Oil Furnace

Weezbo

I think Thermopride has it hands down.

i am not just saying that because my buddy sells Thermoprides :) the burner would be a Riello and the mounting bracket deal they may even have BF's that come with. i like tigerloop combos and a osv and valve to turn it off . most of the time i use at least a general ahead of the tigerloop. the suntec combo osv canister seems like it has been working well the past year or so. Garber makes a pretty good filter to use ahead of the tiger loop combo with a port for a vaccum gage... theres a few ideas and choices on the fuel filtration side. meltdown valves are often misconstrued to be a means of turning the oil off and on to change filters...thats not the intent when the lead melts out of the "handle" it shuts the valve off permanent :)

Dick_3

Oil Furance

We don't perform much forced air oil, but have a job for a customer's home.

Can someone recommend the best oil fired forced air house furnace? Need a 100M out upflow.

Thanks, in advance.

PS: Had the talk about forced air to hot water conversion already without success.

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Robert O'Brien

1) Thermopride
2) Hallmark

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Jim Davis_3

Best oil furnace

There really aren't any bad ones. Just poor installations and service. Any make of furnace set up correctly should give years of good service. The most efficient is Dornback, over 95% and one of a kind. Has to be set up correctly as they all do.

Robert O'Brien

Jim

I have to disagree,there are vast differences in the quality of materials and design between oil furnaces.Thermopride is the Viessmann of furnaces,in a class by itself.

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Dick_3

Oil Burner

Any preference on oil burners?

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Ken D.

Oil

I prefer Thermopride. Becketts or Carlins.

S Ebels

I agree to disagree with Jim

Granted that the best furnace set up poorly is still a piece of junk BUT!....There are some truly poor excuses for oil furnaces out there today. The ones made by Heat Controller/Century/Rheem/Ruud come immediately to mind. Carrier is not too far behind them with their thin Stainless Steel HX.

For me it's "Give me ThermoPride or give me death"!

Somebody famous said that once...... I think he wanted it with a Riello 40 series on it too.

mtfallsmikey

My choice would be

Thermopride first, then Dornback, then Heil.

B. Tice

Furnaces

There are large differences between furnaces. Quite a few are not very good at all. Thermopride is hands down the finest product available.

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Jim Davis_3

Do you want efficiency or inefficiency that last s forever

They you to make heavy cars too that would last forever but the mileage wasn't so great. Williamson had furnaces with the biggest and thickest heat exchangers you could buy. They lasted forever and you kept paying for them over and over. Actually the Rheem, Ruud etc would have been my first choice for the next most efficient oil furnace, based on field testing(not rating or efficiency calculations)but actual delivered btus per gallon of oil. If furnaces would be set up to run correctly the heat exchanger would only have to be a little thicker than tin foil and they should still last 20 years.

S Ebels

In a perfect world

I would agree with you. The lighter gauge HX's transfer heat quicker and reach operating temp within moments of light off. BUT! We do not live in a perfect world and you can't beat a Thermopride for long life and ease of service/cleaning. Soot up one of those Rheems or Centuries and you may as well throw the thing away as cleaning is a matter of complete disassembly and a PITA. The Rheems/Centuries with Becketts on them that I see don't seem to hold adjustment very well either. Lot's of ongoing problems in the field. The ThermoPrides combustion test at 85-87% and the best I can get on the others is 82-84% I know that combustion eff measurements don't tell the whole story but they are at least indicative of what is going on in the unit. The TP's with Riello's will also do a lot higher CO2/lower O2 than a Century or Rheem with the same burner. Like about 2-2.5% difference on the CO2. I think the difference is in the refractory combustion chamber on the TP's as opposed to the "glass" on the others. Much better material for maintaining the flame once it's up to temp. It also gives you a nice long burner off/blower on run time because of the residual heat in the combustion chamber and heavier HX.

JMHO of course and I don't profess to know everything anymore. My sweet Kathy Jean cured me of that long ago.

