Omni Econo Heat 150k btu Waste Oil Burner

[Murphy118]

Hey gang, looking for some insight/advice/reviews of an Omni Econo Heat WVO furnace. I installed one 3 years ago in a warehouse at work. We are a Food/Meat/deli store that produces about 80 gal. of used canola oil per week. The oil is used to cook fried chicken in a pressurized fryer, and I have learned over the years that the chicken fat will get emulsified in the oil and not precipitate until it's at the correct low enough temp.
That being said, this year the burner had been working fantastic through about 500 gal of last years oil, with 2 or 3 cleanings of the nozzle and vortex inducing baffle of the burner. about 2 weeks ago it stopped firing and we cleaned out the vortex blades and the nozzle and the area around it. since then it refuses to fire on our oil. It will burn house fuel, howeever. I called our HVAC guys, (they are pretty good at everything else), and after 3 days of working on it, they tell me that it is the oil that will not burn.
I have good oil flow, what looks like a good spark, and good air. I asked him if there could be a difference in the spark, via the transformer or the spark isn't "hot" enough. He told me that in his experience the transformer "either works or dosen't".
Has anyone else had this situation where the oil they were burning no longer burns? I;m at a loss at this point.

Thanks for any helo I may get<

John

 

[wasteoilheatking]

Hey gang, looking for some insight/advice/reviews of an Omni Econo Heat WVO furnace. I installed one 3 years ago in a warehouse at work. We are a Food/Meat/deli store that produces about 80 gal. of used canola oil per week. The oil is used to cook fried chicken in a pressurized fryer, and I have learned over the years that the chicken fat will get emulsified in the oil and not precipitate until it's at the correct low enough temp.
That being said, this year the burner had been working fantastic through about 500 gal of last years oil, with 2 or 3 cleanings of the nozzle and vortex inducing baffle of the burner. about 2 weeks ago it stopped firing and we cleaned out the vortex blades and the nozzle and the area around it. since then it refuses to fire on our oil. It will burn house fuel, howeever. I called our HVAC guys, (they are pretty good at everything else), and after 3 days of working on it, they tell me that it is the oil that will not burn.
I have good oil flow, what looks like a good spark, and good air. I asked him if there could be a difference in the spark, via the transformer or the spark isn't "hot" enough. He told me that in his experience the transformer "either works or dosen't".
Has anyone else had this situation where the oil they were burning no longer burns? I;m at a loss at this point.

Thanks for any helo I may get<

John

 

[wasteoilheatking]

Hi I'm new here I would put a rebuilt preheater block in I have found that you have too clean the air side of. The nozzle gets pluged up. On the outside of it draft is crucial. I run mine

 

[brenndatomu]

I would say your tech is right, if there is sufficient voltage to arc across the gap, that is good enough. I'm sure they have checked that gap? Any chance it is just this batch of oil, something funky with it, just doesn't want to burn? Almost has to be your oil if fuel oil works fine. One way to check that, pour a small amount of your fry oil out on the driveway (dirt, not concrete, cuz concrete will spall off when you heat it) then hit it with a propane torch, see if it will burn. I did this one time with some suspect gasoline, would burn with the torch on it, went out as soon as I pulled the torch away. The gas was just purchased from a reputable local station, had no water in it, and smelled perfectly normal!