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Oil fired heater problems?

December 20th, 2003 · 3 Comments

I tried my oil fired heater for the first time last week since the water is
starting to get a bit chilly.
It’s a vast rusty old thing with nothing accessible to the user except an
on/off switch, a temperature gauge with a needle you can adjust, a reset
button and what looks like an analogue counter. I don’t know the make but
can find out if it’s important.
I turned off the valve that bypasses the heater and turned on the one that
allows water through it, I put the water pump onto recirculate and flicked
the switch on the boiler. It fired up instantly, the chimney got warm. I
checked the temperature of the output and it didn’t feel any warmer than the
rest of the water but I thought maybe it was only raising the temperature by
a degree or so.
So I left it for about 5 hours to see if it would have any effect. When I
came back, the pump house was like a sauna but the pool temperature had
hardly shifted. I came back an hour later and the boiler seemed to have

stopped working.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Nick.

Tags: heaters

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 janis_40 // Dec 24, 2003 at 6:54 am

    The heat exchanger may be clogged and you are bypassing all the water around
    it. if there is an internal bypass valve it may be stuck open. A new
    exchanger may be as costly as an entire new heater. If there is a drain plug
    on the exchanger take it out and start the pump briefly to check the water
    flow in the exchanger.

  • 2 Neva Marjory // Dec 26, 2003 at 11:18 am

    On another note - are you supposed to be able to just leave these
    things on (like domestic hot water or central heating boilers)?
    Should it just idle until the pump starts running then fire up or do
    I have to put them on the same timer switch?
    Thanks
    Nick

  • 3 janis_40 // Dec 27, 2003 at 12:48 pm

    If the heater has a pilot it can remain on but the burner will not fire until
    the pump is running. There should be a switch that detects pressure or flow
    which will shut down the heater or not allow it to start if the pump is not
    running.

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