Fault finding on oil burners

[Mranon1989]

Hey people.

Was wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks on fault finding on oil burners. I hate turning up to break downs and not having enough confidence when diagnosing the burners. I know there's a process to the firing of the burner but I struggle to figure out what I'm looking for during the process before it goes to lockout!

Any advice? Cheers.

 

[Chalked]

1. Is there demand.
2. Is there fuel.
3. Go through firing sequence and see where it's failing.

 

[Mranon1989]

Any literature online I can get the sequence on paper to go through? Like timing of sequence etc?

 

[Best]

Modern burners it is just -
Power from boiler stats through to burner control box, -
power to motor which turns fan (purging any previous fumes),
then to transformer for ignition on for a few seconds,
then power to solenoid -
flame starting allowing photocell to have ignition off.

 

[Gazzt]

You can download boiler manuals with fault finding guides in them for the burner on that particular boiler.

 

[SimonG]

Digital rdb burners give you the fault by sequence of flashing lockout lights. Definition given on inside of red burner cover.

But you won't learn much from documents. Need the beast in front of you and listen to it.

 

[Mranon1989]

Yeah I tried getting hold of a bentone burner manual but couldn't find one online.

I love to become good at fault finding because I look at it as that's what defines a good service engineer. So I'm eager to get the grasp of this.

 

[Hydronics Ltd]

Hi John

I can send you a RDB fault finding excel work sheet via email. I use it on my iPhone.

 

[SimonG]

It's just like real life. Bits of paper just won't cut it. You need the beast in front of you. Listen to it, it tells you all. Just thank feck oil isn't the same as cars. Plug in a laptop and it tells you the score.

Imho only way of learning is with a bloke that knows his stuff.

 

[Mranon1989]

Thanks for that! I'd appreciate it.

Yeah your right but my boss (who's Gas Safe) decided to put me on the oil course to be able to get more work. I might have a chat with a retired plumber I see now and then. He used to be OFTEC but he's hung up his tools. Can tell he misses the tools because he makes a fuss of us plumbers when we're working near by lol, nice guy so may have a good chat with him.

 

[GH77]

Get yourself on a Riello Oil Burner course

 

[SimonG]

There's nothing better than the cust saying they have had 4 engineers look at it already and they couldn't fix it and then you go in and sort it.

Just take a logical and methodical approach.

 

[mache]

I might have a chat with a retired plumber I see now and then. He used to be OFTEC but he's hung up his tools. Can tell he misses the tools because he makes a fuss of us plumbers when we're working near by lol, nice guy so may have a good chat with him.

This would be a really invaluable thing to set up if you can. See if you can get donated a couple of old burner/boilers that you can rig up to a supply (if you have room available) and ask your retired chap to set up a few different scenario's for you to trace and fault find..