Reillo Burner, my technician removed the air damper

avalisno

I have a Reillo Burner and I had it serviced and my technician said to remove the air shutter because it might malfunction later on and said it was some oil leak. He charged me to remove the air damper and said it was not needed. I am skeptical about what he did  as afraid that CO might come out of the burner and pose some risk to my family. Is removing the damper common practice or he just removed it to earn more money and scam me. What will happen if there is no more air damper for the burner? Please help thanks 

kcopp

This is pretty normal to remove that.
Happened w/ mine and it actually caused my burner to work sporadically.
The newer models (last 10 yrs) that come on Buderus models dont even have it on there.
In fact all Carlin and Beckets burners do not have a damper on them.
The CO concern is not an issue.... when the burner is on it is drawing air through that intake. The chimney will draw any residual fumes up and out.

delta T

Did he do a combustion analysis? I'm not an oil guy, and not super familiar with oil burners, but this sounds super fishy. I would not operate it until you get a competent tech out there.

Also, we do not discuss pricing on this forum. Kindly edit your post.

Edit: @kcopp huh, learn something new every day! Thanks for the edification. I haven't really ever worked on oil burners. I know the basic principles, but that's about it. I had assumed that the air damper would have some metering capacity to adjust the mixture for the flame, but I guess that is all done with the nozzle and the pump? Genuinely curious.

Steamhead

delta T said:

Did he do a combustion analysis? I'm not an oil guy, and not super familiar with oil burners, but this sounds super fishy. I would not operate it until you get a competent tech out there.

Also, we do not discuss pricing on this forum. Kindly edit your post.

Edit: @kcopp huh, learn something new every day! Thanks for the edification. I haven't really ever worked on oil burners. I know the basic principles, but that's about it. I had assumed that the air damper would have some metering capacity to adjust the mixture for the flame, but I guess that is all done with the nozzle and the pump? Genuinely curious.

The air shutter determines how much air goes in. Not the same as the damper.

avalisno

I must have mistyped or mistakenly said the wrong thing, the one that the technician removed is the air door that closes and opens, I thought that was the air damper.

HVACNUT

avalisno said:

I must have mistyped or mistakenly said the wrong thing, the one that the technician removed is the air door that closes and opens, I thought that was the air damper.

Same thing. Today's Riello burners, the F3 and F5 at least come shipped without it. The hydraulic jack does eventually leak. The idea was with the damper closed, it would slow down idle draft through the boiler and be more efficient. However, with the leaking Jack's it's not worth it. They also offered an electric damper at one point. Had problems with them as well.