Boiler won't turn off?

Shefwedfan

I have my oil boiler on a Climote timer. I came back the other day to the boiler going full blast. Checked all the timers and they are all set to off. The only way I could stop it is kill the power.

I rang Climote and they said it could be a pump/valve which is keeping the boiler going. They checked the Climote and said everything was ok. I turned everything off and back on. Worked


Now today again, as soon as I turn on power to the boiler it just keeps going. The boiler has 5 pumps. They seem to be all going.



Any idea's what might be wrong?



Once the boiler is on it is heating the house etc. Just can't turn it off from the controls

Wearb

What calls on each pump to run, a room stat?
Is your zones controlled by pumps rather than the traditional zone valves?

Shefwedfan

Wearb wrote: »

What calls on each pump to run, a room stat?
Is your zones controlled by pumps rather than the traditional zone valves?

Their is a single stat for the whole house.



The house is zoned but not on automatic vavles. I have attached a picture.



So to control the heat in the rooms I just use TRV's

Wearb

So if I understand it correctly, when your heating is turned on all you pumps run/

This single stat calls for heat and fires the boiler?

Just had a quick look at climote online. You need to establish if its calling for heat even when turned off. You should be able to do this from the wiring centre with multimeter. Or from the thermostat. btw does turning down your thermostat not shut it off?

Shefwedfan

Sorry for not coming back. Wife had the stove going today so couldnt really tell what was kicking in or not

So I checked now, the pipes are red hot but the water doesn't seem to be going to the radiators. The pumps are all going bar one I think doesn't seem to be spinning and the pipe below it doesn't seem to be hot

The hot water in the house is red hot.

I checked with Climote, they dialed into the box and said it wasn't the Climote calling the boiler.

Said it must be something on the system not allowing the boiler to shut down.

agusta

pump not working= no power going to pump or new pump

Shefwedfan

agusta wrote: »

pump not working= no power going to pump or new pump

Yes but would one pump not working mean the boiler won't turn off and keeps all the other pumps on


Climotesaid if I had motorized valves one of them might not shut and that could be issue?? But I dont

John.G

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Yes but would one pump not working mean the boiler won't turn off and keeps all the other pumps on


Climotesaid if I had motorized valves one of them might not shut and that could be issue?? But I dont

Faulty frost stat? but one wouldn,t think that this would start the pumps as well, normally a simple auto by pass is fitted to cater for this.

Wearb

Maybe a faulty pump over-run?

btw you didn't answer my question on the room stat

Shefwedfan

Wearb wrote: »

Maybe a faulty pump over-run?

btw you didn't answer my question on the room stat

Sorry I thought I did. Yes the single stat calls for heat and turns on the boiler

So normally if I turn on Climote, it will fire the boiler. I can turn down the stat and it will turn off the boiler.

I think once the boiler is on/off the pumps all turn off if I remember correctly

Now I have a stove connected to the heating system as well and it has a stat, so if the stove gets to a certain temp it will start all the pumps to send the water around the radiators.

Wearb

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Sorry I thought I did. Yes the single stat calls for heat and turns on the boiler

So normally if I turn on Climote, it will fire the boiler. I can turn down the stat and it will turn off the boiler.

I think once the boiler is on/off the pumps all turn off if I remember correctly

Now I have a stove connected to the heating system as well and it has a stat, so if the stove gets to a certain temp it will start all the pumps to send the water around the radiators.

Perhaps the stove stat would be a good place to start your investigation. I presume this runs independently of the climote?

Shefwedfan

Wearb wrote: »

Perhaps the stove stat would be a good place to start your investigation. I presume this runs independently of the climote?

Yes, I did turn it to the max yesterday and it seemed to stop the water running to the stove so I guessed that ruled it out.....

Shefwedfan

Ok, I am back. Now please note I would normally get my plumber to do all this. He called in last week to install a MagnaClean and said he wouldn't bother because he would have to empty the system. So he would leave it and install after he came back from hols. Of course as soon as he left this started to happen....

The previous time I asked another plumber to come in, he walked around for 30 mins complaining, said he would be back in an hour and never appeared again. Seems like people dont like the complexity of the system

So I got some free time and spent a good time listening. After a while I worked out it wasn't all the pump's but a single pump which was running. If you see from original picture it is marked conserv but you can also see at the bottom of that pipe it spilts into two and it has a white box on it.

Not this is the box to turn on/off the hot water. It marked stat water or something like that. So I took this off and the screw was horizontal. So I turned it vertical and boom the pump went off.

Now if I look at the white box. See pic attached. It is in a horizontal position. If I turn it around to vertical then the light pings on.

Really should the light come on when horizontal and it turns on the pumps. So is this broken?

I hope I explained. I took a pic, the pump is now off and the light is off on the stat

Thanks for advice...I have turned off the water now and left the stat hanging off and the pump turned off. It seems to have stopped the boiler kicking in

John.G

The "white" box is a motorized valve actuator which will be energised/de energised by the cylinder thermostat. When it opens it closes a auxiliary contact in the actuator which starts the boiler, when the cylinder reaches its set point of normally 60C it de energises the actuator and it returns to its closed position under spring pressure and opens the auxiliary contacts and shuts the boiler down. If you move the lever manually then you should feel some resistance as the actuator is opened, then when you release it, it should return to its (normally) closed position under the spring pressure.
I think you have found your problem.

Shefwedfan

John.G wrote: »

The "white" box is a motorized valve actuator which will be energised/de energised by the cylinder thermostat. When it opens it closes a auxiliary contact in the actuator which starts the boiler, when the cylinder reaches its set point of normally 60C it de energises the actuator and it returns to its closed position under spring pressure and opens the auxiliary contacts and shuts the boiler down. If you move the lever manually then you should feel some resistance as the actuator is opened, then when you release it, it should return to its (normally) closed position under the spring pressure.
I think you have found your problem.

Thanks, as I still have it connected to the power it is still firing the boiler.....thought it was but it is....need to pick up a replacement tomorrow....I guess I can just buy a replacement white box part and hook onto the existing valve?

John.G

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Thanks, as I still have it connected to the power it is still firing the boiler.....thought it was but it is....need to pick up a replacement tomorrBow....I guess I can just buy a replacement white box part and hook onto the existing valve?

Yes you should be OK with that

Steve

Depends how the system is wired, but in the MV there is a small micro switch that is commonly used to call the boiler. I've had them fail positive numerous times and was the cause of what you are seeing.