It locks out on start-up
The burner tries to fire, fails and shows a red light. Usually a worn nozzle, fouled electrodes or a dirty photocell.
OFTEC registered servicing, breakdown repairs and replacement for oil-fired boilers in and around Winslow, with the burner stripped, the nozzle renewed and combustion set by analyser.
Leave your number and we will call you back during our opening hours: Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 8am–1pm.
Winslow town is mostly on mains gas, but the network thins out quickly once you leave it. Farmhouses and cottages on the lanes towards Granborough, Swanbourne, Addington and the Claydons have heated with oil for decades, and some properties on the edge of Winslow do too. Oil is core work for us, not something we pass to a subcontractor.
An oil boiler is a simple, long-lived machine if it is looked after. The burner atomises kerosene through a nozzle with an opening finer than a pinhole, and that nozzle wears with every hour it runs. As it wears the spray pattern changes, the flame gets dirtier, soot builds on the baffles and efficiency falls. An annual service puts all of that back to the manufacturer’s figures.
We service, repair and replace boilers from Grant, Worcester, Firebird, Warmflow and Boulter, both indoor models and the external units that sit against the house wall. Oil is one part of what we do, and the rest is on our services page.
The tank gets as much attention as the boiler. Many oil breakdowns start outside: water in the bottom of the tank, a filter clogged with sludge, a split in a plastic tank or a supply line drawing air. Catching those on a service visit is far cheaper than finding them in January.
If the boiler is past repair we replace it, indoors or out, and notify the work through OFTEC so the Building Regulations paperwork is done for you.
Oil boilers usually give notice before they stop. These are the things worth acting on.
The burner tries to fire, fails and shows a red light. Usually a worn nozzle, fouled electrodes or a dirty photocell.
A kerosene smell near the boiler or tank points to a leak or poor combustion. Have it looked at before running it again.
Sooting around the flue or dark smoke on start-up means the air and fuel mix has drifted and the boiler is wasting oil.
If the tank empties faster in the same weather, efficiency has dropped or oil is escaping from the tank or the line.
After running out, air and sludge are pulled into the line. The burner needs bleeding and the filter checking before it relights reliably.
Rust on a steel tank, or whitening, bulging and hairline cracks on a plastic one, are warnings that it is near the end of its life.
A pressure-jet burner pumps kerosene at high pressure through the nozzle, which breaks it into a fine cone of droplets. Two electrodes spark across the spray to light it, and a photocell watches for the flame. If the photocell does not see light within a few seconds, the control box shuts the burner down and shows a lockout. That one safety sequence explains most oil breakdowns: no fuel, no spark, or a photocell too sooted to see.
Servicing is about setting the fuel and air correctly. We fit the nozzle size and spray angle the manufacturer specifies, set the pump pressure with a gauge, then adjust the air until the analyser shows the right carbon dioxide reading with a clean smoke test. Too little air makes soot. Too much sends heat up the flue.
Condensing oil boilers add a second heat exchanger that recovers heat from the flue gases, so they need a condensate drain and a clean secondary exchanger to keep doing it. Where the oil line runs uphill or a long way from the tank, a de-aerator on the supply removes the air that causes nuisance lockouts.
Tell us the boiler make and when it was last serviced. Summer is a good time, because the heating is off anyway.
Burner out, nozzle replaced, heat exchanger cleaned, filter and hoses checked.
Pump pressure and air set by analyser, smoke test done, safety devices checked.
We inspect the tank and line, then leave a written report with the readings and anything to watch.
A routine service is a set job. Repairs and replacements vary with the following.
You get a fixed price in writing before any work starts, with parts and labour set out separately.
From Winslow we look after oil-heated homes in Granborough, Hoggeston, Addington, Adstock, Swanbourne, the Claydons and the smaller hamlets between them. There is no separate mileage charge for the places on our coverage list.
Once a year. The nozzle wears and the combustion settings drift over twelve months of running, and most manufacturers make an annual service a condition of the warranty. Servicing before the heating season means problems are found while the weather is mild.
Gas Safe is the legal register for engineers working on natural gas and LPG. OFTEC is the registration scheme for oil-fired heating, covering the boiler, the burner and the oil storage. An OFTEC registered business can self-certify oil installations under Building Regulations. We hold both.
Sometimes, but often not. Running dry pulls air into the supply line and stirs sludge from the bottom of the tank into the filter. After a delivery, let the oil settle for an hour or two, then try one reset. If it does not fire, the burner needs bleeding and the filter checking.
Yes, on every service. We look at the tank body, the bund if there is one, the gauge, the filter, the fire valve and the supply line, and tell you if anything needs attention. Tank condition is the homeowner’s responsibility and a leak is expensive to clean up, so it is worth knowing early.
Yes. We replace indoor and external oil boilers, usually with a condensing model, and deal with the flue, the condensate drain and the oil line at the same time. The work is notified through OFTEC and the manufacturer’s warranty is registered for you.
The rules are about fire separation and pollution risk. As a guide, a domestic tank should be at least 1.8 metres from the building and 760mm from a boundary, or have a fire-rated barrier in between. A bunded tank is needed where a spill could reach a watercourse, a drain or a well. We check the siting whenever we replace a boiler.
LPG boilers installed, serviced and repaired on bulk tank or bottles by LPG qualified engineers.
LPG boiler engineer in Winslow →No heat, no hot water, lockouts and leaks diagnosed properly and fixed at a price agreed before we start.
Boiler breakdowns in Winslow →New gas, oil and LPG boilers surveyed, supplied and fitted, with the system cleaned and the paperwork registered.
Boiler installation in Winslow →Tell us the make and when it was last looked at, and we will book it in during our opening hours.