Hello. Newbie here, be kind! I recently retired so have more time but less money to spend on DIY. Any hoo, my Vortex Riello boiler has functioned great for 5 yrs until just before Xmas. To cut a story short the filters (including the pump) were blocked with a red substance which turned out to be fungus. The tank is steel and 30 yrs old. Filters cleaned, new pump fitted, runs for a month then stops with the motor blocked, lockout. Press reset, vicious sounding BUZZ then lockout. Filters again blocked with fungus, which I now know should have been dealt with a fungicide. I stripped the pump down, cleaned it, new nozzle, reassembled it to the motor and using a bottle of kero, not the grotty tank supply, (the tank is being treated with biocide) it fired OK. Great thinks I, sorted without another new pump. No, 2 hours later lockout and the motor blocked. Strip down again, cleaned and again it runs for 4 hours then I turn it off for the night. Come to manually turn on the heating and the motor is blocked again. I guess if I clean the pump it'll run again. Are these pumps fully recoverable after being either run dry or blocked with whatever? Sorry it's a long tale......
Riello motor blocking.
- Thread starter oilygrumpy
- Start date
Hello. Newbie here, be kind! I recently retired so have more time but less money to spend on DIY. Any hoo, my Vortex Riello boiler has functioned great for 5 yrs until just before Xmas. To cut a story short the filters (including the pump) were blocked with a red substance which turned out to be fungus. The tank is steel and 30 yrs old. Filters cleaned, new pump fitted, runs for a month then stops with the motor blocked, lockout. Press reset, vicious sounding BUZZ then lockout. Filters again blocked with fungus, which I now know should have been dealt with a fungicide. I stripped the pump down, cleaned it, new nozzle, reassembled it to the motor and using a bottle of kero, not the grotty tank supply, (the tank is being treated with biocide) it fired OK. Great thinks I, sorted without another new pump. No, 2 hours later lockout and the motor blocked. Strip down again, cleaned and again it runs for 4 hours then I turn it off for the night. Come to manually turn on the heating and the motor is blocked again. I guess if I clean the pump it'll run again. Are these pumps fully recoverable after being either run dry or blocked with whatever? Sorry it's a long tale......
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I guess it really depends on luck to a degree......oil pumps are fine until you find that it can't deliver the required pressure any more, and then its goodbye. Do you have a pressure gauge?
Water is the real killer though!
John
Water is the real killer though!
John
Hello. Update.
I just stripped and cleaned the pump, reassembled and tested, still blocked. Stripped again taking out the gear ring, lo and behold a layer of gummy stuff. Thorough cleaning of the ring and the aperture with acetone shifted a ton of said gummy stuff, pump is now again working, but for how long?
I just stripped and cleaned the pump, reassembled and tested, still blocked. Stripped again taking out the gear ring, lo and behold a layer of gummy stuff. Thorough cleaning of the ring and the aperture with acetone shifted a ton of said gummy stuff, pump is now again working, but for how long?
How long is piece of string? Hopefully if you have cleaned it all out it will be ok. I would very strongly advise you to check pump pressure with a gauge and check the combustion. If you don't have the correct tools or knowledge to do it yourself then pay an engineer to come and set it up. You run a very strong risk of having the boiler soot up and and you really don't want a sooty vortex! Plus any cost of having it set up will be cheaper than having it sorted out after it soots up.
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Have you checked that you haven't got water in the oil tank??
Hello. Further news.
I'm running on a 25 litre container and not using the timer.
The boiler ran until manually turned off at midnight. Motor blocked again this morning. Same procedure, strip and clean with acetone, more gummy stuff. Reassemble, working again until, I guess, we switch it off and the heat soak creates the gummy stuff again. Anyhoo, I'm gonna get the 30 yrs old steel tank steam cleaned 'cos the 200 litres of kero I'm using up is what I drained from the tank and treated with biocide last week. I don't wanna put 1000 litres of new kero in what I suspect is a fouled up tank.
I'm running on a 25 litre container and not using the timer.
The boiler ran until manually turned off at midnight. Motor blocked again this morning. Same procedure, strip and clean with acetone, more gummy stuff. Reassemble, working again until, I guess, we switch it off and the heat soak creates the gummy stuff again. Anyhoo, I'm gonna get the 30 yrs old steel tank steam cleaned 'cos the 200 litres of kero I'm using up is what I drained from the tank and treated with biocide last week. I don't wanna put 1000 litres of new kero in what I suspect is a fouled up tank.
Try fitting a new 4-5u/a Capacitor to the Motor!
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Try fitting a new 4-5u/a Capacitor to the Motor!
Capacitors are rated in micro farads symbol is uf, not ua.
Title should have been "pump sticking". Anyway, just to say thanks to all those who responded. I have cleaned out the steel tank and have a fresh stock of kero, all seems to be well. Just waiting for the biocide to kill any bugs left in the tank then I will move the screen filter to a more accessible position and flush out the pipes and fire valve. Anybody want 100 litres of gummy kero cheap? Burns OK just gums up the pump when it cools down! M6- A57
Don't be picky Terry!!!! it's just a typo!!
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