My furnace would start and there was fire, then cut off. Remembered this video when I was researching another issue, and after cleaning the cad cell, happy family has heat! The windchill is suppose to be single digits tonight. Greatful for all your videos!
You rock! I have been manually restarting my boiler every 10 minutes for the last 24 hours to keep the house warm and pipes from freezing. 12" of snow outside; no techs working today... Popped the cad cell out, cleaned it with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol... Runs like a champ. Thank you!!!
Thanks so much for your video. Couldn't get anyone out here to look at my furnace. Decided to give it a whirl. It was the carbon build up, cleaned up the cad cell and BAM on it went. Running like a charm.
thank you so much for making these videos. I learned how to fix my furnace without calling repair man I was totally broke when it quit working. And thanks to you I fixed it. can't express enough how thankful I am.
Thank you for posting this! You hit the nail right on the head. It is the middle of January and cold as a well diggers elbow here in Michigan. I have a workshop in the back half of my pole barn and the furnace had me pulling my hair (the little I have left) out. I have cans of expensive car paint and a bathroom out there that never want to freeze. But here I sit, in the house recovering from knee surgery. I showed my wife the video and she went out and did it! As simple as a dirty cad cell. And fixed for FREE!
I lost you for for some time i was strolling through the heating channals and i saw furn.man and i said this must be the guy i have 18 years exp. Till i started waching ur vidios on u tube with all due respect u are the best u just about.cover evry little aspect of the furn.thank u very much
GrayFurnaceMan Thank you so much for these videos. They are the very best step by step instructional videos for Oil Furnace that I have ever seen. Bless you for posting these on line.
Your Videos Are GREAT !!! This Helped Me So Much, I had already changed the Filters, Nozzle, Transformer and Aligned The Guns. Furnace would not go past the 45 seconds.. Ohmed the Cad Cell, Cleaned It.. And BAM !!! I'm Back In Business !!! This winter has been HARD on Everything, but I know that my furnace has burnt about 1000 gals this season....It needed a Good Cleaning As Well !!!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS AGAIN.. KEEP IT UP !!!!!
So my husband left me in the cold this morning with no heat on. I thought we ran out of oil, no we had 3/4 full tank. I said to him don't worry I will figure it out, thank GOD for your video. I can't wait to check the cad cell and relay all by myself! Your video is awesome that even I can follow along with it! Hope it's just as easy as your video. :)
Well I looked like a genius to him but first we got a huge scare! I opened the relay box to check if the sensor was clean and a huge spark came out at us. (we didn't shut down the boiler first) oops! Needless to say it was already clean and we double checked the wires and everything was okay. I don't know why it turns on for about 5/10 mins and shuts down again and we have the heat on high. It's not as warm as we would like the house to be. ? Hmm the baseboards are hot. Thanks anyway for making me like a know it all! :)
Sugarbliss Iris I hope you have found any loose wires and corrected the problem (after shutting down the power). Does it shut down and have to be reset? GFM
My neighbors furnace doing same thing; starts up and runs for minute then bam cuts off . I tested primary and new nozzle, and tested the igniter and all good so that's why I'm watching this video. Awesome information.
So first of all THANK YOU!.. I checked my sensor and it was actually clean (To Look At), I took it out anyway and cleaned. Reinstalled the sensor and hooked the Yellow Wires back up and Boom, she fired up and and kept running. Blew my mind. I have an Old Beckett Furnace it was reliable right until a month ago. I don't know if it was just loose or something but taking the Sensor out and giving it a clean (even though it didn't look like it needed a cleaning) it worked like a charm. Thank God for people like you sir, greatly appreciated. Gets cold here in Eastern Canada... Thanks! 🙏🇨🇦🤟
Thanks for the information and insight on what to do for trouble shooting a beckitt oil burner. Mine filled the house with black acrid smoke on Christmas day at noon. Thanks to you and your video tutorial I was able to properly clean, find the problem, which in this case was the cad unit..not easy to detect either..but like I said I was back in business and saved a boat load of money. Thanks again and God bless😎
Thank you ! I've been trying to troubleshoot why the furnace shuts down randomly and had ruled out the obvious, fuel and air problems. The next one I wanted to check was the CAD cell but I had no idea WHERE the darn thing was.. This laid it out perfectly and was able to inspect and clean it a bit.
Furnace out again. At first it was on after the fix, but heated beyond what I wanted. Had to shut off the old thermostat until I needed heat again. Now things have changed. The furnace wants to come on and starts up for about couple of minutes, then shuts down. Havent been hitting the reset button. So I see that it senses the thermostat and tried to come on all day. Luckily I have a backup portable system if I need it. Will go through all your videos to see if I find the solution.
Thanks for posting this video. It is very informative and well done. You don't spend too much time with trivial talk and you don't repeat yourself too much. Liked and subscribed...
Sir, you are a godsend! I recently purchased my family's abandoned farmhouse that has an old Milwaukee Thermoflo in it and was having this issue. I'm pretty handy, but had NO heating/cooling experience. This video just saved me hundreds of dollars and made me worlds more prepared. I cannot thank you enough, please keep up the good work and I'll be watching all of your videos!!!
I love watching your vida. has helped me out so much with my oil burner. just recently u helped out with my Cad cell. tested it as you described and it was actually bad. got a new one and boom, good as new and heat back on. thanks again.
Thanks Gray, your videos helped me get enough light to the CAD cell from the flame. I ended up needing to replace the nozzle to get a bigger flame. Ended up having to do it myself since the oil mafia did not want to work on my system here in new england very much.
Friend of mine had issues with his oil burner at his vacation property, fifty miles away from me, told him to call a professional. He called four separate oil mafia guys in the area. They all told him weren't taking on new customers at the present time(must be nice to refuse business).
This was fabulous advice! We've been replacing switches left and right, and the problem was the cad cell being dirty all along. Thank you so much! It's so nice to have heat again!
Thanks for your great videos. I have an old maybe 40 yr old oil furnace. Recently, its been short cycling. I replaced some things past service people did since its been a couple yrs of no service except air filters. I replaced Cad sensor and oil gun nossle. Electrodes seemed ok. Cleaned up gun with brake cleaner. Fired it up but keep going on and off quickly. Got got oil filter element but before messing with that, did your oil pump test. Took a hose to the oil pump output line going to the gun and started it to see if oil was flowing. I thought there was a blockage somewhere, but it flowed nicely. Connected things up and started the furnace, but still going on and off. I vaccumned best i could of chamber and flue before this. So I thought didn't get it all out. About to give up and call service person. Then I remembered something that happened 7 years ago that my furnace went off when it was 15° out on a Friday night and called the company I had a service contract with that was serviced that fall. The guy that came out check things and couldn't find it out what was wrong. Then, he shut the electric off from my main fuse box and checked the junction box connections going to the heater right next to it. He wound up not liking the wire and cut off an inch then capped and taped them. He started up the furnace and all was well. So that's what I tried. I shut the electric off like he did but I just Twisted the caps to make the connections tighter and any connections from the ignition box as well. To my surprise it started right up hopefully for good. Hallelujah! Is it common for wire to go bad? Thank you for what you do!
@@grayfurnaceman I spoke too soon. After working good on 2 heat cycles, its back to quick start/ stop. Wondering if the ignitor box going is bad (Honeywell 8184G 4009). Is there a video on testing it?
Thanks GFM. I did watch it. After 4 days of working on it off and on (pun intended) I just got it to run and heat the home to thermostat temp. My history with this old furnace was I was told by 2 techs it had a cracked heat exchanger, dont sleep with closed windows, replace it and they stopped service. I called another tech who tested for carbon monoxide and said it was fine. He was the only guy who checked for a crack with me but found none. Tested home air ducts and said was fine. I then put carbon monoxide testers on each floor of my home but they never went off. So that was 3 years ago and I decided to just run the heater with no maintenance and it ran fine until this week. The repairs in the past guided me to try fixing it and doing things I never did before like replacing the oil filter element and oil pump filter screen. I also replaced the cad sensor and nozzle but still short cycled. Bleeding the oil line was new for me lots of air after I finally think I cleared it I decided to do two more things. Looking in a combustion chamber when it was firing I did see some soot still going up so I disconnected ductwork and did another vacuuming. Also and this may be what got it working. Was I checked the wiring again on the igniter box the real thin wires I wound up sandpapering them for better connection. Then I fired it up and it worked. Hopefully stays working as is going to get cold this week around me. But since it's 40 years old looking in that combustion chamber it just seems to be breaking down falling apart so I'm going to look into a replacement. Thanks again for your help!
