Hi chaps,
I've just moved in to a house and after an uneventful three weeks, the burner has started tripping out.
It's a Trianco Eurostar, and the burner is an Ecoflam 550104/21 MINOR 4TC EUROSTAR 100/125.
The pump is a Danfloss BFP 21 R3
This is the problem: When we moved in, the previous owner said the oil was low. I looked at the sight gauge on the tank, looked at the actual oil level in the tank, noted that it was 25% full, and thought that she was somewhat alarmist given that it was June!
This week has started tripping out and I couldn't restart it. Last service was 2 years ago so I decided to check the obvious suspects : the pump coil, the electrodes, the nozzle. In disassembling the nozzle feed pipe I noticed it was dry. So then I loosened, and the removed, the bleed plug on the pump and also found that was dry. Clearly no oil was getting to the pump/boiler.
The bottom of the tank is around 30cm lower than the bottom of the boiler. There is a single pipe from tank to boiler. On the outside wall of the house where the pipe enters the house there's a sight glass, which is full of oil, and a mystery white box containing what I presume is a primer pump? The quality of workmanship is something to behold!
Oil tank-> 5 metres of pipe -> White box & sight glass -> 5 metres of pipe under the floor of a downstairs room -> indoor boiler.
The primer pump is permanently powered by a 13 amp socket, and has no other control cables going in to it, and only seems to do anything when a green 'start' button is. This spins the pump, gurgle gurgle, a little churn is visible in the sight glass, and then if I hold it down for around ten seconds, I can get the boiler to run for a few minutes before the burn eventually goes lumpy then trips out.
My theory is that when the level in the tank drops below the pump level, a reverse siphon action is stopping the pump pulling the oil it needs. What I don't understand is why there's a need for the primer pump at all - shouldn't the Danfloss BFP be able to pull up through a 30cm height difference? Is there a reg that says there's a need for the sight glass at the point of entering a building? Would a modern installation be done like this, or would there be a straight run of pipe and a tiger loop?
The tank has an exit filter which I'll change next, in case that's making things hard work for the BFP.
Thanks
I've just moved in to a house and after an uneventful three weeks, the burner has started tripping out.
It's a Trianco Eurostar, and the burner is an Ecoflam 550104/21 MINOR 4TC EUROSTAR 100/125.
The pump is a Danfloss BFP 21 R3
This is the problem: When we moved in, the previous owner said the oil was low. I looked at the sight gauge on the tank, looked at the actual oil level in the tank, noted that it was 25% full, and thought that she was somewhat alarmist given that it was June!
This week has started tripping out and I couldn't restart it. Last service was 2 years ago so I decided to check the obvious suspects : the pump coil, the electrodes, the nozzle. In disassembling the nozzle feed pipe I noticed it was dry. So then I loosened, and the removed, the bleed plug on the pump and also found that was dry. Clearly no oil was getting to the pump/boiler.
The bottom of the tank is around 30cm lower than the bottom of the boiler. There is a single pipe from tank to boiler. On the outside wall of the house where the pipe enters the house there's a sight glass, which is full of oil, and a mystery white box containing what I presume is a primer pump? The quality of workmanship is something to behold!
Oil tank-> 5 metres of pipe -> White box & sight glass -> 5 metres of pipe under the floor of a downstairs room -> indoor boiler.
The primer pump is permanently powered by a 13 amp socket, and has no other control cables going in to it, and only seems to do anything when a green 'start' button is. This spins the pump, gurgle gurgle, a little churn is visible in the sight glass, and then if I hold it down for around ten seconds, I can get the boiler to run for a few minutes before the burn eventually goes lumpy then trips out.
My theory is that when the level in the tank drops below the pump level, a reverse siphon action is stopping the pump pulling the oil it needs. What I don't understand is why there's a need for the primer pump at all - shouldn't the Danfloss BFP be able to pull up through a 30cm height difference? Is there a reg that says there's a need for the sight glass at the point of entering a building? Would a modern installation be done like this, or would there be a straight run of pipe and a tiger loop?
The tank has an exit filter which I'll change next, in case that's making things hard work for the BFP.
Thanks
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