Oil Burner

Just had the yearly checkup last week for my furnace. Have not had my heat on yet. Nevertheless my furnace does go on as it heats the water. I'm noticing today that the furnace turns on very frequently (maybe every half hour) and only stays on a minute. Can't figure out what's going on.Any ideas?

How much oil is in the tank? If it were the filter, that should have been changed during the inspection. Since there should be some "warantee" on the work they just did, call the company and ask for a free revisit.

The tank is almost full.

Possible sludge build-up on the bottom of the tank that is preventing flow. It sounds like something blocking the flow.

The boiler was cleaned last Monday and I do have hot water. I haven't turned on the thermostat because I don't need it.

Perhaps a hot water tap has been left on somewhere in the house?  

Could be a problem with the ignition control settings that determine when the boiler turns on & off. We converted to gas a few years ago (PSE&G installed), but used Woolley Fuel for over 30 years, and highly suggest you give them a call if the problems continue. Great company and very responsive.

If you had a tune up, do you have a service contract?  If so this is what it is for.  Call them.

If you do not, then you need to call whoever did the tune up, tell them something has been wrong since then, and that they need to come back out and fix it.

Thanks for all the advice which I will use.

I had a problem like this with my gas-fired boiler some years ago. The problem was that the damper was not staying open to allow the air flow so the boiler would shut down as soon as it sensed that.

In this context I don't think it matters if it is an oil or gas-fired unit.

One cheap solution is to set the damper to be open all the time (although that is less efficient).

Try a search on YouTube.