Orange Burner Flames again...this time some Sensorcon Info...thoughts

FloMo201

Hi Everyone,

I had a post a while back of having a lot of orange in my gas flame. Peerless boiler. For a good while since then I had a relatively clean...meaning mostly blue with just pops of orange. It was thought that perhaps softening salt that was stored in the basement was the cause.

Yesterday we noticed the flames had a lot of orange and this morning were mostly orange again. I had purchased a Sensorcon Inspector a while back along with a low level CO detector. I have a regular UL detector in the basement and low level one is upstairs in the bedroom. The UL ones in the basement have no peak reading results.

I took a chance a played with the Sensorcon, which read 0ppm in basement and i'd get a 0-1pmm near and around the boiler. I connected the bulb device to the Sensorcon and took a reading inside the boiler behind the vent hood (I tried as close to the heat exchanger as I could) and got 10ppm. Removing the bulb and taking samples around the boiler gave me 0-1ppm readings.

Visibly, I do not see yellow in the flame....I see orange. The bags of salt are gone. We moved them. Does this sound like a problem waiting to happen? I feel like it is. I want to have my installer come back. I know he is busy with no heat calls. So before I call him....is there a need to? If so, what should I tell him?

Thank you again for all your help,

Flo

Jamie Hall

I think it was in your previous thread... orange is indicative of excess dust or salt (the colour is from sodium). Yellow is from incomplete combustion. Orange is not a problem. Yellow is. If you want to see what the orange really is, find an open flame -- do you have a gas stove? -- and take a small amount of table salt and get it very fine, then throw it or drop it into the flame.

FloMo201

Hi Jamie,

Yes, I recall your advice and its definitely orange, not yellow. I was wondering if the 10ppm CO reading from the Sensorcon was indicating that there is a problem brewing. If I am over worrying, I am okay to be told that. I don't want to bother my installer when he is swamped if there really isn't anything to worry about.

Flo

Jamie Hall

The 10 ppm inside the boiler is -- most likely -- not really a problem, although it does suggest that sometime or other you should get your overworked tech. out there to check and adjust the combustion.

Now if you get much of any reading on the Sensoricon outside the venting or boiler -- that's a problem. But you didn't.

FloMo201

Thank you Jamie. Outside the boiler I have 0-1ppm reading on the sensorcon and the UL detectors do not have any peak levels stored. I found a few other older posts where it was suggested rust could cause orange in the flames. It is a new boiler...is it possible its just some rust that is being burned off? I will give my installer a call and set up an appointment with him on a no rush basis. Regards, Flo

wmgeorge

Is your laundry area close by? My guess if you were taking your combustion air from outside the building you would not have an issue. 10 ppm in the flu is not a big deal. We got that all the time 8-10 with Lennox pulse furnace's PVC exhaust pipe.

FloMo201

Hi wmgeorge,

Laundry is on the 1st floor and the machines were no running at the time when I took notice of the orange flames. A refrigerator is maybe 15 feet away. Me going to the basement fridge is how i took notice in the first place. Unfinished basement.

Thanks, Flo