oil burner sparking but not burning

Diarmuid

Sorry for the poor thread title, not sure of my terminology

I have Riello RDB 2.2 C26 90K

My central heating has been losing heat dramatically this week to the point of being useless. I've done some basic servicing on the burner myself and I got a professional service back in November so I decided to try and sort it myself. I figured the chamber was being blocked somehow. Prior to the last service there was a lot of soot so I figured it was something similar

Anyway I picked up a new nozzle as I guess it was worth changing if I was opening it up.

So I opened up the chamber. It was covered in soot and crap, the chimney was blocked. Looks like the chimney has seen better days and rust had fallen into the chamber blocking it up. So there was my problem. I clean all that crap out, hoovered it up, replaced the nozzle ensuring I followed the recommended gap and closed it all back up.

On firing it up, the air intake motor runs, then 15s later the spark triggers and I can see a flame or spark (poor visibility into the chamber) inside the chamber. However it doesn't seem to catch. Even stranger, this repeats with no lockout? I would have expected it to lock out after a few attempts?

Anyway I'm not sure why it's not catching. I can see fuel on the walls and floor inside the chamber after a few attempts so I assume the fuel delivery is good. The fact that it sparks would indicate that the electrodes are doing their job. The chamber itself is in terrible state. It's not completely airtight but I don't think that have such a major impact here (apart from leaking heat)

So whats happening and why is it not catching?

I'm done for tonight but on reading around , I'm speculating that the photoresistive cell is not seeing the flame and cutting out the burner? Is there any other things I should consider or look at tomorrow?

If I don't get it up and running tomorrow, I'll be ringing a pro. However the engineer in me doesn't want to give up too easily

DGOBS

Your burner is not set up correctly, maybe you damaged the nozzle, and if sooted before, wasn't correctly set up at last service.

Ring a pro (possibly not that last guy!) and demand that they do a 'flue gas analysis' and give you a print out.

The C26 Firebird you have are prone to sooting if not correctly installed, serviced and setup.

Diarmuid

Thanks for the reply.

I don't think the nozzle is damaged. I was pretty careful with it. Held it only by the nut after it came out of the packaging.

The combustion chamber is pretty old and needs replacement. However I still think it should fire up and run as it did prior to this week. A pro is definitely on the cards.

agusta

Was ther not a 3 month old nozzle in it from the service in november..,
what gaps did you set the electrodes?
The boiler chamber should be fully sealed,very important

jimf

take dgobs advice and stop pressing the reset button that should only be reset twice for safety reasons

Diarmuid

agusta wrote: »

Was ther not a 3 month old nozzle in it from the service in november..,
what gaps did you set the electrodes?
The boiler chamber should be fully sealed,very important

Yeah. The nozzle was overkill but I figured if the burner was acting up because of a soot build up then while I am at it I may aswell replace the nozzle. For the sake of a tenner

I put in a gap of 2-3mm front tip of electrode to nozzle. Recommendation was 2.5 mm

I am a bit concerned about the chamber not being sealed. There is some air escaping when the burner sparks and I'm wondering if that's having an impact on the combustion? But I have seen YouTube vids of burners running outside a chamber so I discounted that somewhat?

Diarmuid

jimf wrote: »

take dgobs advice and stop pressing the reset button that should only be reset twice for safety reasons

I didn't press the reset at all. As I said is isn't going into lockout

secman

Had a problem with ours just a few weeks back, The pro sorted it, for some reason the photocell was covered in soot and this prevented it from firing.

agusta

At this stage there is alot of kerosene in the chamber.If the burner does light,its is not safe,

jimf

after reading your posts again my main concern would be a build up of oil in the combustion chamber

jimf

agusta wrote: »

At this stage there is alot of kerosene in the chamber.If the burner does light,its is not safe,

sorry agusta im like your pet parrot was typing and ans phone

MmC1980

i'd say u have been sold **** quality fuel possibly diesel in kero. my guess would be photocell dirty. did u change the air to oil ratio by any chance

Billy Bunting

Diarmuid wrote: »

I've done some basic servicing on the burner myself and I got a professional service back in November so I decided to try and sort it myself.

If it was a professional there would be a print out from his analyser showing how he left it and a pro would also come back.

You are now playing with a ticking time bomb, and the worse DIYer is the type who think they know what they are doing, no amount of sorting it yourself will see it correct, you need a real pro as gobs has pointed out.

