When you're out of oil will your water heater turn on for a short period of time?

Question

In this scenario would you assume that the person was out of oil or that say, the lense needed to be cleaned on the boiler (or there was another problem w/ the boiler)?

Day 1- 75 gallons of oil delivered to our new rental (it's a free standing building so we're no one else is using the oil)

Day 21- Pilot light went out, went down in the basement to reset it. Maintenance man says probably from losing power in the thunder storm the previous night.

Day 23- Had to reset again.

Day 24-reset again, and was off again in a matter of hours. Our power DEFINITELY didn't go off this time, so that's not why it's turning off.

My landlord is the guy who had the oil delivered AND said he would fix the broken gauge on the tank but never got around to it (naturally.) This is our first month here and I'm trying to make heads and tails of this situation. Of course I'll have to call my landlord and wait and see what his maintenance man says but for now any thoughts are appreciated. :-l

Answer 1

if the fuel tank went completely dry there may be air trapped in the feed line,remove the line where it enters the furnace,drain the oil into a jar till all air bubbles are gone ,replace the line ,restart,...see if that fixes it.............tom

Answer 2

A storm with high winds can sometimes force enough air down the vent and blow the pilot light out. No electricity goes to the water heater if there is a pilot light that burn all the time. The gage should be replaced when the tank is empty. If the fuel is propane, at night the pressure drops possibly to low to keep it burning. During the heat of the day it raises and could be relight. I would be in question as to exactly how much fuel was actually put in the tank.

The thermocouple could be going bad. When it fails the gas is shut off. There is no way a water heater of normal size could use that much fuel in less than a month. If it was put in the tank, it must have a leak somewhere!

**JD