Does bad luck really come in threes?

[BlacktopTravelr]

I'm hoping bad luck doesn't come in threes. Everyone knows my generator was stolen, but now comes the second or third part depending on how you look at it. I took an older propane heater (cabinet type) to a friend to see if we couldn't get him some heat at night since it is suppose to get down close to freezing the next few nights. Anyway, back to our problem. his tank is a 30 lb tank and my heater is a 20 lb tank heater. No problem says the man at the place I get my tanks filled. My heater hose screwed right onto his tank with no problem. We even got a pilot light to light, sorta, the pilot would stay lit as long as you held the button down to release all the air from the line and let the propane fill the line. He has one of those Mr Buddy Heaters that normally takes the 1lb bottles, but you can hook up the 20 lb bottle if you have the extension hose. Here is the odd thing about this. His heater won't even light the pilot light and without a pilot light nothing else will light. And that is why I took my heater down to him. I've googled everything I could think of trying to find out why his heater won't light the pilot and why mine acted the way it did and I got nothing.

So after screwing around with it for an hour I decided to bring the heater home to make sure it would work with my 20 lb bottle. Nope, I got the same results with my bottle as we did with his 30 lb bottle. So I put the bottle back into the good heater I have been using and it did the same thing. After about 45 minutes of messing with it and it still acting up I sent the company a letter asking what else to look for to troubleshoot this. I tried my good heater again after letting it sit for about 4 hours and the pilot light lit and every thing worked like it is suppose to. So it could have been the tip over trip switch on my good heater.

Since I tried 2 heaters (my good one and the old one) and both screwed up, but I got one working... do I say I've had bad luck 2 or 3 times? [space]

[HARRIS]

CHECK WHERE THE PILOT IS IT MAY HAVE A SPIDER WEB IN IT. USE A STRAW TO BLOW IT CLEAN


OR ELSE DON'T MESS WITH IT IT'S TOO DANGEROUS TO USE

[Travlin]

When the pilot is lit there should be a little "tube" the flame is focused on. The thermal couple. If the flame is not heating this it will not stay on, and you have to hold the button long enough to heat it up. It is there so if the pilot is not burning it turns off the gas.

[jonnycando]

Those Mr Buddy heaters have always been persnickety. You get what you pay for in these.

[BlacktopTravelr]

Thanks for the replies everyone. [emoji106] The good one finally started working like it should after sitting about 4 hours. So it may have been the tip-over switch was tripped. I'll check the other one after I make sure there are no leaks and it has sit for a while. I know it worked when it was put up. It was put up because I didn't need two heaters at the time. I'm not even sure now why I have two of the same type. ;IDunno:

[Designer]

I'm hoping bad luck doesn't come in threes. Everyone knows my generator was stolen, but now comes the second or third part depending on how you look at it.

Uhhhhh...John? [space] The...."Bad things come in threes"... Clock was reset at the start.

I was sitting here thinking about my solar problems, well not problems but what to do in the future for electricity when I thought about what I would have to do during a cloudy day and I needed to charge the batteries. I remembered I had an 800 watt generator someplace and went looking for it. I checked the last place I knew it to be and it is gone. So I checked all the other places it could be and nope not there either. So someone has decided they need it more than I do and taken it. I have a good idea who took it but can't prove it and then it could be one other party as they are known to take things that aren't theirs also. Anyway I look at it I am out $100 which I can't afford to lose.

I will by you a replacement Generator at $100.

[emoji2]

[BlacktopTravelr]

I appreciate any and all help offered in this fiasco. I have told the handicapped lady that owns the trailer the guy I suspect of taking it lives in that he needs to be kicked out and the sooner the better. Sure she is going to lose $100 a month in rent, but I am sure he has done a lot more than $100 worth of damage to it in the two months he has lived there. His dad was one of the people that told me we had thieves and to keep an eye on his son and wife as they were the worst of the bunch around here.

[Designer]

I appreciate any and all help offered in this fiasco.

You have My Word on it.

....I have told the handicapped lady that owns the trailer the guy I suspect of taking it lives in that he needs to be kicked out and the sooner the better. Sure she is going to lose $100 a month in rent, but I am sure he has done a lot more than $100 worth of damage to it in the two months he has lived there. His dad was one of the people that told me we had thieves and to keep an eye on his son and wife as they were the worst of the bunch around here.

