What is causing this issue? We replaced zone valves every 2 years it seems.

iiswansongii

Hello! I'm hoping someone can offer some advice with the trouble we are having. For the past 4 years we replaced a zone valve to one of the zones in our house twice. I understand zone values are supposed to last for years and years (more then 2 years) but this year again the zone valve is not shutting off when the temperature is reached. It stays on. To fix this problem we had the thermostat updated to a new one, replaced zone valve motors and entire box many times. What information do you need to help trouble shoot?

Thank you for any advice you can provide!

I dont know if i put this in the right category. We have Gas powered hot water baseboard heating.

Ironman

Are the valves installed so that they are closing AGAINST the flow?

Some pics would help.

hot_rod

A spring return type zone valve? Send some pictures.
Most often eIther the motor fails and the valve does not open, or the end switch fails and it does not fire the boiler and pump.
Ocassionally the valve mechanism goes bad.
It would be good to know what fails.

STEVEusaPA

What type of zone valves, how many total, and what size is the transformer (VA), to which these zone valves are connected?

EBEBRATT-Ed

You could be overpumping the system. Those zone valves ought to last 10 years

ScottSecor

In addition, I've witnessed many zone valves short-cycling due to incorrect thermostat anticipator (cycles) setting.

iiswansongii

I don't know what angle you need so i took a few. The one that is failing is the one that says bedroom 2nd from right. The furnace is to the right. They are connected to a pipe that goes across, furnace on the right and the last box that is horizontal on the far left is for the 3rd floor converted attic room.
We have one zone upstairs. 2 zones on the main floor, and 1 zone in the basement.

Let me know if you need a different angle.

Big Ed_4

They look like power open and power close ? The right thermostat is important

hot_rod

ThoseWhite Rogers have a rotating spool. What happened is the fluid can cause the spool to stick and they shear the coupling between the motor and valve.

If you knew for sure what caused the failure it might be worth running a Hydronic cleanerin the system, flush and refill with good water.

While not my favorite valve, they do seem to last 15 years or more it treated fairly.

Jamie Hall

Have you made any attempt to find out just what is failing in the valve? Or are you content to just say well, it broke again, replace it?

With any mechanical (or electronic!) device, if you get successive failures of the same component, it is often not the fault of the component at all, but of something external to it which is causing it to fail. You need to find out what, and fix that -- then the component will stop failing.

Zman

It is always a good idea to manually cycle the valve body itself when you change the powerhead. If the valve itself is difficult to move by hand, that is a good indicator that the powerhead will have a reduced lifespan.
You may be at the point where changing the who valve (preferably to a newer design) is in order.

EdTheHeaterMan

Big Ed_4 said:

They look like power open and power close ? The right thermostat is important

This valve is operated by a standard 2 wire thermostat. On a call for heat the motor opens and there is a heat activated warp switch that opens so the motor stops at 90° where the valve is open. When the call for heat is satisfied, the heater is deactivated and the warp switch closes to power the motor another 90 degrees to close the valve. So there are 3 things that could be causing the problem.

1. The warp switch may not close at the end of a call for heat
2. There is a holding contact that keeps the motor operating until it completes the 90 degree turn. this holding contact may be defective.
(both 1 and 2 can be fixed with a spray electric contact cleaner)
3. The valve body (the part attached to the pipe) may have a defect that is causing undue stress on the motor/valve mechanism. This will cause the motor to operate at a higher current to overcome the added friction. Over time the motor will fail. (replace the entire valve. body and actuator)

Big Ed_4

Thanks for the lesson

clammy

Possible have them changed out to a better zone valve and have some one straighten out your zone valve wiring and add a zone valve controller makes life easier all around . As others have stated fluid condition is important and if the system was not properly cleaned and flushed you will continue to have issues w valves sticking and failing .i would change them out to taco sentry zone valves ,have not had a issue w a single one of them since I have discontinued using Honeywell as well as other zone valves , better design and quite reliable . I just find the time in going through some one bird nest wiring is unacceptable when fairly in expensive controllers are readily available and for the past few years I’m basically just using the exp zone and pump controllers just a few extra opts I’ve r the standard for a few cents more it makes sense plus makes trouble shoot easier for a tech which means less time trouble shooting smaller service bills just my observation , nothing worse then messing w a bird nest and have loose wire nuts to fart about with and getting call backs on terrible low voltage control wiring it’s 2022 for god sake make it easy on everyone and step up your game and modernism your wiring isn t asking for much from a contractor being a bird nest of wiring isn’t what I call top notch peace and good luck clammy

clammy

Ps on a smaller note w zone valves on the supply you should have either a manual by pass w a globe valve or even better a pressure differential valve which is set to by pass instead of dead head pump and increase velocity a across the valves as they open and close a little better install design ,but that usually to much for most contractor to think about when replacing a hot water boiler . Just some food for thought again Peace and good luck clammy