New Burner Not Working

Luckydog69

Looking for a bit of advice here... I just recently installed a RIELLO burner unit into my outside Firebird boiler.. just 2 weeks ago. The old burner packed in, it was sparking OK but the kerosene wasn't getting to the spark. I decided to buy a new burner as the old one was already a second hand one. Long story short I fitted the burner myself (plumbing not being one of my talents), put 40 litres of kerosene into the tank just to get it going,bled the new burner and it fired up.. Happy Days, let it run for a few hours and all was good. Went away over Christmas and when I came back yesterday it wouldn't fire up. I reluctantly thought it may have run out of oil so again I bought 2 x 20 litre drums at the pump last night. Bled the system and tried to fire it up but no joy, hit the RED button on the front and no joy.. it didn't even make that fan noise that you'd associate with a boiler starting up. So today I turned off the oil at the tank, undid the filter and it was clean, took out the burner, took off the casing around the fuel pump, the filter in there was covered in gunge, cleaned it, turned fuel back on, bled system and tried to start the burner whilst it was still out of the boiler housing.. it sparked ok but again no fuel getting to it. So I wonder what could be the problem...the burner is only 2 weeks old, also why didn't the filter on the fuel line stop all the gunge getting as far as the pump. Any help/advice greatly appreciated.

agusta

The fuel pump is more than likely gone[seized due to fuel contamination.The gunge you mentions seems like water contamination.The filters cannot stop water passing through.The contamination will have to be removed from the oil tank,oil line,filters etc before a new pump and nozzle is fitted.

Dtp1979

What you did wasn't a DIY job. Sorry for lecturing you but it's the truth. New burners don't come "ready to go" out of the box. They also need to be sized for the boiler they're going in to. Air and pump pressure need to be set properly and the fumes need to be checked and outputs adjusted.
But worst of all is adding the odd 20-40 litres to the tank or tilting the tank. All this does it stir up all the sh1te in the bottom of the tank. Oil filters are basic and can't catch everything.
Get a professional in and hopefully they can sort it for you

K.Flyer

Luckydog69 wrote: »

[...]
(plumbing not being one of my talents)
[...]tried to start the burner whilst it was still out of the boiler housing.. it sparked ok but again no fuel getting to it.

So what was your back up plan if it had ignited and turned itself into a mini flame thrower.
How quick would you have been able to turn it off, did you have a fire extinguisher at the ready rated for flammable liquid?

Tom44

I love DIY'ers

jimf

Tom44 wrote: »

I love DIY'ers

go away you chancer you love the cash they generate :P:P

I kinda have a fondness for them myself ;)

Luckydog69

K.Flyer wrote: »

So what was your back up plan if it had ignited and turned itself into a mini flame thrower.
How quick would you have been able to turn it off, did you have a fire extinguisher at the ready rated for flammable liquid?

Excellent piece of advice... Really helped me out Thank You.

Tom44

Luckydog69 wrote: »

Excellent piece of advice... Really helped me out Thank You.

Lucky dog,
I know of one house fire that was caused by burner been removed from boiler and firing up.
It can happen.

A professional would have checked what the orignal cause of fault was, before anything else, a water check with water finding paste only takes 20 seconds. If that was the orignal problem.
I've removed water from two tanks today alone,and always check.
+ about 20 other things checked. It's second nature.
Fixing the burner or even fitting a new one could still get the same trouble.
The source or cause of the problem has to be identified before you waste any more money.

Were not trying to make fun of you, just pointing out the pitfalls, and benifits of professionals.
Yes, you probably saved a few quid getting a burner yourself, but a service engineer would have saved you quite a bit of money in your case.

Thats all.

Water John

There are a number of core services anyone moving into a house should list and have a person for those jobs. An electrician, plumber, boiler services engineer, fire place cleaner, and if rural, water pump servicer, waste water servicer.
Form a list and have the phone number of each. Using each service is the cheaper way to go in the long run. No point in looking for a name and number when you have the problem.
Some of these need to be an annual service.

K.Flyer

Luckydog69 wrote: »

Excellent piece of advice... Really helped me out Thank You.

You're very welcome :rolleyes:

jca

Luckydog69 wrote: »

Excellent piece of advice... Really helped me out Thank You.

The plumbing & heating section on this site is useless. The "experts" just thank each others jibes and tout for business, changing a tap washer is a job for the "experts" according to these dudes..

Dtp1979

jca wrote: »

The plumbing & heating section on this site is useless. The "experts" just thank each others jibes and tout for business, changing a tap washer is a job for the "experts" according to these dudes..

DIYers and cowboys shouldn't be told how to do dangerous things. Tap washers aren't dangerous to change.

jca

Dtp1979 wrote: »

DIYers and cowboys shouldn't be told how to do dangerous things. Tap washers aren't dangerous to change.

Your post sums up the attitude of the "experts" here. You assume everyone besides yourselves is a dangerous cowboy. My oil heating was installed in 2000, in 2011 on a dark wet cold November evening it stopped working with the red lock out lamp lit. I took off the cover and everything was covered in black carbon like dust, the fan was tight to turn in spots. The next morning I bought a new burner, set the output according to the spec sheet that came with it, fired it up and it's working perfectly over 5 years later. I service it every year and never ever have I used drums to buy oil. I only buy oil from reputable suppliers. In your eyes I'm a cowboy diy'er.

K.Flyer

Do you not see anything wrong with this post then..

Luckydog69 wrote: »

[...]
(plumbing not being one of my talents)
[...]tried to start the burner whilst it was still out of the boiler housing.. it sparked ok but again no fuel getting to it.

Dtp1979

jca wrote: »

Your post sums up the attitude of the "experts" here. You assume everyone besides yourselves is a dangerous cowboy. My oil heating was installed in 2000, in 2011 on a dark wet cold November evening it stopped working with the red lock out lamp lit. I took off the cover and everything was covered in black carbon like dust, the fan was tight to turn in spots. The next morning I bought a new burner, set the output according to the spec sheet that came with it, fired it up and it's working perfectly over 5 years later. I service it every year and never ever have I used drums to buy oil. I only buy oil from reputable suppliers. In your eyes I'm a cowboy diy'er.

Well if you set it up according to manufacturers specs using your flue gas analyser and pressure gauge then fair play to you. Cause we both know it's literally impossible to do it without both pieces of equipment.

agusta

jca wrote: »

Your post sums up the attitude of the "experts" here. You assume everyone besides yourselves is a dangerous cowboy. My oil heating was installed in 2000, in 2011 on a dark wet cold November evening it stopped working with the red lock out lamp lit. I took off the cover and everything was covered in black carbon like dust, the fan was tight to turn in spots. The next morning I bought a new burner, set the output according to the spec sheet that came with it, fired it up and it's working perfectly over 5 years later. I service it every year and never ever have I used drums to buy oil. I only buy oil from reputable suppliers. In your eyes I'm a cowboy diy'er.

The spec sheet that comes with the burner is not relevant.It is the boiler manufacturers instructions spec sheet that the new burner has to be set to.

jca

I got a new oil tank put in in 2015, out of curiosity I asked the plumber to check the flue gas,he said it was fine(like yourselves he was a bit disappointed). I'm a lucky cowboy I suppose.

Dtp1979

jca wrote: »

I got a new oil tank put in in 2015, out of curiosity I asked the plumber to check the flue gas,he said it was fine(like yourselves he was a bit disappointed). I'm a lucky cowboy I suppose.

Everyone gets lucky