Ask The Trades - Print Page

Ask The Trades
https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl DIY Forum >> Plumbing Questions >> Riello oil burner problems with new kerosene spec https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1299535053 Message started by cansaintsstayup on Mar 7^th, 2011, 9:57pm

Title: Riello oil burner problems with new kerosene spec
Post by cansaintsstayup on Mar 7^th, 2011, 9:57pm

Has any one out there suffered problems with their oil boiler after having a delivery of oil this year? I have! My ageing Grant boiler(boiler house version) which has a Riello burner started playing up shortly after taking delivery of 900l of new spec 28sec kerosene on top of 300l of last year's stuff. The boiler took multiple attempts to fire up when heat is called for. The boiler didn't go to lock out but just kept trying up to 6 times at about 15second intervals until it managed to stay alight. I had a service back in November and a new pump fitted. The combustion was tuned up at that stage and things were fine until the new oil arrived. I cleaned and adjusted the ignition points (they were a bit sooty) and swapped the control box with a spare but no improvement. The oil line filter is clear. I then fitted a spare complete burner which had also been tuned up for use while the other burner was away for the pump fit back in November. This is displaying exactly the same symptoms with multiple attempts to start. I then realised that the new oil was at fault and decided to tinker with the air mix. During this process I found that the problem disappears if the burner is run without the cover on. Put the cover back on and it goes into repetitive start mode again. This implies that more air is required at the entry to the fan as the fitting of the cover obviously restricts the access of air compared to the cover off situation. I realise that I need to get my engineer in to re tune both burners but this goes against the grain a bit as I've already spent loads out on the boiler this year irrespective of the price hike in oil - 39p/l in August last year and 50p/l in early Feb this year! Any comments or similar experiences? Having taken the issue up with my oil supplier all they could suggest is selling me some additive concoction

Title: Re: Riello oil burner problems with new kerosene spec
Post by CWatters on Mar 7^th, 2011, 11:55pm

I hadn't heard about this before but google found this which seems to be relevant.

http://www.powrmatic.co.uk/news/209-fuel-oil-change

Quote:

No changes to the specification of kerosene (28 second) have been announced.

BUT..

Quote:

New European Directives for Renewable Energy and Fuel Quality will require changes to the composition of gas oil in January 2011. Gas oil intended for use in non-road mobile machinery will have to have a sulphur content of 10ppm or less and contain up to 7% by volume of biodiesel. These changes are reflected in a revised edition of the British Standard for gas oil, BS 2869:2010, and fuel to the new specification will become available in late 2010.

The existence of a new grade of gas oil, known as B7(B10), with a significant biodiesel content creates increased possibilities of cross-contamination, wrong product delivery or delivered product not declared as containing biodiesel.

In addition because of limitations in the production and supply structure, only one type of gas oil may be widely available and this will inevitably be the non-road mobile machinery grade with a significant biodiesel content. Consequently customers with air heater installations may be obliged to operate their heaters on this type of biodiesel irrespective of the suitability of the appliance.

What exactly does it say on the invoice? If I've understood this article correctly 28 sec heating oil hasn't changed. If you ordered 28 second heating oil and they delivered something other than that without telling you then hard to see how that's legal (Trade Description Act etc).

Perhaps I'm wrong? I'm interested because I also have a Grant oil fired boiler.