Many homeowners – especially those with newer homes – have probably never heard of a puff back, and fortunately so. Although it might sound like something that happens when one person blows cigarette smoke in another person’s face, a puff back is actually a fairly destructive type of furnace malfunction. A puff back occurs when an oil-burning furnace essentially backfires, causing significant amounts of soot to suddenly fill the home. Some puff backs can occur instantly, sending all of the soot flying in one single blast; in other situations, the soot will scatter gradually on a slower path of destruction.
The effects of a puff back can vary based on the situation at hand. In some cases, a thick layer of soot will suddenly spread itself over surfaces throughout the entire home. In other instances, the soot will simply appear as a light coating similar in appearance to regular dust. The key difference between puff back soot and standard dust particles is that dust tends to be odor-free, while soot has an unmistakably noticeable odor.
Of course, the best way to deal with puff backs is to prevent them from happening in the first place. By having your oil burning furnace inspected yearly, you’ll be doing your part to prevent such a messy malfunction. However, the thing about puff backs is that they’re not easy to predict, and despite your best efforts, you might one day find yourself in an unfortunately filthy situation.
If a puff back does occur inside your home, then you’ll want to shut your furnace off right away so that it doesn’t continue to blow soot all over the place. You’ll then need to contact your insurance company to make a claims representative aware of the incident. Once your claim is in the works, you’ll want to call an emergency cleaning service such as PuroClean Property Paramedics that is trained to deal with such situations. When it comes to puff backs, it’s important to begin the cleaning process as soon as possible. Soot has a high tendency to travel, and it will keep reappearing if it is not properly removed.
Although you might be tempted to take cleanup matters in your own hands, be warned that soot removal comes with its own set of special instructions. While it’s best to leave the cleanup to the professionals, if you are going to tackle it on your own, then make sure to never run your bare hands along the affected areas of your home. The oils from your fingers can mix with the soot to create a smear that can cause further damage to walls and other parts of the home.
Even if you are somehow able to effectively remove most of the soot, there’s still that whole “smell factor” to tackle. Most homeowners don’t have the ability to get rid of that unsettlingly strong stench that soot likes to leave behind. An emergency cleaning service, on the other hand, will be well-equipped to eliminate that rather unpleasant odor.
Although puff backs aren’t the most common of occurrences, they can happen to anyone with the right – or wrong – set of circumstances. If you ever have the misfortune of suddenly finding yourself in a soot-soaked mess, then call an emergency cleaning service before the problem worsens. Then, you also might want to consider upgrading your furance.
