Boulter oil boiler not firing

[mlee55]

Hi hope someone can help...
The above boiler is not firing all the time here are the details

1. Periodically the boiler will not fire for both hot water or heating.
2. When timer is activated on the timer/control box I can hear the system click on and also hear a "tick tick" from the water pump/valves situated on the wall adjacent to the boiler connected to the pipe work that leads in to the house.
3. Red light on the boiler is lit and boiler not firing.
4. For the last couple of days I have had to remove the cover on the boiler press and hold the red button for a second or two then the fan starts and that boiler fires (after about 4 or 5 seconds).
One additional piece of information that may (or may not) be significant is that fact that the timer/control box (Honeywell) has some LCD digits that are missing or distorted. The boiler is regularly serviced and when fired produces plenty of hot water and heating.

Any Ideas?

Thanks in anticipation

Matt

 

[casius66]

Does the boiler get hot and then not keep going, or is it from cold that the problem starts?

 

[Agile]

The obvious question is when did you have it properly serviced?

Whereas older gas boiler can tolerate considerable misadjustment and keep working, oil boilers are more sensitive to their settings, particularly at the ignition stage.

Tony

 

[mlee55]

PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:39 pm Post Subject:
Does the boiler get hot and then not keep going, or is it from cold that the problem starts?

Cassius66 - The problem only happens from cold, this morning neither the heating or hot water came on, this afternoon the hotwater did not come on, when i reset it by pressing the red button it came on and completed it's 1 hour heating up the water.


PostPosted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:45 pm Post Subject:
The obvious question is when did you have it properly serviced?

Whereas older gas boiler can tolerate considerable misadjustment and keep working, oil boilers are more sensitive to their settings, particularly at the ignition stage.

Agile - A national oil supplier/service company carried out the service in March this year and until last Tuesday (20 Oct 09) it was working fine.


Cheers for the prompt replies guys

 

[Agile]

I have no experience of the quality of contract servicing on oil boilers but would expect anything done in less than 1/2 hour to have been rather skimped.

Do you know how well it was done and did they do an analysis of the flue gases?

Contract servicing of gas appliances is often just done as a safety check rather than a full service. With gas thats less important on modern appliances although an internal inspection is always useful..

Tony

 

[mlee55]

Hi again

No it was a full service the guy arrived at 1000 and departed at 1140, he replaced a couple of items all included in the price. It it is the same engineer that has been doing the boiler for about 5 years, i think he is a good one on previous experience.

The emissions etc are as follows:

Combustion Test Efficienty - 93.2%
co2 - 11.1%
Smoke 0 - 1
Pump pressure - 100 psi
FGT - 165 dec C

Does this shed any light?

 

[casius66]

Hi Matt

Possibly dirty electrodes as a starting point, but it could be a number of things (sorry to be vague but it's tricky when not sat in front of it). The hot/cold question was to determine whether the solenoid coil could be the likely suspect.
Have you had it lock out when you're trying to reset it - if so how far does it get it the start up before it locks out?

Service guy isn't called Ian by any chance?

 

[Paffman]

Any chance of knowing which model boiler you have?

 

[mlee55]

Hi all

I thought I would give it few days to reply, to give me time to track any trends as to when the boiler fires. First of all I don't know the model, but I know it has been here since the house was built in 1993. We have been in the house since 1996 and it has been serviced every year since then so I suppose you could say it has been looked after to some degree.

Ok the trend I have noticed is that 9 time out of ten it does not fire from cold. Having said that it did fire from cold yesterday morning (the only time) during the heating cycle (but did not fire 30 minutes earlier on the hot water cycle). If the system is started by selecting "Extra Hour" then I hear the pump start up but the boiler doesn't fire. Incidentally the pump always starts, no problem. I think I may be time to get the boiler man out sooner rather than later cos not I get wet every time I go into the garage to press the red button.

One more thing that may be significant is that on previous occasions when I have fired it up myself the red lockout light on the front has extinguished, today it continued to glow very dim, but it was glowing.

Thanks all.

 

[Paffman]

... First of all I don't know the model, but I know it has been here since the house was built in 1993

There has got to be some ID somewhere.

Is it a floor standing or wall mounted, inside or outside?

What is on the data plate? Take a look inside the casing for clues.

Maybe a Camray??

Take a look at the service sheet, what did the engineer say it was? You have got service sheets?

Could be the capacitor or a worn pump/motor coupling.

 

[Agile]

Can you take a photo of the front and post it on here?

Killing the power for a few minutes might reset it.

Tony

 

[mlee55]

DOH

Silly me!! The model is on the service sheet - it is a Boulter Camray 3, it is floor mounted and in the garage.

You say kill the power, i guess switching it off at the consumer unit is good enough, will give it a go now.

Cheers

 

[casius66]

It's likely to be a problem with the ignition (IMO) I'd be looking at the spark generator

 

[Paffman]

I'll put my money on either the capacitor or the coupling is worn and jams the motor. Might even have worn the motor dog, might also have loads of rust where the end bearing on the motor is.

Neither of which Matt, (no offence) will be able to check unless he feels confident to do so and has the gear to do it.

 

[casius66]

Matt,
do let us know what the problem was when it's sorted...