Black smoke from oil fired heating boiler

[Avocet]

This morning, there was a funny "fume" smell in the kitchen and I noticed that the boiler flue (and a surrounding bit of the outside wall of the house) was slightly blackened. When I fired up the boiler again, there was a considerable amount of black smoke coming out of the flue. The noise that the burner makes wasn't as constant as I seem to remember it. There seemed to be a slight spluttering noise this time when it was ignited.

I recently topped up with kerosene for the winter. I've just taken the filter bowl off the outlet pipe from the oil storage tank and noticed a quantity of black gunge on it. I'm wondering if the two might be related? If so, what are my options? Presumably I have some nasty bugs growing in my oil tank and need some biocide, but should I tell the service agent to look for anything in particular when they come to look at the boler?

It's a Worcester Bosch Heatslave - about 16 years old.

 

[DeltaT2]

It's a Worcester Bosch Heatslave......................We all have our cross to bear!!

I think you just need a good service, a new nozzle & settings checked.
It's always worth saying to your service engineer to check the oil tank etc. Some don't!
HTH

 

[Burnerman]

I leurvvve the Heatslave....
Plenty you can do yourself......lift the white top off the boiler, remove the top of the combustion chamber (2 nuts) and dig out the baffles. Give them a good clean - there should be a picture of how they go back in.
Then, its burner attention - you can happily fit a new nozzle, but you'll need a pressure gauge and a flue gas analyser to go much further.
A supply of compressed air is brilliant for shifting the dust from inside the burner.
John

 

[Avocet]

Thanks both. I pulled the inspection covers off as you suggested John, and it was absolutely choked solid with soot! I got three Hoover bags full - plus a Tesco carrier bag that I just shovelled out! It's still a bit smoky now, but at least there's no smoke in the house. Hopefully, Monday's service and a new jet will sort the rest of it, but I'll also solicit his opinion on the sludge in the tank.

Thanks again!

 

[Burnerman]

Hell, that sure is some soot! Year by year there should only be crusty sulphur deposits on the baffle edges, and maybe a cupful of soot lying in the bottom of the chamber so it sounds like yours has been out of tune for some time.
Plenty of info about these on the Worcester web site, including the canny Inter B9 burner.
My own 12/15 set up has a low level balanced flue only a metre from the back door - there's little fume, certainly no smoke and only a sweetish damp smell when the thing is running.
John