Cyclegard must go

Dan_NJ

After going to some trouble to be able to run this boiler in a power outage, now that I'm in one and doing that the cyclegard keeps stifling my cycle! Need to swap for a safgard one day soon.

hvacfreak2

All of the manufacturers seem to use them so they must be good right ?

Dan_NJ

Less of a problem now that the power's back on but I hate wasting precious battery power on that thing. Change is coming

Gordo

Cycleguard? I think you mean psychoguard.

Mad Dog_2

I remember trying to Mex a steamer many moons ago and every time I'd get a good head of steam going it would shut down. Drove me MAD!!! ha ha. I like that Gordo Psychoguard
Mad Dog

Big Ed_4

The thought is good , but it should be adjustable ..

Dan_NJ

I'd almost prefer the old float style as primary and probe type like safgard as a secondary. As long as the probe secondary is not a Cyclegard

AnthraciteEnergetics

There is a "burner" terminal on the Cyclegard and if you switch 120 V power to that when the boiler fires and turn it off-on-off at <10 minute intervals thereafter, you can keep delaying the "self test" cycle and prevent the mid fire shutdowns. Use a "duty cycle timer" module and relay (to switch 120 V from the 24 V controls) to pulse the burner terminal at something slightly less than the self test interval (Mine is 10 minutes). Read your particular model's manual to be sure voltages match. Cost is much less than a new LWCO.

neilc

not sure I understand,
what's the difference between street power, and generator power, with regard to the cyclegard?

Dan_NJ

>what's the difference between street power, and generator power, with regard to the cyclegard?
Not much difference between those two but I'm working off battery power. It's limited and lengthening the cycle by stopping every 10 minutes keeps my system on longer and spends more power. Goal is to get maximum number of cycles per AH of battery capacity, without having to haul out the generator to recharge.

neilc

ah, batteries, now I get it

Dan_NJ

AnthraciteEnergetics said:

There is a "burner" terminal on the Cyclegard and if you switch 120 V power to that when the boiler fires and turn it off-on-off at <10 minute intervals thereafter, you can keep delaying the "self test" cycle and prevent the mid fire shutdowns. Use a "duty cycle timer" module and relay (to switch 120 V from the 24 V controls) to pulse the burner terminal at something slightly less than the self test interval (Mine is 10 minutes). Read your particular model's manual to be sure voltages match. Cost is much less than a new LWCO.

I like this idea but for a few reasons I am not going to get into this type of modification of this since it is safety device. Would be nice if the Cyclegard probe is identical to Safgard though.

Fred

The probes are the same.

AnthraciteEnergetics

The way mine was wired, it cut off 120 V power to the control transformer. Power draw was less in the test cycle than during standby/idle because the junky control transformer that came with the boiler uses 10 W in magnetizing current.

As for the safety concern, the cutoff still works on a real low water condition. The whole test cycle, as you may know, had to do with foam during firing tricking the cutoff into thinking it has water over the probe.

Since boilers rarely loose their water catastrophically (if it does, you have bigger problems), risk is mimimal. I'd be more concerned about a float type LWCO hanging up especially when most homeowners don't maintain them.