Heating System Oil Burners Inspection, Tuning & Repair Guide POST a QUESTION or COMMENT about oil bu
Inspection, Tuning & Repair Guide
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Oil burner installation, troubleshooting, diagnosis & repair guide: here we provide a detailed guide to oil burners used on heating systems, boilers & furnaces: basic parts, operation, maintenance, repair, performance and heating cost money-saving tips.
We also discuss: How oil burners work: sequence of operation, oil burner safety controls. How to inspect & repair or replace/upgrade oil burners - homeowner basics, service technician basics, diagnosis, repair. Cleaning & maintenance guide for heating system.
This article series answers most questions about central heating and water heating systems and provides guides for troubleshooting, inspection, diagnosis, and repairs.
We also provide an ARTICLE INDEX for this topic, or you can try the page top or bottom SEARCH BOX as a quick way to find information you need.
Oil fired heating equipment such as hydronic (hot water) boilers, steam boilers, warm air furnaces, and water heaters, have used heating oil, usually No. 2 heating oil, and various types of oil burners to burn the fuel, thus providing a heat source for nearly 100 years.
This article describes the basics of how oil burners work, and we provide a guide to their inspection and problem diagnosis and repair.
Oil Burner Manuals - go directly to OIL BURNER MANUALS
Boiler Controls - go directly to BOILER CONTROLS & SWITCHES - controls used on all brands of heating boilers
Furnace controls - go directly to FURNACE CONTROLS & SWITCHES
Refer to the schematic of a conventional oil burner shown below, where we list the major parts parts of a modern oil burner. The sketch at above left is courtesy of Carson Dunlop Associates.
If you need to diagnose and fix an oil fired heating equipment problem with your oil burner, read the text below but also be sure to check out the detailed oil burner articles listed at the ARTICLE INDEX at the bottom of this article
or at OIL BURNERS
We have an oil burner that is in the house since 1966. I want to buy a new one that will save us money each month on oil and at the same time be effective, as well as heat up our house
. Do you know some names or dealers? I also do not want to get taken or robbed.
We also want to have the sludge taken out of our oil tank, can you recommend someone for both these services.
We live on long island and are seniors. - M.P., Rockville Centre, Long Island
Our photo above shows an antiquated cast iron Arco™ boiler that was converted from coal to oil.
The oil burner on this unit was itself an antique, low-speed unit - though not the system named above nor the upgraded oil burner system described below.
A competent onsite inspection of your entire heating system and chimney, performed by an expert usually finds additional clues that help accurately diagnose a problem or might make clear if upgrading the oil burner on your heating system makes sense. That said, here are some things to consider:
Before even considering a new oil burner, you will want a thorough inspection of your boiler or furnace to be sure it's in good enough condition to be worth the investment.
For example if the heater is badly rusted or cracked, it needs to be replaced.
If the heater itself is in good condition, the replacement burner can improve its efficiency and save you money. Our photo (left) shows a modification we [DF] performed to a large cast-iron heating boiler in New York.
The original low-speed oil burner was fired into the very bottom of a quite large, 1930's vintage cast iron boiler that was in good condition but running at the low 70% efficiency range. Originally this had been a coal-fired boiler, converted to burn oil. The original oil burner fired into the bottom of a large combustion chamber.
After inspecting the boiler to confirm that it was not damaged, we installed a new Beckett™ oil burner, firing it up through a higher door on the heating boiler.
The system efficiency increased from around 71% (after cleaning and tuning) to 82% efficiency (also after cleaning and tuning) - a heating fuel cost savings improvement of 11 percentage points, but actually a15% reduction in heating oil cost.
We can't make specific contractor referrals for oil burner upgrades nor service. But you can make these efforts to steer clear of a bad experience:
For example, we might like a Beckett high speed oil burner in many applications, but where a specific furnace or boiler has to operate with some risk of backpressure in the combustion chamber we might choose a Carlin™ burner that is designed for that condition.
The manuals previously listed alphabetically on this page got promoted!
See OIL BURNER MANUALS OIL BURNER MANUALS - free download manuals for oil burners, controls, fuel units, etc.
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Continue reading at OIL BURNER INSPECTION & REPAIR or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.
Or see OIL BURNER FAQs - questions & answers posted originally on this page
DIAGNOSE & FIX HEATING PROBLEMS-BOILER (hot water or steam heat)
DIAGNOSE & FIX HEATING PROBLEMS-FURNACE (forced warm air heat)
Or see these
OIL BURNERS at InspectApedia.com - online encyclopedia of building & environmental inspection, testing, diagnosis, repair, & problem prevention advice.
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