Now the clocks have changed, marking the end of British Standard Time (BST) and giving us an extra hour in bed, we’re all bracing ourselves for shorter days and longer, colder nights. As the nights draw in and temperatures drop as winter approaches, we’re all turning up the heating and relying on our boilers to work hard to keep us warm and cozy.
If you’ve had your boiler switched off for the summer months in order to save on energy bills, you might find that when you come to switch it back on, your system could have developed faults, or worse still, not work at all. Faults can occur after long periods of inactivity, which is why we recommend you switch your heating on for half an hour or so once a month, even in the summer months. Testing it regularly can potentially flag up any issues before you need to switch your boiler back on permanently when the weather gets colder.
A boiler will automatically lockout or shut down when it detects a fault that could cause damage to internal components and/or present safety risks if it was to continue operating – basically a safety feature which will kick in if there’s something wrong with your boiler. So what happens if your heating oil boiler or LPG boiler doesn’t fire up? Or it fires up but cuts out soon after, leaving you with no heating and no hot water? And what should you do? Here we’re going to take a look at what you can do and when you should let a professional handle it.
How do I know my boiler is in lock-out mode?
Apart from the obvious, in that your heating oil or LPG boiler isn’t firing up, you may see either a green or red flashing light, or an error or fault code on the display panel. Each boiler has its own fault codes – these will be detailed in your owner’s manual which will include a list and explain what they mean. They should help you identify the cause and the right course of action. If you can’t find your manual, you can usually find the codes for your boiler on the boiler manufacturer’s website. Chances are you won’t be the first person to have a problem, and there will be a wealth of information online. Failing that, ring your boiler manufacturers customer support line.
So let’s take a look at some of the common problems:
My pilot light isn’t igniting
Sometimes it can simply be because you’ve run out of fuel. So the first thing we’d recommend you do is check your fuel levels of heating oil or LPG in your storage tank to make sure you haven’t run out. If you have fuel in your tank, try resetting the boiler – it’s usually quite simple. Modern boilers usually have a reset button on the control panel, but if yours doesn’t, refer to the manual to find out what the reset procedure is.
Boiler pressure:
Boilers can lose pressure over time and if your boiler’s pressure is too low, it won’t fire up. Anything less than 1 bar and you may find issues with your system – your boiler pressure should, ideally, be between 1 and 2 bar – your boiler manual will provide information as to the correct pressure for your boiler.
The main two causes for losing boiler pressure are water leaks and bleeding radiators – so check your system for leaks from pipes or radiators before you do anything else. But don’t attempt to look inside your boiler for leaks – this should always be done by an OFTEC or GAS SAFE registered engineer.
If you feel confident enough, you can increase your boiler pressure yourself. Firstly turn off your heating oil or LPG boiler and leave it to cool down, then locate the filling loop. This is often found on the underside of your boiler, and is usually a metal hose with 2 valves attached, one at each end. You will need to open both valves whilst keeping an eye on the pressure gauge as you put more water into the system, and when it reaches 1.5 bar, close both valves, one after the other. Now you can switch your boiler back on.
And if your boiler pressure it too high, you can reduce it by bleeding your radiator valves with a bleed key – read on for more information on how to bleed your radiators. Or, take a look at our top tips for boiler maintenance for more advice on how to look after and check your boiler.
Radiators not heating up?
There are a couple of things to think about here. To start with, if one or more of your radiators isn’t heating up in certain areas, or not warming up at all, they may have trapped air in them. It’s quite easy to tell when a radiator needs bleeding as the top section will remain a lot cooler than the bottom or the radiator, or in severe cases, the entire radiator will stay cold when your heating is switched on. Bleeding the radiator will release any trapped air so the hot water can flow freely again. A OFTEC or GAS SAFE registered engineer will be able to help, or if you want to bleed your radiators yourself, start by bleeding the downstairs ones first, and begin with the radiator furthest away from the boiler. And don’t forget to make sure your central heating system is switched off first – the last thing you want is boiling water bursting out of the pipes!.
To bleed a radiator you will need a radiator key, a dry cloth or towel and a container to catch any water that comes out of the radiator. You will see a square ‘bleed screw’ at the top of the radiator, which needs turning to release the air and water from the radiator. Don’t worry if you hear a hissing sound as the air escapes – this is quite normal, and when it stops and there’s a steady trickle of water, the radiator is fully bled and you can use the key to tighten the bleed screw back up. Just be careful you don’t tighten too much as that could damage the valve.
System/heat exchanger blockages:
Boilers, pipework and radiators can become blocked with sludge. An annual boiler service is important in helping prevent such issues, but if you do experience a system blockage, we recommend you contact an OFTEC or GAS SAFE registered engineer so they can flush out your heating system or repair it. And limescale can block the heat exchanger – and again you will need to contact a professional engineer to diagnose and fix the problem and who will get you back up and running and as snug as a bug in no time.
Frozen pipes:
It’s is worth considering that winter months bring cold weather and on occasion below zero temperatures. Frozen water in pipes, the boiler itself and the condensate pipe can create a blockage which will cause your oil central heating boiler or LPG boiler to stop working. If you suspect your pipes are frozen, you can often thaw them by pouring warm water on them, or with a hot water bottle. To prevent frozen pipes in the winter months, we’d suggest wrapping them in pipe insulation - a low-cost solution and available from most DIY stores.
Whilst you should be able to carry out some basic maintenance such as restarting your boiler or adjusting the pressure, we must stress for anything else you should contact an OFTEC or GAS SAFE registered engineer.
As with anything, prevention is better than cure. Domestic heating oil and LPG boilers have an excellent record for reliability and with regular maintenance can run for years. Having your boiler serviced annually is a great way to keep it in tip-top condition and working to it’s maximum efficiency. And insulating pipes can prevent them from freezing in cold weather. But boilers do occasionally go wrong and break down due to wear-and-tear, especially in the cold of winter when they’re working hard and putting more strain on components. And let’s face it, there’s never a good time to be without your central heating or hot water, especially when the weather’s at its coldest.
With both our heating oil Premium Package* and our LPG Package*, an emergency boiler breakdown cover is included as one of the valuable benefits. Providing two callouts by our OFTEC or GAS SAFE registered engineers, it really does give peace of mind that if you are unlucky enough to experience a boiler breakdown, we’ll have you back up and running before you know it. Call us on 01423 770 666 to find out more, or take a look at some of our energy savings tips for further reading.
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