Oil boiler lock out on very windy days

Trianco Euro Star 65 boiler with a Ecoflam Minor 1TC burner... Burner runs no problems very efficient normally... On very windy days.. 25mph +.. boiler locks out.. sometimes sounds like the flame being smothered the fires up again.. and then just locks out... On trying reset purges,,then fires up.. lots of clickkin noises then locks out....replaced control box and fuel pump..any ideas.. this has only started over the past 12months.. so I assume the flue is OK

Reply to
MR.H
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This probably due to the wind streamlining. Early jet engines suffered similar problems when Rover forced Whittle to use Axial motors. The through put is so powerful that the flame appears too far from the heat source to be sustained. The solution might be to fix some sort of a baffle plate on the air intake, at some small enough distance to have no effect during mild weather.

Fortunately you have the opportunity to test this out shortly:

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us know how you got on. (Pictures would be nice too.)

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

I don't allow cookies these days as they interfere with my viewing free films on the web (Fmovies) consequently I was unable to see any JavaScript presented if any. I presume the blank space in your link was a picture of your air inlet?

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

"Back draughts" down the chimney. A chimney top cowl may fix the problem. Often caused by a nearby high obstruction causing vortexes in the wind. Eg tree, other building, roof ridge.

Or boiler/chimney/flue may need cleaning.

Wants fixing, you could be getting dangerous combustion gases in the boiler room.

Reply to
harry

Most boilers will do this in high wind.

But it may be exacerbated by poor oil flow. Or a low spec flame sensor. I hjabve no defiite proof, but I suspect that wind that blows a flame around without putting it out, may ultimately be seen as a 'no flame' by the boiler.

Look at nozzles, fuel filters, soot build up on the flame sensor etc.

In short a damned good regular service by a competent boiler engineer.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

My original oil boiler had a simple 'add-on' device that limited the suction of the flue from the boiler. I've always assumed that this was needed to prevent the flame being blown (or sucked?) out when it was windy. I thought this was a type of 'balanced' flue, but I'm not sure it is.

The boiler position is outside, in the covered alleyway between the house and the garage. The flue comes out of the top, goes vertically up for about 18", then turns 45 degrees and disappears into the side of the old chimney, where it continues vertically through the liner up to the top.

With the original boiler, the initial vertical part of the flue had an add-on horizontal 'Tee' - ie a 6" long tube the same diameter as the flue, and tee-ing off the flue.

At the open end of the tube was a vertical disc, pivoted horizontally across its surface at a position somewhat lower than its half-way diameter. At the bottom of the disc was a weight, and although the disc was pivoted below its diameter, this normally held the disc in the vertical position (totally blocking the tube). It therefore acted as a valve, pivoting as required to block or unblock the mouth of the tube. [Its action was a bit like the butterfly in a vehicle carburettor.]

Although the disc was normally vertical, when it was very windy the increased 'suck' from up the chimney had more pull on upper part of the disc (because of the greater area above the pivot), thus causing the disc to swing open. This allowed air to be sucked into the tube, and therefore reduced the amount of 'exhaust' being sucked out of the boiler itself.

I'm now on my second boiler (installed in the mid 90s), and it doesn't have this device fitted. Despite this, there have never been any problems due to high winds. Maybe this is because of a different design of the burner?

Reply to
Ian Jackson

Although if it starts doing it more often than not and is getting on a bit then a leak somewhere along the flue is also a possibility.

What happens on mine is I think that it blows the flame so that it doesn't quite burn clean and after a while the flame sensor is covered in soot. They can be quite tetchy about placement of the flame sensor.

Soot build up on the flame sensor is the one that sometimes gets mine - but where I live is very windy and it takes 70mph gusts for a while and from the wrong direction before there is any real risk of a lockout.

+1 especially if it hasn't been properly serviced for some time.

Good idea to invest in a CO monitor if you don't already have one.

Reply to
Martin Brown

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