Hello,

I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

Thanks,
Stephen.

Stephen coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hello,

I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

Thanks,
Stephen.

I can't recommend any from experience, except to say that "Kane" seems to
appear in a lot of places.


Hopefully Ed, John or one of the other pros will be along soon with a proper
recommendation...


One thing to watch for is that the sensors have limited life, including
shelf life, if I'm correct.

I was planning to buy one off ebay for about 250 inc calibration cert, use
it, then sell it back again at perhaps 50 quid loss, which makes for a
reasonable hire charge in effect.

Hire, of course, is the other option, but the cheapest I could find was 100
quid per week.

Cheers

Tim

In article ,
Stephen writes:
Hello,

I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

I bought a Kane250 about 6 years ago for servicing the various
gas appliances around the family. It costs about £200 every two
years to have the oxygen cell replaced and the unit calibrated,
although so far I've done it on a 3 year cycle and put up without
the measurements relying on the Oxygen cell during the third year.
I believe if the Carbon Monoxide cell dies, the unit won't power
on anymore, but so far, I haven't had the CO cell die between
servicing. I am careful to purge it for a good while after use
(leaving CO in it apparently shortens its life).

If you've just got one boiler to do, it's not going to be worth
buying one. I wouldn't buy a second hand one either (unless it
was fully checked and calibrated by Kane as part of the sale,
but that alone is a significant part of the cost of a brand new
one).

I don't know which analysers would be suitable for oil.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Nov 5, 6:20*am, Stephen
wrote:
Hello,

I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

Thanks,
Stephen.

And if something was off you didnt know, you still would need a pro

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Stephen
saying something like:


I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

I use a Kane-May 700, bought as NOS a couple of years ago for $100 from
ebay.us. It's fairly basic, providing only O2 and air measurements, but
it does the job. Oxygen cells are expensive, at 40ukp a pop, and it does
need calibrating from time to time.
If I was only using it for one boiler, I wouldn't bother, I'd look at
getting one of the old chemical-based Bacharach kits, which are cheaper
to run as far as know.

On a different tack, out of curiousity what's the worst that can
happen with a room-sealed boiler if the flue gases are all horrible
and the thing is belching out carbon monoxide? Is it just a matter of
efficiency?

"Stephen" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I watched the plumber service my (oil fired) boiler and he did three
things:

1. changed the nozzle
2. vacuumed the boiler
3. tested flue gases

Now (1) and (2) can be done DIY but (3) requires flue gas meter. I'm
wondering though at about £100 per service, if you could get a flue
gas analyser for a couple of hundred pounds it might pay for itself
within two or three years.

Is this something anyone has done? Are there any downsides? What
analyser do you recommend and from where?

Thanks,
Stephen.


You can get chemical rather than electronic analysers, I do now have one but
have not used it much. The chemicals do deteriorate but are not so
expensive to replace.

The flue gas analyser allows you to adjust the air, however once set, I am
not so sure that it will vary that much

You can buy oil pressure guages to set the oil pressure, and thermocouples
to check the flue temperature much more cheaply.
You can also get something to check the smoke.

When servicing a boiler you should also check the ignition electrodes
setting

--
Michael Chare

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 00:02:51 -0000, "Michael Chare"
wrote:

You can get chemical rather than electronic analysers, I do now have one but
have not used it much. The chemicals do deteriorate but are not so
expensive to replace.

The flue gas analyser allows you to adjust the air, however once set, I am
not so sure that it will vary that much

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had not realised they needed
constant replacing and recalibrating, so like you say, they are
probably no use for a DIYer. As Michael said, hopefully once set up
the flue gas rations should remain constant so perhaps I only have to
pay a pro once to measure them and not worry about re-measuring every
year?

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Stephen
saying something like:

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 00:02:51 -0000, "Michael Chare"
wrote:

You can get chemical rather than electronic analysers, I do now have one but
have not used it much. The chemicals do deteriorate but are not so
expensive to replace.

The flue gas analyser allows you to adjust the air, however once set, I am
not so sure that it will vary that much

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had not realised they needed
constant replacing and recalibrating, so like you say, they are
probably no use for a DIYer. As Michael said, hopefully once set up
the flue gas rations should remain constant so perhaps I only have to
pay a pro once to measure them and not worry about re-measuring every
year?

