My neighbor tells me he needs a new Honeywell oil burner control unit, and they come in 3 time lengths, 15, 30, and 45 seconds. How do I know which length to buy? I know it doesn't say on the furnace itself and I'm 99% sure it doesn't say on the control box.
Tell your lazy-ass neighbor to grab a flashlight, kneepads and a small inspection mirror and start looking for model numbers.
That would leave 30 or 45 seconds of oil in the bottom of the firebox. That's a bad idea, isn't it?
Half of the time when the time-out occurs, there is no fuel anyhow, so that doesn't happen. (The other half of the time, there is no ignition or the electrodes are misplaced, and that does pump oil into the fire chamber, but that's the breaks. Not sure but if this happens too much, I think you have to pump out the oil. I'm not prepared to do that.)
The model number was laying low** but I found it and did what you say.
**I think the verb is supposed to be lying, except in the idiom "lay low".BTW, you deleted the other ng from the distribution. AIUI, that's against usenet rules.
Yes, and when I bought the house, second hand, it still came with the furnace owners manual. And 10 years ago when I was too lazy to go upstairs, I found the manual again online. And I've read all 8 or 12 pages several times. But the oil primary control unit has its own part number, from another manufacturer. The furnace manual shows how it's wired in, and even much of its internal wiring, but I'm 99.9% certain that the furnace manual doesn't say how many seconds it permits without a flame, or the control unit part number. (I would verify that now, but I'm on another computer without all my files.)
Most people have their stuff repaired by furnace repairmen, who know what to use, or fudge if they don't. (For example, there's a barometric damper on my flue, and one service man just taped it shut, without asking me or explaining why he did it . When I asked the next guy about it, he untaped it, without telling me what is wrong with it's being taped or what the purpose of the part is. Another examplle, the first few years, the service men would measure the stack temperature (the exhaust gas) maybe one or two other measurements (unburned hydrocarbons--I should be so lucky) , with gauges, but after a few years, they all stopped doing that. They'd look at the flame and think, the flame looks okay, I guess. )
And then there was the guy who changed the large fan motor when it was the squirrel cage that was squeaking. IOW, I don't look for the cheapest but I still haven't found one really reliable company.
So if he used a 30 second timeout when he should have used 45, most of the time the flame starts within a second, at most two, so it would make no difference.. Hmmmm. Frankly after all this trying to get the right time, I think I'd be better off with 15 seconds. Maybe my neighbor would be too. I have never seen it take even 7 seconds to light, and I've watched it quite a bit. But most of them on ebay are 45, and it only matter on those occasions when it doesn't light. Now people might have problems only once every 5 years, but when the time comes, some people will keep pressing the reset button** and letting it run for 45 seconds, hoping it will light, even though they havent' identified the problem and they've done nothing to fix the problem. It's so tempting. Just push that button. And if you don't know that your filling the firebox with unburned oil, there's no reason not to press it . (well you have to let it sit for about 5 minutes before the reset button works) (The idea is to turn off the oil if the flame doesn't light, and I think to turn off the whole furnace, if there's enough dark smoke to keep the cadmium cell from seeing the light of the flame. There is also a high-temp switch that turns off the furnace if somehow it gets too hot.)
**Of course a lot of people don't know about the reset button and don't press it even once. It's behind a 20 by 40" metal panel that has to be lifted and pulled out. And then if you see the red button, you have to wonder. Why is it red? Is it like the fire alarm at school. Or the launch button for ICBMs? I'd better not push it.That's actually a good idea. My oil supply company should have guys who know. I might do that had the problem not been solved. See my other posts.
Two different years I've called them in Sept. or October and tried to make an appointment to clean the furnace, and they say, not surprisingly, We're all booked up. And I say, call me when the rush is over, and they never do. What they should say is We're booked up until January, and I'd say fine, how about January 10th?
Has anyone ever told you that you're a real sweetheart?
I didn't think so.
He's not disabled, but he doesn't know enough to think of these questions, And every question he should have applies to me too since we have the same furnace.
Good question.
He has a full-time job, but I think something happened and he's not making as much as he used to. He has a nice looking house and yard and he keeps it very nice. But he's also been sluggish lately. Borrowed a bath faucet socket and kept it for 6 weeks during which I called him 3 times because I needed it .
And he hired someone earlier this summer to fix the thing. They said he neede a new control unit, removed his, and said they'd be back, but they never came back!!! I don't know if they left the old one behind or not.
It took me a day after he first asked me about this to realize that before buying another unit, we, that is, I, should hot wire the furnace and see if it turns on, pump and ignition, We only have the word of two guys who never came back that it is the control unit.
And also, if the control unit is still there, I should see if I can fix it. I fixed my own twice. The house was only 4 years old when it broke the first time, the built-in 24 volt transformer failed. They didn't have one the same size so I got a bigger one and mounted it nearby and that's been working for 30 years. Until the AC broke a couple years ago, it was on 24/7/365. Then a few years later, the relay was erratic. I tried to file the points but even my automobile distributor point file wouldnt' fit in there. I tried to find a replacement relay, but may have screwed up and couldn't find one. But somehow fiddling with it made it better and it gave me no trouble for 25 years.
Now it's broken again but I replaced it with a control until from a matching furnace junked from a matching townhouse. I told him I did that and he told me he's been looking all summer for someone to throw away an old furnace. But most of that happened years ago.
But shopping for him has been something like shopping for myself. I learned a lot. More about that later.
Darn, is that obvious or what?
Hmmm. I have the same furnace he does, and I've had the cover off the control box for 10 years or more, so I totally forgot about model numbers. ......okay, I found the cover and.... it has no model number!! It's just grey with the word Honeywell and a red button. Wait, on the inside is glued some paper with writing. No model there either.
Well, I found it in small grey letters stamped on the end, at an angle no less, It doesn't look important, but it was enough to find it in the customer Honeywell pages and indeed.....
it is 45 seconds.
Thanks.
But, Don, I just noticed that you and trader, or your software, deleted the other ng. That's a violation of Usenet rules.
My neighbor tells me he needs a new Honeywell oil burner control unit, and they come in 3 time lengths, 15, 30, and 45 seconds. How do I know which length to buy? I know it doesn't say on the furnace itself and I'm 99% sure it doesn't say on the control box.
HOW ABOUT TELL YOUR NEIGHBOR TO CALL PEOPLE THAT WORK ON FURNACES !!!
That's a joke, right?
They do stay pretty doped up over in that other NG
Sorry, I don't know what that means or what you are trying to say.
I was just commenting on the fact that you said that replying to someone who posts to multiple groups, but only sending the reply to one of the multiple groups is ". . . a violation of Usenet rules".
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.