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Barometric damper seems installed wrong

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morke
morke Member Posts: 6
in Oil Heating
I moved into a place with a Vitorond VR1-27 oil furnace. The flue barometric damper has a washer added as a weight to the adjusting screw and the screw is all the way "forward". This basically makes the damper stay wide open all the time. Could there be a reason for this. I don't have a manometer to measure draft pressure.

The system also has an outside air intake for the burner blower if that makes a difference.

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  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,544
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    You need to measure the draft before we say it's right or wrong
  • morke
    morke Member Posts: 6
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    I figured. I'll bring my mano on next trip. And actually I plan to get a pro in here to go over the whole furnace.
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 5,841
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    morke said:
    I figured. I'll bring my mano on next trip. And actually I plan to get a pro in here to go over the whole furnace.
    Boiler. 
    kcoppSuperTech
  • morke
    morke Member Posts: 6
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    It's level and not stuck. When you remove the weight the physical opening of the damper seems to be more in line with what you'd expect -- almost closed when not running and partially open when running. With the weight its just slam open all the time.
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 5,841
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    I'm not familiar with the draft requirements of that boiler, but the tech will (should) check/adjust over fire and breach draft while achieving 0 smoke and proper combustion. 
    Please post the results. 
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,706
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    When I first bought my house I noticed the barometric didn't really open at all like others I had seen.
    I assumed it was adjusted wrong.

    Unfortunately the damper was fine........the chimney was not.

    Point being, don't assume anything have it checked and adjusted properly someone's life likely depends on it.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,852
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    There are several Barometric Draft Regulators available. Which one do you have? bottom line is the over fire draft reading. if there is enough draft to remove the combustion gasses (no odor in the heater room) then you should be fine. You really need to be sure though, so measure the over fire draft with an accurate manometer or draft gauge.

    If there is excess draft when the additional washer is removed, adding that washer is not the right way to solve the problem. I have had excess drafting chimney in the past, I added a second draft regulator in order to get accurate control.
    Never Use The Parts Cannon.jpg

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

    Oilmon
  • morke
    morke Member Posts: 6
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    Tech cleaned and adjusted everything. First cleaning in years and lots of soot. Draft pressures were good. He left the washer weight on the damper but moved the weight back. Damper seems to be working more like normal now. 
  • Oilmon
    Oilmon Member Posts: 8
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    If you have soot, then something was definitely wrong. With modern heating equipment, one should NEVER have any visible sooting whatsoever.
  • Lance
    Lance Member Posts: 270
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    OK not enough info but i'll try. Dampers can be one or two way. I assume this is one way. To adjust a damper is to fine tune the draft for proper combustion. You require a smoke tester, a draft meter and a combustion analyzer. Mfg designs to make the flame clean and efficient. No eyeballing can adjust a flame right. In building a combustion system the general rule is -.02 draft overfire and -.04 draft at the flue breeching. Certain products have specific mfg. settings. As the chimney flue heats up the draft of the chimney gets stronger. The damper opens to balance the excess breech draft. This is not the only adjustment! Inlet air at the burner is also adjusted as well as the fuel rate. Together all three have to be balance to make a soot free efficient flame. I still see dampers missing on systems which heats the sky more than the building. Properly set, I have seen systems go 4 years before needing cleaning.

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