Don't forget your "other" chimney!

[branchburner]

I'm so focused on cleaning my fireplace and wood stove flues that I don't give much thought to the flue that vents my old oil burner. I peek down it every other year or so, it always looks the same: a dusting of black soot, top to bottom. The chimney sweep that I used to use never cleaned it, to my knowledge. A few years back I pulled a cup or two of soot out of the cleanout at the bottom, no big deal. Today I pulled out over a gallon!

Pulled the pipe back to the furnace, sure enough, the heat exchanger (forced hot air) was half-buried in soot. Seems the guys who have been servicing my burner work from the front, and don't pay too much attention to the ass-end. I haven't had a full-fledged cleaning/tuneup done for several years, but two or three service calls the year before last and they never suggested a sooted heat exchanger as a possible problem. Is this common for an old, inefficient burner?

Even though the whole run of the flue looked clean enough from above, the base of the flue was filling up and partially blocked. All my worries about the wood stove and it was the furnace that was about to kill me! Good thing I barely used it last winter.

 

[jtp10181]

I found a dead bird in the bottom of someones clean-out for a DWH / old furnace flue a couple weeks ago.... prob had been there for 5+ years they figured.

Was peeking in there just to see what I could see for running a gas line.

 

[begreen]

Inattention to details seems to be becoming a more common complaint. It certainly will increase the inefficiency of the oil burner. Most importantly is why is the heat exchanger sooting up? Maybe time to bring in a new company for servicing the unit. Get a complete rundown of what their service covers and sit on a chair nearby while they service the unit.

 

[bcnu]

Interesting. We also have a flue for the oil furnace along with the chimney flue. The stove has rarely been used over the past few years although I did burn about 100 gallons last year. Haven't even considered looking at the flue but will certainly do the now. Thanks for the timely reminder.

 

[stejus]

I have two flues. My fireplace flue has a clean out in the basement, my oil burner flue from what I can recall doesn't have a clean out. All I see is the liner from the burner into the wall of the burner flue. My sweep never even mentioned I should have this cleaned. Where would I pull out the soot?

 

[Wet1]

Just before I ripped out my oil boilers to convert over to NG last season, I found one of the two of mine was burning very dirty... Surprisingly it was the newer of the two (about 6 years old) that was creating all the soot. I tuned it up and the problem went away. Just because a boiler is old or new doesn't mean they can't be dirty. They need to be cleaned and tuned every year to keep them operating correctly. In your case, I'd suggest finding someone else to service your equipment... I had only myself to blame.

 

[stejus]

Just before I ripped out my oil boilers to convert over to NG last season, I found one of the two of mine was burning very dirty... Surprisingly it was the newer of the two (about 6 years old) that was creating all the soot. I tuned it up and the problem went away. Just because a boiler is old or new doesn't mean they can't be dirty. They need to be cleaned and tuned every year to keep them operating correctly. In your case, I'd suggest finding someone else to service your equipment... I had only myself to blame.

I have my burner serviced every year by the oil dealer we have been buying oil from for 18 years. In the 18 years that they have serviced the burner, they never even suggested it. I'll mention it again this fall when they come onsite.

 

[Slow1]

I have only had a real chimney for about 2 years now on my oil setup (new install) prior to this I had a power vent (yuck!). When they serviced it, I didn't see them do anything with the cleanout or the chimney. I will have to ask them next time it is serviced and/or take a peek myself. Not like the cleanout is hard to get to there in the basement...

On a related topic , I've been wondering about this for a while -

You folks who have made the switch from oil burning to wood, do you still have your oil burners serviced every year? It seems to me that it shouldn't need annual service if it isn't getting used as much should it? Should it be serviced every xxx gallons of oil burned? I used to service mine annually, but now that I am cutting my burn down I wonder if it is worth the expense. Even if I managed to do all my heating with wood, I still will go through about a tank (275 gallons) of oil a year to heat water so it isn't totally idle and shut down.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

I have only had a real chimney for about 2 years now on my oil setup (new install) prior to this I had a power vent (yuck!). When they serviced it, I didn't see them do anything with the cleanout or the chimney. I will have to ask them next time it is serviced and/or take a peek myself. Not like the cleanout is hard to get to there in the basement...

On a related topic , I've been wondering about this for a while -

You folks who have made the switch from oil burning to wood, do you still have your oil burners serviced every year? It seems to me that it shouldn't need annual service if it isn't getting used as much should it? Should it be serviced every xxx gallons of oil burned? I used to service mine annually, but now that I am cutting my burn down I wonder if it is worth the expense. Even if I managed to do all my heating with wood, I still will go through about a tank (275 gallons) of oil a year to heat water so it isn't totally idle and shut down.

In the same boat as you are on the oil burner issue. Burned about 1 1/2 cords last year, and oil use was about half of the prior year. Anyway, any time I would have the burner cleaned/serviced, it would work well for 1 week or so then act up...I would get so pissed as it would run fine for years without the service....this happened 2 times at my old house, and 2 more times at my new house....different servicers were used too. I guess each furnace has a specific nozzle, and there are some that are general use vs specific to the burner...anyway, would just frost my ass when the thing ran fine until after the burner tech left....didn;t mean to hijack here, but would be curious to hear how often folks have the oil burner cleaned....maybe I should have started a new thread?

