No matter what you do every boiler needs to be repaired occasionally. Sometimes leaks occur, sometimes electrical controls malfunction, or any number of other problems could occur. Out of all the problems the ones to occur the most are ones pertaining to the burner. Here's a list of some of the most common burners so you can describe it to a technician if required.

The Beckett burner is one of the most popular burners in the north. It's easy to work on, simple to adjust, and a large number of parts work on it. There are several other kinds of Beckett burners; the AF which is an earlier model and the NX, which is just awful to work on. 

Carlin isn't quite as popular as the Beckett burner but there are still a good amount of them around. The Carlin is very similar to the Beckett in a couple ways. Almost all of the parts that work on a beckett will work on a Carlin except for the electrodes, fan, coupling and transformer. The Carlin is a little more finicky than the Beckett but all in all its very easy to work on. There are several kinds of Carlin burners but the EZpro is the most popular.

Riello is the newest of the three popular burners. Some guys swear by the Riello and say it's all they'll ever put in. I'm not one of those guys. The Riello burner is extremely touchy. You have to use instruments to set it and if its even a little off the burner runs terrible. When it runs well, it runs well but unfortunately burners need work occasionally and that's when Riello's faults really show. Another downside to the Riello is that since the parts only work on the Riello burner a lot of burner techs won't have them on their truck when you need them.