Satronic/Honeywell 832.3 keeps failing

[AliC666]

Hi there. I wondered if any of you pro’s have seen a strange fault that I’ve had with my Oil boiler.

Long story short, boiler failed to operate when requested. Not in lockout, had a quick check - I’m an industrial control electrician so handy with a meter - couldn’t find much wrong with photocell, solenoid windings etc so started to check the control box out. On inspection I noticed that one of the soldered connections to the heater coil on the bimetallic strip had become detached. Thus when the boiler got the 240v to fire the ignition sequence wouldn’t start as the bimetallic strip wouldn’t heat up. Awesome I thought, it’s a dodgy box. Shelled out £30 for new and hey presto house is warm, wife is happy.

Fast forward, 4 months and exactly the same fault. Strange, I thought so once again checked everything obvious because now I’m suspecting the boiler is killing the box. Nothing I could find apart from having no oil - doh! It then occurred to me that the original time the fault happened I had low oil! But surely this would just cause a lockout??

Anyway, swapped the box - again - to get up and running and stripped the dodgy box down. I resoldered the connection and it’s back to working order. I decided to have a play with it and see if I could get it to fail and I could, by running it through start cycle after start cycle on the bench (putting 240v on and waiting for lockout resetting the lockout as soon as possible then restarting) I noted how the bimetallic strip was starting to hold some heat and then melt the connection solder. At this point I figured I knew what caused the box to fail but couldn’t explain how the conditions on the bench could be replicated by the boiler.

Fast forward another 7 months and once again box has failed with exactly the same failure mode.

Any thoughts appreciated

 

[Best]

Burner perhaps has another fault - poor combustion or photocell not seeing flame fully or faulty, etc and causing control box to repeatedly go to ignition start up. Also boiler control stat needs checked in operation in case it is sensitive and cycling.
Probably best to get a decent oil service engineer in and explain to them your findings and also get them to do a full service and analyser set up of burner.
Make sure the boiler is then carefully checked for a period to confirm it isn’t frequently cycling on and off.
Your electrical knowledge is no doubt useful, but best not to tinker with oil boilers unless you know everything about them. To ignore proper combustion servicing is neglect.

What sort of boiler and burner is it?
Is is a combi oil boiler?
What sort of flue has it and does it terminate properly and not into a corner for example. (Flue combustion gases drawn into burners can cause terrible cycling).

 

[AliC666]

Hi. Thanks for your advice. Boiler is a Worcester danesmoor. Not sure on the burner. It’s a system boiler.

Agree with what you say about getting an oil guy in. But I have the boiler serviced annually and no one has ever found an issue. When I’ve mentioned this fault I just get a shrug of the shoulders and they tell me that they’ve never seen it before. Perhaps I need a new service guy!

It’s a strange one. I’ll keep my eye on it for short cycling.

Thanks

 

[Best]

Control boxes will burn out if overused obviously, so very likely it is operating the ignition for some reason very often.
The wiring in the control box base would need checked, if that hadn’t already been done

 

[DaveyHep]

The control box receives 50v from the motor (white wire). If there is a fault on the motor it could be cooking your control boxes. Certainly is an unusual fault. Where are you? Perhaps someone on here could look at it for you. Some of the folk that do servicing are a bit limited in their knowledge.

 

[Best]

The control box receives 50v from the motor (white wire). If there is a fault on the motor it could be cooking your control boxes. Certainly is an unusual fault. Where are you? Perhaps someone on here could look at it for you. Some of the folk that do servicing are a bit limited in their knowledge.

Satronic control box, - so his Danesmoor must have an Inter burner

 

[DaveyHep]

Satronic control box, - so his Danesmoor must have an Inter burner

You’re right. Ignore my previous post. I know less than nowt about Inter burners.

 

[Best]

You’re right. Ignore my previous post. I know less than nowt about Inter burners.

It is a bit confusing that WB have Riello burners and some have Inter burners.
Actually very good burners

 

[WHPES]

Check for short cycling. If the control box is constantly stop-starting it will wear out quickly. Check your boiler temp / flow and return and Delta T is correct

 

[Bananabob]

hi did you ever solve the problem. My neighbour is having same trouble. I managed to re-solder the connection to the bi metal strip. however, the latest is the wire winding round the strip has burnt out and unrepairable. can't find what is causing them to overheat.
Any suggestions

 

[freeoil]

Hi there. I wondered if any of you pro’s have seen a strange fault that I’ve had with my Oil boiler.

Long story short, boiler failed to operate when requested. Not in lockout, had a quick check - I’m an industrial control electrician so handy with a meter - couldn’t find much wrong with photocell, solenoid windings etc so started to check the control box out. On inspection I noticed that one of the soldered connections to the heater coil on the bimetallic strip had become detached. Thus when the boiler got the 240v to fire the ignition sequence wouldn’t start as the bimetallic strip wouldn’t heat up. Awesome I thought, it’s a dodgy box. Shelled out £30 for new and hey presto house is warm, wife is happy.

Fast forward, 4 months and exactly the same fault. Strange, I thought so once again checked everything obvious because now I’m suspecting the boiler is killing the box. Nothing I could find apart from having no oil - doh! It then occurred to me that the original time the fault happened I had low oil! But surely this would just cause a lockout??

Anyway, swapped the box - again - to get up and running and stripped the dodgy box down. I resoldered the connection and it’s back to working order. I decided to have a play with it and see if I could get it to fail and I could, by running it through start cycle after start cycle on the bench (putting 240v on and waiting for lockout resetting the lockout as soon as possible then restarting) I noted how the bimetallic strip was starting to hold some heat and then melt the connection solder. At this point I figured I knew what caused the box to fail but couldn’t explain how the conditions on the bench could be replicated by the boiler.

Fast forward another 7 months and once again box has failed with exactly the same failure mode.

Any thoughts appreciated

If you're heating engineer can not find anything obvious wire a new control base.Even if the boiler is short cycling it will take more than several months to burn out any components as those we burners are bomb proof.

 

[freeoil]

Wow just realised this is from 2019 and its 7 down from the freshest post.

 

[SimonG]

Sparking too much.

 

[John Moncrieff]

Sparking too much.

Wondering if damp is the problem as my churches one does the same

 

[John Moncrieff]

Wondering if damp is the problem as i=the one in our church crypt also fails regularly