Wilo pump

cutter

I re-piped my boilers this past summer and used all the materials that I bought from supply house over the last couple of years. I am using wilo Variable speed pumps. On this site I heard some bad news about Wilo. I am using wood to heat and today when I lit up the pump on the wood boiler came on. The pump on the zone valves appeared to not come on. Usually when the boiler gets up to 140* or so both pumps come on and the water stays at around 140 and gradually comes up to 170* or 180* or so as water in the zones heat up. Today the water in the wood boiler got up to 170* real fast and the water in zone piping was cool to barely warm. That leads me to believe the zone pump did not come on.
Those Wilos are quiet, I tried putting a 1/2" wood dowel rod from pump to ear and did not hear anything or feel anything. How can I tell if that Wilo is running. The pump appears to be running now because the supply and return on the zones are hot.
There is about a 20* temperature difference in supply and return.


Looks like that second picture was taken when the system piping was not finished. so here is one more.

This last picture shows the control panel

delta T

My experience with Wilo is that they are really good pumps, but to a fault. The tolerances in the bearings are so small, that they tend to be very sensitive to dirty water. I see a lot of black piping in there, do you have any magnetic separation anywhere on the system?

One thing you can try to get a stuck pump up and running again, is take off the little screw cover on the back of the motor (turn the water and power off first) and stick a flat blade screwdriver into the slot in the back of the motor shaft and turn it back and forth to break it loose. Once the shaft spins freely, replace the cap screw but don't tighten in down all the way, turn the water back on and bleed some water out of that cap screw until it runs clean, then tighten it up. You will still most likely need to replace the pump, but this can get you over a cold snap if need be.

cutter

delta T, That Caleffi Hydraulic seperator has a dirt mag at the bottom. I have thought about using an additive in the system to cut down on rust and dirt. I have forgot what they are though.
This is the first winter on this pump.

kcopp

Fernox, Rhomar or Sentinel water chemicals.

SuperTech

@cutter I like your setup. Very nice and neat, I love the gauges. As far as you pump is concerned, one thing you can easily do given the presence of isolation valves is remove the pump and physically check it. Or I would try to check amperage draw. If you have to replace the Wilo I would consider using a Viridian VT2218.

STEVEusaPA

Hopefully you’ll get the drop light cord off of the vent pipe.😀

cutter

kcopp said:

Fernox, Rhomar or Sentinel water chemicals.

kcopp, I will google the names and see what they do. Then find out who sells it. Thanks

cutter

SuperTech said:

@cutter I like your setup. Very nice and neat, I love the gauges. As far as you pump is concerned, one thing you can easily do given the presence of isolation valves is remove the pump and physically check it. Or I would try to check amperage draw. If you have to replace the Wilo I would consider using a Viridian VT2218.

Super Tech, I will check out that Viridian pump, I would like to keep all the pumps the same. If one fails I just need two to get heat until I can get another. That oil boiler has a Wilo on it also.
Thanks for the suggestion

cutter

STEVEusaPA said:

Hopefully you’ll get the drop light cord off of the vent pipe.😀

STEVEusaPA, I hung the drop light there to get light to the area so the picture would not be dark. Without the drop light the pictures were pretty bad.

cutter

SuperTech said:

@cutter I like your setup. Very nice and neat, I love the gauges. As far as you pump is concerned, one thing you can easily do given the presence of isolation valves is remove the pump and physically check it. Or I would try to check amperage draw. If you have to replace the Wilo I would consider using a Viridian VT2218.

Super Tech, The Taco Viridian, is a temperature sensitive variable speed pump. The Wilo is a pressure sensitive variable speed. I feel the Taco is not the right application for one pump supplying four zones. The Taco is more suited for supplying one zone.
Unless there is something I am not seeing or understanding.