Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - recurring heating problem/shut off HELP!
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JJN
01-28-03, 08:43 AM
Hello,
I have oil heat and the Burner (Furnace? whatever..) Keeps shutting down. It happens randomly, last night I woke up and the house was 58 degrees, I have small children and this is very disturbing.
I live in new england, I have a 2 year old 2000 ft colonial with a finished basement. 4 Zones, Z1=entry level, Z2=Bedrooms, Z3=Bonus room over garage, Z4=Basement. Z3&Z4 heat very small areas.
I copied this off of the equipment:
Columbia Emerald Series EM-100
G.P.H = 1.00
Input BTU/Hr = 154000
DOE Capacity = 125000
Net Rating = 109000
Cal Capacity = 113
MAx Water PSI =30
It has a Beckett "AFG" series oil burner.
The company that installed my heating and supplies my oil has been here at least 7 times to try and fix this problem. They have replaced almost everything on the equipment they could replace. They have installed baffles, cleaned everything, re-aligned the "eye" (dont know what that means). They are extremely nice people and very attentive however I am starting to get stressed.
I cannot leave the house for more than a day or so at a time in the winter (especially this one) for fear of pipes freezing.
Does anyone out there have any idea what could be causing a problem like this?? Any idea on things to check?
Two events that have happened may have been part of the problem but since almost everything has been replaced it would be odd:
1) Near miss lightning strike, blew out some outlets, needed to get the dryer outlet replaced
2) Electrical Brown out caused the burner to choke on itself and emitted soot throughout the house that had to be professionally
cleaned.
The burner has gone months at a time without the problem. When it shuts down I hit the 'RED' restart button and it starts right back up.
They will be here later today to take a look at it again, ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Sorry for the long message.
JOHN
I have oil heat and the Burner (Furnace? whatever..) Keeps shutting down. It happens randomly, last night I woke up and the house was 58 degrees, I have small children and this is very disturbing.
I live in new england, I have a 2 year old 2000 ft colonial with a finished basement. 4 Zones, Z1=entry level, Z2=Bedrooms, Z3=Bonus room over garage, Z4=Basement. Z3&Z4 heat very small areas.
I copied this off of the equipment:
Columbia Emerald Series EM-100
G.P.H = 1.00
Input BTU/Hr = 154000
DOE Capacity = 125000
Net Rating = 109000
Cal Capacity = 113
MAx Water PSI =30
It has a Beckett "AFG" series oil burner.
The company that installed my heating and supplies my oil has been here at least 7 times to try and fix this problem. They have replaced almost everything on the equipment they could replace. They have installed baffles, cleaned everything, re-aligned the "eye" (dont know what that means). They are extremely nice people and very attentive however I am starting to get stressed.
I cannot leave the house for more than a day or so at a time in the winter (especially this one) for fear of pipes freezing.
Does anyone out there have any idea what could be causing a problem like this?? Any idea on things to check?
Two events that have happened may have been part of the problem but since almost everything has been replaced it would be odd:
1) Near miss lightning strike, blew out some outlets, needed to get the dryer outlet replaced
2) Electrical Brown out caused the burner to choke on itself and emitted soot throughout the house that had to be professionally
cleaned.
The burner has gone months at a time without the problem. When it shuts down I hit the 'RED' restart button and it starts right back up.
They will be here later today to take a look at it again, ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!! Sorry for the long message.
JOHN
KField
01-28-03, 02:06 PM
Hi John
Does your house have a chimney or is the unit powervented? Need to know that first.
For burner check I would suggest
1. Check pump coupling for being stripped and set pump pressure to 100psi or manufacturer spec if different.
2. Make sure retention head slots are clean and set up burner for 11% CO2 with 0 smoke and draft regulator for -.04 in. wc at breech.
3. Remove leads from F terminals of safety control and start burner, put jumper on the F terminals and put an ohmmeter across the disconnected leads from the cad cell. It should read less than 3000 ohms. Usually a lot less. Like 700 ohms. If it is higher than 3000, change the cad cell and try again. If still high, replace cad cell socket and lead.
4. Arc out the ignition transformer and if you can't draw a 3/4" blue spark, replace it.
5. If it has an old (large) Beckett motor, replace it. Many had dead spots.
Make sure that the Black wire on the primary control actually is the 110v 'hot' lead and not the neutral.
I would do it in that order unless I had a hunch about anything else. If it is power vented, you have to suspect the draft prover and be sure you don't have more than -.10 in. wc draft at the breech.
If all else fails, you could begin to suspect the safety control, but it is prety rare. Maybe more likely if it is a White-Rodgers control.
