Calling any heating engineers or knowledgeable persons

[Chillum]

I've just moved into a new house and the boiler was playing up. Managed to get someone local out to sort it out and they replaced various bits etc. and now the thing should just work, but the engineer is claiming that there is no oil flow from the tank and he can't understand why.

The oil tank is below the level of the house and the heating pump should draw the oil up to the house, but when he tested the lines he was getting no pressure in the oil feed or return.

However, when I went to look at the tank after he had left I noticed that the pull-to-read valve had been jammed open - which I think may isolate the oil flow.

What I need to know is : is there any legitimate reason to jam this valve open?

If not I suspect I am being taken for a ride

[Fazerider]

I'm not a heating engineer, but wouldn't expect the level check valve to cut off flow to the pump. It's purpose is simply to isolate the transparent column when not in use.
This sounds more like an airlock at the pump or a faulty pump.
Is the level of oil above that of the pump? If not it may need some sort of priming procedure.

[paul1606]

you say you have just moved in have you just filled the tank from empty ? if the last owners were kind enough to run it out the pump will need priming/bleeding to draw the oil through (you wont get any oil in your return line if you havent even got a flow to the boiler in the first place)
Backtrack the fault from your pump crack the pipe joints if they are nut & olive joints and not soldered(dont undo them completely) to see if you get a weep if not keep going toward the tank 

Have you checked your inline filter ? this could also be restricting the flow if the tank has run dry & drawn all the shite through (but your tank should be angled away from the outlet to stop this)
What make of boiler is it ?
If your boiler is firing for a short while then "locking out" its probably your photocell lens covered in soot or the nozzle is blocked, hope this helps

[paul1606]

Ah just a thought have you got a thermal inline oil shut off valve ? if so it could of snapped shut stopping your oil flow i had one of these years ago where the valve low temp solder connection gave way & shut off the oil supply to my boiler

[Raymy]

Still Game Bogus Gasman

[Chillum]

Thanks for all the replies, my wife kind of jumped the gun this morning and practically told him to eff off and that he was ripping us off.

He did go and remove the stone jamming the valve open at the tank pdq though and then fed me a line of bullshit about it making the oil flow free-er up to the house.

Still, in the end it turned out to be the pump not creating enough vacuum to pull the oil up from the tank. I made sure that everything else was clear and we tried two different burners before deciding to switch the pump.

So unless he had another trick up his sleeve at the boiler end preventing the oil flowing then I guess I'll just have to trust him.

House is warm now, finally we can start trying to shift the damp!

[dolau]

If the tank is below the boiler/burner get him to fit a tiger loop and then you will never have the problem of air locking etc again

[Chillum]

Thanks dolau, that was what I was planning. I may also have to keep the tank topped up as well to help with the pressure.

[rustyrider]

I moved into a house with oil CH last year.  The previous occupiers had drained the tank dry so I had to get some oil first.  Then found that it didn't work.  After blowing the crap out of the pipe with an air compressor, I started to get a reasonable flow arriving at the boiler as my tank is slightly higher than the boiler (but by no more than a foot or so).  Even then, the boiler locked out 3 or 4 times with air in the pipe before it started to work reliably.

Then some thieving towrag came along one day when I was at work, unscrewed the filler on top of the tank and pumped about 150 litres out of it!

[dolau]

Without a tiger loop an empty tank will always need the opil pump bleeding.

Its not a difficult job but it is messy and you will stink of diesel for days afterwards- get hold of the idiot guide for the burner off the interweb and follow the destructions