Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - cleaning burners on old zeph-air furnace
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zorlyn
10-07-08, 10:19 PM
Hi I was wondering if anyone knows how to clean the burners
on a 1940s zeph-air natural gas furnace. There seems to be about 12 or so small
burners. Some are lighting some are not.I was wondering if
I would be able to do this myself. Thanks in advance.
on a 1940s zeph-air natural gas furnace. There seems to be about 12 or so small
burners. Some are lighting some are not.I was wondering if
I would be able to do this myself. Thanks in advance.
ecman51`
10-08-08, 08:08 AM
12? That's a lot. I've only seen near that amount in boilers or commercial handling unit. Anyway, can you see the tops of each burner good? From my experience, these normally slide off the manifold by pushing them into the furnace farther. But you usually have to remove like some vertical plate at the front of the furnace, that keeps them from just coming off by themselves. If you are at all mechanically inclined you might be able to figure out how, based on what I just said. Burners like this style are made to be replaced even, so they can be removed without complete furnace dismantling. You may have to remove a few screws in some vertical metal plate along the front of the burners, and maybe a couple othr things first. I have always been able to figure this out on my own, by looking.
If you can't figure this out, and receive no exacting advice from anyone else, here or elsewhere, you have 2 choices:
1. Hire it out.
2. Buy a furnace and or boiler rodding cleaning wire brush, from a home center heating dept., or a supply house, that is on a long bendable rod, and at least sweep it across the top and/or sides of the burners, depending where the flames come out. This is not as good as removing the burners as debris may fall into slots or holes in the burner and remain in the tubes, but it is better than nothing and can yield results.
But I also should stress that by having a furnace that is not cleaned PROPERLY may be combining properly and improperly burning gas and cause CO levels to go up. And if you had any backdraft issues, or heat exchanger cracks, ro craks in where it vents, that this could cause safety issues. It is always a good idea to have CO detectors in the house.
If you can't figure this out, and receive no exacting advice from anyone else, here or elsewhere, you have 2 choices:
1. Hire it out.
2. Buy a furnace and or boiler rodding cleaning wire brush, from a home center heating dept., or a supply house, that is on a long bendable rod, and at least sweep it across the top and/or sides of the burners, depending where the flames come out. This is not as good as removing the burners as debris may fall into slots or holes in the burner and remain in the tubes, but it is better than nothing and can yield results.
But I also should stress that by having a furnace that is not cleaned PROPERLY may be combining properly and improperly burning gas and cause CO levels to go up. And if you had any backdraft issues, or heat exchanger cracks, ro craks in where it vents, that this could cause safety issues. It is always a good idea to have CO detectors in the house.