Boiler Mate Too Hot

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gixxer
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Post by gixxer » Tue. Jan. 01, 2013 5:14 pm

Hi guys. I'm new to my house and coal boiler. My boiler mate is hooked directly to the oil boiler feed and return without a zone valve but there is a check valve. Wiring wise from oil boiler to digital control of amtrol I have a wire from l1 and ZR plus neutral. From amtrol control it goes to a circ pump. I'm thinking that the circ pump between the coil boiler and oil boiler is also pushing hot water through boilermate and making adjustments impossisble? I've recently installed the coal boiler and never used the oil boiler so I don't know if this is an existing problem.
Thanks in advance

 
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dcrane
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Post by dcrane » Tue. Jan. 01, 2013 7:37 pm

i don't know alot about this but I do know check valves fail OFTEN! this would be my first focus if thats the only thing keeping the water from flowing 100% of the time through their.

 
equipmint
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Post by equipmint » Wed. Jan. 02, 2013 8:53 am

Sounds like you are plumbed in to use circulators for zone control rather than zone valves, which is fine when correctly installed. Normally a flow control valve which is similar to a check valve would be installed usually on the supply piping of each zone to keep any circulation from other heating zone or zones from circulating through your amtrol. Have you tried operating your circ pump that supplies heat to the house and letting pipes get up to temperature and feel the pipes going to your amtrol coil and see if they are getting hot.This may prove your theory on a hung up check valve. The other item I would look at is their a defect in your control system in other words is the thermostat in your amtrol calling for heat when the temp should be satisfied. What is the thermostat se for usually 120 degrees is a good start point. Sometimes these these small circulator pumps are hard to tell if they are running when the control system calls on them you may need to verify with a volt meter that the control system is not faulty and sendingn 110volt to your circ when it shouldnt. Bottom line is if your tstat in your amtrol is satisfied you should not have 110 volt going to your amtrol circ pump calling for it to operate when your water is actually at temp already.If you suspect check is hung up and have verified that your cirulator for the amtrol is not actually being called on to run by the amtrol control system I don't know if you are handy enough but if you let boiler cooldown by taking it out of setvice, and close your makeup water to your boiler and vent off the pressure usually just by opening a drain on boiler for about 20 seconds most check valves have a hex head on the top of them usually looks like a cap you can open and see if the flapper is broke or stuck open and make a decicion on replacement. Hope some of this steers you on a corrective action.


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Wed. Jan. 02, 2013 8:54 am

gixxer wrote:Hi guys. I'm new to my house and coal boiler. My boiler mate is hooked directly to the oil boiler feed and return without a zone valve but there is a check valve. Wiring wise from oil boiler to digital control of amtrol I have a wire from l1 and ZR plus neutral. From amtrol control it goes to a circ pump. I'm thinking that the circ pump between the coil boiler and oil boiler is also pushing hot water through boilermate and making adjustments impossisble? I've recently installed the coal boiler and never used the oil boiler so I don't know if this is an existing problem.
Thanks in advance
That is possible.

 
Don
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Post by Don » Wed. Jan. 02, 2013 12:01 pm

The same thing happened to me , the flow check valve had a tear in the leather flapper and it thermal syphoned.

 
kstills
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Post by kstills » Wed. Jan. 02, 2013 1:53 pm

This fall, I re-did my entire heating system to install a primary loop from my coal boiler to my old oil boiler, and while doing so I re-installed the amtrol and disconnected the DHW coil.

Since then, on occasion, I'll push water from the primary loop through the amtrol. Not all the time, but every once in a while I'll hear the high temp alarm going off down in the basement. At the moment, it's an inconvenience, but eventually I'll have to re-pipe the line so that the amtrol doesn't heat up past the set point (more for childrens safety than out of fear of damage to the unit). I suspect that I should have piped it into the primary using 1/2 inch line, instead of the 3/4 I used (primary is 1 inch).

Anyhow, I need to put the circulators for the zones on the supply to the oil boiler instead of the return to the coal boiler anyway, so it's something I'll tackle next fall.

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