Taco SR 503 Relay Switching Unit
I use this relay unit to turn on the hot water heat to my basement, bath and kitchen floors. The green power light is on but the zone 1 light is red and the zone 2 light is not lit at all. The only floor that is warm is the bath which is the furthest from the unit. There are four pumps in the system. Where do I begin to trouble-shoot? Start with the stats that connect to the SR503. Make sure they work. Temporarily jump out the TT at the SR503 and that zone should run Let's start with something really basic first... Find the pressure and temperature gauge on your boiler and tell us what the readings are. What is the make and model of the boiler? How is it that you have four pumps and only a 2/3 channel switching relay? How many pumps are connected to the relay? What controls the pumps that are not connected to the relay? How many thermostats total are in the home? You mentioned 2, if there are more than 2, what are the others connected to? I am attaching a picture of the system. I have one thermostat which controls the basement floor. The bath and kitchen floor are not on a thermostat but on a switch. Water flow is controlled by a knob. From the picture, you will see three inline pumps. The top pump (grey) is hot to the touch and sounds like water is going through it. The lower right pump (black) is barely warm but has some vibration. The lower left pump (grey) is also hot. The boiler is working because it also supplies the domestic hot water which is fine. Hope the attachment worked. Trooper did ask for some basic info. You need to supply this. Additionally you need to describe your zones better. Two mixing valves....? Plus better pics from all angles. We can help but need much information. I would say your grey pump may be for the megastor. You have a recirc pump on it I believe. And the two other pumps are low temp zones... Possibly an air issue? I ask again:............... Find the pressure and temperature gauge on your boiler and tell us what the readings are. What is the make and model of the boiler? You haven't really answered the question of how many thermostats you have. You've mentioned the basement, kitchen and bath, but surely you have a living room, dining room and bedrooms, yes? How are they heated? Are there any more thermostats or heat zones which you haven't mentioned? Unfortunately, the pic either started out too small to see much detail, or the forum resized it when you uploaded it... Water flow is controlled by a knob. Say what? Where is this knob located? bath and kitchen floor are not on a thermostat but on a switch. Can you please show us a picture of this 'switch' ? What Mike said... The small red and black pump is not part of the heating system. That one is for your domestic hot water. It is a 'recirc pump' that runs in order that you have hot water at the taps almost instantly instead of having to wait... The lower left pump is for your water heater, and the other two which are connected to those silver valves are for the heating zones. Please tell me that you haven't been trying to control the water flow by turning those grey knobs on the silver T valves... Those valves are for adjusting the TEMPERATURE of the water flowing in the floor in order to not overheat the floor. You must not send water any hotter than 120 through the floor. FYI, the contractor that installed my system 7 years ago left the state that is why I am trying to figure out what is wrong. I have not touched anything yet. I do know my recirculating pump is not working but that is something I can live without. I really do miss my warm kitchen floor. I have two thermostats in the house. The one on the main floor controls the gas forced air heat and AC. The basement thermostat controls the warm floor. My boiler is a Crown low pressure. Sending a picture of the label and the pressure gauge. The piping for the top pump goes up and down. The piping for the lower left grey pump goes into the storage tank and the black pump goes down and up. I am also sending a picture of a valve for the pressure relief system. This valve is leaking a little bit. OK, without going too far out in left field with the rest of the system, let's stick with what I see that is immediately obvious in the pics... The pressure in your boiler is TOO LOW. That gauge is showing me about FIVE PSI. The pressure in any boiler system when COOL should be no less than 12 PSI. As the system heats, the pressure increases due to the expansion of the water when heated. Your temperature gauge is showing 'about' 150°F. At this temperature I would expect the pressure in the system to be about 14 PSI or so. The reason you don't have warm floors is because the pressure is too low, and this low pressure may have allowed air blockages in the tubing, so let's get to the bottom of that first. An air blockage is as good as a cork in stopping flow in a system. also sending a picture of a valve for the pressure relief system. This valve is leaking a little bit. This picture? The 'valve' in the middle? If so, that's not part of the 'pressure relief' system, that is the line that adds water to your boiler. The BG valve on the right side is a pressure REGULATOR and is intended to keep your system filled to 12 PSI. The one in the center, I believe this is the one that is leaking from the vent pipe?, is a BACKFLOW PREVENTER and serves to keep your boiler water out of your domestic supply. It is a 'triple check valve'. On that same pipe, to the left side, is there a shutoff valve? Is that shutoff valve OPEN or CLOSED? Can you take a picture