FINALLY, someone who isn't selfish with the information and how to save money to fix something while learning at the same time. I checked my cad cell too and it was a little dirty. What cleaning product removed the carbon deposit ?, cause what I used did clean it up. I am extremely mechanically inclined so I really love this stuff
Very informative. Thanks so so much for your precious time showing us how to deal with basic things on the furnace and how to save some money annually on maintenance. Hey keep up the great work.Very simple way of detecting the problem step by step easy to follow the instructions. This is the way it should be on you tube videos not too much blah blah till we get to the point.
Thanx for the knowledge. I checked the resistance and it was 1 - so a wire was probably cut. Traced the wire and it runs right above the impeller, in between the 2 igniter leads. The impeller had eaten through one wire and broke continuity.
Thank you for these videos, our furnace just stopped working in the middle of a polar vortex and the temperature was ridiculously low, we must've watched 30+ other videos that offered no useful advice until we stumbled upon this and I was actually able to fix it - somehow a burnt piece of plastic got in the igniter (no idea how that could have happened since it'd be running for months just fine) and was blocking the light to the cad cell - I never would have risked opening things up without knowing what I was doing, but I actually feel like I can deal with this kind of thing with very little stress now.
Well I changed the nozzle it worked fine for a couple of times . It’s a shop furnace so I shut it down when I’m not working in the shop. Went to run it again and it would not fire . Pulled the gun cleaned it , thought maybe it was plugged . Still no go . Hit restart twice now I’ll leave it until I can get your directions thanks .
You need to know if there is air in the line. Is there a fog in the chamber when the the trial for ignition is going on? No fog, no oil. Is the unit located above the floor?
Hey GFM. I am a new subscriber. Your videos are really great. I had what I thought was a textbook case of a bad cad cell. After I replaced it, everything seemed to be ok, then tripped the relay. Didn't really make any sense because the flame was fast and correct. Turns out, the socket that the cad cell plugs into was worn and VERY loose. I replaced the cad cell assembly with a new socket and wires and now I'm good. I would guess that over the years, the cad cell was removed for cleaning many times and the tip was probably replaced but in the process, the socket was worn out. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Our furnace shut down while away, service man came but only replaced knozzle and filter. Went away same night serviced for a week and came home to furnace not working. Only pushed button twice, thank goodness for you excellent video. We did clean the filter but at this point after seeing your video, call service back and ask why complete service was not done with initial call. That said, your video helps us understand how the electrodes or cad/relay can be the problem though our unit looks a bit different don't see a cad cell. We cant find an ignition window on our Beckett surface wall so are not sure whether flame combustion is occurring, though blowing sound is heard for the time you mentioned. Of course this stuff happens when its zero out, snow and our rural service shop is closed. Thank goodness for electric blankets. Our electric service took hit in the high winds over the last week..modem/router were knocked out completely. Not sure if that had a play in this. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Each call is a separate charge so want to make use of time we are going to pay for. Thank you so much.
I would be asking why it failed right after the service call. If there was a problem he did not deal with while he was there, did he notify you there was more to be done? Certainly, if the temps are very low he could be just putting out fires. But he should be able to tell you without just adding more expensive service calls. GFM
Hi, Thanks for responding. Not sure what you mean by putting out fires with the cold. The furnace was serviced last Monday, it was warmer and no need to come on frequently as we like temps around 50 when working outside. Regularly keep it around 60 when inside. But when we went away Monday night for 5d, it really dropped here and we had that power outage. Now have to call back and arrange for another service call. Not sure why more complete service was not done....filter, heat exchangers, flue clean out. Yes we can much of it ourselves but wonder why it was not part of the call. Also, can you please answer this one last question. Before another service visit, should we completely fill our indoor 250 gal oil tank with oil...it is a little under half full and we wonder if stirring it up after the service call may exacerbate the fuel issue or any other problem we are having? (assuming it is an issue of fuel not being delivered properly to combust) What would you do in this situation? As clear as you are to learn from, we wish you were the service man coming :) Thanks again from both of us.
"Putting out fires" is just a reference to low temperatures and high numbers of service calls for the tech to get done. You do not need to add oil but you can if you wish. It is best not to have the unit running while the oil is being added and for about 1 hour after. GFM
1.5hr? I just spoke to shop owner...he accused me nicely of overthinking. I asked about the the list of check points in the manual and asked what exactly does a service call include (he said nozzle and filter so long as it runs) and he likened it to the things that need to be checked on a car before you drive it each time, implying that its overkill. That said, we did get him to commit another visit without extra charge....but with the service tech last time not wanting to "mess" with the heat exchangers, cough, cough, I guess we will be putting your videos to good use. Again thanks for responding and giving us something as a guide.
My friend thank you so much for this lesson. New Years Eve and my furnace would not stay lit. After watching your video I was able to check my Cad Cell and connections and my old Burnham is staying lit. It's due to be replaced March so hopefully your videos will help me get by in a pinch before having to make an emergency service call. Cheers and Happy New Year!
Hey man thanks so much for taking the time to film this for us, was having the same problem, but then did what you did in the video and she started right up. Really helped me out👍💪
My thoughts exactly!! Plus it has stopped my wife from complain she's cold. I told her she needs to add some body fat for insulation. She just gives me a dirty look and tells me to fix it. Oh well, thank goodness for TH-cam and people like Gary! 😍
Hi there GFM… thank you very much for these videos. They are great! I have a Beckett 7505 Model AFG Series Oil Burner that is about 3 years old. In fact I had my entire furnace replaced then. I've been experiencing something similar to what you explained in this vid but not convinced it is it. I've just recently had the system cleaned and both the nozzle and filter strainer replaced. From reset (entire system off and then turned back on) the blower kicks on, the flame shortly thereafter. The flame then runs for approximately one minute and then goes into "recycling" with the green light flashing. After about 45 seconds the flame kicks back on and it goes through this cycle about 4 or 5 times before ultimately shutting down. Sometimes it is a soft lockout (blinking red light) and others it is a hard lockout (solid red light). I would imagine the serviceman would have checked the cad cell / relay during the cleaning but who knows. Any thoughts on how to get this thing to a point where I don't feel like the Old Man in The Christmas Story? It's a Cliiiiiinker!
Francis Barry This one could be a plugged oil line or sludge in the tank. I would remove the gun and run the line into a can. Run the burner until it shuts off on safety. It should run oil out the line continuously. If it does not run continuously, you have a blockage. If it sputs and sputters, with oil mixed with air, a vacuum leak may be the problem. Hope this helps. GFM
My burner was doing this. Cad cell was clean. Good oil flow. Everything good. I was about to bypass the cad cell and noticed its screw terminals on the controller were loose. Tightened them and burner is running. Whew, very relieved. I guess they got loose from the motor vibration.
thanks for the vid....my burner started to shut off constantly lately .........was getting upset since we need hot water.....pulled out the flame sencer lens...cad cell....and cleaned it....it was not that dirty but had a light tint to it....put it back and she started up and did not shut off....hopefully that works for us thanks
First off, thanks for these videos. Great information and an incredible resource for us DIY'ers who can handle certain things. Now, my question! I had an issue with my furnace just like your video above. I replaced the nozzle and electrodes, set them up properly, and reset the furnace. However the same thing happened. It ran for about a minute then kicked the reset. So, I took your advice and tried to clean the cad cell. After that, I tried it again and had the same issue. So I went to Home Depot and bought a NEW CAD CELL. Very simple to replace with your videos help. Now, the issue is a little different. The furnace will run for a day or two with out kicking the reset, then suddenly one cycle it will kick the reset. I will reset it and it will be good for a while longer (2 or 3 cycles, maybe a day or night) then I will have to reset it. There's no rhyme or reason to when it decides to kick. I'm just wondering if it is seeing the flame consistently or is there any adjusting of the nozzle or cad cell that could help this problem? Please Help?
Jay Bogart The cad cell must be pointed directly at the flame. Sometimes its good to paint the inside of the burner tube with silver paint. Other problems could be an oil supply problem. Plugged filter, air leak, pump failing. Hope this helps. GFM
Appreciate your straightforward explanations. What, though, if like the above video, your thermostat calls for heat and no response. The reset button is not popped up, but I pull the door/service switch in and out a few a times and eventually it starts, then about 3 minutes later it shuts down. Primary controller? Cad cell? Door switch? Heat exchanger? I'm stumped.
