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help with a boiler system

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anita
anita Member Posts: 7
in Radiant Heating
Question about 3 zone boiler system - boiler fires up with each thermostat as it should but none of the zone valves open to release hot water to the baseboards. Waiting for a call back from American Home Shield to send HVAC out again. They were out last week and replaced a backflow valve?? in the line. Says that can't have caused the problem but is the only thing that has changed. Any ideas?

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  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,062
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    Is your circulator pump running when the thermostat(s) calls for heat?
    There might be a switch for the pump that the service people left off when they were there.
    How do you know the zone valves open?
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    there is a manual slide that you can see move mechanically over and then you can hear the water moving through. there are three of these each with a separate thermostat wire going to it. none of them are opening but the boiler is running when you change the temperature on the thermostat and shuts off if you move the thermostat back
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    heres a picture of the piece
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    I had a leak at one point and that's why HVAC came out originally - can the pipes run out of water and need to be refilled or should they fill automatically if low? even if I slide the lever at the bottom of this part (picture) manually to open there is no water release
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,062
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    You can manually move the lever to the right and there is a notch to hold in place to open valve. If the valve is automatically opened as normal operation, the lever will seem loose with no resistance to moving .
    This may or may not start the pump when switched manually.
    You may get some gravity flow thru the zone valves then.

    But back to the question of the pump running or not?
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    The only thing I hear is the boiler firing up I don't know about the pump I tried moving the levers manually too but there is no resistance when moved to open and no water moves
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,062
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    Need picture of the pump and boiler piping.
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    I'm at work right now. I will upload a picture tonight when I get home. I appreciate your help so much, thank you
  • anita
    anita Member Posts: 7
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    here are the pics
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,324
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    @anita -- if there was a leak, it is quite possible that the system is low on water, unless the technician who came out refilled it an bled the radiators. Is there a pressure gauge on the boiler (there should be)? If so, what does it read?
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,376
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    If you feel no resistance when you move the lever on the zone, that means it's open.

    You probably have one of two problems:
    1. The tech left a valve closed, or
    2. The system is air bound.

    See if you can find the boiler gauge and read the pressure. Also make sure that all the valves are open including the one for the fill line where the back flow preventer was replaced.
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,062
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    That pressure reading is important. Your want to see some pressure 12-15 PSI. Or your boiler may not have enough water in it and you do not want to dry fire it.

    It would seem that the tech that came out would have test fired the boiler and observed the pressure......but then again??
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,540
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    Sounds like the system could be air bound or the technician left a valve closed.

    Either way, it's a service call you shouldn't have to pay for they should have made sure the system was operational when they left the job.

    Another case of hit and run

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