Please help Burnham RSM-126 oil furnace won't heat hot water after vacation

[dpb]

Donita Luddington wrote: ...

... That's "all" a nuclear reactor does, too...

--

[Donita Luddington]

Thank you. I was hoping for something like this. I mean, take a car, admittedly a simple affair, but, let's take a car engine.

If the engine isn't running, it's ALWAYS one of four things. It's never not one of those four things. So, you go down, one by one, and you see if the combustion chamber is getting each of those four things, in the right ratio and the right time.

Sure, the ratio is 14:1, which is hard to measure, but, the point is that a combustion chamber needs only a very few things to work, and, when it doesn't work, there are usually simple diagnosis procedures that determine if those very few simple things are there or not.

Am I making this clear or did I just muddy it all up (sometimes I think it's clearer when I don't ramble on) .........

[Mark]

so which is it..

1 or 2

when the burner tries to start, do you get a flame or not?

Mark

[Donita Luddington]

Hi Mark, I should have mentioned that I'm currently at work. Hopefully I'll leave early tonight as I have, for the first time in a while, a date so I have to pretty myself up.

I will try tonight but if I don't have time, depending on how the date goes I guess, LOL, I will certainly be able to try it out by the morning Saturday.

THANK YOU for your help. I wish everyone were as helpful as you!

[Donita Luddington]

BTW, after I cleaned it, I certainly got a flame (it heated the water) but it goes out after a while.

Does that help?

[starrin]

note their "Welcome" section. You can post your questions on "The Wall" note their "Contact us" section

[Lou]

I don't know what a professional knows that I don't. But several years ago a co-worker came in one morning without any hair on his head - no eyebrows even. Seems his furnace wasn't working, and he thought he could fix it himself. Lucky the only thing really injured was his pride. Oh yeah, he wasn't able to fix the thing and ended up calling a professional.

[Mark]

what does a little while mean....20 seconds or 20 minutes?

so agin it is hard to say fomr here,,,is your flame going out because of lack of fuel or air....or is one of the saftey devices shutting it off for some reason...

if the flame is good and suddenly goes off it would seem to be a saftey, if you have a photocell sensor, try cleaning it...

get a book to tell you how to do that...

Mark

[Mark]

also if the flame is good for several minutes and then kicks off on a saftey, then it could be overtemp due to a plugged chimney due to an animal or birds next.,..this could cause CO to back up into your home...

if you are going to do your own troubleshooting, I would also get a CO alarm ...

Mark

[Paul Flansburg]

Bruce,

Taking the boiler a part isn't going to fix the problem. I think I would start with the burner....

-paul

[Donita Luddington]

Thanks everyone! It's fixed!

Without Mark, RBM, Phil Again, Siskuwihane, J. Clarke, starrin, & Paul, I wouldn't have figured it out!

The Burnham oil furnace is working beautifully now!

With all the emails about combustion, I felt comfortable looking a little further at what was rally going on. I cleaned the nozzle again and then I cleaned the air intake around the nozzle.

All seems well now!

BTW, it was always firing (sometimes it wouldn't stay lit however) so there was never any "pooling" that some of the posts warned about.

Thank you all so much for your help. You are one smart bunch!!!

[Mark]

good for you!!!

Please consider taking some of the money you saved and getting a CO alarm for your home in any case...

and make sure there is no blockage in the flue or chimney

Mark

[Donita Luddington]

Will check this weekend! Thanks Mark - you were one of the more helpful human beings out there. Much appreciated!

[---MIKE---]

Now that it is fixed, consider trying to prevent a recurrence. Add a conditioner with your next refill, have a NEW filter installed as well as a new nozzle.

---MIKE---

[Paul Flansburg]

One thing, nozzles are very sensitive and fraggle. Just cleaning it will not solve the problem, completely. You need to look at all the filters, tank and pump, to make sure they are not clogging up OR clogged. I would have changed the nozzle instead of cleaning it. If your burner is clogging up with that much dirt, dust, hair,....and so forth you should have some one come in and break it down and vac it out completely. Then I would look at the overall enviroment that the burner is subjected to to keep the build up at a minimum. I once cleaned a burner/boiler in a house were the guy used the room as a wood working shop......What a mess!! I convinced the guy to close off the burner room by moving around his tools to keep things a little cleaner. Now he's down to maintanence once a year. It still pays to have a technician come in and inspect/clean/repair your burner at least once a year!!!