Oil & LPG Boiler Service & Repair

Oil and LPG boiler service and repair

A good number of properties around the Elham Valley, out across Romney Marsh and in the outlying villages have no mains gas at all. They run on oil or LPG, and both are a different discipline from gas work with different regulations, different faults and different qualifications.

Finding an engineer who covers all three is the awkward part of living off grid, and it is the reason people end up with one firm for the boiler and another for everything else.

Qualifications, and why you should ask

Oil work requires OFTEC registration. Gas Safe does not cover it, whatever a general plumber might imply.

LPG requires Gas Safe registration with the specific LPG endorsement, which a great many gas engineers do not hold.

We hold both, which means one engineer covers your boiler, your plumbing and your heating rather than you coordinating two firms and being told each problem belongs to the other one.

Oil servicing is a genuinely different job

People who have moved from a gas property often assume oil servicing is the same annual formality. It is not, and treating it that way is how you end up with a boiler that fails in February.

A gas service is largely inspection. An oil service is mechanical work. Combustion deposits build up steadily and performance falls off measurably between visits, so skipping one costs you in fuel as well as reliability.

Ours includes replacing the nozzle, cleaning or replacing the electrodes and setting the gap, replacing the fuel filter, cleaning the combustion chamber and baffles, checking and cleaning the photocell, testing pump pressure, taking a combustion analysis with smoke test, and checking the flue.

The thing that actually causes most oil breakdowns

It is not the boiler. It is the tank.

Condensation forms inside the tank as it warms and cools, water settles at the bottom because it is denser than kerosene, and that water feeds bacterial growth. The resulting sludge gets drawn into the fuel line, blocks the filter and clogs the nozzle.

The boiler locks out, someone changes the nozzle, it runs for a few weeks, and then it happens again. The nozzle was never the problem, and changing it repeatedly is money spent avoiding the real answer.

What the tank needs is draining and cleaning properly, at which point the recurring lockouts stop. If your oil boiler has locked out three times this winter, that is almost certainly what is going on.

Other faults we see on oil

Lockout. The reset button pops and the boiler stops. Blocked nozzle, dirty photocell, fuel starvation or a fault on the control box. Resetting more than twice in a row floods the combustion chamber and makes things worse, so please call rather than keep pressing it.

Cold weather waxing. Kerosene thickens in a hard frost, particularly with an exposed tank and a long external feed run. Properties up on the exposed ground around Hawkinge and along the escarpment at Lympne feel this first.

Smoke, soot or a smell of oil. Incomplete combustion. Worth stopping the boiler and calling rather than running it.

Noisy running or pulsing. Usually the pump, the nozzle or an air leak on the fuel line.

Air in the fuel line. Common after running the tank low, and a good reason not to let it get down that far.

"Daimon has completed several jobs for me over the years. He is reliable, a tidy workman and his work is top quality and always has a professional finish."

Anthony Bradley, Google review

Oil tanks

Tanks have a working life of around twenty years for plastic and less for steel, and coastal Kent is harder on them than most places. Salt air accelerates corrosion on steel tanks noticeably, which matters out at Dymchurch and New Romney where exposure is constant.

Most domestic situations now require a bunded tank, meaning a tank within a tank so any leak is contained. Siting rules cover distance from buildings, boundaries and openings.

This is worth taking seriously. A spill from an unbunded tank is an environmental incident, not a plumbing job, and the clean-up costs are in a different league to the tank itself. Contaminated ground is also something a buyer's solicitor will find.

We supply, site and connect replacement tanks, and we will tell you honestly if yours has reached the end of its life rather than waiting for it to prove the point.

LPG

Similar in principle to natural gas but running at different pressures with different injectors, so it is not something to be worked on by someone without the endorsement.

The regulations around bulk tank and cylinder siting are strict, and supply arrangements vary by provider. We service, repair and install LPG boilers, and can advise where a property is switching supplier or converting between fuels.

Running out, and why it costs more than the oil

Letting a tank run dry does not just leave you cold. It draws sludge and air into the fuel line, and getting the system bled, cleaned and restarted afterwards is a callout that would not otherwise have happened.

Order before you get low, particularly in December when demand and delivery times both spike.

Thinking about the alternatives

If you are on oil and wondering whether to stay, the honest answer depends entirely on your property rather than on the technology.

Air source heat pumps work well in well insulated off grid properties and attract the Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant, which gas boilers do not. They work poorly in draughty solid walled cottages, of which the Elham and Lyminge valleys have plenty, because a heat pump runs at lower flow temperatures and cannot outpace the heat loss.

In those properties the insulation comes first and the heating decision second. We will give you a straight assessment either way rather than a sales pitch in either direction.

"First class service. Excellent communications, great job done on time at fair value. Honest folk. Highly recommended."

John Kelly, Google review

The rest of your system

Being off grid does not change anything downstream of the boiler. Sludge, cold radiators, poor circulation and failing pumps behave identically whatever the fuel.

Rural properties also frequently have long private supply runs from the boundary, which affects what hot water system will actually perform. See central heating, power flushing, hot water cylinders and how to improve hot water reliability.

Landlords with off grid property

LPG appliances need an annual gas safety check exactly as mains gas does. Oil does not carry the same legal requirement, but servicing is still expected under your repairing obligations and any insurer will ask. See gas safety certificates and landlord and commercial services.

Where we work

Off grid heating across Lyminge, Elham, Sellindge, Lympne, Hawkinge, Capel-le-Ferne, Dymchurch, New Romney, and the rural fringes of Ashford, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe.

Common questions

How often should an oil boiler be serviced? Annually, without exception. Oil boilers deteriorate between services in a way gas boilers do not.

My oil boiler keeps locking out. What is it? Most often tank sludge blocking the filter or nozzle. Changing the nozzle again will not fix it.

Do I legally need my oil boiler serviced? Not by law for an owner occupier, but your insurer and your warranty both assume it, and a neglected oil boiler fails far sooner.

Can a Gas Safe engineer work on my oil boiler? Not unless they also hold OFTEC registration. They are separate schemes.

Does my tank need replacing? If it is steel and over fifteen years old, or plastic and over twenty, or unbunded, it is worth an assessment.

Is a heat pump worth considering? In a well insulated property, genuinely yes. In a solid walled cottage without insulation work first, no. We will tell you which you have.

Call +44 7915 255984 to book an oil or LPG service.