ANY OIL FURNACE EXPERTS OUT THERE

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WAYNE0

WAYNE0

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I got my issue with my oil furnace for my garage taken care of now im having issues with the one for the house. Every year i clean the furnace that in the house. Change the intake filters, take the nozzle assembly out & clean it, change the oil filter. This year i did every thing but change the oil filter. Also the nozzle was changed last year. Also this year i decided to take the duct work apart that goes to the chimney. Ive been here for 6 years & its never been cleaned. WOW it had alot of soot in it. The short piece of duct work that went into the chimney was rust off so got a new piece. Now as im putting it all back together the piece of duct work that has the barometric damper fell & the door fell off & the pins that hold the door on went flying. So i bought a new & installed it as the instructions said . OK for the problem. When ever the furnace starts it smells like its burning rich. I go to the basement & it has a slight haze that you can only see when you look at the ceiling lights. This furnace never did this before. The only 2 thing i can think of is 1 the oil filter needs changed or i didnt get the duct work into the chimney fare enough or to fare. I really cant aford to call a tech. Any thoughts ?
 
i can't tell if the furnass to chimny pipe is on right but make sure the furnass pipe goes inside the chimny pipe . now if it's burning rich or if yyou have smoke or soot , open up the air door on the burner a hair .
 
Been a long time since I worked on an oil burner, but it sounds to me like your draft isn't working right:
WAYNE0 said:
I go to the basement & it has a slight haze that you can only see when you look at the ceiling lights.
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Your chimney needs to "draw", and draw the correct amount of air through the barometric. Tough to set this up by hand, w/o proper tools, if memory serves.

Also, in case you call-in someone (which you may have to), it's not "duct work", it's vent pipe.

Good luck!

Jim
 
jimjimjimmy said:
i can't tell if the furnass to chimny pipe is on right but make sure the furnass pipe goes inside the chimny pipe . now if it's burning rich or if yyou have smoke or soot , open up the air door on the burner a hair .
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Not sure what you mean by the air door.
 
there is an adjustment on the burner to control the air intake where it is depends on the burner brand .
 
The piece you replaced, was it the flapper door with the adjustable weight ?
You may need to adjust the weight, like a mixture screw on a carb.
You-tube it .
 
Demonic said:
You need someone with a combustion analyzer and a pressure gauge on the oil pump port. A smoke spot tester would be a good idea too.

Amazon product ASIN B0039OT3DO
Click to expand...
!!!! THIS !!!!

Oil burners are NOT SIMPLE, even thought they "seem" to be. There are many, MANY seemingly simple conditions that can ruin your day
When an oil exchanger soots it is a rolling snowball. Or if you prefer, fireball. The worse it gets, the worse it gets.

Many things can cause sooting, including an inept service person. YOU NEED a good service outfit WITH proper instrumentation. A draft gauge to insure proper draft, stack temp gauge (Nowadays likely included in the electronic combustion analyzer) and someone who understands how to LOOK at, SERVICE, and troubleshoot a burner. In my day, some of the people wandering, stumbling around town with a pair of channel loks, didn't even know that most pumps have a filter IN THE PUMP.

You have GOT to get yourself a COMPETENT service guy and get him out there at least every two years
 
I have pretty much purposely forgotten as much as I can, about servicing oil burners, LOL
 
Another little tidbit:

Due to several factors, I would do almost ANYTHING in this day, to NOT use oil heat

Political rumblings, which are only going to get worse the way things are headed, and which will greatly increase cost

The cost of fuel oil, and diesel remains WAY out of proportion to gasoline in cost

I haven't bought an oil nozzle of any kind in years. I would think that the quality has gone the same way as any other precision component

Technical help. It takes dedication, study, and someone senior who knows their stuff to get a good oil tech up to speed. There is much, MUCH less oil heat now than decades ago. I cannot imagine trying to find one.
 
WAYNE0 said:
I got my issue with my oil furnace for my garage taken care of now im having issues with the one for the house. Every year i clean the furnace that in the house. Change the intake filters, take the nozzle assembly out & clean it, change the oil filter. This year i did every thing but change the oil filter. Also the nozzle was changed last year. Also this year i decided to take the duct work apart that goes to the chimney. Ive been here for 6 years & its never been cleaned. WOW it had alot of soot in it. The short piece of duct work that went into the chimney was rust off so got a new piece. Now as im putting it all back together the piece of duct work that has the barometric damper fell & the door fell off & the pins that hold the door on went flying. So i bought a new & installed it as the instructions said . OK for the problem. When ever the furnace starts it smells like its burning rich. I go to the basement & it has a slight haze that you can only see when you look at the ceiling lights. This furnace never did this before. The only 2 thing i can think of is 1 the oil filter needs changed or i didnt get the duct work into the chimney fare enough or to fare. I really cant aford to call a tech. Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...

Heat Exchanger is shot, cracked and is letting the burned gasses into the interior of your home.

Time to replace.

☆☆☆☆☆
 
67Dart273 said:
!!!! THIS !!!!

Oil burners are NOT SIMPLE, even thought they "seem" to be. There are many, MANY seemingly simple conditions that can ruin your day
When an oil exchanger soots it is a rolling snowball. Or if you prefer, fireball. The worse it gets, the worse it gets.

Many things can cause sooting, including an inept service person. YOU NEED a good service outfit WITH proper instrumentation. A draft gauge to insure proper draft, stack temp gauge (Nowadays likely included in the electronic combustion analyzer) and someone who understands how to LOOK at, SERVICE, and troubleshoot a burner. In my day, some of the people wandering, stumbling around town with a pair of channel loks, didn't even know that most pumps have a filter IN THE PUMP.

