Boiler cutting out

garv123

Hi, we recently had to move and reinstall our oil burner to put down a footpath around the house.
The plumber had everything running fine for a few hours. That was a month ago and the heating wasn't used since.
Now I can get the heating to come on and work for upstairs but when i hit the switch for downstairs, the heating cuts off after about a minute. I can't turn the boiler on again for 20 mins approx and if the downstairs zone switch is still on it cuts out again after a minute or 2.
Any suggestions on what to try?

Plumber is on holidays for 2 weeks

Wearb

Looks like you don't have circulation for downstairs. Depending on the plumbing, could be a faulty motorized valve or circ. pump.
Have you tried both up and down together?

jimf

as wearb says above

garv123

Wearb wrote: »

Looks like you don't have circulation for downstairs. Depending on the plumbing, could be a faulty motorized valve or circ. pump.
Have you tried both up and down together?

Yeah I've tried both together, same result, the boiler will run for a minute or 2 and cut out.
When i flick the upstairs switch i can hear a valve turning, can't hear anything with the downstairs switch.

Am i looking for an Electrician or Plumber?

Wearb

garv123 wrote: »

Yeah I've tried both together, same result, the boiler will run for a minute or 2 and cut out.
When i flick the upstairs switch i can hear a valve turning, can't hear anything with the downstairs switch.

Am i looking for an Electrician or Plumber?

A magician . I am very surprised to hear that with both turned on that it still cuts out after a couple of minutes. Anyway, you need an electrician or plumber that's good on heating controls. So ask that question when ringing around.

Perhaps post a pic of the boiler including as much of the system as possible. In such a situation, I would first check the circulating pump, before going on to further fault-find.
Upstairs could -to some extent- be working on natural heating flow.

garv123

Will take pics after work.

Seems strange that I have to wait 20mins or more after it cuts out before I can turn it on again.

John.G

If a gravity system is the small header tank "full", if unvented, is the pressure > 0.7 to 1 bar?, if these check out OK then circ pump suspect as post #5 suggests.

jimf

might sound stupid but to me when the downstairs zone is activated its switching off the circulation to both zones

in this case its more than likely a zone wiring issue is it wired with relays ?

garv123

jimf wrote: »

might sound stupid but to me when the downstairs zone is activated its switching off the circulation to both zones

in this case its more than likely a zone wiring issue is it wired with relays ?

Took some pictures from inside the hot press, boiler is directly outside it.

I turned it on with both upstairs switches on, The top motor valve is hot, the bottom is cold, not the pipes, the box itself. Does that sound right?

The heading hasn't cut off after 10mins and the downstairs radiators are starting to get hot.
Strange?


https://ibb.co/bs6nLZ6
https://ibb.co/ydPHR3h

garv123

Actually it cut out again utility room radiator got slightly warm before it cut off

John.G

With both switched on, can you then move the lever (on the cold bottom Sunvic) from "Normal" to "Flushing only" and see what happens.

You mention 2 switches upstairs in the above post so if you also have a downstairs switch it means that you have three zones, downstairs, upstairs and hot water cylinder, if so, then you should have 3 motorized valves. If any motorized valve is energised then the lever (normal/flushing only) should move freely with no resistance and the actuator Top will get warm and remain warm while its energised. If the motorized valve is not energised then there will be some resistance to movement and you may hear a whirring sound while moving it. When moved manually, it may or may not close its auxiliary (end) contacts to fire the boiler. I do know that on my perfectly working Honeywell V4043H motorized valve that moving the lever manually will open the valve but will not close the auxiliary contacts to fire the boiler.


One other thing to bear in mind (not connected to your problem) is that if you open a motorized valve manually via its lever then it will remain open and once its activated (energised) normally while in this state then it will remain opened but will then close when de activated, at least this is how the Honeywell works and I imagine the others will operate likewise.

garv123

John.G wrote: »

With both switched on, can you then move the lever (on the cold bottom Sunvic) from "Normal" to "Flushing only" and see what happens.

You mention 2 switches upstairs in the above post so if you also have a downstairs switch it means that you have three zones, downstairs, upstairs and hot water cylinder, if so, then you should have 3 motorized valves. If any motorized valve is energised then the lever (normal/flushing only) should move freely with no resistance and the actuator Top will get warm and remain warm while its energised. If the motorized valve is not energised then there will be some resistance to movement and you may hear a whirring sound while moving it. When moved manually, it may or may not close its auxiliary (end) contacts to fire the boiler. I do know that on my perfectly working Honeywell V4043H motorized valve that moving the lever manually will open the valve but will not close the auxiliary contacts to fire the boiler.


One other thing to bear in mind (not connected to your problem) is that if you open a motorized valve manually via its lever then it will remain open and once its activated (energised) normally while in this state then it will remain opened but will then close when de activated, at least this is how the Honeywell works and I imagine the others will operate likewise.

Sorry wasn't clear, only 2 zones, 1 for upstairs and one for downstairs. I couldn't slide any of the motorised valves to flush, didn't want to apply excessive force.

So now, I've noticed with both switches in the on position, the heating will come on but only heat upstairs, if i turn the downstairs switch on and off the burner cuts out.

Also the pipes are very hot on both sides of the downstairs motorised valve, the radiator 2 metres away gets slightly warm but the water doesn't seem to be flowing.
Possibly a pump issue?

John.G

It could be any one (or two) of a number of faults and without checking out with a multimeter very difficult to figure out.

All I can say that if one or both of the motorized valves are energised then either one of them should give a run signal to the boiler and circ pump. The motorized levers should then be "loose" and you should be able to move them very very easily to the end of the slot(s) but this doesn't prove that the end contacts are made and sending a run signal to the boiler without the use of a multimeter, from your posts above its possible that the upstairs motorized valve is opening but its not giving a run signal to the boiler, the boiler only runs when the downstairs motorized valve is energised?.

If the pump is not operating then the boiler would still run long enough to heat up its own water contents of 20/25 litres to whatever the boiler stat is set at, say 70/75C and from a cold start this might take 5 to 10 minutes before the boiler cuts out, it will then fire up again when the temperature falls by ~ 10C which may take 20 minutes or longer but will then only run for a few minutes as its only heating up the water by 10C or so, this cycling will then continue until the motorized valve(s) close and remove the boiler run signal.