Maintenance of Wayne Flame-Retention Oil Burner

Alex_19

Hey Guys! I have received a lot of helpful advice here, and I have another question.



My uncle's house which I am now taking care of has an older American Standard Arcoliner oil-fired hot water boiler. I am ready to have the annual maintenance performed, but I want to be sure I understand exactly what is needed to maintain the oil burner. This is a Wayne Flame-Retention Oil Burner Model OE or MP-98. Specifically, do nozzles have to be cleaned or changed? Is there an oil filter within the unit? Also, not sure if this is relevant, but does that white chalky stuff on the floor have anything to do with the boiler operation? Thank you for your guidance.

icesailor

Servicing a Wayne:

The best service you can do on that is to take a heavy duty 2 wheel dolly under the boiler block, disconnect all water and oil piping, and take it outside. Leave it at the curb and have some recycler come pick it up.



Then, replace it with something modern and efficient, gas or oil.

The errors in the three photo's are TNTL. Too Numerous To List.

Steamhead

If replacement is not an option

an Arcoliner can be made to run reasonably well if the right person gets involved.



If you don't have the specs for that burner, someone here in cyberspace probably does. I believe it is a flame-retention burner but have never worked on one. The Arcoliners I've worked on all have Beckett AF burners. When well sealed and properly tuned, these units put up some pretty good combustion test results and don't get sooted up over the course of a heating season.



The flue passages are rather large compared to a modern boiler, but can be baffled to make the hot flue gases wipe the cast-iron better. However, the person installing the baffles MUST make sure they do not kill the draft over the fire, or reduce the stack temperature enough to cause the flue gases to condense.



Icy is right in that the Arcoliner can't match the efficiency of a newer boiler, but it can do better than most people think. And he's right about some things needing to be corrected. Just a cursory glance shows the high limit aquastat apparently placed after the flow-check, the lack of an oil line filter (unless there's one at the tank), no oil shutoff valve at the burner (unless it's hidden) and I'll bet the primary control (the one you reset if the burner stops) is mounted on the smoke pipe, which means its "trial for ignition" is way too long. I'd look further if it wasn't past my bedtime- what did you see, Icy?

billtwocase

these Waynes

were not flame retention Alex. As Frank mentioned, I would at least have a Beckett installed, new chamber, baffle it down, and save some $$$$. Short of investing in new equipment, that is money well spent here. These were coal converted back in the 40'. Tough as nails, but inefficient by today's standards. I have got them up to mid 80% efficient after upgrades.

earl burnermann

This Wayne is an early flame retention head burner

It still has an iron end cone from the standard burner design. It also runs at 1725 rpm. But if you pull the nozzle assembly out of the tube, you will find a permanently installed turbulator on the end of the assembly. I remember it because it was one of the very few nozzle adapters that where 11/16" instead of 3/4".



I have or admit that I have never seen one that had been set up well enough not to prevent soot build up. So the right way to service this boiler is to vac it every year. Since it is probably the easiest boiler to clean, that shouldn't be a problem.



Here is the problem with upgrading the equipment: Let's say this system uses 800 gallons a year and upgrading saves 50%, if the upgrade cost $6500.00, it would only take a little longer than 4 1/2 years to break even. Not a bad deal, but as our customers' get older they don't think they will live long enough to get the payback. So if the home is comfortable, keep the equipment. One of these days the iron end cone will fail and then the only way to keep this unit going will be a burner upgrade.

Alex_19

Re: This Wayne is an early flame retention head burner

Thank you for all of your helpful replies so far!



Earl, I want to follow-up with something you said about soot build-up. The only issue I could say I have noticed since taking over the maintenance of this heating plant is that there is a lot of filmy black soot throughout the basement on various objects. It isn't so much obvious by sight, but when the objects are touched the black comes off on one's hands. Does this correlate to the soot build-up you referenced, insufficient maintenance, or something else? This is why I earlier expressed specific concern over the fuel nozzles and filters on this burner.

earl burnermann

sooty film problem

Looking at the full boiler picture I see black marks on the sides of the top cleanout door. That is one spot where soot is most likely escaping from. On a delayed ignition you may have some soot also escaping from the draft regulator and the seams of the vent pipe.

