How To Prime A Beckett Oil Burner
By The first thing you will want to do before you prime and bleed the Beckett Oil Burner is to make sure that you have enough or or fuel inside of the tank. If there is no fuel or very little in the fuel storage tank, you may have a hard time getting all of the air out of the oil lines. Once you have confirmed that you have enough oil inside of the tank you will need to grab an adjustable wrench so you can open and then close the oil burner pump bleeder screw. The oil bleed screw is located on the front of the Beckett Oil Burner fuel oil pump. You can see the location of the oil bleed screw on the image below.
The next thing you will want to do is to make sure that the hand valve is open on the bottom of the oil tank. You can open or close this valve by turning the valve clockwise or counter clockwise. Now you will want to take your adjustable wrench and open the air bleeder screw on the oil pump. Once you have loosened the oil pump bleed screw you will want to tighten it up by hand, so that the bleed screw is loose enough to open by hand. You will now need to grab a small container so when you are ready to bleed the burner you will have a place for the excess oil to drip into. A small cut down coffee can or small metal container will work well as a small drip pan.
Now that the oil pump bleed screw on your Beckett Oil Burner is hand tight, you will now want to hit the reset button and then open the bleeder screw a small amount, this will start to let the oil prime into the oil lines and into the oil pump. After a few seconds you should start to see some air and oil spit out of the bleeder screw on the oil pump. Let the oil and the air mixture spit out into the drip pan until the burner fires up or the burner cycles off. Normally the oil burner will fire after a few seconds of the air and the oil being bleed from the oil pump. Once the burner fires up you will want to tighten down the oil pump bleed screw.
If you ran out of oil and this is why you are bleeding the oil burner you may want to also change the pump and inline oil filter if you are having troubles bleeding the burner. Often gunk from the oil tank is sucked into the oil pump screens and burner nozzle when the fuel source has been ran that low. If you know that the oil filter and screens are clean then the burner should normally fire in a few seconds after bleeding the air out of the oil lines with the oil pump bleed screw. If you have left the bleed screw open the whole time that the burner was cycling and the oil burner has bleed but still won’t start, you may have additional problems with your burner.If you have no experience working on oil burners or furnaces its always a better idea to call a licensed heating professional to help you.
We ran out of oil. I was not too sure where the bleeder was located on the pump. But, after reading your proceedure worked super. We we up and running in 15 mins. Thank you for all you assistance.
bleed the line, furnace started ,tightened bleeder valve furnace ran for a few minutes then acted like it wasnt getting fule, but getting plenty of fuel .
Have bled this unit before, and normally don’t have a problem with it, however this time I am not getting any oil coming through the bleed screw. Very little air comes out as well. I use a small clear plastic tube attached to the bleed screw and into a clear plastic bottle so that I can view whats happening. There is a small amount of oil in the bottle I’m emptying into. When the tubing end is under the surface of oil in the bottle I would normally see air bubbles as the air is removed. I’m only seeing a very small amount of air being removed. My guess is that the pump is not working somehow or is plugged. Can a pump get plugged. I blew back the line into the tank, and theres no resttriction in the line itself. Any other ideas? Thank you
Just realized when we had our 6 year old’s friend over the other day, who is also a little bugger, they opened the utility closet where our furnace is. I didn’t think of this before, but the little bugger must have closed the fire valve on the line leading to the pump. Re-opened the fire valve, bled, and I can now thaw out my toes. The one thing I didn’t think to check.
I have a beckett forced oil hot water tank we had a bunch of water in our tank and after draining the tank and bleeding the lines to the hot water tank it fired up . The problem is the lights on the front flashed when it was locked out and now we have no lights on at all .The instructions on the beckett say there is no flame . Does this mean there is no pilot light on ? If so how do I relight the pilot. Or am I on the wrong path
THANK YOU……I ran out of oil (my own fault)……got an emergency 50 gal delivered and though I was in the clear. That was not the case. When the burner is locked out, there is still no heat until it fires. Your site and its information saved the day and saved me an easy
$ 300.00 “emergency” service call. Thanks again
Steve
After changing the nozzle & pump screen on my beckett afg (honeywell control box) I go to bleed the pump. Usually I get it bled & fired up on the first try. This time it didn’t happen & after 2 trys it won’t restart . I’ve heard that you only get 2 trys with this model. Any ideas what I do now?
I found out from a friend what to do. You have to hold the reset button for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. It seems that most residental beckett burners don’t come with honeywell control boxes. they have the geni system box. He special orderd it special for me that way because he felt that to be a better control box.
Thank you so much for your post! I was having trouble getting my hot water tank to stay on. After I tried your suggestion of holding the button down for two minutes, it fired right back up! Didn’t have hot water for two days and couldn’t afford to call in a professional!!!
Awesome site…thank you. I also needed the longer reset since I closed the bleed valve too soon twice. For me after about 30 sec the green light came back on. I pressed the reset and bingo it fired up. The amount of diesel you get out is pretty significant (over a wine bottle full for me!) so have a big container and accept that to remove all the air you’re gonna toast a fair bit of fuel. Mine is a Beckett model “A” , “AF” burner with a Beckett/Honeywell controller/reset unit
Held in the reset button about 2 minutes and then pushed it again. And the oil started to bleed. Everything ok now thanks.
By the way I accidently forget to open the oil line at the tank. So furnace until out of oil. Then had to do the above.
Have bled this unit before, and normally don’t have a problem with it, however this time I am not getting any oil coming through the bleed screw. Very little air comes out as well. I use a small clear plastic tube attached to the bleed screw and into a clear plastic bottle so that I can view whats happening. There is a small amount of oil in the bottle I’m emptying into. When the tubing end is under the surface of oil in the bottle I would normally see air bubbles as the air is removed. I’m only seeing a very small amount of air being removed. My guess is that the pump is not working somehow or is plugged. Can a pump get plugged. I blew back the line into the tank, and theres no resttriction in the line itself. Any other ideas? Thank you
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Thanks!
pwyw.com
I ran out of oil and after refilling couldn’t get the burner to feed oil.
I bled the line up to the filter and restarted numerous times with no ignition. I was about to give up and call my oil man for an expensive service call and I found this useful site. It actually showed me about a bleeder screw on the pump that I did not know about. Seconds after opening this bleeder the pump let out a quick squeal then fired !
Thank you for this information !!! :)
So we ran out of oil and waited to receive more . I opened the bleeder and push on the reset but nothing happened, usually the red light on the reset glows flashing red but now it solid red and no fire from the furnace. Some suggested that the furnace is locked out , so how do you unlock the system thanks………..
My wife is cold ……lol
I ran out of oil, reset my heat 13 times…nothing. when I realized I ran out of oil I had it refilled, also cleaned the whole furnace and changed the nozzle. I was told I probably blew my pump so I replaced it. I’m still after 2 restarts am not getting any oil out the bleed air valve. I don’t want to blow a 2nd pump. how many times can I safely restart my heater and prime it?
how do i prime the beckett afg oil burner?just hit prime button