Cleaning, safety checks and repair
A cleaning keeps an oil burner running clean and safe through the heating season, and the report shows you how it ran.
Signs it's due
It's been a year or more since the last cleaning
Soot on the boiler, the floor or the walls near it
A smell of fuel or hot dust when it starts
The burner starts with a bang, or cycles on and off
Rooms that used to heat evenly and don't
At the visit
What happens when we come
- 01
Step 1: We read it running
Combustion, flue temperature and carbon monoxide at the stack, written down before we touch anything.
- 02
Step 2: We clean it
Nozzle and filter replaced, heat exchanger and flue passages brushed and vacuumed, electrodes and burner head cleaned.
- 03
Step 3: We check the safeties
Primary control, limit, low-water cutoff, circulators, zone valves, expansion tank and your carbon monoxide alarms.
- 04
Step 4: We test it again
The same readings after the cleaning, so the report shows the change.
- 05
Step 5: You get the report
A written report, the same day, with anything that will need attention. A repair is quoted first, and nothing starts without your yes.
The number
What drives the cost
We don't print prices for work that depends on your house. These are the things that move the number, and you get it in writing before we start.
Age and make of the boiler
Parts for an older boiler can take longer to find.
How much soot and scale there is
A boiler skipped for several years takes more time to clean.
Whether it's a repair as well
A cleaning is one visit; a repair is a diagnosis, a quote and a second visit if parts must be ordered.
The part that failed
A nozzle and a primary control are very different parts and very different bills.
Access
A boiler under low pipes or at the bottom of steep stairs takes longer to reach.
When you call
Heating-season weekends and nights are billed at the after-hours rate, quoted before we dispatch.
Choices
Repair or replace
We repair what's worth repairing. When the heat exchanger is cracked or the repairs start to cost more than the boiler is worth, we say so and you decide.
Repair
When the boiler is sound and the failed part is a single part.
Replace
When the heat exchanger leaks, the boiler is past its sensible life, or the efficiency is far below what a new one gives.
Questions we hear
How often should it be cleaned?
Once a year, before the heating season. A boiler that has given trouble may need a midwinter look.
Do I need to be home?
Someone over eighteen needs to let us in and walk to the boiler with us. We'll stay out of rooms you'd rather we didn't enter.
What do the combustion numbers mean?
They show how completely the oil burns. We explain the numbers on the report and what a change from last year means.
Will you replace anything without asking?
Only the parts a cleaning always replaces, the nozzle and the filter. Anything else is quoted first.
Contact
Book it, or ask first
Pick the visit and we'll call you back to set a time. Weekday calls are returned the same business day.
- Monday – FridayToday
- 7 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- SaturdayToday
- 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
- SundayToday
- Closed
Outside these hours, no-heat calls go to our on-call technician from October to April. The after-hours rate is quoted before we dispatch.