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Nov 4, 2013
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Workington, ***bria
Member Type
DIY or Homeowner
So my Danesmoor had couple of lockouts on Friday and the same Saturday morning so thought I would do quick investigation (lockouts occuring on startup).
Checked filter bowls for debris or signs of water, both clean and good oil flow.
Reset lockout and tried restart. Nothing, no motor run just humming, so now is it pump or motor related. Dropped pump off back of motor, reset and motor starts no problem. spin pump shaft, just a bit of resistance with no tight spots. Check pump flow with cordless drill and it flows like a goodun (obviously needed to put power on solenoid). Stick screw driver in back of motor and power up...eurika, no kick in power at all. Bearings are OK so I'm happy it's the cap. By this time it's about 6.00pm on Saturday night and wondering where the hell am I going to get a motor cap on a Sunday. The answer comes down to Maplin. Online stock check reveals they have one in Carlisle (56 mile round trip for me but i'm OK with that). Feeling happy Sunday morning off to Maplin, collect cap and head home. Anyway before fitting cap and putting every thing back together thought I would give the ok girl a clean out so quick clean of baffels, brush down inside and hoover up. Back to job in hand, fit the cap pop the motor back on. Quick run upstairs to set CH on and ready for go. Not fitted the pump back on yet, thought I would just check all ok with new cap first. Go to start and nothing, motor doesn't even judder, just a hum from transformer in control box. Head drops into hands wondering whats go wrong or did I diagnose incorrectly. Check motor free running with screwdriver in the back, free as a bird, check the wires on the cap to make sure i didn't knock anything off when putting the cover on, all is good. Tried to start again, still nothing. Pondering whet the hell has happened when I suddenly see a wire hanging.......Yep if you want your motor to run remember in your excitment to plug the bloody thing back in !!!! it makes all the difference and the girls running sweet as a dream.

Now the question, I'll call in a service on the old girl but noticed when I gave her a clean the base insulation has passed it's best and I would prefer to have replaced. Will contact an engineer during the week, but from experience can anyone advise if this is just a day job or is the base insulation some kind of substance that needs to cure for 24 or 48 hours. If it's more than a day job I'll try and book a date based on best forecast outlook to try and avoid to coldest days that we will be without heating for.

All the Best
Martin.
 
If you had got an oil engineer out to service & repair it, he would probably have a new capacitor with him as well as insulation material, nozzles etc & had it all done in a couple of hours, inc combustion set. Would be cheaper.
 
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If you had got an oil engineer out to service & repair it, he would probably have a new capacitor with him as well as insulation material, nozzles etc & had it all done in a couple of hours, inc combustion set. Would be cheaper.

To be fair I could have had it serviced last week and the cap still failed the next couple of days afterwards, as it is the cap cost me £ 3.69 and fuel was 1 gallon of diesel. Everyone needs to earn ar fair wage, but to call an engineer on a sunday (if I could get hold of one) would have been more than that. Service and combustion set will be done with the insulation replacement I would have expected but that can be done on a normal working week day when they are available.
 
To be fair I could have had it serviced last week and the cap still failed the next couple of days afterwards, as it is the cap cost me £ 3.69 and fuel was 1 gallon of diesel. Everyone needs to earn ar fair wage, but to call an engineer on a sunday (if I could get hold of one) would have been more than that. Service and combustion set will be done with the insulation replacement I would have expected but that can be done on a normal working week day when they are available.

You are right - boilers can still fail even if properly serviced.
A capacitor would be replaced by a decent engineer on a service though, if they noticed the motor a tad sluggish at all when starting.
I was out today (Sunday) to a heating system fault for an elderly couple (strangers to me) & not for big reward - but admit not everyone would do this, especially if not dire need.
Insulation board can be used on boilers that are warm or cold & boiler will be ready to go straight away.
 
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Hi Best, Sounds like your a man after my own heart and good that people like yourself are concisous of the news of our elderly population. Our's wasn't a dire need, but the wife does suffer from an early onset of arthitis and it better for her if we can keep the house warm. To hear that the insulation replacement is a back up and running same day job is good news.
Thanks for your input
Martin.
 

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