Old Boulter Camray combi problem no hot water heating great?

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

Hi all
I have just moved into a new house with an old boulter camray combi 90-130 oil boiler.
I believe it is around 1994/5 vintage
The central heating works fine and all the rads get nice and hot but the hot water side of it is not working. It will produce a little hot water if the heating is on, but that soon runs cold.
If the heating is off and a hot tap is opened the boiler does not fire up to heat the water.

I have had a good look at it and I cannot find any kind of flow switch or device to tell the boiler when a hot tap is opened.

I had an engineer from worster come and have a look at it, as they now own boulter, but he just scratched his head and said he had not seen one of these before and wandered off again!

is anyone familiar with these boilers?
or have any sugestions what could be wrong with it?
Or even an install or service manual for it?
Thanks in advance
Andy

gas4you · 11 May 2007

Don't know these or any oil combis, but they must have a flow switch or diaphragm controlled valve to let the boiler know when there is a h/W demand

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

gas4you said:
Don't know these or any oil combis, but they must have a flow switch or diaphragm controlled valve to let the boiler know when there is a h/W demand

thats what i thought

but i cannot find one on it?

it has got three thermstat type probes though, perhaps one of those measures a temprature drop in the hot water heat exhanger to start the burner?

gas4you · 11 May 2007

Perhaps, but this wouldn't be fast enough to respond I would have thought

wilhelm · 11 May 2007

i think the one you are talking about is a diaphragm job.

anyway just get the tw£t back , and tell him to ring his tech support. the clue is in the name.

ffs.

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

wilhelm said:
i think the one you are talking about is a diaphragm job.

anyway just get the tw£t back , and tell him to ring his tech support. the clue is in the name.

ffs.

I tried that, they said that it is not on their "supported" list so they cannot or will not fix it

Nixt · 11 May 2007

Look at the cold main pipe as it enters the boiler usually under the top case cover you should find a brass tee compression fitting with a black plastic screw cap at the top with a phial and cable running from it. If so this is the flow switch. Most oil combis with thermal store use this type made by sika. If so you must isolate water before unscrewing cap as its wet pocket. The store stat will fire burner but regardless it should fire when DHW is run.

gas4you · 11 May 2007

I've just tried looking at parts breakdown and cannot find any diaphragm of flow switch. I think this is a storage combi that gives priority to the hw storage tank so could be a stat. There is a mixing valve that mixes cold and hot water together to give hot tap water. Could be this stuck on cold. This will have 3 pipes connected to it. If you turn hot taps on you should be able to feel one pipe from storage tank to this getting v hot.

wilhelm · 11 May 2007

i dont think boulter had even thought about heat banks way back then.

anyway andy, it deserves you right for dumping that failure gordon brown on us cockeney w$nkers.

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

gas4you said:
I've just tried looking at parts breakdown and cannot find any diaphragm of flow switch. I think this is a storage combi that gives priority to the hw storage tank so could be a stat. There is a mixing valve that mixes cold and hot water together to give hot tap water. Could be this stuck on cold. This will have 3 pipes connected to it. If you turn hot taps on you should be able to feel one pipe from storage tank to this getting v hot.

thats what i have. on the mixing valve the hot side of it gets hot, the cold side gets cold and the output is a mix (unsurprisingly) of the two.

i did think it could be stuck, but i do get a little hot water from the storage bit before it then runs cold as the burner does not kick in.

so thats why i thought it must be somethin to do with the burner control/ start signal?

but i cannot figure out what should make the burner kick in?
and more importantly why it is not

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

wilhelm said:
i dont think boulter had even thought about heat banks way back then.

anyway andy, it deserves you right for dumping that failure gordon brown on us cockeney w$nkers.

when i taked to worster they said something about heat banks on this model but they did not support it!

and i have only just moved up here from london .... so Mr Brown is not my fault.

gas4you · 11 May 2007

Could be the stat that senses the hot water. I think this is a basic hot water priority system with a divert mechanism somewher to heat the hw storage tank first.

Have you tried fiddling with the mixing valve head that adjusts the hot tap temperature?

andyinscotland · 11 May 2007

gas4you said:
Could be the stat that senses the hot water. I think this is a basic hot water priority system with a divert mechanism somewher to heat the hw storage tank first.

Have you tried fiddling with the mixing valve head that adjusts the hot tap temperature?

yes tried that, it did'nt seem to make any diference.

but then the burner was off so it ran out of hot almost strait away.

it could be the stat though.

have you got the part no for it, i could'nt fina a parts breakdown for it anywhare.

or even an idea where i could get one?

Nixt · 11 May 2007

Have you checked the HW side of the programmer is calling for heat. Also when you turn on tap does pump run? There is a flow switch on the Camray 5 yours is probably the Quartet but would have thought it has a flow switch have u checked under top cover? Theres no point changing parts until you've established why burner won't light.

oilman · 11 May 2007

A possible problem is the thermostatic or blending valve. It is a strange configuration, and unless you want to change the pipe work you need to ensure you get the right one. They ARE a standard type though, so don't let anyone tell you lies.

If the valve does work, then the H/W heat exchanger pipe may be blocked. You could check this if necessary, but in your part of the world, I doubt you suffer from lime scale.

I'll find the part type, as I bought one not long ago.

diynot

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Old Boulter Camray combi problem no hot water heating great?

wilhelm

wilhelm

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