burner oil pump

pmac10 · Sep 17, 2010

hi, im an industrial elec/mech maintenance engineer and was called to my parents house as their burner went to lockout after failing to cycle. the pump is the problem as the motor metered fine as did the capacitor and the fan is free to rotate. i decoupled the pump from the motor and it has tight spots.
problem. i have a new pump to fit but do not have the tools to set the pump pressure, do a smoke test or carry out flue gas anylasis (i have a piece of paper with oftec 101 cert on it) but not even a smoke pump to put it in.
this is an off the shelf danfoss bfp 21 pump. any thoughts on the way forward. im not commissioning a new pressure jet appliance, just fitting a new pump to an existing one.
any advice greatly recieved😕

dontknowitall · Sep 17, 2010

Well, you can buy the necessary equipment and you obviously know what sort of stuff is involved. But it will be cheaper to get someone out. I was about to suggest a porky pie tale but it won't do any harm in you phoning/finding a local oil chappy and explain to him what you've done and what you'd like him to do (e.g. smoke test, pressure test, etc).

If I was phoned I'd be quite happy to oblige as someone has already done the filthy work for me! 9 times out of 10 the testing should easily be completed within the hour.

pmac10 · Sep 17, 2010

thanks for the quick reply, as these are like for like replacement pumps could i for example, count anti clockwise rotation on the pressure settinng of the old pump to minimum and then set the new pump to this from minimum. i know this may sound cheap but the last 2 oil guys here couldnt diagnose a simple fault (despite me telling them) and fitted and charged for unneeded parts and work. what do ya think, would it get me away as long as there aint black smoke billowing from the flu tonto style.at the end of the day its family so i aint gonna do anything dangerous, just dont wanna see them conned.
ps any recomendations for a smoke pump/pressure test kit.

dontknowitall · Sep 18, 2010

Try an OFTEC qualified person. He'll have the equipment and the standards you need. Most OFTEC people charge acceptable rates. If I received the phone call I'd estimate my call out rate (£45) would probably be enough to see everything's fine.

Re setting the pump by number of turns, this is rather hit and miss and I think the amount you save in a call out charge will be more than the extra fuel you'll be burning if you take a flying guess and judge by smoke (or lack of) alone. When they make nozzles the manufacturers don't know what size they'll be until they're measured. My guess is they do something similar with the pump so a measurement of 8 bar means just that and not 7.5 or 8.5.

pmac10 · Sep 18, 2010

cheers mate, i took your advice and phoned a guy, forgot to mention i am oftec cert, never joined and as this aint my day job i cant yet justify spending the money on the pressure guage/smoke pump and flue gas analyser.
thanks again for the advice

dontknowitall · Sep 18, 2010

Glad to be able to help. If you're OFTEC then you'll have some problems when it comes to the inspection! They're not too interested in how to fi a boiler and stuff. Instead it's whether you've had your FGA calibrated, how up to date your certificates are and rubbish like that!!

You can get second hand gauges etc if it's any help.