Everything sounds like the right things were done.

The problem began with resetting the primary control 3 times without ignition. This results in raw oil being pumped into the chamber.

Usually this will burn off after awhile.

This morning's problem is new.

It seems like the air is not adjusted properly to match the fuel ration.

Even something innocent, like an exhaust fan from the range, or a dryer, can upset the air ratio in a "tight" house/basement.

You certainly don't need a new boiler, but you have something going on with the air supply or maybe even a dirty nozzle with an improper spray pattern, or a weak ignitor. The new electronic ignitors can be bad one day out of the box.

The guys seem to have done a good job, but there is still something wrong. I'm sure it's a simple cure.

I'm not sure what type of plate was removed that exposed soaked insulation behind it.

"Even something innocent, like an exhaust fan from the range, or a dryer, can upset the air ratio in a "tight" house/basement."

Thank you, baymee.

I noticed this the other night when I was down in the basement. We opened the basement window to ease the smell of raw fuel oil and it was a breezy night. When the breeze blew in (in the direct path of the boiler) it altered the behavior of the fuel/air ratio adjustment. It was quite noticeable, even to me, and I obviously don't know much about boilers.

Last night the window was closed (and it was not windy out) when the final adjustment was made. It's not windy this morning either, but I will make sure that the adjustment is done with the window closed. The window is rarely opened.

My basement is not very "tight", being 115 years old and looking more like a dungeon, and it can get a little drafty on a very windy day, but not terribly so.

The boiler has been in the same place since being installed and has not exhibited such touchy behaviors before. Maybe I need to put up a windbreak around the boiler. :-)

Thank you again. I will have them check the ignitor, and the nozzles, and the spray pattern. My friend cleaned the nozzles, but it wouldn't hurt to double check those.

"The guys seem to have done a good job, but there is still something wrong. I'm sure it's a simple cure.

It's always the simple things that can throw a person. People tend to over complicate and over analyze problems. I'm sure it's simple too.

I had nothing against the guys - they were nice, worked hard, and I tipped them. I feel bad calling them so many times. After 3 calls in 30 hours, the same guys were coming back and not making any progress with the problem. They seemed a bit inexperienced and it was becoming "I tried this, maybe it will work. See ya."

Then we're up half the night debating whether we're in a dangerous situation, whether we should shut down the boiler and use space heaters, and whether we should move my 91-year-old mother to a motel because the fuel oil odor is making her nauseous and she's throwing up.

So it can be frustrating on both sides.

Cheers, and thanks for your help.

The "door" I'm talking about is actually a raised metal panel on the side of the boiler. When you remove that panel, there is a silver colored metal plate attached with wingnuts onto bolts (this was the plate that wasn't tightened down).

Behind that is some sort of batting or insulation. When you remove all that stuff, you see the "chambers" where I guess the oil is burned(?).

That area was cleaned and is clean. It was the place where there was a very strong smell of raw fuel. My friend took it all apart to make sure it was clean. It was. The batting/insulation was also clean. When he re-assembled it, he tightened down that silver-colored plate with the wingnuts, and the smell of raw fuel oil was drastically reduced. Then he put the outside metal panel/skin back on (it kind of snaps into place).

But that makes me wonder why that chamber smelled so strongly of raw fuel oil. It didn't matter if the boiler was on or not, the smell was very strong at all times.

Does anyone know of a link where we ignoramuses can go and learn about parts of a boiler/furnace and what they do?

I don't know of any website for your question.

If your basement is that old, I wouldn't suspect it being too tight.

I think you're right about possible inexperience of the techs.

If you have a lot of unburned fuel and you also have a ceramic combustion chamber, it might require the replacement of the chamber, but with a cast iron boiler, you probably have no chamber. It's called a wet base or wet leg boiler; the burner fires against the iron. When there is alot of oil inside, it makes clouds of smoke, but you ran it for quite awhile and that should all be burned off by now.

Nozzles NEVER get cleaned. In fact, just touching the filter or tip of a nozzle can affect it. Hold only by the brass circumference. Replace the nozzle with the one specified by the manufacturer.

