No heating problem! Oil-burning central heating boiler

[cheredenine]

Hello all, sorry to be posting urgent problems on a sunday morning, but its getting a bit chilly!

We're in a rental house and have got a Wallstar oil-burning boiler which is refusing to work. It appears to be either a 12/14 or 15/19 according to the booklet we were given, though it doesn't appear to match the boilers in the various Wallstar instruction manuals i've found on the net. The unit has thermostat dial with settings from stop through 50 degrees to 90 degrees, and two lights - amber for on and (we've found) red for not working. Pulling the white casing forward a little, you can see a red button that was previously obscured, which we presume is the reset button.

Anyway - last night the boiler stops working and red light illuminates. We've tried switching it off and on, turning the dial down, pressing the red reset button, pressing what i presume is another reset/lock-out button on the outside portion of the unit. All to no avail!

Not sure if we're doing something wrong, or haven't found the correct combination of actions yet. We wondered if the boiler needed to cool down first, but its been left overnight and nothings changed...

Any ideas?

 

[marcr]

The red light indicates burner lockout. Your problem is purely at the burner. It has failed to light/re-light and so cut out for safety.
The red reset button is on the control box fitted to the burner as you have found. What happens when you push it right in? Does it go out at all? What should happen is it goes out and begins the ignition sequence again. The motor, and therefore fan, should spin at high speed first. Can you hear this or does it sound like the motor is jammed?

 

[marcr]

I should add the external controls/programmer need to be calling for heat for the burner to have power.

 

[cheredenine]

Thanks for your reply! I've made sure the timer/thermostat have indeed been calling for heat whilst working the boiler controls, like you say.

We get no response to pressing the red button - red light stays on and no noise at all emitted by boiler. What makes me wonder, though, is that there isn't much travel at all to the red button; even to the point that i can't really tell if it is switching, so to speak. Is it supposed to be a positive action? Could the button be stuck?

 

[marcr]

is it a round or rectangular reset button? I'm not sure which burner/control box you have.
The red lockout light on the facial panel should go out when you push the button in and come back on when you release it.

To reset it there should be a click when the button is fully depressed. Right at the end of it's travel. Have you pressed it in hard enough?

There's a 30+ second delay after locking out, with the red button still lit, before the button can be reset too.

Any help?

 

[cheredenine]

Its a small round red button; its normally behind the white casing; accessible if you take the cover off or just pull it forward a little at the bottom. I had another look at the button; there is some travel, its just not much. Have tried pressing it hard, but no click and red light stays lit. Will try it again, just the be sure. If this doesn't work, any ideas what it could be?

Thanks!

 

[marcr]

Hmmm, a reset button not resetting would have me reaching for a replacement. Maybe it has got stuck.
Sorry I haven't managed to help.

Anyone else any ideas or known this happen?

 

[Burnerman]

Forgive me for appearing particularly dim here, but the reset button will be on the burner control box, and it should reset with a good click....you aren't pressing the repeater lamp on the front panel, are you?
John

 

[marcr]

I think they have identified the repeater lamp, control box reset button and overheat reset button. I mentioned in my first post that the reset button they need is found on the burner control box, I merely said about the lamp going on and off when pressing as an indicator.
Hope this didn't confuse the situation and lead to the wrong thing being pressed.....

 

[cheredenine]

Now you've got me second guessing which button to press!

In the end we borrowed a portable heater from the in-laws and finally got a response from the landlord (he was driving back from up north..). Apparently this boiler has been known to give up before - something about a ballcock in the loft sticking and making boiler think its empty of water?

Anyway, if he can't sort it, he'll be getting in an engineer who can. Bit chilly all round until its fixed!

Thanks for you help; we appreciate your time and efforts

 

[oilhead]

The button you are pressing is the overheat thermostat.
You need to go outside, lift off the front panel of the boiler and you will see another button on a clear plastic control box. Press that.

 

[cheredenine]

The button you are pressing is the overheat thermostat.
You need to go outside, lift off the front panel of the boiler and you will see another button on a clear plastic control box. Press that.

Ahh, i see. Unfortunately i already tried this to no effect the evening the boiler failed, and well before i posted this message.

Landlord visited yesterday and tried a few things, also to no avail. He is going to organise an engineer to sort it out. Luckily he was also able to drop a spare portable heater round, so now we can have two warm rooms! I'm hoping all this cold hasn't killed the homebrew beer i've got sat in the kitchen...[/quote]