Cleaning Your Oil Furnace
Oil furnaces require more maintenance than other types of furnace such as gas. Your oil furnace will last much longer if you take car to look after it properly. The life expectancy of your furnace will be prolonged if you clean it each and every year. Although it is not difficult to do it can be quite messy.
The first thing to do is to disconnect the power supply. The burner assembly which is located next to the electrodes should be removed next. Every model is different and you should follow instructions in your manual. The next thing to do is to replace the nozzle with a new one making sure that the spray pattern is still the same.
Any oil or soot can then be removed from the assembly by giving it a complete wipe down. You will need to replace any insulators of the electrodes if you find any erosion or cracks, when you inspect them. Before inspecting the electrodes though, you should firstly gap and position them. You will need a special tool to do this as doing it without it could result in fires or an explosion if they are not gapped correctly.
Other items which need to be wiped free of oil and soot are the cage on the combustion blower, transformer, air passages, electrodes on the transformer and the oil pump. You can restart the furnace again once you have put it all back together. It should start instantaneously and very quietly
Making sure your oil furnace is cleaned regularly can help it to last longer but it is very important that it is done right. If you want to do it yourself you will find instructions on how to carry out this job in your instruction manual. If you are at all worried that you will not be able to do this right, you can hire a professional to come and service and clean your furnace annually.
Some people spend a lot of money heating their homes in the winter. Gas and electricity are very expensive today, with no signs of prices coming down. Many individuals are now changing over to cheaper home heating oil though. After the changeover they have to make sure that the storage tanks are always full of Boilerjuice ensuring they can always heat their home in winter.