Even dryer lint or pet hair can clog the very small air inlets to a burner. Check that.

It's something simple. Ask for someone else to come out.

Hi paulbm here. You say your friend checked behind this plate
to see if it was clean. How did he check just looked? Its sounds like your boiler is getting plugged up You need to have some one take the burner out, take the outer casing off, take
the stack off, take the flue collector box off, and take those little metal doors off the sides. Know after you do all this, you need to run a steal boiler brush through the flue ways casting from all direction many times until you don't get any more soot out of it. That why the metal doors
are on the side. Make sure the flue collector is put back on with furnace cement. Some side doors use furnace cement also. If this kind of clean out has not been done, then you still need to find a boiler man. later Paulbm

Well, I called the service company again this morning. The smell of raw fuel oil was spreading through the house yet again.

The nice young man who came out seemed very knowledgeable and very business-like. He removed the side panel and I asked him what was behind there -- it is the flue collector for the boiler. It was completely clogged with dry black gunk in less than 2 days.

If I hadn't seen, with my own eyes, how clean they were this past Friday, I wouldn't have believed it. He cleaned that area out.

He said it was getting waaay too little air and he could tell that by the sound alone. He set the air intake up by several multiples from where they were originally set by his predecessors (and my friend, who opened it up a bit more but was afraid to open it up too much, figuring it was set that low for a reason). It was originally set at about 3.5, my friend set it to 4, and this guy turned it up to 11.

Then he opened up the chamber door to check the flame and made some adjustments there. He suggested that the chamber be replaced.

He checked the draw to the chimney and said it was excellent -- no problems there. The black smoke we were seeing on occasion was from an incomplete burn and the clogging in the flue.

Then he read the previous service orders and said "Three visits and no one changed your filters?"

If they did change the filters it wasn't on the service orders.

He went outside and checked the smoke from the chimney. It was back to being white.

This service guy opened up the part where the nozzles were located, took them out, looked them over, and said they looked good. In fact, they looked new, so they may have been replaced but not written up on the previous service slips.

According to this guy, I should call the office and get a price on a new chamber and have someone come back in a day or two to change the filters and check everything again. Oh yeah, and leave the basement windows open to let it air out for the day. :-)

Baymee and Paulbm, you guys rock. Thank you. I've learned a lot.

Let's hope these corrections "take". I will be calling the service company in the morning for a follow-up.

I'm still wondering, since this unit is about 12 years old, if it would be better to get a new boiler altogether. Are they more efficient now than they were back in the late 1990s?

I know that 12 years is not that old for boilers, but if newer ones are vastly improved, it might be the way to go.

This is getting really interesting. The problem is back and I called for service again.

I'm getting ready to ask them to burn off the fuel, shut down the boiler, and I'll use space heaters until they can do an overhaul this week.

Boilers have no life expectancy. If maintained, they should last 1000 years. Leaking water is the worst thing that can happen to a boiler.

You probably have a Beckett AFG or similar burner which is standard on most units. No need to upgrade that because payback will take forever.

In this area, which burns coal, the efm boilers dating back to the late '40s are bought and sold ALL THE TIME on the used market. If they don't leak, the NEVER wear out. So, don't be persuaded to replace your existing boiler without a 100% excellent reason.

I don't know if you're paying for these service calls, but if you are, you'll soon be wasting more money that it's worth.

Try to find somebody who knows your particular boiler and ask for the best person to work on it.

I still believe it's a simple problem. Something like the air supply, the fuel pump, the nozzle. Incorrect settings will cause it to block up quickly and eventually soot the entire house.

A knowledgeable technician, combustion testing TOOLS, not eyesight, are needed.

Try to find the model number and I'll check the proper nozzle size and spray angle for you. Setting the air at certain numbers gets you close, but you absolutely need to arrive at the correct CO2 number, smoke reading, pump pressure, nozzle and stack temperature. And for the $4 that a nozzle costs, I would replace it.

