oil fired burner only running for a short while..

marlie2005

Hi all, I know it's a friday night and all but have a big problem with my burner..
it's a firebird heat-pac 70/90 which is firing up as normal and then cutting out after about 5 mins. then after a while it will fire up again for another 5 mins.
There is lots of kerosane in the tank and no airlocks, just wondering has anyone any idea what might be going on..

nophd08

Hi Marlie, I'm not a technician by any means, Is your burner heating any rads or water during the 5 mins it runs?
Are you resetting it manually or does it fire up itself after 5mins.

marlie2005

Hi thanks for your swift reply..

Yes the burner is heating the rads and the water while it is on and it will come on itself after about an hour being off. We let it run on constant to find this out..

meercat

is the pump working
are the room thermostats turned up
are their mini valves

roy rodgers

go with the meercat.
the boiler sounds like its doing every thing ok.

maybe get it serviced soon. an oil service has come a long way since just changing the nozzel.

marlie2005

thanks for the input people..
Just to answer a few questions .. the termostate is on at max both downstairs and up, got it serviced yesterday and the service engineer said the burner is working ok.. He did say something about the' control unit' being stuck when he arrived and he fixed that and all worked fine of course while he was here but started giving hassle just a few short hours later..

He also said that the control unit ( well thats what i think he said) was not part of the burner but installed by the orginal plumber as he fitted in the unit..

I have just forked out nearly €100.00 euro because i thought the burner needed to be fixed but this problem is still here and i really don't have the money to be calling in more tradesmen for the problem not to be fixed..

Hence the question being asked here..
So if anyone can direct me in the area of the prob that would at least be a starting point..

Avns1s

What is the thermostat on the boiler itself set at? You could try and turn it up by 5 or 10 degrees and see if there is any change.

It sounds as though the boiler is heating up and being turned off by a thermostat then coming back in as the temp drops.

meercat

could be a stuck minivalve
the last
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055968629&highlight=stuck+mini+valve

nophd08

I dont think its a mini valve meercat, ie motorised valve. Probably hi limit stat is cutting out burner because either low limit stat isnt working or like the service guy said, the control box. If you turn down thermostat to lowest setting and fire up burner and when it cuts out turn stat back up. Burner should then restart. If not then my guess would be the control box is faulty but I would change thermostat also as it would be fairly inexpensive. Either way your service guy will charge you another call out. Both items are fairly simple to change if you note all wiring etc.

Sparkpea

a high limit stat wouldnt come back on tho unless it was reset surely

nophd08

Yeah, more than likely sparkpea, but I wouldnt be that familiar

with firebird. It wouldnt reach max temp in 5 mins anyway so I'd guess

its control box..... BUT I could be wrong. Maybe someone more qualified

will prove us wrong.

marlie2005

well we have tried everything so far that is suggested and nothing is working so is that pointing towards the control box.. The recommened firebird service guy said it was that this control box was put in by the plummer and is not part of the firebird unit.. If this is true I have to get back in contact with the orginal plummer.... right?

meercat

what does this control box do
any pics or link to something similar
are you sure its not a mini valve that can be opened manually
where is it located

nophd08

The control box is the "box" with the reset button and wiring mounted on the burner. If technician is replacing it then obviously it needs to be exact box for that model of burner and not one off another type, but... in saying that another type would do temporarily which was probably done already.

Another thing to consider is that if burner is old, say 8-10 yrs, is it worth spending money on callouts if you are not familiar with keeping it going. Normally one fault ends up with a few, ie pump, transformer etc. A new burner should be less than 300 and money well spent.

If it was a valve problem meercat then water or rads in that particular zone wouldnt heat.

meercat

"He also said that the control unit ( well thats what i think he said) was not part of the burner but installed by the orginal plumber as he fitted in the unit.."

just wondering what this control unit the op is talking about is

nophd08

Yeah, He said that all right meercat, I think marlie needs to upload some pics. God knows what way that plumber has that running

marlie2005

Hi guys,
i will try answer some of the questions and try to explain what is happening, as i am getting more confused than you lot.. i have no notion about burners and will never have, but thank you so much for your replys so far..
The burner is 2.5 years old and as far as the firebird tech said is in perfect running order...
What is happening is something is telling the burner to turn off after exactly 4 mins and stay off.
I rang the tech back yesterday to follow up what he thinks, and he seems to think that it has something to do with the plumming or orginal installion of the lines..
just to add it never worked properly and something has had to be replaced every year so far..
I can't give u a picture of the control unit because i don't know what it looks like ....:o

marlie2005

plummer just been round..
The circlation pump is sticking, thinks it may be on the way out.. so that's another €70 fitted..
Thanks for all your replies and help.. hopefully this will be the end of the road with this problem..

nophd08

No problem marlie, Hope new pump sorts it all out.

We could only work on information you gave us.
Happy Heating.....