Sludge covered electrodes and nozzle

jaydvid

Hi, I posted last year on this list when I was troubleshooting my Axeman Anderson hot water boiler. The responses I received were very helpful and informative and gave me enough information to get the boiler working correctly for the upcoming heating season. Thank you to all who responded with suggestions.

I installed new electrodes, a new cat eye, new nozzle and adjusted the electrodes using a Beckett gauge for the proper positioning. I was able to get the ohms reading from 5000+ down to 1000. When everything was finished I had a professional come over and check to make sure it was burning efficiently. It ran all winter without a problem. Now it's summer and time to get it ready for next winter. I started by pulling out the electrodes and nozzle and found that they were covered with a black oily substance. See photos. What would cause this sludge to build up on the nozzle and electrodes?

To me, the non professional, it appears as though the oil isn't burning completely. is it because the electrodes aren't positioned correctly or maybe the nozzle is not atomizing all of the oil?

HydronicMike

Could be a few things.
Could be improper draft caused by improper set up or depressurization in the combustion zone-things like high efficiency clothes dryers, whole house (attic) fans, dirty burner blower wheel, chimney issues.
Also non pre & post purge, incomplete combustion, partial plugged nozzle, poor/failing pump cut off.
Where should we start.

pecmsg

the last time the parts were changed was a combustion analyzer used?

EBEBRATT-Ed

Did the "professional" use a digital combustion analyzer last year?

Lots of things could be causing this.