@@grayfurnaceman Thanks. In fact, today I put the thermostat up, opened the door, pulled the service switch out and rapped on the 'Protectorelay,' and, lo and behold, it goes on. So, something's amiss (control board?) in the primary. I'll replace it ($25). Thanks again for your help.
I could use some direction. My boiler runs shuts off restarts and repeats over & over. I changed the nozzle, cleaned the cad cell, and the electrode. There was carbon in the tube that I cleaned out. The oil filter was really bad, changed it & cleaned the canister. It runs a little longer before it shuts off & restarts but still continues on/off. Plenty of oil in the tank. Thank you in advance for any help you can give, Joe Z
Thank you for replying. I did not check for bubbles. I notice that the cad cell relay seems to click on and off. If I remove the cover & hold the tab down it will stay running. Seems like this may be the issue. Just do not want to replace parts & still have an issue. The run time varies from a few minutes to complete a heating cycle to an on/off- on/off.@@grayfurnaceman
I never get tired of watching your video. Its very detailed information. You explained very well.Can you show a video on how to install a honeywell primary control model 7284u1004
I cleaned my furnace a becket motor.new nozzle,filter, electrodes are right but I never had black smoke out the chimney. The air was set about 1/4" OPEN, i OPENED IT TO 7/16, LESS Smoke but still smoke, smells in house a little, I don"t want to open air too much. What now. Thanks Greg
I had a similar issue, the burner would sometimes flame out when first starting overnight. It would relight then work normally when recycling. Got to a point the flame caused a rumble then sputtered out. Having to reset almost every other day. I checked the cad, kind of looked like new, yet tested bad, 14 years old. Replaced with the original model Beckett. No more issues.
Ok, so I have this same Beckett furnace in my mobile home. It will start and cycle. When it goes to refire the second time, sometimes it continues to run no problem, other times it sounds like it loses flame and makes a puffing noise, then relights and then sounds like it goes out again (over and over). So I then have to use the emergency switch to shut it off and let it sit between 20minutes and 1hr to try it again. We have replaced the pump, ignitors, nozzle, filter, checked all the gaskets. Yeh it still does this. On a warmer day(above 40 degrees) it seems fine. We are running Kerosene and we have tried adding Deisel 911 to it. We checked the fuel for water by bleeding the line and letting that fuel sit in a container overnight. No water. We ran new lines. No change. We are now on a 2 line system, no change. The tank is outside as is the filter. The tank and filter sit lower than the furnace. Tank is 25 ft from the furnace. I had a buddy tell me that on the new pump there is an adjustment screw we have to adjust for the 2 line to work. But he is a few hours away and cant get here to do that. I am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.
Great videos - in my situation I have the Weil Mclean & Beckett model AFG - my oil burner will work for a few hours, then shut off - constantly- and oddly enough, it seems to work better when it’s a warmer winter day - when it gets cold out, can barely keep it on - cad cell is clean, oil looks clean - not sludgy - I have to turn the breaker to the oil burner off/on….then the oil burner switch off/on….then with the thermostat I have to lower the temp lower than the house/room temp, switch the thermostat from cool to hot, then raise the temp to a higher temp than the house/room - with luck, that will usually get it working for a few hours and overnight while we are sleeping it stops working- the thermostat is new, and basic (not a programmable for time of day or day of week) - just manually turn it up or down - any ideas?
thanks a lot man my furnace is up and running the eye to detect wat u was saying some how it fell out and luck the fan didn't chew it up to bad I never new there was a eye there I put the eye back in and she is going good it fills good to have heat again
I'm having an odd one here in Northern Ontario Canada. Kerr Oil Furnace, Beckett Burner, changed Intermittent Ignition Oil Primary (ICM1502) 30 sec timing.. Had guns sanded cleaned pointed, . 50 70'B nozzle replaced, CAD looked over (going to OHM test) and still intermittent operation. I can get heat at times then after a few cycles it'll trip. Reset and fail, reset works a bit then fail, reset then it'll work a full cycle. Replaced upstairs manual thermostat with a Nest 3rd Gen with the 2 wires connected respectively.
Thanks for your tips! I ran through your checks and it ended up being a bad fuel pump shutting down. The fuel would pump then stop , and the fire would time out due to no fuel.
Thanks again for all your great videos! Very interested in your fuel oil videos! Work on lots of NG furnaces and over last several years gained much knowledge with boilers, but just never seen much experience with fuel oil other than changing them out. I don't see a change out much near in this future so looking to get some much needed attention to this ol beast until a change could be an option. I got a fuel oil furnace that looks nearly identical to the setup on this vid that was not lighting. Had call for heat, spark, fuel.. I found the combustion air intake vents alongside the pump were completely packed with dust/lint so cleaned that all out. I replaced the oil filter out at the fuel tank (wasn't horribly dirty but I know now it's clean). Checked fuel pressure on the original pump (2-pipe system). ... About 15-20ft of pipe and only a few feet of rise from tank to furnace.. But checking the pressure with a refrigerant gauge I only got 38 psi, and it would hold that after shut down. I tried to dial up the pressure yet didn't see any pressure increase. Anticipating this I had a replacement pump and installed that. Initial pressure check showed it factory set at about 98 psi. I made small adjustment up to 100 psi. I had also noticed the nozzle to be oversized. It had a .579 MH install prior however name plate spec .5 solid 80. So I replaced back to the .5 as manufacturer indicated. At this point I had forgotten to prime the pump, installed the gun tube, and proceeded to do a test to fire and held the door switch and it fired instantly and ran for several moments until I released the door switch. I then went back to properly prime the pump and yet again start unit in hopes to perform combustion analysis however the unit would not fire again. Bled more air from pump bleed.. still didn't seam to get a nice clear stream but bled probably a quart or 2 ... Unit still would not fire. Fan motor runs, great spark,.. I even tried moving the ignitor probes ahead a bit more thinking maybe the spray pattern and higher pressure were not allowing fuel to the spark but still no ignition. At this point I was thinking it's just not getting fuel at all. I didn't notice fuel mist in the box nor could I smell it. The gun tube was clear at time I hooked it back up along with the nozzle assembly. Im still waiting on my actual pressure test kit and smoke test kit to get in so at this point I called it a night as taking the gun tube and fitting off is a pain as you noted!!! Lol! And then plumbing in each piece of tubing to get to the pressure gauge! But thought I would recheck the pressure and if that checks back out good look back at the gun tube and nozzle. But thought I'd run my experience by you and see if I'm hitting all the bases or if you have any other tips or things to be aware of. Thanks again for all the time on such great teachings!!!!
Nice video, covered ok problem shooting, but do it yourselfers , a little knowledge can be dangerous, ran across enough of them as a service man, just couldn’t wait, even with a full free contract. One customer was even throwing matches into a furnace spraying oil, bad transformer. The furnace was in a closet, no basement, Oceanside, ny🤪
I am trying to salvage a Lennox with an AFG burner. So far I have replaced the controller, motor, pump and cad cell. It still trips after 45 seconds. The best reading I can get with burner running is 168 ohms. If I shine a flash light into it the cell resistance drops to about 30 to 40 ohms. I suspect the flame is so smoky and jumping around that the cell cannot see a steady flame. I am taking my combustion analyzer with me today, which may answer my own questions. However I have only been in the business for a few years, and would like the opinion of a master. Enjoy your videos on TH-cam. Could you do a video about a smoky flame affecting the cad cell. Thanks
Nice guy and a good video but lacking in some ways. He was good at testing the cad cell resistance but he should have carefully shown how to remove the cad cell and what he used to clean it. In addition I would like to have known if he reconnected the F wires to the relay when he ran the last test. The guy is very easy to listen to.
If it was not clear, the cad cell is plugged into a holder. You just pull it out. Cleaning is done with a soft rag. Yes, the wires were reconnected. GFM
Got one that button doesn't start it but the toggle switch above, I believe is the master switch will make it work. Don't think any of the buttons are up/tripped Works for a while, heats house. Come back next day and it doesn't work (person is moving into another house, not yet living there).
cad cell holder could be bad or the wire has an open. My instructor back in 1990 said on occassion they actually had to spray silver paint on the inside of the blast tube to see enough light. The other cad cell problem can sometimes be light shining through a screw hole somewhere on the burner unit making the cad cell think a flame is already present, and wont let it light.
My cad wires were pinched and bare wire was in contact with the metal housing. Wrapped some electrical tape around it and repositioned the wire and it fired right up.
