Can you trouble shoot this?

[Gasifier]

I have an oil boiler and wood gassification boiler. They are hooked in parallel to each other. The oil boiler has a circulation pump just above it's output that turns on and feeds into the primary loop only when the buffer tank for the wood burning system gets below whatever temperature I set the aquastat on the tank at. Right now I am only heating hot water with the gassification boiler so I have the buffer tank above 140 degrees pretty much all the time by burning one fire a day.

For some reason, the circulation pump above the oil boiler is not working. The circulation pump is less than a year old. Installed when the Gasser went in last September, and came on line October 1st. I determined this when we let the Gasser go out and the oil boiler was running and trying to heat up the indirect tank but could not do it. I felt the pipe above the boiler and below the circ pump. It was plenty hot. But a foot or so above the circ pump, not hot at all. ? What do you think could cause this?

 

[mikefrommaine]

Do you have a zone relay controlling the pump? Something like this.

http://www.pexsupply.com/Taco-SR504-4-4-Zone-Switching-Relay

If so open it up and check the relays. Might try swapping the one for the boiler circ with another zone.

 

[mikefrommaine]

The relays look like this
http://www.pexsupply.com/Taco-SR024-001RP-24-Volt-Replacement-Relay-11395000-p

If that doesn't work, do you have a volt meter? Need to see if you are getting power to the pump.
Might just be air locked from not being used.

 

[Gasifier]

Do you have a zone relay controlling the pump? Something like this.

http://www.pexsupply.com/Taco-SR504-4-4-Zone-Switching-Relay

If so open it up and check the relays. Might try swapping the one for the boiler circ with another zone.

Yes. There is one of those, which was also installed at the same time, mounted on the top side of the Gasser's body or shell. And I believe the wire from that does go over to the circ pump above the boiler. Or the control box on the boiler. Which runs the circ pump above. Hmmm. I will look into that. I thought that maybe something went wrong with the circ. pump itself. But the Taco pumps are usually pretty reliable.

 

[Gasifier]

The relays look like this
http://www.pexsupply.com/Taco-SR024-001RP-24-Volt-Replacement-Relay-11395000-p

If that doesn't work, do you have a volt meter? Need to see if you are getting power to the pump.
Might just be air locked from not being used.

I did have to replace one of those before in one of my "boxes" on the wall in the boiler room. My brother came over with his meter and traced it out for me. Thanks for the information Mike. I will look into that tomorrow. I have not put any time into it because I am heating the water with wood boiler and am not having a problem with that. But need to get it fixed. Wife doesn't like it when we run out of hot water. I asked her if she has been living in mamby pamby land for too long.

 

[Bob Rohr]

I did have to replace one of those before in one of my "boxes" on the wall in the boiler room. My brother came over with his meter and traced it out for me. Thanks for the information Mike. I will look into that tomorrow. I have not put any time into it because I am heating the water with wood boiler and am not having a problem with that. But need to get it fixed. Wife doesn't like it when we run out of hot water. I asked her if she has been living in mamby pamby land for too long.

If the pump is powered and not seized up, possibly an air lock. These pumps need fluid moving thru them to cool them and keep the cermaic bearings lubed. Without flow they boil the water inside them, get very hot! and seize up. Some times they will free up when they cool down.

If the pump is above the boiler it needs a reliable air elimination device as the air bubbles rise to the high point in the system, which could be your pump, if not eliminated.

 

[maple1]

Would it be practical to move the pump to the oil boiler return line?

 

[Don2222]

Hello

In my case the Aquastat on the Superstor Indirect Tank is connected to the boiler control terminal # 4 (Tekmar 260) on one side and the other side goes to the terminal on the Taco Relay. The Taco relay is wired to the Taco Circulator to pump the boiler water thru the indirect tank

See diagram below. Hope this helps

 

[Gasifier]

Well guys, I got smokin busy with outside work and other projects and never even touched this problem with my circ pump on the oil boiler not getting the hot water to heat the in-direct hot water tank. I have just been burning one fire a day in the Wood Gun and that has been keeping us in enough hot water. The other day I went too long without a fire and notice that the oil boiler was running. I went down to check it out. The boiler was running, and the supply pipe was hot below the circ pump and above the circ pump. Yup, it was working, and I did not even touch it. One thing about the problem is that I never had any problem with it all winter long. The oil boiler only kicked on very rarely when I was away too long and the wood boiler and tank got to cool. I don't have any idea why it was not working that one particular day.

 

[Gasifier]

Okay.? Now it is not working. Went a little longer today without a wood fire in the boiler and the oil boiler did kick on, but no hot water getting past the circ. pump above oil boiler to the in-direct.? Good news is it only took about an hour for the pine slab wood fire in the boiler to heat up the Gun and the tank up over the aquastat temp needed. DHW water came quick. What can go bad in a Taco IFC circ pump? I switched a couple of relays around with one that is never used. Both of them were working. ? It appears as though the control box on side of wood boiler that goes to aquastat on tank and to oil boiler only has a fuse in it. That appears to be alright as well. Hmmm. Maybe it was or is airlocked. I don't know.

 

[Rob186]

I skimmed through all the other post did you check to see it the system is air bound air in a system can do funny things like that I would bleed the system good and see if that helps far easier than messing with relays

 

[Gasifier]

Well this problem has finally been solved. I obviously was not too overly concerned about it because I use the Wood Gun for heating everything year round. Back up is getting more important with colder temps and we will be going away a couple of times this winter for the weekend. So I made an appointment with my guys who installed my boiler system and the circulation pump above the oil boiler. He started testing things to find out why the oil boiler circulation pump was not working. It turns out that the control box for the boiler was working to turn the boiler on when aquastat on storage tank went below set temp. But, when the oil boiler turns on, the circulation pump should turn on as soon as the boiler it is up to temp. (Which does not take long in this oil boiler.) The circulation pump was not getting any power. So the determination was the board was bad in the control box. So I told him I have one of those control boxes. Years ago with my old boiler I found it handy to have a spare on hand. I told him it is right up there on the ledge on the wall. He said, "Oh, that is a good thing." (Because it was after 5pm last night and his HVAC store was closed.) So he tested it to see if it was good and of course it was. He swapped it out and we are all set now.