Camray 3 Oil Boiler motor/burner

[MTBHuw]

Hi. We're having problems with our Camray 3 oil boiler. We only moved in a couple of months ago and the house was empty for at least 8 months before we bought it and the boiler had been sat idle.

The boiler kept locking out which I've learnt could be a whole host of issues but the symptoms are that the boiler doesn't ignite. The fan comes on fine and it tries several times to ignite. There's a "whoomph" sound a few times, sometime it gets going others it'll lockout.

The boiler guy reckons he's identified the problem to be the motor and says it needs replacing (£150 fitted). He also gave us the option of replacing the whole burner unit for £450. I don't know what either of these are or do. Is it worth the extra expense to replace the whole unit?

Thanks again.

 

[Burnerman]

The motor only needs replacing if:
It doesn't want to start spinning every time (start capacitor or windings)
It won't run up to speed
It runs up to speed but has no power (i.e you can stop the spinning shaft with your fingers).
A pressure gauge connected to the pump may give some idea whats wrong, but the whole burner wants a good service, really.
I wouldn't be replacing the burner unit at this stage.
John

 

[MTBHuw]

Thanks. The other thing I've noticed is that from cold it starts up more often than not. It's when it's been running for a while, switches off then when it tries to come on again, it usually locks out. Not sure whether this is related.

 

[Burnerman]

Certainly there seems to be a coincidence here.....heat related failures are usually down to the solenoid coil (on the pump - opens an internal oil valve after the burner has purged for a few seconds) or maybe the motor start capacitor.
I'd try a new capacitor I think - only a few quid and it does rule this out.
John

 

[MTBHuw]

Is a capacitor easy to get for this boiler, and can I change it myself? Reasonably confident with electrics etc.

 

[MTBHuw]

Ah, my wife's just shown me the service sheet when it was done a few weeks ago and it says the capacitor was changed then. Just checked and it looks very new too.

 

[Boilerman2]

The Camray 3 whilst getting old is a simple and very reliable boiler,
the Riello burner is simple to work on, not worth fitting a new burner the old one clearly has a fault which has yet to be diagnosed, how qualified is your service guy??

 

[xr4x4]

If you can hear the fan start up... It's not the fan..

Was it serviced? Cleaned new nozzle, correctly set up, combustion checked, smoke pump etc?

 

[oilboffin]

If I was fitting a new burner I'd go ti heating world of spares and get one for £200

 

[oilboffin]

By the way the whoomph is explosive ignition too much air

 

[xr4x4]

Or delayed ignition, incorrectly set electrodes.