Best Of
Re: Basement radiators are hot when thermostat is not calling
Stuck flow valve. Turn up the zone to run the circ. Tap on the flow valve to loosen up and move out whatever debris is holding it open. Then turn the zone back down and wait a day to see if the rads. cool off.
Re: Humming to Hold Music
Their strategy to keep customer support costs down is working.
Re: Humming to Hold Music
A lot of places are starting to use a call back option. You leave a message, and they call you back. If done right (sometimes questionable) its better, you can hang up and do something productive while waiting for the call.
Re: 24v HVAC control (US) - FAN (Green) always engaged when call for heat, is that normal?
As mentioned it is how the thermostat is programed .. I prefer to add a aquastat to the return pipe to turn on the fan when the coil is hot enough heat and will shut it off when cooled down ..
Big Ed_4
Re: Suntec A2VA-7116 Fuel Pump
I find a lot of oil pumps from the different manufacturers leaking from the pump seal. I rarely find any that fail to pump. I don't consider any of them better than the others.
Re: Periodic fail
If you do not have the Carlin 70200S PRO primary control (with a 5 year warranty) then you are just guessing at the problem. …and by firing the parts cannon at the problem, so far, you have missed the target. The Carlin 70200S PRO has many diagnostic features that can pinpoint the cause of the burner lockout in the Error History Log. You may find that the Ignitor had low amperage on the flame failure cycle. You may find that the flame failure happened during a run cycle. You may also find that the flame failure is a result of the high resistance from the cad cell indicating that the cad cell is pointed at the wrong place and does not see the flame very well. along with many other error codes available. Each message will point me in a different direction to the source of the problem.
When I get stumped by an intermittent failure, that never happens when I am there to see it, I recommend that Carlin primary control, so I can look back at each event in the log and find something like "No Ignition 34 cycles ago" in the log and address that problem, so I don't have to make an uneducated guess with a parts cannon.
Re: Intermittent LGB-11
I had a similar problem in the past. Tiny spiders had built a web in the gas orifice for the far right burner tube where the flame sensor is located. It's so far over to the edge, you won't notice it not burning properly. We've also had a defective gas valve on a new LGB rather recently, IIRC. The valve was not properly adjusted to the correct gas pressure from the factory causing the flames to lift off the burner and not allowing the current to move through the flame for the sensor. Its hard to get a manifold pressure reacing when you can't get the boiler to remain on high fire. We ran it on low fire only until we were able to finally figure out the issue. If the gas valve says Honeywell on it, the possibility of a defect is very high.
AS an FYI, out of the 15 years I've been back in Chicago, we only have a couple of LGB's running on full fire, one we sized and installed and another couple besides that. All of them are so oversized, that we run low fire only. The systems work much better, especially with the incorrect header piping on nearly all of the installations. Low fire keeps the water in the boiler much better.
To give you an idea of the boiler size necessary, an LGB-11 is about the midsize boiler needed to heat a 3 story, 50,000 sq ft courtyard building steam system in Chicago. If its hot water, then a much bigger building typically could be heated.
Re: Observations on my old, rotted out wet return.
Copper below the water line. Easier. Quicker.
Re: Humming to Hold Music
You guys are reminding me why I almost never call customer service for any reason whatsoever. In my case, I would rather waste hours reading, searching the internet, testing, etc. than make that call. I do not have the patience and rarely have a good phone signal in most of the commercial boiler rooms.
