One zone is not working

djur

It has been really cold here. I set back the temp on my main zone down stairs and in the morning even when it called for heat there was none. My first gut feeling was I had frozen the zone.



I called someone out who replaced the motor on the zone valve, bled the system, and determined the line was frozen... he told me to wait until it warmed up, watch for water, and left.



I have been hitting each register with a blow dryer all morning and have the whole system to a pretty good temp (I think, there could always be a cold spot with lots of distance between the registers)....



My concern is this, the honeywell zone valve has a manual lever on it... The working ones all open with resistance, the one that isn't working just sort of flops around... Is this symptomatic of no flow, or is it just bad?

Weezbo

take the lid off the zonevalve,

after turning off the power.

look sharp as a spring may fall out..

Weezbo



if not it is wide open and doing what it is supposed to be doing..





you can * trace ,( follow the pipe with a heat gun / hair dryer on high heat ), along the pipe everywhere you can see and also bump up the other zones to get more heat into your home , you may have pipes that touch the returns or supplies and they may in turn conduct heat to the supply or return of that zone ..





you could , turn the thermostat down also , and hurry back to the zonevalve and maybe it will close , if it does then it can be manually opened like the other zones that show resistance on Their lever actuator.



thing is if you leave the room you wont maybe catch the sound of it closing..

which is another fine indicator the zone valve is fine and the line is frozen or clogged ..



if you change the thermostat then change it back and leave it on like 90 or whatever so that the temp inn the house does not close off the zone as you try to overcome the obstacle by driving BTU's into the home.

some times if i have no torch i will check the pipe as far from the boiler on the zone for an air bleeder ( hex head gold gizmo screwed into the end of the pipe ) or coin vent (silver thing with a hex head and what looks like a butter knife or screwdriver or a dime might fit into..) , and open it as well leave the pin in it and if no air comes out then try a very hot steaming towel on the pipe right there a couple times ...



pipe often freezes at a 90 under the floor in the most difficult of place to get to so sometimes we will take electric heaters with fans on them and any additional fan we may have and direct them into these cold areas.. to help get heat there faster ..

not having too many tools at your disposal you will have to try to overcome the problem with things that may be handy around the home and some ingenuity.

djur

Screwed.

I haven't seen any vents anywhere. There really isn't a section of pipe on the outside wall that is accessible to hit with heat other than a few inches. I guess I will have to wait for a warm day... Problem is, every time the forecast shows one it doesn't come true. I am thinking I will need a good 45 degree day to do the trick



I even talked to a welder friend I know... He was hesitant to toss 200 amps at 3 volts (which is what I have read the pipe thaw machines run) as he was worried about blowing out the solder.

djur

I turned the thermostat off and got resistance

Definitely not the valve.



The problem would not be so bad except the previous owner finished the basement without improving the insulation. It seems part of the heating system is outside the buildings envelope, starved of heat from the living space when off, and pumping heat into the great outdoors when on..



I really have no access to most of the pipe in question...



If only people paid more attention to insulation... *sigh*



Thanks for the response...