I'm sure I've heard of somewhat more sophisticated, but same principal
being use by gas company to get water out of gas pipes.
Brian

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The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

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"John J" wrote in message
...
I keep bees at a farm some distance away and was planning to visit check the
hives this morning. Many years ago prior to retiring in a different life I
had installed a Firebird boiler for the farm owner. Last night I received a
distress call to say the boiler had locked out and resetting it simply led
to a second lockout.
Question 1 have you got fuel in the tank - answer yes it was getting down so
I ordered some and its been delivered this morning.
I combined my bee husbandry visit with a boiler breakdown. First thought was
filters. Nope - slight partial coating on tank primary but nothing to cause
fuel starvation. Headed indoors and pulled the burner to check ignition
electrodes, nozzle and photocell. All clean and in good order. Cracked oil
joint to burner but nothing came out. Headed outside to firestop valve and
checked it was open then cracked joint to valve in fuel line - nothing came
out. The pipe from tank to firestop valve dips under the drive then runs
horizontal(ish) for some distance so likely either sediment clog or an air
lock. I had nothing with me to purge the pipe so resorted to borrowing a
bicycle pump which had a tapered adapter the would jam into the end of the
oil pipe. I held it in while the farm owner pumped like mad. This blew the
oil back into the tank followed by bubbles. On releasing the adapter a few
seconds later oil appeared and flowed freely. Restored all connections,
refitted the burner and vented the oil pump. Reset the lockout and the
boiler fired up sweet as a bird. Only thing I could suggest was the tank had
run empty just before the refill arrived so the burner pulled the oil in the
pipe through followed by air then locking out.
Farm owner said he'd never had a boiler repair by bicycle pump before.
Oh and the bees were flying in and out of the hives.