Misleading Boiler Error Message

February 6th, 2022
house
This morning we woke up to a cold house and a sad furnace:

The furnace is a Burnham Alpine 150 (ALP150BW-4T02) that we installed in Fall 2015, not long after we bought the house. No issues before this. It had a diagnostic ("Limit String Status") where it explained why it was refusing to start:

This initially looks like two faults: one with the Condensate Float Switch (ours doesn't have Thermal Link or Burner Door sensors) and then one with the Gas Press Switch / Low Water Cutoff / Flow Switch / External Hi Limit. But checking the manual it says:

Interlock input limit items are wired in series. Items down stream of the open limit will also appear as "open" (measure zero volts). When the first item in the string is resolved (repaired, or fixed) the down stream items will also be fixed.

There's also a diagram to illustrate:

This tells us there is one thing wrong, and it is in the condensate system, right? Unfortunately, no. After getting a plumber out, it turned out that the problem was actually with the previous sensor, the Auto Reset Hi Limit. I'm not sure how a sensor fails in a way that the fault appeared to be at the next sensor in the string, but that's apparently what happened.

While I'm frustrated with the diagnostic, I'm glad we have heat again!

Comment via: facebook, lesswrong, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Variable fonts aren't universally supported

I make a lot of webpages. I also use Lockdown Mode on iOS and MacOS for a bit of extra security. Sometimes I realize that I forgot to test on Safari and it looks like crap, or I test and don’t notice that there’s been a problem for months (as was the case…

via Home June 27, 2026

Ozy in Asterisk on coping with AI doom

I wrote an article for Asterisk Magazine about people who believe in AI superintelligence soon, and who are chill about it.

via Thing of Things June 24, 2026

Fiddle Practice

For a while I wasn't learning how to play violin very well because whenever it was time to practice I didn't want to. I didn't really like practicing, because (1) it's boring, (2) I have better things to do, and (3) actually I guess there …

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts May 3, 2026

more     (via openring)