[blueyesj39]

Hello out there in DIY land, I'm very new to this stuff, but I figure we're all going to die sometime and if I'm meant to die because of my stupid furnace blowing up, then it's Gods will anyway so...here goes....

I live in a 1973 Fleetwood mobile home that has the original Miller Furnace in it (not sure of model, but here are a few model # I found on it: MC-8 Gas Burner, MOC-80 .60 GPH oil burner nozzle, MGC-80), but a new gun, a Becket that only had as a model "AFG" and Oil Burner# P1-100001, that was installed after I moved in to repace the original that came with the unit in 73.

Problems have contantly occured with this thing while I relied upon Montour Oil to service it (live in PA), well, after getting a different service tech, who *****ed about why they did this or that when it would stop working again, we kind of got most problems worked out...until recently.

My furnace will do 1 of 2 things, it will either have (ex-Army) back blast that blasts out through the little port window thingy and blow the door open, thus through this explosion deactivate the heater, or it will run, then stop before hitting the right temp, then come on again before doing it again.

Replaced nozzle already, but I'm getting tired of calling the tech guy, and figured I may save money by learning the small fixes and leave the truly big stuff for my tech to knock out. I want heat in my house, and the problems with this thing have been going on far too long now and want them knocked out once and for all aside from yearly cleaning and servicing. I uses a mixture of heating oil and kero to keep the oil from gelling (which it did last year and I don't want a repeat).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[beenthere]

Could be several things.

I'm guessing your yearly cleaning they did. Consisted of nozzle change, clean or replace air filter.
Change oil filter if there is one. Fire it up, and tell you its working good.

Someone should check the over fire draft.
Yours is old enough that it should have had the chamber pulled at least once already, and a real cleaning done to it.
It should also have an ignition transformer test done.
The test should be done with the ignition transformer under load.

 

[blueyesj39]

Fun with Furnaces Guy

Yeah, first winter I was here, it would not stay running and so the old techs I used removed the gun, broke out the shop vac and was astonished; the burn chamber had NEVER been cleaned, this was 2005 when it was done to a 1973 furnace that never had it cleaned before. Needless to say, over an hour later it was done. The chamber was finally choked full of soot and would not light, until it was fully cleaned.

 

[COLDIRON]

Wallet time

Hello out there in DIY land, I'm very new to this stuff, but I figure we're all going to die sometime and if I'm meant to die because of my stupid furnace blowing up, then it's Gods will anyway so...here goes....

I live in a 1973 Fleetwood mobile home that has the original Miller Furnace in it (not sure of model, but here are a few model # I found on it: MC-8 Gas Burner, MOC-80 .60 GPH oil burner nozzle, MGC-80), but a new gun, a Becket that only had as a model "AFG" and Oil Burner# P1-100001, that was installed after I moved in to repace the original that came with the unit in 73.

Problems have contantly occured with this thing while I relied upon Montour Oil to service it (live in PA), well, after getting a different service tech, who *****ed about why they did this or that when it would stop working again, we kind of got most problems worked out...until recently.

My furnace will do 1 of 2 things, it will either have (ex-Army) back blast that blasts out through the little port window thingy and blow the door open, thus through this explosion deactivate the heater, or it will run, then stop before hitting the right temp, then come on again before doing it again.

Replaced nozzle already, but I'm getting tired of calling the tech guy, and figured I may save money by learning the small fixes and leave the truly big stuff for my tech to knock out. I want heat in my house, and the problems with this thing have been going on far too long now and want them knocked out once and for all aside from yearly cleaning and servicing. I uses a mixture of heating oil and kero to keep the oil from gelling (which it did last year and I don't want a repeat).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Blue Eyes I know the economy is bad right now but I think you should really consider a new High EFF heater the one you refer to is approx 36 years old and you would probably make up the cost in a short time, plus a rebate.

 

[beenthere]

Yeah, first winter I was here, it would not stay running and so the old techs I used removed the gun, broke out the shop vac and was astonished; the burn chamber had NEVER been cleaned, this was 2005 when it was done to a 1973 furnace that never had it cleaned before. Needless to say, over an hour later it was done. The chamber was finally choked full of soot and would not light, until it was fully cleaned.

In order to do a full cleaning of that furnace.

The combustion chamber must be removed.

The front jacket has to be removed to do this. Along with the furnaces burner mounting plate.

There are a few other things they probably missed also.

 

[blueyesj39]

The burn chamber, gun, and all the parts that compose that part of the furnace were disassembled as it was cleaned, the majority of which of course had to wait until all the soot was removed from the burn chamber, but once that was done there were a pile cleaned parts in my hall by the furnace or in the living room, waiting to be put back together again. After that was accomplished, the tech did the same to the gun and it's components before replacing air and oil filters and other parts that had to be replaced before reassembling it back into a furnace before checking the heater fan (was replaced in 2007 with a new one). The gun (a model year Beckett Model AFG came right out of a box I saw) replaced the original in 2006, after which I was informed that other than the gun and fan motor, a furnace can last a very long time as long as they don't develop holes etc. Don't know if this is strictly true or not, but my new tech led me to the belief that he believed that statement.

 

[beenthere]

So they replaced the combustion chamber too.
And pulled the flue pipe?

 

[COLDIRON]

Heater

Look Beckett makes a good product and I am sure everything was installed OK according to you , however when I go back to the beginning of the question I hear frustration and aggravation because of this heater.

To alleviate all the problems sometimes we have to just replace the whole system things don't last forever not even us.
So my advise would be to just replace the heater with a new high efficiency one with a rebate that way you have warranty, money back, comfort, less fuel cost, less aggravation.

 

[yuri]

Is there such a thing as a high efficiency oil furnace for a mobile home? Special low clearance furnaces for mobile homes. I would agree new is a good idea as an oil furnace heat exchanger can crack and they can also produce CO Carbon Monoxide.

 

[beenthere]

Not super high.

A new one will get about the same, maybe a % or 2 better efficiency.
nothing to write home about.