Hydrolevel 3250 Plus issues

leonz

Have any of you had issues with the Hydrostat 3250 plus not firing your
oil burners even though the red LED calling for heat is lit?

I have been given a replacement Hydrolevel 3250 plus to replace
the one that caused a near explosion in my boiler as well as new 4 inch gauge.

I have ordered and paid for a remote 20 foot therrmocouple( $55.00 plus tax) for the new unit and intend to mount the new hydrostat on the wall away from the boiler with a new BX cable runs to the dual fuel electrical connections.

I have found that the Hydrolevel 3250 plus is not responding to the oil burner boiler side of things and even though it is calling for heat (RED LED) lit on panel it is not commanding the oil burner to turn on and fire. The boiler and circulator wiring is right and working otherwise for the coal stoker.
The system came with a coal oil switch with a 110 volt 3 position Coal/hot 110 volt feed /oil 6 terminal Robertshaw switch using five of the six spade terminals for the triple aquastat.

I am planning on moving the Honeywell L6006A and its well from the top tapping at the stack end of the boiler-cooler water return to the parallel tapping next to the Hydrowell for the 3250 plus which is directly over the oil burner head and the Keystoker KAA 4-1 flat bed coal stoker.

I am hoping that in doing this the coal side of the boiler will not overheat as it has in the past and I can keep the boiler at summer temperatures 140 low/160 high at all times to heat the house as it gets too hot otherwise.

Any thoughts on just leaving the L6006A where it is and raising the dump temperature to 200 degrees but the issue is the house loop is also the heat dump loop as I cannot afford to run a loop to the garage and use a Zern garage heater
right now but it is something I want to do anyway in the near future.

if the new triple aquastat screws up again I am going to install 2 Honeywell 8214's using the two parallel tappings in the side of the boiler above the burners and two L6006A's to replace it using the provided coal oil switch and the 4 inch wiring box.

Any thoughts on this?

STEVEusaPA

Something isn't making contact, loose/bad neutral. When the aquastat is calling for heat, are you getting 120 at the primary control (incoming) If you are, are you getting 120 off the orange wire?

leonz

All the wiring is tight, The burner fires by itself when you test and check to make sure the burner runs without the heat call and the voltages are where they are supposed to be on the burner control base and the 5 spade connections on the three position switch are intact and tight.

Hydroslevel says in thier manual to replace it if it does not work so that is first on the to do list for next week.

They being Keystoker have had a large number of these things go bad and had them returned for replacements(50+) and mine will be one more. If the new one fails I am going to replace it with two Honeywell 8214's - one for oil and one for coal use.

The plumbers blew up the Riello control module when they wired the ground to the alarm lug on the burner control base rather than the ground lug on the combustion fan housing for the burner. I was not happy when I found that mistake as it cost me another $150 for a control module.

leonz

I picked up the remote Hydrolevel 20 foot remote thermocouple and all I need to do is rent a BX cutter and buy some BX cable and then I can test run the new Hydrolevel 3250 Plus and if that thing does not work I am going to buy a Honeywell L8214A and a Honeywell low water cut off and be done with it.

leonz

After finding the 2nd Hydrolevel 3250 plus defective-digital readout was lagging 30 degrees behind the new 4 inch gauge in the top of the steam chest I requested a refund from the supplier for the 20 foot remote cable I bought from the local plumbing supplier.

Hydrolevel said no refund, it is a special order part(insert thumb my nose at you here/rasberry).

So I said to myself HMM? Special order part huh?? Why is it a special order part when it is listed as an inventory item as an option for the user for thier specific Hydrostat? hmm I said?

So anyway Hydrolevel refused my request. It gets better.

A second call to my supplier informing them I would place a call to the Connecticut Attorney Generals office me changed their (Hydrolevel) mind and they will refund my money als long as I prepay for the UPS delivery charge to thier office in Connecticut.

