What to check before calling us
Breakdowns or loss of performance upon your central heating boiler or range cooker, just at the time you need them the most, is such a nuisance!
Loosing your stove/room heater is very inconvenient!
There are things that you can check out yourself before calling us out and we would like to include a few here for you.
Please note:
If you are used to operating the programmers/controls for your boiler or range cooker then you can proceed as suggested within this guide if it is safe to do so.
If you are not the regular user or are NOT very familiar with the controls/appliances or are in any way unsure, we recommend you seek our professional assistance and request that we attend to carry out these checks for you.
If you are confident that you can safely undertake these checks yourself then please read through the information contained herein before proceeding.
Things to check yourself:
1). Do you have electrical power to your boiler or range cooker?
(Not vapourising cookers – this is discussed further on in this guide)
Are lights visible on your central heating/hot water or central heating/cooking programmer?
Are there any lights which are lit up on the boiler or the range cooker itself?
2). If there are lights on the programmer and / or the boiler or range cooker and nothing has fired up (you did not hear the motor start and a slight roar from the burner), look for red/orange warning lights telling you something else has happened – see below.
Burner Lockout
3). Burner lockout means the oil burner in your central heating boiler or single/twin pressure jet burner has failed to light and gone to safety shut down.
Burner lockout can be caused by a number of issues and we shall look at this in a moment.
Check your boiler for any visible glowing red or orange lights on the outside front panel.
You may have to lift off the front door of the boiler to see the oil pressure jet burner, then look for glowing RED or ORANGE light on the burner itself as shown below.
With range cookers, it can be a little more difficult to locate any Lock-out lights.
Some can be behind the bottom inner door of the cooker;
Others can be seen in the bottom plinth of the cooker right down at floor level as shown below.
If your boiler or range cooker has gone to lockout, make sure any heating/water/cooker programmer is in the off mode (turned off) as shown below.
4). It is important to go and check if you have any oil in the tank.
A large proportion of boiler and range cooker breakdowns result from tanks running out of oil, or constantly running low and dragging in quantities of water and sludge from the internal floor of the oil tank, which contaminates pipes, valves, and burner components, leading to expensive breakdowns.
5). Checking for oil in the tank:
It is recommended that customers check their oil tank levels once a month.
This is important for a number of reasons namely;
a). To keep an eye on levels and prevent the tank running out of Kerosine.
b). To note any changes that may affect the safety of the tank or the environment.
If you are at all concerned about the condition or location of your oil tank, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to attend and inspect the tank for you.
Watchman Alarm System:
A very convenient way to do this is to use the Watchman Sonic Alarm system. Most bunded (twin skin) plastic oil tanks are fitted with these devices (not suitable for steel oil tanks), (plastic single skin tanks
occasionally utilise an older version of this device) as shown below.
Modern Watchman Sonic Alarm oil tank level monitoring:
This system allows the customer to monitor the level of oil in the tank from the comfort of their home.
The sender unit fitted into oil tank shown below
The receiver unit plugged into a socket in the property
If you cannot see any readings or other information being displayed on the receiver unit in the house and the socket is switched on and power is available, then you will require a service visit to inspect the sender unit at the oil tank.
6). Oil Tank Sight Gauge:
This is by far the most popular means of measuring the level of oil in a steel or single skin plastic tank.
The sight gauge (when visible) holds a column of oil in the sight tube, and corresponds to the level of oil in the tank. Sight gauge and valve are shown below fitted to a steel tank.
Please note:
The oil in the sight tube will only loose a few millimeters a month from evapouration and will not automatically adjust to the use of oil from the tank.
We recommend you pull out the plunger once a month to allow the sight tube to settle to the correct tank level.
We have attanded numerous breadown calls where the sight tube is telling the customer there is adequate oil in the tank. When the plunger is pulled out on the side of the valve, the oil level in the tube promptly disappears – no oil available in the tank.
The gauge and plunger are shown below.
The plunger is shown (Red arrow) and to open the sight tube valve, gently pull out the plunger (about half an inch) in the direction of the Yellow arrow.
The sight tube contents should settle out to match the actual oil level in the tank. If the contents in the tube do not move at all. The inlet valve could be blocked with dead bugs.
It will be necessary for us to attend and clear this out for you.
7). Manually Dipping the Tank:
As a last resort the tank can be manually dipped through the filling cap, using a long pole and then measuruing the level of oil on the pole against the height of the tank. This will tell you how much oil is in the tank.
We do not recommend that you attempt to climb onto or against your tank and should enlist the help of a competent person to undertake this for you.
If you have run out of oil, it will be necessary for us to attend and purge the oil line through and re-fire the appliance.
8). Plenty of oil in the tank, but boiler or range cooker is in lockout.
If you have checked the level of oil in your tank and there appears to be an adequate amount available, or you have just had the tank refilled recently then you can try the following procedure.
a). Looking at the glowing lockout button, with your finger, push the glowing button gently inwards then release your finger. The burner should run and attempt to fire.
b). If the burner goes to lockout once again, wait 5 minutes and push the glowing button in once more. If the burner starts, fires up and runs without further problems, then all may be well.
c). If the burner locks out again, turn appliance off and you will need to contact us to book a visit.
There are other issues affecting the burner and other appliance safety devices that can cause lockout, but these can only be diagnoised and rectified by an engineer.
9). Purpose-built Oil Fired AGA Cookers.
All but a few purpose-built oil fired AGA cookers maintain their temperature according to the setting on the integral thermostat as shown below.
The thermostat works in conjunction with the electric head to automatically regulate the working temperature of the cooker. An electric head is shown below
If the single vapourising burner in your AGA cooker has not gone out, but has lost a significant amount of temperature and you have power available in the property, you will need to contact us to arrange a visit.
Safety Notice:
Under no circumstances whatsoever, must you attempt to relight a hot burner or cooker.
The cooker must be cold before any works can be carried out on it.