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B & G Circulator Pump Exercise?

MikeJL
MikeJL Member Posts: 9
in Radiant Heating
So heating season upon us again and fired up my little cast iron Utica with 6 B & G NRF-9F/LW circulators pumping thru my radiant floor system. Have a locked up pump again in one zone. Swapped it out with spare and up and running again but have a question about keeping these little pumps from locking up in the off season. B & G makes a controller that tickles the pumps for 10 seconds every 72 hours if there is no call for heat. I have an ARGO 866 control board. Is there any "module" I can add to the ARGO to get it to exercise these pumps in the off season? Any other automatic way to handle this, I will never remember to do it manually. System is about 13 years old.



I have reused the locked up pumps by pulling the cartridge and manually turning the impeller back and forth until it turns freely again. If you reinstall it right away it runs fine with the system water lubricating/cooling the pump. If it sits it will tend to lock up again. Any recommended way to mothball these used pumps? Closed system with no problems with water quality.

Comments

  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,379
    most of the pump control boxes

    have this feature built in.



    You could buy a simple lamp timer and adjust the pins to run once a day for a few minutes, or an electronic timer that you could build any schedule. Power this timer with the same circuit that powers the relay box.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • MikeJL
    MikeJL Member Posts: 9
    Know I can buy a new 6 zone control box

    but was looking for workaround......your idea of wiring a timer up to run the pumps periodically in the off season would do the trick. Also have tech support question/request on this issue into ECR ARGO but has been a few days.....probably not at the top of their list for help so appreciate your comments/help hot rod.
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