Hi my outside oil boiler is sooting up and locking out in bad weather, could this be because wind blowing around flue. had a service about month ago. I can get it going when I clean photocell but have to do this every other day.
Ours is indoors. It has had short periods of locking up over the last
2 years. The engineer suggested wind direction among other reasons. However, about 10 days ago it started locking out twice and even three times a day. We now have a new "oil pump" (I'm no techie so that's what he said). The cynic in me has been wondering whether he's under instructions to minimise his spend on spares for people (like me) on a contract.
Yes.
It's very bad for boilers in these winds. Mine does te same occasionally but oddly not when the wind is from the direction it has been blowing from.
It would depend on the flue arrangements.
Home owners clud so I'm probably wasting my time...
Did it lock out in bad weather before the service?
Your should be able to peer through a small hole and see the flame, it should be mainly blue.
Of course. It is a ground level balanced flue exiting into what is pretty much a wind tunnel between teh hiuse and a hedge, aligned NE/SW..
High winds from the wrong direction can do it, but if it is doing it more often than that or on first morning lighting then there may be an underlying oil leak fault that needs attention.
If it is routinely locking out in normal weather then there is something definitely wrong. It has been *very* windy just lately.
Was there not a different kind of cowl with louvers used on oil fired boilers, or did I dream that? Brian
If it's sooting up the photocell on a regular basis it will also be sooting up the boiler flueways and will pretty soon need another service. Who carried out the service and how thorough was he/she? Did you get flue gas analysis details on the service report and if so what were they? What make/model of boiler is it, what make and model of burner is fitted and does it have a balanced flue or simply a low level discharge flue?
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