Oops oil boiler

[Burnerman]

The electrode position is important to provide clean and quiet ignition.....is the burner making these noises when it's actually starting up?
John

 

[regsmyth]

No, it fires up fine. The noise seems to start happening once it's been running for a while - several minutes at least, but I haven't had the chance to really work out when it happens yet.

 

[oilhead]

remove the control box and clean off the photocell. Sounds like this may have clouded over with the sooty running before the fault was discovered, causing flame sensing loss and re-ignition. I assume you have cleaned everything out. If it still does this, consider a new nozzle and photocell.

 

[regsmyth]

Well I had a look at it this morning. I renewed the nozzle yesterday, and the photocell is clear.
However, there was a bit of sooty dust etc in the air intake, and some fresh soot inside.
I wonder if somehow it was sucking in its own exhaust - ie the flue maybe doesn't form a good seal against the casing. That might also account for all the condensation in there. Maybe this dirty air coming in was triggering the photocell to temporarily switch off.
Anyway, it's running now, with the casing up. So we'll see.
Thanks for the help.

 

[Burnerman]

Have you had the pump pressure checked on your burner?
Maybe the nozzle is getting on a bit, causing the flame to dart about which again can cause the photocell to see light one moment and not the next.
With this chuffing noise, do you think the flame is actually extinguishing and then relighting again, and is there any smoke at the flue?
John