Jim Davis_3

Imperfect isn't close

You are correct in saying it is not a perfect world in fact things are so far off it is ridiculous. Most furnaces that I have checked running at 87% combustion efficiency are only delivering 65% -70% of the actual heat. Any efficiency above 84% is condensing based on the 16% moisture produced in the combustion process. Never found Beckets to be a problem but I certainly would never choose a furnace because its holds more soot than another. Soot means we did something wrong! Sulfur we can't prevent which is why they need service every year. Equipment should be set up to shut down if it starts to soot. They don't come that way but there are controls available that we can adapt. Thermopride is a great company and the way they conduct business is admirable. Great equipment, not the best.

Mitch_4

Oil Furnaces

Hi Scott.

I provide technical support for ECR International at the warm air manufacturing site where we manufacture the Olsen brand of oil Furnaces.

As oil Furnaces are not you baliwick, please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to discuss our product and advantages of ECR furnaces for your application.

You can contact me at our toll free number. 1-888-270-TECH (8324).

Sincerely;

Michael Breault
Technical Services
ECR International - Olsen Division

micbre@ECRInternational.com
www.ecrltd.com


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Steve Ebels_3

What's your theory on this Jim

A typical Thermopride with a Riello on it, normal draft and duct system will routinely hit 11.5-12.5% CO2 with no trace of smoke. I've had many crowding 13% or better but don't leave them there for a little safety factor. Flue gas temps run in the 350* range. On practically any other oil furnace brand, regardless of burner, we start to see smoke at CO2 reading over 10.5 to 11% and hitting a clean 12 is about unheard of. What's the difference in the combustion process that would make these units act that way?

joel_19

furnace

Thermopride , Riello , ECM blower.

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Home Depot Employee

Heil Oil Furnace?
You've got to be kidding me!

Jim Davis_3

Steve

Most of the problems in the field on oil usally related to wrong nozzle, wrong pump pressure, two lines systems and poor filters. This doesn't count venting and combustion air problems which I have found to be the least of problems on oil but just the opposite on gas.
I found most burners could easily run at 14% CO2/3%O2 with no smoke. But unless they were serviced regularly I recommend 13%CO2/4%O2. When I evaluate furnace efficiency I measure airflow and temperature rise. If a furnace is firing a 1.00gph(140,000)how many btus should I deliver to the plenum? When I only measure 70,000 btus in the air I kind of ignor the falsely calculated efficiencies. As soon as everyone starts doing this we might actually gets equipment rated a real performance numbers.

By the way I did sell Olsen Oil furnaces for a few years and they would easily rank with Thermopride if the proper modifications and operating procedures were followed.

Maine Ken

"if the proper modifications"

Says a mouthful. Why make modifications to any furnace in order to equal a T-Pride?? Just get the T-Pride in the first place. (unless I am misunderstanding your statement)

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ryan_7

oil furnace

I have not seen this brand in all your postings. Bard. We have sold this for years, its a very quiet, dependable furnace. I agree thermopride, but I think Bard is right up there with it. We used to sell Olsen, but had some avalibilty problems years ago. Rheem used to be a good unit when they were made in Kalamazoo, but that was years ago.

Jim Davis_7

You misunderstood my statement because I would probably have to make some of the same modifications on some Thermo-Prides also. Based on using carbon monoxide diagnostics on oil which I started to investigate as far back as 1984, I found some very unique and nit-picky variances in the operation of oil equipment. CO testing could evaluate the nozzle pattern better than anything I had ever seen. I found using pump pressures on all burners above 130# lowered CO levels. I found that in the majority of flame retention burners, solid nozzles produced less CO than hollow. One of the biggest discoveries was being able to tell if a nozzle was good or bad in the first place. Found that 1 line systems produced less CO also. These are the modifications I am talking about along with making sure the appliance was firing at its maximum mechanical ability based on each installation, because each one is different.

Maine Ken

Thank you for the clarification!!! I automatically do some of those "modifications", however I didn't consider them to be that. I have NEVER found anything out of the box or set to "specs" that worked quite right or gave the numbers that I demend in my systems. Your "modifications" are my routine.

Thanks for the reminder!

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Jim Davis_7

Good work! Hopefully you will start using the CO reading on your analyzer to mechanically diagnose oil better than ever.