Maintaining an oil burning furnace is more difficult than maintaining other types of furnaces such as propane and gas furnaces. It is important that this furnace be checked regularly. If you failed to check the furnace for several years, it can result to severe damages like a cracked electrode insulator. To save money that you will pay for hiring a serviceman, it is advantageous if you know how to maintain an oil burning furnace efficiently.
Procedures
To maintain this type of furnace, you need to add oil to the cups inside the heating device every three months. Aside from this, do not forget to vacuum the surrounding of the burner. This is important to clear the opening to the blower of the burner.
If you turn the burner on, check if the tip of the draft regulator is an inch to two inches. If it is not tipped properly, you should adjust the regulator’s counterweight. You can see that the regulator is correctly tipped if the flame’s color is bright yellow. You need to call a serviceman if the flame’s color is orange because the regulator needs to be adjusted.
For instance, the furnace does not start, look at the emergency switch of the heating device. The device will not start if the device is flipped. If it is not flipped, then you should check the device’s breaker box. Reset the circuit breaker and turn the device on again. If the problem happens again, you need to call the serviceman since there are some parts that should be replaced.
When cleaning the heating device, you need to check the oil filter of the furnace. Remove the dirt because it can be the reason why the furnace does not start. Be sure that you shut off the burner before you clean the oil filter. To remove dirt from the filter, you need to pour few drops of kerosene into the filter.
To maintain the furnace, you need to pour oil into the device’s pump motor as well as the blower motor every three months. It is also essential to replace new filters to ensure the functionality of the heating device. Check the pump pressure regularly to find out if there are damages in the pump. Replace the insulators if there are cracks and the ends are pitted and eroded. Finally, clean the air passages that you will see from the electrodes to the furnace with a dry and soft cloth.
