PROBLEMS TRIANCO TRG60 BOILER

[JuneC]

My parents have a Trianco TRG60 solid fuel boiler - around 10-12 years old. Over the last few weeks it's been going out at least twice a week and causing my Dad (who's in his eighties) some serious stress!. They're considering changing their whole heating system next spring, so just need the boiler to get through the next six months or so. They've had a new thermostat fitted and a new fan. We've also considered whether it could be bad quality fuel, but our neighbour has the same sort of boiler and uses the same coal merchant, but doesn't seem to have any problems. Does anyone have any suggestion/ideas on what could be causing this?

Thanks very much!

 

[Tibbot]

Start with basics. Has it been serviced. regularly de-ashed/ de-clinckered and is the flue way scraped and flue pipe/chimney swept. Also is ventilation adequate? Properly maintained, boiler should last twice that age.

 

[mysteryman]

They have a secondary air duct which is very difficult to clean. It blows in air above the fuel bed. I remember lying on my back looking in at it from below with all the firebars removed, using a torch. The fan impellor can get loaded with dust. Have you checked the chimney for leaks and blockages? A flue draught is required for idling to keep the fuel alight.

 

[JuneC]

Thanks for your replies. The boiler is regularly de-ashed and de-clinkered and we had the chimney swept quite recently. However, it may be worth us having it done again just in case. Will also look into the second air duct.

I agree with you Tibbot - the boiler should last a lot longer. The first boiler my parents had lasted 25 years and not a minutes trouble with it until then!!

Once again, many thanks for responding.

 

[Young Dai]

Just in case you've arrived here searching for possible answers to your Trianco solid fuel boiler going out all the time, I'll tell you what I discovered! My boiler would go out almost every night - drove us mad! I cured this by ramming a long steel rod up and down in the coal hopper before going to bed each night. What I found was happening was the coal was bridging in the hopper, the coal on the fire grate would burn out and because it was not being replenished the boiler just went out, ramming it each night overcame this. Why should we have to do this? Well look at your coal, it is now much coarser grain than it used to be (and what the boiler was designed for) so it does not flow so well through the boiler. Also worth noting is that all the coal comes from the same washing plant in South Wales, so changing make/supplier will make no difference. Well that's what was happening with my boiler, I hope it helps.

 

[TJ morris]

My parents have a Trianco TRG60 solid fuel boiler - around 10-12 years old. Over the last few weeks it's been going out at least twice a week and causing my Dad (who's in his eighties) some serious stress!. They're considering changing their whole heating system next spring, so just need the boiler to get through the next six months or so. They've had a new thermostat fitted and a new fan. We've also considered whether it could be bad quality fuel, but our neighbour has the same sort of boiler and uses the same coal merchant, but doesn't seem to have any problems. Does anyone have any suggestion/ideas on what could be causing this?

Thanks very much!

 

[Deleted member 267285]

I’m a little unsure as to why you’ve resurrected an 11 year old thread, quoted the OP, and then said nothing?

 

[tonopahkid]

I had the MK1 TRG 60 that was second hand when I bought it and this lasted with me for over 30 years giving very few problems and I only changed it because of the amount of rust that was forming in the fuel hopper and I was concerned that this may also have been occurring with the flue ways in the boiler causing a catastrophic leak just when the boiler was needed. So that is how the trg 60 MK2 came into my life.
The MK1 was probably a bit oversized, but with 30 plus years of home improvements behind us the MK2 definitely was! This is born out by the fact that it produces very little clinker but mostly ash that needs ejecting twice a day. The main problem was that it kept going out! After trying all sorts of different things I contacted Trianco technical help line and explained that after it had gone out I needed to operate the ash (clinker) ejector lever four or more times, ejecting partially burnt fuel, until completely untouched fuel appeared to relight. They suggested checking all the seals as they thought air was being drawn to the fire through the hopper, and to run the fuel plate at the beans setting instead of grains. All the rope seals were fine and adjusting the fuel plate made no difference, so following this thought I held a lit match over the fuel hopper breather hole and the flame was drawn down into the hopper. Next thing was to partially block the hopper breather (well almost totally) just leaving a small hole to allow air in. I now run with this set up and brim the fuel hopper morning and evening, to make the air's path to the fire through the fuel hopper even more difficult.
This seems to have solved my problems and I'm no longer constantly checking if it's still alight.
Maybe this will help someone else.