Reillo Oil Fired Central Heating Burner

Discussion in 'Burners and their construction' started by KDM, Mar 21, 2021.

  1. KDM

    KDM Copper

    I've got an Reillo T50 series oil burner. It seems to run OKay. I didn't have any paraffin, but diesel seems perfectly suitable.

    My furnace has been running well on charcoal with an air blower, but it's time to make something a bit more consistent; maybe slightly more effortless. So, I figure on opening up the tuyere from 1 inch to 90mm to admit the neck of the burner.

    I've looked for evidence of folk using central heating burners to heat their furnaces. I've not found many and the few I've seen seem to be focussed on using them to burn waste oil.

    I'm sceptical about running the burner in such a small space. I know if it was in its natural home in a central heating boiler, it would be equally confined. Is it safe?

    OKay, I reckon heating aluminium until it melts is inherently unsafe, but... is it PARTICULARLY unsafe?

    Can anyone steer me to some of OFCH burners used to heat furnaces? Is it a poor approach? can I simply shove the neck of my burner into my furnace and switch it on?

    Busting to talk to the local expert! Thanks.
     
  2. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Melting aluminum isn’t inherently unsafe if you have your wits about you and exclude water. Whatever pipe you have penetrating the furnace will get very hot for at least a few inches, so there’s that. A heat shroud should help keep the unit cooler and dissipate some of the heat as well as protect it from the hot furnace exterior. One of the main differences in the new use of the burner is that you’ll be standing there watching it while it’s in use, so I’d be more concerned about self-damage than it causing some sort of catastrophe. How about some pictures of the unit?
    You can count on any hole saw you use on refractory to be junk before you’re through with the job, so don’t borrow it from a friend! By its nature it won’t tolerate straight chiseling very well either. Think of an egg shell. I would probably mark the hole with a bimetal hole saw and then use a masonry drill bit to perforate the hole, then chisel it out. Keep a sharpening stone handy. I was trying to shape a chunk of it once with a rasp and it took the teeth right off.

    Pete
     
  3. KDM

    KDM Copper

    If it comes to it, I've made a couple of furnaces and I'm comfortable enough to make a new one with a bigger hole. I'd just like to see an example of someone using this approach before I go to those lengths.

    Actually, when these units are fitted to boilers, there is a kind of heat shroud. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing? At the end of the day, I'm really only using it for what it's intended...

    There's very little we do which is inherently unsafe if we have out wits about us. But I'm thinking of driving, because we can't guarantee every other motorist is even awake!
     
  4. KDM

    KDM Copper

    OKay, cool. Cut the tuyere bigger. I removed the metalwork off the outside with a grinder then took an air chisel to the refactory. It was quite powdery and may not have much life left in it.
    Anyway, I fit the OFCH burner, and fuelled it with diesel. It was melting aluminium in 15 minutes. I did manage a small amount of bronze, but it took half an hour, even after the furnace was already hot.

    IMG_8593.JPG

    I think I need more air. The flame is very yellow and I think it could be made hotter.

    IMG_8566.JPG
     
  5. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    It looks like you tuyere directs the flame straight into the furnace more or less parallel to a radius. You might want to do a little more steel and refractory work to direct the flame so it strikes the interior furnace wall at more or less a tangent.

    You are probably right about the need for more combustion air. The burner designer likely specifically avoided maximum flame temp to preserve the furnace’s innards. Once your furnace is up to max temp, the side walls and flame should look pretty white. It might take a half hour or maybe more to hit max temp.

    It may be challenging to get more air through the burner. I guess I’d try ‘super charging’ it with a leaf blower or shop vac just to see what happens. The special fans in burners, by virtue of the tuned design, may or may not increase total air flow in response.

    Denis
     
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  6. KDM

    KDM Copper

    It's tangential. By design. though the tuyere is now virtually 1/3 the diameter of the internal furnace! So, it's hard to see.

    I found a damper adjustment. I gave it a twiddle. I suspect it was already full open. Will try a bit more forcing of air tomorrow. Thanks.
     
