Odd Riello RDB behavior

nordicb

Hi everyone,

Hope you may help here, before I call someone to the house, perhaps I can take a look at the problem myself.

I have Riello RDB1 50/90 burner and recently noticed it started misbehaving. What happens is, if I set a timer for 1 hour continous run few times a day, everything seems to be ok, however, during some colder evenings I override the timer and run it for longer, but it seems to be locking out at some point and does not restart. It fires right away if I hit the reset button.

It rules out the thermostat. The pump is starting fine. The photosensor upon inspection was and is clean. The burner is equipt with the tigerloop and the thing seems to be half empty even though the tank oil level is above it. The feed hose from it to the pump looks quite corroded, do you think there could be a restriction of some sort perhaps?

Any thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks again,
Art

agusta

When was the boiler last serviced? ,The oil hose has a date stamped on it.The manufactures state the flexible hose should be changed every two years.I change hoses that look new.I know the damage a split rubber hose can cause.id advise to change the hoses
Its hard to diagnose the fault without putting a vacuum gauge and pressure gauge on the pump.
If the tank is above the tiger loop, the oil should flow freely out the pipe feeding the tigerloop,if not check the filters and firevalve.
Change the flexible hoses, a pin hole in one of these causes problems
Pressure gauge will be needed to test oil pump.The keyway in the pump could be just starting to slip.
After that it can be a solenoid going open circuit when warm, or photocell, or nozzle and set up issue
Or a boiler issue but unlikely

nordicb

Hi..

Thanks for that. Think I need to good health check on the system, I'm sure it hasn't been serviced or checked for many years. When I moved into the house the burner was dead, turned out to be the pump capacitor. The fuel hoses are quite rotten, but they do not leak, however the tigerloop thingy base feels greasy. The inside doesn't look clean really either. I hope it survives till warmer days when I can take things apart. I see you are in Limerick, is there anyone you could perhaps recommend to take a good look at it because I have no confidence this unit won't fail any time soon. I'm in Ballina (Tipperary)

Thanks again!

agusta

Would you be able to post a picture of the front of the boiler....Is the boiler a heatpac or utility model.If so, is the tigerloop fitted inside or outside the boiler casing?

nordicb

Morning.

It's an outside unit. It was locked out this morning again.

Here is the picture, sorry for the quality. It may have seen better days.

jimf

the fact it was locked out again this morning may have happened on the last run cycle last night or first run this morning

is the tigerloop even needed in the first place

only way to know is get somebody on site that knows what they are doing

nordicb

Thanks.

The original tank was burried in the ground, hence the tigerloop, I guess, remains from those times, however current tank is at a ground level. I'll order new hoses, tigerloop, inline filter, photocell, solenoid, pump coupling, they are not very expensive and no harm replacing these.

I afraid with an intermittent issue like this it will be a guesswork replacing parts until culprit is found, like often happens in car garages, but at least I won't pay for the time and labor.

Also, would you know, does water stay at the bottom or top of heating oil? Problably bottom?

jimf

water sinks to bottom

I really think you should get somebody who isn't a parts changer to diagnose your problem

the bits you are talking about purchasing aren't far off the price of a new burner

but your money your choice it wouldn't be my way

nordicb

Thanks, that's a good point - something to think about. I thought they are a lot more expensive...

Would be cool if anyone could recommend someone experienced to check the burner.

agusta

How far away is the oil tank and what height above the burner is the oil tank?.This is important to know.
You have an external tiger loop fitted inside the boiler casing.This can cause lockouts and causes bad emmisions.Why=the vent in the tigerloop emits a kerosene vapour into the heatpac
So its a/ either remove the tigerloop[depending on the height of oil tank]
b/fit an internal tiger loop and pipe the vent to outside
c/ move your tigerloop to outside and pipe the flow and return to inside the casing with copper.
This is the first step in my opinion,

Tom44

. I'll order new hoses, tigerloop, inline filter, photocell, solenoid, pump coupling, they are not very expensive and no harm replacing these.

