About 3 years ago, we had a brand new furnace installed. During a very cold stretch of weather, we ran out of oil. We received a delivery right away. For several months after the furnace would stop running and a big red button would be flashing. We called the tech that installed it and told us that is the reset button, go a head and hit the button. The furnace would fire up and run great. But the stoppage would continue, sometimes several times a day. Other times the furnace would not fire back up and we would need to bleed the fuel. We figured since it ran out of oil, there was air in the line. But this ordeal lasted many many months. Eventually it stopped. Fast fwd a year later, again ran very low on oil but did not run out. Filled have the tank up and a few days later, it started doing the same thing. Been going on now for about 3 weeks. I don't expect to be able to fix this problem myself, I am looking for knowledge. Can running out of oil or running low on oil cause air to get into your lines and give headaches for months? To me that sounds ridiculous. I would say it has to be a different issue but way too much of a coincidence to have this issue 2 times, both when either out of oil or very low. I never really go below 1/4 tank and I have ran out one time in my life. I know many people that run out regularly and never have this issue. I have grown tired of it and plan on having a tech look at it but need to wait for winter to be done.
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Welcome to the forums.

Don't wait for the winter to end.

If I had to hazard a guess you either have a partially clogged nozzle or the fuel filter is clogged.
Depending on the age of the tank..... running out of fuel can dredge up some slime that can cause clogs.

 

The tank itself is very very old. I failed to mention, I want to say this happened right after the furnace was installed. The tech thought he may have put in the wrong nozzle. But the issue went away until I ran out of oil. I would agree that it has to be a clog issue but...why did it stop for well over a year? And the few times in the past few weeks that I actually needed to bleed it, the fuel was very "gurgley" until it poured smooth. That suggests air to me. Lets say it's a clog, what are talking? Nozzle, filter, maybe a new fuel line and a tank?

 

First, running out of oil or low oil has nothing to do with headaches. If you are getting headaches I would suspect carbon monoxide which is your boiler exhaust and should be going up the chimney. If it is actually carbon monoxide it is dangerous and could kill you. It is called the silent killer. For that part of your problem you need an efficiency test done to set up your boiler properly and make sure you have proper draft to eliminate the CO.

As far as your boiler going out. If it was air in the line you would have to bleed it before it would run. If you are just resetting it and it comes back on it is not air. Once air gets in the line the oil will not move until the air is removed.

As PJ mentioned you could have a dirty pump screen or a defective nozzle but if that were the case you lockouts would be more consistant. With a pump screen or nozzle problem since they don't improve with age it's unlikely your boiler would run weeks or days at a time before locking out.

As far as low oil goes, it depends where your oil line is feeding the burner. Are you coming off the bottom of the tank or feeding from the top. If you are feeding from the top it depends how low they put your oli line from the bottom of the tank. If they left it fairly high up then yes, 1/4 of a tank might seem like you're out.

Your boiler, if oil, should be serviced yearly, at least the nozzle, filter, and pump screen if you have a habit of letting your oil run low. Although the boilers today do not soot up like the old ones if properly set up they should still be checked.

Aside from a possible oil problem it sounds like your transformer or ignitor which is the same thing may be getting weak. That is the black box on your burner that sends the spark to the electrodes and ignite the oil from the nozzle. It is the one part that can be very erradic. It can run for a week or it run for a day before it acts up and when reset it may act as if nothing happened.

These are just thoughts given the info we have. It boils down to this. There are basically 2 reasons your boiler will not light. No oil or no ignition. If you know you have oil and you do not have to bleed to get it going then you have an ignition problem which is your transformer or your electrodes.

I appologize for the long post but I didn't see your previous post in time. If you are in fact bleeding this to get it going check for loose fitings starting at the filter canister and check all the oil line fittings. All connections must be FLAIR. If you have any COMPRESSION fittings replace them.

Hope this helps a little.

 

Haha, the headaches part was in reference to the furnace being a headache for acting up...not physical headaches but I appreciate the inside on CO

I believe oil is drawn from the bottom of the tank if I remember correctly.

In the past 3 weeks, maybe 2 days of that had no resets. Otherwise it's 1 to 3 resets per day. For example, I woke up around 1am and checked th furnace, it's become a habit. Red light was flashing. I hit the button, furnace starts up but does not ignite for about 10 seconds. It did not ignite. At this point I grabbed my container and wrench, hit the reset button again, cracked the bleeder...air came out. I closed the bleeder and the furnace ignited. I went to bed, woke up for work...all was good. Came home from work and it was still good. A few hours later I check it and it was flashing. I hit the reset button and it fired up. it will probably go out again before bed.
Over the past 3 weeks I have probably reset this thing 30 times and bleed it maybe 8..

​​​​i know there is some air in there because I see it when it's bled. But I also feel it could be gummed up. Just seems super odd. Low oil causes clogging, so that could be why it does not ignite but what is causing the air?
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But as far as filters and screens go, I think that is routine maintenance that I should have done anyway. I just don't want to have to replace the fuel line nor oil tank lol

 

Having done primarily oil burner service for 30+ years, trust me when I say when pulling from the bottom of an old tank is going to give you "headaches". My advise is to run a SINGLE line from the top of the tank, stay 4-6" off the tank bottom with the end of the pick up line. Install a Tigerloop & a good filter & you "headaches" will go away.
Here are two different models. I prefer the one without the filter because I prefer to install my own filter configuration. https://www.supplyhouse.com/sh/contr...il+de-aerators