Enjoy your videos and learn much from them. My Trane oil furnace will fire up and run for about 5 minutes and the burner will shut down for around 2 minutes and then fire up and run for another 5 . What could cause this ? Thanks
+Robert Wood Try jumping the thermostat first. If that makes no difference, I would be looking at air flow. Filter, dirty blower wheel or duct problems. Hope this helps. GFM
thank you so much for your videos. I have a 13-year-old thermopride with the Beckett burner assembly. In the last couple days it has started making a high-pitched whining noise. It starts almost immediately after I turn the burner on and stays on the whole time. I have checked and I know that it is not the blower. Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated thank you.
Sounds like the pump. Be sure you have a clean oil filter and the oil line is not clogged. This also happens when you run out of oil. It may mean a new pump. GFM
By venting do you mean the duct from the furnace to the chimney yes all that is clean I also took the two panels off the front the elongated oval panels and cleaned all the round that circular heat exchanger I would imagine it’s cold how much should the shutter vents be open like I said last year it ran fine at a quarter inch open this year I have at 7/16 I will replace the nozzle again
My mothers just started doing something like this in the single digit temps in pa. she lives in a long ranch house and had her check all the baseboards around the house and they are very hot to the touch she says. It will only heat the house to 70 tops at thermostat set at 74. She had it set to 70 and would only heat to 69. I used to service her furnace for the past 9 years or so but I recently moved back to south florida coz I've always hated the cold. :-) she had is serviced last year around march and was working great until these frigid temps last week. So now that all the pipes are screaming hot but won't go above 70 set at 74, the furnace will only run for about 30 seconds or so and then shut off and then it will restart later but not sure how long. She had a new bladder tank put on last year so that is evident of hot water everywhere. I replaced her filter last year before I moved to florida in March so I don't think the filter is clogged. By the way she is 87... before you get any ideas of her doing something. Been there tried that. :-) Just trying to think of something that needs turned up or is it the cad cell being dirty now... but it's screaming hot. Can you give he a hint? Thanks.
There are 3 possibilities here. Either the baseboard area is not enough for the temp, the boiler temp is too low (should be around 200F) or the bottom of the convectors is blocked with lint. GFM
my oil fired boiler has an issue, It is baseboard hot water boiler, with no ID plate on the burner or boiler, approx 60 yrs old. Randomly it will make a single click noise when the thermostat calls for heat, then nothing else happens. If I hit the reset, it will lite and may work fine for 3 weeks, or 3 hrs. I am pretty handy, and done some research but nothing seems to describe this problem. Have cleaned the burner, nozzle, etc but no difference.Cad cell relay was changed 12 yrs ago. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks and love your videos, they helped me adjust the burner the right way a couple years back.
First, I have to say replace the burner. It is almost certainly not a flame retention type burner at that age. Retention head burners save about 20% over conventional burners. This sounds like the cad cell relay is failing. I would say it is possibly a relay in the aquastat but in that case, resetting the relay would make no difference. GFM
@@grayfurnaceman my buddy gave me a newer Carlin burner, but have been hesitant to remove/replace it. I just checked and the Cad relay is not with it, so have to see if my buddy still has it. Thanks for the very fast response. Dave
I've got an older Miller furnace in my garage with a Beckett AF burner, It will fire up (confirmed fire) run for the 45 seconds and trips the cad relay. I removed and tested the cad cell in the house and it seems to test fine close to 100ohms with good light. When I check it running I get about 12m ohms pre start and 7-8k ohms while it is running. Could the cad cell just be weak and not able to fully see the flame? Every now and then it will run like a champ. Thanks for the great videos.
Thank you for this video. If I disconnect the cad cell and put a wire across the relay terminals within a few seconds of ignition, everything works fine. While the furnace is running, the resistance across the cad cell (when disconnected) is infinite, instead of nearly zero. However, when I remove the top and flip the cover back, the room light shining into the cad cell is enough to make the resistance go very low, and shining a flashlight at the cell drives the resistance to zero, so it looks the cell is working ok. It is positioned correctly, and I don't think there's anything blocking it, and it is squeaky clean. When running, inside that part of the burner, there is a faint orange glow, not very bright at all. I'm wondering if there's some blockage or buildup that is preventing enough light from the flame from getting to the cad cell. Inside the furnace itself, the flame is blindingly bright as usual.
Thank you for the awesome instructional video. I do have a question, I have the exact same furnace as the one in this video but I don't know the make and model. Someone painted over the information. Would it be possible for you to get the make and model of the furnace in the video. Thanks a bunch.
This is great video. I've already cleaned the cad cell 3 times during last 24 hours and it still gets dirty. I can see soot in flame window and same thing in air pipe which goes out of the furnace. There is no smell in house. What can it be?
---oo0-@(_)@-0oo--- Check the air adjustment on the burner. It may be covered with lint. If it is clear and opening it makes no difference, you probably have a partially plugged nozzle. Get this one done soon, as you will have a plugged heat exchanger soon. Hope this helps. GFM
grayfurnaceman Thanks a lot. I've already found the air adjustment. A little more air fixed the soot problem. It was on mark 2, I've adjusted it to 2.4. Do you think I still have to replace the nozzle? I will do this anyway later, but I don't know maybe I have to do it ASAP. What do you think?
You need to observe the flame until it locks out. If you have a weak pump or clogged filter you could be losing pressure and volume and that’s why it’s locking out. Unless, of course, you put a meter on and see what the cad cell is reading during the entire 45 seconds.
10year old video and still helped me out today thank good someone somewhere posted a video cause I was screwed with a baby and no company to come out.
Glad it helped.
GFM
One small video for a man, one giant heap of knowledge for mankind.
Can't thank you enough for what you're doing here with this series.
Cool saying. Thanks for the support.
GFM
@@grayfurnacemane ❤
You are the man!! Just got my boiler to work in 5 minutes. First oil boiler I've owned and it's old. No idea what I was doing. Thank you.
My furnace would start and there was fire, then cut off. Remembered this video when I was researching another issue, and after cleaning the cad cell, happy family has heat! The windchill is suppose to be single digits tonight. Greatful for all your videos!
Glad you got it going.
GFM
You rock! I have been manually restarting my boiler every 10 minutes for the last 24 hours to keep the house warm and pipes from freezing. 12" of snow outside; no techs working today... Popped the cad cell out, cleaned it with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol... Runs like a champ. Thank you!!!
Welcome
GFM
Thanks so much for your video. Couldn't get anyone out here to look at my furnace. Decided to give it a whirl. It was the carbon build up, cleaned up the cad cell and BAM on it went. Running like a charm.
thank you so much for making these videos. I learned how to fix my furnace without calling repair man I was totally broke when it quit working. And thanks to you I fixed it. can't express enough how thankful I am.
Mrs. Black Glad you got it going.
Thank you for posting this! You hit the nail right on the head. It is the middle of January and cold as a well diggers elbow here in Michigan. I have a workshop in the back half of my pole barn and the furnace had me pulling my hair (the little I have left) out. I have cans of expensive car paint and a bathroom out there that never want to freeze. But here I sit, in the house recovering from knee surgery. I showed my wife the video and she went out and did it! As simple as a dirty cad cell. And fixed for FREE!
Glad it helped.
GFM
I lost you for for some time i was strolling through the heating channals and i saw furn.man and i said this must be the guy i have 18 years exp. Till i started waching ur vidios on u tube with all due respect u are the best u just about.cover evry little aspect of the furn.thank u very much
Tony Laracuente Welcome.
GFM
GrayFurnaceMan Thank you so much for these videos. They are the very best step by step instructional videos for Oil Furnace that I have ever seen. Bless you for posting these on line.
Welcome
GFM
Carlin oil gun how to clean?
How to clean carlin oil tube
Your Videos Are GREAT !!!
This Helped Me So Much, I had already changed the Filters, Nozzle, Transformer and Aligned The Guns. Furnace would not go past the 45 seconds..
Ohmed the Cad Cell, Cleaned It.. And BAM !!! I'm Back In Business !!!
This winter has been HARD on Everything, but I know that my furnace has burnt about 1000 gals this season....It needed a Good Cleaning As Well !!!!!!!!!!!!!
THANKS AGAIN.. KEEP IT UP !!!!!
You are giving away knowledge earned in a skilled trade.
And I am privileged to do so. Knowledge should be shared to everyone.
GFM
So my husband left me in the cold this morning with no heat on. I thought we ran out of oil, no we had 3/4 full tank. I said to him don't worry I will figure it out, thank GOD for your video. I can't wait to check the cad cell and relay all by myself! Your video is awesome that even I can follow along with it! Hope it's just as easy as your video. :)
Let me know if you have any problems.
