Boiler oil filter leaking

spd1980

Hi,

So I noticed a leak under the oil filter for my boiler. My service company is coming to look at it tomorrow. I think they might have caused it when they did our annual maintenance over a week ago.

Should I be concerned about running the boiler from now until tomorrow when they come to look at it?

The leak appears to be slow. One drop builds up and falls maybe every 30 minutes.

I’ve attached a picture with circles around the drops of oil that are forming.

Thanks!

STEVEusaPA

Yeah just put a small container under it.
Instead of trying to 'fix' that, they should get rid of all the sh!t fittings from the filter to the burner, using a non hardening pipe dope. And the filter canister should be supported.
Looks like the weight of the filter, and maybe someone leaning on it slightly loosened the fitting.
On the filter, have them find the leak. If it's running down the side, check the main gasket, the bleeder gasket and the bolt for proper installation and tightness.
If the drop is from the center of the filter, on the bottom, it should be replaced.

If this is a gravity job, you'd be better off with the filter at the tank, then OSV. That would prevent any leaks downstream of the OSV (but not the filter).

spd1980

STEVEusaPA said:

Yeah just put a small container under it. Instead of trying to 'fix' that, they should get rid of all the sh!t fittings from the filter to the burner, using a non hardening pipe dope. And the filter canister should be supported. Looks like the weight of the filter, and maybe someone leaning on it slightly loosened the fitting. On the filter, have them find the leak. If it's running down the side, check the main gasket, the bleeder gasket and the bolt for proper installation and tightness. If the drop is from the center of the filter, on the bottom, it should be replaced. If this is a gravity job, you'd be better off with the filter at the tank, then OSV. That would prevent any leaks downstream of the OSV (but not the filter).

Thanks. I put a container under it for now. I will also keep your checklist handy for when they come to look at it. As an aside, I did notice the tech who recently worked on it wasn’t in the best of shape and he used some of the pipes to steady himself and regain his balance so it’s possible he loosened something. I did kind of wonder in the back of my mind if he was going to damage something by accident.