So This Weekend I Learned About Baseboard Heaters...

As the title says, this weekend I learned about baseboard heaters. I learned much more than I ever hoped to know. I also learned a thing or two about the Wii’s sensor bar.

Saturday: It’s Saturday night. Holly and I have spent all day on a roadtrip down to La Conner and Seattle to pick up a set of the most amazing sheets in the world and grab a bite to eat at Racha Thai. We finally get home and it’s freezing. We turn on the heat and settle in to watch some TV.

All is well until the all too familiar acrid stench of an electrical fire starts to fill the air. We get up and look around for the source of it but can’t find it. Holly primes the fire extinguisher to be sure that we’re good to go if the need arises. The stench abates temporarily.

A few minutes later we smell it again. We repeat the search routine. We still can’t find it. We suspect that it is somehow related to the heater behind the entertainment unit. We’re exhausted and don’t want to deal with it so we turn off the heat and call it a night.

Sunday: We got up late. Very late. I swear those sheets are beyond cozy. I honestly wonder if they are laced with some sort of sleep inducing drug. They are simply fantastic!

After a lovely breakfast of homemade waffles we decided to start catching up on some work around the house. I decided that I was going to check out the heater behind the entertainment unit and see if I could figure out what had been causing that burning smell. I thought it would be simple; probably a wire a little too close to the heater that just needed to be tied back. But you see, nothing is ever that simple…

And now, a brief Leo Picture Book Story Moment:

Leo is a cat. By definition that means he is strange.

Just like other cats he likes to sleep,

he likes to play with string,

and he likes to hang with his brother (Max).

Leo also likes tenting,

talking on the phone,

and helping to butter bread.

He also happens to like playing hide and seek,

and playing ball… by the heater… where he also seems to have played with the Wii’s sensor bar…

This is a Wii sensor bar that has met it’s end on the element of a baseboard heater. You might also argue that this is a reason not to have cats.

At this point, knowing what the problem was, I called my Dad. I figured I would have to find a way to scrape that melted sensor off the element. Then investigating further I figured maybe I would have to replace the element. After talking with Dad it seemed apparent that I would need to replace the heater.

So I learned how to remove a baseboard heater. How to wire a baseboard heater and how to otherwise install a baseboard heater.

I never realized just how badly Leo wanted to be gamer. Hopefully he doesn’t toss the new sensor bar down into the heater. So to all of those gamers in the MLG who talk about how they go through a gamepad a month while practicing, let it be known that my cat is harder on equipment than you are. He melted the damn bar!

In reality though, I know he just did it so he could get a new box to play in.