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Speedy Jim

wrote:
Hi All,

I am writing because I am pretty much out of ideas. I am hoping that
someone on this group will have more expertise than I have.

Anyway here is the situation (all that I know). I have a 20 year old
Burnham Oil Boiler. It provides hot water for heating and a tankless
hot water system for the house. It was serviced in the fall by the oil
company.

The heating in the house is in 2 zones, one zone is programmed to
change temps during the day to save on heating, and the other is
maintained at a temp of 62F.

The furnace seems to shut down erratically. Sometimes at night,
sometimes during the day. There does not seem to be any pattern to
when the furnace shuts down. Once the boiler shuts down I have to
press the reset button to get it re-started, and when I do that it
fires up first time with no problem, no loud noise and no puff of
smoke.

I called the service people out, and they have so far replaced,
filter, electrodes, nozzle, cad cell relay, pretty much everything.
The service man also said there is a good amount of current, a good
stream of oil and good oil pressure. None of this seems to have made a
real difference.

The boiler still shuts down every couple of days in the New England
winter, and much less frequently in the summer.

I thought that short cycling was to blame, and therefore changed the
Cycles per Hour on the thermostats. This also did not make any
difference.

If anyone has any ideas on what to check or try I would really
appreciate it, as I am pretty much out. Other than a new boiler

Suppose it has nothing to do with the "boiler"?
What I mean is, you can't make assumptions when
investigating a mystery.

How about something like a very small air leak
in the oil suction line? The pump gets air bound
and it takes a short time to work the air out.
(Just as one example.)

Is it a one-pipe supply from the tank? They are
more prone to problems. Buried tank? Also problems.

Still on that tack, my approach would be to install
a pressure gauge on the pump. Watch it every chance you
get to see how fast the pressure builds on cold start-up.
The needle should just go "BANG" right up to 100psi
even before the motor reaches full speed.

Or...could there be contamination in the oil? Water deposits?

In really desperate situations, it may warrant running
a temporary copper line dropped into the tank opening
or even into a 55 gallon drum of oil to prove/disprove
oil delivery problems.

Jim