Oil Burner starts by itself, cannot turn off

LowOdour

We have had this unusual issue at home in that the outside oil burner would fire up by itself for 5-10 seconds, maybe once a day (not sure about at night).

Our electrician was meant to come fix the issue but didn't get around to it until last week because of a bigger problem with it.

What had started to happen last week was that the oil burner would start up but not switch off, so had to turn off power to it at fuse box.

He fixed the issue (it seemed)...something to do with the wiring. But yesterday, I had a fire going in our Reginald Stove (which has a back boiler) and again, oil burner fires up which made me think that when I saw the problem last week, there was a fire in the stove.

So, any idea what is going on? When the burner was running, I looked at all the motorised valves and the lights were not on any of them (they would be on if heat was on upstairs and/or downstairs and/or hot water was turned on).


So in short, outside oil burner is firing off by itself. Won’t turn off if fire in stove...not sure if that is a coincidence.

Wearb

LowOdour wrote: »

We have had this unusual issue at home in that the outside oil burner would fire up by itself for 5-10 seconds, maybe once a day (not sure about at night).

Our electrician was meant to come fix the issue but didn't get around to it until last week because of a bigger problem with it.

What had started to happen last week was that the oil burner would start up but not switch off, so had to turn off power to it at fuse box.

He fixed the issue (it seemed)...something to do with the wiring. But yesterday, I had a fire going in our Reginald Stove (which has a back boiler) and again, oil burner fires up which made me think that when I saw the problem last week, there was a fire in the stove.

So, any idea what is going on? When the burner was running, I looked at all the motorised valves and the lights were not on any of them (they would be on if heat was on upstairs and/or downstairs and/or hot water was turned on).


So in short, outside oil burner is firing off by itself. Won’t turn off if fire in stove...not sure if that is a coincidence.

Very strange. I would also have suspected a motorised valve also (depending on wiring). Maybe faulty frost stat. Maybe moisture in the electrics. It is getting power from somewhere when it shouldn't. Get him back. He hasn't fixed it yet.
btw you you shouldn't have to go to the fuse box to turn it off. It should have its own isolating sw/fused spur or similar.

corsav6

Had the same issue and it turned out to be a dodgy frost stat, burner would fire even when switched off on the timer and room stat at 0.

Egass13

He hardly wired the switch live to the burner from the stoves pipe stat did he ? Sounds a bit far fetched but I can't see how a boiler can fire up because a stove is lit ?

jimf

did this issue start since you had your stove installed by any chance

JamesM

Is the boiler a Grant Vortex by any chance ? If it is wired a certain way, and if you turn on the test switch, or if the frost stat is activated, it completes a circuit and will not turn off without disconnecting the power. I can't remember the details now - it was a few months ago that I saw it happening.
Jim.

LowOdour

jimf wrote: »

did this issue start since you had your stove installed by any chance

House was built 2 years ago, stove was installed at the same time as heating system.

JamesM

Is there only 1 pump in the circuit ? Could a pipe stat at the stove bring on the pump, which is also linked to the oil boiler ?
Jim.

LowOdour

JamesM wrote: »

Is the boiler a Grant Vortex by any chance ? If it is wired a certain way, and if you turn on the test switch, or if the frost stat is activated, it completes a circuit and will not turn off without disconnecting the power. I can't remember the details now - it was a few months ago that I saw it happening.
Jim.

Its a FireBird model, C26 if i remember correctly

JamesM wrote: »

Is there only 1 pump in the circuit ? Could a pipe stat at the stove bring on the pump, which is also linked to the oil boiler ?
Jim.

Not sure about that Jim

shane0007

Electrician may have a priority switch in the system giving priority to the back boiler pump but may have wired it wrong.

Does it only happen when the back boiler is lit or does it happen at any time?

LowOdour

shane0007 wrote: »

Electrician may have a priority switch in the system giving priority to the back boiler pump but may have wired it wrong.

Does it only happen when the back boiler is lit or does it happen at any time?

You would see smoke coming from the boiler before for maybe 5-10 seconds, but the issue of not being able to turn off at all has happened after a fire has been lit

tedimc

Had the exact same issue with a dodgy frost stat on a Grant bolier.

However, given the time of year, would it be your frost stat working normally?

LowOdour

tedimc wrote: »

Had the exact same issue with a dodgy frost stat on a Grant bolier.

However, given the time of year, would it be your frost stat working normally?

A faulty frost stat may be the issue. But if it was faulty, would I not see the problem more regularly?

corsav6

LowOdour wrote: »

A faulty frost stat may be the issue. But if it was faulty, would I not see the problem more regularly?

Mine was very irregular, seemed to start up at any time, happened during the summer so temperature was never to low.
Try and turn the frost stat down as low as it will go and listen for the click, or when the boiler starts on its own again turn the frost stat down and see if it switches off.
This is all guess work, you'll still need to call a plumber or electrician.

LowOdour

Ok, just got call from the wife.

She is after turning the hot water on in the house. She said when she went back down stairs to turn it off (around 40 minutes later) the burner was going and heating was full blast down stairs.

So, could the pipe stat on the hot water tank be faulty/wired incorrectly, send burner to come on? Its set at 50 on the stat

With this issue happening with stove on, or now hot water on, there is a link to water heating and burner switching on. Trying to get electrician to come and look, hopefully tonight.

Can I add, we have hotwater on most days but this is the first time is caused the burner problem

tedimc

How do you usually heat the hot water? And where do you 'trigger' this from? Is it from the same time-clock that controls the boiler?

LowOdour

tedimc wrote: »

How do you usually heat the hot water? And where do you 'trigger' this from? Is it from the same time-clock that controls the boiler?

Yes, same time clock as boiler controls heat (similar to below 1 - Downstairs, 2- Upstairs and tap is hot water

Wearb

LowOdour wrote: »

Ok, just got call from the wife.

She is after turning the hot water on in the house. She said when she went back down stairs to turn it off (around 40 minutes later) the burner was going and heating was full blast down stairs.

So, could the pipe stat on the hot water tank be faulty/wired incorrectly, send burner to come on? Its set at 50 on the stat

With this issue happening with stove on, or now hot water on, there is a link to water heating and burner switching on. Trying to get electrician to come and look, hopefully tonight.

Can I add, we have hotwater on most days but this is the first time is caused the burner problem

Why not disconnect the live to/at the frost stat to see if the problem stops.

tedimc

LowOdour wrote: »

Ok, just got call from the wife.

She is after turning the hot water on in the house. She said when she went back down stairs to turn it off (around 40 minutes later) the burner was going and heating was full blast down stairs.

So, could the pipe stat on the hot water tank be faulty/wired incorrectly, send burner to come on? Its set at 50 on the stat

With this issue happening with stove on, or now hot water on, there is a link to water heating and burner switching on. Trying to get electrician to come and look, hopefully tonight.

Can I add, we have hotwater on most days but this is the first time is caused the burner problem

It sounds like so that you boiler is heating your water - is that correct? Then could it just be the motorised value is stuck/on manual? The time clock thinks it only heating the water, but flow is actually going to rads as well?

I can't see the image posted, what make/model is the timeclock?

LowOdour

tedimc wrote: »

It sounds like so that you boiler is heating your water - is that correct? Then could it just be the motorised value is stuck/on manual? The time clock thinks it only heating the water, but flow is actually going to rads as well?

I can't see the image posted, what make/model is the timeclock?

Cant get the exact model until I get home but looks like its a Sunvic Select 307 xls