Kodak Moment: Yet Another Oil Boiler that had been "maintained"

Steamhead

Older Weil-McLain WGO-3 with Beckett AFG that we serviced for the first time yesterday. Took most of a day to get it clean:

You can see the rug had come loose and the sulfur deposits got behind it and made it curl inward. You can also see where the flame was hitting it, causing sooting in the flue passages. The oil company must have been laughing all the way to the bank.

We also replaced the old 3-wire primary and added an oil-delay valve. I know there won't be much cleaning to do next year!

EdTheHeaterMan

My son does Oil Burner service as a side hustle since I sold by business. He knows what he is doing, I guess he learned something from me over the years.

There was an oil burning home in the next small town over that needed to be maintained. It was serviced every summer by the oil dealer. My son overheard the homeowner talking about this while at a local convenience store and pizzeria. The homeowner also had no AC and my son said he could look at it right away. The homeowner took him up on the AC repair, and while talking my son said that he could tune up his sooty oil burner (a Weil McLain WTGO) so that there would no soon next year.

The homeowner was skeptical but made an appointment for the following Saturday. My son opened the front door to find a loaded combustion chamber and the HX was also mildly sooted up. The customer explained that "no one ever opened up the front door before. Are you sure you know what your doing?"

The following year my son called him and asked if he wanted him to tune up his oil burner again? The customer replied yes. To the customer's surprise there was no soot in the boiler HX or combustion chamber. He also happened to mentioned that he may have used less oil this past winter. My son said that he wont need to brush the HX next year either and will only need to inspect it over the next few years, until there might be enough to brush off, but the SootVac could stay in the truck for that.

He charges the same price for the maintenance as he did the first time, but the time it takes to change the oil filter, strainer, nozzle, do a combustion test and pop the relief valve each maintenance takes a lot less time. But the customer gladly pays. (he actually does a lot more than those 4 things like brushing off the oil burner blower fan and looking in the chimney base, are easier without all that soot.)

Steamhead

Yup. Most of our customers tell us the oil company only spends 30-45 minutes on their "servicings". When we open the boiler, they can see the result. We always say the first time might take a few hours, but after that, there shouldn't be much to do.

In a few cases, the savings were enough that the oil company called the customer to see if they were buying oil from someone else. They really were counting on selling all those gallons.

EBEBRATT-Ed

I only take a short time to change the nozzle and filter and toss in a soot stick to clean the boiler while running the vacuum, so the homeowner thinks you're doing something.

That is why oil heat gets a bad rap.

With the new equipment the boiler should only need a real cleaning every 3-4 years and even then you only get a coffee can full of soot….maybe

JMWHVAC

I don't see dirt in oil boilers like I used to, but is it just the new equipment? I think the low sulphur fuel has really cleaned things up.

Steamhead

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1802450#Comment_1802450

It's definitely helped. Burner technology really hasn't changed that much since flame-retention became standard- the main differences being how much static pressure the burner fan can produce, and the updated controls.

When I see one like this, with sulfur accumulations, I know it's probably been a decade since it was properly serviced.