minus 9 here last night and this morning the oil fired boiler wont start. Could it be because the oil has frozen or thickened due to the cold temperature and is struggling to get through the pipes?

Jo, January 2009

Oil fired boiler locked out this morning. Opened the oil bleed valve on the boiler and no oil came out, so just got a jug of boiled water and slowly poured it over exposed oil pipe outside the kitchen and tried to bleed again. This time I got the oil flowing but the oil contained about 50% water. So I will have to check and empty the filter outside my kitchen.

greigster, December 2010

This happened to us this morning - hairdryer and extension lead did the trick and thawed the pipe out. Now heavily lagged it so hopefully it won't happen again.

Edenvalleygirl, November 2010

I have had the same problem for the past few days as well. Today I have had no heating whatsoever as the temperature hasn't risen above 0ºC.

The solution above sounds great, but where is the oil trap and how do I clean the water out of it?

Sorry to be such a dumbo, but I am totally new to this oil burning lark.

Thanks in advance.

Scott, January 2010

Could be that you have condensed water in your fuel line.
The oil itself should only freeze at extreme temperatures.
We have had a similar problem this morning. This has happened to us before during prolonged cold weather and our engineer explained the cause as above and created a lock out on our boiler.
Our boiler and feed line get no sun all day and are quite exposed
If you can, clean the filter near your tank. Possibly frozen water or contaminants are to blame. Also consider lagging your feed pipe from the tank to your boiler - I will be doing this when I get home from work!
Hope the line has thawed out by then...quickly wrapped some foam underlay around the pies this morning at 06:00!
If none of this works you will need to get a professional in I'm afraid! Good luck.

Darren - Great Bardfield, Essex, January 2010

Hi...yep did you clean the water out of the oil trap on the bottom of the tank valve?..I didn't and have just spent three hours cleaning out the ice and the pipe and the filter leading to the boiler ..(exactly the same boiler as yours) once I bled it through it worked a treat! Time for a glass of red wine! Regards Dave...

Dave., January 2009