The home heating system can be the most expensive time for homeowner, especially since the price of oil is completely unstable. Sometimes even if you have been taking proper care of your oil burner you still may run into problems and might have to troubleshoot the unit. Some problems that you will experience can be an easy fix, but on the downside there are somethings that will need to be fixed by a licensed or certified professional. Oil burner mechanics have years of experience and can have you back up and running in no time.
Many boiler companies like Weil Mclain, Utica , Crown Boilers, Smith boilers and many others use common burner heads on the boilers. The brand names that you are most likely to find on your oil fired boiler are Carlin Burners and Beckett Oil Burners and off course Riello Burners. This means that most supply houses like Sid Harvey’s or your local plumbing supply house will carry the parts you need. There of course will be times that you will have a different type of brand then we mentioned and if it is less popular it may be harder to find parts, but lets get to the oil burner troubleshooting.
The following is bunch of common things that can fail on your oil burner and we will provide some solutions to the problems.
Problem: “I have raised my thermostat but I have no heat”
Solution: This could be any things such as you are out of oil which is the #1 most common mistake people make when they think that there oil burner has failed. Either it being a bad tank gauge or a lack of money, the empty oil tank is most common.
Problem: “It Sounds like my oil burner is turing off and on , the off then on, and its struggling”
Solution: This sounds like you are running out of oil, have a clogged burner nozzle or even possible a clogged oil burner filter. It also could be a few rare other things. The first thing to do is to check your oil tank gauge, if you have oil, then that’s good, but don’t attempt to fix the oil burner unless you are trained or qualified to to do so.
Problem: “When I turn on my heat I heat rolling in the pipes”
Solution: The heating system needs to be bleed free of air. Common parts that prevent air from being in the system like airtrols may have failed and need to be replaced. Try bleeding the heat lines if you are qualified and that may do the trick. If your air returns you may have to troubleshoot into it more.
Problem: “The flame in my blast tube is orange when it used to be blue”
Solution: The burner needs to be adjusted. This will include adjusting the nozzle, air mixture and possibly adjusting or replacing bad electrodes if they are bad. Always use a professional to complete this kind of task.
Problem: ” The manual said to hit the reset, and I did but it tripped again and won’t reset”
Solution: Usually when an oil burner trips there is a problem. If you have rest the burner again and it has tripped again but will not restart then you have been locked out of the boiler. Most boiler burners have safety controls now that will “lock-out” the boiler and there will be a special sequence that the boiler will have to be restarted in by a service professional.
These are the most common things that will cause your oil fired boiler to fail and of course there are many other things that can go wrong, but this was a simple troubling shooting overview.
i have a becket oil burner and it just started today 1/17/09 when the pump turns on it sounds like theres a loose fan belt sound sqealling sound, how long can it run like this before i have to replace the pump.
my oil burner pump is making a sqealing sound
I have a beckett burner. It keeps misfiring on a call for heat. You hear it click on and fire and then shut down for a half a second. I have jumped out the T-T terminals and it still does it for a few times, up to a dozen until it keeps running. I looked a the fire eye and it is clean.
try tapping the oil primary control if burner shuts off you have a bad primary..
My beckett boiler wants to ignite but no real flame , is there something to adjust we replaced the motor and the igniter. I’ve bleed it off a few times to check for air but no real flame. can you help?
if the burner is misfiring then the problem is either the electrodes have burnt away or there is debris on the nozzle face.
my oil heater when running is giving off an odor of oil smell. can you help
my beckett is leaking oil out of the pump, can you tell me where and most importantly why, i replaced the nozzle last year and wounder if the back pressure has caused a seal to fail?
Replace the pump. When they leak, its just better to replace it. If you do it yourself, a danfoss pump only costs about $40.00.
i have a beckett oil burner, it only starts with the air mixture settings on minimum air { flame very strong yellow). if i turn the mixture to lean low flame, then the burner will not start.i tried all the setting marks to no avail, burner only ignites or starts when the air mixture baffle? is close. any suggestions?> thanks.
Hi Henry,
I would suggest calling an Oil Burner Mechanic if you could, but if you can’t, the next best thing would be to check out the Beckett Oil Burner Repair Manual,
Here is the direct link to the manual from Beckett
Beckett AF /AFG Residential Oil Burner Manual
http://www.beckettcorp.com/protect/techsuppt/product-manuals/6104BAFGR04.pdf
Hope this helps you, let me know if you need anything else.
Joseph
My motor is not starting on its own. Sometimes I have to cut power open up the electrode panel and reach in with a stick to spin the squirrel cage. When I turn power back on the motor spins an the burner fires and works.
What is the problem?
On the motor non start up problem I forgot to mention the boiler is Weil-McLain and burner/motor is
Carlin EZ pro EZ-1HPW motor model 98022.
My boiler fires, then loses the flame. Each time this happens the exhaust vent opens and shuts. The boiler keeps doing this repeatedly. I have hit the emergency switch until I can get a repair tech over the house. What is the problem? Thank you.
My oil burner will not start when I call it from the thermostat but it will fire when I hit the reset button. It also will not run for the whole cycle and warm the house to temp at that point I have to hit the reset button again.
What’s Up?