My Burnham Boiler stops working at night??

I have a Burham boiler too. Same exact problem was nothing more than electrode adjustment. Every so often, it would ignite & shake the house with a "POOF"!

That burner is on a hinge, One bolt removed, & it will swing to the left -- as long as you have a flexible oil line connected. If not, shut oil off at tank & remove the line. There is a specific adjustment with regards to how far ahead of the nozzle they extend, their height above the nozzle & their gap. I was trying to find the specs for you, but I believe they were left on my virus-filled paperweight of a computer that was just replaced. I believe you can get the specs on Burham's website.

Also check & make sure the coil is making a good contact to the electrodes.

I highly doubt that burnt paint is the result of gasket leakage ... looks to me as if somebody left the burner swung outward for maintenance ... and forgot to turn off the breaker! That will scare the crap out of ya!

As far as the buzzing goes, those aquastats are notorious for that. My parents had one that buzzed for years before they replaced it. Mine was doing the same thing. I replaced mine with a digital unit (forgot model #), just for more flexibility of adjustment. Was still working fine.

sounds like the carlin (ignitor) (spark making thing-a-majig).....

when they put a new nozzle on i am sure he gapped the electrodes..... i mean thats where they are and he had it in his hand. i would think he looked in the hole to confirm a flame head
since he had the nozzle assembly out. really common procedure for a oil guy to do. specially for a buck and a half ticket

Poconoeagle wrote:sounds like the carlin (ignitor) (spark making thing-a-majig).....

when they put a new nozzle on i am sure he gapped the electrodes..... i mean thats where they are and he had it in his hand. i would think he looked in the hole to confirm a flame head
since he had the nozzle assembly out. really common procedure for a oil guy to do. specially for a buck and a half ticket

I think you would be surprised. I can't count the number of times i've fixed someone's burner problem days after a tech left - and apparently overlooked half the problems with the burner. occasionally you'll get a guy that really knows what he's doing, unfortunately, usually they don't know or don't care enough to do things properly.

Berlin wrote:

Poconoeagle wrote:sounds like the carlin (ignitor) (spark making thing-a-majig).....

when they put a new nozzle on i am sure he gapped the electrodes..... i mean thats where they are and he had it in his hand. i would think he looked in the hole to confirm a flame head
since he had the nozzle assembly out. really common procedure for a oil guy to do. specially for a buck and a half ticket

I think you would be surprised. I can't count the number of times i've fixed someone's burner problem days after a tech left - and apparently overlooked half the problems with the burner. occasionally you'll get a guy that really knows what he's doing, unfortunately, usually they don't know or don't care enough to do things properly.

Oh no I indeed concur. I tend to fix a few myself for every body and thier brother after they get the nozzle hosing... and i have seen many a f3 head gone also... was hoping to pass on a inquisitive question asker mantra to the layman so he can ask the "TECH" some informed questions. just like your doing also!! team work for the soon to be oil free coalites....

I agree, i would suggest that the OP be there when the tech comes over and ask lots of questions and be sure that he looks down the firetube, sets the electrodes properly etc.

Well, it ended up being the stupid Carlin transformer. The tech came and he opened up the transformer and hit the reset and put a screwdriver across the 2 springs and there was no spark. So he removed the Carlin and put on a new Beckett and reconnected everything, turned the breaker back on and hit the reset and presto fire. So it seems to be humming along for now...I'm still not sure why it worked and then didn't...usually a transformer either works or doesn't. Not sure why it would and then wouldn't like that. Oh well, it's on for now.

Thanks to everyone for all the help.I will post back if this ends up not being the only problem. Also, I'll be posting again the=is summer when it will be time to hook up the Trident.

the heat sink in side thermal overload POS


is the beckett made in france????

For those of you that want to learn how to service residential oil burners the publications by the National Oilheat Research Alliance (NORA) are excellent. Their "Basic Oilheat Technician’s Manual" is what was used in my HVAC classes. There is a new edition of the the manual which I have not seen but I expect it to be an improvement on the old manual which was great. For information about NORA see: http://www.noraed.org/dcontent.cfm?keyword=about_nora

The order form for the manual is here:

http://www.nora-oilheat.org/site20/uplo ... erform.pdf

What you want is listed as NORAED-OTM. It's $47 and worth every penny. If I remember correctly I had to register on their web site before I could order it. Included in the book is a list of what a technician should do on a service call. I have friends who do not do their own serving use the list to make sure the technician does a competent job for them. It's amazing how many service technicians squirm and wiggle when there is a customer who knows what should be done. I had one friend tell me the technician left and had the service manager come back later to do the job.

jaimz23 wrote:...I'm still not sure why it worked and then didn't...usually a transformer either works or doesn't.

In working on cars & motorcycles, I've seen all kinds of goofy electrical issues. Coils can be intermittent (as yours was), fail when hot, or just plain fail altogether .. which usually never happens because it's the easiest to diagnose. I figured it was something ignition related from your symptoms.

Poconoeagle wrote:the heat sink in side thermal overload POS


is the beckett made in france????

No, of course not. It's made where all the best stuff is made........Japan. LOL

thats cool it should last. if and when you get your secondary heat source up and running dependable, it would be a good time to really take apart, clean,tune,and adjust the OB so its always ready to work if the need arises. also it will insure your coal unit wont break....you know karma and mechanical things!!