Oil Burner Guide

Brands of Oil Burners

You may find this surprising but there is not much competition.

I begin to think about this today because I have been seeing a lot of comments on sites and forums of people asking about the best brand of oil burner they can buy.

Okay- let me give you the answer to that.  Its Beckett.

And, no, they are not paying me to say that.  They don’t have to.  If Beckett has competition in the oil burner market then its a total secret.  Sure you have other companies like Weil Mclain that makes oil boilers and heating systems but they all come stocked with Beckett oil burners inside them.

That statement might not be totally fair.  There are three more manufacturers.  They are Wayne Home Equipment, Arco, and Carlin.  But they are so behind the top spot, as far as market share goes, they are barely worth mentioning.

Wayne Home Equipment might be the closest out of the three.  You will see the others pop up from time to time but for every ten houses that have oil burners I have found eight or nine of them have a Beckett AFG.

Here is a company that is in total control of their marketplace and they seem to do a fairly good job of keeping it that way.  They have a good track record and make quality products so I do not see anyone really complaining about it.

Its just funny, because this is such a common item, and you would think there would be even more companies making it and the competition being a lot more fierce.

I can tell you another thing.  They are going to have some good years ahead.  There is a good chance New York City buildings are going to be required to change out their aging boilers because of pollution concerns.  Its not a law yet but officials in the city have promised to introduce regulations over the next year to phase certain types of boilers that run on certain types of heating oil and its had the backing of Mayor Bloomberg.  That city has thousands of upon thousands of buildings and guess what type of oil burners is in all those boilers.  Hum?

Maintenance

I asked a friend who owns a heating repair company what is a common mistake that most homeowners make as far as maintenance of their oil burners (the heart of the heating system).

He said that the a good portion of the problems people encounter could be avoided if they did two things.

1. Had their oil burners cleaned on a more regular basis
2. Did a better job of changing the fuel filters (which filter out dirt and moisture)

Like I have said before you also want to change out the nozzles at least once a year.  They are not that expensive and get clogged easily.  I got into an argument with a furnace technician because he said a nozzle can last years.

I told him that may be so but for everyone that does there are ten that do not so why take the chance.  I have seen them for as low as $5.00.  Get them changed out on a regular basis.  Its really not that hard or expensive.

Was doing some research online and found this great article on the Massachusetts Public Safety website outlining some very good practical advice for homeowners getting their oil burner serviced.  It outlines several questions to ask the service technician as well as making sure he does his job correctly.

The majority of the heating service technicians are honest people who are not looking to rip anyone off but mistakes and items overlooked can be potentially costly for you.  In light of this I think its always a wise plan of action to at least have an idea of what they should be doing to ensure at least some measure of checks and balances.

Waste Oil Burners

I wanted to end this post by talking about waste oil heaters.  I started this blog about them but found out what when the majority of people were looking up the term “oil burner” they were not looking for information about the kind that run off waste oil.

This technology sort of a real niche-oriented thing.  More business should have them.  Especially the ones that generate any medium to large quantity of waste motor oil.

I got an waste oil boiler for my shop because that is the system my garage and home was running on.  Most large garages will actually a forced air set-up to heat their structure so they will be more interested in waste oil furnace heaters.

No matter which kind you get, be it a boiler or a furnace, you must  come up with a system to filter the oil.  I used to pass all my oil through several different types of 20-20 micron filters but they would always clog up and a couple times a had some light to medium spills.

Now I employee a WVO waste oil centrifuge and it does a marvelous job at filtering my oil before it goes into my holding tank.  It gets everything, including all the moisture, completely out.  The oil going through my nozzle is almost as clean as when it was brand new out the bottle.

It is precisely because I am so strict on the filtering process that I have not had any, not even one, problem with my heating system.  I have never had to get my boiler repaired because I get it checked out and cleaned yearly and I make sure everything that goes into it is as clean as I can get it.

As Always, Hope this Helps

Wesley