"smk17" wrote in message
...
We have a brand new oil furnace and new tank. Our oil delivery company
put a red flag on our old furnace and haven't delivered oil for a
while. But the gauge on the new tank said we had 1/2 tank left.

Thursday night we realized it was getting cold. To make a long story
short, the furnace hadn't been on since noon that day. The green light
on it was blinking. Resetting it didn't work. So we called the guy who
installed it. Earlier that day we had a huge power surge, lights
dimmed, tv went out, lasted 3 seconds. So I told that to the repair
guy thinking that was the cause of the furnace no longer working.

He ran a few tests, but no oil was coming through. This is where my
terminology goes bad... he thought the pump wasn't working because
the new magnetic switch on the pump it has may be fried. So he put on
the old pump from our old furnace. Finally oil started coming through,
spitting and sputtering. Then stopped after 10-15 seconds.

He went over to the tank, wiggled the gauge and it immediately dropped
to empty. that brand new gauge had been stuck, it wasn't half full, it
was empty....

So it was late, 10:30 pm, there wasn't much more he could do for us.
So we called our oil delivery guys and they came out at about midnight
and gave us 10 gallons of fuel. That guy got the furnace started after
MANY attempts at priming it. But it started, heat was coming out and
it worked so I went to bed.

Next morning it was very cold in our house. The green light was going
off again. I really had no idea if we had gone through 10 gallons in a
six hour stretch.

So to my point....

I bought 15 gallons of fuel and put it on myself. As of right now, I
can get the furnace started after many attempts of priming it,
resetting it, etc, but once the house reaches the correct temperature
and the furnace shuts off, it will not come back on by itself. Green
light blinking.

Any thoughts? The guy that installed the furnace is coming back but
I'm just wondering what the heck is going on? Sludge in the line,
air??



It would be helpful for you to be at the burner when it is trying to fire.
Raise the set point on the stat, try to see what's going on with the flame.

A couple of things related to running out of oil:
The nozzle could be clogged, causing no flow, or insufficient flow for the
flame sensor. Also, dirty nozzles can appear as an intermittent problem.
When messing with the pumps, a fitting could be just slightly loose, letting
air back in the line, losing the pump prime.

With multiple restarts, you should watch as the burner tries to lite, to see
if it seems like it is sputtering air, and then comes on with a normal
flame.

If it's not air and instead the nozzle is partially clogged, you will see an
"asymmetrical" flame, that does not improve much, or may change suddenly.

Nozzles are very easy to clean.
May want to run the pump with the nozzle off, see what comes out. Not a bad
idea in general.
Put wrenches on the various joints, see what tightens up. Could be a union.

Other than this, it could be other unrelated issues, which just happened to
pop up now.

Did I just say "issues"????

Yes I did! The programming is apparently complete!!
--
EA