My friends sure did get down and dirty tonight by helping me out. LOL

My furnace started to rattle a couple of weeks ago and I thought maybe the filter wasn't in right but my friend Donna looked into the back of it and said she thought it was the blower making the rattling noise.

Tonight she and her husband Richard came over to take a look at it. Richard is pretty mechanical and can fix just about everything. I am always amazed by what some people know how to do. Handsome Ken was the same way - he can do just about anything.

Richard vaccumed the back of the furnace then worked around a bit putting some oil on parts. I went upstairs to turn the furnace down so the blower would shut off and when I came back downstairs he had the blower out of the furnace. Man-o-man was it dirty!

There wasn't any space between the blades of the fan that wasn't clogged with dirt. Richard said it was any wonder I had heat blowing upstairs at all. My furnace is 38 years old and I don't recall the blower ever being cleaned. A motor was replaced 10 years or so ago but that is it.

Richard used an old toothbrush to get all the dirt out from between the blades and Donna vaccumed up the dirt that was coming out so he wouldn't breath it in. Richard's hand were black.

Donna thought they should take the blower to the car wash to be power washed but Richard asked me to get the hose from outside and bring it downstairs and he would wash it out. LOL It was a feat just getting the frozen hose off the tap and I thought that was nothing in comparison to what those 2 were doing down my basement. LOL

Richard and Donna washed the blower out until it was sparkling and not a speck of dirt was left on it. Richard put some oil on the drum and the thing started to turn by itself. LOL He said I am going to save a lot on my energy bills because the blower won't have to work so hard now.

I had to call Neighbour Ken up to see if he had any rubber of some sort because Richard needed to put some on the base of the blower where it hits the metal floor. Ken came over with Freda's garlic peeler LOL. He said Freda willingly gave it up for the cause as she never used it. So Richard cut it up and put it under the blower.

After he put the blower back in the furnace and came upstairs to wash his hands I turned the furnace on so the blower would come on again. Richard yelled down the stairs that he could feel the heat blowing up through the registers. I came upstairs and the little towel I have in front of the kitchen register for the cat to lie on was blowing up in the air. Wow!

Donna called up the stairs and asked about a noise and if it was the same rattle as before. Yep it was only louder now. Drat! All the work and still the noise - but the blower was clean!

Richard took another look and felt around and said that some kind of metal piece was to short to reach the blower or something. I don't understand these things at the best of times. Richard said he needed an Allen wrench and I only had a little one for my kitchen taps. Both Richard and Donna will come back over tomorrow to fix the noise and replace the belt which is just about shot.

I went shopping with Donna and went back to her house for a bit and when I came home I turned the furnace back on and the blower is making more noise now that it was before. My living room floor is shaking but I sure can feel the heat blowing up through the register even though it is set at 63F. Richard will konw how to fix it.

They also brought over my Christmas tree stand. Afte my tree falling fiasco of last year the stand that came with the tree broke so I bought this new stand but the screws weren't reaching the metal tree trunk to keep it stady. So Richard filled the stand with a light weight cement and put the metal trunk part in the cement so it is firmly affixed and no way will the tree topple over now. LOL

Who knew you had to clean a furnace blower? Not me. I mean this thing was dirty, dirty, dirty,. No wonder I have lots of dust everywhere since the furnace has been on and my filter is new and a good one too. I am sure some of the dust is from my remodel but still...

I'll be very happy when the rattling stops. It is so loud right now it is kind of scaring me a bit. Lucy sure doesn't like then noise it is making either LOL. Richard did check it out before he left and said the furnace was safe but it would rattle.

Would any of your friends get down and dirty for you like mine did tonight? LOL

I am so fortunate that I have some wonderful friends and that they know how to fix things that I have no clue about.

Anne