Is it a Suntec pump or perhaps a Danfoss. Danfoss could be suspect.
I tried to cover everything in a logical sequence and obviously don't know what has been replaced in the past.
Post again if you need clarification on any of this or email me directly to expedite. I will speak to your tech if you think it might help. I have 22 years full time oil burner experience to offer.
Does your house have a chimney or is the unit powervented? Need to know that first.
For burner check I would suggest
1. Check pump coupling for being stripped and set pump pressure to 100psi or manufacturer spec if different.
2. Make sure retention head slots are clean and set up burner for 11% CO2 with 0 smoke and draft regulator for -.04 in. wc at breech.
3. Remove leads from F terminals of safety control and start burner, put jumper on the F terminals and put an ohmmeter across the disconnected leads from the cad cell. It should read less than 3000 ohms. Usually a lot less. Like 700 ohms. If it is higher than 3000, change the cad cell and try again. If still high, replace cad cell socket and lead.
4. Arc out the ignition transformer and if you can't draw a 3/4" blue spark, replace it.
5. If it has an old (large) Beckett motor, replace it. Many had dead spots.
Make sure that the Black wire on the primary control actually is the 110v 'hot' lead and not the neutral.
I would do it in that order unless I had a hunch about anything else. If it is power vented, you have to suspect the draft prover and be sure you don't have more than -.10 in. wc draft at the breech.
If all else fails, you could begin to suspect the safety control, but it is prety rare. Maybe more likely if it is a White-Rodgers control.
Is it a Suntec pump or perhaps a Danfoss. Danfoss could be suspect.
I tried to cover everything in a logical sequence and obviously don't know what has been replaced in the past.
Post again if you need clarification on any of this or email me directly to expedite. I will speak to your tech if you think it might help. I have 22 years full time oil burner experience to offer.
JJN
01-28-03, 02:17 PM
Thank you so much for your response.
It is a powervent, I forgot to mention that before. Does that affect the answer you gave already?
The tech came today and he might be back later, as you can probably tell from my original post that i know nothing about this stuff (I'm a computer geek). While he was here he adjusted the flame "color"??? and he did something with an ohmeter. I assume he was checking what you suggested. And he replaced the cad cell (which has been done before).
He was interested to hear what kind of response I would get so I will show this to him and see if it helps.
I will wait until I hear from you if the powervent affects anything. If you need the model # etc I can get it.
Thanks Again
It is a powervent, I forgot to mention that before. Does that affect the answer you gave already?
The tech came today and he might be back later, as you can probably tell from my original post that i know nothing about this stuff (I'm a computer geek). While he was here he adjusted the flame "color"??? and he did something with an ohmeter. I assume he was checking what you suggested. And he replaced the cad cell (which has been done before).
He was interested to hear what kind of response I would get so I will show this to him and see if it helps.
I will wait until I hear from you if the powervent affects anything. If you need the model # etc I can get it.
Thanks Again
KField
01-28-03, 02:30 PM
Well the flame should be adjusted by setting the draft, checking for smoke and adjusting the air shutter to achieve 11% CO2. This will actually give you the efficiency you deserve and the color will be fine also.
Many times on a powervented unit the draft proving switch can be a problem. Sometimes when mounted on a wall that faces the prevaling wind, you can lock out on a windy day due to the presure that builds up against the house when the wind is blowing.
The more reliable type of prover is a centrifugal switch built in to the draft inducer motor. The standard type is a diaphragm switch with a 1/4" sensing tube routed to the inducer housing. I would like to know what brand and model draft inducer you have.
Another thought just occured to me. When you had the soot problem, did they diasassemble and clean th draft inducer? That would be imperative. It is a dirty job but if the inducer blower wheel is sooted up, you will not generate the draft required to sustain clean combustion. They should have also removed the sensing tube and cleaned it out too because it probably was plugged with soot. Maybe ask them to do that if you have another lockout.
Ken
Many times on a powervented unit the draft proving switch can be a problem. Sometimes when mounted on a wall that faces the prevaling wind, you can lock out on a windy day due to the presure that builds up against the house when the wind is blowing.
The more reliable type of prover is a centrifugal switch built in to the draft inducer motor. The standard type is a diaphragm switch with a 1/4" sensing tube routed to the inducer housing. I would like to know what brand and model draft inducer you have.
Another thought just occured to me. When you had the soot problem, did they diasassemble and clean th draft inducer? That would be imperative. It is a dirty job but if the inducer blower wheel is sooted up, you will not generate the draft required to sustain clean combustion. They should have also removed the sensing tube and cleaned it out too because it probably was plugged with soot. Maybe ask them to do that if you have another lockout.
Ken