Cleaning the buner on an Oil Fired Aga

[Richard Dunseith]

Basically, the Aga has turned itself off due to a carbon build up in
and around the burner. Do you know how to take the burner unit out and
clean it and put it back? Aga themselves give no details on how to do
this, but will gladly charge £100 to do it.

[cbw]

In article <38ac44da.0111...@posting.google.com>, Richard
Dunseith <richard....@gs.com> writes

Our Aga is a fairly old model so what follow may not apply to yours. I
learnt how to do it by watching an Aga engineer service ours shortly
after we moved in. (BTW £100 should give you a full service)
If anyone else has more experience I'd be glad to hear.
Also:
If anyone can say how to adjust the oilflow, that would be
useful.
Does anyone know of a source for the wick on a reel - it's
expensive buying it by the piece, and I only have about a yard
remaining.

Turn off the oil supply with the catch at the front of the regulator.
(on the side of the Aga probably)

Open the door to the burner and lift off the panel in front of the
burner assembly.

The oil comes to the burner through a 1/4" copper pipe running up from
below and in front of the front panel. There's a nut on the oil feed
just below an elbow.
Twist a short length of thick copper wire (18SWG or thereabouts) around
the pipe just below the nut.
Place some paper towel under this nut and undo it. Some oil will come
out. If you didn't use the copper wire, the nut will probably slide down
the copper pipe and you have to fish it back up when you come to
reassemble.

You should now be able to slide the entire burner assembly out of its
housing. (some more oil will leak out of the assembly while you do this)

Don't do the cleaning in the kitchen - oil + carbon is not the easiest
of mixtures to clean off.

Remove the top plate and cylindrical shells
Remove the wicks
Take off the central plug (its a loose drop in)
Invert the baseplate with the oil distributor and unscrew the feedpipe
(you'll need a mole grip, pipe wrench or similar.

Using whatever is convenient remove the carbon from inside the feedpipe
(I use an old long drill bit which is just less than the pipe bore).

Either rinse out the pipe with some of the oil, or dry it and brush it
out.

Repeat process with oil distributor (I use an old screwdriver); pay
particular attention to the elbow which the feedpipe screws onto.

Replace feedpipe; ensure that it is tight and that the protruding elbow
is vertical (otherwise it won't mate with the nut).

Replace the wicks if they have been in use for more than a year.

Replace central plug, shells and top plate.

(While the Aga is cold and the burner assembly out, it may be worthwhile
to check the area above the burner. Take off the ring around the hot hob
and lift off the hotplate (HEAVY). Check the underside for soot, also
the upper walls of the burner housing. Replace hotplate & ring before
replacing burner assembly.)

Return assembly to its housing; screw up nut on copper feed.
(You did make sure the flap for lighting the wicks is at the front ?)

Turn oil supply back on.
wait for oil to flow to burners - 20 minutes is suggested. While waiting
check for leaks around the nut and on the elbow below the baseplate. (a
torch is useful for this).

Light the burners.

--
cbw