About GabeU

@ziggyzippo   When an account is put on a service suspension, which may very well be what was done with yours, at least temporarily, due to you not being able to use the service, you are still responsible for the monthly equipment lease fee and any applicable taxes.  This may very well be what the $17 is from.    I'm sure a rep will look into this for you when they see your post.   ... View more

I got a kick out of that, too.  Like the "don't eat this" warnings on things that no one would ever eat.  :p   That control just feels cheap, and because of the way the water heater is designed there is no way to light it manually.  It can ONLY be lit by that piezo lighter on the control.  :(    I can see the  control  going bad long before the water heater itself does.  :(       I'm used to the old, small water heater gas valve with the big black dial on it that has the temps.  You reach in with a long match or one of those flexible, extended grill lighters to light the pilot while holding the button down, then put the access panel cover back on the inside, then the outside.  Easy and long lasting.  Heck, my water heater is approaching 18 years and it's still going strong.  And it sits on a concrete slab on a dirt floor basement, so it's not exactly a dry environment.  But, it's still fine.  My furnace is about the same age, and other than replacing the hot surface ignitor a few times, it's still going strong, as well.  They forgot to move the draft prover switch when they installed it in a horizontal position, so it was below the exhaust blower housing and would get water in it.  It took a bit to figure that one out, as I'm not used to gas furnaces, but I knew what draft prover switches were and how they worked, and I could tell it was full of water from the condensation building up in the exhaust blower housing and running down the rubber tube to it.  Just shook it out, let it sit for a few hours, and put it in the right position.   ... View more

@MarkJFine wrote: Glad everyone's safe. When you start talking gas lines and pilots combined with flooding, the pilots go out and bubble up through the water... that's just bad news waiting to happen. Bunch of houses blew up in Mass. just recently on gas explosions. Yep.  I could hear the water spitting out when the burner first attempted to come on.  Even when everything was finally good and it lit and stayed lit, I heard a little more water coming out about five or six minutes after the burner had been on.     I REALLY hate the design of this new water heater.  Well, semi-new.  My stepfather is a little gullible when it comes to this sort of thing, and the contracter sold him a used water heater that had come out of some place.  Don't get me wrong, it's fairly new, and it looks like it.  The manufacture date is also fairly recent.  He sold it to him for less money, but in the end, it's not really the right water heater for them.  It will work, but it's not what I, nor any other contractor, would have chosen for them.  It's too tall, and they had to create an opening higher in the flue base by chiseling it out in order so that the flue wouldn't be going downhill.  It was when they installed it, and I called and complained, so the owner came out the next day and fixed it by creating the higher opening.  It's just the wrong water heater and it started with a bad install.     What they now have is a Reliance 6 40 GORT 300.  It has this burner control for the gas valve, which it sits on top of.  A big pain in the rump.   ... View more

Luckily, the water had receded enough that I was able to get their water heater going again.  It's a newer type with a piezo ignitor, and it's an enclosed (to easy access) burner chamber, which means it takes a lot to be able to open it up to see the burner and all.     I took a few tries, but it lit, and it seemed like it was doing fine.  The burner then went off and the blinking light on the control that lets you know that the pilot is lit stopped blinking.  Stupid me, I didn't wait very long and I tried to light it again.  After a few tries, and after gas was evidently pooling inside the chamber, I darn near blew myself up.  A flame shot out from around the access seal, and it blew the flue collector off the top.  Luckily it didn't go anywhere as it's screwed to the flue pipe, but it detached from the top.  I had to re-seat it.     Call me old fashioned, but I like simple, pilot lit water heaters with an access door that is easy to remove so one can inspect the burner chamber.  Not practically sealed chambers that take removing screws, wires, the gas line and pilot gas line from the gas valve in order to gain the same access.      Years ago I had a customer with a no heat issue with their oil boiler.  They told me that they only hit the burner reset button one time, which is a warning clearly written on the burner control (Only press reset button one time).  I changed the filter, strainer and nozzle and blew out the oil line, as they had just gotten fuel, which stirred up dirt in the old tank and caused the problem in the first place.  It sucked up nasty, dirty oil, which fouled those three things I changed.     Anyway, I bled the air out of the fuel line system and started it up.  Everything seemed fine until the thing started rumbling and just about dancing on the floor. Smoke started to come out of it.  I turned the burner off and closed all air access, including wrapping rags around the air intake on the burner to try to starve the fire to get it out, but it didn't stop.     It turns out that the homeowner had lied, even after I told him the importance of telling me how many times he hit the reset button.  He had hit it over and over and over again, loading the burner chamber with a ton of oil.  SMH.  Needless to say, I ended up calling the fire department as I couldn't stop it.  His boiler was ruined and his half finished basement was covered in soot.  Think copier or printer toner all over everything.  He certainly paid for that mistake.  SMH.   The flame shooting out tonight reminded me of that.  But, it's up and running now, and they have hot water again.  :)   ... View more

