We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted
externally. I'm not familiar with the reliability of currently
available boilers, as what we have now is a multi-fuel Rayburn with an
oil conversion.

I'd welcome any comments from folk who have experience with the Grant
models.

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:51:18 -0500, S Viemeister wrote:

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted
externally.

I'd be a bit cautious about the external mounting. When it fails(*)
working on it in the ****ing rain and howling gale isn't going to be
pleasant and it can be surprising how busy oil boiler engineers are
when the weather is bad and your external boiler has broken down...

(*) I don't know anything about the reliabilty or other wise of Grant
but even the most reliable boiler will break down at the most
inconvenient time.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:55:39 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:51:18 -0500, S Viemeister wrote:

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted
externally.

I'd be a bit cautious about the external mounting. When it fails(*)
working on it in the ****ing rain and howling gale isn't going to be
pleasant and it can be surprising how busy oil boiler engineers are
when the weather is bad and your external boiler has broken down...

(*) I don't know anything about the reliabilty or other wise of Grant
but even the most reliable boiler will break down at the most
inconvenient time.

Although that's something to bear in mind it's actually pretty
insignificant. If it breaks down does it need to be fixed immediately?
I bet you can wait until it stops raining. If you don't do your own
maintenence you'll probably have to wait a week or two for someone to
turn up anyway.

An external boiler keeps the noise and fumes outside and doesn't waste
space inside the house; of course if you've got an outbuilding you can
use as a boiler house you'ld get the best of both worlds.

I installed an external oil boiler 18 years ago, it's still working OK
and has only failed once when the pump siezed. Managed to survive a
few days without central heating until it was fixed.

Don't know about Grants reliability, but they are one of the makes I
would consider to replace our boiler. They are generally amongst the
most efficient in the SEDBUK database, for what that's worth.

Bill

"Bill Taylor" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:55:39 +0000 (GMT), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:51:18 -0500, S Viemeister wrote:

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted
externally.

I'd be a bit cautious about the external mounting. When it fails(*)
working on it in the ****ing rain and howling gale isn't going to be
pleasant and it can be surprising how busy oil boiler engineers are
when the weather is bad and your external boiler has broken down...

(*) I don't know anything about the reliabilty or other wise of Grant
but even the most reliable boiler will break down at the most
inconvenient time.

Although that's something to bear in mind it's actually pretty
insignificant. If it breaks down does it need to be fixed immediately?
I bet you can wait until it stops raining. If you don't do your own
maintenence you'll probably have to wait a week or two for someone to
turn up anyway.

An external boiler keeps the noise and fumes outside and doesn't waste
space inside the house; of course if you've got an outbuilding you can
use as a boiler house you'ld get the best of both worlds.

I installed an external oil boiler 18 years ago, it's still working OK
and has only failed once when the pump siezed. Managed to survive a
few days without central heating until it was fixed.

Don't know about Grants reliability, but they are one of the makes I
would consider to replace our boiler. They are generally amongst the
most efficient in the SEDBUK database, for what that's worth.


I am well pleased with mine that I have had for three years. Totally
reliable and my engineer says it is much easier to service that the inside
one was. I asked him about the rain and he said if it was urgent he has a
small awning he puts up. Self installation saved an enormous amount.

Peter Crosland

On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:54:53 +0000, Bill Taylor wrote:

I'd be a bit cautious about the external mounting. When it
fails(*)
working on it in the ****ing rain and howling gale isn't going to
be
pleasant and it can be surprising how busy oil boiler engineers
are
when the weather is bad and your external boiler has broken
down...

Although that's something to bear in mind it's actually pretty
insignificant. If it breaks down does it need to be fixed immediately?

I think that depends on the weather where you are. Here you might
have to dig it out of a 3' snow drift, which would probably drift
back in as fast as you tried to dig... And with 3' of snow outside
and a gale blowing heating is pretty important.

If you don't do your own maintenence you'll probably have to wait a week
or two for someone to turn up anyway.

Simple stuff I do myself, like unfreezing/unblocking the oil line
last winter but that was only in a foot of snow... but it was about
-5C outside with a wind chill down to -15/-20C.

An external boiler keeps the noise and fumes outside and doesn't waste
space inside the house; of course if you've got an outbuilding you can
use as a boiler house you'ld get the best of both worlds.

We have a "boiler room" so it's not a problem. I did think after I
posted that putting a shed around it might be useful but it does
depend on your local weather. Up here an awning would blow away or
get bent in the wind.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:54:53 +0000, Bill Taylor wrote:

I'd be a bit cautious about the external mounting. When it
fails(*)
working on it in the ****ing rain and howling gale isn't going to
be
pleasant and it can be surprising how busy oil boiler engineers
are
when the weather is bad and your external boiler has broken
down...
Although that's something to bear in mind it's actually pretty
insignificant. If it breaks down does it need to be fixed immediately?

I think that depends on the weather where you are. Here you might
have to dig it out of a 3' snow drift, which would probably drift
back in as fast as you tried to dig... And with 3' of snow outside
and a gale blowing heating is pretty important.

We're on the north coast of Sutherland - gales and horizontal rain are
common - but the boiler would be in a sheltered corner, and we rarely
get much more than ground frost where we are, even though just a few
miles away can have deep snowdrifts. We have a fireplace in the
livingroom, and oil-filled portable electric radiators as back-up.

If you don't do your own maintenence you'll probably have to wait a week
or two for someone to turn up anyway.

Simple stuff I do myself, like unfreezing/unblocking the oil line
last winter but that was only in a foot of snow... but it was about
-5C outside with a wind chill down to -15/-20C.

An external boiler keeps the noise and fumes outside and doesn't waste
space inside the house; of course if you've got an outbuilding you can
use as a boiler house you'ld get the best of both worlds.

We have a "boiler room" so it's not a problem. I did think after I
posted that putting a shed around it might be useful but it does
depend on your local weather. Up here an awning would blow away or
get bent in the wind.

I want to minimise the effect of noise and fumes, and maximise usable
indoor space.

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted externally.
I'm not familiar with the reliability of currently available boilers, as
what we have now is a multi-fuel Rayburn with an oil conversion.

I'd welcome any comments from folk who have experience with the Grant
models.


Many oil boilers share common components such as the burner.

IIRC the Grant boilers that I looked at had Riello burners.

The Riello burner in my Camray50/70 boiler has been fine. - so far!


--
Michael Chare

On Wed, 9 Dec 2009 11:48:51 -0000, Michael Chare wrote:

Many oil boilers share common components such as the burner.

IIRC the Grant boilers that I looked at had Riello burners.

The Riello burner in my Camray50/70 boiler has been fine. - so far!

Riello burner here, over ten years old still going strong. Only
problems we've had have been fuel supply. Frozen line, followed by
blocked fire valve and more recently random trips of the fire valve.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 9 Dec, 11:48, "Michael Chare"
wrote:
"S Viemeister" wrote in message

...

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted externally.
I'm not familiar with the reliability of currently available boilers, as
what we have now is a multi-fuel Rayburn with an oil conversion.

I'd welcome any comments from folk who have experience with the Grant
models.

Many oil boilers share common components such as the burner.

IIRC the Grant boilers that I looked at had Riello burners.

The Riello burner in my Camray50/70 boiler has been fine. - so far!

--
Michael Chare

Having read that, I have to back up the Riello burners - mine's been
in since the early 90's and I too didn't have internal space so went
for an external Camray hung on the outside wall. Only two failures in
that time - the fan motor failed because I was trying to get it to
start when there was no fuel and the bearings went; and the blast tube
had to be replace a couple of years ago.

Is it an assumption of do people who have oil boilers also have wood
burning stoves and the likes, because they live typically in remote
parts with no gas but wood available ?

Rob

On 9 Dec, 16:40, robgraham wrote:
On 9 Dec, 11:48, "Michael Chare"
wrote:





"S Viemeister" wrote in message

...

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted externally.
I'm not familiar with the reliability of currently available boilers, as
what we have now is a multi-fuel Rayburn with an oil conversion.

I'd welcome any comments from folk who have experience with the Grant
models.

Many oil boilers share common components such as the burner.

IIRC the Grant boilers that I looked at had Riello burners.

The Riello burner in my Camray50/70 boiler has been fine. - so far!

--
Michael Chare

Having read that, I have to back up the Riello burners - mine's been
in since the early 90's and I too didn't have internal space so went
for an external Camray hung on the outside wall. *Only two failures in
that time - the fan motor failed because I was trying to get it to
start when there was no fuel and the bearings went; and the blast tube
had to be replace a couple of years ago.

Is it an assumption of do people who have oil boilers also have wood
burning stoves and the likes, because they live typically in remote
parts with no gas but wood available ?

Rob- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I really like Riello burners but they do have faults same as any other
burner, just usually not as often as many others. Things to watch out
for are failure of the oil pump shaft seal so kerosine leaks along the
shaft into the end of the motor, washes out the motor bearing
lubricant with ensuing noise then failure. It doesn't happen that
often but its the most common failure in my experience.
The entire flame ignition and control system is in one grey box with
photocell mounted straight onto the pcb. Before retiring I always
carried a full set of spares in the van, including a fuel pump,
control box, capacitor, two 6202 bearings and photocell. Some units
emply a hydraulic ram device which closes the air inlet when not
running to reduce heat loss. There are two sizes (long and short) of
these for some reason which I never had a clear reason for since the
burner was the same size.
No oil burner likes repeated starts when no fuel is available. It
doesn't take many dry starts to knacker a pump!

A lot of the newer boilers use RDB model burners instead of the old
riello units. These are ok but not as convenient to work on as the old
grey box Riellos

Other boilers worth considering are Firebird and Trianco as both have
outdoor models and use the same burners.

robgraham wrote:

Having read that, I have to back up the Riello burners - mine's been
in since the early 90's and I too didn't have internal space so went
for an external Camray hung on the outside wall. Only two failures in
that time - the fan motor failed because I was trying to get it to
start when there was no fuel and the bearings went; and the blast tube
had to be replace a couple of years ago.

Is it an assumption of do people who have oil boilers also have wood
burning stoves and the likes, because they live typically in remote
parts with no gas but wood available ?


If mains gas were available, I'd be using that - as it is, there's a
big oil tank for the heating, a couple of LPG cylinders for the hob, and
an old shed where I keep coal, wood, and occasionally peat, for use in
the living room fireplace.

On 9 Dec, 18:25, S Viemeister wrote:
robgraham wrote:
Having read that, I have to back up the Riello burners - mine's been
in since the early 90's and I too didn't have internal space so went
for an external Camray hung on the outside wall. *Only two failures in
that time - the fan motor failed because I was trying to get it to
start when there was no fuel and the bearings went; and the blast tube
had to be replace a couple of years ago.

Is it an assumption of do people who have oil boilers also have wood
burning stoves and the likes, because they live typically in remote
parts with no gas but wood available ?

If mains gas were available, I'd be using that - as it is, *there's a
big oil tank for the heating, a couple of LPG cylinders for the hob, and
an old shed where I keep coal, wood, and occasionally peat, for use in
the living room fireplace.

Ditto - less the coal and 'occasional peat', and I live near
Edinburgh!

Rob

"S Viemeister" wrote in message
...
robgraham wrote:


If mains gas were available, I'd be using that - as it is, there's a big
oil tank for the heating, a couple of LPG cylinders for the hob, and an
old shed where I keep coal, wood, and occasionally peat, for use in the
living room fireplace.



Electric induction hobs don't come cheap but IMHO they are better and safer
than a naked flame!

--
Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:
"S Viemeister" wrote
robgraham wrote:

If mains gas were available, I'd be using that - as it is, there's a
big oil tank for the heating, a couple of LPG cylinders for the hob,
and an old shed where I keep coal, wood, and occasionally peat, for
use in the living room fireplace.

Electric induction hobs don't come cheap but IMHO they are better and
safer than a naked flame!

But they won't work during a power outage. I can use a match to light
my gas burners, and still make dinner or a pot of tea.

Michael Chare wrote:

Electric induction hobs don't come cheap but IMHO they are better and safer
than a naked flame!

coughollocks.

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

We're planning to have our central heating redone, and the plumber has
recommended a Grant oil-fired condensing boiler, to be mounted
externally. I'm not familiar with the reliability of currently
available boilers, as what we have now is a multi-fuel Rayburn with an
oil conversion.

I'd welcome any comments from folk who have experience with the Grant
models.

Grant are fine - they use Riello 40 burners anyway, so are quite
reliable, for the most part. The external boiler in a metre cube-like
'Heatpac' configuration is commonplace here and generally doesn't
present any problems for servicing or repair. On balance, I'd rather
have one outside than in.