Burnham V13A oil burner won’t shut off when set point

snickers

Our 40 year old Burnham oil boiler won’t turn off when it reaches set point on one of the two zones (Zone 2). Other zone works fine. We jut replaced both Hunnewell Home nonprogrammable round thermostats, thinking it might be the thermostats. We checked the power. 24V at boiler control panel and no power at Zone2 thermostat.
The red reset button on the controller keeps firing when we press it. Before it would turn off and then when pressed again, turn on. Could that be the problem? We cleaned the vents and replaced the oil filter canister at the oil tank. The zone valve is heating and both levers are in open position. We turned down the temp from 180 to 170, to see if that worked. It didn’t. We turned thermostats down and tried to restart the boiler ( emergency switch on and off). Didn’t matter. (Burnham v13A, Carlin burner motor model c100CRD, Taco zone valve, 571-2, psi 10, temp 160F). Runs continuously. The ones who serviced our boiler last left filter spilling oil from filter canister and no cleaning or efficiency test. We are hoping to get advice to see if it is a DIY or we can find new HVAC repair that can do it. We are wondering if we need a new controller. Thanks.

JohnsonNDix

that’s a whole lot of information all at once! Can you please tell me what the original problem was?

and did you call the technician for this or was the leaking filter something that happened prior to this problem?

I apologize for my confusion….

Jamie Hall

First off, stop messing with the reset button. It's a reset for some of the safeties on the burner. It's not a stop start button.

Now. What, as @JohnsonNDix asked, was the original problem you were trying to solve (not that there may not be a number of other problems now, but let's get back to the original one)? I take it that the boiler keeps firing when one of the thermostats is turned down? The thermostat controls the zone valve. One possibility is that the zone valve isn't closing; several possible reasons for that. Another is that the thermostat isn't turning off when it reaches the setpoint. You could swap thermostats to check that. Another is a short in the wiring between the thermostat and the zone valve.

Now it's also possible that there is a problem with the zone valve itself — either the end switch isn't opening or it's just stuck. Then it's also possible that there is a problem with the wiring between the zone valve and the boiler.

However, if the original problem is that the system doesn't respond to being turned off by one of the thermostats, none of the other things you mentioned have any bearing on the problem.

So. Back to square one here.

Does the boiler and corresponding zone valve for your first zone respond correctly? You turn up the space thermostat and the zone valve opens and the boiler comes on and you get heat? And then you turn the thermostat down and it stops? Yes or no.

Now do exactly the same thing on the second zone. Again, yes or no answer.

And please report back. We'd like to help, but at the moment we can't with what you've reported and done.

snickers

Thank you JohnsonNDix and JamieHall. Sorry for the confusion. I am new to this. The issue was and remains to be that my Burnham oil burner keeps firing and heating the house after set point. So the thermostat is set at 62F and it keeps heating to over 80F.

My correction- I thought one zone worked but as of last night, I found neither zones work. So I tried to problem solve. The things I did: 1. called the oil service professional. Nothing solved. Cost over $400.00. He replaced the oil filter from tank to boiler, but it leaked. It is old. He didn’t clean out or diagnose the problem. 2. I bought a new filter canister at the plumbing supply store. Old one replaced. We bled the lines for air. Looked good. But it didn’t change the problem. 2. I bought two new thermostats thinking the problem was the thermostats malfunctioning. Nope. I first wrote that zone 1 works, but neither zone one or two work. Last night the thermostat was at 62F yet the room temp went to over 82F. 3. Vacuumed the vents, checked for wiring and leaks. 4. Checked voltage of the red and white wires at boiler. 24v. Thermostats no power. 5. Air dusted the Aquastat.

Thank you so much. I hope this helps

snickers

to answer your question Jamie Hall- “When you turn on the space thermostat.. and you get heat? Answer: When I turn on the emergency switch, the boiler runs. When I turn the thermostat down, it should turn the boiler off. It doesn’t. It doesn’t turn on or off the boiler at the thermostat.
The first time I noticed oil coming out of the canister was after I called the technician to come fix the boiler issue running constantly. He told me it just needed an annual tune up and he replaced the filter. After he left, I noticed oil coming out of the filter canister. The company didn’t return. So I bought a new one. The original problem of the house heating up to 80F without thermostat controlling it, is the problem I am hoping to get fixed. Thank you.

Jamie Hall

OK. Well, it's nothing to do with the filter or the oil canister or the leak or the burner.

The burner runs and keeps on running is the problem.

The burner is commanded to run by having a closed circuit between T and T on the burner control box. This closes a relay in the burner control which, in turn, turns on the burner fan and oil pump and the ignition and off you go.

So…

The first thing I want you to do is go to the burner control and find T and T on it. Post a picture if need be. When you do, turn off the unit with the emergency switch and disconnect the wire or wires on one of the T terminals. Now turn the boiler back on. If it runs the problem is in the burner control box. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened that the contacts on the relay in the burner control box fuse closed. This is actually a rather dangerous condition, which is why I want you to check it first. If it runs with T-T disconnected, turn it back off and get your tech. to come and replace the burner control.

Let's get optimistic and say that the above test shows the burner control is OK. Now what we need to do is to find out where the closed circuit is that's turning on the burner. So, follow the wires connected to T-T back to the next thing they are connected to — could be any of several things — and disconnect one of the wires there. Does the burner still run? Check those wires.

And I think at this point… tell us what those wires connect to.

snickers

Jamie Hall, great. Thank you for walking me through this. I will get to this a little later today and report back.

snickers

JamieHall. Update. The problem is fixed. I switched both zone valves from open to Auto. Now my thermostats are regulating the heat. I don’t know why the technician manually opened the valves. I also took the wires off and the boiler continued. To walk through the diagnosis was a great learning experience. It has worked great now for 24 hours so I hope this was all. Thank you for helping me.