My 30-yr old Van Wert oil furnace is intermittantly leaking a stream of VERY rusty water (2-3 quarts) across the utility room floor. This leak doesn't seem related to the circulator pumps or the oil burner's firing. It's happened twice now in 2 weeks. The boiler pressure is fine (it's on automatic refill). I never touch the house thermostat, so that's not triggering it. This spillage is not affecting the heat for the house, but I'm wondering what's wrong? The water seems to be coming out of the right front corner of the furnace unit, at the base.
Could the heating coil inside the boiler be leaking? If so, can the coil simply be replaced, or must I get a whole new furnace? If the coil actually can be replaced, would that be worth it? Are there other internal parts of this furnace that might be ready to also go bad? I'm a 62-yr old woman, and I'm afraid the repairman will play on my ignorance of the mechanics involved here, and insist that a whole new furnace is needed, when in fact, a few hundred dollars of repair work might also provide an effective solution. Would appreciate some advice on this from others who may have dealt with this same problem. Thanks!