Flex Fuel Line + Second Fuel Filter

dlipter

AS you can see, my boiler was installed with the copper fuel line directly connected to my fuel filter.



I'm thinking of adding a flexible fuel coupling to the burner to allow easy opening the furnace door. I'm also thinking of adding a spin on filter after the existing filter to improve filter performance.

Comments?

Jon_blaney

Where is the fuel tank? I do not like the filter hanging off the burner. It needs some support. I would use a flexible line.

STEVEusaPA

I would use this set up at the oil tank.
http://orders.sidharvey.com/product/R34/264-290F

The spin on usually comes with a bracket you can to mount to the wall. If gravity, an oil safety valve after the filters at the tank would be a good idea too.
And of course, all flare fittings.
Then you can run a solid line to the boiler, firomatic valve, then flex to the burner fuel . You may need an adapter into the Riello

dlipter

Fuel tank is in another room.

ChasMan

I mounted mine to the side of the boiler. (see pic). I beefed up the boiler jacket with a steel backing plate. It can take a surprising bit of force to remove a filter. Most pros will just jam a couple of self tappers in. Dont do that. The hanger bracket for the felt filter is just a piece of steel flat that I bent to fit. Sid Harvey sells a bracket but it doesnt fit right if you are adding a spin on. The easier way to go is to use two spin ons unless your married to the idea of seeing the sludge in the pot every year. And an OSV makes sense. The manufacturer of the flex lines recomends replacing them every five years. That's not exactly confidence inspiring. By OSV, we are not talking about the Firomatic valves. For some reason or another in the last few years sites like inspectopedia have confused the term. OSVs are valves that protect against leaks. They are suposed to be mounted after the filter and prior to the burner. Also, if you have older firomatic valves, save them cause the new ones are crap.

Grallert

ChasMan said:

I mounted mine to the side of the boiler. (see pic). I beefed up the boiler jacket with a steel backing plate. It can take a surprising bit of force to remove a filter. Most pros will just jam a couple of self tappers in. Dont do that. The hanger bracket for the felt filter is just a piece of steel flat that I bent to fit. Sid Harvey sells a bracket but it doesnt fit right if you are adding a spin on. The easier way to go is to use two spin ons unless your married to the idea of seeing the sludge in the pot every year. And an OSV makes sense. The manufacturer of the flex lines recomends replacing them every five years. That's not exactly confidence inspiring. By OSV, we are not talking about the Firomatic valves. For some reason or another in the last few years sites like inspectopedia have confused the term. OSVs are valves that protect against leaks. They are suposed to be mounted after the filter and prior to the burner. Also, if you have older firomatic valves, save them cause the new ones are crap.

Do this^^^^^

Leonard

> if you have older firomatic valves, save them cause the new ones are crap.

What goes wrong with the new valves?

I had to replace my ~ 55 year old fire valves, rubber dried up and would not fully shut off, small stream of oil flowed thru them. Still have them in a can for scrap brass.

STEVEusaPA

If you do it like @ChasMan recommends, on a gravity job, you have no OSV protection from tank to burner.
I recommend my way because I’d rather filter the fuel at the tank to prevent anything from getting into the oil line, then osv right after the filter protects from leaks in oil line from osv to the burner, once again on a gravity job.
There was a recent bulletin/recall about firomatics from Beckett a few years ago, but otherwise no problems for me.

ChasMan

Lol, Ok, yes, if you can get filters and osv at the tank, obviously that is the way to go. In my case, the tank was jammed in between a couple of walls. There is no room without moving the tank so I just did what I could. My objective was to add filtration for the tiny nozzle like to op was asking. As for firomatics, this is the third one I have installed in 10 years.. Either they will not seal shut or the insert in the handle comes loose and they shut off by themselves. Perhaps I am just unlucky I dunno.

ChasMan

Here is a link to an OSV setup. I had to post it because of the utter bizarre thought patterns expressed.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6pixyqhAsU4&ved=2ahUKEwjpr_X217biAhXhQd8KHW3dCksQwqsBMAN6BAgGEAg&usg=AOvVaw3579pflOeZd0INaViQDeOe

STEVEusaPA

@ChasMan I wasn't saying what you did was wrong. I was just pointing out the +'s & -'s.

Yeah putting the osv before the filter is not correct, although that revision by the manufacturer's wasn't that long ago. It is bizzare that you only protect for leaks from the osv to the burner, with nothing to protect a filter leakage (unless you come out of the top of the tank and mount the filter there).

I still have no one who can give me a real life example of when a firomatic valve did it's job in a fire and 'saved the day'--one at the tank and one at the burner. My guess is someone made a boat load of money successfully getting that into the code.
The only thing I see them do is fail and make it a long night to fix if it's the shut off to the oil tank. Also fail closed and induce a very big vacuum that destroys the fuel pump.