Why You Should Be Aware Of Puff Back When You Use Home Heating Oil
by Admin on Mar.03, 2010, under Uncategorized
Puff back might not sound too threatening but it could end up doing quite a bit of damage to your home. Puff back occurs when soot shoots out of your boiler due to a misfire. The soot which is expelled from your boiler could end up causing a lot of damage depending on the scale of the event. If you have expensive furniture in the vicinity it could end up costing you quite a bit of money. And soot has been known to spread through the house if not dealt with as soon as possible.
What Causes Puff Back?
The reason why a puff back occurs is that the ignition in your boiler has failed to work as it should. Oil vapours can build up when the ignition does not work immediately. When the boiler does ignite it causes a mini explosion and this can send soot out of the boilers exhaust. These explosions are generally not life threatening and are quite similar to how a car exhaust back fires. But aside from them not being dangerous, these explosions can actually cause quite a bit of damage depending on how big they are and the location of your boiler. Sometimes these little explosions can be quite un-noticeable as they may not produce a lot of soot.
But if they continue to happen it could mean a lot of damage. In many cases people don’t notice the problem for weeks or months and by that stage a lot of damage has already occurred.
How to Prevent Puff Back
A faulty ignition switch is normally the main reason why puff back occurs. This is why as soon as you notice any soot you should call out the professionals straight away to fix the problem. Of course they main way to prevent the problem is to have your boiler undergo maintenance regularly.
Heating ones home in the cold months of winter can cost a fair packet. Fuel such as electricity and gas show no signs of coming down in price. Clever people are switching to heating oil as a fuel though. When they do they always need their tanks filled with cheapest heating oil to make sure they don’t run dry in the cold weather.