The furnace quit two weeks ago, but because it is summer I ignored it. Yesterday was cold though. So I measured the mV on the thermocouple and decided it was bad. Also The relief valve on the water heater started leaking so I replace that and drained the tank while I was at it.
It’s not as hard as you think to start, but it takes forever. I used to wait until stuff broke and needed replacing. I’d open it up and “try to fix it” knowing that I was going to break it worse and that I was buying a new one anyways. Looked up a lot of videos on YouTube.
Little by little I leaned to take things apart and put them back together without breaking them worse (mostly). Then I started to buy cheap Amazon spare parts to try to fix things without taking a big risk. Again I figured if I could buy a few more months of use it would be worth the risk.
After about 20 years I have a lot more confidence and have a pretty good success rate for household repairs and probably 30% for broken appliances. Sometimes shit is irreparably fucked, sometimes it’s still beyond my skill. When I fix something I usually get a couple of extra years out of it. It’s a nice hobby, save a few bucks sometimes. Better than spending an afternoon on the Internet.