How To Troubleshoot A Beckett Oil Burner
By If you are having trouble with your Beckett oil burner then you will need to find out what is wrong with it by troubleshooting different parts of the burner. There are many different things that can go wrong and will make your burner fail, so it is very important to read carefully as well as repair the burner the same way.
The first thing you will need to do is make sure that you know where all the parts are we are going to describe and if you don’t and even reading this makes you nervous it maybe best that you just hire someone that is licensed in repairing oil burners. Of course you could be a season repair professional and might be looking for some Beckett oil burner troubleshooting tips as well just to make your service calls go easier. Whatever the case maybe you will need to know what and where the parts are to repair a Beckett burner.
Problem: “My Beckett Burner has a clogged nozzle and won’t ignite”
Solution: You will need to either replace the oil burner nozzle or learn how to clean a oil burner nozzle so that you can get the fuel through the nozzle with the intended flow. Buying a brand new replacement Beckett oil burner nozzle is recommend choice of many oil heating service professionals, but if you are low on money and like to tinker with things then go on ahead and try to clean it.
Problem: “My Beckett Oil Burner has no spark and won’t light”
Solution: This could be caused by a bad transformer or even electrodes that are not positioned or even adjusted correctly. You will want to make sure that your transformer is good and your electrodes have been properly adjusted.
Problem: “How do I bleed the air out of my Beckett burner oil lines”
Solution: Hit the reset button on the motor while opening the bleed screw on the pump. It is a good idea to make sure you loosen the bleed screw before hand to make sure its not tight, then just hand tighten it, so when you hit the reset button you can just open the Beckett burner bleed screw a half turn and let the air out of the line. The bleed screw is located in the front or the side of the oil pump on the burner.
Problem: “The flame on my Beckett burner is yellow not blue”
Solution: This means that you need to adjust the air intake on the fan. You can do that by adjusting the squirrel cage baffles located on the side of the burner.
Problem: “How do I change my oil filter on my beckett Oil Burner”
Solution: If you need to replace the oil filter on you Beckett burner you can do so by removing the bolt that holds the cover over the filter. Once have removed the bolt you can remove the filter cylinder and then pull the filter out and replace it with a new one.
Problem: “My Beckett Oil Burner is blowing black smoke”
Solution: If you are a homeowner then its seriously time to call in a heating professional to have your burner cleaned and adjusted. If you are a heating professional and are clueless because you have never really worked on Beckett oil burners then you will need to adjust the flame, air, intake and possible clean the boiler. It might be a good idea to get some kind of factory training.
Regular Maintenance Tips:
According to the manufacturer, it is recommended for the owner to hire a service professional to perform a regular maintenance on a yearly basis. It is also strongly suggested not to tamper with or make any incorrect adjustments on the unit, controls and any other critical area and parts by owner’s hands because it could lead into further problems such as asphyxiation, explosion or fire. Always make sure that a qualified service technician starts the work on the jobsite.
This is because operation and adjustment of the oil burner requires many hours of in-depth technical training and skillful use of combustion test instruments and other test equipment, and these could not be easily acquired by regular customer over the books or any other online resources.
However, as an owner of this burner you can do a few basic things before you make a service call:
– Check the outside oil supply line. It is visible and usually transparent pipe, and you can inspect any signs of leakage around the area.
– Also check the oil supply system. All fittings should be leak-tight. The supply lines should be free of water, sludge and other restrictions.
– If you can, verify the nozzle is the one originally specified by the appliance manufacturer. Sometimes it can result in malfunction or poor performance having the nozzle of different specifications from the same manufacturer.
– Inspect the igniter spring contacts. Clean or replace if corroded.
– Inspect all gaskets. Replace any that are damaged or would fail to seal adequately.