 

[PunKid8888]

I have not cleaned my oil burners chimney, but plan on it in the next few weeks. I also service my own oil furnace. It really not to difficult once you have it all apart. when I bought the house I got hosed for 175 dollars to de-winterize the house which was suppose to bleed the oil line to the furnace and they never did. I learned how to do that along with changing the filter. once it worked I also found some nozzles from the previous home owner, so I took it all apart and installed the correct nozzle and adjusted the electrode gaps and could not believe how fast it ignited. towards the end of the heating year It had maybe a 1 second delay before firing, so It could probably use a clean nozzle and new filter. I have not done the heat exchanger yet, so that is now on my list.

 

[Wet1]

Slow,
Back when I did heat exclusively with oil, I'd clean my boilers, replace the filters/nozzles, and adjust the gap on the electrodes every year... and they usually needed it. If you are heavily supplementing your heat with something else, you could probably go ever other year (or more) depending on how much use it's getting. At 275 gallons a year, you might even be okay doing it every third year assuming it's still starting and running well at that point. If you notice is is sputtering or taking longer to fire, it's time to 'getter done'.

This is one nice thing about converting over to NG... no more boiler cleaning issues. I'll bet it would even pay off if I used the damn things. :crazy:

 

[Slow1]

I'm not sure I can actually achieve full wood heating and get down to a tank a year, but who knows... if I ever get that solar DHW array going then I might get down to a tank a year.

At any rate - the system is very new and quite an amazing unit. Spent too much on it to not use my wife says. Oh well. NG wasn't an option as there isn't a line near our house or I would have switched when we did our home addition and replaced the heating system a couple years ago.

Thanks for the input. I'd figured I would try the every other year approach - at least I don't have the specter of "not heat on a freezing night" to worry about. Worst case on system failure is no hot water until I get someone in to fix it - we can deal with that.

 

[firefighterjake]

I have only had a real chimney for about 2 years now on my oil setup (new install) prior to this I had a power vent (yuck!). When they serviced it, I didn't see them do anything with the cleanout or the chimney. I will have to ask them next time it is serviced and/or take a peek myself. Not like the cleanout is hard to get to there in the basement...

On a related topic , I've been wondering about this for a while -

You folks who have made the switch from oil burning to wood, do you still have your oil burners serviced every year? It seems to me that it shouldn't need annual service if it isn't getting used as much should it? Should it be serviced every xxx gallons of oil burned? I used to service mine annually, but now that I am cutting my burn down I wonder if it is worth the expense. Even if I managed to do all my heating with wood, I still will go through about a tank (275 gallons) of oil a year to heat water so it isn't totally idle and shut down.

I constantly had issues with my old oil boiler . . . two years ago I replaced it with a new Pensotti boiler and direct vent (not a power vent) . . . and I was very happy. That first year was the first year I went through an entire winter without a single breakdown . . . and never once did I have to vacuum out messy soot from the boiler or chimney.

I thought I was good . . . until last year when oil prices began to rise to crazy levels and that's when I bought a woodstove . . . albeit it was something I've always wanted since I grew up with woodstoves and wanted a "back up" heat source. Needless to say, my "back up" heat source last year became my primary heat source as I only used 70 gallons or so of heating oil.

So . . . the reason for this long, detailed explanation is that I opted to not get my boiler serviced last year since it was a) only a year out and b) I wasn't really using the boiler much. This year, however, I hope to have it serviced . . . since it is now my back up heating system and I would hate to have that fail to work when I'm not around.

 

[branchburner]

I have two flues. My fireplace flue has a clean out in the basement, my oil burner flue from what I can recall doesn't have a clean out. All I see is the liner from the burner into the wall of the burner flue. My sweep never even mentioned I should have this cleaned. Where would I pull out the soot?

If your oil burner is tuned, you shouldn't need to sweep. And even with my sooting, there was nothing in the stack to actually "sweep", just the big pile at the bottom and right back the pipe to the heat exchanger.

I used the word "cleanout" but actually, like you, don't really have one. I unscrewed the pipe from the furnace and pulled it out of the flue. This all came about because I was power-washing an outside wall and later noticed some water leakage by the flue in the basement. I saw the pipe had a little rust so pulled it out to investigate. So the chimney and the burner both need work.

I decided a few years ago that this burner had seen better days and wasn't worth an annual tuneup. I was wrong. As long as you are using it even as backup, certain things should be checked periodically (maybe annually, maybe not). But as BeGreen says, know what your service tech is and isn't doing. A number of websites I found have basic maintenance info like this (a dozen things you want your tech to be doing) and failure to do just about any of these could have resulted in my sooting problem:
1. Clean or replace the burner nozzle.
2. Clean the burner blower.
3. Adjust the burner flame.
4. Inspect, clean and adjust the ignition electrodes.
5. Inspect and clean the transformer.
6. Adjust the air volume control.
7. Inspect and adjust the fuel oil pump.
8. Inspect, adjust and clean stack control.
9. Adjust the draft regulator.
10. Clean the heat exchanger surfaces.
11. Check for combustion leaks.
12. Perform efficiency tests and make required adjustments.

This list is more basic stuff you might do yourself:
1. Change the fuel oil filter periodically.
2. Clean and lubricate the burner motor.
3. Inspect the burner mounting plate for evidence of leaks. They can alter the fuel/air mixture.
4. Inspect the furnace's/ boiler's electrical system.
5. Inspect the exhaust stack for bad connections and damaged or corroded pipes.
6. Clean the draft regulator, the mechanism controlling the rate at which combustion gases are pulled up and out the exhaust.
7. Clean the blower fan and the blower housing and clean and lubricate the blower fan shaft and the blower motor.
8. Inspect the blower fan belt for wear and correct tension.