thermostat problem?

rcrit

I got a shiny new boiler last week and it's been in the high 60's ever since so I haven't had much opportunity to see it in action.



I heard the burner come on this evening (think jet engine) so I went downstairs to time how long it took to make steam and then get to the end of the mains.



After 5 minutes the burner cut off. It hadn't made steam yet and wasn't under any pressure. The header was starting to get warm but neither of the mains were warm at all.



Is this a case of a confused thermostat? It is an old mercury model and setting the temperate is more art than science. It is set to come on somewhere between 69 and 73. The temperature coil is hosed on it but other thermometers show it is ~72 inside.



I wonder if this is an anticipator issue. With my previous boiler it was set to the max, .8. It is currently around say .4.

nicholas bonham-carter

hosed thermostat

if part of it is non-functional, then maybe the whole thing is too tired to work properly. the nice thing about the new honeywell digital thermostats is the setup--1cph for steam. there is no longer any fiddling with a tiny lever, while looking at minuscule numbers on a discolored piece of metal. when you feel the need for a little extra warmth, then setting up 1 degree on the readout will do the trick, and the reverse for a bit less warmth.

make sure that you verify on the package that the thermostat will do steam. most of us like the honeywell visionpro, which is a bit more expensive than the other h/w stats, but does a nice job.

otherwise, do a search here for "anticipator + honeywell", and you should find many recommendations for the setting of your old one.--nbc

rcrit

now that you mention it

As luck would have it I ordered a Honeywell TH5110D1006 this morning.



Maybe my current thermostat found out about it and is pouting :-)

ChrisJ

anticipator

My guess is because your anticipator is set so low, it got hot enough to turn the thermostat off before the boiler made any steam.



0.4 is most likely WAY too low,  0.8 sounds more like what it should be.  I'm currently fighting with the opposit.  I had mine on 0.8 and the termpature shoots past my setting so I just dropped the anticipator down to 0.7.  I guess only time will show what it actually did.

Techman

Antisapation of Antisipator Setting

Remove the t'stat from the subbase, remove the "w" wire from the subbase, have a pre-formed piece of wire ( 18-16-14-12-10-8-6 gauge ) with 10 loops, with your AMP Meter(everyone has one ,right?) on the 10 loops ,connect one end of the "multiplier" to the "w" wire,connect the other wire of the "multiplier" to the subbase "w" screw terminal. The AMP reading is ,say, 6amp,then set the antisipator to .6. Some systems may have a higher "start" amps ,then it goes down to the normal amps. Then fine tune!

crash2009

For sale?

How old is the old thermostat?  I might be interested in buying.  What is the model # ?

ChrisJ

tweaking

I ended up putting mine back on 0.8 and now to 1.2A.  The system seemed to stop making steam just as radiators started to got hot.



I'm wondering if this is why Honeywell said to use 1.2 for steam,  because the anticipator doesn't take time to steam into consideration. 

rcrit

model

It is a Honeywell 822D. It came with the house, I've been here two years

crash2009

Too new

I'm looking for something old, glass, and brass.