Best Of
Re: Looking for advice on balancing the system in my house to to help with heat and clanging
You could replace that section easier than you think.
Stand on the stairs, cut it in half and remove both halves. You got plenty of room to swing a big pipe wrench in the stairway.
Get two new halves, cut to fit, with a black union in the middle. Measure the thread engagement on both of the removed halves to calculate the new lengths. Subtract the length of the union BUT add the engagement lengths
Probably prove your thesis faster than a camera………..AND, you don't have any easy way to get the camera in there without cutting the pipe.
LRCCBJ
Re: BURNHAM V905( 5 Section) W/ Carlin 301 CRD
You shutoff the fuel as close to the tank as possible.
Start the burner (you'll need to jump the safety after it starts).
Run it for about 30 seconds and watch the vacuum gauge. It will climb up to 12-15" or so vacuum.
Watch the gauge.
Shutoff the burner.
Watch the gauge.
It will drop………..maybe 2"………….and STOP. It will stay at that reading……………indefinitely………….IF you don't have a suction leak AND the pump seal is good.
If it slowly falls over the next 15 minutes…………….you DO have a suction leak or a leaky pump seal.
If it quickly falls to zero (in one minute or so), you have a BIG suction leak and now must locate it.
LRCCBJ
Re: Burner technicians -what’s going on in this industry?
No need for the VCR, @Grallert. 😊 You can find the Dead Men's Steam School on our YouTube channel here:
Re: Snow melt slab insulation
I must just be in too cold of a climate to grasp some of this because around here 99% of the residential snowmelt idles below a set air temp because the people getting it installed do not ever want snow or ice on their driveway. I think if I told an installer not to insulate the slab because 2-3 days out of the year when the ground actually isn't frozen but its suddenly snowing, and the sun is out, they could melt snow for an hour or two with the grounds latent heat they would fire me. Spend a little extra during those rare cases where the ground could melt the slab for a short time, or spend more money heating the ground the entire melt season, it seems an easy choice for me, for the end user in my town it was never a question they want no chance of snow or ice 24/7.
GGross
Re: Oil burner intermittent stuttering
Well… I regard a TigerLoop as a bit of a bandaid, but it would certainly help. What would also help, though, is to find and fix the air leak. One or more of those flares it likely the culprit.
Re: Burner technicians -what’s going on in this industry?
Kids learn calculus but can't fry an egg. Learn Spanish and then cant speak it, watch sports and play video games on the weekend. There are young people seeing the light thankfully, just not as many as should be. For those in the northeast check out Williamson trade school in Pennsylvania. Free, over hundred percent job placement.
Re: Burner technicians -what’s going on in this industry?
$$$ is the root of…
In Europe most folks live a fairly lean lifestyle. They stay in the same home for generations. The homes are built to last for generations. The young people are not so attracted to the easy money lure. Their quest is not to be a reality star, influencer, manipulate money for a living without any product being developed, game the system, on and on.
The crafts and trades are more alive and carrying on in other places in the world.
I'm not sure how we turn the tide here? Even with some high wage offerings, many just don't want to get dirty, be labeled as a blue collar worker.
More and more, even high ticket items are throwaway. We don't repair like we used to.
But we need to keep spreading the message of what the trades have to offer in addition to the $$.
hot_rod
Re: Burner technicians -what’s going on in this industry?
LOL. I was going to be an auto mechanic, but my old man said "you're not going to be a grease monkey like your cousin"
Dragged me down to the local community college and signed me up for "Heat and Power".
I started at an Oil Co the first summer out of school and began cleaning boilers.
Ancient Snowmen boilers with 1920s & 1930s Petro oil burners that made more soot than heat. Came home every day looking like a chimney sweep.
A grease monkey wouldn't have been as dirty.
Re: Oil burner intermittent stuttering
Foam in the TL means air in the fuel line.
Understand that if the fuel line is in a vacuum it will leak air in and you may not see any air leak out.
Find someone who can flare tubing.
Re: Flex Oil Lines
Its no different than a pipe connection with a union. You don't tighten the union first, then try to spin the whole thing. End to end, if turning side A clockwise, side B goes counterclockwise. Not good. The union connections are at the pump for ease of service of the pump.
HVACNUT