I have an oil furnace with an oil hot water heater. It has shut off 4 times in the last week in spite of there being over 100 gallons of oil in the tank. All I've had to do is to click a switch on its electrical box and it comes back on.
Other than someone hitting the emergency shutoff switch, what should I be looking for?
Dick
You should be looking at what that reset switch senses.
Probably the eye is dirty or the nozzle is plugging up...Have your furnace guy come and give it a good cleaning and replace the nozzle...About 70-100 bucks and I bet it will run like a champ again...You can DIY if you have the know how and an old shop vac that you don't care about..Not that hard depending on make...A breeze with my old American Standard with Beckett Burner....Good luck....
I had this problem for a while. How old is your furnace? In my case, the control box on my Carrier had an actual mechanical relay (that was what the red button reset) and I eventually concluded it was the relay that was the problem. It woudln't stay reset, in fact sometimes the relay chattered when I pushed the button.. I couldn't find a relay just like it, with a reset option, a button on top that the red button pushed, so I was going to use one like it that didn't fit on the circuit board, and make a new "red button". But before I got around to doing that, the thing started working again, and it's been about 8 years since then! I can't believe it myself. Every year I'm amazed that it runs.
I don't know how this helps you, but do you have a mechanical relay that gets reset when you push the button?
Those sound likely too, and getting a pro-cleaning sounds good too.
I watched what he did, 3 or 4 different times, and asked questions, and eventually found instructions on the web that cost about 2 or 3 dollars to download, and I found a furnace cleaning company that actually had a parts desk. I buy the new nozzles 4 at a time, so I won't look like a total non-pro, and because in at least half of Baltimore, there was no place else that actually sold retail. Although actually they were very nice to me, and never told me to buy more than one. I think it was very cold and I had no heat the first time I was there, so I must have seemed pitiful.
In my case, I ended up buying a new Shop-Vac, because the old small one I had wouldn't accept fine-particle filters, and the regular filters aren't recommended for soot. But I was able to do it the first time without getting the shop-vac dirty, except maybe the inside of the hose and plastic pipe, but that part looked ok. All the dirt went in the bag. Almost everyone except Home Depot sells Shop-Vac, whether they call it that or not. Sears, Lowes, and the best value seemed to be Pep-Boys which had a big one that was only 10 dollars more than a smaller one somewhere else. But anytyhing that takes the fine-particle filters woudl be fine.
Have you watched the pros do it at least once. One time the big pipe from the furnace to the chimney was practically full of soot. That was the time the CO detector went off. Of course new furnaces don't have such big flues, I hear.
If 100 galons is your qualifying answer and you dont know how to check a circuit, get out the yellow pages and your checkbook, becase it could be alot of things. But the other day my screw in fuse and a few connections were bad on my main control relay.
If its a reset switch, it could be the photo flame sensor is sensing there is no flame. It could be dirty as the other poster said.
Remember...you don't need to heat hot water! ; )
Most likely the eye isnt sensing flame. Dirty, not igniting, etc. Cleaning and or replacing the nozzle, oil filter is only one small part of the job. Do yourself a favor. Find a good oil servicing company that uses digital combustion efficiency equipment. You might be suprised at the fuel savings and cleanliness of your system after it is serviced and adjustecd PROPERLY. Bubba
My furnace turns off every once in a while. I can restart it by hitting the reset. But when it turns off, there is also some water that is on the floor under the furnace. What is the water telling me.
Dennis
Im guessing that its telling you that water is wet when its on the floor.
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