What causes having to reset a furnace fuel oil heater?

Answer 1

There are a few causes for this but basically in 90 % of the cases it will boil down to improper combustion, caused by air/water/dirt in oil getting caught with in the strainer, gummed up filter and or nozzle, loss of flame rectification proving/sensing. IE. If the eye, located within burner tray is bad or dirty, and finally the draft and venting of the flue needs to be at a 0.02" IWGH.

I have found that almost always that if I know the Oil filter and canister are is clean, the oil tank is full,

First I will set up and bleed any air out of oil furnaces fuel line/lines to pump, Turn off the power to burner, remove the bolts in the top of electrode section of burner, mark very clearly with a Sharpie the current position of copper oil feed line into tray for gun burner and I also out line the position of the flared retaining nut

I then loosen retaining nut on feeder line, reach in and remove tray from burner @ this time inspect and or replace nozzle, place plastic Orange for Beckett, red for Reiello cheater Z dimension cap on nozzle

replace into burner and push it true and lined up flat and sound. we then remove the tray again, retrieve plastic z dim cheater off of nozzle, set electrode ends to gap the correct distance on z dim cap and once again reinsert into tray. Next unscrew port at bottom of burner and affix oil gauges and test pumps inlet oil psi. You should then adjust the psi to what it is listed for on burners data plate to start, this can be raised to make fuel mix more or less lean by adjusting amount of oil and at what pressure it is passing through nozzles screening. If the pressure is raised the amount of oil used during lite off is increased, but the flash point of said oil is actually being lowered by breaking apart the fuel molecules at a higher pressure through screening of nozzle there is a greater Atomization of oil, thus a larger concentration O2 molecules around the oil molecule, causing a hotter more efficient flame.

Located on the data plate on the furnace or boiler is the other important info for your reference, here are the set up requirement's of the furnaces data plate the nozzles GPM and angle of spray pattern.

If this is all set up prior to initial firing, then after the furnace is fired, the smoke should be close to a zero.

This you must test with a hand pump and smoke paper. The combustion process should continue on with out bogging out long enough to let you fine tune the primary air and make any minor air shutter adjustments to secondary air side that are always needed.

You need to both monitor and record the carbon dioxide, O2 % as well as the normal monitoring and recording the CO Levels and temperature of gasses within flue.

As a Professional, reputable and safe tech you need to get comfortable with combustion Analysis as well as the levels that your combustion budget require in order to assess and fine tune any combustion product not only no 2 fuel oil furnaces and boilers but all natural gas and LP combustion appliances.

You will need to drill not one but two holes into the flue in this case. The first hole drilled should be located below the Barometric damper, this is the hole for your combustion testing, the next should be about 12" if possiable beyond the Barometric damper. This port is for your draft measurement, it is taken here so as to account for the damper in the drafting process, and it allows you to set up the counter weight within damper accuratly. If analisys of combustion is done after damper the numbers will be off set with extra O2 being introduced through barometric damper.

These tests require a combustion analyzer and a digital or Analogue Manometer for flue side of process and a smoke pump w/ clean paper, ring gauge for smoke test, and an oil pressure gauge. I use 2 oil gauges so that I can take my return oil or back pressure at same time as the inlet pump pressure is assessed.

I know these tools arnt cheep but after doing it this way I would'nt go back to not using a combustion analyzer.

I personally am certified as a Combustion analyst and am most comfortable using N.C.I combustion Guide lines as my standards. My Analyzer is a Bacarach Fyre-rite Pro, But you may also have used or currently use the I.F.G standards combustion charts and A Field-Piece combustion Analyzer or whichever is your personal standards for excelence and your local municipalities requirements.