Here are manual steps on how to replace Beckett Oil Burner Blower Wheel (Note: This is only for your reference. Do not attempt to do it yourself. Always contact your qualified service technician or serviceman first):
HI ITS ME AGAIN. ON MY BECKETT BURNER, THE RESET ,IS IT SUPPOSED TO BE ON GREEN OR JUST WHEN IT STARTS UP.MY BURNER
WONT START?. MAYBE MY HOT WATER IS STILL HOT,AND THATS THE REASON. I APPRECIATE YOUR HELP. THANKS JOE
To correct a previous response, the flame on a Beckett oil burner should be yellow, not blue. To produce a blue flame an oil burner would have to preheat the oil and/or air, or be a natural gas burner instead. There was a brand of blue flame oil burners in the 1980’s but they had to be adjusted more precisely and kept cleaner than other burners or they produced carbon monoxide – after a few incidents and product safety warnings the brand disappeared. An orange/yellow/white flame is seen from residential oil burners because after the oil droplets are emitted from the spray nozzle they heat up and vaporize and then as they heat further they break down the molecular bonds of the oil, first easily releasing the hydrogen atoms which readily oxidize to water vapor and then later un-chaining the carbon atoms that eventually oxidize to carbon dioxide. The carbon atoms don’t un-chain from each other and burn until they are much hotter than when the hydrogen was driven off and burned. As the carbon heats up it glows emitting incandescent light, the peak of the color spectrum indicates their average temperature. A white flame includes all colors from red (coolest) to blue (hottest). A blue oil flame would only occur if the oil and/or combustion air was pre-heated thus shortening or eliminating the incandescent phase. This unfortunately is also what causes the safety problem. If a burner using cool oil and air becomes air-starved, all of the hydrogen burns, abd then some of the carbon fails unlink and burn at all and appears in the smoke as soot, smells bad, and eventually clogs up the boiler and flue. If a burner where the oil and/or air are preheated is sir-starved, the oil still breaks down to elemental hydrogen and carbon, and the hydrogen fully oxidizes, but some of the carbon oxidizes incompletely forming carbon monoxide instead of carbon dioxide. After the combustion gas is cooled by the heat exchanger the rate at whioh CO will convert to CO2 slows enough to think of it as almost stopped. When emitted from the stack, some of it may cool and settle on and around the building presenting a severe risk, because CO binds to hemoglobin in the blood cell irreversibly preventing it from carrying oxygen from the remainder of its 120 day lifespan.
BTW- natural gas, methane has one carbon and four hydrogen atoms, burns blue because the carbon doesn’t spend a long time heating and un-chaining.
Sean,
What an excellent post on the chemistry and physics of combustion! I learned a lot from your explaination. Do you have any suggestions on how to test combustion efficenciency? Is there a way to use stack temperature alone to do this? Do you really need an expensive combustion analyzer?
I have a oil burner boiler with a beckett burner,put new filter,nozzel,an new tip`s set thermostat at 80,but it shut off at69%now i have to reset it ,the green lite keep
Back again the green lite keep`s flasing and it`s calling for heat and will not start.,I have to hold the reset for 35sec.till it start`s again,what`s not working the thermostat?.
I have a new (last year) oil furnace with a Beckett AF/AFG oil burner in it. Went to start the furnace this year and the trouble light flashes, but thats all that happens. Burner motor doesnt start. What do I look for now?
I have the same problem did you ever figure it out?
you need to hold the reset button down for 30 seconds . the led will flash twice . this lets you know the reset was successful
I have 2 beckett electrode setting gauges T501 and T231. The distance from the center of the nozzle to the tip of the electrdes is 5/16 on the T501 for an F head on AFG model and 7/16 on the T231 for a F head.Does any one know why this difference?
could be differant spray pattern of the nozzle
I have a beckett oil burner and I have had it cleaned every year, the flu has been cleaned, I turned the heat on for the first time the other day and it kicked right now, however, I set the thermastate at 70 and the boiler shuts off after 10 minutes and before the heat can warm up to the set tempertature of 70. It basicly turns on and off every few minutes. Can you tell me what might be happening?
