Turning on an oil burner

Steve_35

Could you provide a link or what the actual name of this is? A google search on OEMrocket doesn't produce any hits. Thanks.

michael_15

Don't know anything about oil burners

In addition to the gas boiler which I'm quite familiar with, I have an oil-fired furnace (yuck) that heats a separate part of my house. In the last day or so, the furnace hasn't been turning on, though it worked very recently. I was wondering why.

At first, I thought maybe I was out of oil. Of course, the fuel gauge on my tank is broken so I don't know.

I then thought that perhaps someone triggered off the emergency switch. Well, not the one upstairs.

I went down to the boiler to see if there was a second emergency switch. There was, next to the burner unit, which sticks out of the furnace.

Anyway, while looking around at the oil burner, there's this grey box that says "White Rodgers" on it, and has a little red button. Or at least, it looked like a button.

So, perhaps foolishly, I touched the red thing to see if it was a button. Sure enough, it was, and once I touched it, the furnace roared to life.

Of course, I've never had to do this before, and I didn't know if there was a good reason why the furnace needed the button pushed this time around. Not wanting to kill the whole family with carbon monoxide poisoning, I tried to un-push the button, but I guess it didn't work that way. So I flipped off the emergency switch at the boiler.

Of course, I still don't know what was going on. I'm not into putting the family at risk, so I'm leaving it off until I get a professional to come and look at it, but I always learn more from the professionals here online. . . !

-Michael

Al Letellier_12

lilttle red button

The "little red button" is a reset button located on the cad cell control, which is the primary safety device for your boiler. If you had to reset it, something went wrong with the ignition process and the safety "timed out". It uses a photoelectric eye to "see" the flame. If no ignition occurs, usually within 45 sec., it will lock out the burner. Follow your own advice and get a pro to check it out. The danger of CO poisoning from the oil boiler is no where near the potential of a gas boiler, though it can happen. Don't be so anxious to be so negative about oil heat....I'll take it anyday.

Weezbo

not to worry.....

when you depress the button it either restarts or it dont.

should it restart and burner ignites it will go ,pushing the red button while it is going turns it off that way you can hear yourself think *~/:) it is a special safety feature built into oil burners just for the oil tech

Steve_35

Pushing that button once

isn't a big deal. Do NOT press it more than once if the burner doesn't fire. By that I mean if the burner doesn't keep running for at least 2-3 minutes don't press it again. The burner motor may run as long as 45 seconds after you press the button w/o the oil lighting. If that happens you've just dumped 45 seconds of fuel into the conbustion chamber along with the 45 seconds of fuel in there from the first time it failed to light. More than one press is almost a guarantee of excitement of rhte technician and yourself when he does light it off.

Best bet would be to get the system checked out since it went off on safety.

BTW, that oil is MUCH safer than the gas you also have.

michael_15

Well,

I pushed it once and let it run, and it ran for a few hours (on an off, of course, with the thermostat) before the button got tripped again. Which means I guess now I'll wait for the technician to show up, which isn't for a few weeks, apparently. Fortunately, we also have a separate steam heating system and a lack of walls between rooms heated by the different systems. That, and we're not in the dead of winter yet.

From an homeowner perspective, I think I'm pretty indifferent about the oil versus gas; I think I got more familiar with our gas boiler just because it powers our steam heat, and our steam heating system had so darn many problems when I first moved into the house! I guess I only learn if I'm forced into it. . .

As a somewhat unrelated note, if my fuel gauge on the oil tank is empty, is there any trick to telling how full it is? I think I've concluded that tapping the tank doesn't tell me anything. Thanks,

-Michael

Steve_35

Gauge

> As a

> somewhat unrelated note, if my fuel gauge on the

> oil tank is empty, is there any trick to telling

> how full it is? I think I've concluded that

> tapping the tank doesn't tell me anything.


Drop a stick into the tank or replace the gauge are about the only options I'm aware of.

Liberal Lenny

Oil good

Michael oil heat is good stuff, don't buy the gas line, install correctly oil rules. Most impotant is you should have yearly maintenace done on you burner, it's nice to schedule it in the early heating season, you get better readings when it's a little cooler out. How old is the boiler, can you post some pictures? After a tune up, get a comcbustion test, hopefully you can have the tech do one before and then after. Tons of oil heating add on products on the market to help you save money on your heating fuel use, start with good windows and wall insulation. Find a good Technician that will explain your boilers operation, check the find a proffesional on this web site, see if someone is in your area, make sure you talk to him, find out if thyere good, just because they can pay for an ad doesn't mean anything. Ask your neighbors who they use, two weeks is a long time, they should get out to help you within twentyfour hours, my company does we like to take care of our clients. Good luck and god bless.

joel_19

new gauge

Get an OEMrocket this is a battery powered transducer it screws in the top of the tank , upstairs you have a little 3x3 lcd display that pluga into a wall outlet and displays the level of the tank .

joel_19

new gauge

Get an OEMrocket this is a battery powered transducer it screws in the top of the tank , upstairs you have a little 3x3 lcd display that pluga into a wall outlet and displays the level of the tank .

Dirk Wright

OEM \"the rocket\" gauge

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7535050472&category=53296

and:

http://www.oil-equip-mfg.com/

Steve_35

Thanks