intermittent red light / lockout on carlin oil burner

Pete_18

Since I started my heat up this season, I have had the red light / lock out mode come on my carlin burner about 5 times, requiring the red button to be pushed to get out of it and get heat. This is not every single time that it fires up that this happened and once it does fire up, it doesn't ever appear to shut down abnormally. (System was just cleaned)



The oil guy that came out was guessing and said it was either the blue 'thing' (i forget what he called the control system) that had the red button on it that the T-stat is wired in to or the catseye, which he said visually looked fine.



Does anyone know of any way to troubleshoot this before I start replacing random parts? He said the catseye would be pretty cheap to replace, but that the other part was >$100 + an hour of labor to replace.

meplumber

the million dollar question

Pete,

What you have is intermittent lockouts.

This could be caused by a large number of things, a weak transformer/igniter, a failing oil pump, a bad nozzle, or a failing primary control (the blue thingy).  Too many technicians just check the cad cell.  Did he take an ohms reading of the cad cell or did he just pull it out and look at it?

Did he happen to check the transformer/igniter?

Did he check the oil pump with a gauge?

Most of these things need to be checked on a lockout like yours, but sadly can only be checked with the proper equipment and training.

My advice is to call the guy back and have him send a different technician out.  If it is still locking out, then it should be a call-back.

Good Luck.

Pete_18

None of the below

He simply looked at the catseye.  He did not use any gauges, but did replace the nozzle as part of the standard cleaning, but that did not change anything. Appears he does not have this equipment since it he stated that the only solution he had was trial and error. He seemed pretty confident it was the primary control but felt that if I wanted to try the catseye replacement first to attempt to save $$, he would be glad to do so. Sounds like I need to find someone else to call who can actually troubleshoot the problem.  The guy I had out works by himself, so seems like I need to call someone else who has the proper equipment.

billtwocase

always have them

start with the basics. Filters, strainers, nozzle, electrodes, test pressure/vacuum on the fuel pump, test ignitor, ohms as stated, then move on to motor or control. It's not that much of a shot in the dark if you eliminate as much as possible during call #1.