It seemed so simple.
Buy a new thermostat to replace the old one.
Unsnap it from the base unit.
Detach the heating system wires.
Unscrew and remove the base unit.
My plan was to replace my old, non-working Honeywell thermostat with a similar new one.
But how to get the wires out?
The product manual didn’t cover how to install – or uninstall – the thermostat.
So of course I turned to Google.
Article after article hopefully showed up on my search for how to remove wires from a Honeywell thermostat. (Oddly even with my model number results from Honeywell themselves were scarce.)
One article included this very topic in its title. Yet just at the moment of climax (that being the answer to my question) the article wrapped up – without telling me how to actually take the 2 damn wires out!
As usual my next step was to turn to my faithful handyman.
“Do you have an awl?” He asked. I replied wondering if that was the same as an ice pick. “Or a ball point pen,” he added.
I find a trusty, old style ball point pen, all ready to poke and prod the little silver tabs that appeared to grasp on to the waited. Nothing. Nada. The wires remained tightly anchored.
All the while, these tiny screw heads facing me seemed to beckon for experimentation. The 2 screws on the areas where the wires were seemed to be embedded further in than the others.
Against all odds I located my itsy bitsy eye glasses screwdriver.
(Can you tell a theme of this story is preparation and self-reliance?)
The screw turns. I tank the wire (not having followed the prescribed directions of flipping the circuit breaker to the heating system off, instead choosing to follow my handyman’s advicenif “pshaw.”)
Bingo!
The wire comes out.
I repeat on the second wire.
I install the new thermostat doing the above in reverse (having taken a photo of the original set up for safe keeping).
The moment I snapped the new thermostat in the heat kicked in.
Success.
In none of my research had the topic of those tiny screws come up.
Had I relied solely on advice and not my eyes and curiosity it had I minimized to the point of not owning basic tools I’d have been forced to hire a professional – and felt pretty silly seeing the ease of removing and installing the new thermostat.
Never under-estimate the power of a good set of tools and experimentation in every walk of life!
I will be over-sharing my lessons from my life as a handy girl…that apply to all walks of life.