GFM
Well I looked like a genius to him but first we got a huge scare! I opened the relay box to check if the sensor was clean and a huge spark came out at us. (we didn't shut down the boiler first) oops! Needless to say it was already clean and we double checked the wires and everything was okay. I don't know why it turns on for about 5/10 mins and shuts down again and we have the heat on high. It's not as warm as we would like the house to be. ? Hmm the baseboards are hot.
Thanks anyway for making me like a know it all! :)
Sugarbliss Iris I hope you have found any loose wires and corrected the problem (after shutting down the power). Does it shut down and have to be reset?
GFM
My neighbors furnace doing same thing; starts up and runs for minute then bam cuts off . I tested primary and new nozzle, and tested the igniter and all good so that's why I'm watching this video. Awesome information.
Thank you so much for your videos. CAD Cell was the culprit. Rather pay for a normal service call than an emergency call on a Saturday night...
So first of all THANK YOU!.. I checked my sensor and it was actually clean (To Look At), I took it out anyway and cleaned. Reinstalled the sensor and hooked the Yellow Wires back up and Boom, she fired up and and kept running. Blew my mind. I have an Old Beckett Furnace it was reliable right until a month ago. I don't know if it was just loose or something but taking the Sensor out and giving it a clean (even though it didn't look like it needed a cleaning) it worked like a charm. Thank God for people like you sir, greatly appreciated. Gets cold here in Eastern Canada... Thanks! 🙏🇨🇦🤟
Seems like every winter I refer back to your videos. Thank you!!!
Thanks for the information and insight on what to do for trouble shooting a beckitt oil burner. Mine filled the house with black acrid smoke on Christmas day at noon. Thanks to you and your video tutorial I was able to properly clean, find the problem, which in this case was the cad unit..not easy to detect either..but like I said I was back in business and saved a boat load of money. Thanks again and God bless😎
Sounds like an unwelcome surprise on Christmas day. Glad you got it going.
GFM
Thank you !
I've been trying to troubleshoot why the furnace shuts down randomly and had ruled out the obvious, fuel and air problems. The next one I wanted to check was the CAD cell but I had no idea WHERE the darn thing was..
This laid it out perfectly and was able to inspect and clean it a bit.
He didn't show where the cad cell is!!???
Learned a lot by viewing your videos. Had a clue of what might be wrong with my oil furnace, before getting the repairman in.
Merry Christmas
GFM
Furnace out again. At first it was on after the fix, but heated beyond what I wanted. Had to shut off the old thermostat until I needed heat again.
Now things have changed. The furnace wants to come on and starts up for about couple of minutes, then shuts down. Havent been hitting the reset button.
So I see that it senses the thermostat and tried to come on all day.
Luckily I have a backup portable system if I need it. Will go through all your videos to see if I find the solution.
Thanks for posting this video. It is very informative and well done. You don't spend too much time with trivial talk and you don't repeat yourself too much. Liked and subscribed...
Sir, you are a godsend! I recently purchased my family's abandoned farmhouse that has an old Milwaukee Thermoflo in it and was having this issue. I'm pretty handy, but had NO heating/cooling experience. This video just saved me hundreds of dollars and made me worlds more prepared. I cannot thank you enough, please keep up the good work and I'll be watching all of your videos!!!
WelcomgFM
Excellent pointers!!! I followed your step by step and found out the wire for the cad cell was damage. Fixed it myself . thank you
Welcome
GFM
I love watching your vida. has helped me out so much with my oil burner. just recently u helped out with my Cad cell. tested it as you described and it was actually bad. got a new one and boom, good as new and heat back on. thanks again.
Welcome
GFM
Thanks Gray, your videos helped me get enough light to the CAD cell from the flame. I ended up needing to replace the nozzle to get a bigger flame. Ended up having to do it myself since the oil mafia did not want to work on my system here in new england very much.
Friend of mine had issues with his oil burner at his vacation property, fifty miles away from me, told him to call a professional. He called four separate oil mafia guys in the area. They all told him weren't taking on new customers at the present time(must be nice to refuse business).
This was fabulous advice! We've been replacing switches left and right, and the problem was the cad cell being dirty all along. Thank you so much! It's so nice to have heat again!
Glad you got it going.
GFM
Never even knew how to get to the nozzle Thank you issue solved great instructions \
Welcome Happy new year.
GFM
@@grayfurnaceman You too !
Thanks for your great videos. I have an old maybe 40 yr old oil furnace.
Recently, its been short cycling. I replaced some things past service people did since its been a couple yrs of no service except air filters.
I replaced Cad sensor and oil gun nossle. Electrodes seemed ok. Cleaned up gun with brake cleaner.
Fired it up but keep going on and off quickly. Got got oil filter element but before messing with that, did your oil pump test. Took a hose to the oil pump output line going to the gun and started it to see if oil was flowing. I thought there was a blockage somewhere, but it flowed nicely. Connected things up and started the furnace, but still going on and off. I vaccumned best i could of chamber and flue before this. So I thought didn't get it all out. About to give up and call service person. Then I remembered something that happened 7 years ago that my furnace went off when it was 15° out on a Friday night and called the company I had a service contract with that was serviced that fall. The guy that came out check things and couldn't find it out what was wrong. Then, he shut the electric off from my main fuse box and checked the junction box connections going to the heater right next to it. He wound up not liking the wire and cut off an inch then capped and taped them. He started up the furnace and all was well. So that's what I tried. I shut the electric off like he did but I just Twisted the caps to make the connections tighter and any connections from the ignition box as well. To my surprise it started right up hopefully for good. Hallelujah!
Is it common for wire to go bad? Thank you for what you do!
It is not common. Does happen but probably less than 1% of my calls.
GFM
@@grayfurnaceman I spoke too soon. After working good on 2 heat cycles, its back to quick start/ stop.
Wondering if the ignitor box going is bad (Honeywell 8184G 4009).
Is there a video on testing it?
@@EricK-wv3hp You can try this one: th-cam.com/video/SHTwhOtvQWE/w-d-xo.html
GFM
Thanks GFM. I did watch it. After 4 days of working on it off and on (pun intended) I just got it to run and heat the home to thermostat temp.
My history with this old furnace was I was told by 2 techs it had a cracked heat exchanger, dont sleep with closed windows, replace it and they stopped service. I called another tech who tested for carbon monoxide and said it was fine. He was the only guy who checked for a crack with me but found none. Tested home air ducts and said was fine. I then put carbon monoxide testers on each floor of my home but they never went off. So that was 3 years ago and I decided to just run the heater with no maintenance and it ran fine until this week. The repairs in the past guided me to try fixing it and doing things I never did before like replacing the oil filter element and oil pump filter screen. I also replaced the cad sensor and nozzle but still short cycled. Bleeding the oil line was new for me lots of air after I finally think I cleared it I decided to do two more things. Looking in a combustion chamber when it was firing I did see some soot still going up so I disconnected ductwork and did another vacuuming. Also and this may be what got it working. Was I checked the wiring again on the igniter box the real thin wires I wound up sandpapering them for better connection. Then I fired it up and it worked. Hopefully stays working as is going to get cold this week around me. But since it's 40 years old looking in that combustion chamber it just seems to be breaking down falling apart so I'm going to look into a replacement. Thanks again for your help!
Wow, thank you soooo much for this video, so well explained...Fixed my problem and we have heat and its so cold outside......Your the best..
Thank you for posting this! Cleaned it up and it worked again! God bless you and your family!
FINALLY, someone who isn't selfish with the information and how to save money to fix something while learning at the same time. I checked my cad cell too and it was a little dirty. What cleaning product removed the carbon deposit ?, cause what I used did clean it up. I am extremely mechanically inclined so I really love this stuff
I just use a little fuel oil. What did you use? Thanks for the good words.
GFM
Thank you!! My waste oil heater kept shutting off. I never knew what a cad cell was. Wish I would’ve saw this sooner.
Very informative. Thanks so so much for your precious time showing us how to deal with basic things on the furnace and how to save some money annually on maintenance. Hey keep up the great work.Very simple way of detecting the problem step by step easy to follow the instructions. This is the way it should be on you tube videos not too much blah blah till we get to the point.
Thanks for the support.
GFM
This is a great series of troubleshooting videos. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the support.
