Oil tank filter

[Piers Finlayson]

I have an gravity oil fired rayburn which is currently burning very badly. Is my oil tank likely to have a filter which could be gunged up?

I have a valve on the tank with

- a sight tube

- a big reverse thread screw to turn the oil to the rayburn off

- the pipe to the rayburn

- a sort of cuppy bit below the screw and pipe which looks like it might contain a filter.

If this bit is likely to have a filter, can I safely remove the filter housing and clean the filter, just by turning the oil from the tank off, without the danger of 1,000s of litres of oil dumping themselves out of the thank?

[cynic]

Tankmaster valve/gauge/filter units seem to fit your description. IF the valve shuts of ok you can change the filter but be prepared for the valve not to close properly. Also don't damage the rubber seal ring which fits between the cup and the body. Unless you have had some dirty fuel put in or the tank is old its not usual to get much in this first stage filter. A badly burning vaporising burner is more often due to carbon build up in the burner or in the oil tube under the burner. I once wrote instructions to service an AGA (which is very similar) in this group but I don't have the same computer now. Someone might have saved the details

[Part timer]

Tried Advanced Groups search on Google. Is this it?

(We have a 2 oven gas Aga)

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes, but thats less likely to be the problem than modern kerosene, which tends to carbon up the inlet pipe to the burner.

Every year our aga gets its burner feed pipe drilled out to remove the crap that modern low sulphur fuels leave. If not, it just goes out.

[Piers Finlayson]

Cheers all.

Yes, I know it may well be the burner and I noticed a fair amount of crud in this autumn before firing up for the winter, but I was too lazy at the time to clear it out. That's going to be my first port of call but I wanted to be prepared for checking the filter if I needed to.

I have instructions for dealing with this on a rayburn, so I should be OK there. Just need to find some red hermatite (sp?) so I can reconnect it all properly.

[Huge]

Yes.

Yes. Assuming the "cuppy thing" is downstream of the shutoff valve. You'll get the contents of the "cuppy thing" (a few ml of oil) everywhere so have some rags to hand.

[cynic]

No but its very useful.

[Andy Champ]

Google "low sulphur aga" (no quotes) and weep.

Andy

[cynic]

Dont know if the cd is any good but heres a source

[Piers Finlayson]

is what I have, and I've used it before to service my Rayburn. It is useful, and probably worth the money if you don't know what you're doing (like I didn't the first time I approached the Rayburn). However, it doesn't go quite as far as I'd like (such as not explaining oil tank filters!).

[Dave Liquorice]

Plus the contents of any pipe work above/level with the filter. Don't forget to bleed it afterwards.

[Piers Finlayson]

As people suggested it was the burner that was the problem. I removed the burner and gave it a good clean this morning - including drilling out the carbon from the inlet pipe and then clearing it out with a piece of flex. I also leveled it properly when putting it back, and it's burning better than it has since I moved here.

Thanks all.

Piers

[Andy Dingley]

Isn't that just the wicks on Agas (on account of their low flame temperature), not the pipe?

Mind you, a wick burner? With oil at today's prices?!

[The Natural Philosopher]

these little things make all the difference..

[The Natural Philosopher]

the wicks play no part in an aga once its up to temperature.

They are not wick burners and they are actually very efficient.