Diarmuid

To close out on this. I had a look at it again this morning and I realised my mistake. I hadn't the oil fire valve fully opened so not enough oil was making it to the nozzle. Once I opened that up it fired up like a champ.
Thanks for all the replies

jimf

well done on getting it going but you have not fixed the problem that caused the issue in the first place

this particular boiler is prone to sooting issues

Diarmuid

jimf wrote: »

well done on getting it going but you have not fixed the problem that caused the issue in the first place

this particular boiler is prone to sooting issues

Well the major problem was the chimney rusting and falling into the combustion chamber. The sooting was the secondary problem. Both still need fixing.

jimf

can you post a few photos of the flue etc

DGOBS

Boiler a C26 (firebird condenser) ?
With the 'Stanless steel' flue rusting and collapsing??????

Diarmuid

DGOBS wrote: »

Boiler a C26 (firebird condenser) ?
With the 'Stanless steel' flue rusting and collapsing??????

No idea what the flue is made of. It runs vertically into the casing and the chamber so whatever is rusting falls directly down. I've been renting the house for 4 years so I don't know the history of it.

Diarmuid

I'll get some photos of the flue tomorrow, However here is a pics of the combustion chamber. As you can see it's not in a great state. You can see that there is a small gap on the bottom right and as a result some soot is building up where it shouldn't be

Today I ripped off all the poorly applied insulation on the pipe between the burner and the house and replaced it with some new pipe insulation. I also noticed that the pipe inside the housing was not insulated so I insulated that. ( you can see it on the right in the picture)

Maybe it's just my imagination but the burner is firing a lot less tonight while the heat is just as good.

Anyway the house is a lot warmer than Friday night!

agusta

There should be no soot build up anywhere inside or outside the boiler.Your burner is running completly wrong..You really need to get an experienced service guy with the proper equipment to service/fix it.

Billy Bunting

Stop playing with things you have no idea about but think you do, get a professional in.

jimf

you have some very serious issues going on with your boiler all this soot build up is caused by poor combustion for whatever reason

your co emissions are most likely very high as well please take the advise offered re getting this sorted by somebody who knows what their at for yours and your families safety

Diarmuid

Billy Bunting wrote: »

Stop playing with things you have no idea about but think you do, get a professional in.

Claims that I am "playing" with the burner are not helpful. A professional serviced the burner less than 2 months ago and left it in a similar state to what you see.

jimf wrote: »

you have some very serious issues going on with your boiler all this soot build up is caused by poor combustion for whatever reason

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to replace the burner. I rent the house. I'd appreciate some more specific feedback to pass to the landlord. When I pointed out that it needed replacement 1 year ago, it fell on deaf ears.

Dtp1979

Diarmuid wrote: »

Claims that I am "playing" with the burner are not helpful. A professional serviced the burner less than 2 months ago and left it in a similar state to what you see.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to replace the burner. I rent the house. I'd appreciate some more specific feedback to pass to the landlord. When I pointed out that it needed replacement 1 year ago, it fell on deaf ears.

If a professional left a boiler in that condition then he's not a professional. A cowboy wouldn't leave a boiler in that condition. It's a disgrace.

jimf

unfortunately the change the nozzle and a rub of a cloth brigade are out there

Wearb

From what we can see in the photos, the boiler is far from needing replacing. A proper service and new gasget/seal would make it like new.

We have all been working here in boards for years to promote better servicing standards. It mostly seems to be falling on deaf ears. There are lots of posts here that list some of the essentials of a good service. The most basic requirement is an electronic printout of the combustion gass readings.
There are lots more, but that with at least an hour or a little more of hard work by the service person would be a good starting point.
From arrival time to driving away time, I normally take close on two hours on first visit. If a year later on same job, I can knock half an hour off that, because it has been running correctly for that year.

Billy Bunting

Diarmuid wrote: »

Claims that I am "playing" with the burner are not helpful. A professional serviced the burner less than 2 months ago and left it in a similar state to what you see.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to replace the burner. I rent the house. I'd appreciate some more specific feedback to pass to the landlord. When I pointed out that it needed replacement 1 year ago, it fell on deaf ears.

You have no paperwork nor comeback because you had no professional.

It is likely the boiler does not require replacement just a good service by a professional, if you cannot source one then check the oftec.ie website.

Stop playing, the boiler is now in a condition that can kill, leave it alone.

jack1000

If a professional left your boiler sooting up like that you should have got him back to sort it out. Make sure you get a print out. Not sure how you will fair out now that you have messed around with it. You could have knocked the air setting out a bit by playing around with the burner.