Oh joy...

We have an Oilmaster Furnace, about 12 years old. We ran out of oil and had some delivered this morning. Fired up the furnace. The fan's blowing to beat the band but the pump that delivers the heating fuel to the actual ignitor doesn't not seem to be working.

There is a small green light blinking every half second which according to the label on this part of the pump means "lockout." I hit the reset button...nothing happened. I held the reset button and the motor kicked on for about 15 seconds then shut down again.

I now can't get it to respond to the reset button at all.

I've bled the lines coming from the fuel tank, there was some light black sediment but very quickly the fuel flowed nicely.

Ideas?

Please and thank you...



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Bill in Dayton

Not sure how it's done, but I had the same thing happen several years ago, and the pump needed to be primed.

The furnace guy did it, and I didn't see how it was done.

Ian

Bill,

I suspect that somewhere in the fuel system, which can be anywhere from the tank's inline, canister filter to the burner nozzle, there is either a clog or an air bubble. Either one can cause this problem. Most of the time you'll need a technician to take care of this, which in this part of the world will cost you about $100 to $150.

Good Luck,

Gary

Best investment I ever made as a homeowner: http://www.ahswarranty.com/

t.

Bill hope you got you oil fired boiler working, I use to be a combustion engineer many years back, sometimes people think the oil runs out and the boiler stops and its not low oil there is a problem with the boiler, if it was no oil when you filled up sediment gets mixed up in the tank and if you try to fire up just after the tank as it is filled it can get into the filter and block it, most times it is air in the system but you must vent it at the burner fuel pump, right on top there is a vent, fit a rubber tube into a tin and let it pump out the air and keep letting the burner go to lockout a few times, then tighten the vent and it should run. Perhaps you already have it running. Some fuel pumps also have a sheer pin inside, this break off if the pump gets clogged up, the pump may appear to be working and turning but the impeller is not turning with the pin broken. Good luck is it very cold there Bill.

Tony

[This message has been edited by Tony Hughes (edited 02-12-2010).]

UPDATE...

Mechanical minded friend from across the street came over and after assessing my furnace explained that I needed to hold the red reset button until the green light blinked at me. (About 20 seconds-I'd been afraid to hold it that long for fear I'd flood the igniter chamber or something). Then, after a few seconds more, the pump kicked on, then died after about 13 seconds. He explained it was a fail safe built into the furnace to keep it from igniting without fuel in the chamber. He said if we repeat this process enough times, the fuel will get sucked into the pump and we'll hear the ignitors kick in. He said 40-50 times should do it. Or, we can just bleed the lines-which he did. It took about 1 minute for him to do this, the pump came on and this time stayed on.

We're nice and toasty...

He doesn't know it yet, but he and his wife will be enjoying a dinner at a local Red Lobster sometime in the near future.

Thanks to everyone for their help.


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Bill in Dayton

[This message has been edited by Bill in Dayton (edited 02-13-2010).]

Way to go, Bill. When one of the belts slipped off on my ZTR mower, I couldn't figure out how to get it back on without taking the whole assembly off. Since it was still under warranty, I had service come over and put it back on. It took him about a minute (with a little 'trick' not in the manual). As he was leaving, he quipped, "good thing it's under warranty, otherwise it would have cost you $195.00".

Make sure you do NOTHING to tick off your mechanical-minded neighbor/friend across the street . The dinner for he and his wife sounds like a great idea.

chas

The same guy comes running with his snow plow (not blower, plow) whenever we get any significant snow. He gets fresh baked cookies, the random six pack of beer, countless thanks, etc...



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Bill in Dayton

Glad you got it working, Bill. The weather guy says an Alberta Clipper is going to pass through your area tonight, drop a little snow and really drop the temperature.

Stay warm,

Gary

Good friends are priceless!