Oil Furnace Repair

[Pavel314]

I just got an email from my wife. The repair guy from our oil company came out to do our annual tune-up on the furnace and water heater this morning. She forwarded his ovservation that "we need a new top and new baffles, and he will order it and someone will presumably get in touch with you for an e stimate."

As I recall, the baffles spread out the heat from the burner evenly over th e boiler tubes. Not so sure what the "top" is. Hopefully not the tubes. Any thought on this so that I can be better prepared when they call?

Paul

[Ed Pawlowski]

Let me start with a nit pick. Does this heat air or water? Furnaces heat air, boilers heat water. Using proper terminology helps us to help you.

If the furnace/boiler is in need of expensive parts and it more than 15 year old, it may be best (and actually cheaper) to replace it. A couple of eyars aago I replace my old oill fired boiler with a new System 2000 unit and the savings in oil are more than the cost over time.

There may stillb e rebates and tax cridits available. I was able to get a state funded loan at 0% interest and the savings are greater than the $69 loan payment. What's not to like? Oil use went down 39%. I was hoping for 30% so it is a bonus.

[Pavel314]

ame out to do our annual tune-up on the furnace and water heater this morni ng. She forwarded his ovservation that "we need a new top and new baffles, and he will order it and someone will presumably get in touch with you for an estimate."

r the boiler tubes. Not so sure what the "top" is. Hopefully not the tubes. Any thought on this so that I can be better prepared when they call?

It's a boiler. After 50 years of furnaces, I tend to refer to any big appli ance that heats a whole house as a "furnace." I'll have to check my records but I thought that we got a new one 8-10 years ago.

Paul

[willshak]

You can call it anything you want, even 'Fred', but if you want the correct answers to questions, use the correct terminology. Furnaces heat air. Boilers heat water.

I had my 26 year old boiler replaced last year for a more efficient boiler. I got a Biasi B10 boiler with a Riello 40 burner, I went through the whole winter last year using only 300 gallons of oil. I usually used more than 550 gallons of oil over the winter, requiring a refill. I'm in the NE US.

[RBM]

I would also recommend replacing whatever it is with a good triple pass unit. The Biasi is an excellent choice as is a Buderus. I too saved quite alot of oil in the last two years since my replacement, but I have to admit, the last two years in the NE were pretty mild. We'll see how the oil flows if we get a real freeze.