Oil Boiler Locking out

[Deano-2]

My Myson Velaire Oil Boiler (prob 12+ years old) is locking out - and its increasing in frequency.

Seems to have started last week. We had an oil delivery very early on a Sat morning, which caught us on the hop. We didnt realise its was being delivered until they posted the Del note through the letter box so had no time to ensure the heating was off.

Since then we get lock-outs, at first the occasional one now its becoming quite frequent. This evening I've been outside and removed the filter to give it a good clean. There was a a fair amount of sludge on it. It doesnt seem to have helped though. The boiler still sounds as though its having difficulty igniting - it seems to lock out at the beginning of the firing cycle. If it goes - then its fine for a bit until it has to fire again.

I had to empty the filter bowl to clean it - have I now allowed air into the supply line ?

Is there anything I can try over the weekend to help ?

Thanks for any help.
Deano

 

[COG]

you will as you say let air into the line but if you used any vents on the filter you should be ok but it depends on your individual pipe set up .The worrying thing is that you said "sludge" thats not good as sludge sugests that you have water in your tank and now possibly in your oil pump and at the nozzle. Do you have a drain point at the back of the oil tank if not can you run off a couple of lts of oil direct from the front of the tank to see if you have any water or other nastys in there

 

[oilman]

If you have sludge in the filter, AND you have had your boiler serviced annually, get someone else to service it. If your service guy (assuming you had one) is OFTEC registered, OFTEC would be pleased to hear from you, and they will then inspect his work. Tank and filter checks are on the list of service items.

Once you have cleaned the strainers at the tank end, Turn off the oil at the boiler, and put a shallow tray under the burner. Switch off the power to the boiler, and unplug the cable that goes to the burner. Disconnect the pipe that goes into the pump, normally a 15mm spanner. Put the end of the pipe into a pot and open the oil valve. Run a couple of litres into a container. It should flow freely. Turn off the valve and reconnect the pipe, plug in the burner, turn on the power and try the burner.

Wipe the pipe joint with a piece of paper towel and check in about 15 mins for leaks.

If the oil didn't flow freely you need to find a way of pushing the oil back up the pipe to dislodge debris that is probably blocking the pipe.

 

[Deano-2]

Thanks for the pointers. Have now bled at both the tank filter and the pump end and its been ok for 2 hours. (which is about 1 1/2 hours better than it was doing!)

Tomorrow - I'll check the oil is running freely as you describe and on Monday I'll be arranging to get it serviced. We've only been in this house 18 months and I'd already decided not to use the bloke we used last year.

The crud in the filter (a small mesh cylinder) was a globular black sludge - which I had assumed had been stirred up by the oil delivery (which the manual I have warns against) - is this unlikely then ?

Many Thanks

Dean

 

[oilman]

The sludge is probably bacterial growth. See this and is likely to have accumulated in the strainer over a long time, delivering the oil and drawing oil at the same time was the last straw.