Any burner techs out there?

[btuser]

I feel guilty even burning oil, let alone asking tech questions about it.

Since last year when we installed the wood stove I've been getting less and less use out of my oil boiler. Recently, I picked up a Viessmann w/ Riello combo off Craigslist and ever since I wheeled that into my boiler room I've been having problems with the reset popping on the old boiler. My plan is to install sometime in May after I finish a few other projects. But now I'm having problems with the reset popping once every 2-3 days, then twice a day, then fine for few days.....

Well, this morning the apt over the garage was 59 when I woke up. Fuel, filter, pump screen nozzle, electrodes, cad cell, transformer all good. Restart and we're good. Not good. Transformer not good. Then transformer's good. Then not good. Bypass control and transformer's no good. Replace transformer and we're good. I hooked a pigtail to the transformer and can't get any spark. Thing is, the igniter was new in June 06.

What makes a good igniter go bad? The control is an intermittant Honeywell. Shouldn't the control shut down the igniter after a minute or so? I'm hearing it all the time.

 

[pybyr]

I feel guilty even burning oil, let alone asking tech questions about it.

Since last year when we installed the wood stove I've been getting less and less use out of my oil boiler. Recently, I picked up a Viessmann w/ Riello combo off Craigslist and ever since I wheeled that into my boiler room I've been having problems with the reset popping on the old boiler. My plan is to install sometime in May after I finish a few other projects. But now I'm having problems with the reset popping once every 2-3 days, then twice a day, then fine for few days.....

Well, this morning the apt over the garage was 59 when I woke up. Fuel, filter, pump screen nozzle, electrodes, cad cell, transformer all good. Restart and we're good. Not good. Transformer not good. Then transformer's good. Then not good. Bypass control and transformer's no good. Replace transformer and we're good. I hooked a pigtail to the transformer and can't get any spark. Thing is, the igniter was new in June 06.

What makes a good igniter go bad? The control is an intermittant Honeywell. Shouldn't the control shut down the igniter after a minute or so? I'm hearing it all the time.

I'm not a tech, but have worked on burners in some reasonable degree of depth.

Any high voltage device can have strange intermittent insulation problems. Burner ignition transformers are no exception. In your case, though, I'd do a really thorough check and cleaning of the ceramic insulation that encloses the metal rods that go from the transformer up to the actual igniter points in front of the nozzle. Carbon- which builds up from combustion byproducts- can short out the high voltage from the transformer. Tiny cracks in the ceramic can also sabotage operation- sometimes intermittently.

good luck

 

[btuser]

I ended up just replacing the transformer. So far so good, but I won't know for a couple of days. The new transformer is about 1/2 the weight and doesn't throw nearly as much spark as the older one, but it was cheap and it was Saturday and I only need about 2 months out of this beast before I get my little Mini-Garn humming.