And now nearly all of the snow has melted, plus it's been raining, and my folks have no hot water because their basement is flooded and the water has gotten high enough to submerge the burner in their water heater.  SMH.     They've always had issues with water in their basement during heavy rains and snow melts, and the water heater is up on a small stand because of it.  This flooding is terrible, though.  More than a foot and a half deep.  Over the tops of our barn boots.  Ugh.     Unfortunately, it's a very old farmhouse, and the basement floor, though concrete, is uneven.  It does have a drain near one corner, but it's the corner that's the highest, of course.  LOL.  They REALLY need a sump pump, or at least a utility pump that sits on the floor that they can plug in when they need to.  My basement has a pedestal type sump pump, and it's been working overtime over the last couple of days.   ... View more

@WestTN-Pick    The best and most accurate way to run speed tests is by using the following protocol.  It's also what's required by the reps/engineers, so if it gets to the point that they need you to run some speed tests, you'll already be ahead of the game.  And, at this point, if you do feel that your speeds are low, it would be best to run a few of the tests.  It would also help to establish if speed is the problem.  It's a bit to read, but it's important to follow the instructions to get reliable speed test results.     ------------------------------------------   To help the HughesNet Customer Service Reps get a head start on your speed concerns, please create a   testmy.net   account (if you do not already have one) and, while signed into that account, perform 3-5 tests during different parts of the day, then share the account results link with us here. Most important points to remember during this test: -do the tests while directly connected to the HughesNet modem with a LAN cable (NO third party Router or Wireless devices can be used) -disable the WiFi while the speed tests are being performed -use the manual 25MB size download test file  -If testing upload instead of download, please use the manual 4MB size upload test file -space each test at least 5 minutes apart -post your testmy results URL here, it may look something like   http://testmy.net/quickstats/yourusername For a more in depth guide on running the tests, please visit:   http://customer.kb.hughesnet.com/Pages/7001.aspx  (due to being an older page, the test sizes are incorrect for Gen5 on that page (please use the test sizes listed above, in bold, for Gen5)). The Reps are on M-F from approximately 8AM to 5PM Eastern. They will be the ones to address your speed issues, but they will need these tests to do so.   If you are unaware of how to disable the WiFi in the HT2000W, please see "How do I manage my built in WiFi modem?" in this PDF.  Please be sure to click "Save Settings" after unchecking "SSID Enable" for each of the four tabs individually (2.4Ghz, then 2.4Ghz Guest, then 5Ghz, then 5Ghz Guest).   ... View more

I'm ready!!!  :)    I had just turned three when Hoffa disappeared.  That's how I got away with it.  No one suspects the three year old!  :p   ... View more

@maratsade wrote: I'm sure it's temporary  -- has it improved today? Yep, it has, thankfully.  I tried two more tests not long after the first one, but I bother allowing them to finish, as I could see that they weren't going to be any better.       @maratsade wrote:  Also, this post is an excellent example to others: you mentioned slow speed issues without launching into a diatribe and invoking government agencies, conspiracies worthy of the X Files, and/or lawyers.   Actually, I suspect it was due to Gremlins that were created in a secret lab by scientists working for lawyers who are employed by a secretive government agency that was created by X-Files fans with substantial power and influence.  Oh... and Jimmy Hoffa is under my shed.  :p  ... View more

@MarkJFine wrote:  If you really want to look up a real scary technology, look up using power lines for broadband transmission. Some power companies are already using it as part of a power monitoring scheme, but I can't really see it for widespread use. I mean, how are you going to filter out all the 60Hz harmonics to get high-speed data reliably modulated on power lines... You may not be aware of this, but Manassas had the first sizeable implementation of BPL in the country.  It was a test, more or less.   It was slow and expensive for the speed, but it worked.  They eventually shut it down due to cost and lack of customers.  Still, though it worked, it was never particularly viable.     It was started in the early 2000s, though I can't remember exactly when.  I don't think it lasted more than seven or eight years before they shut it down.    ... View more