Rayburn problems
Andrew
I'm having big problems with an oil-buring Rayburn Royale. The lump of
cast-iron in question is an old but totally re-conditioned Rayburn with
a new shell burner which was installed last year, finally being
commissioend in September.
It runs two small underfloor heating circuits which together need about
20,000 btu and domestic hot water both of which work fine. The problem
is that we can't get the oven temparature above about 350š F, which just
isn't hot enough to cook on. And this takes full blast on the oil
control for four or five hours. At one point we had it up to 400š but
now we're struggling to get anywhere near that.
In the past we've had solid-fuel Rayburns which have worked perfectly
well, and on those you can get them up to heat within half an hour by
adjusting the damper and air control and giving it some more fuel. We've
lived with an oil fired Aga for a while and that seemed to work fine.
Are we asking too much of the Rayburn? Any ideas about what we can do to
improve things? (We've already got the damper all the way in, adjusted
the baffle over the burner and blanked off some of the boiler pipes, by
the way.)
Thanks in advance.
Andy Hall
"Andrew" <a.hi...@uea.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:a.hickley-191D9...@cpca14.uea.ac.uk...
> Ashamed though I am to admit it, having long been a fan and advocate,
> I'm having big problems with an oil-buring Rayburn Royale. The lump of
> cast-iron in question is an old but totally re-conditioned Rayburn with
> a new shell burner which was installed last year, finally being
> commissioend in September.
>
> It runs two small underfloor heating circuits which together need about
> 20,000 btu and domestic hot water both of which work fine. The problem
> isn't hot enough to cook on. And this takes full blast on the oil
> now we're struggling to get anywhere near that.
>
> In the past we've had solid-fuel Rayburns which have worked perfectly
> well, and on those you can get them up to heat within half an hour by
> adjusting the damper and air control and giving it some more fuel. We've
> lived with an oil fired Aga for a while and that seemed to work fine.
>
> Are we asking too much of the Rayburn? Any ideas about what we can do to
> improve things? (We've already got the damper all the way in, adjusted
> the baffle over the burner and blanked off some of the boiler pipes, by
> the way.)
>
Have you spoken with the firm that did the conversion in terms of what the
burner should deliver?
Is it a manufacturer approved conversion and burner?
The heating and HW requirements should hardly be taxing.
I'd get the installer back, as it should be doing much better than that.
.andy
S Viemeister
>
> It runs two small underfloor heating circuits which together need about
> 20,000 btu and domestic hot water both of which work fine. The problem
> is that we can't get the oven temparature above about 350š F, which just
> isn't hot enough to cook on. And this takes full blast on the oil
> control for four or five hours. At one point we had it up to 400š but
> now we're struggling to get anywhere near that.
>
the side in the burner chamber, which I use to adjust how much heat goes
to the oven vs. the radiators.
When I have it set to send more heat to the oven, I can get the temp up
to +400 deg with the oil control set in the middle of its range.
The Natural Philosopher
Hmm. When my Aga was installed, the cahppie spend a *lot* of time with a
burette, measuring oil flow levels. It expects the float chabmre to be a
certain height above the burner, to get peak oil flow high enough to
keep the thing hot...
Now I don't know the rayburn, but its the same manufacturere these days
I believe, and so my guess is that this might be applicable....have you
got the oil control valve bit high enough above the burner? And is there
adequate flow from the tank? If the answer is yes to both, thne your new
burner is inefficient.
The other thig I noticed about the (new) oil fired aga, vis a vis the
solid fuel converted aga that my other halfs mum has, is that a lot more
effort is made (e.g. fins on teh underside of teh plate) to extract the
heat from the gases of combustion. Oil burners are simply not as hot as
coal.
I would talk to rayburn, and the people who converted it..I have assumed
from what you said that it was an old coal burner converted...or is it a
revamped oil burner? In which case the revampers may have cattled it..
Noel Hegan
could check out a few things:
Assuming that your control is the same as mine unscrew the cover of
the regulator and make sure the float is not stuck. This will limit
the amount of oil flowing into the burner.
Some swarf or other debris may have lodged in the oil line somewhere
or in the valve area of the tank.
Check the burner (need to switch off and cool down, the cooker that
is). The oil channels around the wick may have becomed blocked
therefore inhibiting flow.Can you run the cooker without the heating.
If so does cooker come up to temp? It it doesn't it's obviously the
cooker rather that a capacity issue.
With our model (6 years old oil model)if you increase the flow it only
takes about 40 - 60 mins to arrive at desired temp, although it
doesn't heat the rads only the hot water. Lastly, what colour is the
burner flame, should be blue(ish) if the bits were new last September.
A yellow flame would indicate carbon / rubbish build-up (or something
else)in the oil and / or burner.
Best of luck
Noel
Noel Hegan
> Andrew wrote:
> >
> > Ashamed though I am to admit it, having long been a fan and advocate,
> > I'm having big problems with an oil-buring Rayburn Royale. The lump of
> > cast-iron in question is an old but totally re-conditioned Rayburn with
> > a new shell burner which was installed last year, finally being
> > commissioend in September.
> >
> > It runs two small underfloor heating circuits which together need about
> > 20,000 btu and domestic hot water both of which work fine. The problem
> > isn't hot enough to cook on. And this takes full blast on the oil
Good point. Oil fired raeburns also have fins on the plate and of
course is also gravity fed.As mentioned I think you've got to ensure
that the cooker has efficient oil feed.