Trianco Eurostar burns but no heat/hot water

ManxMax · 9 Jan 2011

Hello Chaps,

Doing up a cottage that was an unfinished project. Underfloor heating has been installed and there is a huge (700mm wide) Trianco combi boiler (can't find any model number except there is a '60 70' on the burner cover).
After a few false starts the beast fired up when running the hot water, but the water doesn't get hot. In fact nothing gets hot other than the flue!
When running the CH I can hear the pump running and the sound of water on the move, but the burner doesn't fire up.

There is no room stat connected, would this affect it?

Maybe I'm missing something fundamental or is the behemoth for the scrapyard?

Hope someone can help as I don't think my back could take the strain of moving it out!

Oh, yeah - I'm on the Isle of Man and heating engineers are like hen's teeth.

Ta.

Boilerman2 · 9 Jan 2011

Its a Trianco Combi 70.

You say the flue is hot...so the burner must be firing is sounds like the pump although sounds like it is running may not be pumping water due to broken impellor?

other causes could be air lock try venting all the air vents on the boiler pipework

www.oftec.co.uk will help you find an oil engineer even on Man!

ManxMax · 9 Jan 2011

It's probably an airlock (some gurgling going on!). If that doesn't work I'll try the pump.
Ta.

ManxMax · 10 Jan 2011

Hmmm? No airlock (apparent) and pump is fine.

Couple of observations: The pipe work to the tank gets hot, but the heat exchanger stays cold when running the hot water. When the hot water tap is turned off the pump runs and the heat exchanger gets hot.

Also, lots of dirty smoke coming out of flue, like an old diesel firing up! Suspect this is down to dirty nozzel/burner assembly. Could this cause the above problem? I'll give it a clean-out tomorrow,

Heating still not working - probably because there is no room stat connected, but I can't see anywhere to connect one.

Appreciate any help.
Thanks

oilhead · 11 Jan 2011

Still suspect the pump. The heat exchanger will get hot from gravity, but rven if pump is running, it doesn't seem to be circulating enough.

ManxMax · 11 Jan 2011

Thanks. I'll strip the pump. I can hear it whirring away, but the impeller could be trashed, I suppose. Also, the body of the pump is getting v.hot.

PS. anyone know what the factory setting should be on the oil pressure screw and airscrew. I can't get an engineer to look at it, here on Craggy Island. If they didn't install it they won't touch it. There was a sticker with the installers name that has long faded.

Don't mind paying for over phone advice to set up properly. Any offers?
Cheers

oilhead · 11 Jan 2011

Without an oil pressure gauge, it's not possible to set oil pressure. If no ones messed with it, then you might assume for now, it is O.K. Air setting can be set with a smoke pump, but ideally with an analyser. If it isn't smoking, it can't be too far away. You need to sort out the pump/circulation if the burner runs.

Burnerman · 11 Jan 2011

I'll stick my neck out big time.....pressure gauges are cheap enough (£25 or so) and gas analysers are very expensive. However, if the burner was set up well last time, and the internals are clean, so long as the air door wasn't adjusted since then you shouldn't be too far off.
Totally off topic, the IOM is without doubt one of my favourite places.
John

ManxMax · 11 Jan 2011

Burnerman said:
I'll stick my neck out big time.....pressure gauges are cheap enough (£25 or so) and gas analysers are very expensive. However, if the burner was set up well last time, and the internals are clean, so long as the air door wasn't adjusted since then you shouldn't be too far off.
Totally off topic, the IOM is without doubt one of my favourite places.
John

Thanks John, good call.

Yep, IOM is a great place to live (unless you want a heating engineer!)

ManxMax · 21 Jan 2011

Chapter 2...

Pump stripped, all in order, rebuilt and refitted. Took the opportunity to tidy-up some dreadful plumbing (not sure if it was factory stuff) and replace the CH in/out shut-off valves.

Anyway, turned the beast on and waited. Nothing, other than the pump cam on as soon as I turned the boiler on at the switch. Checked the manual to make sure all wiring is correct.

CH didn't work before I stripped the pump/tidied-up, so I didn't expect it to now (I'll sort that out later!) but when I ran the hot water the pump seemed to go quiet after a few seconds (I know that it changes direction on the 3 port jobbies) but the burner did not kick-in like it did before.

I can only think that I've disturbed something somewhere.

Did the troubleshooting for DHW and it concluded that the boiler stat switch should be replaced. Can they die on you after spannering on some pipes?

Sorry for the lengthy post. Hope someone can point me in the right direction.

Would pay an engineer to fix it if I could find one - they won't touch it, here on Craggy Island, unless they installed it. Might have to ship one in from the UK!

Cheers
Max

Burnerman · 21 Jan 2011

The boiler doesn't seem to be getting a call for heat, so check the room stat, followed by the boiler stat (should be a click on both, usually).
Its easy enough to bypass the boiler stat, just join the 2 leads together, temporarily.
Purely a guess - I don't know if any electric valves control this boiler or not.
John

ManxMax · 21 Jan 2011

I thought about bypassing the boiler stat just to check, so I'll give that a go tomorrow (it does click at the lowest position).

There is currently no room stat, although the manual says that the connections for one should be crossed if not required, so I'll check that out even though the boiler used to fire up 'as is'.

Hope it's just the boiler stat - don't want to post 'Chapter 3' !

Thanks
Max

Burnerman said:
The boiler doesn't seem to be getting a call for heat, so check the room stat, followed by the boiler stat (should be a click on both, usually).
Its easy enough to bypass the boiler stat, just join the 2 leads together, temporarily.
Purely a guess - I don't know if any electric valves control this boiler or not.
John

snb · 22 Jan 2011

a lot of the oil combis will not operate central heating until the internal store has reached temp.

You may also experience poor hot water until the store is up to temp especially if the divertor valve is letting by slightly.

If you are sure the main exchanger is full of water turn on and leave until it reaches temp. This could take a few mins. Then check the operation of heating and hot water.

I would still be cautious of the pump. (it maybe spinning but is it fast enough and on setting 3?)

ManxMax · 22 Jan 2011

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the pump setting.

Cheers.

snb said:
a lot of the oil combis will not operate central heating until the internal store has reached temp.

You may also experience poor hot water until the store is up to temp especially if the divertor valve is letting by slightly.

If you are sure the main exchanger is full of water turn on and leave until it reaches temp. This could take a few mins. Then check the operation of heating and hot water.

I would still be cautious of the pump. (it maybe spinning but is it fast enough and on setting 3?)

xr4x4 · 22 Jan 2011

speaking of oil combis, do they constantly heat a store of water inside, ready for use for the hot water?

so they are 'always' cycling?

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Trianco Eurostar burns but no heat/hot water

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