Help ressurecting an old oil heating boiler please!

[fixit9660]

Hi All,
I'm buying a house with an aged oil heating boiler circa November 2000.
From my investigations so far, it's a Grant Multipass 70.
It's been left out of use for some time, and the Green Plastic Tank in the garden is empty.
The optimist in me would like to just to fill the tank, press the start button, and enjoy it heating the house.
OK everyone finished laughing now?
I'd appreciate any advice, preferably in laymans terms, for restart preparations please.
Please don't say "get a reputable installer to replace it with a new one"; if I could afford that I wouldn't be here asking for help. (Just buying the place has made me skint for some time yet, especially where finding several grand for a new boiler is concerned!).
I've got a good set of general tools and can handle most mechanical/electrical challenges, I just need the advice, and any diagrams would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Andy.

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

You may not want to hear this but you need to get someone competent in oil to come out and take a look, they will tell you what needs to be done to get you up and running again, I would strongly advise against playing about with it if you don't know what your doing!

It is very capable of causing serious damage to your health and even death if not set up and maintained correctly!

 

[Best]

As above ^^^^, the boiler, flue and oil tank need checked out first. For all anyone knows it could be dangerous and certainly likely to need some work done.
Get an oil engineer in to service it and this will entail everything to be checked out with them. It might only cost a basic service and a couple of usual parts, - correct nozzle & oil hose, for example.
Your boiler is a good type if it is looked after well. An engineer should also have an analyser which they can fine tune the burner from the flue gases & even a slight improvement will pay the cost of the service in a year.
You could of course clean the shell of the boiler yourself, but really better let an expert at it all.
Try asking for a local oil engineer to you by posting on this forum

 

[fixit9660]

Hi,
I know these things have some unhealthy ignition voltages running around inside, and an incorrectly adjusted burner, besides using more oil and shortening its life , will produce some even more noxious gases than normal. Don't worry I won't be going into it too deeply.
What I'm more after is things I can check, like:
Before refilling the tank flush it with *** to wash out all the muck, or, don't bother to clean the tank as delivered oil is always clean.
Check the oil flow from the tank to the boiler and make sure you get *** pints an hour.
Check and clean/replace the oil filter on the boiler input pipe. (If one even exists).
Check and clean the burner chamber, or don't, etc etc.
Once I've taken all the steps I can, then I'll call in a professional. I don't want them wasting their time, or charging me for things I can do myself, which as I said above I can't afford at present.

 

[Best]

Fair enough. We all need to save money at times. Risk is yours though if you inspect the oil tank and decide it's all safe to fill. Now is the time while the tank is empty to check it hasn't a load of water or dirt in the bottom of it. Also the present valve on the tank should be a good working one, or it should be replaced now. Any oil tube sight gauge will need checked or replaced. The tubing can shrink & let rain water in, or simply deteriorate. Oil filter often needs replaced and a paper element oil filter is best. After that, I would advise you leave most of the rest to your oil engineer as all they need is oil in tank to get the boiler eventually going.
And do turn oil valve at tank off when you are getting a fill of oil incase there is a leak in oil pipe or burner!

 

[Unregistered]

Ah now see that's what I needed. Thanks Best!!
The tank valve and sight tube; Well the sight tube looks 15 years old and is barely see-through so I need one of those, and the valve is sticky, so I'll at least price those up so that I know what to expect

(WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WEBSITE?? TYPING IS TERRIBLE - LETTERS BEING LOST ALL THE TIME!!!)

How do you check for tank oil contamination please?
And for leaks?
And how do you check the tank-to-boiler feed pipe for damage/leaks?

Obviously I'll want to do these things before I get oil, and call out an engineer to service the boiler.

Thanks

Andy.

 

[Dotty]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WEBSITE?? TYPING IS TERRIBLE - LETTERS BEING LOST ALL THE TIME!!!)

Nothing's wrong with the forum, it'll be your end. Some browsers don't like us.

How do you check for tank oil contamination please?

Water detection paste on a Flue brush handle.

And for leaks?

Eyeballs.

And how do you check the tank-to-boiler feed pipe for damage/leaks?

Pressure test.

Thanks

Andy.

Pleasure.

To be honest you're best off biting the bullet and getting an oily in, fully appreciate you want to save a few shekels but there's no price on your safety.

Good luck!

 

[Unregistered]

Hi Croppy,
Thanks for the prompt and helpful answers.
Water Detection Paste -Nice and simple I'll get some.
Ahh the Mark 1 Eyeball, nice and simple again!
Pressure test - actually I was thinking along those lines too. I guess the pipes come fitted with Schrader valves to make it easy...... (yeah right!).

As far as browser incompatibility goes, now you're in my neck of the woods. I'll tell you what we tell the rest of the customers: you want to spend a few shekels, there's no price on your shop window on the internet. Browsers evolve and your website needs to keep up. Otherwise people will go somewhere else. I'm using I.E. 11. It's current, probably the most common browser in the world, and should work.

Thanks again,
Andy.

 

[Dotty]

You an mcp?

 

[Rickster123]

You an mcp?

Mardy **** *****?

 

[Dotty]

Mardy **** *****?

No you buck eejit!

Microsoft Certified Professional. It's the first step to becoming an MCSE - Microsoft Certified System Engineer.


Means you extol the virtues of all the Microsoft architecture, software and platforms.

15 years ago when I was toying with leaving BT I was sent to reskill in the computing arena.

Got 2 mcp's and an MCSE in windows 2000 network optimisation and security.

Forgot it all now.