Oil burner problems??

[jdj]

Last fall I converted our 3x10 drop flue evap. from wood to fuel oil. I brought my wood front to Leader, they copied it and made me a new oil front. I bought a new 601 carlin burner(7.5 nozzle). Yesterday we did a test boil. I had a furnace man here becuase I know practically nothing about oil burners. Here is our problem(s):

In order to get a clean efficient burn the cap on the front of the arch(flame sight tube) has to be left off. We could get a good clean efficient burn by adjusting the air flow on the oil burner to way more air than the book suggests but the problem with this is when would start the burner it would literally lift the syrup pan off the arch. One time it lifted the pan enough to blow the gasket off the arch rail on one side! I certainaly don't want this to happen evertime I flip the switch to light the burner.

We tested the draft while the burner was running and it was between 5-6. My stack temp was around 600. I will say the boil we had was great. The pans were boiling from the front of the syrup pan to the back of the flue pan.

I placed a call into Mike Emerson at Leader(oil burner tech) but haven't heard back from him. If any of you guys out there that use oil have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them. Thanks.

Jason

[treehugger]

Is this the burner that leader recomends? where are you testing draft and is it negative or positive. Is the head setting adjustable or fixed. what is the pump pressure and how cold is the fuel and did u try a different nozzle. I would try a HAGO nozzle if you can find them around there.

[sapman]

Jason, I've had this problem before. Hard to really say what fixed it. I had an expert in to look at it, and he got it fixed up good. The main problem I had though to start, was that the burner says it's set for 150 psi, but was only at 100. That meant all the #s were off. So we got that set.

I'm sure you tried adjusting the retention ring. I wonder if you need to go to a smaller nozzle for now.

Good luck,
Tim

[Haynes Forest Products]

My Beckett at times fails to ignite as quick as it should and that is when things get dicy. Will blow the insulation out and sound like a small handgrenade was thrown in the arch. Could it be that its getting to much air at start up. Is it a LOW-HIGH fire unit and its starting on high fire.

[jdj]

Is this the burner that leader recomends? where are you testing draft and is it negative or positive. Is the head setting adjustable or fixed. what is the pump pressure and how cold is the fuel and did u try a different nozzle. I would try a HAGO nozzle if you can find them around there.

I bought the burner and nozzles from Leader. What I got is what they told me I needed. The draft was tested at the front of the arch(sight tube) and in the stack. I believe it was positive, not 100% sure though. The pump pressure was about 155 psi, book says it should be 150psi. We tried two different nozzles, both were new. The fuel is cold, whatever the temp was yesterday is probably how cold the fuel was, 20 deg?? The head setting, not sure what this is? There are tow adjustable settings on the burner, one for air and one for fuel. The guy fiddled around with both?

[jdj]

My Beckett at times fails to ignite as quick as it should and that is when things get dicy. Will blow the insulation out and sound like a small handgrenade was thrown in the arch. Could it be that its getting to much air at start up. Is it a LOW-HIGH fire unit and its starting on high fire.

Haynes,

If you adjust the air setting on the burner to make the burner burn "clean" it IS getting to much air on start up, causing the explosion. It is not a LOW-HIGH fire unit. It is a Carlin 601 CRD 6-13.2 GPH.

[Buffalo Creek Sugar Camp]

It may be a little inconvienent but you may have to write down your air settings for the burner and before start up, give the burner less air untill it fires, then once its burning, open the air up to burn clean. Or like already had been said, use smaller nozzles.

[JoeJ]

jdj,
I have a 1993 3x10 Leader oil fired evaporator (Carlin 601 original equipment, 7.5 nozzle) that I have used for six years. My start up sounds like the exact same thing yours did, lift the syrup pan and blow out the insulation. It still does it even after burner service. So conveniently, I have a 4x6 beam over the pan that I slide a board between the pan and the beam to hold down the pan when I turn the burner on. Not too scientific, but so far it is the only solution I have been able to find.

Joe

[treehugger]

The answer isnt always to use a smaller nozzle at least not when yous talking about home heating equip, But in your case it might be. If you have a 7.5 noz at 150 psi its firing at about 10 gph whcih could be to much for your equip.Does it delay on ignition....burner starts but doesnt fire for a second or two, if not adjust the head setting back to put more air behind the fire...carlins are sort of known for that problem.

[Haynes Forest Products]

These units are ment to be turned on and off with a thermostat so I think you should get it right. I run about 3.5 on my 3X10 I think your overdoing it with 7+ What is your cumbustion chamber like?

[maplecrest]

on the leader evap i had i had to leave the site tube open for a clean burn. i did not have carlin but lynn burners and i had to add covers over the air in take to tone down the air intake to the burners. also if your gun does not ignite right away and oil "pools" at the end of the gun, when it does ignite that is where you get your pan lifting. try bumping the gun with the switch.you will have to play with it but you will learn to start with out the lifting the pan

[KenWP]

How much syrup a hour can the evaporator make. The ratio should be around 3 to 1 oil to syrup. I used to use a 10 foot long incinerator with 3 gallons a hour burn rate and the thing glowed red and it was made out of 1/2 inch plate steel 4 foot in diameter.
I would check is the ignitors fireing before the oil comes on. They should fire then the pump shoots oil.

[treehugger]

As an oil burner tech i have a lot more to say but dont want to bore anyone, after all these arches are large and wont plugged up to fast if burning black. with out certain specifics i cant diagnos the problem......I wil be firing a beckett burner into a 55 gal drum the long way at about 1 gph...my rookie year

[jdj]

First off, thanks to all that replied to try to help me. Leader's tech is coming over on Thursday. Hopefully things will be working well when he gets done. I know it won't be cheap to have there tech come to my place but sometimes ya just gotta bite the bullet. I don't want to be running into problems when I get sap, especially problems I could have prevented. I will let you guys know how things go.