Riello oil burner keeps tripping

[Richard C]

Hi all
Last year & inherited a C/H system with a Grant Vortex Oil boiler that's had little use since it was installed in 2013, due to the previous owners long term illness. The boiler & system was last serviced & re-commissioned in September 2021, with a new nozzle fitted & the usual combustion checks, prior to us purchasing the property. The boiler & system has run faultlessly since then but, very recently, the Riello burner has started giving random lock out's but always re-starts after one reset. It’s mostly in early morning after the initial fire up &, generally but not always, occurs once a day. The boiler lives in an attached garage & has a conventional flue; I've checked/cleaned the oil tank filter & oil flow but with no real improvement in lock out incidents. The boiler has had less than 12 months use since we bought the property as it's only used 8 months of the year.

I've gone through both the owners & installation manuals but found them not entirely useful in locating what may be a very simple fault. I am a qualified & competent Mechanical Engineer, generally able to fix most things myself & wondered if there is anything else I can try/look at not requiring specialist test equipment (which I don't have) or should I resign myself to booking a boiler service engineer.

 

[Exedon]

As it was last serviced over 18 months ago time to get a competent oil engineer.
Just to give you some idea current Grant boilers have to be serviced yearly to maintain warranty.
As you have identified yourself you cannot make any meaningful adjustments to a oil burner without at least a pressure gauge and combustion analysis equipment.

 

[Richard C]

Sorry, post made before it was complete. Given the boiler is around 10 years old, I doubt it's still in warranty & I did say it has only been used for around 8 months since re-commissioning in 2021. My previous property had a boiler with a Riello burner & I know these to be extremely reliable &, apart from an occasional service & two replacement oil pumps, it ran faultlessly for over 20 years & was still going strong when I sold the property.

I know your supposed to have boiler's serviced every year but it has had limited use since then as our property is only used around 8 months of the year. From 20 previous years oil boiler ownership in my last property, my experience is that a rigid annual servicing is not really essential with the approx 60% use we put the boiler through. Riello oil burners are also extremely reliable seem to go on forever, there is not really that much that goes wrong with them & it's usually ignition or boiler controls that cause problems. I was just looking for some guidance as to what else I could check without test equipment before I resort to calling in a "qualified boiler engineer"!

 

[oilhead]

Sitting in an outhouse for several years will not have done it a lot of good. A good general clean up of the burner components such as electrodes, photocell and blast tube, and a good clean out of the boiler internals may be all that is needed. Lock out on an early morning start may indicate a faulty capacitor which is cheap to rectify. If the stuff you can do doen't fix it, then it is time for a professional.

 

[Richard C]

Oilhead; the boiler is in an attached garage which is very dry. Being re-commissioned late 2021, I assumed that boiler baffles & internals would have been cleaned, unless a cowboy did the service! But it's something I can easily check; The capacitor I could check, but without yet looking, is it on the boiler control board or part of the burner?

 

[roguetrader]

Capacitor is under the red cover attached to the burner.
Please be careful with capacitors.

 

[Johntheo5]

Clean out the condensate trap and refill with water and keep filling to observe it draining away.
Burner Gasket?.

 

[Richard C]

rougetrader; thanks, also aware that capacitors can "bite" if your not aware or careless with fingers!
johntheo5: thanks for giving me a couple of things to check.