, when I noticed that if I set it at 68 degrees, it might go to 72 degrees or so until it shut down the heater. ... Anyway, is there a way to fix this....or do I just need to buy a new thermostat. *If I buy a new one, any suggestions? *I do not want one of the programmable "bells and whistles," model. ... You can try the cleaning mentioned, but it's not likely going to help. If the mercury isn't nice and shiny any longer, it becomes more "sticky" and it takes more to get it to flip, in effect increasing the hysteresis. *Happened to the old classic Honeywell here a year or so ago; I put up with it until changed out the old system this year. I looked some locally, the old-style are essentially a thing of the past and while still possible, seemed that they were more expensive than the inexpensive digitals. *Contractor used a plain-vanilla White-Rodgers (sp? "d" or no-d?) on these systems; seem fine. *No idea what they are cost-wise... -- Seems like a cobweb would produce the flaky results the OP is seeing, |
#6
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
Well, I feel extra stupid.....I pulled off the front to try to check
level and clean out the 'stat, and I just realized, no mercury at all. I am not sure what I was thinking about. I would have bet $100 cold that that was the construction. Bi-metal coil controls the switch. Switch itself is actually encased in a see-through plastic "case" so it is totally clean and as far as I can tell contacts look fine. I vac-ed dust off the coils. Not very cool tonight, so the unit is shutdown, but it was not all that dirty, and appears level, so I suppose it may be off to buy a new one. Honeywell makes a basic digital, non-programmable, I may try. About $90. |
#7
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Need new heater Thermostat -- or Fix?
tim birr wrote:
Well, I feel extra stupid.....I pulled off the front to try to check level and clean out the 'stat, and I just realized, no mercury at all. I am not sure what I was thinking about. I would have bet $100 cold that that was the construction. Bi-metal coil controls the switch. Switch itself is actually encased in a see-through plastic "case" so it is totally clean and as far as I can tell contacts look fine. I vac-ed dust off the coils. Not very cool tonight, so the unit is shutdown, but it was not all that dirty, and appears level, so I suppose it may be off to buy a new one. Honeywell makes a basic digital, non-programmable, I may try. About $90. Looking good is not adequate. Clean the contacts. I'd use a sliver of emory paper with IPA, followed by regular cotton bond paper with IPA to get the grit outa there. And there oughta be some sort of hysteresis in the assembly. Otherwise, the contacts would just chatter and arc. Make sure that mechanism is not gummed up. |
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