Weil-McLain SGO-5 boiler not working

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Ron Murray

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We have a three-year-old Weil-McLain SGO-5 oil-fired boiler in our
house. We've just moved in, so I'm not used to these things. As you
know, there's a sight glass on the side of it that shows the water
level. If the water level gets too low, the boiler shuts off (as it
should). In the current cold weather here in Massachusetts, it's needed
topping up every day.

We were told not to let the water level get too high while topping
up, but yesterday my wife (my fault: I hadn't shown her how to do it
properly) couldn't see the water level and let it run too high. Not sure
how badly, since I wasn't home at the time. Apparently this resulted in
lots of water coming out of one of the radiators upstairs, and lots of
water in the basement, and now the boiler won't run. I haven't tried it
myself, but I'm told that it runs for a few seconds and stops.

We've had two plumbers look at it so far. One tells us we need a new
boiler, and wants to charge us $8500 for it. He says there's water
getting into the combustion chamber and that's what's putting the flame
out. If this is true, I don't see why we just can't replace the
combustion chamber rather than buy a new boiler (which we can't afford
at the moment; we've just bought the house).

The other plumber took the top off the boiler, found a lot of soot
and similar stuff, and says that's the problem and that it's coming down
from the flue. He wants to charge us $600 to clear it, but I'm a little
doubtful that the problem is so simple. I don't want to spend that much
only to find that the real problem is somewhere else.

I'd appreciate any help and/or suggestions.
 

Tom Sawyer

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Overfilling the boiler isn't going to destroy the boiler. I'm thinking that water got into one of the controls and maybe fried it but that's a hundred bucks or so at best. You need to find a reputable service man because the two you have had are ripping you off big time.
 

Ron Murray

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Hi. Thanks for the reply.

Here's the story so far: first guy had replaced the primary controller and the igniter transformer (and charged us $600). My wife got the second guy to clean the thing (full of soot) at another $600. Now it runs most of the time.

However, it stops after a time (up to a couple of hours) with the red light on the start button lit. We can start it up again by pushing the button a few times, but that's just plain annoying.
 

Tom Sawyer

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Man, did you get ripped off. 600 bucks to change out a primary and ignition transformer? It's a half hour job and the parts cost him a bit over a hundred bucks. Another 600 to brush and vac a boiler out? WTF? I'd take both crooks to court. Did either one of the idiots bother to check the cad cell eye or do a combustion efficiency test? You need to find a reputable service tech, take notes and take those other two crooks to court.

Try contacting this guy for help. He's in your area, an OESP member and I'm sure he or someone in the organization can set you on the right track

mailto:daveb@macfarlaneenergy.com
 

Ron Murray

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Hi again. Thanks for your help.
My wife never listens to me anyway (I guess this is a common problem), and she called back the last guys who muttered something about the flame being funny (not sure exactly what; i wasn't there), and it's been running fine since. After four days, I guess I can consider it fixed. At least they didn't charge us anything more.
I'll keep a note of the guy you mentioned for next time we need it serviced. I did think that $600 was a bit steep for cleaning the thing, but, again, once she's made up her mind .....

Thanks again,

.....Ron
 
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