As Luck Would Have It

Sometime around the end of November, the first of December, I began hearing a noise I described as a little squeal when the furnace started up. I mentioned it to Hubby Dearest, but he could hear nothing. (Which was not unusual, I often hear sounds he doesn't.)

"Maybe if I ignore it, it will go away," I thought. (Although I had been raised by a wise woman who never let the source of a strange noise go uninvestigated.)  Instead it got steadily worse. Finally I decided I was going to phone the heating and a/c business that had been advertising 'free funace check ups during the month of December' to have ours serviced. As luck would have it, by the time I phoned them the 'free' had changed to $30.00. Still, it was not a bad deal. It was the last day of December. Our 'new' furnace was exactly ten years old. I gave them my name and address ending with "we are located in a mobile home park". That is when the receptionist said, "Oh, we don't work on mobile home furnaces."

The following Monday I called a local heating and a/c business. To save time I lead off with the question, "Do you service mobile home furnaces?" "Oh yes." and when I gave her the name of our park she said she knew where we were located, that they had made several calls here. As luck would have it, they could be here the next morning when temperatures were in the 40's and being without heat for awhile wasn't too bad.

The tech arrived right on time and went to work, first taking off the furnace door and listening to the noise. As he worked I mentioned that the furnace was ten years old on the 31st. As luck would have it, he said, "It's going to be that extra week that gets you. Parts are only warranted for the first ten years". He quickly identified the squealy culprit as the inducer motor and left to see if they had one in stock. As luck would have it, they did. He efficiently installed it and then checked over the other parts of the equipment, discovering a large piece of foam against the blower motor. Placed to act as noise insulation, it had come unglued. "You should notice a big difference in your air circulation now," he advised. I thought there had been a change in the force of air for a long time, so another bit of good luck - and a reminder to place a service call every year or two, even if there wasn't a noticeable problem.

I wondered aloud if there was the possibility the motor might still be under warranty depending upon when the company we bought the furnace from had sent in the paper work. The serviceman said they could look up the serial number online and find out.

We received the invoice two days later. I was almost afraid to look at the total bill. The first line item was for labor, the last for tax. In between, as luck would have it: "1 Inducer Motor ---- Under Warranty - No Charge ---"