Waste money replacing all the above if you want, but your missing the most common cause of intermittent lock out.
Clue :
4.5:p

nordicb

agusta wrote: »

How far away is the oil tank and what height above the burner is the oil tank?.This is important to know.
You have an external tiger loop fitted inside the boiler casing.This can cause lockouts and causes bad emmisions.Why=the vent in the tigerloop emits a kerosene vapour into the heatpac
So its a/ either remove the tigerloop[depending on the height of oil tank]
b/fit an internal tiger loop and pipe the vent to outside
c/ move your tigerloop to outside and pipe the flow and return to inside the casing with copper.
This is the first step in my opinion,

The oil tank is 1.5m away, perhaps 10cm above the oil pump. The place had all this installed before me, I'm only dealing with it now due to heating problem... It worked fine so far. If I remove the tigerloop, can I bleed air through the pump pressure gauge point? I was explained briefly I need to blank the return hose port from the oil pump, but there is something in that port that needs to be reinstalled so pump has a way to bleed the oil pressure...

On a side note, I've just noticed fine bubbles in the tigerloop coming via return pipe. The tigerloop is also leaking oil lightly through the clear plastic joint, looks like the bond with the plastic has perished. So the tigerloop most likely needs to go or be replaced, urgently perhaps.

I was advised to check the capacitor, even though I had replaced it about 1.5 years ago to a close match, it checks out on multimeter.

nordicb

Tom44 wrote: »

. I'll order new hoses, tigerloop, inline filter, photocell, solenoid, pump coupling, they are not very expensive and no harm replacing these.

Waste money replacing all the above if you want, but your missing the most common cause of intermittent lock out.
Clue :
4.5:p

Yup, the cap, thanks... Not every place has them, mine still checks out fine on capacitance, but I can't check its ESR.

agusta

What is ESR...
If your not running out oil regular, you can do without the tiger loop.It should not be inside the casing anyway.
A pressure gauge following mi instructions is required to set up the pump,
Only after the boiler is serviced and the burner is serviced[incl [new riello hose,new nozzle as per mi,pump checked for wear and slippage,maybe new seals etc.
Flue gas analysis after this to get the boiler running correctly and efficiently.

jimf

equivalent series resistance

come on agusta I have explained this to you before

agusta

jimf wrote: »

equivalent series resistance

come on agusta I have explained this to you before

not applicable to service technicians,designers yes

Tom44

Sorry to all.


But personally I hate giving advice nowadays on carbon monoxide producing appliances that customers think they can fix themselves.
No offence to OP, he did ask for recommendation for his area 👍
Fair play to that.


Seperataly
Most of my answers here, if I did reply, would be, call a professional.
But we have all come across some ”professionals" before!!!
So it's a no win situation, but at least we can point customers in the right direction here. 👍

nordicb

Thanks all.

Managed to witness burner going to lockout - heard the thermostat switching the power on, but the burner only made a slight hiss sound before going silent. According to the manual - the start sequence of the burner, everything starts with the pump motor on, then everything else. So I measured the power supply and the capacitor repeatedly and got 0.9uF reading, instead of 4 the day before. Can't believe it only lasted just over a year.

Instead of getting one cap, I've got 2: 2uF + 2.5uF hoping they will last longer together sharing the load.

I think I'm good for now, only need to replace oil hoses and failing tigerloop.

Thanks again.

agusta

It must not have been a genuine riello capacitor you fitted last year.in my opinion these capacitors dont give trouble.

nordicb

It wasn't, but Riello most likely do not make capacitors, whichever brand they use may be better than what I had. Also 2 caps in theory should perform better resulting in lower series resistance and current handling, but time will tell.

trevannie

Our Riello RDB oil central heating burner stopped working this weekend, we had oil delivery Saturday and the heating worked fine (we hadn't let the fuel run out), heating was switched off in the afternoon and when I switched it back on in the evening it didn't work, I tried the reset button but no joy, I cleaned the photocell (it wasn't dirty but cleaned it anyway), the strange thing is that our hot water is still heating up??? I bled the fuel still no joy, then I tried changing the temp up a notch and the unit fired up for about a minute and went off again, now it wont fire up at all??

Wearb

trevannie wrote: »

Our Riello RDB oil central heating burner stopped working this weekend, we had oil delivery Saturday and the heating worked fine (we hadn't let the fuel run out), heating was switched off in the afternoon and when I switched it back on in the evening it didn't work, I tried the reset button but no joy, I cleaned the photocell (it wasn't dirty but cleaned it anyway), the strange thing is that our hot water is still heating up??? I bled the fuel still no joy, then I tried changing the temp up a notch and the unit fired up for about a minute and went off again, now it wont fire up at all??

Circulation pump problem or zone valve if not wired as it should be.