fuel oil delivery today

Probably a stuck float. But there was a fuel delivery guy here that was putting diesel in his delivery truck on the custmers dime. He got caught when the invoice was for 550 gallons and the farmer only had a 500 gallon tank......

Jason_WI wrote:Probably a stuck float. But there was a fuel delivery guy here that was putting diesel in his delivery truck on the custmers dime. He got caught when the invoice was for 550 gallons and the farmer only had a 500 gallon tank......

I've heard stories where burner jets were replaced with one's with larger orifices at tune-up time...    Can you imagine!

I just took another look.. and tried turning the gage tube... It is R/H threaded... and when I loosened it, the float began to rise slowly to full... so the float was stuck. I'll have to remember to do this with each delivery. It probably reads accurately as it empties...

Thanks Guys,
Roddie

Knocking on the tank always works for me as my tank is under the stairs and hard to see. I personally service my heater because of the lack of ability the oil company provided with their service contracts. They could never fix any problems that occurred in a timely manner, they never fully did what was claimed on the service contracts, and it always ended up costing me money. When the smoke pipe came apart one evening that was the final straw due to screws not being properly installed. They have a great habit of doing that. In addition, when I clean the furnace it generally takes me 6 hours from soup to nuts to do it properly. When the oil company would service the unit it was being done in less than 2 hours. The boiler pins take at least that long to properly clean. After using 5 different oil companies and all of them showing similar characteristics, I figured if I'm the one footing the bill here, I don't mind taking the risk to do it myself. I have a service tech adjust for CO and smoke when I'm through and he's told me he couldn't do any better himself. I'm running in the high 80% for efficiency opposed to mid to low 70's prior. Cleaning the boiler annually is not a chore which it once was and this is immediately recognizable in the smoke pipe.

Think of it as a giant engine, it's very similar as it shares the same characteristics. I never thought I would be servicing the unit and I always felt overwhelmed to do so. After years of forking out $$$$$ due to relying on someone else, I discovered that no one is your friend when it comes to the oil business. Ken

Ken Cook wrote:           Knocking on the tank always works for me as my tank is under the stairs and hard to see. I personally service my heater because of the lack of ability the oil company provided with their service contracts. They could never fix any problems that occurred in a timely manner, they never fully did what was claimed on the service contracts, and it always ended up costing me money.  When the smoke pipe came apart one evening that was the final straw due to screws not being properly installed. They have a great habit of doing that. In addition, when I clean the furnace it generally takes me 6 hours from soup to nuts to do it properly. When the oil company would service the unit it was being done in less than 2 hours. The boiler pins take at least that long to properly clean. After using 5 different oil companies and all of them showing similar characteristics, I figured if I'm the one footing the bill here, I don't mind taking the risk to do it myself. I have a service tech adjust for CO and smoke when I'm through and he's told me he couldn't do any better himself. I'm running in the high 80% for efficiency opposed to mid to low 70's prior. Cleaning the boiler annually is not a chore which it once was and this is immediately recognizable in the smoke pipe.

Think of it as a giant engine, it's very similar as it shares the same characteristics. I never thought I would be servicing the unit and I always felt overwhelmed to do so. After years of forking out $$$$$ due to relying on someone else, I discovered that no one is your friend when it comes to the oil business. Ken

Hey Ken, My wife and I bought our home 3 years ago... The previous owner had done some very recent upgrades.. including a super efficient Buderus boiler. My Brother in-law is a Master plumber.. and works at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He moonlights installing boilers constantly, and informed me that "our" boiler is among the best made. We have used the same Oil company since we moved in.. and the last service (tune-up) was in December.

Our home is quite small.. and there are 2 (forced hot water) heat zones. The upstairs bedroom and Bathroom baseboards never seem to get very hot. The upstairs T-stat is located in the Master-bedroom.. which I don't really understand. I'm wondering if one of the zone valves is malfunctioning? I don't really know much about these things.

Roddie