This is a Smith Cast Iron boiler. I don't have the model number handy, as I've put in yet the third call for today and am waiting for a call back, so I can't go get it right now.

This time, 2 service techs came out. They took everything apart, cleaned various parts, and tested everything with various tools and meters. I wasn't with them the entire time, as I needed a break from the craziness, but I joined them after they had been there a while.

You can't make this stuff up. They haven't been gone an hour when I picked up a new smell. The thermostat is set on 70, the radiators are boiling hot, and the temperature in the house is almost 80 degrees. Both the boiler and the hot water heater were going full bore, and something smelled like plastic melting. I shut down both the boiler and hot water heater and put in another call.

Looking at the work slip, they replaced the nozzle, cleaned flues and chambers. They did other stuff that's not listed, like replace even more of the stove pipes from both the boiler and the hot water heater. Everything was apart when I went down in the basement while they were working.

At least there is no more oil smell right now. I'm starting to believe in poltergeists and haunted houses and such. I'm ready to go to a motel for one peaceful day. :-)

What a soap opera, eh?

If turning the tstat down doesn't shut off the boiler, you have a bad tstat. If the water temperature is above the high limit, you have a bad aquastat.

Hard to believe that so much can go bad at one time.

If you have an indirect water heater, it too is controlled by an aquastat and a separate zone on the boiler.

Maybe a bad zone valve, with a stuck switch, calling for heat all the time.

Very strange.

Well, we found the latest problem; one of the service techs turned up the thermostat to check things out and forgot to turn it back down. It's a thermostat that no one uses -- it's set at 68 and it's never moved, so I didn't think to check it.

Then they found some strange piece of coated wire that was hanging down from a joist and touching the pipe that runs from the boiler to the chimney and the coating was melting off. It was probably used at some time to hold up something or other, and was never removed. That's probably been there for decades and, at some point during the work, rested against the stovepipe and started melting when the stovepipe heated.

It's the beauty of old houses. "Character" -- yeah, that's it. :-)

They fired everything up again and so far, so good. It seems I'm getting paranoid; normally I might have figured this out myself.

They're sending someone out in the morning to check everything again. It's still a little smelly, probably from all the work they did. At least it doesn't smell like raw fuel oil again. Yet.

They are also going to provide an estimate for converting to propane. I don't know if I'll do that, but it can't hurt to consider it. It might be lower maintenance, with fewer things to go wrong.

They gave me a Weil McClain brochure on high efficiency propane boilers, eligible for a tax credit. Any thoughts on switching to propane? Does it just trade one headache for another?

On the other hand, moving south and buying a condo is also something that sounds good. :-)

sounds like your main problem is, there is not very many good service men in your area. One good service call should have fix all the problems you have. later paulbm

I think your problems are now solved.

Propane? Ugly tank outside. And costly.

Currently, I think fuel oil is about $2.60 a gallon. The equivalent price of propane should be $1.82 a gallon. The higher above $1.82 it is, the more your fuel costs will be.

You would do well to keep what you have now.

Thank you again, guys.

It does look like the problem was solved and I can't thank you both enough for your knowledgeable advice and support. It was the long road to the little house and took almost a dozen visits, but they finally tamed the beast. :-)

Paul, I think you are correct -- there are not a lot of good techs in this area it seems, at least for oil boilers. I went through 6 different techs (is this a record?)

That's weird, because there's a local community college with a reputable HVAC program. Must be the better ones get there educations and move to greener pastures.

What a shame, because lots of people in this area use oil heat, whether with boilers or forced air. Other people using both the same and other companies have expressed the same frustration. I don't mind paying for service -- it's worth it. And I can understand it may take a while to figure out the problem, but to just hit and run and then have to be called back multiple times for the same problem (often within an hour or two), is craziness.

If you know of a good tech in the Albany, NY area I'd be willing to pay top dollar for him/her.

Thank you for the info on propane, Baymee. I was hoping the higher efficiency propane burners would make the costs comparable, but after crunching the numbers, I can't justify it. Oil still looks to be more affordable.

All the best, baymee and paulbm!