Sounds like you have a water circulation problem not an oil burner problem.
The burner will turn on and off with the temperature of your boiler. As long as the thermostat calls for heat the burner will turn on, as soon as max safety temp for your boiler is reached the burner will turn off and won’t turn back on until the safty switch tells it that the temp of the boiler is below max. The burner will continue to cycle like that until the thermostat temp setting is reached.
Could be the circulation pump needs replacement or you need to bleed (burp) the lines. First thing to check is do you have enough water and is there any bubbles in the lines perventing flow of water. If you don’t want to tackle it yourself you will need a plumber for this one not an oil tech.
I have a Beckett Model AFG Burner MP 1192 and it was recently serviced by an Oil Technician. The technician configured the Air Band vent completely closed with no opening gaps in the vent slots and He configured the Air Shuttle vent opening setting at 10, the maximum. The technician also replaced the Combustion Chamber in my Utica Boiler. Does anyone know if the Air setting adjustments are normal operating settings by closing off all “Air Band” vent slots and setting the “Air Shuttle” vent to the maximum setting of 10 in the Model AFG? I would appreciate replies. Thanks
I have a beckett burner on a hot air furnce in my garage and it keeps going off on safety, when I reset the safety the burner runs but will not ignite untill I lift the transformer and put it back then it lights and burns fine untill the nest cycle.
what are your thoughts.
Thanks,
Bob
We had a new weil-mclain system with a beckett NX burner and auxillary water heater installed in Aug. ’09. We have had to call the service tech in 6 times, today will be the 7th! The burner will not ignite,usually sometimes during the night. We also have had problems with the water relief valve leaking. Has anyone had problems like this or heard of any recalls? This is getting frustrating to say the least!
Thanks for any ideas.
I have a beckett MP1192 burner with a Huneywell R8184G 1005 controller on my oil furnace. The furnace will not start unless I bump the controller or take off the cover and hit the relay. The burner ignites and then shuts off from anywhere between a couple of seconds to a few minuets. The reset button does nothing and no lights come on. It is a 2 pipe system and oil flow seems fine when I purged it. Checked the CAD sensor and it was clean as well. The stack does get hot but I do not get any hot air out of the vents. We had it serviced last year and I turned it on for about 20 minuets during the summer and it worked fine. We did have the chimney cleaned and stack cleaned not to long ago. I am thinking that the relay in the controller is bad but I want to be sure that something else is not causing it to act up.
Any help would be great.
have you checked your blower motor to see if it works changed filters and of course call that tech back and tell him its not working
I have a Beckett Burner that seems to be burning cleanly. ( no dark smoke out the chimney) But when it runs it sounds like its spuddering. I changed the nozzle . Readjusted the electrodes.I disconnected the fuel line to see how the oil was flowing and it seemed fine. the furnace was cleaned less than a year ago and we have only burned 200 gallons since. Could the fuel pump be going?
Sounds to me like you have water in your oil,..which can come through the oil gauge at the top of the tank, or condensating,..this can be easily checked by taking your filter off and looking for milky film,..or pumping oil from your bleeder,.at your pump and letting it settle for a few seconds..to seperate.
I have just cleaned my beckett burner. I have to hit reset button to restart. Then it runs for a while and shuts off after it heats up the house. Then I have to hit reset button to restart again. What might be the cause?
Beckett Model AF – Flame goes out intermittently, fuel vapors build up and then the flame reignites, causing a minor explosion. The size and frequency of the explosions are varied, the excess pressure from the ignition of the excess oil can be heard through the ducts and can be felt at the damper. I’ve had two technicians out last year, dumb and dumber. What should I look for and how can this be fixed, before a major blow out.
Hi my name is roger. I am a new recruit at a company that works on oil burners. I was wondering did you know a web site that shows step by step.The hole process of a oil burner furnace.So I could study.
Wonderful exapinltaon of facts available here.