Gemini almost killed you.

The exhaust blower not working triggered a safety that prevented the furnace from firing.

Spinning it bypassed the safety.

You likely inhaled a lot more carbon monoxide than you know.

Can you elaborate? I interpreted the same as the other comment that the blower fan just needed a hand start and kept going after the furnace started up. What you're saying only makes sense to me if the spinning the fan by hand allowed the furnace to start by bypassing the safety at startup, but wouldn't that mean that if the exhaust fan was stopped during normal operation (blockage etc) that the furnace would just keep going, dumping CO into the home?

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andrewthornton 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It wasn't bypassing, I was just helping start because of what I believe to have been a bearing issue.

	▲	doubled112 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It’s a pretty normal trick to try while troubleshooting a rotating part. Helping something start is not likely to ruin your day (unless you get caught in a rotating part)

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andrewthornton 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was spinning it in reverse actually, but it would be enough to start the exhaust blower. It would also re-start pretty well for ~6 hours. It was probably the bearing. Also FWIW I have multiple carbon monoxide/air quality monitors and nothing tripped or alarmed.

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philipkglass 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

From the description I thought that a degraded capacitor or lack of lubrication made the blower not start on its own, but the blower (and the whole furnace) would work if given a manual startup spin by hand.

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pesus 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Welp, AI almost killing someone is definitely an "oh shit" moment.

	▲	saturn8601 an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Wonder how many AI deaths have occured that we dont know about(since they presumably died). With the adoption numbers we are seeing it much have happened already.
	▲	ihsw 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The most interesting part is that there is no direct line between someone's accidental death and a chatbot giving life-threatening advice. Imagine one of the models that has "accidental-deaths-via-bad-advice" just slightly turned up, with the model-provider's intent being to kill 5% more people per year.

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kunjanshah 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

https://www.covenantairesolutions.com/post/what-is-a-furnace...

“At its core, it's a small motor with a fan attached that has one primary job: to vent harmful exhaust gases out of your home before the burners ever kick on. This is the very first step in the heating sequence, and it's non-negotiable for a safe startup.“

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Izkata an hour ago | parent [-]

The original comment was unclear whether the fan kept spinning while the furnace was running, or if all it did was bypass the safety and the fan didn't continue to spin while the furnace ran. They clarified in their response it kept spinning.

	▲	MPSimmons 20 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It seemed obvious to me that this was bearing stiction and that manually rotating it during the start allowed the fan to spin on its own after that, but I could be wrong and maybe the fan was dead entirely?