riello 2.2 on firebird ecomax combi womt fire

[lame plumber]

called to do a service on this nightmare on friday, so left it till today as custard denied it needed repairing! arrived and it fired ok. cleaned it all out (4 years old and no service records seen) and judging by the burnt through baffle and sooted up interior not serviced yet!! changed nozzle and hose, oil flowing thro pipework beautifully, so then I turned off the valve! come fire up diddly squat, no pressure on pump at all, bled out all air, checked drive coupling ok and fan motors fine. pump seems stiff so I presume its on its way out, filters all clear tho. scratched head, no spare pump in van, used it last week and forgot to order replacement. so leave a cold custard and order bits for delivery tommorrow, get a call that its all working!!! and then she says its been doing this for weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I suspect the pumps on its way out any other clever oilies out there with better suggestion as I've only been oily for 18 months and all my other pump failures have been more obvious than this one. Solenoid was clicking away, and its working ok now!

 

[Roger Welton]

No pressure = pump or oil supply

I always try and keep a few riello pumps around as seem to have phases of replacing loads of them 4 in one day is my record so far!

 

[lame plumber]

thought that might be the case, mine spares been in the van for a year and used it last week!

 

[Bunker]

When you say no pressure, do you mean literally zero?
Was it locking out?
did you check the photocell for cleanliness/ continuity?

 

[Bunker]

Oh, and don't forget to change the o ring ;-)

 

[Dotty]

definitely pump.

 

[lame plumber]

turned out to be an intermittant fault on the photo cell, combined with a failing oil pump and poor continuity and the electrode leads. Only took 4 hours to fault find that lot. left it working, not answering the phone for a few days!! thanks for the help, only one firebird helpline techie gave any useful advice!!

 

[lame plumber]

yes, no, that was it eventually after checking it 3 times!!!!!!!!!!! re bunkers questions in 4

 

[Roger Welton]

Firebird have 'updated' the electorde leads due to problems, (just a sheath over them)

 

[lame plumber]

pity they did not design a decent condensate trap system, what a balls aching mess

 

[Bunker]

pity they did not design a decent condensate trap system, what a balls aching mess

The older ones have the awful blue nut underneath - these have been replaced now with a small clear trap which you have to dismantle to fit but they do rectify the problem (blue nut rots out) - whenever I find one I replace it with a trap which Firebird send me foc. Works quite well and I find it easier to access than most of the Grant type ones (although the Grant ones make installing a little easier a you get a good height to work with). - dont forget to re-prime the trap afterwards, easiest done by lobbing water down the gulley in front of the turbulates.

 

[Dotty]

turned out to be an intermittant fault on the photo cell, combined with a failing oil pump and poor continuity and the electrode leads. Only took 4 hours to fault find that lot. left it working, not answering the phone for a few days!! thanks for the help, only one firebird helpline techie gave any useful advice!!

Ooooo nasty!

 

[lame plumber]

thanks for the condensate advice, will give firebird a bell as it was a rotted blue nut and as for the problems, no nails or hair left and no whisky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Roger Welton]

The older ones have the awful blue nut underneath - these have been replaced now with a small clear trap which you have to dismantle to fit but they do rectify the problem (blue nut rots out) - whenever I find one I replace it with a trap which Firebird send me foc. Works quite well and I find it easier to access than most of the Grant type ones (although the Grant ones make installing a little easier a you get a good height to work with). - dont forget to re-prime the trap afterwards, easiest done by lobbing water down the gulley in front of the turbulates.

Saw one of the new type traps melted out internally at the end of last year, I think they suffer from being held so close to the 'high temp' end of the 2ndary heat exchanger.

 

[lame plumber]

all in all, gone off firebirds today still prefer grants

 

[Roger Welton]

Grants do seem a more quality product. imho

 

[lame plumber]

Grants do seem a more quality product. imho

200% concur

 

[kimbo]

A problem I have ben coming across with these as I have a few on my patch is that the trap evaporates, which in turn allows flue gases to pass and it melts the trap and also splits the flexible pipe from the trap and in some cases distorted the condensate pipe.

 

[WHPES]

pity they did not design a decent condensate trap system, what a balls aching mess

Pity they didn't design a decent boiler that doesn't leak


Was asked to look at a firebird combi today. No less than 9 separate places on it where leaking is apparent.

Quoted a boiler install last year and the customer said they had a better quote from another installer for a Firebird and asked me if I could quote for one. I said I wasn't interested in fitting one as they are a nightmare. Anyway I hear from their neighbour (a regular customer of mine) that the original installer has been back at least 7 times to deal with problems with the boiler.

 

[Roger Welton]

I seem to be replacing a few of the new digital control boxes on firebirds at the moment.

 

[lame plumber]

I seem to be replacing a few of the new digital control boxes on firebirds at the moment.

I have one of those in the van now, left over fm wondering what was wrong on last job, still it will be used one day

 

[WHPES]

Stripped out and replaced 3 Firebirds under 3 years old with Grants last year because they couldn't be repaired or customers got fed up of them leaking.