oil fired boiler help

[pjti]

I have just bought a house in which the boiler(make unknown at pres) has apparently seized, that is the circulation pumpworks but boiler seems dead. The house has been empty for some months and as it is an outside boiler I figure its got a bit of damp in the motor. Anyone know if these are dodgy to sort out. To be honest i do not trust anyone else to sort it for me, "if a jobs worth doing its worth doing yourself". I would like to locate a site which tells me the basic principles of how these things work , any one help me on that ?

[Michael McNeil]

Can we presume you are not out of fuel? You now that oil tanks are notorious for condensing water? Check your filters and if you have a sump drain, check the fuel for water.

[Grunff]

But if that was the case it would make some noise - the fan would come on, and the igniter would buzz for a few seconds. The OP says it's totally dead.

[Dave Liquorice]

I doubt you'd need a whole new boiler, just the burner or even just the motor. There are many boiler makers but only a small handful of burner makers.

Of course if an oil boiler tries and fails to light more than a couple of times it will "lock out" and not try again. A locked out burner appears dead apart from a light with "lock out" written next to it. This is quite often a push but to reset the lockout. I don't know if the lock out state is persistent across a complete power down or not.

[The Natural Philosopher]

It may be that nothing is calling for heat, or a motorized valve elsewhere has siezed up.

Does the light come on at all?

[pjti]

Thanks again people. I am being given lots of pointers here. as faras I am aware there is some fuel in the tank, I will first try to verify its not water but it does smell like oil.

I have tried the reset button but nothing occurs. Today i hope to get the spanners out and attempt a post mortemonit.

BTW I am in Southern Ireland and you can bet a new boiler will cost a lot more than UK equivalent. Even if I bought one I would not knowhow to instal it .YET. if I stay on this group tho I am sure someone will tell me how .LOL. Thanks again PJTI

[John]

Lets take a step back and consider your problem. The following pointers do suggest a bit of electrical & safety knowledge to test for power present and you should only do this if you are competent to do so. .

1. Is there ANY power reaching the boiler itself when you are trying to run it? There must be some cabling leading into the boiler usually via a thermostat box. This might include an overheat thermostat which requires manual resetting by pressing a button somewhere on this box. The usual cause of this tripping is trying to run the boiler while it is empty of water or (sometimes) with a failed water circulation pump.
2. Your advice that it is an outside boiler helps but is not really sufficient to diagnose. Are you saying it is in an outside shed, in its own weatherproof enclosure, or again its own weatherproof enclosure but mounted up on a wall? A name and model number with a make and model for the burner as well would be of immense assistance.
3. If the boiler/burner is being fed with power try to identify the burner control box, usually bearing a reset button which lights up if the unit has tried to fire but no flame has been detected within about 5 to 10 seconds. If this button is illuminated (or an associated lockout lamp is illuminated) press this lockout reset button and the burner motor should try to start. If powere is reaching it you should hear a buzz even if it is stuck and not rotating. IF the burner remains silent try to check if power does reach it for a few seconds when the reset is pressed.
4. If the burner motor starts and the burner is supplied with oil and the oil pump is not pumping air instead of fuel it "should" fire if this is not happening try to memorise exactly whats happens and come back for more info.

HTH

John

[geoff]

In message , geoff writes

Oops - he's just turned up

[pjti]

Thanks everybody , I have "cured" the boiler. I found a thing that looked like fuse and whne I pressed it things started to happen. Well for a few seconds. Then I opened the c*ck on the tank - you can guess the rest.

Many thanks to all

Patrick

[geoff]

In message , pjti writes

Easily done

[Dave Liquorice]

Probably the over temperature thermostat. Ours has a hibit of tripping this but then it's 38kW boiler with just a HW tank on it at this time of year. Heat input >> heat sunk into HW tank meaning the boiler gets to damn hot and protects itself, dispite the normal boiler stat being set at about 70C (the protection is supposed to be just under 100C). Massive lumps of cast iron hold a lot of heat even after the burner has switched off.