Calling all oil fired furnace EXPERTS

MatthewBrum · 05-08-2009, 04:10 AM

So my friend want to buy this big house here in CT thats been foreclosed on. It's a new construction where a it only had tenants living in it for a little under a year.

So I go to fire up the furnace and I notice the house has no chimney. The furnace exhaust goes up about 4' from the furnace makes a 90-deg where there is a motor with a fan that sends the exhaust out of the house about 2' above outside ground level.

When I opened the furnace up I could tell it was running extremely rich and was abnormally dirty. I look at the air opening on the burner and see that it is almost completely shut-off.

So I fire the burner up and flames shoot out of the inspection cover. I cleaned the furnace and still the same thing. It seems like the fan in the exhaust can not properly exhaust the furnace and that why they were running it so rich.

Does any body have any experience with this?

Buckterrier · 05-08-2009, 04:15 AM

Hey Mathew,
I have one of those. The name skips me right now. Basically it's a cheap way for the contractor to 'plumb' the furnace. My brother tell me they don't last long. My house was new when I purchased it and it's been 6 years. So far so good. If no one else chimes in I'll get the name and post. And yes it smells like a damn car exhaust!
You should join our east coast group for some runs this summer.

Rich76_911s · Rich76_911s's Garage

I doubt this will help, but I figured I would share it with you. I had a problem with an oil burning furnace this winter. Noticable symptoms in the house were smell of exhaust, and a very hot chimney. Upon inspection we had a very dirty sensor inside the furnace and flames out the inspection cover. The inspectors first thought was a clogged chimney. But it turned out to be a hole had been burnt through the heat exchanger.

Rich

MatthewBrum · 05-08-2009, 05:33 AM

Mark,

Do you have a gas or oil furnace? I'm just surprised that a system like this would work with all that soot from the oil. I am going to join the east coast group soon and hopefully go for some runs this summer.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

There is an easy fix. You want to run an external flue pipe up the side of the house. You start with a T. The middle connects to the furnace. Run about 2 feet of pipe below the T (Put a screen/leaf guard on the bottom) and then run the flue up the side of the house. Put a vented cover at the top.

Once the furnace kicks on, it will heat the flue and create a draft. The open bottom of the flue pipe is so that the flue will not pull heat out of the house after it shuts down. If you can, setup the furnace to draw air from outside the house. Again, cover any openings to prevent injestion of leaves or small animals.

MatthewBrum · 05-08-2009, 06:50 AM

This being a 400+k house I don't think my friend would want to add a stainless pipe along the side of the house. Although I agree it may be the only correct solution for this problem. It just seems like the contractor "cheaped out" by not building a chimney in the house.

I'm just trying to see of the original design will work or if it flawed. Right now I'm guessing a design flaw. Does anyone know if it is OK to have a draft fan in the exhaust of an oil fired furnace?

Buckterrier · 05-08-2009, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewBrum

Mark,

Do you have a gas or oil furnace? I'm just surprised that a system like this would work with all that soot from the oil. I am going to join the east coast group soon and hopefully go for some runs this summer.

My heat is oil. It's called a Power vent.

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

There is an easy fix. You want to run an external flue pipe up the side of the house. You start with a T. The middle connects to the furnace. Run about 2 feet of pipe below the T (Put a screen/leaf guard on the bottom) and then run the flue up the side of the house. Put a vented cover at the top.

Once the furnace kicks on, it will heat the flue and create a draft. The open bottom of the flue pipe is so that the flue will not pull heat out of the house after it shuts down. If you can, setup the furnace to draw air from outside the house. Again, cover any openings to prevent injestion of leaves or small animals.

Red-Beard, would your suggestion work on this set-up?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewBrum

It just seems like the contractor "cheaped out" by not building a chimney in the house.

Isn't that the American way? It's only a $400,000.000 home

MatthewBrum · 05-08-2009, 10:01 AM

Hey that's it!! thanks for the pics. I'm going to assume that the fan must be full of soot or something because when I was trying to start the furnace 1) the Power Vent runs for about 30 seconds 2) then the burner motor kicks on with no fuel 3) the fuel selenoid opens and the furnace fires 4) FLAMES SHOOT OUT OF THE INSPECTION COVER smoke starts escaping from the furnace into the basement.

Buckterrier · 05-08-2009, 01:24 PM

Good luck with it. Let's hope it hasn't gone bad already.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

My heat is oil. It's called a Power vent.

Red-Beard, would your suggestion work on this set-up?

Isn't that the American way? It's only a $400,000.000 home

Definitely. I would start just above the balance vent use an elbow and run the round pipe straight out of the building. Once outside, you just have move of the 4" vent pipe that runs vertically up. Again, you want a T once you exit the wall, the middle runs to the furnace and then vent running up the side of the house. My retro-fitted furnace in my 1820 farm house was setup this way.

Buckterrier · 05-08-2009, 03:55 PM

Thanks Red-Beard, will try it. Isn't this board amazing?!

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buckterrier

Thanks Red-Beard, will try it. Isn't this board amazing?!

The only thing I will say is...be careful of which experts you listen...me included.

And to get this transferred to PARF...don't use SWEPCO...

ruf-porsche · ruf-porsche's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by MatthewBrum

This being a 400+k house I don't think my friend would want to add a stainless pipe along the side of the house. Although I agree it may be the only correct solution for this problem. It just seems like the contractor "cheaped out" by not building a chimney in the house.

I'm just trying to see of the original design will work or if it flawed. Right now I'm guessing a design flaw. Does anyone know if it is OK to have a draft fan in the exhaust of an oil fired furnace?

If you received an occupancy permit from the building dept. then it is not a design flaw. After all they should have inspected the house before issuing the permit.