EFM Boiler

scott75

In the HO defense, he just bought the house two weeks ago. There is a maintenance sticker on it that says the last the last clean and check was done two years ago, and it doesn't go loger than two years between them. Mostly every year. However, it was a local oil company and I don't believe oil companies set up burners properly. It just isn't in there best interest. They make a lot more money off of selling oil so it is there best financial interest to NOT have the burner as efficient as possible. That is just my conspiracy theory.

So either they were just changing filter and nozzle and not cleaning, or if they were cleaning the burner is way out of wack.

scott75

Hey guys. I'm looking for some help on an EFM Boiler. I don't do much oil hydronic; mostly gas, forced air and heat pumps.

Went to a call the other day, black smoke coming from boiler. I pulled apart and noticed the HX was extremely dirty and likely plugged. Didn't have soot vac with me so went back yesterday to punch out. Still didn't have any draft afterward. -.01 overfire and +.02 in flue before barometric damper.

Our new service manager did a lot of oil when he was in the field so he will be coming back out me on Monday. He did mention that some manufacture's have a -draft over fire. I've never heard this before. Is it true? I can't grasp that concept.

The boiler # is OBT-440-C3-W-S. Serial # OBT-4288. I didn't not see a separate model# on the data plate. 122,600BTUH, 1.35GPH according to data plate. The nozzle that was in there was a .85GPH 70A. The closest I had to that was a .9 so I used that. Can anyone tell me more about this boiler, specificly age, required fuel PSI, proper draft, if it is advisable to downfire as low as it was and if not, the lowest I could. I imagine it was down fired because it is grossly oversized. I don't know the connected radiation. That will be another task.

Also, in talking to another one of our plumber's, he swears that this is a double pass boiler and that there is a cleanout section on the back witch I didn't think it had. If there is, this area could still be plugged causing the draft problem. However, when I punched from the top and front, it seemed liked thats all there was to it. I understand the concept of the dubble and triple pass boilers in that the heat passes through the HX that many times for higher eff but don't know by looking at it how you can tell. As I'm picturing this boiler in my mind, it only looked like a single pass.

Sorry for the long thread. Any help is greatly appreciated.

TIA
Scott

Empire_2

Hello Scott.

First off with the heat exchanger being plugged, your readings are all erroneous. You must start from a clean system. OFD should always be less than stack draft. EX: -.1 to -.175 and Stack at -.2 to -.3 depending on application (consult manufacturers specs.). Smoke test will ultimately determine the results and use your Magnehelic gauge to set all parameters. This situation is one that really frustrates me when the customer does not have the burner checked every year for deviations in readings. as carbon builds for a # of reasons, it just compounds the problem until ultimately you arrive at the situation you now have,.,....

My .02

Mike T.

Leo

I have said this before

A blanket indictment of oil companies setting up burners to use more oil is a stupid statement. I have worked for three oil companies now and ALL OF THEM gave the time needed to do the job right. Now that being said there are lazy techs who will never do it right. I have seen shoddy work from heating only companies, plumbing companies, and oil companies. I have also seen excellent work from the above. It all depends on the particular company and in some cases the particular tech. Setting up a burner to fail only causes service calls, excess service calls causes a mass exodus of customers. Not good business sense in my book.

Leo

Steamhead (in transit)

I remember a thread a while back

might have been on one of the other boards, where an oil company owner didn't want to "kill his service business" so he set up all burners he serviced so they would soot up. Yes, it really does happen!

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clammy

Check the chimmey

Did you pull the smoke pipe out of the chimmey and check the base .As for the noz size first check your pump pressure some guns work at higher pump pressure for better fuel atomozation .The nozzle being down sized may be just a sign of a lazy service guy who did not clean it so he down sized it to keep it going until some other sap got the call and has to clean it of course at nite no better time.I had done oil service off and on a couple of years and worked with some lazy guys and even though it is not right that's what they did .I myself always found it hard to do a proper complete cleaning in a hour if the unit was in bad shape besides brushing the passes and vacuming ,pull the smoke pipe clean the base ,clean burner fan ,gun assem,and housing besides filter ,noz ,strainer,blow back lines ,hand pump re set burner and do a eff test and possibly cleaning the chamber of built up crap from guys just punching it out then get going on to the next alot of guys are lazy .I personally did all that why because i did want to be stuck doing it at 2 in the morning ,oil not as easy as every one thinks and not many i know do what i would call a rweal cleaning but thgen again they really are not charging what they should be to do it right but it is nice easy money for off season each and every year ?peace and good luck clammy

scott75

I am looking for the specs for this boiler. I don't know what the pump pressure is suppose to be. All I know is that the data plate of the boiler calls for a 1.35gph nozzle. I would assume that is at 100psi. If it was 125 or 150psi, that's a lot of gph.

Does anyone have any specs on this thing. The HO doesn't have any literature on this boiler.

Ron Schroeder

Scott

Try this its is for the 440T, and calls for 1.00 70* Solid nozzle, you might recognize the design
http://www.efmheating.com/manuals/PK440 Manual.pdf

If not there other models are listed

http://www.efmheating.com/manuals.html

Steamhead (in transit)

Scott, what burner

is in this boiler?

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Leo

Scott

What kind of burner is on this unit? The Carlin spec book doesn't even list EFM. The Beckett book lists a few but not a 440-C3. Nothing 440 and all of the C designations are C5.

Leo

B. Tice

boiler

The OBT model is old. This would have had the EFM burner on it most likely. You are right, it is just a single pass vertical type. Not sure what the problem is.
These would all be 100psi.

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scott75

It does have an EFM burner on it. Boss said it looked like a Beckett. And the model ends in C5. The C3 was a typo. I went back today with the boss. The passage ways from the burner compartment up into the HX were still a bit restricted. The main problem was the gasket on the front plate was bad letting the exhaust out. When we fixed the gaskett, and finished cleaning the HX, it ran like a champ. Smoke, CO2, draft were all good. Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.