I have a vented hanging natural gas heater in my garage that will go out at times while running. There is a small explosion when it does this and the explosion blows out the flame. I have to re-light the pilot to restart it. Other than this problem the heater works fine however there is an area around the pilot where the flames seem too high. The heater is only used when needed and the pilot runs constantly.
What should I check to find the cause of this?
Thanks in advance, Charlie
call a pro !!!!
Hey webtv trailer bitch. Your getting better. This is THE ONLY advice you should be giving on hvac equipment. Bubba
Call a pro , means not you bubbaass, especialy on HW or steam. OK on Forced Air, Heat Pumps you are good. But you are not a Turtle, or CB . Your a wood burner hilbilly .
Call a pro? Was that one too hard for your trailer webtv boy? Steam...........hehehe. Id love to see you on that. Id be laughing my ass off. Bubba
This is a serious condition.
If you don't get a someone in that knows what they are doing you can be killed. I'm not exaggerating about this at all. It may be extinguish 'pop', in which case you may need new burners.
Being that it doesn't run that much really doesn't matter, things corrode and rust just by sitting around. I have noticed that sometimes the worse equipment are those that aren't used.
Call someone before you die or get injured.
If only that were always true.
For years, I had to service my GE low pressure oil furnace because I couldn't find a local pro who knew how to service them.
I got the factory manual from Sid Harvey/Metro and successfully serviced it myself for over ten years. That was over 25 years ago. Since then I've serviced dozens of heating systems at properties I own.
I've never blown up myself or a tenant.
Of course, I have had over 35 years of experience in electronics and marine systems, including Aalborg auxilary boilers aboard ships that were larger than a house.
One winter, when I was out of the country, my GE furnace shut down. A relative called a "pro" who diddled with it. It blew apart three days after he touched it, blowing the stack pipe off and filling the house with 1/4" of oily soot. Since the house was temporarily unoccupied, no one noticed the problem until all the window glass became opague.
My insurance company started proceedings to sue the "pro" and his company but eventually felt it wasn't work the bother. Admittedly, the fact that my house was unoccupied weakened the claim.
Since then I've had about a dozen bad experiences wtih "pros".
It seems like in my area, all the decent HVAC techs leave residential service for commercial accounts.
But a question remains, if you "pros" do not want to handle consumer questions, why are you hanging out here on alt.home.repair?
You could be over on alt.HVAC simply insulting each other.
Humm, maybe I will starting posting "The PRO screw up of the week" over on alt.HVAC. I could do a weekly story for about 6 months regarding local "pro" screw ups. Sound like a good idea??
Doug
Id say it sounds like you are a lonely man if that is what you do to get off. You ever wonder why all those res service guys go to commercial? Because you guys bitch about someone charging you over a $100 to "tune up" and oil furnace. It takes time and time is money to service an oil burner correctly. So, in turn, what you get is a guy to come out and change an oil filter and nozzle and thats it. Hint. That AINT a oil furnace tune up. Back to you servicing your own oil equipment and others........... Did you ever once use combustion efficiency testing equipment to set up those oil furnaces? How about a draft gauge or smoke pump? NO, I didnt think so. Do you know that you most likely wasted thousands of gallons of oil on all those furnaces you did that werent set up properly? Just because you can make an oil burner run doesnt make you a whiz. Stick to something you can do correctly. Not something you are guessing at. Bubba
Haven't done it yet - don't want to spend the same amount of time on these newsgroups as you guys do....
No kidding - you are making lots of assumptions.
I pay around an average of $175 to get one of my oil burners serviced and never complain about that price. However, the tech typically complains when I ask him to meter all the parameters.
Why don't you think so? Yes, I've borrowed and used instruments. When I've not had them available, I've done what I can to get heat back on to a tenant - such as changing a clogged nozzle or filter. I then call for a tech to set it up correctly. The point is to get heat on for the tenant ASAP.
Of course I realize that - again you are making assumptions that have never occurred. I don't think I've had a furnace or boiler run under inefficient conditons for more than a week - ever.
However, last year, when I set up a Becket AFG without instruments and later called in a tech, he stated that I was only 2% off from peak efficiency....
I've installed several gas fired boilers and furnaces. I've always clocked the burn rate, metered the CO, the draft and have had them inspected and signed off.
Never claimed to be a whiz - but I do make the claim that a well informed "amateur" with 30 years of experience CAN do emergency repairs on HVAC equipment without causing harm.
WE HAVE TO IF WE ARE LANDLORDS!
When my tenants heat goes out, I risk a citation with potential criminal charges if the heat is not on ASAP. Many a time I've called an HVAC company to be told that they are running behind in their service calls and will get back to me within 24 hours or so. By that time, I'd be cited by City Hall - not acceptable.
The biggest problem I face with oil burners are tenants who buy oil on the spot market and can't find an oil company to offer a service or mantenance policy (at MY expense - I am alway willing to pay for that). Around here, most companies will only offer service on a burner if they are supplying oil to it. I can't legally force a tenant to buy from the same oil company. Thus they get into a bind which puts me into a bind when things go wrong. Put it into the lease? Yeah, right - they still disregard it...
I'll admit to not being a whiz about HVAC if you admit to not being a whiz about landlording....
Doug
Im not a wiz at landlording and dont plan to be. Too many friends and associates that are landlords and many seem to be problems. One that is a landlord and realtor is doing rather well. He has about 40 properties around here and now has 5 in Sarasota recently. Doesnt seem to be around here much now that he has those places. Bubba
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