If this be so....then how are you going to ensure these thieves don't steal your replacement generator?

[BlacktopTravelr]

[
If this be so....then how are you going to ensure these thieves don't steal your replacement generator?

By doing what I should have done with the old one... put it in the building when not in use and lock up the building when I leave.

[Suzuki Johnny]

Those locks only stop an honest thief from stealing ...

[JFL Live]

I use a "Mr Heater" on my patio that uses propane. It will work with any size tank and it sits in the garage all summer. Sometimes when I get it out for the first time in the fall the pilot light won't stay lit. Like Travlin pointed out it's because the thermo couple isn't getting hot enough. So I take a match or a lighter and warm it up. That usually works for me...

[Herb]

Those locks only stop an honest thief from stealing ...

Nooooo.... really? (Is my sarcasm getting through this time? Epic fail on prior post)

Thieves are basically lazy. Make it as difficult as possible and they will mostly go find an easier mark. Every time I have had something stolen, I have made it so easy that I would have been tempted.

Put it out of site, lock it up, get a BIG F'n dog.

[old time rider]

A good big dog,not a little yap yap or big every ones friend like my lab was can go a long ways.Have fired a few shots just for scare efect a few times and clean my guns in the front yard when time to. [emoji2]

[SuzyRidr2]

Glad you got it working. I've had one of the dual buddy heaters, Big Buddy, for several years and it works flawlessly. I used it just the other day to heat up my garage while I was working on the bike. It's a real life saver. I'm still using the one pound bottles (it uses 2 at a time) which are kind of expensive, but I don't use it that often. [emoji106]

[JFL Live]

Glad you got it working. I've had one of the dual buddy heaters, Big Buddy, for several years and it works flawlessly.

That what I use on my patio, had it for years too. I'm using 40 pound tanks with an extension hose. Works great for sitting out on the pation on cold evenings. What I like about it other than it has 3 heat settings, is that it's quiet.

[YoDude]

Well let me see....Does bad luck really come in 3's....perhaps!

My best friend, whom I also work with daily, broke his foot on Friday of thanksgiving weekend. He got rear-ended on his way back home while driving his truck...nothing happened to the truck but a couple scratches and the other guys car was all sorta messed up, but he put it in the shop anyway to have it checked out for damage.....then just yesterday he had to go out of town on a service call with a broken foot, after getting rear-ended by some dumb kid and then having to deal with getting a cab to pick him up at 4:00 am in the morning, to get him to the customer site, dealing with transportation after getting there and all that hassle...go to the customers site, work a full 8 hours, with no lunch or breaks during all that time..got stuck at the airport for an extra hour because of the damn electric stair-thingy that lets people board, un-board the plane broke down...so he had to wait on the plane while the airport people figured out something else.....bla bla....and I have to pick him up tomorrow morning to run us to work because his poor truck wasn't done getting looked over for alignment issues and/or possibly bent frame issues for the last day after being rear-ended...bla...bla...and it's not even Friday yet...

Yeah, they come in THREES

Yo-

[SuzyRidr2]

Glad you got it working. I've had one of the dual buddy heaters, Big Buddy, for several years and it works flawlessly.

That what I use on my patio, had it for years too. I'm using 40 pound tanks with an extension hose. Works great for sitting out on the pation on cold evenings. What I like about it other than it has 3 heat settings, is that it's quiet.

I'm thinking about doing that too. Especially since the price of those small bottles have recently skyrocketed. I have an extra 20 pound grill bottle already and Lowe's sells the adapter/hose. I can get a 20 pound bottle filled for about $16 at Lowe's with my military discount. A four-pack of one pound bottles costs $16.48 now at Lowe's. 20 pounds or 4 pounds for the same price - no brainer, huh?

[JFL Live]

I'm thinking about doing that too. Especially since the price of those small bottles have recently skyrocketed. I have an extra 20 pound grill bottle already and Lowe's sells the adapter/hose. I can get a 20 pound bottle filled for about $16 at Lowe's with my military discount. A four-pack of one pound bottles costs $16.48 now at Lowe's. 20 pounds or 4 pounds for the same price - no brainer, huh?

Definitely give it a shot! I think the hoses are pretty cheap at Menards, 12 or 13 dollars...