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HVAC guys, boiler is lit but won't fire Need HELP

Odawgp
I kept the power to the unit off until i got the pilot lit,
turned on the power to the unit went in the house turned
one of the t-stats to on and set it to 70 nothing.
did that with the nexted zone, still nothing.
finally got to the last zone set and it fired up.
all three zones where getting heat until the smallest zone got to temp. and it kicked the boiler off even though the other 2 zones where calling for heat or at least should have been.
Now None of the zones kick the thing on,

i was thinking it was a thermosat problem

what do you think???
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Comments

18 comments

Date Votes
  • cce1302
    sounds like "lights are on, but nobody's home"
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  • elkoholic
    Sounds like a thermostat problem to me. The things are easier to replace than troubleshoot. Froze here last night for the 1st time. Must have been in the 20s for you. Good luck.
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  • Marc1301
    You can jump out the stats to tell if they are bad, but sounds more like a "high-limit" safety shut off to me.
    All the stats are doing is opening a water solenoid valve to that particular zone, and I find it hard to believe all 3 went bad at the same time.
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  • Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by Marc1301
    You can jump out the stats to tell if they are bad, but sounds more like a "high-limit" safety shut off to me.
    All the stats are doing is opening a water solenoid valve to that particular zone, and I find it hard to believe all 3 went bad at the same time.


    "high-limit" of what, water temp, psi, and how do you reset?
    thanks
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  • Marc1301
    Possibly water temp, from a scaled up heat exchanger.
    Also depending on what you have, it could be a flame rollout switch.
    Is it natural gas?
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  • Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by elkoholic
    Sounds like a thermostat problem to me. The things are easier to replace than troubleshoot. Froze here last night for the 1st time. Must have been in the 20s for you. Good luck.


    ya, it was cold but not as cold as the wife when she got me up at 4am
    and TOLD me to start a fire in the fire place.
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  • Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by Marc1301
    Possibly water temp, from a scaled up heat exchanger.
    Also depending on what you have, it could be a flame rollout switch.
    Is it natural gas?


    yes it is natural gas, water temp set at 170, water temp guage read 120 this morning but all the heat registers in the house where stone cold.
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  • Marc1301
    I presume you simply have 2 wire t-stats?
    If so, kill the power, and tie the 2 together,.......should be red, and white.
    Put the power back to it, and see if it fires.
    If not, raise the temp on the water stat, as it may be stuck, or out of calibration. Move it back and forth a few times.
    Check the "firebox" if you can get it to fire, and make sure the flame is not orange, or yellow, and is not rolling out of the box seeking oxygen.
    Also your zone solenoids could be stuck,........sometimes you can rap on them with a screwdriver handle, and get them to open up.
    There are so many boiler designs, and needless to say, we don't have them in Florida, except for huge high pressure, and low pressure commercial ones.
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  • Odawgp
    thanks that will at least give me somewhere to start, I hate not being able to fix stuff myself. If it doesn't start working after all that i will just call the repair guy


    thanks again
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  • Tailgunner1954
    quote:Originally posted by Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by elkoholic
    Sounds like a thermostat problem to me. The things are easier to replace than troubleshoot. Froze here last night for the 1st time. Must have been in the 20s for you. Good luck.


    ya, it was cold but not as cold as the wife when she got me up at 4am
    and TOLD me to start a fire in the fire place.


    Sounds like you need to put a little training time in. Your job is to cut and stack the wood, HER job is to haul it in and burn it. Now, if she does the cuttin & stacking.........than your on your own[:D]
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  • Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by Tailgunner1954
    quote:Originally posted by Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by elkoholic
    Sounds like a thermostat problem to me. The things are easier to replace than troubleshoot. Froze here last night for the 1st time. Must have been in the 20s for you. Good luck.


    ya, it was cold but not as cold as the wife when she got me up at 4am
    and TOLD me to start a fire in the fire place.


    Sounds like you need to put a little training time in. Your job is to cut and stack the wood, HER job is to haul it in and burn it. Now, if she does the cuttin & stacking.........than your on your own[:D]


    [:D] that's the way it usually goes but she is 7 1/2 months pregant so all has fallen on mey from here on out
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  • Tailgunner1954
    I know to many Amish women, they don't start taking it easy until about 2-3 days before giving birth, and they'll be back outside working in the garden within a week of giving birth.[:0]
    Smack her on the rump and tell her to quit slacking off [:D]

    Seriously, I'd probably be getting up to light a fire myself if I was in your shoes.
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  • Alpine
    I didn't know squat about boiler systems when I moved into this house. After having two repair techs come and do "on the job training" on my dime, I am now an expert on my system. I also opened an account at the local HVAC store and now can buy all the parts.

    Now I can troubleshoot and repair any part of the system.
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  • Odawgp
    Marc1303,

    well i did all that, the only thing that worked was I turned the system OFF. started over still nothing. i went to the stat in the house that had been working turned it on and it all fired.

    turned it off went to one of the next 2 and neither of the other two turn the system on not even when i jump the wires on the back of them.

    I rapped on the other two zones solenoid a few times still nothing. manual operating the valves doesn't turn on the system either.

    does the power to turn the burners on come threw the solenoids??
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  • William81
    Thermocupler might be bad
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  • Forkliftking
    Call Bob Villa (sp). He can fix it. LOL
    P.S. A thermocouple keeps the pilot light lit.
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  • Sperry
    It's cheaper to troubleshoot than to throw parts into it.

    A zoned system typically uses a control, like an Argo 3-Zone or 4-Zone control. There are other ways to wire it up, however.

    If a zone does not call for heat, she will not fire up. When you close a circuit [make a t-stat call for heat], are you getting power at a corresponding zone valve? The zone valve would first open, and then the boiler would fire. [If there is an electric draft thingie, that opens before the boiler fires].

    Is there one transformer or three? The t-stats and zone valves run on 24VAC.

    If the pilot stays lit, [and after you set the gas valve to "ON"], and the boiler fires, the thermocouple is fine.
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  • Odawgp
    quote:Originally posted by Sperry
    It's cheaper to troubleshoot than to throw parts into it.

    A zoned system typically uses a control, like an Argo 3-Zone or 4-Zone control. There are other ways to wire it up, however.

    If a zone does not call for heat, she will not fire up. When you close a circuit [make a t-stat call for heat], are you getting power at a corresponding zone valve? The zone valve would first open, and then the boiler would fire. [If there is an electric draft thingie, that opens before the boiler fires].

    Is there one transformer or three? The t-stats and zone valves run on 24VAC.

    If the pilot stays lit, [and after you set the gas valve to "ON"], and the boiler fires, the thermocouple is fine.


    ya there is a thingie, but it only opens for one of the three zones. i'm going to test the valve's tomorrow for now the fireplace will have to do.

    thanks
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