Oil burner : how to pre-empt air lock?

[fullerand]

Hi,

We have oil fired central heating and stupidly let the tank go right down to zero last night, doh. We've ordered a fillup for the tank but I guess we will now be susceptible to an air lock.


Are there any steps I can take before the tank gets filled to avoid this? I've seen the threads on how to fix this, looks a bit messy


Thanks

 

[collieb]

I don't think so - once the tank is empty the air will travel from the tank into the burner and when you fill up again the oil will be unable to reach the burner due to the trapped air. Just loosen the nut on the inlet pipe at the burner with a small spanner and wait until the oil starts coming out. Place a rag underneath it while you are doing it - its not that messy really and only takes a few seconds.

 

[ted]

If you're tank's a bit of a distance from the boiler you'll need to press the red button a few times to draw the oil in and I notice that my Riello burners warns against doing this more than twice. Not sure why though.

 

[Welfarite]

No steps to avoid bleeding air before you get oil fill. You could ask delivery man to do it for you and he may do so if he's a kindhearted soul! If youy try and run it withourt oil, it'll be harder to get air out. I think you can buy guages to fit on tank so that you can read fuel levels 9for future0. Myself, i just use a stick adn dip into tank every time I think i'm running low! If it shows below two inches, I get oil!

The red button is a cut off and I wouldn't worry about pressing it more than twice when you know the reason is that the oil has to be drawn up to the burner.

 

[fullerand]

Thanks guys, worked a treat for me last night.

BTW it's probably obvious to anyone else but to get to the bleed nut on my boiler (bentone b10e) I had to take the cover off first. Any rubber gloves wouldn't go astray, my hands stung a bit afterwards!