Do I need an new system or Burner

redliner998

Hi folks,

New here. I have an oil fired forced hot air boiler system. The system is about 11 years old. It's a Peerless WV-03-110-WPC with a riello BF5 burner. Unfortunately my sump pump let go and I got flooded. I got about 3/4 of and inch to 1 inch of water at the base of the boiler. Due to the location of the board on the riello burner the board got wet and it fried it. Replaced the board. The burner motor runs but it wil not fire. It seems that oil flows out of the bleed end of the nozzle but it's not priming. Any suggestions on whatelse to check before replacing the burner completely?
Tahnk you in advance for your assistance!

Jamie Hall

In my not so humble opinion, if the burner got flooded -- even partly -- it should be replaced.

redliner998

You can get an idea from the two pictures of how much was exposed to water

STEVEusaPA

The water is not hitting the burner, or even the boiler for that matter. Are you sure there wasn't more water in the basement?

redliner998

The water hit just below the burner. The boiler was on so I think the blower may have sprayed some water on the board that's how it got fried. No more water than that. That was at the peak. But I can't get it to fire even after a new board. It runs but won't ignite

Alan Welch

Time to call an oil burner technician before you cause any more damage trying to get it running. It might be the combustion chamber is damaged by the flood or your attempt to get it running has flooded it with oil. Sometimes you have to pay a professional, pretty sure this is one of those times. Don't keep pushing the reset !!

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Alan Welch gave you good advise

redliner998

I had my service guy come in today and he de used to replace the riello burner with a Beckett that he had from a system upgrade. He called me at work and said it was running and heating both zones. I get home 4 to 5 hrs later and my smoke/ fire alarms are going off. I open the door to the basement and I'm hit with a cloud of steam. Had to run outside to open the bulkhead door to the basement to let it air out. (Hit the emergency off switch right when I walked in)
I noticed some water on the floor. And more importantly that the new burner did not have a vent hook up like the old one. So it's just sitting on top. Is this correct? Waiting for him to get here to tell me what the F is going on.

Alan Welch

Where is the water coming from? That may be the cause of your problems. What you are calling the vent is just a source of combustion air to the burner, the vent is the flue pipe off the top of the boiler. Is the sump pump working?

STEVEusaPA

Is that a chimney liner ran right to the boiler breech?

CTOilHeat

@STEVEusaPA looks to me like a direct vent Peerless Riello combo, so it's likely just side wall vented.

This is probably what it originally looked like, more or less.

https://www.supplyht.com/ext/resources/SHT/2003/01/Files/Images/76127.jpg

STEVEusaPA

Can it be direct vent with a Beckett AFG.? Maybe an NX, but not an AFG. Might be the new problem.
OP's oil tech should've just fixed/troubleshoot the Riello, or replace it with a Riello.

CTOilHeat

Yeah. That boiler is available with an NX, EZ-1, or Riello.

I've only dealt with them with the Riello. I'm not sure what having an AFG would do, combustion and pressure wise.

I'd definitely look to get one of the burners approved by the manufacture back on that boiler.

redliner998

Ok so here are some answers to some of your questions. The water is coming from the ground as I'm on the water table and unfortunately the sump pump switch failed. That was the reason for the first issue of the water getting just high enough to get sucked up and somehow make contact with the burner board to fry it.

CToilHEAT is accurate. It's a direct vent system. I just was not sure if that portion of the vent needed to be hooked up like before. The guy said it just provides fresh air if the boiler needs it.

My main concern now is if the Beckett burner is appropriate. The fact that it overheated to about 275 and started making steam causing the pressure relief valve to let all the steam out in the basement causing the alarms to go off. I'm not sure what kind of damage it would have done if I had gotten home at that time? The guy said that the control did not regulate the temp and so it allowed the boiler to go past the 200 mark causing it to make steam instead of just boiling the water. He ended up setting the control to 160 and the system has been running ok since Friday night. But it this safe and healthy for the Boiler or am I going to possibly have the whole system go sooner because of this? Thank you in advance to all that have replied and shared info or suggestions!!!

rick in Alaska

Last time I saw a boiler go this high was when I put a conversion burner on. I wasn't paying attention to the boiler temp until it started steaming something awful. Temp was at like 250. I shut the switch down immediately and tried to decide if I wanted to run out of the basement or what. I didn't want to run any controls that would move any cold water through this thing and cold shock it, so i went upstairs and ran domestic water, which was powered through the coil. Took a long time.
Long story short: I found the plug connector from the new Beckett burner was wired wrong from the factory and was sending constant power to the burner. I re-wired it and let the factory know.
Scary feeling seeing that gauge.
Anyway, if it wasn't wired wrong, and the tech did not actually set the aquastat to its max position ( if it can even go that high), I would replace it.
Rick

Grallert

The Riello BF made your boiler/burner a balanced flue. It is no longer balanced. The likely hood was the Riello was fine but the tech didn't understand it? The burner he installed is a very good burner but not what the system was set up for. Big step backwards. I'd be asking for the Reillo back, serviced, reinstalled and set up as specified. I bet it mush louder now?

redliner998

STEVEusaPA, CToilHeat and Grallert seems like i should be concerned about this Beckett burner on this direct vent boiler. It has been running ok since Friday night. But I know he set the temp to 160 or 180 and I do notice that runs and stops a lot more now. Almost like it gets to temp faster. It's not louder than the riello. So im not sure if i leave it alone or if i ask to have it switched out to a riello or non AFG? What is AFG??? Lol

lchmb

Grallert is correct in that you need a burner designed for a direct vent application. this means the air box that your Riello had with the air intake pipe properly sealed to it. The AFG may run short term but you will have issues soon enough... Get the Riello back, have them repair it and if they dont know how..hire someone else..