This is what you need, without going to great expense having to
re-calibrate every two years and buy new O2 cells.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bacharach-Fyri...mZ250318470448

Unfortunately, his shipping cost is a total rip-off and those units are
available used for as little as 40usd.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Anita Palley
saying something like:

On a different tack, out of curiousity what's the worst that can
happen with a room-sealed boiler if the flue gases are all horrible
and the thing is belching out carbon monoxide? Is it just a matter of
efficiency?

If it's properly room-sealed it shouldn't kill you, but I certainly
wouldn't take the chance and get it seen to asap, for it could be
leaking into the room. As you say, if it's belching out CO it's burning
very badly and will be hellishly sooty inside and wasting fuel.

"Grimly Curmudgeon" wrote in message
...
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Stephen
saying something like:

On Thu, 6 Nov 2008 00:02:51 -0000, "Michael Chare"
wrote:

You can get chemical rather than electronic analysers, I do now have one
but
have not used it much. The chemicals do deteriorate but are not so
expensive to replace.

The flue gas analyser allows you to adjust the air, however once set, I
am
not so sure that it will vary that much

Thanks everyone for your replies. I had not realised they needed
constant replacing and recalibrating, so like you say, they are
probably no use for a DIYer. As Michael said, hopefully once set up
the flue gas rations should remain constant so perhaps I only have to
pay a pro once to measure them and not worry about re-measuring every
year?

This is what you need, without going to great expense having to
re-calibrate every two years and buy new O2 cells.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bacharach-Fyri...mZ250318470448

Unfortunately, his shipping cost is a total rip-off and those units are
available used for as little as 40usd.


I have one of these which I bought new in the UK two years ago. The UK
supplier has since changed. It uses a fluid which does deteriorate, and
which, because of its corrosive? nature may well require a special carrier.

--
Michael Chare

In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon writes:
I use a Kane-May 700, bought as NOS a couple of years ago for $100 from
ebay.us. It's fairly basic, providing only O2 and air measurements, but
it does the job. Oxygen cells are expensive, at 40ukp a pop, and it does

Do you buy and fit them yourself?
So far, I've sent mine back to Kane, but that's very expensive.

need calibrating from time to time.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

In message , Andrew Gabriel
writes
In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon writes:
I use a Kane-May 700, bought as NOS a couple of years ago for $100 from
ebay.us. It's fairly basic, providing only O2 and air measurements, but
it does the job. Oxygen cells are expensive, at 40ukp a pop, and it does

Do you buy and fit them yourself?
So far, I've sent mine back to Kane, but that's very expensive.
Generally an O2 cell is a piece of cake to fit providing you're not a
gorilla. Might find them cheaper than £40, they're used in automotive
analysers as well so if you have a friendly garage you may find they
have a good supplier who can help you out.

need calibrating from time to time.

If your friendly garage has a Bear/OTC/SPX gas analyser they may even
let you have a sniff of the cal gas bottle so you can check your
machine. The cal gas uses propane at around 2000PPM so if your analyser
doesn't do propane you'll need to find the correction factor to check
the calibration. The cal gas CO will be around 3.5% and CO2 will be
around 15% with the balance made up of nitrogen, no oxygen at all.
--
Clint Sharp

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember (Andrew
Gabriel) saying something like:

I use a Kane-May 700, bought as NOS a couple of years ago for $100 from
ebay.us. It's fairly basic, providing only O2 and air measurements, but
it does the job. Oxygen cells are expensive, at 40ukp a pop, and it does

Do you buy and fit them yourself?
So far, I've sent mine back to Kane, but that's very expensive.

When the first cell died I was reluctant to spend cash getting someone
else to do what I could do perfectly well, so the analyser sat in its
box and I used another one. I've since found that Citicel don't deal
direct with end users, but sell to redistributors, one of which is
Spantech: http://www.spantech.co.uk/toc.htm
They take orders for cells on a list-filling basis and batch order them
from Citicel, so I'll be getting one from them soon. I expect the
analyser to be self-calibrating and I'll be able to compare it against
two others I have available. If it doesn't work out, I'll just send it
to Kane.