GFM
thank you !!!!!! my moms becky was shutting down it was the cad eye was dirty its 20 years old !!!! thank you your friend greg
Welcome
GFM
now I know what to tell my furnace guy when he comes to clean my furnace. I think I can do this my self!! good job
Karen Horsekeeper Good luck and if you have trouble, I may be able to help.
GFM
Super helpful....mine was tripping and the sensor was a little cockeyed and a little dirty...fixed both and it's been great since. Thanks!
Welcome
GFM
Thanx for the knowledge. I checked the resistance and it was 1 - so a wire was probably cut. Traced the wire and it runs right above the impeller, in between the 2 igniter leads. The impeller had eaten through one wire and broke continuity.
Thank you for these videos, our furnace just stopped working in the middle of a polar vortex and the temperature was ridiculously low, we must've watched 30+ other videos that offered no useful advice until we stumbled upon this and I was actually able to fix it - somehow a burnt piece of plastic got in the igniter (no idea how that could have happened since it'd be running for months just fine) and was blocking the light to the cad cell - I never would have risked opening things up without knowing what I was doing, but I actually feel like I can deal with this kind of thing with very little stress now.
the World need more people like you!! thanks a lot my friend!!
You are an excellent instructor. Thanks for these videos.
Steve O Welcome
GFM
Well I changed the nozzle it worked fine for a couple of times . It’s a shop furnace so I shut it down when I’m not working in the shop. Went to run it again and it would not fire . Pulled the gun cleaned it , thought maybe it was plugged .
Still no go . Hit restart twice now I’ll leave it until I can get your directions thanks .
You need to know if there is air in the line. Is there a fog in the chamber when the the trial for ignition is going on? No fog, no oil.
Is the unit located above the floor?
Thanks that helped me get my furnace started and running it feels awesome
thank you, very well done. Good camera work, great explanation, & in only 8mins.
I know this video is old but thank you so much. I know nothing about furnaces but I was able to fix this with no trouble at all
Merry Christmas
GFM
How do you clean the CAD cell?
Open the top of the burner assembly and look for a yellow wire. At its end, will be a sensor. Clean with a cloth the face of the sensor.
GFM
Hey GFM. I am a new subscriber. Your videos are really great. I had what I thought was a textbook case of a bad cad cell. After I replaced it, everything seemed to be ok, then tripped the relay. Didn't really make any sense because the flame was fast and correct. Turns out, the socket that the cad cell plugs into was worn and VERY loose. I replaced the cad cell assembly with a new socket and wires and now I'm good. I would guess that over the years, the cad cell was removed for cleaning many times and the tip was probably replaced but in the process, the socket was worn out. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Our furnace shut down while away, service man came but only replaced knozzle and filter. Went away same night serviced for a week and came home to furnace not working. Only pushed button twice, thank goodness for you excellent video. We did clean the filter but at this point after seeing your video, call service back and ask why complete service was not done with initial call. That said, your video helps us understand how the electrodes or cad/relay can be the problem though our unit looks a bit different don't see a cad cell. We cant find an ignition window on our Beckett surface wall so are not sure whether flame combustion is occurring, though blowing sound is heard for the time you mentioned. Of course this stuff happens when its zero out, snow and our rural service shop is closed. Thank goodness for electric blankets. Our electric service took hit in the high winds over the last week..modem/router were knocked out completely. Not sure if that had a play in this. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Each call is a separate charge so want to make use of time we are going to pay for. Thank you so much.
I would be asking why it failed right after the service call. If there was a problem he did not deal with while he was there, did he notify you there was more to be done? Certainly, if the temps are very low he could be just putting out fires. But he should be able to tell you without just adding more expensive service calls.
GFM
Hi, Thanks for responding. Not sure what you mean by putting out fires with the cold. The furnace was serviced last Monday, it was warmer and no need to come on frequently as we like temps around 50 when working outside. Regularly keep it around 60 when inside. But when we went away Monday night for 5d, it really dropped here and we had that power outage. Now have to call back and arrange for another service call. Not sure why more complete service was not done....filter, heat exchangers, flue clean out. Yes we can much of it ourselves but wonder why it was not part of the call. Also, can you please answer this one last question. Before another service visit, should we completely fill our indoor 250 gal oil tank with oil...it is a little under half full and we wonder if stirring it up after the service call may exacerbate the fuel issue or any other problem we are having? (assuming it is an issue of fuel not being delivered properly to combust) What would you do in this situation? As clear as you are to learn from, we wish you were the service man coming :) Thanks again from both of us.
"Putting out fires" is just a reference to low temperatures and high numbers of service calls for the tech to get done. You do not need to add oil but you can if you wish. It is best not to have the unit running while the oil is being added and for about 1 hour after.
GFM
1.5hr? I just spoke to shop owner...he accused me nicely of overthinking. I asked about the the list of check points in the manual and asked what exactly does a service call include (he said nozzle and filter so long as it runs) and he likened it to the things that need to be checked on a car before you drive it each time, implying that its overkill. That said, we did get him to commit another visit without extra charge....but with the service tech last time not wanting to "mess" with the heat exchangers, cough, cough, I guess we will be putting your videos to good use. Again thanks for responding and giving us something as a guide.
I would be looking for a new repairman.
GFM
My friend thank you so much for this lesson. New Years Eve and my furnace would not stay lit. After watching your video I was able to check my Cad Cell and connections and my old Burnham is staying lit. It's due to be replaced March so hopefully your videos will help me get by in a pinch before having to make an emergency service call. Cheers and Happy New Year!
+D.J. MARKO POLO Same to you.
GFM
Thanks to your advice i was able to fix it by myself in a matter of minutes. Thank you so much!!
Welcome
GFM
Hey man thanks so much for taking the time to film this for us, was having the same problem, but then did what you did in the video and she started right up. Really helped me out👍💪
Glad it helped.
GFM
I want to say that your videos have me alot
Thanks for sharing! You got me up and running again.
My thoughts exactly!! Plus it has stopped my wife from complain she's cold. I told her she needs to add some body fat for insulation. She just gives me a dirty look and tells me to fix it.
Oh well, thank goodness for TH-cam and people like Gary! 😍
Great video, Thank you.
Thank u so much, my cad cell was dirty and not point correct direction. Now I have heat back in my shop..
Welcome
GFM
Hi there GFM… thank you very much for these videos. They are great! I have a Beckett 7505 Model AFG Series Oil Burner that is about 3 years old. In fact I had my entire furnace replaced then. I've been experiencing something similar to what you explained in this vid but not convinced it is it.
I've just recently had the system cleaned and both the nozzle and filter strainer replaced. From reset (entire system off and then turned back on) the blower kicks on, the flame shortly thereafter. The flame then runs for approximately one minute and then goes into "recycling" with the green light flashing. After about 45 seconds the flame kicks back on and it goes through this cycle about 4 or 5 times before ultimately shutting down. Sometimes it is a soft lockout (blinking red light) and others it is a hard lockout (solid red light).
I would imagine the serviceman would have checked the cad cell / relay during the cleaning but who knows.
Any thoughts on how to get this thing to a point where I don't feel like the Old Man in The Christmas Story? It's a Cliiiiiinker!
Francis Barry This one could be a plugged oil line or sludge in the tank. I would remove the gun and run the line into a can. Run the burner until it shuts off on safety. It should run oil out the line continuously. If it does not run continuously, you have a blockage. If it sputs and sputters, with oil mixed with air, a vacuum leak may be the problem. Hope this helps.
GFM
My burner was doing this. Cad cell was clean. Good oil flow. Everything good. I was about to bypass the cad cell and noticed its screw terminals on the controller were loose. Tightened them and burner is running. Whew, very relieved. I guess they got loose from the motor vibration.
Brilliant. Back to being warm. Thank you.
Welcome
GFM
great vids gfm i fall back on these every so often
thanks for the vid....my burner started to shut off constantly lately .........was getting upset since we need hot water.....pulled out the flame sencer lens...cad cell....and cleaned it....it was not that dirty but had a light tint to it....put it back and she started up and did not shut off....hopefully that works for us thanks
Glad you got it.
GFM
Thank you for the excellent instructions! Works like a charm😊
Welcome
GFM
First off, thanks for these videos. Great information and an incredible resource for us DIY'ers who can handle certain things. Now, my question! I had an issue with my furnace just like your video above. I replaced the nozzle and electrodes, set them up properly, and reset the furnace. However the same thing happened. It ran for about a minute then kicked the reset. So, I took your advice and tried to clean the cad cell. After that, I tried it again and had the same issue. So I went to Home Depot and bought a NEW CAD CELL. Very simple to replace with your videos help. Now, the issue is a little different. The furnace will run for a day or two with out kicking the reset, then suddenly one cycle it will kick the reset. I will reset it and it will be good for a while longer (2 or 3 cycles, maybe a day or night) then I will have to reset it. There's no rhyme or reason to when it decides to kick. I'm just wondering if it is seeing the flame consistently or is there any adjusting of the nozzle or cad cell that could help this problem? Please Help?