I wish I had ripped all that crap out when the Keystoker boiler went to steam when it was not supposed to and replaced it with twin Honeywell 8124A's and 2 6006A's.

I never had a lick of trouble with the Honeywell units I used for the side by side hand fed wood and coal boiler and the Buderus oil boiler.

So I will let you know when I get a the refund.

ChrisJ

So you think Honeywell parts never have problems eh?

leonz

All I can relate to this is the fact that I never had a problem with the single Honeywell triple aquastat and two strap on pipe aquastats that operated my heating system for 28 years

Paul48

I've never seen a BX cutter, or seen one used. I've always folded it till it split, then cleaned it up with snips, and put the redhead on it.

ChrisJ

Paul48 said:

I've never seen a BX cutter, or seen one used. I've always folded it till it split, then cleaned it up with snips, and put the redhead on it.

I fold \ twist until I get a loop and then use the snips to cut the loop.

ChrisJ

Hatterasguy said:

Paul48 said:

I've never seen a BX cutter, or seen one used. I've always folded it till it split, then cleaned it up with snips, and put the redhead on it.

You are missing out my friend.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RS-101A-Roto-Split-BX-MC-Cable-Cutter-by-Seatek-/110465145358?hash=item19b83c5a0e:m:mDP_9jmoJRJ_ZBB2U7GmRyA

Once you use this one time, you'll never understand how you managed to live without it.

I've got better things to spend $36 on.

Like bacon.

leonz

The locals want $70.00 for BX cutter up here.

BobC

I had one that was made in the 40's that striped the BX end off a run, it really worked great but must have cost a fortune because it must have had 30 machined parts. I got it at a yard sale for next to nothing but one of the machined parts snapped to I tossed it.

At work we just used a hacksaw to cut opposing sides of the spiral and then dikes to remove the BX sheath, once you got used to it it wasn't a bad way to do it. The stripper was much faster but for occasional use the manual method was fine.

Bob

BobC

If I had to strip BX cable all day, I'd buy that tool in a flash but for occasional use I'll make do.

I took down a 35 yr old 9 ft Arborvitae this weekend.I tried my bow saw but couldn't get the right angle so the kerf wouldn't clamp the blade. It was one time when chain saw would have fit the bill.

I ended up using a 9" pruning blade on my old sawzall and although it was a bit slow it did the trick. That wood is just as tough as nails.

Bob

ChrisJ

Hatterasguy said:

Install a boiler.

You're stripping BX (or MC if you are lucky) all day.

You should share some pictures of what you've installed.
Do you have an online photo album?

Jamie Hall

If you're going to use BX or any armored -- and everything I do inside is armored -- get the cutter. It's worth it. Yeah, hacksaws work. Flexing works. But a decent cutter? Bliss...

As to optional parts. Many optional parts are special order and, if one looks closely, they often are noted as not returnable. It's worth reading the fine print. I'm not surprised, though, that Honeywell will let you return it after the CT attorney general office got in the act -- he's an attack dog (though not as bad as the previous edition was) and it's not worth anybody's time hiring the lawyers to fight him, even when he's dead wrong.

ChrisJ

Jamie Hall said:

If you're going to use BX or any armored -- and everything I do inside is armored -- get the cutter. It's worth it. Yeah, hacksaws work. Flexing works. But a decent cutter? Bliss...

As to optional parts. Many optional parts are special order and, if one looks closely, they often are noted as not returnable. It's worth reading the fine print. I'm not surprised, though, that Honeywell will let you return it after the CT attorney general office got in the act -- he's an attack dog (though not as bad as the previous edition was) and it's not worth anybody's time hiring the lawyers to fight him, even when he's dead wrong.

But.

BACON!

leonz

Hello Jamie,

It was the Hydrolevel/Carlisle Combustion People I had issues with NOT Honeywell.

I am just happy I was able to resolve the issue without going to small claims court locally as they would have lost anyway.