Cold weather is here and folks are starting to fire up their furnaces. Mastic Beach Fire Department has some words of wisdom for those of you with oil furnaces.
“It's puffback season, so we wanted to pass along some helpful information for our residents,” said Mastic Beach FD on their social media pages.
What exactly is a puffback? A puffback occurs when a furnace or boiler does not light correctly, which allows unburned fuel to build up inside the combustion chamber. The fuel eventually ignites, which causes something like a backfire. Imagine when a car exhaust system backfires, you see a plume of smoke come out of the exhaust pipe. That is similar to a puffback, except it happens in your home - often creating a large amount of soot and carbon monoxide and setting off smoke/carbon monoxide detectors.
“If you have an oil furnace, have it serviced at least once a year. They clean it out, change the oil filter, and check the flue pipe to make sure there's no blockage,” said
Bill Biondi, Commissioner of the Mastic Beach Fire Department. “A puff back happens when there isn’t proper ventilation. The ignition misfires. Homeowners press the little red button again too quickly, it re-fires again pumping more oil in there, and then the puff back fills your house up with smoke.”
Poor maintenance can also lead to improper combustion, which creates excessive exhaust gasses such as carbon monoxide. Improper combustion may also lead to excessive smoke coming from the chimney- sometimes seen as thick black or even white, smoke. While there is no guaranteed way to ensure a puffback does not occur, the best form of prevention is to get annual inspections and keep up on the maintenance of all fuel burning appliances. Call for your service today!