Vent damper lifespan

David Efflandt

Original Effikal 6" vent damper on gas steam boiler apparently did not last 1 year (boiler installed by previous owner Jan. 2001). Boiler was oversized and damper would fail to reopen when warm (no fire after 1st pressure cycle, until cool down).

So I replaced it with Honeywell D896A 1277 my first heating season. Worked fine for 2 years. This season, occasionally it would open (as indicated by call for heat and open LEDs), but it would fail to make contact to fire boiler (moving wires or plug would fire it up). There seems to be a problem with its 4-prong socket (even after replacing plug and wiring).

So I was wondering what the average lifespan is of an automatic vent damper, or which one would work best? My boiler is oversize (almost double), but does not start pressure cycling until about 20 minutes into a heating cycle (0.5 cut-in/1 rising diff).

Neil_5

Same Issue Here

David:

Just to add to your damper woes, I myslef had a new Burnham Series 2 boiler installed last Sept. By November the automatic damper would open when it wanted to Under warranty had a new style unit replaced and so far (knock on wood) all is well. So in 3 mths my original damper failed. If you give it a nudge it would start rotating. At least it have the overide switch which would leave it in the open position, but like in my case, mine failed to open at 12am @ 15deg outside, so by 730 when I woke up .........

Neil

S Ebels

I've seen many

Many of them are old, like 10 years+. I can't really say what the average life would be, probably on the order of 7-10 years. I have seen some that fail regularly, 2-3 years and dead. The common denominator on 90% of the ones that fail is short cycling due to improper wiring and/or oversized equipment. Those things operate in the 3-5000 times per season range. A boiler that's short cycling can double or triple that causing a lot of excess wear and premature failure of the part.

Kal Row

get yourself a tekmar thermostat...like a 510..

it has built in short cycle protection - and your damper will last three times as long,
as is usual, with boilers, on the tekmar controls and Tstats

drawback - it needs 24v to tstat, and it has a mind of it's own and you might not have the patients for it, to start or stop the boiler

other pros: remote and multi sensor capable

DaMooch

Life Span of Effikal Dampers

I have seen Effikal vent dampers las for years, but I have also seen them only las a couple of days. The same is true for the Field Controls Vent dampers. Both Manufacturers offer a 5 year warranty on this part.

I have seen several that are defective - most common problem is that the end switch does not make.

Unknown

Field Controls Dampers

are actually Effikal Dampers with Field name.

David Efflandt

life extension thought

I just thought of something that may help me. Originally the wiring loop was thermostat, Pressuretrol, damper, burner. So when it short cycles when warm (off 30-45 sec, on 90 sec), the vent damper is cycling everytime the Pressuretrol cycles (5 to 10 times more than normal?).

If the wiring order was changed to thermostat, damper, Pressuretrol, burner, the Pressuretrol could cycle the burner, while the vent damper would only cycle with the thermostat. That may significantly extend the life of the automatic vent damper with minimal impact on efficiency (short off time while pressure cycling). And even the Effikal damper that fails to reopen when hot may work, because it would have a chance to cool down between heating cycles, instead of frequent hot cycles.

Added Note: It looks like the problem with the Honeywell vent actuator was a pin for the plug socket that came loose from the circuit board. So a quick solder job should resolve that, with normal wiring per boiler docs.

Steamhead

That makes sense

but if something went wrong and it was found that the wiring didn't conform to the manufacturer's diagram, there could be issues..... Tim, what's your take on this?

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