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Help please - might be buying a used oil furnace tomorrow...
QUESTION:The one in the tenants place is getting really bad. The quote for a new
system from the pros was multiple kilodollars. There's an ad in the local
bargain hunter for one; I called, and a guy with a thick middle-eastern
(greek?) accent told me a _very_ nice price to "get it out of his garage".
Said it was pulled from his house working, drained, and put in the garage.
Was used about two years, or maybe that was it was pulled two years ago -
very thick accent.
This is an oil-fired hot-water furnace.
Now I'm a mechanical guy, and furnaces can't be all that complicated, but
I've never looked at one before. What should I be looking for and asking
questions about? For his price I'm won't be making a big mistake, but it
would be nice to know more than I do before I go over there.
ANSWER: If it's hot water, it's usually called a boiler. Furnace usually means a
system with no water, just a heat exchanger. Hard to tell you what to look
for. The better residential boilers are cast iron, with the sections
wrapping around the firebox (wet base) Cheaper ones are steel, but I don't
see too many of them anymore. Look for evidence of leaks, check the
condition of the refractory inside, ask why it was pulled. The burner is not
that expensive to replace or repair. What is so bad about your current
boiler and how can you tell if this will be an improvement?
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