Eliminateing a GVD-6 Damper

mondo

My GVD-6 damper started acting up. Here is what  happened . I had no heat so I went to the boiler. I have a gas fired steam boiler. The thermostat was calling for heat but the boiler would not fire up. I made sure the  pilot was lit. So then I decided to turn the power switch off , this is actually  a standard . light switch that is on the wall near the boiler. I restarted the boiler, it has a green and a red light that flash when it is being re started, after a few seconds you usually hear the damper cycle open, then the boiler should light, but the damper would  not open  . after turning the power on and off about three times it opened and the boiler fired up. After one heating  cycle, the problem came back, and I had to deal with it for a few days, this evolved into me actually turning the damper shaft on the outside of the flu pipe,  then I discovered the little switch on the side of the damper, I flipped the switch from auto to manual, the boiler fired . realizing that this position would then leave the damper in the open position, so what,  My heating tech told me that everyone disconnects them when they go bad. He said they only save  less than  1% in heat going back out.  Today it was 62 degrees when I woke up. I went to the boiler and started doing the things I did  before to try to get it going, I flipped the  switch, I tried to help the damper shaft to move open,  then I heard a pop in the damper, ( the cover was off) and a puff of smoke came out,  I killed the power to the boiler.  Then I took the wiring harness off of the damper,   traced it back, looked at the wiring diagram on the side of damper cover  showing witch of the four wires needed to be connected so that the gas valve was still powered.  I twisted yellow and brown together, and wire  nut on the other two ( not together). I turned the power on and the boiler fired. No more damper. Heating Tech says forgetaboutit. So far so good.

Steamhead

It depends on the chimney

If the chimney is fairly modern, it probably doesn't build up a lot of draft in the first place. This would limit the off-cycle losses if the damper is not used, since it might not pull much air thru the boiler to cool it down when the burner is off.



But you have a steam system, which means your chimney was probably built before World War 2, and would have originally had a coal-fired boiler. Coal-fired boilers needed a lot more draft than oil- or gas-fired ones, because you had to pull the air thru a bed of coal. This level of draft can cool down a gas or oil boiler fairly quickly after it shuts off, so the damper would be much more effective in this situation.



Field does market a replacement motor for your damper. I don't remember the part number but one could call them up.

j a_2

remove it

I am not a fan of leaving the damper installed with no wiring….hence no protection should the damper go somewhat closed…I understand there are other safety switches…I would either remove it completely, or purchase a new one….Verify with a meter the wiring of the dampener is operating correctly…..Just my opinion