Triangle Tube Instinct Thermostat issue

Peter51

I installed a Triangle Tube 199 Instinct Solo boiler last year. Since the installation date, when I select Thermostat / outdoor curve, the unit goes into standby. This causes the setpoint go away and the temperature goes down to room temperature. If I select setpoint / constant the unit runs normally. The outdoor sensor is working and it shows the outside temperature within 5 degrees. I called Triangle Tube help desk, they helped until they found out that I am not an authorized service tech. I think that the problem is in their software. Can anyone help me?

GGross

"If I select setpoint / constant the unit runs normally."

this setting doesn't use a thermostat, it just runs constantly on that setpoint temp, which means it IS NOT using your thermostat. So when you select the option to actually use the thermostat, "thermostat and outdoor curve" and the unit goes to standby what that sounds like to me is that your thermostat is either not working, or is not tied into the terminals for a call for heat on the boiler

Big Ed_4

Change the batteries first..

Peter51

Thank you for the reply. I have experimented with this situation. I disconnect the thernostate connection to the boiler. I then place a short across these terminals. The boiler still goes into standby. I checked the voltage across the terminals: 5 V when open , 0 V when shorted. And there is no batteries involved with this set up. I am using a Tyco zone controller. The boiler just ignores the short across the terminals. When the boiler is set for thermostat/setpiont everything works, execpt the boiler stays at setpoint. When the boiler is set for thermostat/outdoor curve the boiler should run between the min setpoint and max setpoint, which it does not do. That's why I think that the software is messing up.

HVACNUT

Standby simply means there's no demand, so

if Thermostat & Outdoor Curve are set up correctly,

and its wired correctly, then it just might possibly be a bad board.

If you jump CH1 at the board, then the boiler should cycle. Unless its in lockout. But the display would show that.

Is it possible the ODR is set too low?

Peter51

When setting the program to thermostat/setpoint the min setpoint is 120 deg, the max setpoint is 170 deg. the boiler shutdown is set at 186 deg. the outdoor temp is reading 54 deg. outdoor curve is set for finned baseboard. We did try setting for other curves with the same result.

Jamie Hall

I think there may be a misunderstanding here. If you are running on outdoor reset the boiler should pick a setpoint which it tries to maintain by modulating firing rate — or if this is an arrangement where the outdoor reset is affecting a mixing valve, a mixing valve output temperature which it will try to maintain.

If this is the boiler control to which you are referring, as I think is the case here, the setpoint is determined by the control based on outdoor temperature and the setpoint curve. Your thinking that if the boiler is asked to run based on the outdoor reset it should cycle between the maximum setpoint and the minimum setpoint is not correct.

Peter51

When I place the boiler in thermostat/setpoint the boiler maintains the setpoint and when a zone thermostat calls for heat the zone pump moves water to the boiler and the boiler heats the water. Which then heats the supply to the zone calling for heat.

When I place the boiler in thermostat/outdoor curve the boiler goes into standby. The main pump shuts off and the boiler does not make heat. The water in the system will eventually go the ambient temperature. The outdoor temperature is at 54 deg. The outdoor sensor seams to be working since it reads the outdoor temperature within 5 degs. This is the problem.

Triangle Tube will not talk to me because I am not a licensed heating contactor authorized by Triangle Tube. The closest authorized service tech is 150 miles away.

I believe the software within the boiler is at fault. They did send me a replacement control board which acts the same way before they cut me off.

I welcome any comments.

HVACNUT

Warm Weather Shutdown?

GGross

Can you take photos of your settings? when the boiler is setup for "thermostat/setpoint" it shouldn't maintain the setpoint, it only fires to the setpoint when there is a call for heat. What you are describing sounds like "constant" mode where the boiler maintains the setpoint constantly and would then power on a zone pump with a call for heat. With your new board did you initially program it for "thermostat/outdoor curve"? and if so what were your curve settings, and warm weather shutdown? take photos of your settings, and the wiring where you have your call for heat wired to the boiler.

I have seen one time a board seemingly "locked" into its original settings and needed to get into the installer menu to manually change those settings. Access to the installer menu can be found in one of the manuals that came with the boiler titled "CTRLmax supplement"

https://downloads.ctfassets.net/sj902orc9wh4/PxvlDLQrnsmBL4BdnRixN/17cf5b833b01a65335466a295ce519ba/2019-15-CTRLMax-Supplement.pdf

Jamie Hall

Much as I regret to say this, this all sounds to me like an error programming the computer — not an error in either the software or the control board. In common with a lot of other more or less complex control software, the software is not always set up in quite the same way the user expects it to be, or wants it to be — and for better or worse, one has to play by the software's rules, not one's own.