Speaking of oil burning furnaces

[sorekiwi 761]

Tony's post started me thinking....

I am in the process of buying a house with an oil burning furnace. I've never had anything to do with one, so would welcome any input. Here's the questions:

What do I need to know? What are the regular maintenance items? Just filters and a general clean up?

Does the stack need "sweeping", and at what interval?

Does the fuel go off, like the problems they have with diesel marine engines?

Can a mechanically minded home owner do all his own maintenance?

Anything else I should keep in mind?

Thanks

[Duff 206]

Mike,

JMHO, but I think anything like oil or propane in a home heating system should be left to the pros to maintain properly. An annual cleaning and tune-up isn't terribly expensive. Just get references for the company or tech (if it's a private shop) who will be doing the work. Granted, a lot of it is common sense and basic mechanics, but there are some settings and tricks best left to those with experience and the right test equipment. And the other BIG thing is if you do your own maintenance and, God forbid, there's a fire, your insurance company may not cover the loss.

Oil's been around a long time, and the newer burners are pretty energy efficient. I don't know if the fuel goes stale with time (heating oil, kero and diesel are closely related but NOT the same critters). Someone with more knowlege will hopefully jump in on this.

You didn't say if the system was forced hot air or forced hot water. Forced hot air has air filters the homeowner can and should change regularly. That doesn't take a pro. Forced hot water is pretty much a closed system, with only the burner needing regular maintenance along with the periodic checking of the pipe/chimney for either system. Chimney or stovepipe cleaning can usually be done safely by the homeowner if you can safely access the chimney.

Undoubtedly there are a bunch of guys in this forum who have the expertise to maintain their own systems, and I'm not criticizing them for it by any means - far from it. I just prefer to err on the side of caution unless you are really comfortable with the technology......

Thoughts/opinions from others?

Duff :hide:

[Kelly 1,033]

I've been heating with oil for 13 years, we just put a new furnace in this summer and went with another oil one, the BTU's are much higher with oil, so it takes less to heat the same amount of air, it cost more than propaine, but like I said it takes less, last winter we used $1400. to heat our old 2000sq. ft house not great insulated, older windows, and I'm in MI. it gets cold here, this year so far with the cold months ahead we are using about $125 a month that should be cheaper than last year, as far as maintaining it, our old one I did, cleaned and set up the noz. and electrodes, not hard, I had the funace guy so me how, then every few years I would have them come do it, the new one they are doing so my warranty stays good, just my two cents, sorry for the spelling :hide:

[HorseFixer 2,013]

Mike Oil is fine and is the hottest fuel liquid ie or Fossil fuel available weighing in at 144,000 btu's per gallon natural gas 92K and propane 96K per same refrence amounts. But there is much more by products of combustion with oil. This is what should be done to maintain an oil furnace yearly.

Replace oil nozzel, Replace filter cartridge, service filter housing, clean or replcae elctrodes, clean burner tube & electrode assembly, blow out clean combustion fan on burner, ck pump drive coupling replace if nessasary, oil burner motor, Vacume stack and inspect chimney. adjust burner for proper CO-2.

Clean furnace blower, replcae filters, ck blower belt "if direct drive no worries" mate!

Thats about the main things do that yearly and ya got a well maintained furnace! :D

[Teddy da Bear 11]

I put in my own heating system (propane) & carrier furnace.

I ended up building my own house after the contractors

would never show up to do the work.

So, I decided to do the rest of it including the duct work...setting the

furnace, tank.....and running the supply lines.

I do not have all the particular cleaning equipment some have...

We literally take down our duct work and clean it by hand.

I also clean the furnace, fan, motor.........

This year I was lazy....."sigh"....

I also put in a "stand alone" wood burning stove as back up.

That wood heat is the best... Warms the floors and we can

let it go out and keeps the house warmer....longer than just

using the propane furnace.

We can usually heat our 1900 square foot home on $950 of

propane a year. I think most of our savings come from a

programmable thermostat. We let the temp on it fall to 55

degrees at night. Most people keep theirs up too high at

night IMHO.

[sorekiwi 761]

Thanks for the input guys,

I think I'll get someone out to set it all up, and see how we go from there.

Duff: Good point about keeping the insurance company happy. That was something that hadnt occurred to me.

Kelly: I like the thought of hot air (it is forced air) coming out the vents. In my present house (electric) the heat out of the vents seems "luke warm". No good for shaking off the chill when you come inside...

Duke: What goes wrong with the nozzle and electrodes? Just dirty from soot? or deposits from the fuel? How do you check the CO's? Some sort of electronic sniffer? I assume if the CO's are right, the stack stays pretty clean?

