I'm in a bit of a pickle... any Viessmann geniuses out there?

Constantin

... as you may know, we have a Viessmann Vitola/Vitotronic 200 system, which has worked great in conjunction with the power/pump module and a 4-way valve to keep the house under construction warm through thick and thin.

Two days ago, the wiring in the utility room was upgraded, with the rats nest of twist-on connectors and loose wiring to pumps being replaced by orderly electrical boxes and BX wiring. A Tekmar 369 now controls the pumps and zone thermostats in the walls seem to be running the show...

... except that something seems to be wrong with the 4-way valve...

Today, I came into the home and instead of maintaining the structure at 62°F, the insides were around 50°F. Even weirder, five out of six zones are calling for heat, yet the 4-way valve is all the way closed. In other words, it's just recirculating water within the system side...

... five out of six circulators are running, which I confirmed with the handy-dandy viessmann pump twirlie fob... yet the primary and secondary manifolds are cold to the touch...

... the boiler is warm, reports 120+°F hot water, which I can confirm after feeling the nipples in the side...

... therefore the only conclusion I can come to is that when the 4-way valve was reconnected its open vs. closed wires were reversed. Does this sound reasonable?

Dan Foley

4-way valve

Constantin,

Are you using a tekmar or Viessmann 4-way valve? If it is the Viessmann, there is a switch that reverses the direction of the motorized valve. You must remove the cover to access it. Check to make sure that it is in the proper position. Good luck! -DF

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Constantin

It's the Viessmann 4-way...

... so switching it would be easy enough. I'll head over there now to see what happens. Thanks a lot for the tip!

Do you think my suspicion is correct?

Kevin__Flynn

Constantin & Dan

The Vitotronic 200 Valve actuator does not have that reversing switch. Only the 300 Actuator has that switch.

On the 200 the plug inside the actuator must be turned 180 degrees and pluged back in. This reverses L1 & L2.

An easy way to tell if it is driving in the right direction first, is to do a relay test. There is a test that will drive the mixing valve closed and then open. If the valve is doing the opposite then the plug must be switched.

The relay test is accesed by holding in the "standby" button and the "OK" button at the same time.

Hope this helps.

Kevin Flynn

Mike T., Swampeast MO

\"Open\" Wiring...

...certainly isn't pretty and definitely prone to disturbance, but it's awfully easy to trace.

Know you have the photos to compare before and after and the smarts to know where reversed wires could cause the problems you describe.

Still remember an episode of "The Bob Newhart Show" when he screwed up his new stereo system and Emily prevailed in her argument to call a "pro". I was maybe 14 at the time, studying stereos and building Heathkits, and thought, "a doctor can't connect a few stereo components?"

Step back, study and prevail!

Constantin

SUCCESS!

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Once we reversed the plug in the 4-way actuator, the valve swung all the way the other way. We could feel the warm boiler water starting to course through the manifold and into the secondary zones... and the zone piping also creaked to let us know it was expanding...

We reviewed the wiring diagram and confirmed that the L1 and L2 wiring had been reversed when the boiler wiring was upgraded. Just goes to show that doing a relay test after any wiring work on the pump or the pump module like Kevin describes it is a really good idea!

As the valve started to modulate further and further open, the boiler temperature slowly dropped from 137°F, before settling around 87°F. Meanwhile, somewhere around 100°F the burner lit off to get the boiler back up to temperature. In other words, complete success!

Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it!

Dan Foley

Viessmann

Kevin,

Thanks for the tip. My limited Viessmann experience with motorized valves has been with the 300 actuator connected to a Vitodens. That's why I hang out here at the wall - you learn something new every day!

Constantin, good to hear you have everything working ok. -DF

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Glen

Vitotronic -

and - for the future - a relays test while observing rotation of the 4 way would have shown the reversed direction and also tested other outputs as well. Keep your toes warm.