oil central heating

[slipstream 1985]

need a little advice. my oil tank was allowed to run bone dry. this was 2 days ago. iv just had the tank filled but still no heating. is it the same principle as a car ie fuel in the tank but nothing in the pipes to get it flowing?

[robinhood21]

'Tis not my thing but, if the tank has run dry, I would check the fuel filter for water. Condensation builds up on the inside of the tank and does get trapped in the filters. I would also imagine that it might take some time for the fuel line to purge itself of air before finally firing up.

[dazco]

I used to have oil heating and ran it dry loads of times.

All I had to do to get it going was light the pilot light.

[Ferg]

Yeah, you need to bleed the oil through.
Just a spanner to loosen the union where it goes into the oilpump on the burner. Have some rag handy to catch any spillage. Once the oil is there press the reset button on the burner. You might need to do it a few times.

[blueg33]

It will need bleeding, sometimes mine will only restart if i get an engineer to look at it.

[Busamav]

another vote for "just needs bleeding"

As an aside ,price of oil seems ok at the moment , just paid 37.3 + the tax

[richyb]

When I had oil delivered the guy would often ask if it had been allowed to run dry. Never happened to me but he did say it was only a 5 minute job to bleed it.

[Wings]

Busamav said:

another vote for "just needs bleeding"

As an aside ,price of oil seems ok at the moment , just paid 37.3 + the tax

+2 Agree, first check ALL valves in the supply line are in "open" position, if they are then follow pipe to union nut near boiler, loosen nut until oil leaks, then tighten nut back up, and fire boiler. Failure for boiler to start again, could be dirty filter or photocell may be dirty, turn off electrical to clean the latter.

If still fails to start, check to see if you have electricity supply, ie have you paid the bill?

[onomatopoeia]

I've found that after mine runs dry I just have to try to start it manually a couple of times and it will eventually suck through the oil. It'll run rough for a minute or two but clears.

[miniman]

Yep, ours ran dry (builders never topped it up when the house was empty) and it needed bleeding to get it started. Only took a couple of minutes.

[slipstream 1985]

thanks for the replys guys. i just had to press the reset button. doh!