of the rest of that pipe to the left please? [edit: in the FOURTH post, the overall picture you posted, the pipe to the left of the backflow preventer appears to have a valve on the vertical portion of the pipe. Is that valve open or closed?] Since you only have 5 PSI in your system, there's one of two things happening here... either the shutoff valve is CLOSED, or your BG pressure regulator is defective. POSSIBLY BOTH. There's a 'big picture' which you will need to understand here... it will take a little time to explain it all, but if you hang in there, we can do it. That round gray tank is your Expansion tank and it must be properly charged with air. If it is not properly charged, when you do manage to get the proper pressure in the system, the ACTUAL pressure RELIEF valve may spew... Again, in the pic in the fourth post, your pressure relief valve can be seen near the lower left, to the left of your Safguard Low Water Cut Off control (the black or dark blue box with the silver/white label). I'd like you to read both of these posts: Pressure Relief Valve leaking? Service your bladder type expansion tank! verify a boiler pressure gauge These valves: are the thermostatic valves that control the temperature of the water that is circulating in the floors. These are the ones that you shouldn't change unless you have a way to measure the water temp coming out of them. The contractor should have installed a small temp gauge after each one to make it possible to properly adjust them. I'm going to presume that they are properly set for now. The way these work is by 'blending' some of the hot water from the boiler (the left side) and some of the return water from the floor (the right side) and in this way controlling the temperature of the water coming out the middle port going into the pumps, and on to the floor. In this pic, at the upper left: The gray tank is your expansion tank. As the water is heated and expands, that 'extra' water will go into this tank. It is used to control the pressure in your system. There is air inside this tank which compresses as the water is pushed in by expansion. (remember, you can not compress water, so air is used as a sort of 'spring'.) The tank is hanging from your air scoop . That thing catches and holds air bubbles from the water flow as it goes by. The can on the top of the scoop is a float type automatic air vent . Inside there is a float. When air is collected in that vent from the scoop below, the float drops and releases the air out the little vent on top. As the air exits, the float comes up and closes the vent. Kinda like a terlet tank valve. The small cap on top of that vent needs to be left LOOSE in order for it to work and let the air out. If it is tight, loosen it. It should NOT leak water. If it does, tighten the cap again and plan to replace it because it's bad. You don't have to do it right away... but if that cap is tight for some reason, that air that may be blocking the flow can't be automatically disposed of... You can operate it manually for the time being until you have a chance to change it if it needs to be. ALSO in this pic, you see that drain valve up high on the return pipe from your upstairs floors? And the yellow handle ball valve just below it? AFTER you get the pressure problem sorted out, we may have to use those to valves in order to purge the air from the floor tubing. Those two valves together are known as a purge station . Don't do anything with them until you get the pressure problem under control. The pressure in your boiler is TOO LOW. That gauge is showing me about FIVE PSI. Troop the PSI is good from what I see..... Look again... Mike, I think you need glasses? That needle is barely off the pin. LESS than 10 PSI ( the RED scale, the BLACK scale is FEET ) The BLACK scale is showing 14-15 FEET, NOT PSI. 14 FEET equals 6 PSI. [ FEET / 2.31 = PSI ] Ha, ha, ha.... Yes I have done that many times.... I am sorry. H20 in black and PSI in red...... LOL Should be here.... Me too! and it won't be the last time either... Should be here.... EggZacherly OK. I understand everything you said. The actual pressure in the boiler may be less than shown as the needle is against the pin. So, how do I increase the pressure? Well... for starters, go back through the previous posts and answer the questions that we asked. That's really the only way we can advise proceed. You may not get an immediate answer from me as I'm still without power after the hurricane that hit us. Sorry to hear you were in the storm path hope you get power soon. A friend came over last night and we got the boiler pressure to 20 by manually operating the BG valve . So we plan to replace it. Also, strongly expect the expansion tank is bad because water comes out the bottom. Question: is 20 psi too high? Previous installer wrote 20psi on the wall with the date. Does my system have a way to prevent any damage from to high pressure or temperature? The floor is warm Just got power back today... 12 days! I will never take a hot shower for granted again, nor will I ever be in a position to not take one when I want to! 20 PSI on a boiler will not harm anything. BUT: You shouldn't need to operate at 20 PSI on a COLD boiler. Pressure normally increases when the system heats up, perhaps 4-8 PSI more. Your system has a 30 PSI RELIEF valve on it and if your expansion tank is bad expect that soon that relief valve will open and spew. After you replace the suspect expansion tank, set the cold pressure to 12 PSI. That should be enough pressure.
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