Performed my first AquaHot maintenance yesterday and noticed that the burner is warped where it mates to the burner tube. Unit operates fine. Any ideas about what would cause this?
Ask Rudy. He knows.
Heat warped the swirler in your picture. Put the tube back on a do not worry about that. But be sure your burner is burning clean and clear with a high whine sound to the motor. A motor not running at speed, 4500 rpm, will allow the flame to ease back to the swirler and can melt the swirler if not attended to.
The four slots in the swirler where the air comes out need to be neat rectangler slots, no distortion in them.
Rudy thanks for the info. I did install a new burner nozzle and it seems to be working great. It used to puff a little white smoke at start up and it's not doing that now. It sounds good but is there a way to verify the motor RPM? Also wondering if there is any reason to flush and replace the coolant as routine maintenance? The coolant looks very clean so I don't really want to do it if there's no reason to. I appreciate your chiming in on this.
No need to replace coolant unless you contaminate it by using something else than antifreeze and distilled water.
Motor rpm is measured by removing the burner, removing the black case, putting a narrow photo strip on the plastic clutches, starting the motor with fuel lines connected to load the motor and measuring the rpm with a photo rpm meter.
But nice high whine is a good indicator of proper rpm.