Oil central Heating intermittent turning off problem

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RSMike

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My mother is having an on-going (for months now) problem with her oil central heating. Basically sometimes when it gets up to the set heat and switches off, it never comes back on again.

Pressing the little reset button on the boiler usually gets it going again, but not always, though eventually it does come back when it cools down.

Other symptoms are that the rads can get very hot when running.

Initial thought was the thermostat, but we had the guy who services the boiler check that and he says it is ok, He fitted a new oil filter as the old one was leaking, and he said he purged an air bubble when doing that job.

Fair enuff after that it seemed pretty good, maybe ran for 2 weeks without an issue, but now its happening again.

The guy who has looked at it a few times, does not seem to have any idea what to try, and suggested last time it might be worth replacing the electric unit on the front of the boiler/burner, but it all seems a bit uncertain.

Any advice appreciated

Mike
 
Had a similar problem a while back - turned out that the internal control had been turned down to 15 degrees and boiler switcher off when it reached this point.
 
No, I don't see him on that list.
I am thinking it might be time to try someone else. Just curious if anyone else has had a similar problem.

I wondered if the water pump could be an issue, e.g. if its not pumping fast enough, would it cause these symptoms?
 
Circulating pump is the issue but anybody of worth should be able to test this.

What area are you?
 
Pressing the little reset button on the boiler usually gets it going again, but not always, though eventually it does come back when it cools down.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the Red Button (sometimes with a light on it) or a little thermal overheat button that pops out?
 
If it is the red reset button that needs to be pressed, then it is not the pump. This is not temperature related but is a flame failure device.
It is more likely the solenoid coil if it is affected by temperature. It should read 100ohms on a resistance test.
 
Right, so it started acting up badly on Thursday and my Mother called in the same guy again as she could not get anyone else at short notice.

She had misunderstood previously what he was suggesting to replace. It was the complete burner unit that he was suggesting, and she went ahead and had him do this on Friday.

It seems to have solved the problem, though maybe replacing the whole unit was overkill.
 
It is rare to have to replace the burner as all parts are replaceable. What was the diagnosis of the fault & then an informed decision can be made on whether the burner replace,net is the best option.
 
a very old burner is usually best replaced as one component failure is often followed by another and the components such as pump or motor are often half the price of a new burner especially when labour is added.
 
I would have to disagree. Burner parts are generally inexpensive towards a complete new burner. A burner can be stripped down of all its parts in less than 30 minutes. Hardest parts to get out are motor bearings & get only cost about €10 for a pair of them. Oil pumps €60 + vat whereas a new burner is about €220 + vat. With both, the boiler will have to serviced with new nozzle to suit the boiler & commissioned with FGA.
All too often guys are installing a new burner when they do not know how to identify & test the various components of a burner & at the expense of the customer, the easy answer is to spend hundreds on an unnecessary burner.
 
Well, the thing I am not happy with is there was no firm diagnosis of the problem. I was not around when this happened and the mother is apt to make snap decisions. Even though everything is running fine now, there are no guarantees that he isolated the fault.

Having said that if it does fix it, the boiler (Unidare) and burner (Riello) are coming on for 30 years old, so the burner had probably served its time.
 
My point exactly. There is not one single component of a burner that cannot be fault diagnosed.
Secondly, I would most certainly not be installing a brand new burner on a 30 year old Unidare. The efficiency & metal fatigue of that boiler will be extremely significant & for efficiency & reliability reasons would have been worth considering a replacement complete. Now if the boiler itself finally packs in, i.e. leaks, you have just wasted the cost of a new burner as all boilers come with new burners.
I most certainly would have done a part replacement on that burner.
 
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