Kerosene/oily fume smell in back hall??

Does anyone have any advice on an oil fired system that really stinks out my back hall?? I'm stumped! Apologies for the extreme length of this!

The Riello 40 burner/warmflow boiler system has been operating fine for the past year until the tank ran dry in August. I got a fill and pressed the restart button but no joy. Tried bleeding through the bleed screw on the pump but still no luck so had to unscrew the oil inlet from the burner and lay it flat on the floor to get the oil flowing again. As a result a little kerosene (say 1/2 a cup full) got spilled on the lino. Mopped it up pretty quickly and gave the lino a good clean, did everything back up and fired up the boiler, success!
Until that is, I realised there was a lingering oily smell in the back hall. I gave it a week but still no joy, then I had a good poke about thinking i hadn't done up the nut on the inlet to the burner properly. It was then I discovered I must have knocked the fire valve when I was bleeding the system as it had a sheen of oil over it. Wrapped a bit of blue roll round it and left it for a couple of days and sure enough it had an oil stain on it when I checked back.

I decided to get my boiler service guy to come in last week and do an annual service and replace the handwheel firevalve (i know it should be changed out and a Remote FV installed on the outside wall of the property but I'm intending to put gas in next year so want to avoid spending money on a system that is soon to be replaced). While swapping the handwheel fire valve he spilt another little bit of kerosene (probably 1/2 cup again) but it was quickly mopped up and I washed the floor after he left.

Problem is the back hall now really stinks from an oily smell. I was told to expect the smell to fade after a couple of days but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I'm concerned because the kitchen adjoins the back hall & I have a hotpress in the hall that is out of action because all our clothes stink.

Is there any easy way to determine what exactly the smell is - I'm slightly concerned it may be coming from the flue because the it goes up through the hall ceiling and out through the roof although the flue seems fine, no soot deposits and no signs of a leak. I also have a CO detector in there and it's not beeping.

Other info that may help - the hall floor is concrete with cheap bathroom lino on top. I haven't been able to remove the lino to rule it out as there's a washing machine sitting on top of it. Also, when I look at the flue line inlet to the burner I can see a couple of exposed threads between the nut and the burner housing. Could it be that the inlet line is not fully located? It feels tight on though and there is no oil residue inside the plastic boiler housing as far as I can see.

If it's not the fire valve, and the connection to the burner is ok what else can it be? is it just spilt kerosene is impossible to clean up and I should replace the lino or am I missing something??

All ideas gratefully appreciated!

From a small spill or after a service the boiler/boiler area may smell for a couple of days. If it hasn't cleared up by then, then I would say you still have a leak.

I thought same - a couple of days & smell should have gone.
Check visible oil line, hose & around the entire oil pump for any slight dampness of oil. The only other places at the Riello 40 burner that leak are at the shaft of the oil pump (rare & usually if it's old) or a very common place is the ram seal at the right side of burner that works the air door.
If none of these, you have a leak elsewhere, probably in oil pipe.

If, after you've checked everything and you've definitely no leaks, EOGB do a very effective deodoriser.

Do you have a de-aerator beside the boiler?

No, no tigerloop croppie - why do you ask? I thought they were only useful for avoiding lock-off when the tank runs dry??

I will do a complete clean tonight and leave the heat off for 24hrs - that should help rule out combustion gases leaking from the flue as a possible cause. If I still have a smell after that then it has to be somewhere in the fuel supply system.
I'll also try a pick up some of that EOGB stuff to give the hall a good spray with.

Fingers crossed!

Ordinary Tigerloops vent to the atmosphere, so cause a slight smell if indoors - where they are no longer allowed. You have to fit them outside a building or can use a Bio Tigerloop which has a vent connection you pipe to outside.
Tigerloops are deairators which allow the oil tank to be lower than the burner if needed, but this also means better burning, less oil use. Also the oil is preheated due to the friction of the oil pump which aids better burn. Every pressure jet oil burner should have some type of Tigerloop fitted.

