Oil boiler not firing

[Simon Read]

Evening all, first time poster here.

I have a Worcester Bosch Heatslave 18/25 ext boiler. It’s been working fine as of late, however, yesterday it started playing up.

I always service the boiler myself (nozzle change and cleaning of various bits) then my plumber comes round and finishes it all off and checks to make sure it’s running efficiently. He turned the boiler off to connect his pressure gauge for the oil pump and the boiler wouldn’t restart as normal. Took a few attempts but eventually it fired up. Ever since then it’s not been firing properly. I’m sure it’s coincidental as all he done was connect his gauge, nothing else.

The boiler will fire up and run perfectly, it will switch off when up to temperature as normal. The problem is when it comes to restarting, it will fail to start and go to lock out. Several pushes of the lockout and it will fire up again. It goes through it’s initial fan cycle, you can hear the electrodes sparking and the pump working. It will fire up for about 5 seconds the drop out and go to lockout.

Any ideas?

 

[Gazzt]

Where did he turn the oil off before fitting the gauge

 

[Gazzt]

What type of burner and oil pump. What type of fire valve is fitted

 

[Gazzt]

Did he check for water in the oil tank or filters, and of course do you have plenty of oil in the tank.

 

[Simon Read]

The boiler was turned off on the boiler it’s self. I believe it’s got a Riello RDB 2.2 burner - not sure about the pump. I’m not sure what make the fire valve is either, sorry.

 

[Gazzt]

On riello the photocell can be obstructed by electrode leads. The hole in the blast tube not lined up with the photocell. Although I am thinking its not getting fuel..

 

[Simon Read]

I thought about fuel but why would it initially fire but only last for 5 or so seconds?

 

[Gazzt]

Did you change the nozzle. Is the photocell clean. If you open the bleed screw is there oil coming out when the burner is trying to fire. If will fire like that because the photocell can't see a good flame.

 

[Simon Read]

Yes the nozzle had been changed, I have cleaned the photocell too. I have opened the bleed screw during the initial startup process and oil comes out but I’ve not attempted to open it when it’s trying to fire. Will try that tomorrow though.

 

[Simon Read]

Is it likely the photocell is knackered?

 

[Gazzt]

Possibly. A faulty jet can cause that as well.

 

[Simon Read]

Ok well in the morning I shall pop another jet in and try and get an ohms reading from the photocell to see what it says, my thoughts were towards photocell but I’m very inexperienced with these boilers. Thanks for your help.

 

[SimonG]

Top and bottom is you shouldn't be touching the boiler as not competent.

If your 'engineer' couldn't get it to run then maybe he shouldn't be touching it either.

Stop feckin about with stuff you know sweet fa about and get somebody competent.

 

[Best]

Does seem that your plumber isn’t really a properly experienced oil guy.
Just get a decent engineer to do the lot.

 

[Simon Read]

The guy is a 30 plus year experienced boiler engineer so I have no reason to doubt his skills and knowledge. He did get it to start back up but it took a few lockouts before it did so. When he left, the boiler was running fine though. As he touched nothing other than the bleed screw to fit his pressure gauge I feel the problem might be just be coincidental rather than related to what he did.

With replies like this though, I think this could be my last post too. Thought the idea of a forum was to offer people advice on problems not to tell em to employ an engineer to do the job

 

[SimonG]

With replies like this though, I think this could be my last post too. Thought the idea of a forum was to offer people advice on problems not to tell em to employ an engineer to do the job

It's a combustion appliance, for the sake of yourself and your family find an experienced, competent engineer.
Anybody who is happy to allow a non competent person to part 'service' a boiler and then come in is an idiot, if he even exists.

For safety's sake you've been advised the best course of action. If you wish to spit your dummy then please don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[Best]

The guy is a 30 plus year experienced boiler engineer so I have no reason to doubt his skills and knowledge. He did get it to start back up but it took a few lockouts before it did so. When he left, the boiler was running fine though. As he touched nothing other than the bleed screw to fit his pressure gauge I feel the problem might be just be coincidental rather than related to what he did.

With replies like this though, I think this could be my last post too. Thought the idea of a forum was to offer people advice on problems not to tell em to employ an engineer to do the job

Why would you not get an engineer to do the job? Or is it just you trying to save £20?
This forum main members are professional heating/plumbing folk mainly and will help people, but we won’t encourage tampering
If you have this experienced bloke, then he really should have attempted to sort the burner when it failed to start several times, as that clearly is a fault when you have several lockouts - any decent oil guy knows that.
What was the analyser reading on his test?

 

[Stigster]

The guy is a 30 plus year experienced boiler engineer so I have no reason to doubt his skills and knowledge. He did get it to start back up but it took a few lockouts before it did so. When he left, the boiler was running fine though. As he touched nothing other than the bleed screw to fit his pressure gauge I feel the problem might be just be coincidental rather than related to what he did.

With replies like this though, I think this could be my last post too. Thought the idea of a forum was to offer people advice on problems not to tell em to employ an engineer to do the job

My OFTEC registration ran out about three years ago and because of a change in direction in career I have not had the need to renew my qualification. Even though I was properly trained in oil boiler work and oil storage, I still do not work on oil boilers any more purely because I am no longer registered and neither should you be DIYing this stuff.