Oil Furnace Troubleshooting

Be it industrial equipment or home appliances, maintaining, repairing, and if the need arises, replacing them is necessary to serve the purpose efficiently and safely. An oil furnace is a heating device which is used to heat up oil.

Oil furnaces usually serve for a long time without causing much trouble. However, continued use and irregular oil furnace maintenance can result in problems in its working and overall mechanism.

The best way to avoid this is having the knowledge of oil furnace troubleshooting! It would help you know what are the basic problems involved in using oil furnaces, and also how to troubleshoot them. Our discussion intends to acquaint you with the basic oil furnace troubleshooting tips. Have a look...

An oil furnace is just like any other machine, so it is bound to have working problems if not used well and maintained properly from time to time. The following are some common problems encountered by an oil furnace, and also the basic solutions for them.

Go for troubleshooting only if you are well versed with all the parts of the oil furnace, if not, just leave it to a professional to avoid more complications.

The most common of all the problems in an oil furnace is that of the repeated turn on and turn off. In such cases, probably the blower is contaminated and clogged, or might be the air and oil filters have accumulated dust in them.

Sometimes, the blower or the motor might also need proper lubrication. Most of these problems can be solved by cleaning and lubricating the respective parts properly.

Many times, the furnace stops working. If absence of fuel is the reason behind this, then refill the tank with adequate fuel, or in case of power failure, you need to inspect the circuit breakers and the fuse.

Some more common causes for this problem are blocking of the fuel line and excessive load on the motor. To repair the blocking of fuel lines, you need to clean the oil pump strainer and the oil filter, and if overload is the cause, then shut down the machine for about 30 - 45 minutes and then start it once again.

Sometimes the burner might be at fault, as it doesn't run, or this problem can also be addressed as lack of sufficient heat. The reasons for this are, incorrect thermostat settings, clogging of blower, and air filter and burner contaminated.

The solutions for these problems are to set the thermostat to 5 degrees more than the usual temperature, and clean the blower, air filter, and burner to remove contaminated particles.

The oil furnace sometimes becomes quite noisy. This is actually a problem that needs to be investigated in detail. The main causes behind this are lack of motor lubrication, contaminated burner, loose access panels or damaged belts.

Lubricating the motor, cleaning the burner, tightening the access panels properly, and replacing the damaged belts are some of the preliminary solutions to get rid of this condition.

On a few occasions the blower gets out of control. In this case, either the limit switch is set incorrectly or the blower control settings are incorrect. The only solution to these problems is to reset both the settings, and then again set them according to the manufacturer's specifications.

Sometimes when the furnace does not start, you notice the fan won't work even if you switch it from 'auto' to 'on'. At such times, check the fuse or the breaker of the furnace. If either the fuse has blown or the breaker has tripped, check if there is any damage to the wiring.

If everything seems okay, reset the breaker after checking the fan control, thermostat, and blower motor. Do not forget to put the fan back onto 'auto' mode for further use.

Oil furnace repair is actually quite an easy job, provided you know the parts well. However, if you are not confident enough and also if the problems are not resolved, contact a professional and get the problem sorted out.

Given information helps you understand the common problems and solutions regarding oil furnaces, so that you can troubleshoot any problem your machine faces as and when required.