Burnham Alpine 210 stuck in standby mode (no response to call for heat)

cbrauckmuller

I have a Burnham Alpine 210 boiler that is failing to respond to a call for heat. It is stuck on status code 0, which according to the manual means “Burner off - no call for heat or DHW”. I have jumped the thermostat entirely to rule that out.

Disconnecting various safety sensors has the expected effect of throwing the boiler into an error mode, which goes away when they are reconnected and I reset the board.

I also tried swapping in a new MCBA board and no dice either. It just sits on code 0 and never tries to fire up.

I am out of ideas for what to try next, any advice?

JUGHNE

Does this have a warm weather shut down relying on an outdoor sensor?

EBEBRATT-Ed

If you have and outdoor sensor try disconnecting it

Ironman

Also, jump the thermostat terminals at the boiler to see if it fires. The wiring or another control in the circuit may be holding it off if it’s not in WWSD.

JUGHNE

If there is an outdoor sensor disconnected should he jumper those terminals?

Ironman

JUGHNE said:

If there is an outdoor sensor disconnected should he jumper those terminals?

No, the control would have to see an open circuit to override the WWSD feature.

HVACNUT

Is this one heat zone and one DHW zone, or is there an exterior zone panel?

cbrauckmuller

I disconnected the outdoor sensor already, and also tried jumping the thermostat terminals. Neither of those does anything.

There's no DHW zone just a heat zone.

cbrauckmuller

I did notice that in INFO mode, Step #6, which is the supply water set point temperature, is reporting 32F, while if I go into parameter (PARA) mode, step #4 which is the supply water set point temperature setting, is reporting 180F which is the default factory setting.

cbrauckmuller

As a sanity check, is this what I should be expecting to see? I pulled the jumper out and put the multimeter probes into the two heating thermostat terminals and it's reading ~27.5V AC.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

As a sanity check, is this what I should be expecting to see? I pulled the jumper out and put the multimeter probes into the two heating thermostat terminals and it's reading ~27.5V AC.

Yes, that's a good reading. It's the current from the boiler's transformer.

I'd say you have a bad sensor. Call tech. support tomorrow morning.

cbrauckmuller

That's my plan, I just can't help but think if it's a bad sensor then I should be getting an error/lockout code instead of the boiler claiming it's not seeing the call for heat.

Ironman

Ohm out the sensor and compare it to the chart in the I/O manual.

Most sensors are 10k ohm NTC @77*.

cbrauckmuller

Supply and return are within normal ranges but there's almost zero resistance on the "Auto reset high limit" sensor (I read 0.2Ω which is about what exists in the multimeter cables). Flue gas sensor is showing ~3,800Ω. Guessing that means they are toast...

neilc

' "Auto reset high limit" sensor (I read 0.2Ω which is about what exists in the multimeter cables). '
means that safety is closed, good to go,

' Flue gas sensor is showing ~3,800Ω '
not entirely sure here,
if this was open / closed, it would read as above, or open line(OL),
is this a temp sensor for the exhaust, or a spill switch?

ch4man

auto reset limit is a switch (I believe) so low/no ohms is good, 38K on the flue I think is ok if there is cold outside air hitting it.

try starting from scratch. start with the O/M and check every and all program parameters. maybe the board isn't set to respond to a CH call

cbrauckmuller

Tech came out and got it working again by disconnecting the blower fan power harness so the motor would stop spinning completely, and then reconnecting it. Now, as soon as the current heating cycle ends, the boiler will show E29 error code "blower fan speed has not returned to zero rpm", which it says is due to one of two problems: 1) Miswired fan speed harness or 2) Defective fan. I can get it working again by unplugging and reconnecting the fan after every cycle. The cost to replace the blower is in the $$$$-$$$$ range and at this point I am thinking that I'm better off scrapping the whole thing and installing a new boiler. Problem is I have to leave town next week and I can't get it replaced by then. Is there any way for me to keep this thing working while I'm out of town so my house doesn't freeze?

jad3675

Does throwing the disconnect for the power to the boiler have the same effect? If so, you could wire up a lamp timer (or wifi outlet) and reset it that way.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@cbrauckmuller

will it reset if you kill power to the boiler and re power it? If so you could get a spool of wire and a cheap electric heat baseboard thermostat (line voltage) and do a temp hook up so the line voltage stat kills the 120 volt power comes back on on temp. don't know if that will work

Too bad MOD CON parts are so many $$$$$$$$$$$$. It kills any savings fro rebates and fuel savings

EBEBRATT-Ed

@cbrauckmuller

There is one for sale on e-bay for your model boiler u can google it. Brand new

cbrauckmuller

Unfortunately killing power to the whole boiler does not do the trick. There has to be power running to the control board when the fan is disconnected and reconnected for it to "pick up" the change.

@EBEBRATT-Ed is this the part you're referring to? https://www.ebay.com/itm/372562161330

EBEBRATT-Ed

@cbrauckmuller

Yes, but it's e-bay so I would be cautious it says brand new and it's marked for the 210 boiler