a rumbel an a smell from oil burner
a costumer of mine has an oil fired forced hot air heater there is a loud bang and smell of oil throughout the house on occasion any possible cause’s for this. They have recently had the burner cleaned (3 weeks ago). their service man said it was poor draft up the chimney. Is any one familiar with these symptoms, any advice i could pass on to them?
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I'm sure you will get some good advice here shortly but I would also sugest you post your Q at http://www.heatinghelp.com in the 'wall' section.
thanks i will give it a try
sounds like a "backfire" and maybe some unburned oil in the base of the furnace - time to get the service guy back - if there's enough oil in the base of the furnace, it could ignite and you have a fire in the furnace, not "good"
might want to get a different service guy since the first one brought up poor draft but didn't fix it - poor draft could lead to reverse draft and CO poisoning in the house
Yea I sugusted that to them but there sold on their man.
do them a favor and bring "your" guy over - give him the scenario and see if he'll cut you a deal on the bill - better than having them end up dead (ie that tennis guy with the bad pool heater)
That boom at start up is almost certainly from delayed ignition. Usually this is caused by either poor atomization of the fuel, the pattern of the fuel spray into the firebox being outside the prime ignition area or poor spark at the ignition points.
Causes of poor atomization and/or pattern production would be a worn out nozzle or a piece of crud in the nozzle interfering with proper atmomization and/or pattern.........or because the wrong nozzle was installed. The fix is to replace the nozzle with a new one of the PROPER gallonage and pattern. If the wrong nozzle pattern was installed, there's a likely cause of the boom.
Delayed igntion from ignition fault is usally a matter of the need for a new set of electrodes that must also be set properly. A new sett of points set improperly will result in the same scenario or worse........no ignition at all. Setting the points is a touchy business. There is no such thing as "close enough". Either they're right or they aren't. And.....the electrodes must be replaced with the manufacturer's designated set for the longest life. You can jury-rig a different set in an emergency, but they won't last long as the tips will burn away in relatively short order.
Another possibility here is that the combustion air is improperly set. Too little or too much air for the fuel-air ratio.
It is possible that the over-fire draft is obstructed and causing this boom, but not on the top of the list usually. Nonetheless, the flue must be kept unobstructed at all times and so should be checked out and cleared of any problems. Might as well check that first.
Fact is the guy should not have left the furnace operating in such a manner and since he evidently did........ he's the last guy I'd call to remedy the situation that now exists.
Edit: Presuming for a moment that there is a problem with the flue draft........this means there is also the danger of CO entering the home. If they don't have a quality CO detector in there now (like a Nighthawk), get one in there immediately. Maybe take yours over and check things out for 'em, if no other option is open immediately.
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Edited 2/27/2005 12:47 pm ET by GOLDHILLER
great answer - maybe two similiar posts will get something done for the friends
slow valve causing a lean mix and late ignition like yours..
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I'll throw in my wild guess: the slow ignition is caused by a worn out ignition transformer putting out an insufficient arc.