Wallstar oil-fired boiler on the blink again!

Oct 26, 2011 35 Replies

He said it just happens sometimes. I asked him whether these boilers are designed to be run pretty much every day and he said, yes. They're not intended to be left off for long periods. He did say in future I could remove the outside cover and press the button on the transparent cover. But if it happens frequently, i.e. more than twice a year, then it needs to get checked out.

No idea. Brownish gunk from a tube.

I don't know whether he'd agree to that, so no.

MM

I've found a temperature sensor kit in the Maplin catalogue. Might get one, as I've built several different kits. Possible problem with the high temperature, since I doubt Velleman intended it for temperature ranges like the hot air exhaust from a boiler. But could maybe have a piece of thin copper wire, e.g. a bit of stripped mains cable, in or near the exhaust which would conduct enough heat to trigger the sensor.

MM

My boiler has an indicator light to show when it ought to be running, and another to show if a lockout has occurred. Since the boiler is in the house it is normally obvious when it is going.

All the boilers I have owned have had lockout lights. You can then press the rest button and try again.

However usually when a lockout occurs there is an underlying cause which has to be resolved.

I you have a control panel in you house, there ought to be a lockout light (IME).

Stop being such a defeatist.

You said the boiler had broken down and it had not.

There is none. The engineer always removes the outside cover to check whether it's locked out.

MM

Er, yes, it had. There was no hot water and no central heating because the burner would not fire. I wasn't about to risk setting my house on fire, dabbling with stuff I wasn't comfortable with, just as I'd never interfere with any gas installation, either.

MM

:( I would think that you could probably add a remote lockout warning light if you don't mind amending the wiring to the boiler.

In message , MM writes

You're always posting how damp and cold it is, you shouldn't have a problem there

In something that old, it will be a flickery old neon, shouldn't be too hard to run a bit of cable and run another in parallel

It is very simple to install a remote lockout indicator. The control box with the reset button on it has a terminal provided for just such a function and a red 230volt neon on the end of a pair of wires would be ideal for the job. Whether its worth doing for something so elementary is debateable. Maybe a peephole with a flap would be simpler if you really want to avoid undoing a few screws. Maybe you'd rather spend money and time bodging up a temperature kit from Maplin?

Why do you assume it has to be a bodge just because it's not YOUR idea? You think temperature probes are a novel idea, perhaps? What about a meat thermometer? Never heard of one of them, I suppose!

MM

Feel free to spend unneccessary time and money when a pair of wires and a neon would serve equally well.

I'm not going to start making modifications to my boiler, thank you very much!

MM

Why the f*ck are you posting here, then?

If you can read, you will see in my original post that I was asking a question about the reliability of the Wallstar, nothing more, nothing less.

BTW, the boiler is working great since the engineer got it sorted.

MM

How many more times! I'm not going to start making modifications to my boiler, end of. A temperature sensor is NOT a modification.

MM

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