TDB: In my present house I use the woodstove as the primary source of heat. Comforting to know that if the power goes out you are still going to be warm, and able to heat water. Yes the firewood is a lot of work, but it's a good kinda work...

My woodstove sits on ceramic (mexican) tile, and you're right, the floor is nice and toasty. I have to fight my 2 dogs and 2 cats to get a prime spot in front of it. Sweeping the chimney is a PITA, my roof is steep (I live in a converted barn) and I normally end up pulling the whole stack down and cleaning it piece by piece.

Thanks again for the advice! :hide:

[oldandred 15]

Thanks for the input guys,

I think I'll get someone out to set it all up, and see how we go from there.

Duff: Good point about keeping the insurance company happy. That was something that hadnt occurred to me.

Kelly: I like the thought of hot air (it is forced air) coming out the vents. In my present house (electric) the heat out of the vents seems "luke warm". No good for shaking off the chill when you come inside...

Duke: What goes wrong with the nozzle and electrodes? Just dirty from soot? or deposits from the fuel? How do you check the CO's? Some sort of electronic sniffer? I assume if the CO's are right, the stack stays pretty clean?

TDB: In my present house I use the woodstove as the primary source of heat. Comforting to know that if the power goes out you are still going to be warm, and able to heat water. Yes the firewood is a lot of work, but it's a good kinda work...

My woodstove sits on ceramic (mexican) tile, and you're right, the floor is nice and toasty. I have to fight my 2 dogs and 2 cats to get a prime spot in front of it. Sweeping the chimney is a PITA, my roof is steep (I live in a converted barn) and I normally end up pulling the whole stack down and cleaning it piece by piece.

Thanks again for the advice!

Go with the oil Ive been in this house for 16 years and one time went up under to change all the good stuff and couldnt find a filter gave up and havent been back sinse and I work do the heating and ac bit for a living

Yep I know some body is going to say no way but its true nothing for 16 years and about 500 gal a year is all we burn.

I dont even remmember what kind of furnace it is but who cares I dont not at this time and if it goes out I guess i will have to use the 19 seer 410 trane heat pump with the vary speed air handler and the only reasion we dont use it is the my wife likes the hot heat.But some day the oil burner will go out but untill the hp is back up

[Teddy da Bear 11]

I pull down my stack every year also.

But it is for insurance reasons.

[HorseFixer 2,013]

Thanks for the input guys,

Duke: What goes wrong with the nozzle and electrodes? Just dirty from soot? or deposits from the fuel? How do you check the CO's? Some sort of electronic sniffer? I assume if the CO's are right, the stack stays pretty clean?

Thanks again for the advice!

The nozzel is a presion device that in laymans terms sprays a fine mist "ATOMIZED PATTERN" of fuel in the combustion chamber, you want these microscopic droplets to be in a proper pattern to get the best burn and flame pattern. Since all fuel has microscopic debres in it and the pump supplies 100 psi of pressure to your nozzel the crud that is in the fuel will cause the nozzel to wear out in a matter of a couple years. And the flame pattern gets all funky and you loose efficiency and build more soot.

The Electodes need to be clean from soot but they also can get cracked. They need to be white as china actually they are porcelain just like china. They insulate the electrodes from touching ground and they need to be clean. Since soot has carbon CARBON IS A CONDUCTOR and your furnace has a 10,000 transformer on it that ignites the oil you want everything to be clean in the burner so you have smooth ignition.

CO's Short for CO'2 is how you check efficiency of any furnace thios requires an instrument to get optimum efficiency.

[sorekiwi 761]

The nozzel is a presion device that in laymans terms sprays a fine mist "ATOMIZED PATTERN" of fuel in the combustion chamber, you want these microscopic droplets to be in a proper pattern to get the best burn and flame pattern. Since all fuel has microscopic debres in it and the pump supplies 100 psi of pressure to your nozzel the crud that is in the fuel will cause the nozzel to wear out in a matter of a couple years. And the flame pattern gets all funky and you loose efficiency and build more soot.

Just like an automotive injector, huh?

Thanks Duke.

[HorseFixer 2,013]

Just like an automotive injector, huh?

Thanks Duke.

You got it Brother! But the thing that makes it worse is that many times with alot more condensation most especially if the tank is located outside and you know when you have condensation you have??????????/ RUST CORROSION and all that stuff that gets in the oil and that stuff eats nozzels real good!!

Mike If ya ever decide to tune it yerself I could prolly walk ya thru it over the phone. After all Been a liscensed HVAC contractor for almost 30 years now.

Oh and Teddy...... Nice choice having a Carrier furnace! Thats me brand! I have 3 here at the "DUKE"O"MINIUM :omg: