Hello,

Has anyone serviced their oil-fired central heating boiler? The manual
provides instructions of what to do and an oftec plumber would charge
£120 to do it for me (though a non-oftec plumber is considerably
less).

Where do you buy the nozzles from? I've not seen anyone selling them.

BES sell some oil servicing kit:
http://www.bes.co.uk/products/076.asp

There's an oil pressure gauge for £19.93 and a vacuum gauge for
£26.93, so call it £47 but there's also an oil pressure kit containing
both of these and a hose for £58, reduced from £66. So my question is
do I need the extra bits that are in the kit or can I save £10-£20
(depending how long the offer lasts) by buying the two gauges
separately? I thought they just screwed into the pump?

Thanks.

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

Where do you buy the nozzles from? I've not seen anyone selling them.

Any *decent* plumbing trade outlet.


BES sell some oil servicing kit:
http://www.bes.co.uk/products/076.asp

There's an oil pressure gauge for £19.93 and a vacuum gauge for
£26.93, so call it £47 but there's also an oil pressure kit containing
both of these and a hose for £58, reduced from £66. So my question is
do I need the extra bits that are in the kit or can I save £10-£20
(depending how long the offer lasts) by buying the two gauges
separately? I thought they just screwed into the pump?

The kit contains adapters of various sorts, so saves some hassle, but
you could just screw some together if you have a box of various types.
For a flexy connection you can use an old flexy supply hose.

Not mentioned here is the smoke tester. Even if you can't afford a basic
flue gas analyser, a smoke test pump is a must - there's a cheap one
there that will do.

Without an FGA, you're ****ing in the wind as to knowing what the real
flue values are. Effectively you're guessing. It's certainly not
impossible to get it close to good, but what seems good enough might be
10% wasteful at least. I'd suggest you look on ebay.com USA for one of
the old Kane fluid testing kits - they are going very cheap this time of
year and fluids are still easily available for them. Once you get the
hang of the old kits, they are bloody excellent. Not every digital meter
is an improvement, just faster.

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

I'd suggest you look on ebay.com USA for one of
the old Kane fluid testing kits

I meant to write Bacharach. Doh.

This is the thing - the BIN price is a bit high, but worth it if you're
going to service your boiler twice or more.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/390207871515

Keep an eye on subsequent offerings; they pop up frequently.

On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:19:36 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon
wrote:

Not mentioned here is the smoke tester. Even if you can't afford a basic
flue gas analyser, a smoke test pump is a must - there's a cheap one
there that will do.

Thanks. I hadn't realised about the smoke test. I will have to RTM
more closely. When I watched the oftec chap last year, the only smoke
test I remember was lighting one of those "smokey matches" and
checking it all came out the top of the flue. Would the gas analyser
have measured the smoke at the same time or did he miss that test out?

I couldn't see a cheap one, they were all about £100.

Without an FGA, you're ****ing in the wind as to knowing what the real
flue values are. Effectively you're guessing. It's certainly not
impossible to get it close to good, but what seems good enough might be
10% wasteful at least. I'd suggest you look on ebay.com USA for one of
the old Kane fluid testing kits - they are going very cheap this time of
year and fluids are still easily available for them. Once you get the
hang of the old kits, they are bloody excellent. Not every digital meter
is an improvement, just faster.

Thanks will do. Is there a reason they are only sold in the US and not
over here? It seems DIY is not as straightforward as it first seemed
;(

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

Thanks. I hadn't realised about the smoke test. I will have to RTM
more closely. When I watched the oftec chap last year, the only smoke
test I remember was lighting one of those "smokey matches" and
checking it all came out the top of the flue.

That's just a crude method of checking the flue draft and without
numbers, it means sfa.

Would the gas analyser
have measured the smoke at the same time or did he miss that test out?

A proper smoke pump is what you need and it's vital that it's used
before the FGA or the FGA gets buggered rather rapidly.


I couldn't see a cheap one, they were all about £100.

They're essentially just a bicycle pump in reverse with a holder for a
piece of blotting paper. As such, there's no need for the prices that
are charged. Saying that, they are available more cheaply, from Dwyer.
www.dwyer-inst.com/PDF_files/920_cat.pdf See UK number for more info.

Pick up a good book on servicing oil burners and read it cover to cover.

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

Pick up a good book on servicing oil burners and read it cover to cover.

In the meantime, here's something to get you primed.
Read the whole thing as an overview and pay particular attention to pgs
18-20. It's for a Yank Beckett burner, but is pretty much the same as
ones this side of the ditch; the procedures and safety precautions
especially.

On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:30:11 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon
wrote:

Pick up a good book on servicing oil burners and read it cover to cover.

Thanks for all your help. Do you recommend a particular book?