Thanks Best, wasn't aware they helped with fuel efficiency.
Ideally, I'd fit an RFV and tigerloop to the system on the outside wall of the property but because it's fairly old and I've never been very comfortable with it being installed in the back hall I'd feel I'm just throwing good money after bad.
If I can't sort the oil smell and get things back to normal soon I'll have to bite the bullet and give Phoenix gas a ring!

Gas will have advantages & disadvantages. You will not have to pay out a large sum of money with gas, as you do to fill an oil tank, but a lot of people have problems when their gas boiler fails, as getting an engineer who knows how to fix them is often a problem & parts are not always over the shelf.
It is unfair to compare the running costs of a standard & perhaps not properly set oil boiler with few controls, to a gas boiler with all thermostatic controls. Both gas & oil are expensive.

I fully agree that it's unfair to compare running costs of an older non-condensing oil boiler vs a brand new gas boiler and that at the end of the day both oil and gas are expensive to run.

However, the major advantage gas has over oil in this case is that it is becoming increasingly unacceptable to both surveyors & the general public to have an oil fired system installed inside the property. On the other hand, gas boiler installations in kitchen cupboards/hotpress cabinets are commonplace these days

Thats why a lot of people are going for an external oil boiler.

Yeah, if it wasn't an old system I'd have moved it to an external boiler house when we bought the house. Now it's just a case of keeping it going till I can put the gas in.

Back to the original problem - checked the new fire valve last night, still a weep coming from the compression nut on the boiler side of it. Tightened it up 1/4 turn and keeping my fingers crossed that's it sorted!

If the lino was fitted after the boiler went in there is a chance the oil you spilled has gone under the lino and now soaked into the concrete where it will give off smells for a long time.

If the adhesive is not very good on the tiles the oil will have run along under the tiles and some soaked into the concrete. The bottom of several tiles will be wet. Check for leaks first but the original leak was the one that has probably caused the damage. Question why do you and the engineer keep spilling oil in the quantity you mention?

Will clear the hall to lift the lino - maybe see some oil that's managed to get down below the lino. The small oil spills were as a result of a - me taking the fuel inlet line off the burner to help bleed a locked-out system after running dry & b- the engineer replacing the fire valve. Quantity both time was very little (a few tablespoons) and was mopped up straightaway.
Will check beneath the lino though.

I'm up in Stormont tomorrow if you need a second look and a squirt of eogb. Pm me.

Turns out it is a crack in the oil feed line that's the cause, it's been weeping oil down into the concrete floor for the past few weeks.
Have isolated tank and fuel line so no further leaks. Will dip the tank later to determine roughly how much oil has go down into the floor but it looks (& smells) like it's gonna be an insurance job!

valjester said:

Turns out it is a crack in the oil feed line that's the cause, it's been weeping oil down into the concrete floor for the past few weeks.
Have isolated tank and fuel line so no further leaks. Will dip the tank later to determine roughly how much oil has go down into the floor but it looks (& smells) like it's gonna be an insurance job!

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Crack in oil hose, or in oil pipe?
Piece of advice- think carefully before you get insurance company involved. Once they send anyone out it becomes their responsibility & a health & safety issue. That means they won't do a partial job, they usually dig everything up, concrete or whatever. That said, if you have only a couple of gallons lost into the concrete floor it will smell badly inside a house for a long time.

Best said:

Crack in oil hose, or in oil pipe?

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Oil pipe - flex hose is fine.

The pipe crack occurs where the fuel line passes a cold water supply pipe to the washing machine. Previous owner had the two pipes lashed together with a bit of steel wire!! There's also a bit of rockwool lagging round the bottom of the cold water service pipe - it appears to have been wicking the oil down into the concrete floor (1-2" opening in the concrete floor here).

Trying to get a few quotes from the local oil-spill cleanup companies round Belfast to get an idea of cleanup costs. Will probably just go with the nuclear option and get insurance comp involved - leak site is about 2' from the door into the kitchen & it already stinks of oil.

At least it wont cost you anything, but not nice if they have to do dig holes anywhere. Perhaps they can clean up & ventilate, but doubt if it's that simple. The heat in a house & because it is not very well ventilated, causes fumes which are serious.