I think I may have a zone valve problem

[David Cameron]

I'm a just signed up newbie making my first post. I'm a Canuck wintering in Gulf Shores Alabama for our fourth time. Our house sitter back home is having a problem with the heating. We have a 10 year old, oil fired boiler hot water system with five zones and using slant fin rads and all on one floor. The 4 zones for the three bedrooms and bathroom each service one small slant fin rad each and seem to be working fine. The biggest zone services 5 rads, consisting of 4 fairly big slant fin rads which is for the living/dining room, kitchen and 1 small rad at the bottom of the stairs going to the front door. That zone when operating normally has gone up to 74 F in the winter when it was accidently set too high and quite possibly could have gone higher. For whatever reason that zone seems to be acting erratically this year, sometimes getting that zone up to only 19 Celsius (66.2 F) maximum and sometimes only up to 15C (59 F). I had the thermostat changed but that had no effect. The boiler also heats an in-door swimming pool with it's own thermostat and I turned the heat down for while we're away and it's maintaining a constant 60 F, so it's fine. Is it possible for zone valves to for whatever reason start to act erratically? I hope that's the case because replacing the zone valve would be a simple solution. I hope someone out there in cyberspace might have some good input on my problem. Thanx for your attention and consideration.


Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/forum/b...k-i-have-faulty-zone-valve.html#ixzz3TSAaQcWw

 

[Dana]

Sure, it's possible for zone valves to get sticky, or leak a bit if it gets grit in the valve seat, etc. which could lead to those types of symptoms. Zone valves don't last forever Ten years isn't an outrageously short lifespan- most should last twice that or longer, but it happens. The more zones you have, the higher the statistical probability you have for finding one that fails earlier than the average. It might be something intermittent/flaky in the control wiring or zone controller too.

Unless the system has high mass radiation (or a buffer tank for thermal mass) having 5 zones can take a toll on efficiency and boiler wear & tear from short-cycling though.

So, the coral sands of the Gulf of Mexico are somewhat more comfortable than the beachfront on Hudson Bay this time of year?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[David Cameron]

Sure, it's possible for zone valves to get sticky, or leak a bit if it gets grit in the valve seat, etc. which could lead to those types of symptoms. Zone valves don't last forever Ten years isn't an outrageously short lifespan- most should last twice that or longer, but it happens. The more zones you have, the higher the statistical probability you have for finding one that fails earlier than the average. It might be something intermittent/flaky in the control wiring or zone controller too.

Unless the system has high mass radiation (or a buffer tank for thermal mass) having 5 zones can take a toll on efficiency and boiler wear & tear from short-cycling though.

So, the coral sands of the Gulf of Mexico are somewhat more comfortable than the beachfront on Hudson Bay this time of year?

Hi Dana ... Thanx 4 the reply. I don't know how it got there but it's nice to see the ensign flag. That's the flag of the Province of Ontario which I fly on my boat in place of the Canadian flag which I think looks more like a beer label. It was brought in by our now fortunately dead radical leftist Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau who was a good friend of Fidel Castro and an admirer of Mao Tze Tung, history's biggest mass murderer. At least he wasn't as bad as Hussein Obama but I digress. Anyway it sounds like the problem is a faulty zone valve and the solution is to replace it. I might not be able to see if that works for a while but I'll post the result when I know.
Actually I live on Gananoque Lake, probably about 1,000 miles south of Hudson Bay in Ontario and in fact just 1/2 an hour north of the border at the 1,000 Islands on the St. Lawrence River. Why anyone would want to live on Hudson Bay is beyond me. Actually probably only about 5 people do and they're probably bi-polar.

 

[Dana]

IIRC something like 90% of Canadians live within an hours drive of the US border.

There are surely more than 5 people in Ontario living on Hudson Bay, but the majority are probably Inuit (the southern shore being their version of a "warm spot to spend the winter", much like the mono-polar bears. )

 

[David Cameron]

IIRC something like 90% of Canadians live within an hours drive of the US border.

There are surely more than 5 people in Ontario living on Hudson Bay, but the majority are probably Inuit (the southern shore being their version of a "warm spot to spend the winter", much like the mono-polar bears. )

IIRC something like 90% of Canadians live within an hours drive of the US border.

Actually I think it's within 100 miles of the border. That's mainly because the three major population centres (or centers as you spell it in the U.S.) are Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto and Vancouver. The first three are on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes which were the first areas settled because of easy water transportation inland in the days of sailing ships and canoes. Vancouver is only incidently close to the border because it is a good natural port like San Francisco. Also agriculture is better farther south because of a warmer climate. I doubt if it's because it's closer to Florida to get there quicker in the winter. Actually I'm at amazed by how many Canadians consider winter as their favourite (or favorite as you spell it in the U.S. ... don't you like the letter U or something?) season because of downhill and cross country skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, snow ball fights and the joy of freezing in the dark.