Pilot light goes out in cold weather

[mick1970]

Hi,

I have a BAXI FS501, pretty old.

The pilot light goes out when the temperature drops to below zero outside. This happened once last year - I attributed it to the fact the boiler is next to a cat door I had put in a few weeks previously. This year I have draft proofed the door, as that was also letting in cold air; however it is still happening. I don't recall this being a problem 2 years ago - maybe it was a milder winter.

We had our regular service from a BG engineer a month ago, he said teh pilot light was fine but had 'adjusted it' anyway. It seems to be happening if anything even more now.

It's not a critical problem, as I can always restart it; but it is a pain, and and rather not let it go out when I'm away over Xmas.

Could it be just that cold air is descending down the flue and putting it out? Is there anything I can do to stop it??

Thanks!

 

[ChrisR]

FIrst thing one would normally do would be replace the thermocouple. As they age they need more heat from the pilot to keep the pilot on.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

If you hadn't said it had been serviced I would have said get it serviced.We had cold days a couple of winters ago just as we do every winter so although what you are telling us means it could be related, a healthy pilot flame should be able to withstand annual climatic changes. Wind is more likely to be a culprit than temp change.
Heres a few possibilities.
Pilot injector partially blocked
Occasionally a kamikaze insect can incinerate itself on the pilot burner leaving its exo-skeleton to deflect the flame away from the thermocouple
Thermocouple on its way out.
Loose thermocouple nut
pilot flame wrongly adjusted.
Pilot flame not 'playing' on thermocouple properly

I'm not too familiar with your boiler as the floor standing ones round here tend to be thorn m's but I would say that I would expect an average diyer to be capable of renewing the thermocouple and perhaps blowing around the pilot burner with an air duster. If this is out of your depth then get an engineer in

 

[DP]

What is a regular service. Your service provider does not strip the boiler down as suggested by the makers- they carry out an operational check using a flue gas analyser. Check your contract.