Sometimes repairing an oil burner can be extremely easy.
Other times it can be highly frustrating.
The basic functionality of oil burners is really basic. And yet, because of a few details, repairing and maintaining your oil burner can be problematic for many.
It makes no difference if you have a Beckett, Wayne Home Equipment, or Carlin oil burner. All brands can be hard to work on.
Start with the nozzle on the oil burner system. This is where a lot of problems begin.
It can become clogged or damaged easily.
If your oil burner is giving your problems and you have not changed out the nozzle in a long time then you should start out by doing just that.
Many times that will be the solution. Perhaps the size of the nozzle was the wrong size. A burner nozzle that is too big can cause an excessive build up of soot.
Are you still having problems?
Check the transformer.
Use extreme caution when doing this!
Is it throwing sparks? How sharp does the light look?
What about the protectorelay? This device could be turning the burner off because it is sensing that the heating oil is not being burned at an acceptable level.
Ok, so the motor is starting up and stopping like it should and the combustion analyzer is showing that the flame is burning great. But you can clearly tell that it is not functioning properly.
So what do you do at this point?
Its time to call a certified boiler or furnace technician out for a service call.
He will have the special tools to properly see what is going on. He can hook a specialized monitor to your oil burner and it will track the component that did not work properly when it was supposed to.
When oil burners fail its oftentimes in intervals and not continuous at all. This drives the most experienced and talented service techs crazy! These guys take pride in not being a parts changer, they want to fix the problem. But sometimes it is just extremely difficult to find that source of the problem in some situations.
Be patient. I would like to remind you that you are not alone if you are in the situation where you cannot figure out the exact cause of the problem with your oil burner.