Threats of more snow on the way. Bring it on! I enjoy heading off for a wee run in the snow (especially at night with a head torch). It's also natures way of slowing the pace a wee bit.
Whether I'll still be as keen when we are trying to travel down to Gala for the cross country on Sunday remains to be seen.
Anyhoo. Snow. In November. Not exactly unheard of, but still a bit earlier than usual. Signs of a cold winter ahead?
Which is why I'm keen to get our fire seen to by the engineer. It "blew up" last week.
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| My "stove" - hand drawn by me. |
It's a converted cast iron wood burning stove that now runs on gas. Anyway. A week past Tuesday when we got back from the running club I went to turn it up. Not "on" but "up". We had left it on low while we were out so that it wouldn't be too cold when we got in.
On turning it up however, there was an almighty blue flash... a hell of a bang... and the cast iron lid came shooting off (luckily it didn't come fully off as it would have broken something - probably my head).
Now. The fire has been on (I could see the pilot light), so it was not a build up of gas that suddenly ignited.
Anyhow. I got over the shock. Turned off the gas. Let it cool down, then put it all back together.
It worked.
Then.... I saw a bit I has missed when reassembling it. I hate when that happens. You take something apart...put it back together...then find a bit you've forgotten or left out.
What to do? Just accept, "ah well it's working", or try to start all over again? I'm an option "a" man myself.
Anne is pretty much option "b" with the added condition that we get an expert in.
However, not to be beaten, I've done a little bit of digging about in that goldmine of trivia and dross "google".
Turns out the "bit" is a "choke plate" and comes from the flue. It's probably been a "blow back" of stoor or dust from the flue into the fire that's caused the bang (according to the engineer not common but not unheard of). If you are old enough to remember the days when schools actually offered an education, I think it's the same principal as that experiment we did in science that involved blowing custard powder into a tin that had a candle in it!
The fire will work fine for a few weeks till he can come out to look at it, suck air in through his teeth in a semi-professional manner and state "Oooh, this is going to cost...", and then hopefully fix it. It will work for now, but because the flue is now fully open it might not be quite as efficient as usual (long as it warms the room I don't care).
1 comment:
Seem to remember I removed the "bit" out of the flue and put the top plate back. Just as well we're getting a man in..........
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