Yellow flame after floor cleaning

Wcurtis

I was using a shop vac to clean dirt and rust particles on floor and spiderwebs on air shutters when burner shut off/on on 3 occasions, then noticed blue flames turned yellow and seemed to be firing harder.
I bought this house with a Smith G-12 boiler and going through various misc items for PM and read to check flame, when I did I found alot or stuff so I decided to get cleaning

Is the flame color change normal after air shutters being cleaned?

Also noticed no pilot light before cleaning, now seems to run all the time, is this also normal?

New to site and steam boilers and looking for expertise on subjects.

Thank you

Jamie Hall

Chances are the flame colour -- if it is a rather orangish yellow -- is from the dust and so on kicked up by the cleaning. If however it is truly yellow -- more like a candle -- it may be that the air shutter setting got shifted when you cleaned them. I hope not, as you really need combustion test instruments to set it properly.

The pilot light depends on the boiler and burner -- some are constant pilot, and yours may be, just never noticed it.

Wcurtis

thank you, I will check on it when it fires up and check the flame color, maybe it is possible the shutters were slightly touched during the cleaning however I made no sweeping motion across the shutters only placed the shop vac opening on the shutter opening to remove cobwebs, shutter screws appear old and shutters look fully open

MikeAmann

I have one of those vent free blue flame propane heaters in my basement.
The flame is blue if there is no disturbance to the surrounding air.
But kick up the slightest bit of dust and the flame color changes to orange.
Wait for the air to clear and see if you are back to normal.