  7. rocco

    rocco Silver

    See if you can find the spec sheet for your burner. Burners of that type have a number of different sized nozzles available for them and there is a specification that states the minimum and maximum recommended flow rate of the nozzle. The adjustment range of the air damper is designed to be able to achieve a neutral flame for any nozzle in the recommended range. You can find the flow rate of your nozzle stamped on the side of the nozzle, here North America it would be in U.S, gal/hr, not sure what units of measure would be used in the U.K.
     
  8. KDM

    KDM Copper

    The nozzles options are specified in terms of angle! I wonder what the difference might be between a 60 degree nozzle and an 80 degree nozzle!

    Yes: I reckon it was already set of fully open. It certainly wasn't "lean" (yellow flame and a bit of smoke), but then it's running diesel rather than kerosene. I think there's very little difference, but ....

    Something which is made up of units which are factors of 10, I would hope, rather than those Godforsaken British units you use in NA!

    Yes, I know hours minutes and seconds aren't very SI friendly and they seem to be Imperial the world over. The world don't divide by 10. The prime (!) example is "365 days a year - sometimes"! :)

    The plate says 1.5 ÷ 2.5 kg/h but the sign used looks more live a divide sign (a dash with a dot top and bottom). What's that all about?
     
  9. rocco

    rocco Silver

    Spray angle is an additional spec, I'm not sure what effect that has on the performance of a burner, there also a spray pattern spec, hollow or solid cone again, not how it effects performance.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2021
  10. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Furnace guy just pulled a bad nozzle out of the Riello burner on my home heating furnace. Figured some pix of the nozzle and its stampings, etc., might be of interest to someone one day.

    Burner:
    20210421_160230.jpg

    20210421_160154.jpg

    Old nozzle (the plastic container is the one he had left over from the new nozzle, which I suspect is slightly different from the old nozzle...)

    20210421_154645.jpg

    .60 vs .65?

    20210421_154708.jpg

    70W, check.

    20210421_154733.jpg

    No idea what the little e15 means...

    20210421_154813.jpg

    Hard to make out here but the brass tip is also stamped "Delevan - Made in U.S.A", though the burner was made here in Canada. They don't stamp the nozzles in metric for us, but maybe the ones in the UK are differently marked (or sourced).

    Jeff
     
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  11. rocco

    rocco Silver

    That would be very similar to the 0.50-0.95 gph that Jeff shows in his post.

    BTW, those aren't Imperial or British gallons, they're American gallons.
    1.0 Imperial gal=4.54L,
    1.0 U.S. gal= 3.78L
     
  12. KDM

    KDM Copper

    If you have the inclination, I think you'll find the sintered filter unscrews. Inside you'll find about 3 parts. (You might have to gently dig the first part out as it probably has a seal.) Look how TINY the actual fuel paths are. They're less than a hair across!

    The orifice plate (the bit at the front with the hole) is probably the critical part. I've cleaned my orifice ( no pun ) a few times with the compressor.

    I'm going to stop here, because about 25 innuendos just popped into my head.
     
    Tobho Mott likes this.
  13. 3Dcasting

    3Dcasting Copper

    Hey! we have the same burner, that workhorse Riello 40.

    I remember before I get into melting it seemed so complicated to repair/fix/clean. Now it seems child's play.

    For anyone not knowing, the 70 o (degrees) is the angle of the flame and the W the shape. There are various shapes, like full cone or hollow cone. The .60 is the gallons per hour since it's for North America. Ours are rated at kg/hour. I think there are 3 companies for such nozzles.

    Just recently I got mine apart and fixed a leak which soaked the sound blanket and then the floor. This burner uses a separate line from the pump to actuate a bronze piston to control the air clapper. More pressure for diesel (hence more diesel) = more pressure in the clapper = more air for the diesel. So all you need to adjust is the setscrew in the pump. Pretty cool. But after so many winters the piston leaked and I had to replace the O ring. First try was not successful so I added a new flange in front of the original O ring and now works like new.
     
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  14. KDM

    KDM Copper

    What kind of temperatures are you getting? I think I'm barely getting 1100 centigrade. Copper is a struggle.
     

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