These boilers are easy to clean but they aren't very tight as you can see by the easy access to the heat exchanger and combustion chamber through the doors.

You could seal around the doors with furnace cement and tape up where the vent pipe joins the next section with aluminum tape. Also make sure the chimney base is completely sealed with cement.

That will cut down on the mess, but this system is never going to run as clean as the newer equipment.

icesailor

Soot & CO

Get that boat mooring down to the town pier so someone can use it for it's new purpose. Which is keeping a boat in one place in the harbor. A quality "Mud Mooring".



You see soot in the cellar? If you see soot, combustion gasses are leaking out. Combustion gasses have CO. CO can KILL you. Do you have an electronic analyzer? What's the CO when running or leaking out?

If you don't have an analyzer, at least buy a UGI CO 71A personal CO detector. It is every bit as accurate as my Bacharach Insight. I've tested them together. It can O can kill you before you know its happening to you.

You may not care about yourself but there's someone, somewhere that cares and loves you. Don't make them sad. If the homeowner doesn't want to correct this situation, wish then health, happiness and long distance.  I'll bet that they have had at least 10 cars since that thing was installed. If they're too cheap to do the right thing, and someone is injured or killed, they will not be your friend and the tires on a bus are big. The back ones have dual wheels on the back.

IMO.

They'll be switching to gas soon anyway.



PS There appears to be a Firomatic wheel behind the pump in the third photo but for the life of me, I can't understand how it works. It almost looks like it is on the return or the pump is flipped because it is the wrong 1725 RPM J pump.

billtwocase

Ice

there are 3 inlets on a J pump, but when you put a bypass plug in, the top inlet in that pic becomes a return

earl burnermann

that white chalky stuff on the floor

I think the stuff on the floor is left over odor kill powder. There may have been a pretty good size oil leak down there at one time. The mechanic most likely picked it up with speedy dry and when finished, put down a coating of odor kill, a white powder, and rubbed it into the floor.

icesailor

J-Pumps:

I know that. That's why I commented that it probably was a replaced rebuilt that is flipped over. Those J Pumps went 4 ways with 4 different models. The "A" mini-pumps are always on the left. A lot of those old flame throwers for those mud moorings had the pump on the right.



See the firomatic wheel in the third picture? How is that connected?



Either way, the HO probably has a 10 YO or less Honda in the driveway and a 60 YO boiler in the cellar.

icesailor

OdorBeGone:

The owner of the supply company once told me about a guy he traded with who really got into his oil burners. If he had to go out in public, he sprinkled it vigorously about his person to cover up the smell.

earl burnermann

Sweet!

;-)

Alex_19

Re: Soot & CO

Hey IceSailor,



Thank you for the recommendation about the UGI. Is there a significant difference in the detection rates between this unit and other CO detectors that are commercially available, such as First Alert? Most people are relieved to see a minimal or zero rating, but I've often wondered if that was an actual result or indicative of the units accuracy?



You might have already guessed, but this boiler has served two generations of one family, and the prior owners of this house. It was probably those owners who converted it over from Coal to Oil, as they were there near the mid 1940s.



I have attached another picture of the Wayne Oil Burner which shows the Firomatic Wheel you mentioned.



BTW, the last vehicle in use there wasn't quite that new, it was from the mid 1980s ;-)

icesailor

Flipped Pumps:

I see it now. The bottom of that pump is usually mounted on the top. The high pressure line was covering the supply and I couldn't see it.



As far as the CO detector, the UGI CO71A is a personal monitor that you can carry with you when you go into strange and unusual places. It can clip on to your bely. It has a 9 volt battery. If it ever sees 1000 PPM of CO, it looses its mind and you have to pull the battery to stop it. It doesn't take the place of a First Alert ceiling smoke and fire detector. It comes with a nice cover/case made from the hide of a Nauga. And like I said, I have placed it into a running exhaust with my Bacharach Insight and they read the same. I don't use it as a test and/or analyzer, I use it to possibly save my old retired behind.