Toyotomi 180 bleeding air from oil line

Big Will

Are there any special tips to clear air from the oil line? Unlike an older burner where you extract a lot of air and a cup +/- of oil, just loosening the screw on the internal filter does not let much out.

This is a new unit that shuts itself down about once a day. When I bleed the unit, it starts right up and cycles normally for a while.

Mark Custis

Make sure

You could have a leak between the unit and the tank, allowing air in, but not allowing oil out.

ddenny

the watcher

if you have an underground tank, you may have an air leak in the supply line. or line may be partially plugged. there's a tool that used to be called "the watcher". it's a gauge that measures the suction pressure in the oil line. you connect it between the pump and the oil supply line. when you turn the burner on you can see the oil flow through a clear plastic tube. bubbles indicates an air leak and a suction pressure over a few psi indicates a partial restriction. a restriction can be blown out with a CO2 gun. if you have an air leak you may need to dig down to the top of the tank (usually less than 2 feet) and replace the part of the copper line that goes into the tank. I would replace both lines right up to the burner.
I had an air leak last year in an oil line where it went through a concrete slab. I don't thnk copper and concrete get along too well.
if it is an air leak and you can't replace the lines, try reversing the supply and return lines. maybe only one line has an air leak. another option is a tiger loop. a heating supply will explain how that works.

Paul Fredricks_9

The toyotomi needs gravity fed oil to work properly. It is claimed that the pump can pull 28" of vacuum, which may be true, but it still won't pull oil.

If it is a gravity situation, I first bleed it the line where it comes out of the strainer. Just leave the oil line off and slide a pan under it. After re-installing the oil line, I then find it best to loosen the oil line going into the oil pump and let it bleed there.

You can't use an OSV with these units. We've had trouble with them going off when we tried too. No, I don't know what the inspectors think of that. I do know that they want the OSV mostly for protection if the pump seal blows. These pumps aren't built that way so I think the chances are nil.

If you can't get a gravity feed, there is a lift pump that we use. We get them from the same company we get the Toyotomi's from and they work great.

Erich_3

Second Filter

Do you have a second oil filter? What size and type oil line do you have? Do you have 3/8" copper fuel line? Is the second fuel filter at the tank? It would be good to look at the installation manual for proper piping. Do you have a model OM-180A or OM-180B?

Greig1

OM-180

With the OM-180/148 piping practices are the utmost importance.  New copper has a lot of iron oxide in and tears very easily and if you do not rheem out the pipe first you will have a nuisance lock out problem With the Toyotomi water heaters. You must always rheem out the inside of the copper pipe, use a high quality flare tool and put some Teflon enriched pipe dope on the flaring  cone of the tool.  When connecting the flared pipe to the adaptor be sure to put a small amount of pipe dope on the back side of the flare in-between the copper flare and the brass flare nut.  This keeps the flare from tearing.  Why do we need to do this?  Because the fuel pump is of a solenoid piston type.  It is a very different pump that we are used to.  It creates a harmonic distortion that will bring micro saturated air bubbles into the fuel.