No More Ticking HVAC. All I Had To Do Was Buy It Off

So through all the stuff I have had to go through the past few ... well, more like lifetimes but really weeks, some good news: The clacking coming from the furnace is gone!

I blog posted a while back that I was able to isolate where the tick-tick-ticking is coming from whenever the heat kicks in my house to one electrostatic cell that keeps arcing despite washing and cleaning it.  I simply could not call up an HVAC place because I was afraid they would charge me for a visit.  Was there a possibility that, say, I could just call them or even drop by their place with this arcing cell and tell them to just look at it?  Maybe.  But like I said, I didn't bother even trying to call.

So what did I do?  I bought a new one.  Well, I bought a used one, on eBay, a place I haven't bought from in years.  (I thought my account was tied in with Mother, and I don't want her knowing what I buy from that website, but when I got back on it, they had no record of my account, so I had to make up a new one.)  Got it last week, found time to put that cell in and take out the problem one, and even though I could have (and maybe should have) washed it before I put that new/used cell in, when the heat came on, the heat vented through the whole house without that pesky noise.  And a problem that has plagued me since the beginning of fall is now no more!

I sometimes wonder if I should have been more industrious.  Maybe I should have called to see if I could go in to an HVAC place and have them check out the electrostatic cell, or maybe I could have tried this trick with an emery board and sand out every single wire on the cell in case there was one microscopic piece of dirt or lint that was the source of the arcing and the ticking.  Instead, I do what I often do: Buy the problem away.  I kind of feel I do that when it comes to repairing my car; this might be a very bad comparison, but instead of trying to figure it out and fix something myself, I instead just throw money at it.  However, just buying stuff is way, way easier.  Also, it absolves me of any responsibility to adding to the problem.  Any problems that continue or arise as a result of me trying to fix a problem are my responsibility.  When I buy a product or pay people for their labor, if there are any problems that continue or arise, I can say, or tell myself, "Hey, I paid money for it/to them -- I assumed that would solve everything.  I didn't do anything!"

Maybe that speaks to my weakness as a person.  Whatever.  I am not plagued by noises whenever the heat comes on.  That's enough for me.