You have GOT to get yourself a COMPETENT service guy and get him out there at least every two years
Click to expand...
As an ex-commercial HVAC Service Tech, Technical Trainer, and now Salesman (there are damn few "old fitters"):

In a word: Yes!

In Two words: Hell yes!

In three words: What he said!
 
Here is what i did this morning. I changed the oil filter, i took the piece that goes into the chimney and slid it in about 1/2 more. I also took the weight on the barometric damper door and moved it so the damper door didnt open as much. Now i was gone most of the day and when i got home i didnt smell anything. So we will see what happens. It seams to wake me up in the middle of the night with the smell. Fingers crossed
 
I think it's the stuff you won't smell that will get you. If you start getting nauseous and/or a headache......cut it off and get out! Might not be a bad idea to get a Carbon Monoxide detector if you don't have one.
 
JDMopar said:
I think it's the stuff you won't smell that will get you. If you start getting nauseous and/or a headache......cut it off and get out! Might not be a bad idea to get a Carbon Monoxide detector if you don't have one.
Click to expand...
yep all ready have one
 
1 The heat exchange likely needs to be cleaned. If there's a soft liner, it needs to be treated with the utmost care, or you will buy a new one at $100. or more. A soft brush, and careful use of the vacuum.

2 Check ther burner fan wheel for dust on the squirrel cage blades carefully and clean. I cannot tell you how many times I've foung a rich oil burner on the analyzer, cleaned the squirrel cage of cat hair, and retested with really nice combustion.
 
Demonic said:
1 The heat exchange likely needs to be cleaned. If there's a soft liner, it needs to be treated with the utmost care, or you will buy a new one at $100. or more. A soft brush, and careful use of the vacuum.

2 Check ther burner fan wheel for dust on the squirrel cage blades carefully and clean. I cannot tell you how many times I've foung a rich oil burner on the analyzer, cleaned the squirrel cage of cat hair, and retested with really nice combustion.
Click to expand...
you know i never thought of cleaning the squirrel cage i always thought the filters would stop most of it good idea thank you
 
The burner fan squirrel cage. Not the house fan squirrel cage. There should not be a filter on it.
 
WAYNE0 said:
Here is what i did this morning. I changed the oil filter, i took the piece that goes into the chimney and slid it in about 1/2 more. I also took the weight on the barometric damper door and moved it so the damper door didnt open as much. Now i was gone most of the day and when i got home i didnt smell anything. So we will see what happens. It seams to wake me up in the middle of the night with the smell. Fingers crossed
Click to expand...
I am gonna put this bluntly. You are screwin with stuff you don't know anything about. Two of us (at least) who were former service guys have TOLD you how important this is. You CAN NOT set up a burner for proper and efficient operation by arbitrarily moving the damper weight. You might have some problem developing and as already been said TWICE, you cannot properly se these up without a combustion analyzer.

Back in the day this would have been a stack thermometer, a draft gauge, a smoke test kit, and the annoying, dirty, and corrosive chemical gas analyzers.

Even before I "got out" in the early 90's, we had electronic combustion analyzers.

Search/ Google "Bacharach" and "combustion analyzer"

An example, off Ebay, of the old chemical O2 and CO2 gas analyzer

s-l1600.png

Smoke tester: These are a pump, inserted in a test hole in the stack pipe, used to draw through a special filter paper, to check color against a chart to determine smoke density

Amazon product ASIN B00DSVGKCU
There are lots of different draft gauges


Oil stack thermometer. I still have one, somewhere, just like this

Temperature_Test_100_DJFs.jpg


WE DID NOT CARRY ALL THIS CRAP AROUND BECAUSE IT WAS A LOT OF FUN
 
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What you can do. You can screw around and get the exchanger and maybe the chimney all sooted up and then you have an expensive cleaning job, that you will not be doing.

You can screw around and soot it up until it won't draft, and then you can REALLY smell it in the house, along with maybe a lille bit o' CO along with

You can screw around and end up damaging the chamber liner, the chamber and or the burner.

Or you can save up and have it serviced, which it probably hasn't been, for awhile.

Ya know, the company I worked for did not LIKE selling, installing, or servicing oil. We were primarily into gas, LP, and some heat pumps, and AC of course. But we sold a few, replaced a few, out where there was no gas and folks that did not want LP. And I've replaced TWO that were ruined by this very thing.............years of neglect and lack of service. One burned a hole in the back of the combustion chamber. The other was very old and very sooted, Cleaning it would have cost more than it was worth.

We ALSO replaced one--with gas--that was very mysterious. The best I could figure is that some delivery guy--OR MAYBE THE OWNER--had dumped a bunch of gasoline into the tank, and literally burned a hole through the side of the chamber. NObody wanted to talk about it. We left it where the guys who lost the bid left it-laying under the house, as the owner did not want to pay for removal.

I ALSO had my "black face while wearing glasses" moment. We were called to some folks the boss knew, the thing had "puffed back" and blew soot through the house. I went down, layed down cardboard, and the front of the burner was near a wall. So you had to crouch or sit against the wall and sort of lean in to one side to access the burner. I had checked it all over, finally fired it, checked the draft, and had the firing door propped open to get my mirror in there. Suddenly and without warning (sound or flame) it simply puffed back, and I sat there with a face full of black.

THAT AFTERNOON, the owner had our crew up there, pulling it out to put in a 90+ LP furnace.
 
Assuming your draft issue is figured out, has your fuel oil changed? That could also be contributing to the problems.

As others have said, find a qualified tech to check/service it. They are few and far between these days so it might not be cheap nor quick to get one there soon.
 
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