Jim Katen

I agree. It's a homemade security hinge.

Interesting. It's only slightly larger than the little toffee hammer that I carry with me during my inspections.

Rheem/Ruud put their circuit boards inside metal enclosures in the blower compartment, which protects them pretty well from moisture and dirt. I suspect that it is, indeed, heat from the resistors, but it seems odd. I've looked at thousands of these things and never seen discoloration from resistors like this. I find myself wondering if this is a slow-moving failure in progress.

I think it might have been Andy Dufresne's old house.

I can't recall having seen this before. It's a 1993 Ruud gas furnace. The circuit board is toasted at the upper right corner, behind all of those resistors. Any idea what's going on here?

The stairwell only requires a guard where there's "walking surface" beside it. I'd have a hard time calling that a walking surface.

I believe that Scott Warga is in Gilbert. https://acsillc.com/

Not that I'm aware of.

You can still get #8 solid aluminum SE cable. I see it about once a month.

Sure, but I can't remember *ever* using all the burners on high at the same time. . .

This was from a 13.5kw range. The installation manual said that it was supposed to be installed on a 50 amp circuit. The breaker did eventually trip, but it took a surprisingly long time.

Erby's chart shows the aluminum ampacities way over on the right side. Both charts (and the NEC) allow #8 SER cable to be used on a 40 amp circuit (you have to use the 75-degree column, which is fine if all of the terminals in the circuit are marked for 75 degrees, which they almost certainly are). On many ranges, the installation instructions will specify either a 40- or 50-amp circuit, even though the range is capable of drawing more than that. I suspect that the manufacturer figures you won't run all of the burners on high at once. Being the suspicious type, I've tested this several times on several ranges. The 40-amp breakers rarely trip, even when the amp draw creeps up above 40 amps for a while.

That's swell.

It's certainly unusual, but not really a mystery. It just distributes water in 4 different directions. You can find similar fittings here: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/6-Way-Brass-Crimp-Fitting-Pipe_60751866129.html?spm=a2700.7724857.4.14.235f20ee2LHeXA&s=p http://www.temico.com/products/brass-fitting/5-way-connector-11035h http://www.sanitarytek.com/fittings/press-fitting-F09B-305.html I can see where it might be handy. You can run a pipe to a bathroom and, with one fitting, branch off to the toilet, tub, shower, and sink. It might be nice if the inlet barb were one size larger than the others, but it'd probably work fine as is.

Looks like a little baby manifold.