Hi

We have oil rather than gas for our heating and recently have had a new
boiler/burner installed. The old one was 15+ years old and very noisy. Well
this new one worked fine until the last 6-9 months or so when there's been
this loud tapping sound whenever it fires up and heats. When the guy came
over to check it out he'd found that the system had clogged up again
(although the airflow is ok) and after cleeaning out, he had to get a hammer
to the stacks of 'trays' to re-straighten some of them! The system is a
Wall-Mounted Grandee by Heating World.

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Thanks
Justin

"news.nildram.co.uk" wrote in message
...
Hi

We have oil rather than gas for our heating and recently have had a new
boiler/burner installed. The old one was 15+ years old and very noisy.
Well
this new one worked fine until the last 6-9 months or so when there's been
this loud tapping sound whenever it fires up and heats. When the guy came
over to check it out he'd found that the system had clogged up again
(although the airflow is ok) and after cleeaning out, he had to get a
hammer
to the stacks of 'trays' to re-straighten some of them! The system is a
Wall-Mounted Grandee by Heating World.

Any ideas as to what's going on?


Not a popular model I'm afraid but I have come across two of them. They are
designed for compactness but IMHO the design has overdone it and there is
insufficient room to work on the things. Adjustments are a bit critical and
I prefer the competitors such as Trianco or Boulter.
As to your question. What exactly do you mean by installed recently if the
unit has been playing up for 6 to 9 months? I assume you mean it had sooted
up by your expression "clogged up". The reasons for sooting come down to a
limited number of causes, excess oil in relation to air supply due to nozzle
wear or excess pressure setting, which amounts to the same thing as
insufficient air for the oil supply but for a different reason viz
obstruction of the air inlet or incorrect adjustment of same. Also a worn
nozzle can lead to poor atomisation and soot formation on the burner head or
swirl plate. A build up of soot here rapidly leads to worse sooting and the
whole thing blocks rapidly after that.
I always advise my customers to ring me urgently if they notice any
blackening at the flue outlet of an oil boiler it saves having to dig out
lots of unneccessary soot later.
The "trays" you speak of are the flue retarders or baffles and being
embedded in a mass of red hot charring soot has caused distortion. Being
steel they should be OK if straightened properly but I'd be keeping an eye
on them from now on to watch for granulation of the metal. If the boiler is
within guarantee you may wish to claim a new set via your installer.

HTH