snafu wrote:
I have an oil-based hot-water system running a Lennox Furnace with a
Beckett burner. Ever since the system was installed 15 years ago, the
furnace has burned with a loud rumble, louder than any other oil
furnace I've encountered. I have the furnace serviced annually by a
pro(filter, nozzle, cleanup)who claims that nothing can be done to
quiet the furnace down. Also, about every winter or two the burner
conks out with carbon deposits fouling the electrodes.

Any chance you've had the same guy for 15 years? Do you pay "normal"
cleaning/maint charges or does he always have some "extras" you have to pay
for?
Maybe it's time to try a new handyman? Get a reference, sort of?
It's not normal for the burners to "rumble". 99% of the time the pump makes
more noise than the flames do if everything is working right.
You might ask this question on the mfg's web site, too.


Anyway, I was complaining to a friend about all of this and he said
he had the same problem with his oil furnace on a hot air system. He
said he quieted his furnace down by moving the electrodes out "just a
hair" further from the nozzle and suggested I give it a try. Before I
do, I'd like to ask a few questions.

Has anyone tried this, and did it work?

I haven't tried that way, but I have set it to exact specs for postioning
and often let the "error" be on the high side rather than the low side.
There's always a small possibility the specs are wrong and were corrected,
but you'd have no way of knowing that. It's not ultra-critical, actually,
but there is a "best" setting for them.

Is there risk of damage to the electrodes, maybe burning them out by
raising the combustion temp. by moving them?

Not really, but yes if they're misadjusted too far. Or, you won't get
ignition at all.

How critical are the specs on the electrodes -- gap distance, angle
to the nozzle, distance from the nozzle, etc.??

It's not rocket science, but like I said, it does have to be near the spec.
It's not all that unusual to have things like that change on old furnaces as
the transformers age, the grid voltage changes slightly, things like that.
IFF you have a way to "put them back" where they were, I'd probably say give
it a try. But if you're not comfortable, you might end up calling a repair
guy after all.

I'm willing to give his idea a try, but want to make sure I'm not
going to mess things up worse than they are and have my furnace go
out on the coldest night of the winter.

When you look at the flames thru the viewport, what do they look like?
Blue? Yellow tips? How much yellow? Any orange or red? Steady? Bouncy?
Lifting up from the burner? Consistant all along the burner? Higher in one
place than others? Etc..
That descrip might get you some more pointed responses than mine.

Pop`


TIA for any advice.