Boiling help/wiring issue

riester

Hey guys, just bought a house that had has a history of heat problems.

Going to start by saying my knowledge is very limited as to boilers but am very capable of wiring and following instructions lol

Running a Well McLain model HE-4 boiler with automag AA3/4-4 with three zones

No central air

Problem : When one thing turns on (hot water included) everything turns on. I know this because I currently don’t have thermostats hooked up in two of the zones and the heat turns on still when the third is calling. Also unhooked all of them, turn up the water heater and they all turn on.

Also had the old dial thermostats and trying to install programmable Honeywell RTH6360D

Coming from the boiler I have two wires, red and white. But at all the thwermostas I have red, green (marked b) and white.

At the gang box above the boiler, they have Some of the colors mixed up, white in the red and red in the green.

Should I move them so all the colors match?

Any and all help appreciated!

riester

Here are some pictures

JUGHNE

Could all your zone valves be manually opened?
There is some lever that could be locked to open position.

rick in Alaska

Those zone valves are Auto Mag brand and are different then most. Unless I remember wrong, you have to use special thermostats that actually turn the zone valves off, instead of on. I am pretty sure it is dc power that runs them.
So, you can not use the thermostats you want to use. If everything is going on all at once, it might mean you have a power problem that is not letting any zone valve work. This is a system that is not used much, so you need some one there that understands it.
Rick

SuperTech

Rick is right. I've heard about it but I've never seen it myself. I want to know what the relay above the transformer is for.

riester

The relay is hooked up to the hot water heater

Grallert

Those valve powerheads are normally open, powered closed. so for any reason those heads lose their power they will open. so for example, on a conventional system with domestic hot water priority, when there is a call for hot water all other zones will close. (they lose power). yours does the reverse. By disconnecting the thermostats you are opening the valves. Automag makes a zone control relay for their powerheads. If I recall the new Automag piowerheads had a switch to reverse them from normally open to normally closed. Not sure if this is correct though it's been a few years since I've worked on them.

AJCimino

Hello all,
We used auto mags extensively in the eighties and nineties, but with the advent of multiple zone relays and smaller circulators, we began zoning with circulators. Automags are reliable, but over time they can begin to stick and work erratically. This link should provide all the info you will need.
https://www.automagzonevalve.net/technical.php

riester

Thanks for the responses guys! I spoke to auto mag today and I was hooking the thermostat up incorrectly. I am going to hook them up tonight like they said and see what happens

I went over to a friends house who has the same setup I do and it all looks to be wired the same except for the couple wires not in the same matching color terminal. Should I make it so all the same color wires are on the same terminal?

If that doesn’t solve it I will have to call someone to come take a look at it

JUGHNE

As far as colors matching, you need to see how the colors are applied on the other end of the cable.
If this runs on DC, then they will most likely be polarity sensitive.

riester

So I got home today, hooked the thermostat up how AutoMag said I should, white to Y, R to R and green to W. Everything is working as it should!