Ready, Set... Nada!

vaporvac

Hey fellow steamies. I hope someone can help me, although I realize whatever is the issue may need a pro. I have a call into the guy who wired my Vstats last year to clean my burners and do a combustion analysis, etc., but i'd like heat sooner.
Today I skimmed and cleaned both boilers. Then I opened up the gas lines, turned on the power and waited for the purge. Normally when the red buttons goes off on the probe LWCOs, the burners go on. This time nothing happened. It just stayed green. I could hear something in the Taco relay, but both relays were Red, The TStat is on. What could be stopping the burners from starting? The pertinent info is beneath my post. Ie. SF intrepids with gas conversion reillo burner with taco relay. Feel free to ask questions. Thank you all once again for any insight.

BobC

Maybe the switch on your pressure device is sticky, try rapping it with a screwdriver handle, you can also try manually moving the lever at the bottom of the pressure device to make sure you can hear the microswitch click.

It could also be a stuck float in the LWCO. Make sure the stack spill switch isn't tripped

Can you manually select which boiler you want to fire?

If none of that works see if you have voltage across the gas valve. If not you just have to trace back to see what safety is open or has a broken wire.

The Tstat will actuate the valve as long as the LWCO, the damper spill switch and pressure device are closed.

Bob

vaporvac

Thank you. That's very useful info which I'll try tomorrow. I have a probe-type LWCO so at least I know it's not a stuck float. I didn't think about the spill switch. When I initially had the boilers hooked up in 2013,they both started, but something clogged the vent (don't ask what) and the spill switch immediately shut it down. This time nothing ever went on. I can manually select the boilers, so I'll try them separately tomorrow and report back. It's all new wiring... maybe something's loose from when he hooked up the Vstats last spring, although a quick look show everything tight. I also didn't think of the pressuretrol and Vstats. They're all showing "0" at the moment.

vaporvac

I'm looking to see where a manual reset button is on the spill switch, just in case that's the issue. I have thefield Control DC01170006 thermal switch. I push the button in the middle, but it doesn't seem to have any give.
I just didn't know that would prevent the burners from starting rather than just shutting them down. I thought it took about 2 minutes to deactivate and shut down. Hopefully, they'll be able to fix it when they come to clean my burners, etc. thoughts?

vaporvac

Update: Service tech just left.....
It looks like I pressed all the buttons, but one and a good thing, too! The burners were on lock-out (nothing flashing to indicate that) due to no gas and just needed the "reset" pushed. I turn the gas off to the boilers for the summer and when the temps dropped it tried to come on automatically, but with no gas it locked up and stayed that way even when the gas was turn "on". Whew!

However, in my yearly look-over it appeared something happened to my lead boiler's air vent. Don't know how that happened as it's a closed unit and the numbers were fine last go around. As a result there was 0 air and the CO2 read 11.14%. (Should be below 10%), and 5896ppm Undiluted CO. So happy I didn't turn it on before servicing! Obviously the other numbers were crazy.

After opening the vent these improved:
lead/lag
7.9%/5.75% 02
7.29%/8.46% C02
34.1% excess air
344.8F/352F Fluegas Temp

86.2+% Efficiency!!!

Who says steam isn't efficient? Or that efficiencies drop dramatically on gas conversion burners?

This company is great; I wish they advertised on here, but they seem to have plenty of business. Matt, the tech loves steam and has read "the books".
In other good news, my leaky mains seems to have rusted itself up. Yeah! (Although there may be a leak at a seal where a HW coil would go )
Thanks everyone who tried to help. It's a great feeling to have this resolved and the system up and running for a new season!
Colleen

P.S. Let this be a cautionary tale to keep that yearly service appointment.