Jay Bogart The cad cell must be pointed directly at the flame. Sometimes its good to paint the inside of the burner tube with silver paint. Other problems could be an oil supply problem. Plugged filter, air leak, pump failing. Hope this helps.
GFM
grayfurnaceman
Thanks GFM, I will update you when I try your suggestions and find the issue. Appreciate the help!
@@jaybogart726 what worked?
Appreciate your straightforward explanations. What, though, if like the above video, your thermostat calls for heat and no response. The reset button is not popped up, but I pull the door/service switch in and out a few a times and eventually it starts, then about 3 minutes later it shuts down. Primary controller? Cad cell? Door switch? Heat exchanger? I'm stumped.
From what your symptoms are, I would be looking at the primary.
GFM
@@grayfurnaceman Thanks. In fact, today I put the thermostat up, opened the door, pulled the service switch out and rapped on the 'Protectorelay,' and, lo and behold, it goes on. So, something's amiss (control board?) in the primary. I'll replace it ($25). Thanks again for your help.
@@c.a.g.3130 Sounds like a problem in the Protectorelay.
GFM
I could use some direction. My boiler runs shuts off restarts and repeats over & over. I changed the nozzle, cleaned the cad cell, and the electrode. There was carbon in the tube that I cleaned out. The oil filter was really bad, changed it & cleaned the canister. It runs a little longer before it shuts off & restarts but still continues on/off. Plenty of oil in the tank.
Thank you in advance for any help you can give,
Joe Z
When you changed the filter did you remove the gun line and run the burner with the gun line emptying into a can? Was the stream free of bubbles?
GFM
Thank you for replying. I did not check for bubbles. I notice that the cad cell relay seems to click on and off. If I remove the cover & hold the tab down it will stay running. Seems like this may be the issue. Just do not want to replace parts & still have an issue. The run time varies from a few minutes to complete a heating cycle to an on/off- on/off.@@grayfurnaceman
This is an old boiler & has relay like the one in your video. Do they still make this model? When I checked I could not find one.
Thank you so much for your awesome video!!!! Helped me out TREMEDIOUSLY!!!
Welcome
GFM
I never get tired of watching your video. Its very detailed information. You explained very well.Can you show a video on how to install a honeywell primary control model 7284u1004
I will put it on the list.
GFM
@@grayfurnaceman million thanks
I cleaned my furnace a becket motor.new nozzle,filter, electrodes are right but I never had black smoke out the chimney. The air was set about 1/4" OPEN, i OPENED IT TO 7/16, LESS Smoke but still smoke, smells in house a little, I don"t want to open air too much. What now. Thanks Greg
Check the venting. It could be plugged. Also, The nozzle could be partially plugged. Yes it happens to new nozzles.
GFM
I had a similar issue, the burner would sometimes flame out when first starting overnight. It would relight then work normally when recycling. Got to a point the flame caused a rumble then sputtered out. Having to reset almost every other day. I checked the cad, kind of looked like new, yet tested bad, 14 years old. Replaced with the original model Beckett. No more issues.
Glad you got it going.
GFM
Ok, so I have this same Beckett furnace in my mobile home. It will start and cycle. When it goes to refire the second time, sometimes it continues to run no problem, other times it sounds like it loses flame and makes a puffing noise, then relights and then sounds like it goes out again (over and over). So I then have to use the emergency switch to shut it off and let it sit between 20minutes and 1hr to try it again. We have replaced the pump, ignitors, nozzle, filter, checked all the gaskets. Yeh it still does this. On a warmer day(above 40 degrees) it seems fine. We are running Kerosene and we have tried adding Deisel 911 to it. We checked the fuel for water by bleeding the line and letting that fuel sit in a container overnight. No water. We ran new lines. No change. We are now on a 2 line system, no change. The tank is outside as is the filter. The tank and filter sit lower than the furnace. Tank is 25 ft from the furnace. I had a buddy tell me that on the new pump there is an adjustment screw we have to adjust for the 2 line to work. But he is a few hours away and cant get here to do that. I am at a loss. Any help would be appreciated.
Great videos - in my situation I have the Weil Mclean & Beckett model AFG - my oil burner will work for a few hours, then shut off - constantly- and oddly enough, it seems to work better when it’s a warmer winter day - when it gets cold out, can barely keep it on - cad cell is clean, oil looks clean - not sludgy - I have to turn the breaker to the oil burner off/on….then the oil burner switch off/on….then with the thermostat I have to lower the temp lower than the house/room temp, switch the thermostat from cool to hot, then raise the temp to a higher temp than the house/room - with luck, that will usually get it working for a few hours and overnight while we are sleeping it stops working- the thermostat is new, and basic (not a programmable for time of day or day of week) - just manually turn it up or down - any ideas?
Is the tank above ground?
GFM
Tank is in basement right next to oil burner. Forgot to mention also, sometimes the burner will only be on for 3 minutes before going back off
thanks a lot man my furnace is up and running the eye to detect wat u was saying some how it fell out and luck the fan didn't chew it up to bad I never new there was a eye there I put the eye back in and she is going good it fills good to have heat again
+Vernon Hazlitt Welcome
GFM
I'm having an odd one here in Northern Ontario Canada. Kerr Oil Furnace, Beckett Burner, changed Intermittent Ignition Oil Primary (ICM1502) 30 sec timing.. Had guns sanded cleaned pointed, . 50 70'B nozzle replaced, CAD looked over (going to OHM test) and still intermittent operation. I can get heat at times then after a few cycles it'll trip. Reset and fail, reset works a bit then fail, reset then it'll work a full cycle.
Replaced upstairs manual thermostat with a Nest 3rd Gen with the 2 wires connected respectively.
This was great fixed me right up...thank you so much..dont have alot of money and this 1985 sucker going...you are the man
Glad you got it going.
GFM
Thanks for your tips! I ran through your checks and it ended up being a bad fuel pump shutting down. The fuel would pump then stop , and the fire would time out due to no fuel.
+Kenneth M Welcome
GFM
Thanks again for all your great videos! Very interested in your fuel oil videos! Work on lots of NG furnaces and over last several years gained much knowledge with boilers, but just never seen much experience with fuel oil other than changing them out. I don't see a change out much near in this future so looking to get some much needed attention to this ol beast until a change could be an option.
I got a fuel oil furnace that looks nearly identical to the setup on this vid that was not lighting. Had call for heat, spark, fuel.. I found the combustion air intake vents alongside the pump were completely packed with dust/lint so cleaned that all out. I replaced the oil filter out at the fuel tank (wasn't horribly dirty but I know now it's clean). Checked fuel pressure on the original pump (2-pipe system). ... About 15-20ft of pipe and only a few feet of rise from tank to furnace.. But checking the pressure with a refrigerant gauge I only got 38 psi, and it would hold that after shut down. I tried to dial up the pressure yet didn't see any pressure increase. Anticipating this I had a replacement pump and installed that. Initial pressure check showed it factory set at about 98 psi. I made small adjustment up to 100 psi. I had also noticed the nozzle to be oversized. It had a .579 MH install prior however name plate spec .5 solid 80. So I replaced back to the .5 as manufacturer indicated. At this point I had forgotten to prime the pump, installed the gun tube, and proceeded to do a test to fire and held the door switch and it fired instantly and ran for several moments until I released the door switch. I then went back to properly prime the pump and yet again start unit in hopes to perform combustion analysis however the unit would not fire again. Bled more air from pump bleed.. still didn't seam to get a nice clear stream but bled probably a quart or 2 ... Unit still would not fire. Fan motor runs, great spark,.. I even tried moving the ignitor probes ahead a bit more thinking maybe the spray pattern and higher pressure were not allowing fuel to the spark but still no ignition. At this point I was thinking it's just not getting fuel at all. I didn't notice fuel mist in the box nor could I smell it. The gun tube was clear at time I hooked it back up along with the nozzle assembly.
Im still waiting on my actual pressure test kit and smoke test kit to get in so at this point I called it a night as taking the gun tube and fitting off is a pain as you noted!!! Lol! And then plumbing in each piece of tubing to get to the pressure gauge! But thought I would recheck the pressure and if that checks back out good look back at the gun tube and nozzle.
