Hi all
Thanks Oilman, Wilhelm & others for the useful advice (quoted below) provided to previous postings on how to rectify airlocks caused by running out of oil.
One thing I would add is that in my set-up (ancient Redfyre centrajet 18/28 ) the oil came out in drips, rather than a flow - but even though far less than a gush, the boiler DID fire up.
(A crude attempt at estimating the height difference suggests the level of the oil in the tank is about 1 foot / 30cm higher than the inlet into the boiler mechanism - I guess that the difference needs to be more to get a distinct flow).
Another thing - initially the oil didn't even drip.
So I rigged up a basic set-up to draw the oil through the pipe.
I got a jam-jar, put a couple of circular holes in the lid - one a little larger than the nozzle part of the detached end of the flexible oil pipe. I wrapped a rubber band (as a seal) around the nozzle part and then pressed it against the hole in the jamjar lid. Then I got my airbed pump (which has a 'deflate' setting) and put its nozzle against the second hole in the jamjar lid. Then I pumped. It was a bit fiddly to hold the two bits to the lid and pump, but it worked.
I got some rather murky oil out, which cleared after about 150-200 ml (1/4 pint). I did check the filter on the outdoor oil tank which looked OK - so I'm not clear how this muck got in there. At a previous house I had an outdoor pipe that had in it a small bit of water at its lowest point (18 inches underground - which one cold winter froze and blocked the flow!).
So maybe the mucky stuff that came out on my current system was a thin layer that had settled in the pipe over several years and was undisturbed by the usual flow of oil but was stirred up by the flushing effect of the new oil being added after running out?
After a bit more pumping the oil came out as drips as indicated above, but when reconnected, it was a good enough flow for the boiler to fire up.
Info from Oilman's previous postings:
Thanks Oilman, Wilhelm & others for the useful advice (quoted below) provided to previous postings on how to rectify airlocks caused by running out of oil.
One thing I would add is that in my set-up (ancient Redfyre centrajet 18/28 ) the oil came out in drips, rather than a flow - but even though far less than a gush, the boiler DID fire up.
(A crude attempt at estimating the height difference suggests the level of the oil in the tank is about 1 foot / 30cm higher than the inlet into the boiler mechanism - I guess that the difference needs to be more to get a distinct flow).
Another thing - initially the oil didn't even drip.
So I rigged up a basic set-up to draw the oil through the pipe.
I got a jam-jar, put a couple of circular holes in the lid - one a little larger than the nozzle part of the detached end of the flexible oil pipe. I wrapped a rubber band (as a seal) around the nozzle part and then pressed it against the hole in the jamjar lid. Then I got my airbed pump (which has a 'deflate' setting) and put its nozzle against the second hole in the jamjar lid. Then I pumped. It was a bit fiddly to hold the two bits to the lid and pump, but it worked.
I got some rather murky oil out, which cleared after about 150-200 ml (1/4 pint). I did check the filter on the outdoor oil tank which looked OK - so I'm not clear how this muck got in there. At a previous house I had an outdoor pipe that had in it a small bit of water at its lowest point (18 inches underground - which one cold winter froze and blocked the flow!).
So maybe the mucky stuff that came out on my current system was a thin layer that had settled in the pipe over several years and was undisturbed by the usual flow of oil but was stirred up by the flushing effect of the new oil being added after running out?
After a bit more pumping the oil came out as drips as indicated above, but when reconnected, it was a good enough flow for the boiler to fire up.
Info from Oilman's previous postings:
