Taco Zone Valve

nussbaugh

Over the past 48 hours, my furnace has stopped firing and I unfortunately can't get my plumber on the phone. To make a long story short, my thermostats are on and calling for heat, but the furnace isn't kicking. I have an appt for him to come tomorrow, but for now, I'm just cold. So I was wondering if I could do anything to help the furnace start, as the pilot is lit and the fuse has not tripped. With that said....



My gas heat furnace has 3 Taco Zone Valves on them - 2 which were replaced last year and the 3rd which I was told is OK - all set to "auto". I thought when I had them installed, the plumber said switching them to "open" will trigger the furnace to go on and the heat to start flowing. Is that right? If not, what does that switch do, exactly. If anything, I'm really just curious. (Besides being cold.) Thanks.

heatpro02920

Its hard to tell you what could be wrong

Since we are not there, is the boiler {furnaces don't have zone valves} up to temperature and just not circulating water? Or is the burner not lighting and not heating up the water at all?

nussbaugh

Zone valve, pt 2

1 - It's the boiler. Sorry to confuse.

2 - The burner on the boiler is not lighting and in turn not circulating water to the baseboard heaters.



Thanks for the check-in here.

Ironman

Pics

Can you post some pics of the boiler and controls?

nussbaugh

pics

Thanks for the help.



Photo1 - Boiler w/ front panel removed, all 3 zone vales shown.

Photo2 - Close up of zone valve on top left of photo1.

Photo3 - Close up of zone valve on top right of photo1.



In Photo2 and Photo3, you'll see "auto" and "open" settings i was referring to in my initial question. They are currently set to "auto". Will setting them to "open" get the furnace to light and get the heat back up?

Ironman

Not that simple

Manually opening them will cause the end switch to close in the valve, thus sending a signal to the boiler's aquastat that there's a call for heat. If you turn the thermostats up, the lever on the zone valves should move without resistance after a couple of minutes. This would indicate that the valves are functional and the problem lies elsewhere.



I doubt that you will be able to fix this yourself. You should call a tech.

heatpro02920

You can try

manually opening the zone valve and putting a jumper across terminals 2 and 3 on the zone valve {the two closest to the pipe}, if it doesnt lite, you have a different problem, maybe unrelated to the zone valves

nussbaugh

figured.

yeah, this did seem complicated - for me, at least. i have a tech coming in the AM. just fig'd i'd ask. thanks all for the help.

icesailor

Taco Zone Valves:

You may have already resolved your problem.

The zone valve with the green head, you can push the lever down and it will make contact with contact 2 and 3 and start the burner/boiler. The gold colored ones won't until you get the green one operating. When those first came out, all you had to do to get a zone working was to push the lever down.

Push all the levers down on the non-operating valves. The one operating zone will make all the others work. Check or replace the transformer. It may not be delivering enough power when more than one valve is calling and open.

There aren't many green valve heads out there anymore. Probably over 20 years old.

j a_2

Hello

Per the pic you posted I might be a bit concerned about a flame roll out condition….