Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
Scary Stuff!!
S Ebels
Member Posts: 2,322
And some people just don't get it.
Drew went on a call to a small mobile home with a fuel oil furnace in it. The complaint was soot in the home. When he got there he found a Coleman oil furnace that looked to be about new but had some sheet metal damage in various spots. After talking with the owner he found out that it was recently purchased from a salvage freight place and the owner had done a "self install".
There was indeed a strong smell of soot in the place so he pulled the nozzle and found that the poor thing was firing at .85gph (.55 recommended) 35% too much fuel!!!! He installed the right nozzle and then set the burner up correctly. He suspected that it was probably pretty sooted up inside but the CO, CO2 smoke test all showed OK.
About a week later they called again and said it wouldn't light up. The woman told me her son and husband had been "working on it" and got it going but it was smoking again. This was a Saturday so I went over to check it out and found that the air intake shutter was broken and they had used some tape and paper to try to "adjust that burner".
You know, at times like that, you really find hard to remain civil to people. You just don't do things like that for crying out loud!
Long story short, during the course of the conversation with the young man who lived in the trailer, he let it slip that he had been very ill the day before. He had slept in the trailer the night after he and his dad "adjusted the furnace" and woke up puking. He stated that his face was very red and I told him those were classic signs of CO poisoning. No parts were available for the repair of the furnace so I told him I was going to get it set using some field engineered materials. After doing so and checking combustion again, I told him I would leave it run to keep the place from freezing up, but he was not to stay there period. At this point it appears that we are going to install a new furnace in the place this week.
Sometimes I just shake my head in disbelief.............
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Drew went on a call to a small mobile home with a fuel oil furnace in it. The complaint was soot in the home. When he got there he found a Coleman oil furnace that looked to be about new but had some sheet metal damage in various spots. After talking with the owner he found out that it was recently purchased from a salvage freight place and the owner had done a "self install".
There was indeed a strong smell of soot in the place so he pulled the nozzle and found that the poor thing was firing at .85gph (.55 recommended) 35% too much fuel!!!! He installed the right nozzle and then set the burner up correctly. He suspected that it was probably pretty sooted up inside but the CO, CO2 smoke test all showed OK.
About a week later they called again and said it wouldn't light up. The woman told me her son and husband had been "working on it" and got it going but it was smoking again. This was a Saturday so I went over to check it out and found that the air intake shutter was broken and they had used some tape and paper to try to "adjust that burner".
You know, at times like that, you really find hard to remain civil to people. You just don't do things like that for crying out loud!
Long story short, during the course of the conversation with the young man who lived in the trailer, he let it slip that he had been very ill the day before. He had slept in the trailer the night after he and his dad "adjusted the furnace" and woke up puking. He stated that his face was very red and I told him those were classic signs of CO poisoning. No parts were available for the repair of the furnace so I told him I was going to get it set using some field engineered materials. After doing so and checking combustion again, I told him I would leave it run to keep the place from freezing up, but he was not to stay there period. At this point it appears that we are going to install a new furnace in the place this week.
Sometimes I just shake my head in disbelief.............
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 86.8K THE MAIN WALL
- 3.1K A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration
- 56 Biomass
- 425 Carbon Monoxide Awareness
- 108 Chimneys & Flues
- 2K Domestic Hot Water
- 5.6K Gas Heating
- 105 Geothermal
- 160 Indoor-Air Quality
- 3.6K Oil Heating
- 69 Pipe Deterioration
- 962 Plumbing
- 6.3K Radiant Heating
- 385 Solar
- 15.3K Strictly Steam
- 3.4K Thermostats and Controls
- 54 Water Quality
- 44 Industry Classes
- 47 Job Opportunities
- 18 Recall Announcements