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Ran out of oil, oil delivered so trying to bleed it.
Been trying a while and getting nowhere, just air coming out with much gurgling.
The tanks about 12 foot from the boiler.
Any idea how long it should take ?
Am I doing it any harm to keep trying?
My boiler chap can't come out for a few days so keen to sort it myself.
Guess no tiger loop as they self bleed.
What boiler is it.
No idea about a tiger loop.
Its exactly the same as this...
Have you found the bleed screw/nut on the pump?
If so loosen that and keep pressing the red (lit up) button.
The pump will run for a few seconds then stop and the light will come back on.
Keep repeating this until oil. Finally starts squirting out around the screw.
Then try closing the screw and see if it runs, not not repeat until it does.
You will need kitchen roll to clean up the spilt oil!
If you have a filter between the tank and the boiler that should have a bleed screw on it so get oil flowing out of that first.
I'm not entirely sure that tiger loops are self bleeding (always certainly isn't), they can get rid of bubbles but not large volumes of air.
Ive removed the screw, exactly like that YT vid. Theres just no oil coming out.
Ive tried taking out the light sensor thing and shining a torch on it so it keeps the pump running but it just gurgles, not a single drip of oil has appeared.
I did this before Christmas but I'm lucky enough to have a wee air compressor. I removed the fuel line from the pump and used a couple of feet of garden hose and the compressor to make a venturi which sucked the oil through.
If you have a compressor this'll sort it out
What boiler?
Riello burner, is it a Warmflow boiler?
I've got a Warmflow combi with a Riello burner on and it looks very similar to the video, so if yours is identical then hopefully this works:
Disconnect the grey braided hose from the bottom of the pump (LH side of the boiler in the video) 15mm spanner if I remember correctly. This should allow the oil to drain (have a cloth and pan/bottle ready to catch any oil!). If the oil won't flow like this under normal gravity feed you've got a blocked pipe or filter, possibly pulled through when you ran the tank dry.
As long as oil comes through at a decent rate, reconnect the pipe and then try bleeding the boiler pump as per the video.
"Ive removed the screw, exactly like that YT vid. Theres just no oil coming out."
Have you removed the right screw/bolt?
(Probably)
Is there a filter between the tank and the boiler?
If so you need to check it as sucking all the oil from the tank could have also sucked a load of crap from the bottom of the tank and blocked the filter.
Check that before anything else.
In the rental house I lived in previously, the maintenance guy would disconnect the fuel pipe and suck on it repeatedly until he got a mouthful. I’m sure a flexible hose and a bike pump would be just as effective.
"Am I doing it any harm to keep trying?"
No.
But it didn't take too long. I reckon I can do mine in about 30 minutes but our tank is about 40' away.
I reduced that time by bleeding the filter which was quite quick and was only 4' from the boiler.
If you don't have a filter you may need to blow done sure back up the pipe to clear any potential blockage in the tank.
It's taken me 22 years to figure out that putting more fuel in before I run out of much easier than bleeding the boiler!
It makes for a happier wife also 😬
How cold is it? If it ran out completely, you may have water frozen in the lines.
No response, have you frozen at home?!
If you've had a tank full delivered, there should be enough pressure in the system to overcome any air locks in the line, having disconnected the braided hose first.
If you've run the tank 'dry', or at least below the outlet pipe, then when you've had the fresh oil delivered it has quite probably disturbed any silt in the bottom of the tank, or disturbed any moisture in the tank and thats got in to the lines.
There could/should be a filter trap on the outlet from the tank, on our system this had clogged up over time and needed to be cleaned out when i serviced our boiler last year, i'm amazed it ran it was that clogged up. Also check next to the boiler, there may well be a secondary filter there (or only there if there isn't one on the tank).
Once you've got oil flowing through the pipework, actually bleeding the pump on the burner should only take 5 minutes at the most, using the method in the video.
i wouldnt keep cycling the boiler repeatedly if you're not getting anywhere though, those little pumps wont thank you for it, sort the feed out first.