If you know me you know I'm not the handiest. This morning Erin woke me up at 6am to tell me that our furnance had stopped working.

I got up a bit later and went down to check it out. When the furnace started up it sounded like there was water in the fan. Technically it's not the just the fan but the cumbustion inducer. It speeds up air going into the burer for more effecient heating.

This happened last year as well on a Sunday no less. Last year we called to have someone come out and fix it and were informed that it would cost an extra $90 an hour for them to come out on Sunday - so we waited a day.

When the guy did come out he told me it was exactly what it sounded like - water in the fan. The intake goes to outside and condensation can form in the pipe, there is a drain, but it can get clogged and over time if that happens and the water backs up it can get into the inducer.

The repair man did show me how to fix a clog. It's very low tech you litterly suck the clog out using tubing that is part of the furnace, you end up with a mouthful of gunk and water - not pleasent but not dangerous. The water is from condensation, so it's relatively clean.

Then I had to figure out how to get the water out of the inducer itself. Searching online found suggestions to take the unit off, it's only attached with four screws after all. I tried, but one screw is wedged behind a gas pipe - not something I really want to try to move around with a pry bar.

So was I stuck? Was I going to have to once again forfiet some small piece of my manhood by calling a repair man? The answer is no.

By taking off the inlet collar and shoving two drinking straws together I was able to suck out the rest of the water in the inducer. Again not the most pleasent, but not too bad.

Final result: a fixed furnace and another punch on my man card.