Alpha 15-55 drive failure?

Stekay

I have a 2 yr old TT60 Prestige w indirect Smart tank. Boiler is all good and DHW working fine. A call for heat opens the zone valves and turns on the Alpha but the LL header and above the Alpha are cold. Do these pumps suffer from drive failures?

Ironman

What's the pump displaying?

Stekay

9 watts 1 gpm, with 1 zone calling

Dave H_2

sounds like it may have seized in the bearings. is there Lots of rust in the system?
Now I'm not sure how the info is displayed whether it's based upon power consumption or by actual movement

Dave H

hot_rod

Try powering it down and re-energizing it. I believe they have a self protect lock out function.

What type of system is it in? Any radiant tube? I would suspect magnetite as a possible cause if it is binding.

Here is where the magnetite can end up with ECM, wet rotor circulators. Scratch the impeller when you remove it, see if any deposits stick to a magnet.

Good idea to consider a magnetic separator with ECM circulators.

Ironman

I've seen the display light and show numbers when the pump spins with no power to it. Based upon that, I would assume the display works off movement. If that's correct and you're showing 1 gpm, then the pump should be spinning.

Your system could be air bound.

hot_rod

I have seen ECM displays light up when they are not powered if another circ is spinning them backwards.
Does the indirect have a circ of it's own, maybe you have a missing or failed check?

Stekay

Independent indirect pump. The pump if definantly spinning because when I put it on hi pressure or hi speed you can hear it and see the wattage and gpm increase. I'll try a system bleed but I do seem to have water everywhere. I thought maybe it was possible for a shaft or coupling to break internally.

hot_rod

With multiple circ pumps in a system it is a good idea to have check valves either in them, or a few inches downstream.

The 15-55 comes with a check valve, if it was used it should not allow it to spin when not powered up.

A purge would be the logical first step, and yes the shafts can break allowing the motor to spin , but no flow. So the indicator display would read, but no flow.

Sometimes the air lock is in the pump itself, especially the ones with internal checks.

If you do not have adequate purge points you can loosen the flange bolts, or the 4 allen bolts to purge the pump of an air lock, carefully with the system cold, of course..

Stekay

Well I bled all the zones but had to re-cycle the boiler twice before it reset. All seems back to normal. Thanks for the heads up about the check valve and the air lock guys.
And as always thanks for all my heating coaches, great to have you guys as a resource and your generosity is greatly appreciated.
-Steve

Stekay

Follow up: Poor diagnosis on my part. It was the Wilo system pump that wasn't working. Checked voltage and capacitor. Implemented emergency repair procedure #1. (rap w/ small ball peen hammer) 3rd time was a charm... so far

Harvey Ramer

You can charge 10k for hitting something in the right place with a hammer and fixing it. Thomas Edison did.

hot_rod

Stekay said:

Follow up: Poor diagnosis on my part. It was the Wilo system pump that wasn't working. Checked voltage and capacitor. Implemented emergency repair procedure #1. (rap w/ small ball peen hammer) 3rd time was a charm... so far

Hows the fluid quality? Usually crappy fluid causes circulators to stick. Maybe run a cleaner and inhibitor in the system.