Burner kicks on too much during a heating cycle....need advice

JayBird

Yesterday my furnace backfired with such force it blew the flapper valve off the flu and struck a wall about 12 feet away. Tech came out and basically said the unit failed to ignite causing oil to build up and when it finally lit ....KABOOM! it sounded like a shotgun went off.
He replaced the nozzle and adjusted the electrodes. He also said the burner is kicking on to much during a heating cycle. I'm new to oil furnaces so I don't know much about them. The little research I've done, sounds like the burner should kick on first thing, warm up then the fan comes on blowing the warm air through the house. Well, the burner will come on every one or two minutes during a heating cycle. Is this normal? Should I have a tech come back out? Any advice would be appreciated.

Sammy

Did the Tech say WHY it was kicking on too much during the cycle and did he suggest any corrective action?

If he didnt I would at least call them back and see what they suggest..

12 feet is a long way for that thing to fly.

My parents had oil/hot water heat and always had the company out once a year for PM.

JayBird

The tech mentioned maybe improper air flow and said he would have is boss evaluate the duct work. I've haven't received a call back. He said the system is reaching its *high limit* thus causing the burner to kick on. My thing is he sure didn't look into anything further to try and find out what might be causing it. He blamed a dirty nozzle and incorrect electrode spacing is what caused the unit not to ignite causing oil build up...... and then when it did light .....BOOM!

Sammy

I would make sure to call them back for the follow up and corrective action then. What he did MAY make the problem less dangerous but it sounds like it needs more attention to me.

scorrpio

Had something similar during first winter in our recently bought house, oil burner on an ancient boiler cutting in and out, burner blower slamming the flue every time with a bang, and releasing a cloud of acrid smoke and soot into the basement, from where it spread elsewhere. Took 3 visits (thankfully all covered by maintenance contract) of cleaning the burner, replacing filters, etc etc to get it into some semblance of working - though we'd get an acrid whiff every time the thing kicked on.

I permanently solved the problem following summer by ripping the whole thing out, getting gas hooked up, and installing a new high-efficiency condensing gas boiler. It is compact, silent, no smells, no noisy truck coming to pump oil every few weeks, and bills are about one third of what they used to be.