Old gas valve replacement

gp1976

Hello everyone,

I new here and need some advice, this is going to be long so I apologize in advance, I have an old 1960 natural gas hot water boiler (General Automatic) steel tank, it’s worked flawless for the last 59 year and every year before I turn it on I clean and check things over, it has an old gas chain setup on the burner manifold, meaning a separate pressure regulator, gas solenoid valve and a separate standing pilot safety valve, the safety on the pilot valve stopped working and I know they no longer sell this valve which mean I need to change over to a combination valve, the part # on the gas valve is Honeywell V8202A1018 and it crosses over to VR8202A2132, I have some concerns about this, the crossover is rated at 130000 btu and the original is rated at 330000, my boiler input is 150000 and the output is 118000, so shouldn’t the replacement one be at least capable of flowing 150000 for the input of my boiler? I would think the VR8300A3500 would be a better match since it is capable of 190000 btu, I called my supplier and Honeywell and both couldn’t answer my questions, the guy from Honeywell was just reading what was on there website and could not offer any advice, the only reason I can see Honeywell cross referencing that valve is because of the anticipator, the VR8202 is set at .5 and the VR8300 is set at .7 amp, this is the only real difference is see in the two valve, is that rating is for the thermostat and I’ve long since got rid of the 1960 T852 thermostat with its anticipator replaced with digital, if it’s for how many amps the solenoid on the gas valve will draw well the original was .4 amp but that really won’t effect my system since my 120v to 24v 40va step down transformer is rated for 1.66 amp, anyway if some could offer some advice it would be well appreciated.
Thank you

Fred

@Tim McElwain should be able to answer your questions.

gp1976

Fred thank you, well I think I have my answer, so I called a friend that is in the field and he asked me a few questions on the house itself, being that I’ve updated windows doors and roof plus insulation over the years and since the original boiler was sized for its original heat loss, he also asked how well the house felt in the winter time and I have to say that with all the updates over the year my top floor zone is almost never calling for heat, so he sees no problem with the smaller valve as most likely the heat load is much less then it use to be and this make sense to me so I think I’ll just use the one that Honeywell cross referenced.

Tim McElwain

Replace it with a Honeywell VR8300A-4508 which is a 3/4" x 3/4" valve which will more than handle your load. If you need a new pilot a Q314 with a Q340 thermocouple will do just fine. Just make sure you do a pilot safety turndown test on the new system.

gp1976

Tim thank you, one question though I’ve installed the valve you recommended and all seems fine, tested the pilot safety and it shuts off the gas just fine, also checked all my connections with better bubble and no gas leaks, but the my old General Controls V300 gas regulation was set at 2.3WC in the manifold, the incoming gas pressure is 6.7WC, the VR8300A is set for 3.5 is this fine or do I really need this combustion tested for correct settings sine I have no idea what the manufacturer had it set at when new, I was thinking that it was so low cause maybe the diagram in the old regulator was just worn? Not sure really why it was so low and I never had it adjusted in the 59 years of it in service.

Tim McElwain

With nothing else running go to the gas meter and with the heating system operating clock the burner using the 1/2 foot dial on the meter let it make two rotations and determine how many seconds it took. Example if it took 120 seconds then multiply that times 1,000 (heat value of a cubic foot of gas). In this case that would be 120,000 BTU's. If that is close to the BTU input of the equipment then you are all set. If not then you may have to adjust the regulator on the gas valve.