Oil Furnaces Scare Me

Just put a new nozzle in my garage furnace. Hit the start button and after about 2 minutes smoke began coming out everywhere. I immediately shut it down. I opened the inspection window and there was a nice fire burning inside. I got that fire out, diconnected the furnace and drug it outside. Is there an electric heater that would heat a 22' x 18 " garage?

Sure there is but they will start a fire when a combustible is left too close. Everything needs proper maintenance and attention.

If there was any residual oil in the chamber they will smoke like mad . shut off , let fire go out by itself, relight , usually okay after that,

Like Bryan said, residual oil in the chamber will do exactly what your describing. I've seen it many times in the past with my parsnts old oil furnace as well as the waste oil furnace in my dad's shop. In either case the fire is contained within th firebox, right where it should be, and that's about as safe as you can get.... Think about this, wood and coal fird heaters were around before oil fired, oil fired before gas fired, electric jumped in somewhere along the way. In all cases with proper maintnance and operation ALL choices are just as safe as any of the others. "Accidental" fires don't just happen for no reason.......

Diesel fuel won't explode unless you added gasoline. Can't burn any faster than it has oxygen for. I've seen them shake, rattle and smoke until the excessive oil is gone. I remember when you threw lite toilet paper inside an oil furnace to light them. You can do the same next time to burn off your excess oil. No big deal.

Did you require a change in underware?

As for electric heat. I can heat my 24x24 with a 1500 watt baseboard electric heater.

My garage has insulated doors, windows, R-20 walls and R-50 attic.

I would recommend insulating is you are going with electric. They do make 5 and 10 kw heaters you can hang from your ceiling.

I have a 10 kw heater hanging in the corner 16 ft tall garage. Heat rises, so it takes the warmest air near the ceiling and sends it back down. Very large shop. This will take the edge off the temp. I would need another 10 kw if I wanted to make it 70 degrees.

I have another 24x24 block garage, not as well insulated as the one attached to house. I have three 1500 watt IR heaters hanging from ceiling. I have them set up so when at the work bench I can focus the heat on myself. Like standing next to a fire. Love it. Only use for a short time when in garage working. IR heaters heat you more than they heat the air.

You can attach an oil line to your furncce, extension cord and fire it off outside. I've even attached an oil line to just the oil gun and fired them off outside. Lets you see if have the spark rods set right. If they are not, you can see the oil mist hit them and drip off. Can move the nozzle and get the best blow torch effect too.

George

(quoted from post at 15:57:02 12/13/12) Just put a new nozzle in my garage furnace. Hit the start button and after about 2 minutes smoke began coming out everywhere. I immediately shut it down. I opened the inspection window and there was a nice fire burning inside. I got that fire out, diconnected the furnace and drug it outside. Is there an electric heater that would heat a 22' x 18 " garage?

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We have local HVAC guys come in and service our oil burning boiler. They replace the nozzle and change the filter and clean and inspect the unit. Costs about $125, cheap insurance in my mind. Previous unit there when we moved in had a badly clogged heat exchanger, first time we fired it up it was blowing exhaust out the inspection hole instead of up the flue. The PO never had it serviced. We ended up replacing it instead of worrying if when we went to bed we would never wake up

Yes there is, I heat mine with a 220 volt, 5000 watt hanging electric heater. Works fine. I found it on line, I think northern tool also sells them. My garage is 14x35 with 9' ceilings.

I have one to sell in Flora, IL. $75
Dennis

"Diesel fuel won't explode unless you added gasoline"

I told this here before, but you remined me. Decades ago when was stationed in Germany, a group of about 20 of us was up on some ski mountain living in a GP Medium tent in the dead of winter in deep snow for about a month. For heat, we had two pot bellie stoves, diesel fired. It was very cold and the diesel was as thick as mud and wouldn't drip out of the nozzle for squat. The manuals very clearly said to treat (thin) the diesel with denatured alcohol if needed, NEVER USE GASOLINE TO THIN, blah, blah, blah. We were in the middle of nowhere, on a ski mountain, no denatured alcohol, but the cans on the jeeps had plenty of gasoline, so... We mixed the gasoline with the diesel, and it worked ok. But as time went on, they separated and the lighter gasoline flowed to the top of the cans, the diesel to the bottom, and into the burners first. As they thickened up without us realizing that was going on, we kept adjusting the flow controls to flow more to maintain the same burn. Got late, so we all hit the sleeping bags and cots for the night, sound asleep. During the middle of the night, we were awakened by the loud roar of a fire out of control, which was what happened when the last of the diesel cleared the nozzle into the fire, followed by the much thinner, far more volitale gasoline quickly emptying out into and overflowing out of the pot belly. Half asleep and unable to put it out in time, we made it out, but that GP Medium burned to the ground with everything in it. When word got back to the battalion commander, he was so angry that he left us up there a couple of extra weeks, sleeping in jeeps, trucks, shelters on the back of 5 tons. He made us pay for being stupid. We had to dig it all up with shovels and put it into plastic bags to clear the land of "hazardous materials" and the german government had to come out and take ground samples to insure we got it all. We learned our lesson, and never did that again.

Mark