Boiler won’t shut off despite reaching desired thermostat temperature
My knowledge about my one pipe boiler and steam system is minimal. I recently had a gas fireplace installed, in the process the workers installing the gas line from piping that goes to my furnace accidentally caused a disjoint in the thermostat wiring to the wire that goes to the furnace. I reattached the wiring but since then my furnace will not shut off when it reaches the desired temperature on thermostat or even when I turn thermostat to “off.” I assumed I re-attached the wires incorrectly and have tried several different combinations with the same result. The wire to the furnace has a red and white, the wire from thermostat has two whites. I feel like I have tried every possible attachment combination (maybe not?). Is it possible the wiring or unit are just bad or short circuited to due the tampering? The thermostat and wiring are very old. I am thinking the easiest solution may be to just have new wiring and unit replaced altogether, but my hunch is it may be a very simple fix? I appreciate any advice or help.
Thank you,
Ryan
Comments
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There is a high likelihood they shorted the wires from the thermostat and now it’s acting like a continuous call for heat. If that’s the case it needs rewired, but probably don’t need to replace the thermostat.0
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Okay, thank you very much for the help!!0
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It should be a simple fix. if your thermostat has just the two wires (they should be white and red, but no matter) it is, basically, just a simple switch.
So.
Start with the red and white wire from the furnace. The furnace should turn on when the two are hooked together, and should turn off when they are separated (best to do the hooking together and unhooking with the power off... although if you really know what you are doing you can get away with doing it live). Does it pass that test? If the furnace runs whether or not the red and white from the furnace are hooked together, it is likely that there is a short between the red and the white wires. It is usually easiest to run new wire rather than try to find it. If it passed, now hook the white wire from the thermostat to the white wire, and the other thermostat wire to the red wire. With the thermostat off, does the furnace run? It shouldn't. If it does, you either have a short between those two white wires from the thermostat or the thermostat has a problem. To find out, take the thermostat off the wall and unhook the two wires. Leave them separated. Now does the furnace run? It shouldn't. If it does, at this point you're pretty sure to have a short between those two white wires, and the simplest thing to do may be to fish a new wire pair through. If it passes that test, hook the thermostat up again and leave it off. Dos the furnace run? It shouldn't, an if you've gotten this far it's likely the problem is in the thermostat somehow.Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England1 -
If you disconnect the wires from the tstat does the boiler stay on? If so then disconnect the wires from the boiler....does it shut off then?
Can you post a picture of where they "disjointed" your wire?
They actually owe you for this grief BTW.
Probably do not want them to "fix" it though.
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Thank you for the thorough response I’ll try this procedure!0
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Thank you, I disconnected them all, attached is the photo. The red and white over blue pex is coming from boiler, two whites split are coming from thermostat0
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When you did this, what happened?
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It stops running when they all are disconnected, however I turned the power off first before disconnecting them.0
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How did you splice them when you re-connected them? Did you use a wire nut or something or at least some tape to keep them from shorting?0
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My suggestion was to do that in 2 steps.
1. Remove tstat and disconnect wires at wall.......do you still have the burner?
2. Leave the tstat removed as above and take apart the splice we see in your picture.........do you still have the burner on?
Can you show us where/how the cable was cut by FP people?
Or did they just pull this connection apart??1 -
OK,,, but what about the rest of the troubleshooting steps I gave you?ryanhare37 said:It stops running when they all are disconnected, however I turned the power off first before disconnecting them.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England1 -
All those steps were spot on! I figured it out following that process, I didn’t suspect the thermostat since wires were clearly disconnected and seemed to be obvious problem, however somehow the thermostat shorted. I had to go through whole process in the steps you gave to figure it out. After i replaced the thermostat, everything is functioning great. Thanks to all for the help,
Jamie your steps were perfectly explained, and troubleshooted the problem for me. Thanks so much for the thorough reply! I am very appreciative!
-Ryan
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Hi everyone 👋, it's my 1st time on this furnace / boiler platform and I'm on here to ask if anyone can help guide me to turn off this boiler to the upstairs lower registers . I was reading the comments that ryanhare37 was having and I noticed that I was having some of the same issues with my thermostat. I turned the wall thermostat off but, it doesn't turn these bottom lower registers off , they are still on, I knelt down to touch the unit and boy was it hot.
I did call and check to see how much it would cost me for someone to come out and see what's going on with it but the price was way over my limit $140 an hour and that's not including the extras needed. I'm a disabled 61yr old female and I'm by myself . So trying to get this fixed and working right will have to be put on hold till the funds are available. I really appreciate any type of feedback on this and I just want to say thank you for even reading my message 🙏
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We all would certainly like to help.
Can you take some pictures of your boiler or furnace from about 10' away and then a few of the wiring and controls and finally pictures of the baseboard, radiator or registers or whatever the heat is coming from.? Also what do you use for your domestic hot water?
Does it come from the furnace/boiler or is it a separate tank?
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It might have been better to start a new thread….
That said, can you tell us a little more about your system? When you refer to "lower registers" it's noto really clear just what we are dealing with. Is this a hot air system? And the registers are blowing hot air? Or is this a hot water system with radiators? Or baseboard elements? Or are we talking about a whole lower floor being hot while an upper one isn't?
The solution is likely to be similar in any case, but it would help to know what we are dealing with.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
OK folks — I sent @boujee25 a PM, and she responded with two pictures — hot water baseboard heat. Rather beat up, but that's what it is.
I also asked her to check up here on the Wall…
So @EBEBRATT-Ed questions are spot on.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
Hi, I just read your message and I'll definitely get those pictures, I have to make my way to the downstairs where the furnace is, if that's even what it's called... I'm so confused 🤔 LoL. Sorry about that.
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@EBEBRATT-ED ,
I sure hope that this helps, I hope that I took the right pictures please let me know, thank you so much
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I hate to do this, but could you take another from about 15 feet away. Looking to see what's at the top of this pipe.
In the meantime, there should be a switch at the top of the stairs (or somewhere) with a blue or red plate. You can shut it off until you need heat. But hopefully it's resolved before that.
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For starters just to help you out a bit with the terminology you have a Burnham (the manufacturer) hot water heating boiler fired by natural gas, It appears to be a one zone system so you should have 1 thermostat and 1 circulating pump (the green motor in the picture attached to the pipe).
Basically the operation of this system is simple.
You have 120 volt power from your circuit breaker (or fuse) panel to the boiler.
When the thermostat calls for heat it sends a signal to the Honeywell relay (gray box to the left of the circ pump) this relay starts the circ pump and the boiler to give you heat.
There should be an 'ON-OFF" switch (like a light switch) on the boiler but I do not see one. Some older jobs the switch for the boiler was at the top of the basement stairs. Gas boilers don't usually have a switch up in the house for the boiler but it is possible.
On the left side of your picture is a Honeywell switching relay that controls the boiler operation. I can see the 120 volt power coming into that relay (heavy white wire). Perhaps a friend, relative or Neighbor could trace this wire to a switch or to the circuit breaker panel to shut the boiler off. This would prevent heating for now until you can get the problem fixed.
Your problem is probably a simple fix, bad thermostat, bad relay or a shorted thermostat wire.
Hope this helps.
Maybe post your location and someone may be able to help
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