Any chance I can clean out my own oil furnace?

The oil burning forced air furnace starts right and burns with a
well-shaped flame, but it hasn't been vacuumed for a season and a
half, and I would like to do it myself if I can.

I found 5 upright vacuum cleaners in the trash, and usually I just
unclog them and give them to Goodwill. These, however, were I think
thrown away by a maid who was going out of business, or one who bought
a whole bunch of new tools. Only one at most could be fixed cheaply,
but 2 of the other 4 have hoses on them.

I wouuld either use my shop-Vac, or one of these vacuum cleaners.

Probably best to use the junk vaccum?? If I burned it up, no loss,
if I didn't I could save it for next year. The Hoover has a 12 amp
motor.

The hose isn't that long, so I would use a piece of pipe and some tape
to temporarily join a couple hoses in series.

Would it be better to take off the belt that drives the brush? I
think it would spin faster then and have more suction. Or might the
motor spin too fast??


But frankly, the Hoover upright with hose confuses me. It's a typical
upright, but bagless, and has a hose attachment on the side by the
right rear wheel. The hose winds around and goes into the back. When
the hose is connected tothe vacuum at both ends, I don't know if any
dirt goes through the hose or not. BUT WHEN it is disconected at the
bottom and the upholstery attachment attached there, I don't know what
would cause there to be suction into the bag. The motor is near the
floor. How is it supposed to work? I have a general desire to
understand this -- I've sort of wondered for years -- not just related
to the furnace.

On Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:11:31 -0400, mm
wrote:

Any chance I can clean out my own oil furnace?

Maybe I should have said that I called my fuel oil company and, of
course, they're booked for a month, and said they would call when
there was a cancellation. But I'm not first on the list. And it's
going to be down to 40 tonight. Now I'll be fine tonight, but it
seems like this is a good time to see if I can clean it myself. I
don't want to start up with another furnace or oil company just for
this cleaning. I should have had it done over the summer, but I'm
getting better. This time I called 10 days ago, when it wasn't even
cold.

"mm" wrote in message
...
Any chance I can clean out my own oil furnace?

The oil burning forced air furnace starts right and burns with a
well-shaped flame, but it hasn't been vacuumed for a season and a
half, and I would like to do it myself if I can.


While it is not rocket science, to do it properly takes a bit of know-how.
Not sealed up right when you are done presents other problems as exhaust
gasses can escape. I don't know you skills and abilities so I'm not about
to say to give it a try.

As for the vacuums, you need a very fine filter or you will have black soot
all over the place.

In addition to cleaning, the service tech will change the nozzle, filter,
adjust the burner and check efficiency. I'd wait for the pro.

mm wrote:
Any chance I can clean out my own oil furnace?

The oil burning forced air furnace starts right and burns with a
well-shaped flame, but it hasn't been vacuumed for a season and a
half, and I would like to do it myself if I can.

I found 5 upright vacuum cleaners in the trash, and usually I just
unclog them and give them to Goodwill. These, however, were I think
thrown away by a maid who was going out of business, or one who bought
a whole bunch of new tools. Only one at most could be fixed cheaply,
but 2 of the other 4 have hoses on them.

I wouuld either use my shop-Vac, or one of these vacuum cleaners.

Probably best to use the junk vaccum?? If I burned it up, no loss,
if I didn't I could save it for next year. The Hoover has a 12 amp
motor.

The hose isn't that long, so I would use a piece of pipe and some tape
to temporarily join a couple hoses in series.

Would it be better to take off the belt that drives the brush? I
think it would spin faster then and have more suction. Or might the
motor spin too fast??


But frankly, the Hoover upright with hose confuses me. It's a typical
upright, but bagless, and has a hose attachment on the side by the
right rear wheel. The hose winds around and goes into the back. When
the hose is connected tothe vacuum at both ends, I don't know if any
dirt goes through the hose or not. BUT WHEN it is disconected at the
bottom and the upholstery attachment attached there, I don't know what
would cause there to be suction into the bag. The motor is near the
floor. How is it supposed to work? I have a general desire to
understand this -- I've sort of wondered for years -- not just related
to the furnace.



Why don't you just turn it on and test it? The
hose is connected at one end to the floor pickup
and at the other end to fan. Disconnect it from
the pickup and the hose will have suction.
Disconnect the end connected to the fan and the
hose will have no suction.

The brush doesn't move in most uprights until the
handle is moved down, so there is no need to
disconnect the brush belt. If they didn't do
that, many users would wear holes in their carpets
when vacuuming drapes and chairs.

I have a neighbor that's a HVAC tech. When I asked him about cleaning
out my gas furnace, he told me to just use my shop vac and air
compressor to clean it.

On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 02:16:19 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski"
wrote:


"mm" wrote in message
.. .
Any chance I can clean out my own oil furnace?

The oil burning forced air furnace starts right and burns with a
well-shaped flame, but it hasn't been vacuumed for a season and a
half, and I would like to do it myself if I can.


While it is not rocket science, to do it properly takes a bit of know-how.
Not sealed up right when you are done presents other problems as exhaust
gasses can escape. I don't know you skills and abilities so I'm not about
to say to give it a try.

As for the vacuums, you need a very fine filter or you will have black soot
all over the place.

In addition to cleaning, the service tech will change the nozzle, filter,
adjust the burner and check efficiency. I'd wait for the pro.

I've gotten fairly good at changing the nozzle (done it about 5 times)
and adjusting the electrodes, from watching and from buying (for only
a few dollars) a manual from someone online.

The one thing he omitted, and said he might get to later, was how to
vacuum.

The fine filter sounds important. Home Depot? Ace Hardware?
Janitorial supply?

I don't have an oil filter, and either one service tech or none of
them has suggested installing one in the last 23 years. When I get a
new furnace, I will put in an oil filter then.

The fi

On 13 Oct 2006 07:10:40 -0700, wrote:

I have a neighbor that's a HVAC tech. When I asked him about cleaning
out my gas furnace, he told me to just use my shop vac and air
compressor to clean it.

My mother likes gas heat. It's a lot cleaner. That goes 10 times for
the furnace.