I have a Beckett Oil Burner; it's a new unit. I installed it and had a serviceman come out and dial it in. It worked fine for about a month.
I think my problem arose last weekend when I popped the prime valve to get some oil in a bucket to clean some parts. The way I did it was I turned the thermostat up and let the burner kick on. The burner fired, I opened the valve, and the excess oil drained into the bucket. I thought this would be fine, but shortly after, my burner started acting up.
When the thermostat calls for heat, the burner times out. I can solve this by opening up the prime valve, it shoots out some short bursts of air before it starts running steady, I close the valve, and the burner kicks on. At first, it only would run for about 10 seconds after the igniters turn off. I got the idea to put it in prime mode so it would run for 4 minutes continuously without kicking off to bleed the line. Well, I did that a couple times and one time I just bled for a minute or so and shut the valve...the burner kicked on and ran until the thermostat kicked it off. PROBLEM SOLVED? Not so fast.
Unfortunately, when the thermostat makes another call for heat, the control box times out. If I go down and push the button to reset and crack the prime valve, it releases a little air and starts running, close the valve, burner kicks on and off we go. This latest time, it would actually run for a few minutes before kicking off. It seems to me like there's air in the lines, but I'm not sure how it's getting there. I've checked and can't find any leaks. The tank has about 150 gallons of heating oil in it (about a year old). The filter is new. The whole burner including nozzle and electrodes are new. Again, as long as the electrodes are igniting, the thing will burn just fine, when they kick off, it's got 10 seconds to a few minutes before it kicks off.
Any ideas?
It's just a single pipe system, which I've heard often have issues w/ air in the lines, but the people before me used this system (w/ old burner) for 27 years, so it must not have any major flaws as far as fundamentals go.
I think my problem arose last weekend when I popped the prime valve to get some oil in a bucket to clean some parts. The way I did it was I turned the thermostat up and let the burner kick on. The burner fired, I opened the valve, and the excess oil drained into the bucket. I thought this would be fine, but shortly after, my burner started acting up.
When the thermostat calls for heat, the burner times out. I can solve this by opening up the prime valve, it shoots out some short bursts of air before it starts running steady, I close the valve, and the burner kicks on. At first, it only would run for about 10 seconds after the igniters turn off. I got the idea to put it in prime mode so it would run for 4 minutes continuously without kicking off to bleed the line. Well, I did that a couple times and one time I just bled for a minute or so and shut the valve...the burner kicked on and ran until the thermostat kicked it off. PROBLEM SOLVED? Not so fast.
Unfortunately, when the thermostat makes another call for heat, the control box times out. If I go down and push the button to reset and crack the prime valve, it releases a little air and starts running, close the valve, burner kicks on and off we go. This latest time, it would actually run for a few minutes before kicking off. It seems to me like there's air in the lines, but I'm not sure how it's getting there. I've checked and can't find any leaks. The tank has about 150 gallons of heating oil in it (about a year old). The filter is new. The whole burner including nozzle and electrodes are new. Again, as long as the electrodes are igniting, the thing will burn just fine, when they kick off, it's got 10 seconds to a few minutes before it kicks off.
Any ideas?
It's just a single pipe system, which I've heard often have issues w/ air in the lines, but the people before me used this system (w/ old burner) for 27 years, so it must not have any major flaws as far as fundamentals go.
