Looking for a second opinion from a pro please - oil furnace combustion tests

preserved

Hi all,

My existing furnace guy has retired, and this season I tried someone new. To tune my furnace, he used a Bacharach combustion gas analyzer alone. The furnace has a new barometric damper installed and he didn't touch that adjustment. He also didn't run a smoke test (where the draft smoke color is compared to a chart). Is this right? I thought all three were necessary. I asked him about the smoke test and he said the combustion analyzer did all that.

I don't know much about this tool, but can this tool alone do all the above?

https://www.toolexperts.com/bacharach-fyrite-intech-co-o2-gas-detector-24-8511.html

Or is he assuming that since the combustion numbers are right, the smoke and damper vacuum are correct.

Thanks for any advice. I wonder if I know just enough to show I don't know nearly enough.

EBEBRATT-Ed

They way it looks to me he should have used a separate smoke tester and a draft gage. It doesn't appear that that analyzer has those functions.

It's likely that if the combustion #s are good then the smoke and draft are ok.

But if you don't test you don't know

STEVEusaPA

The analyzer can do draft and combustion, not smoke. You can't assume anything.
Set the draft, set the air via the smoke test, read the numbers (basically). You can run it with almost no excess air, with a 2 smoke, and the numbers will look great.
Time to try someone who's honest.

preserved

Thanks guys. Seems like basic stuff, frustrating that finding someone good is so hard around here. I specifically asked the nice woman making the appointment for a combustion test, smoke test and to set the barometric damper using a nanometer. This guy had just the fancy combustion tester.