There is absolutely some truth to the idea of going with your very first instinct.
And because I didn’t go with my very first instinct when it came to the gas furnace, I ended up voiding my HVAC warranty and writing a big check.
That seems like a big price to pay for making the mistake of thinking that perhaps I could save on an HVAC service call by taking things into my own hands. Of course, when I walked into the house after work to find no HVAC heating, my first thought was to call the HVAC company. Wow, I really wish I could have that moment back and take another shot at doing this the right way. Instead, I talked myself into having a look at the gas furnace even though I had no idea what I was doing with HVAC equipment. I took the panel off and found a burnt out switch. Then, I took it to the hardware store and bought a replacement. It wasn’t the same but it said it would fit my gas furnace. I plugged in the switch and the gas furnace fired right up. The gas furnace ran like normal and I thought I was a hero. That is until the gas furnace came crashing down a few days later due to that faulty switch I bought. It wasn’t to factory specs and allowed the gas furnace to get too hot. And that resulted in an emergency shut down. This was a very expensive lesson given that I don’t have a warranty on the HVAC equipment any longer and it cost me more than a grand to fix the gas furnace.