Kerosene burner "blew up"

Fr Dougal

Hi, a weird one.

I fitted a new Kerosene burner about three weeks ago, a brand new Sterling ST108 burner, exact same as the old burner. It has been working perfect for the last 3 weeks.

The boiler part is a 20 year old Myson Velaire, with a balanced flue through the wall at the back of the boiler with plenty of ventilation outside. I also keep a Carbon Monoxide alarm on the wall beside the boiler and it has not gone off.

Last night, the rads weren't heating, wife checked and the reset switch was lit up. She pressed the reset switch, sounded like the heating was coming on, but then it exploded, literally, inside the furnace. The top inspection plate is bent upwards, the fireproof cord sealers blew out, the end part of the balanced flue blew off outside. She immediately unplugged it.

Soulds like there may have been a buildup of Kerosene fumes in the furnace part, is this possible? I thought Kerosene was one of the safest types of fuel for an inside burner.....
Also, the fumes through the balanced flue had been coming out clear.

The new burner looks okay, and seems undamaged. also, all electrics seem undamaged.

Any ideas what might have caused it or how to prevent it from happening again?

DGOBS

Sounds like the stem valve stuck open, this would allow unburned fuel into the combustion chamber and if hot, it would trun to vapour, once your burner went to reignite..boom...and exactly the type of damage your reporting would occur.

I had a similar issue a few years back with a brand new riello pump, but the warranty only extends to the 'part' or burner in your case, and damage to your boiler is incidental and not covered.

Why did you replace the old burner? was the pump gone?
If so, have you checked your fuel tank for sludge/growth, checked your filters, if present this could have gotten through to the pump and fouled the stem valve...hey presto...boom

Fr Dougal

DGOBS wrote: »

Sounds like the stem valve stuck open, this would allow unburned fuel into the combustion chamber and if hot, it would trun to vapour, once your burner went to reignite..boom...and exactly the type of damage your reporting would occur.

I had a similar issue a few years back with a brand new riello pump, but the warranty only extends to the 'part' or burner in your case, and damage to your boiler is incidental and not covered.

Why did you replace the old burner? was the pump gone?
If so, have you checked your fuel tank for sludge/growth, checked your filters, if present this could have gotten through to the pump and fouled the stem valve...hey presto...boom

Hey, cheers for the reply.

I replaced the old pump cos I it wasn't working and as I started working through issues I decided it was easier to just replace the whole lot.

The old pump was spraying oil but no spart to ignite it. I had replaced the "Condenser"? Round aluminium electrical thingy on left side on the old burnet.

Re the oil tank, it is a plastic one, in 19 years but I just emptied it and cleaned it about 2 years ago so no sludge. I have two filters, one at the tank up the back of the garden and and one at the byrner, both are clean.

So would it be possible to repair my "Boiler" part by straightening the bent top inspection plate and putting in new sealers?
It looks like the outside of the balanced flue can be re-assembled as it appears to be metal flaps than bend over each other...

Fr Dougal

As the burner is only 4 weeks old, Bentone are sending out a service engineer to check it out.

jimf

please post back and let us know the outcome