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Oddbod
Hi,
I'm not a heating engineer and I have no intention of touching our boiler, but I really could do with some friendly advice regarding a weird fault.
The boiler is an 8-year old ThermeconS90/120. Burner is an Ecoflam Minor 4. Nozzle is a 1.10/60 Location is a dry outhouse.
When cold the boiler will fire with a flame established, but almost immediately locks out. Press the lockout button and the boiler fires and behaves normally. The fault only seems to occur when firing from cold. Any residual heat and things work fine.
What follows is the history. I'm not being critical of any of the engineers actions – the detail is just there 'cos I don't know what matters and what doesn’t.
The boiler was working perfectly until it was serviced. The nozzle was replaced however the port normally used for the air supply probe could not be used as something was “spinning around” (I assume the plug screw or connector thread stripped?). The engineer drilled a hole in the flue but then found he didn't have the right sensor equipment so didn't set up the air supply. There was no black smoke from the flue so it was deemed OK. He didn’t seal the hole in the flue.
Following the service there was a tiny continual oil leak from a connection - a drip an hour kind of thing.
After a week the fault started to occur and the engineer came back, cleaned the nozzle (it being sooted up) and set the combustion mixture using the hole in the flue for the sensor. It took a long time and the air setting ended up much higher than the manufacturers suggested range (and much higher from what it was when the boiler was working before the service)
It worked fine for a week and then the fault started to reoccur. The engineer stopped taking my calls.
I found a second engineer – really nice bloke, well recommended and clearly knew oil boilers.
The second engineer performed another service. Fixed the oil drip, cleaned out the baffles which were full of red powder and set up the combustion. Didn't change the nozzle.
A week later the fault reoccurred.
The engineer returned and replaced the nozzle. (On the grounds that the first one may have been faulty since it was the only thing replaced since the boiler had worked). Set up the combustion again, ending up with the air setting much nearer to the recommended value this time.
This morning the fault reoccured.
Before I ring him again I'm just wondering if anyone has any great ideas we could check out. This has all the makings of a “just throw bits at it 'till it works” saga. Which is fine if that's all we can do, but I'd feel daft if I hadn't at least asked if this problem rings a bell with someone.
Following are some additional points.They may or may not be correct.
The boiler was working fine until the service, so something happened at that point. The first engineer inadvertently damaged or changed something or otherwise provoked the fault – photocell, wire, control board? (I'm not having a pop here, I know that coincidence happens and that the slightest disturbance can exacerbate an existing fault. That said I do now wonder how experienced the first engineer actually was.)
According to the second engineer the photocell is clean and seems to be in the right place.
The oil tank is pretty full. It was not topped up, the supplier was not changed etc. The oil pressure and filter seem fine.
The solenoid seems to be OK (it seems they usually fail when hot not cold).
(See, I now know far more about oil boilers than I ever thought I would!)
So I have two questions. Is anyone thinking “Oh yeah, that's obviously.......”? Secondly would it be worth replacing the whole Ecoflam burner. I believe it's a couple of hundred pounds and, provided the fault is somewhere in the existing burner, it wouldn't take too many more visits for that to become the cheapest option – let alone the most convenient one!
Thanks for any advice.
Oddbod
I'm not a heating engineer and I have no intention of touching our boiler, but I really could do with some friendly advice regarding a weird fault.
The boiler is an 8-year old ThermeconS90/120. Burner is an Ecoflam Minor 4. Nozzle is a 1.10/60 Location is a dry outhouse.
When cold the boiler will fire with a flame established, but almost immediately locks out. Press the lockout button and the boiler fires and behaves normally. The fault only seems to occur when firing from cold. Any residual heat and things work fine.
What follows is the history. I'm not being critical of any of the engineers actions – the detail is just there 'cos I don't know what matters and what doesn’t.
The boiler was working perfectly until it was serviced. The nozzle was replaced however the port normally used for the air supply probe could not be used as something was “spinning around” (I assume the plug screw or connector thread stripped?). The engineer drilled a hole in the flue but then found he didn't have the right sensor equipment so didn't set up the air supply. There was no black smoke from the flue so it was deemed OK. He didn’t seal the hole in the flue.
Following the service there was a tiny continual oil leak from a connection - a drip an hour kind of thing.
After a week the fault started to occur and the engineer came back, cleaned the nozzle (it being sooted up) and set the combustion mixture using the hole in the flue for the sensor. It took a long time and the air setting ended up much higher than the manufacturers suggested range (and much higher from what it was when the boiler was working before the service)
It worked fine for a week and then the fault started to reoccur. The engineer stopped taking my calls.
I found a second engineer – really nice bloke, well recommended and clearly knew oil boilers.
The second engineer performed another service. Fixed the oil drip, cleaned out the baffles which were full of red powder and set up the combustion. Didn't change the nozzle.
A week later the fault reoccurred.
The engineer returned and replaced the nozzle. (On the grounds that the first one may have been faulty since it was the only thing replaced since the boiler had worked). Set up the combustion again, ending up with the air setting much nearer to the recommended value this time.
This morning the fault reoccured.
Before I ring him again I'm just wondering if anyone has any great ideas we could check out. This has all the makings of a “just throw bits at it 'till it works” saga. Which is fine if that's all we can do, but I'd feel daft if I hadn't at least asked if this problem rings a bell with someone.
Following are some additional points.They may or may not be correct.
The boiler was working fine until the service, so something happened at that point. The first engineer inadvertently damaged or changed something or otherwise provoked the fault – photocell, wire, control board? (I'm not having a pop here, I know that coincidence happens and that the slightest disturbance can exacerbate an existing fault. That said I do now wonder how experienced the first engineer actually was.)
According to the second engineer the photocell is clean and seems to be in the right place.
The oil tank is pretty full. It was not topped up, the supplier was not changed etc. The oil pressure and filter seem fine.
The solenoid seems to be OK (it seems they usually fail when hot not cold).
(See, I now know far more about oil boilers than I ever thought I would!)
So I have two questions. Is anyone thinking “Oh yeah, that's obviously.......”? Secondly would it be worth replacing the whole Ecoflam burner. I believe it's a couple of hundred pounds and, provided the fault is somewhere in the existing burner, it wouldn't take too many more visits for that to become the cheapest option – let alone the most convenient one!
Thanks for any advice.
Oddbod
