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Jan. 3rd, 2007 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickToday I lost again at the exciting game of fixing the furnace. There should be a simulation, a video game, where you get the tools and the furnace and fuel line and the fuse box and all the appropriate noises so that you can practice troubleshooting all the things that can go wrong with a heating system. Instead of a simulation, I practice on real furnaces. They've got a real good win percentage at the moment. I'd better start winning soon...
Y'know, I should probably add "oil furnaces" to my list of lj interests. 321, little house in the back. They'd just refilled the oil and it wouldn't run. I went to go look at it. It was informative and showed some useful shortcomings of my current furnace-fixing flowchart. (This is known as looking on the bright side. A more realistic assessment of the thing would be I got to look like an idiot while smelling like fuel oil, but that doesn't much put the happy face on.)
Troubleshooting the non-functioning oil furnace.
1. Push the reset button. Does stuff happen? If yes, proceed to step 2. If no, proceed to subchart A, which covers stuff like determining if there is electric to the furnace, determining if the control box is working, and determining if the thermostat is working.
2. Bleed the fuel line. Lots. Fuel should be thick and red and not-foamy-or-squirty. Are you sure that you bled it enough? Because maybe the filter is gummed up and you're not getting enough fuel through it. However, since you are incapable of determining when is enough, you can proceed without success through some four more steps wherein you get to use tools and smell like fuel oil before you get to doing anything about actually fixing the fucking problem. It's the fuel, stupid. It's the fuel. This is a recurring issue in your furnace troubleshooting. Fuel. Furnace needs fuel. Asshat.
3. Try hitting the reset button again. If still no dice, check transformer.
4. Flip up transformer box and lay screwdriver-for-prying over terminals. Draw out spark (DANGER! DO NOT TOUCH!!). If there is a good spark, this is probably okay.
5. If the fuel was recently filled, the nozzle might be jacked up, particularly if you notice lots of blue five-gallon diesel containers about the place. Replace the nozzle -- they have three parts that you need to match. Degrees (like 80) and gph (like .85) and a letter (like A or W). All three things have to match and they're usually engraved on the old nozzle. Sometimes they are written on the furnace.
6. Put in new nozzle, reassemble furnace, attempt to restart. If there's still no dice, we need to move onward.
(Now we're to the stuff that I didn't have before today.)
7. Possibly the fuel filter is fucked up. Fuel filters are different kinds, written on the fuel filter lid. Buy the right kind and you need a thing to put underneath so that there is not fuel all over the damn place. TURN OFF FUEL LINE FROM TANK FIRST!! Yes, we change all the fuel filters in August. It does not take long at five gallons per dumping-in, to stir up all the cruft on the bottom of the fuel tank so that it fucks up the filter. Generally it's not a bad idea to change the filter and the nozzle at the same time anyway.
Y'know, I should probably add "oil furnaces" to my list of lj interests. 321, little house in the back. They'd just refilled the oil and it wouldn't run. I went to go look at it. It was informative and showed some useful shortcomings of my current furnace-fixing flowchart. (This is known as looking on the bright side. A more realistic assessment of the thing would be I got to look like an idiot while smelling like fuel oil, but that doesn't much put the happy face on.)
Troubleshooting the non-functioning oil furnace.
1. Push the reset button. Does stuff happen? If yes, proceed to step 2. If no, proceed to subchart A, which covers stuff like determining if there is electric to the furnace, determining if the control box is working, and determining if the thermostat is working.
2. Bleed the fuel line. Lots. Fuel should be thick and red and not-foamy-or-squirty. Are you sure that you bled it enough? Because maybe the filter is gummed up and you're not getting enough fuel through it. However, since you are incapable of determining when is enough, you can proceed without success through some four more steps wherein you get to use tools and smell like fuel oil before you get to doing anything about actually fixing the fucking problem. It's the fuel, stupid. It's the fuel. This is a recurring issue in your furnace troubleshooting. Fuel. Furnace needs fuel. Asshat.
3. Try hitting the reset button again. If still no dice, check transformer.
4. Flip up transformer box and lay screwdriver-for-prying over terminals. Draw out spark (DANGER! DO NOT TOUCH!!). If there is a good spark, this is probably okay.
5. If the fuel was recently filled, the nozzle might be jacked up, particularly if you notice lots of blue five-gallon diesel containers about the place. Replace the nozzle -- they have three parts that you need to match. Degrees (like 80) and gph (like .85) and a letter (like A or W). All three things have to match and they're usually engraved on the old nozzle. Sometimes they are written on the furnace.
6. Put in new nozzle, reassemble furnace, attempt to restart. If there's still no dice, we need to move onward.
(Now we're to the stuff that I didn't have before today.)
7. Possibly the fuel filter is fucked up. Fuel filters are different kinds, written on the fuel filter lid. Buy the right kind and you need a thing to put underneath so that there is not fuel all over the damn place. TURN OFF FUEL LINE FROM TANK FIRST!! Yes, we change all the fuel filters in August. It does not take long at five gallons per dumping-in, to stir up all the cruft on the bottom of the fuel tank so that it fucks up the filter. Generally it's not a bad idea to change the filter and the nozzle at the same time anyway.
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Date: 2007-01-04 04:25 pm (UTC)did you find out what the problem was?
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Date: 2007-01-04 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 11:01 pm (UTC)In this case, the tenants themselves, armed with the aforementioned blue five-gallon diesel containers hied themselves to the nearest petroleum-products vendor (aka 'the gas station'), purchased themselves a small quantity of red-tinted off-road diesel fuel, schlepped it back to their fuel oil tank in the required-by-law blue diesel containers, and poured the off-road diesel into the fill opening of the oil tank by standing on tippy-toe, hoisting the five-gallon blue plastic container full of fuel oil (weighing about forty pounds) to shoulder height, and pouring it into the tank without a funnel. They slopped about a quart of the stuff over the side of the tank in the process. I suggested the home-improvement project (it's an in-the-basement fuel oil tank) of building a plastic funnel from an empty fabric softener container (well-rinsed) so's to avoid the spilling problem in the future. I also mentioned that standing on a chair would make the lifting-and-pouring easier.
Red-tinted off-road (or "farm use") diesel fuel is sold by the gallon at some gas stations, just like gasoline and regular diesel fuel. It's tinted red because it's taxed less (and therefore costs less) than regular diesel fuel... and there are big mojo fines for putting it in on-the-road diesel vehicles like semi trucks. (The red dye does not come out of engines but it does not otherwise hurt them.) At any rate, the red off-road diesel fuel is essentially identical to "fuel oil" except for being red.
More information on the utterly fascinating subject of diesel fuel, home heating oil, and red off-road diesel can be found here (http://www.survivalblog.com/2006/12/letter_re_can_i_burn_off_road.html).