But thought I'd run my experience by you and see if I'm hitting all the bases or if you have any other tips or things to be aware of.
Thanks again for all the time on such great teachings!!!!
I know this 5 years old but thank you this did the job
Welcome
GFM
Nice video, covered ok problem shooting, but do it yourselfers , a little knowledge can be dangerous, ran across enough of them as a service man, just couldn’t wait, even with a full free contract. One customer was even throwing matches into a furnace spraying oil, bad transformer. The furnace was in a closet, no basement, Oceanside, ny🤪
Thanks for posting, well done
I am trying to salvage a Lennox with an AFG burner. So far I have replaced the controller, motor, pump and cad cell. It still trips after 45 seconds. The best reading I can get with burner running is 168 ohms. If I shine a flash light into it the cell resistance drops to about 30 to 40 ohms. I suspect the flame is so smoky and jumping around that the cell cannot see a steady flame. I am taking my combustion analyzer with me today, which may answer my own questions. However I have only been in the business for a few years, and would like the opinion of a master. Enjoy your videos on TH-cam. Could you do a video about a smoky flame affecting the cad cell. Thanks
Nice guy and a good video but lacking in some ways. He was good at testing the cad cell resistance but he should have carefully shown how to remove the cad cell and what he used to clean it. In addition I would like to have known if he reconnected the F wires to the relay when he ran the last test. The guy is very easy to listen to.
If it was not clear, the cad cell is plugged into a holder. You just pull it out.
Cleaning is done with a soft rag.
Yes, the wires were reconnected.
GFM
Excellent video! Thank you!
Got one that button doesn't start it but the toggle switch above, I believe is the master switch will make it work. Don't think any of the buttons are up/tripped
Works for a while, heats house. Come back next day and it doesn't work (person is moving into another house, not yet living there).
Helpful video well done and logically approached 👍
Found it. I changed out the ignition interrupter. Sweet. Thank you.
cad cell holder could be bad or the wire has an open. My instructor back in 1990 said on occassion they actually had to spray silver paint on the inside of the blast tube to see enough light. The other cad cell problem can sometimes be light shining through a screw hole somewhere on the burner unit making the cad cell think a flame is already present, and wont let it light.
Good info
GFM
My cad wires were pinched and bare wire was in contact with the metal housing. Wrapped some electrical tape around it and repositioned the wire and it fired right up.
Enjoy your videos and learn much from them. My Trane oil furnace will fire up and run for about 5 minutes and the burner will shut down for around 2 minutes and then fire up and run for another 5 . What could cause this ? Thanks
+Robert Wood Try jumping the thermostat first. If that makes no difference, I would be looking at air flow. Filter, dirty blower wheel or duct problems. Hope this helps.
GFM
thank you so much for your videos. I have a 13-year-old thermopride with the Beckett burner assembly. In the last couple days it has started making a high-pitched whining noise. It starts almost immediately after I turn the burner on and stays on the whole time. I have checked and I know that it is not the blower. Any ideas you have would be greatly appreciated thank you.
Sounds like the pump. Be sure you have a clean oil filter and the oil line is not clogged. This also happens when you run out of oil. It may mean a new pump.
GFM
thank you for your fast response. I will change the filter and blow out the line. Should I check the screen inside the pump also.
@@mikeborg307 I would.
GFM
By venting do you mean the duct from the furnace to the chimney yes all that is clean I also took the two panels off the front the elongated oval panels and cleaned all the round that circular heat exchanger I would imagine it’s cold how much should the shutter vents be open like I said last year it ran fine at a quarter inch open this year I have at 7/16 I will replace the nozzle again
By venting I mean the entire venting system including the chimney. The shutter opening is dependent on the flame and smoke test.
GFM
Thank you saved a service call! Appreciate the effort!
Welcome
GFM
Great info really help me and saved me some money. Thank you so much
Welcome
GFM
My mothers just started doing something like this in the single digit temps in pa. she lives in a long ranch house and had her check all the baseboards around the house and they are very hot to the touch she says. It will only heat the house to 70 tops at thermostat set at 74. She had it set to 70 and would only heat to 69. I used to service her furnace for the past 9 years or so but I recently moved back to south florida coz I've always hated the cold. :-) she had is serviced last year around march and was working great until these frigid temps last week. So now that all the pipes are screaming hot but won't go above 70 set at 74, the furnace will only run for about 30 seconds or so and then shut off and then it will restart later but not sure how long. She had a new bladder tank put on last year so that is evident of hot water everywhere. I replaced her filter last year before I moved to florida in March so I don't think the filter is clogged. By the way she is 87... before you get any ideas of her doing something. Been there tried that. :-) Just trying to think of something that needs turned up or is it the cad cell being dirty now... but it's screaming hot. Can you give he a hint? Thanks.
There are 3 possibilities here. Either the baseboard area is not enough for the temp, the boiler temp is too low (should be around 200F) or the bottom of the convectors is blocked with lint.
GFM
Thank you so much. You have so much information to check out on your channel
my oil fired boiler has an issue, It is baseboard hot water boiler, with no ID plate on the burner or boiler, approx 60 yrs old. Randomly it will make a single click noise when the thermostat calls for heat, then nothing else happens. If I hit the reset, it will lite and may work fine for 3 weeks, or 3 hrs. I am pretty handy, and done some research but nothing seems to describe this problem. Have cleaned the burner, nozzle, etc but no difference.Cad cell relay was changed 12 yrs ago. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks and love your videos, they helped me adjust the burner the right way a couple years back.
First, I have to say replace the burner. It is almost certainly not a flame retention type burner at that age. Retention head burners save about 20% over conventional burners.
This sounds like the cad cell relay is failing. I would say it is possibly a relay in the aquastat but in that case, resetting the relay would make no difference.
GFM
@@grayfurnaceman my buddy gave me a newer Carlin burner, but have been hesitant to remove/replace it. I just checked and the Cad relay is not with it, so have to see if my buddy still has it. Thanks for the very fast response.
Dave
I've got an older Miller furnace in my garage with a Beckett AF burner, It will fire up (confirmed fire) run for the 45 seconds and trips the cad relay. I removed and tested the cad cell in the house and it seems to test fine close to 100ohms with good light. When I check it running I get about 12m ohms pre start and 7-8k ohms while it is running. Could the cad cell just be weak and not able to fully see the flame? Every now and then it will run like a champ. Thanks for the great videos.
Thank you for this video. If I disconnect the cad cell and put a wire across the relay terminals within a few seconds of ignition, everything works fine. While the furnace is running, the resistance across the cad cell (when disconnected) is infinite, instead of nearly zero. However, when I remove the top and flip the cover back, the room light shining into the cad cell is enough to make the resistance go very low, and shining a flashlight at the cell drives the resistance to zero, so it looks the cell is working ok. It is positioned correctly, and I don't think there's anything blocking it, and it is squeaky clean. When running, inside that part of the burner, there is a faint orange glow, not very bright at all. I'm wondering if there's some blockage or buildup that is preventing enough light from the flame from getting to the cad cell. Inside the furnace itself, the flame is blindingly bright as usual.
thank you so much you just saved me hundreds of dollars
Thank you for the awesome instructional video. I do have a question, I have the exact same furnace as the one in this video but I don't know the make and model. Someone painted over the information. Would it be possible for you to get the make and model of the furnace in the video. Thanks a bunch.
This is great video. I've already cleaned the cad cell 3 times during last 24 hours and it still gets dirty. I can see soot in flame window and same thing in air pipe which goes out of the furnace. There is no smell in house. What can it be?
---oo0-@(_)@-0oo--- Check the air adjustment on the burner. It may be covered with lint. If it is clear and opening it makes no difference, you probably have a partially plugged nozzle. Get this one done soon, as you will have a plugged heat exchanger soon. Hope this helps.
GFM
grayfurnaceman Thanks a lot. I've already found the air adjustment. A little more air fixed the soot problem. It was on mark 2, I've adjusted it to 2.4. Do you think I still have to replace the nozzle? I will do this anyway later, but I don't know maybe I have to do it ASAP. What do you think?
dont have time im going out the door was it a dirty cad cell ?
You need to observe the flame until it locks out. If you have a weak pump or clogged filter you could be losing pressure and volume and that’s why it’s locking out. Unless, of course, you put a meter on and see what the cad cell is reading during the entire 45 seconds.