Vitotronic 200 and circulators

Dave_4

Hello,
I recently had Vitola with indirect DHW tank installed. The control is a Vitotronic 200. Currently, the control is set to DHW production only. Because the heating circuits are off, I closed some hand valves on those circuits (I figured it prevented a bit of heat escaping even though there are check valves).

I was reading the documentation of the Vitotronic 200 the other night and I came across something interesting - it mentioned that even though the heating circuit is off, it will run the circulators once every 24 hours to ensure the circulators do not seize. Did I understand this correctly?

Since I closed the hand valves, I bet the circulators are not enjoying life when they get turned one once a day. Can this damage the circulator?

Thanks.

Brad White

Off-Season Circulators

I cannot speak to the specifics of the Vitotronic, but off-season cycling of circulators, especially water-lubricated circulators is commonly done across a wide variety of control platforms. The idea is to prevent seizing of the rotors when they sit idle. Once per 24 hours sounds like a lot. Most I have seen run them for 3 minutes or so every 72 hours.

I would open the valves and let the circulators fully express their inner potential- to hold them back (dead-heading) is definitely not recommended. A short close off of a few seconds for testing is one thing but not longer and not a habit.

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