BURNHAM RV-7 WILL NOT PRODUCE HEAT

STEFANO

I am a home-owner in Brooklyn New York. We did a "gut" renovation of a row house (town-house) in 2000, and installed a Burnham RV-7 gas-fired boiler---to provide hot water to three zones, to cast-iron radiators. This boiler has worked beautifully since 2000. However, now in November 2014, it refused to kick on. The water circulator pump turns on, but the boiler flame itself does not kick on. Does anyone have any experience with these ---- and know of a specific part which goes early on them.
The plumber I have hired does not seem to have a lot of experience with the complicated circuity behind the front panel.

thanks,

sp

Docfletcher

Has your boiler ever been serviced by a boiler pro?
You could check the igniter.

As a home owner myself I would tell you to have one of the pros from this site look in on it as there are quite a few chaps here that have their business in the city areas.

delta T

While I am not intimately familiar with that particular boiler, it does not appear to have too many complicated controls on it. To start diagnosing, we will need a little more info.

When the boiler gets a call for heat you say the pump starts, does the combustion blower start? you should hear a fan when it is trying to light.

If yes, then after a delay you should hear a sparker (clicking noise) try to light the pilot. If this does not happen and the fan is running then there is either something wrong with the air switch (a pressure switch to tell the boiler that the fan is moving enough air for safe combustion) or there is something wrong with your venting (i.e. a partially blocked flue) that is not allowing the pressure in the vent to reach the proper level.

If the fan does not start then it will take some time with a volt meter to see whether or not the fan is getting power, and if not why.

If the sparker does start and the pilot lights, but then turns off, the flame rod is either dirty or needs replacing.

I don't know if this model has this feature, but on some ignition controls there is a small LED that can give diagnostic error codes that can help in solving this.

Given the age my experience would point to a flame rod or a combustion blower (less likely) but that is purely a guess without knowing more about what is and what is not happening and in what order.

BobC

Here is a link to the manual if you don't have one -

http://bostonheatingsupply.com/Burnham/Burnham Revolution I&O Manual.pdf

Bob

Ed Palm

I also have a Burnham RV-7 boiler in Brooklyn that is not operating. This is a Power direct vent unit, installed in 1999. The problem began as intermittent start up issues, never producing heat for more than 8 hours. For about a week into this heating season the igniter would glow and the pilot would engage, but it would stop after a few hours or sometimes after just one cycle. In the end, the igniter didn't engage at all. The 16 year old igniter has now been replaced, but apparently now we have a completely different issue. At the time the heat issues began the unit had no fan issues whatsoever, the fan always started up and ran when it was supposed to. As soon as the new igniter (and high temp cut off switch in the firebox) was installed, we got no fan and so no ignition. Since then 4 plumbers have been stumped. They've looked at the wiring schematics and can't figure it out, it all seems to be OK. The fan is not getting power to it, apparently from the Aquastat. One plumber thought it was the low water cutoff but another said it is operating properly and thinks it's the aquastat. The transformer was checked, that's not it apparently either. That's where we are at this point, we'll probably change the low water cutoff and the aquastat. But with all the difficulty diagnosing to this point, I think it would be good to look for someone familiar with this apparently relatively complicated boiler and see if they can assist. The info provided by all the prior contributors to this discussion were each helpful to me and hopefully Stefano from last year. I'm hoping I could be assisted as well. I think there's a lot of life left in this boiler, but it's getting cold in here and the only solution so far is to remove and replace. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks much, Ed

lchmb

Ed, I'm curious...do any of them actually use a meter to test power through the LWCO to the aquastat? Replacing parts til you find the problem can get very expensive very fast...