Instead of doing the dishes, I'm going to tell you all about my Toyotomi Laser56 heater, and how mine is a blessing and a curse.
Before we even start, here's a picture. It's a small thing, but it heats my entire tiny house. Not only does it keep me warm at 50 below, but it doesn't smell, doesn't make any obnoxious noise (however it does sing special Toyo songs, more on that later), and it does all this on less than 500 gallons of heating oil a year. Yes, a year. Everyone should use these instead of boilers and forced air furnaces (which I like to call Horse Hair furnaces). Folks in the Lower 48 haven't even heard of these things. So if this is all new to you, listen up!
For all of these reasons, my Toyo heater is far more of a blessing than a curse. But because I have no backup method of heating (curse the people who redid this house, not me, *I* didn't take out the woodstove) when it goes on the fritz because it is 30 years old, it is always when I need heating. I have an "economical" electric heater that I use when this happens, but that's not really economical because Alaskans, especially in Fairbanks, pay more for electricity than just about anywhere in the known Universe. Why? Because our electric co-op makes electricity by burning oil. The worst thing you can do in Fairbanks is have all-electric heating.
So it's the end of Fall (all one week of it) and now it's 40° and raining. Which is okay, it's above zero. But I still need to heat the house because, well, even 40 above can get cold after a while. I turned on the trusty Toyo and it was working fine. This went on for several weeks and I thought, cool, we are good to go!
Then one night I woke up because I smelled hot wood. I searched my entire house for anything that might cause a fire, but couldn't find anything at all. Then I noticed my Toyo was showing an EE error. Uh oh. And no matter how many times I restarted it, or forced it to clean itself (it has a cleaning cycle to get the carbon gunk out) it kept shutting itself off.
So I called my friend Tundra Rose, who works on Toyos, and she said it could be a lot of things, probably an ignition error and I should either take it in for a full service or I could open it up and disconnect this particular pipe and clean it with a wire etc. etc.
Today I drank two cups of coffee, and went to open the front of the Toyo. Two screws hold the front on.
Law of the Universe #46: When you need a Phillips-head screwdriver, you must gather at least four straight screwdrivers first.
Law of the Universe #3: It's never as easy as it sounds.
Got the first screw on the right side of the machine just fine.
Take a look at the picture. See those stairs? They are just 1/4 inch too close to the heater for me to get the screwdriver in there.
Drank another cup of coffee.
I was worried I'd break the vent and fuel connectors if I pushed the heater too much, so I gently (yet firmly!) pushed and angled it so I could get the screwdriver in there and take out the screw. Success and not horrible smell of heating oil and no spreading puddle, no ominous cracking sound, so so far, so good.
Lifted the cover off and looked to see just HOW MUCH dog hair was in there.
Well, not much, it turns out! Even though I sweep up enough hair to knit a puppy a week!
Time to plug it in and run it through it's little Toyo paces. The fan went on immediately. Good, I guess the fan is working, I thought.
Then it started igniting and after a bit there was an orange glow in the fire pot. Then yellow flames, and finally a nice blue flame. That's great because igniters cost $200, which is ridiculous when you see how dinky a part that is.
So it heated up. And heated up. And heated up. And heated up some more and suddenly WHAM! I smelled the hot wood smell again! AHA! That poor heater went on getting hotter and hotter and shut itself off in shame.
Sad face.
But now I know what's wrong with it! The fan works, but just doesn't work at the right time. So off to the shop it goes for a wash and toenail clippings and anal gland squeezing--WAIT--wrong cute little thing. Whatever the equivalent is for a fancy, high-tech but elderly heater, that's what it will get at the Place Where They Care For Toyos.
