I smoked something in my heating system near the zone valves

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stejus

Minister of Fire
Jul 29, 2008
1,227
Central MA
Long story short. During hurricane Irene we lost power for four days. Found a generator and had to re-wire the generator plug to fit my external plug that feeds the 200 Amp panel. I didn’t wire it correctly at first and when I plugged in, the device shown in the picture started to bellow smoke out of it.

The good news is that’s all that happened. The domestic hot water still works, but the forced hot water heat is not turning on when triggered by the thermostat.
Is this something I need to get at a plumbers or electrical store vs a big box store?

Any help would save me $ rather than calling in the oil man to swap this out.
 

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Wow, that's the only thing you burned up in the whole house? That looks to me to be a simple transformer, most likely 24V coming out and 120V going in. It should be a simple thing to replace....Turn off the power going to the transformer, see the white romex wire coming from behind the black board to the transformer box? Make sure that is off at the breaker panel. Then you should be able to remove the transformer, take it to any plumbing house, and they can get you the new one. Most likely just some wire nuts behind it connecting the input to 120V. You can use a meter and check the output first, should be 24V I believe.....

Make sure the power is off (not when doing the test!) when you remove....no need for a shocking experience when replacing this.
 
bpirger said:
Wow, that's the only thing you burned up in the whole house? That looks to me to be a simple transformer, most likely 24V coming out and 120V going in. It should be a simple thing to replace....Turn off the power going to the transformer, see the white romex wire coming from behind the black board to the transformer box? Make sure that is off at the breaker panel. Then you should be able to remove the transformer, take it to any plumbing house, and they can get you the new one. Most likely just some wire nuts behind it connecting the input to 120V. You can use a meter and check the output first, should be 24V I believe.....

Make sure the power is off (not when doing the test!) when you remove....no need for a shocking experience when replacing this.


bpirger - I did comfirm the wiring behind it, just a couple of wire nuts like you said. I can only hope the surge didn't travel up to the the zone valves too. I won't know this until i swap this part out. As far as other things blown, just a a power strip and a ground fault plug that are wired right of the panel. Yes, I was lucky this was it.
 
Need more technical help if you can.

I replaced the TACO Transformer and that solved one problem. I tested each zone by turning up the thermostat. I could hear the zone open but I did not hear the circulation pump kick on to circulate the water through the boiler. I fired up the boiler by adjusting the Aquastat. The copper pipes that lead to each zone started heating throughout the entire feed. Not sure why because the circ pump was not moving the water. That led me to look at the circulation pump. When i opened the electical box for the circ pump, i noticed a capasitor that looked a little charred.

I guess the big question is the pump. Beyond this junction box are wires that lead to the electric pump. Does anyone know if replacing the charred capasitor is worth it or is it best to replace the pump. I'm hoping the surge just fried the capasitor and protected the pump. Any ideas?
 

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I can't tell what kind of pump that is from the picture....but I'll assume it is one of the small circulators that will set you back $100 or so. I'd replace the whole thing, better to do it now when it is warm out then find it dead on Christmas Eve or similar....but that's me. I'm not sure if you'll have shorted the windings or not.

As for the pipes getting warm, are they above the boiler? The hot water will rise of course and you'll get some natural flow...though it shouldn't be anythign like what the pump gives you. Becareful burning the boiler without the pump....it can get very hot very fast without water flowing. You might find that your high temp shut off could also be dead, just for example, and the boiler could really get hot....just a thought.

Do you have isolation valves around the pump? If so, it is a very simple thing to replace if it is one of the small circulators.....like an 007 or whatever. If you don't have isolation valves, well, it becomes a bigger job....requiring draining of the system at least to the nearest valves you can close.

But as you say, it may not be at all necessary.....How's all that for useless help?
 
The pump is a Taco Cartridge Circulator Model 007-f4. I know the aquastat is working fine because we have a tankless water heating in the boiler. Its firing the boiler on the low differential and shuting off at the Low point. When the forced hot water was working properly, I know the circulator pump kicks on before the boiler. Because I'm not hearing the circ pump, i suspect its the source of the problem now. I ruled out the zone valves opening because I could hear them open and close when i adjusted the heat on the thermostat.


bpirger said:
I can't tell what kind of pump that is from the picture....but I'll assume it is one of the small circulators that will set you back $100 or so. I'd replace the whole thing, better to do it now when it is warm out then find it dead on Christmas Eve or similar....but that's me. I'm not sure if you'll have shorted the windings or not.

As for the pipes getting warm, are they above the boiler? The hot water will rise of course and you'll get some natural flow...though it shouldn't be anythign like what the pump gives you. Becareful burning the boiler without the pump....it can get very hot very fast without water flowing. You might find that your high temp shut off could also be dead, just for example, and the boiler could really get hot....just a thought.

Do you have isolation valves around the pump? If so, it is a very simple thing to replace if it is one of the small circulators.....like an 007 or whatever. If you don't have isolation valves, well, it becomes a bigger job....requiring draining of the system at least to the nearest valves you can close.

But as you say, it may not be at all necessary.....How's all that for useless help?
 
Do you have those isolation valves? 007's are pretty cheap....
 
bpirger said:
Do you have those isolation valves? 007's are pretty cheap....

There are no valves above or below the circ pump. If you look at the first picture in this post, you can see the board that have a few valves. These are for the loops to floor 1 and floor 2. Not sure these are what you are referring to.
 
stejus said:
bpirger said:
Do you have those isolation valves? 007's are pretty cheap....

There are no valves above or below the circ pump. If you look at the first picture in this post, you can see the board that have a few valves. These are for the loops to floor 1 and floor 2. Not sure these are what you are referring to.

Most good installers will put ball valves on either side of the circulators so the circulators can be easily serviced or changed out without having to drain the system.
 
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