Starting up a dormant oil burner

pvs2487 · September 3

First, a shout out to Ed the Heater Guy from Cape May NJ!

My wife's family has a cabin in the Adirondack woods (about an hour north of Amsterdam NY) that has been uninhabited for the past three years. It has a ten year old oil fired hot air heating system with a small oil tank in the basement We're thinking about going up for Thanksgiving, and I plan to head up this month to clean and assess whether this even makes sense (there have been reports of mice and other vermin)

Onne of my concerns is the heating system, as it likely hasn't been serviced in five years or so, and whether anything has taken up residence in the chimney. I'm going to try to get a technician to service the unit before Thanksgiving, but is it wise to try to start the furnace? Is anything I can do (fuel treatment, filter change) to make it more likely to get the beast running successfully?

A CO detector will definitely be added!

Thanks for any thoughts you care to share.

Peter Van Syckle

Cape May, NJ

HVACNUT · September 3

Well you're being proactive at least. We've got time before turkey. Leave it off and have a tech do a full service/assessment. Complete with recorded combustion, smoke, and draft tests. Do it now so if there is any follow up work needed, like a chimney sweep or something, there's still time.

Electric water heater?

Jamie Hall · September 3

To reassure you, though — if the chimney is clear, it will probably start up with no problems.

Might want to get new oil, though…

mattmia2 · September 3

as long as there isn't anything growing in the oil and water isn't leaking in to the tank, 3 years isn't long for fuel oil.

EBEBRATT-Ed · September 3

I would get up there and clean the place up first before you waste $$ on a tech. Remove the furnace access covers and vac it out (I dont mean the HX) just the blower and burner area. Check the chimney if you can and take down and clean the smoke pipe if your inclined. Make sure the power is off and that the blower wheel spins by hand. Oil in the tank so he can run it. See if you have power to it and if it tries to start when the stat calls for heat shut it off.

Let him do the first start up. At least you will be ready for him.