Hello oil experts,
I've just moved into a house with a wallstar boiler which locks out once the central heating system gets up to temperature. It's always had annual services and its last one was two months ago. The entire burner unit was replaced about a year ago.
The engineer today can't figure out what's wrong with it, and admittedly it's old and may need replacing, but before I do that I wanted some advice from some other experts.
Some details:
- the central heating is a vented system, hasn't been power-flushed in some years apparently.
- there doesn't appear to be air in the system
- when the central heating comes on in the morning the boiler fires up and runs perfectly to heat the whole house up.
- once the whole system is hot the boiler stops firing, as expected
- once the system water temperature drops the boiler fires to start the cycle again and usually at this point (or on the next cycle) it will cut out after only a few seconds of burning, requiring a manual reset of the burner (outside)
- resetting while the system is hot results in a fairly quick repeat lockout
- the lockout light on the boiler (inside) never lights
- the overheat switch on the boiler (inside) never gets tripped
- the burner is clean, oil line is clean, no air bubbles, etc. burner side looks good
The engineer admitted it was a bit of a mystery and suggested replacing the elderly heating pump and doing a power flush, because perhaps the water speed is not fast enough through the boiler and the overheat is tripping out.
What I don't understand is the burner only locks out when the system is hot. It runs happily for quite some time before it gets to this state. If it's an overheat, why does the boiler temperature overheat itself not kick in?
I'm happy to get a new boiler if that's what's required, but if anyone has any suggestions or experience I would be happy to hear them!
Thanks,
Chris
I've just moved into a house with a wallstar boiler which locks out once the central heating system gets up to temperature. It's always had annual services and its last one was two months ago. The entire burner unit was replaced about a year ago.
The engineer today can't figure out what's wrong with it, and admittedly it's old and may need replacing, but before I do that I wanted some advice from some other experts.
Some details:
- the central heating is a vented system, hasn't been power-flushed in some years apparently.
- there doesn't appear to be air in the system
- when the central heating comes on in the morning the boiler fires up and runs perfectly to heat the whole house up.
- once the whole system is hot the boiler stops firing, as expected
- once the system water temperature drops the boiler fires to start the cycle again and usually at this point (or on the next cycle) it will cut out after only a few seconds of burning, requiring a manual reset of the burner (outside)
- resetting while the system is hot results in a fairly quick repeat lockout
- the lockout light on the boiler (inside) never lights
- the overheat switch on the boiler (inside) never gets tripped
- the burner is clean, oil line is clean, no air bubbles, etc. burner side looks good
The engineer admitted it was a bit of a mystery and suggested replacing the elderly heating pump and doing a power flush, because perhaps the water speed is not fast enough through the boiler and the overheat is tripping out.
What I don't understand is the burner only locks out when the system is hot. It runs happily for quite some time before it gets to this state. If it's an overheat, why does the boiler temperature overheat itself not kick in?
I'm happy to get a new boiler if that's what's required, but if anyone has any suggestions or experience I would be happy to hear them!
Thanks,
Chris