Central Boiler owner w/ issues

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EVS

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Joined
Feb 22, 2023
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Location
Pennsylvania
Hi guys!

I joined this forum since I've had a few questions about my stove, and google search shows me results from here, so it sounded like a good place to start! I have a Central Boiler classic (was already here when I purchased my house), and I've had several issues since buying my house, some of which were resolved.

Of the many issues, recently the love controller went rogue, and caused my stove to boil over. This happened a couple times before I noticed the digital readout doing funny things. I changed it, and fired everything up, and all seemed to work fine. The stove has 2 pumps (1 to the house, 1 to my garage). My garage is heated with a water-air heat exchanger, and after I fixed my love controller, it seemed like the heat exchanger wasn't blowing quite as hot as it did previously (still eventually got warm enough to get to the setting on the thermostat).

This morning, I was working in the garage and thought maybe there was air in the lines causing a little drop in temp, since when the stove boiled over, the water level went way down, and I had to add water and chemicals. The heat exchanger is the high point in my system, and has a drain valve on the return side of it. I decided to open the valve, and tons of air released, but no water. now, both lines are cold and it blows cold air. I left the valve open for a while, and I can hear air moving, but not a single drop has come out. It seems like the pumps are working at the stove, and the house heat is working.

I've been goofing around with this on and off throughout the day, but can't understand this. It's my first outdoor boiler (first boiler period), but I'm now using a propane heater which is gonna get expensive. Any help would be appreciated.
-Ed
 
Since i'm unfamiliar to how everything works, it might be worth mentioning that the heat exchanger is hanging about 10 feet above the ground, and the pex lines are exposed. I felt them and both the send and return lines are cold all the way to the ground.
 
First off, you may have overheated the circulator that feeds your garage. That happened to me when mine CB6048 boiled over from a bird dying inside the draft damper and I had to disassemble the circulator. In my case, the impeller shaft was stuck and simply manually turning it with my fingers got it free again. These circulators are very low powered, so any stiction is not easily overcome to get the impellers spinning again. The circulator will sound like it's doing something and may even feel like it, but may not be.

What make and model of circulator do you have on your garage loop? Depending on what circulator you have, cartridge kits are most likely available for it.

Now, when you say you hear air moving at the drain valve, can you tell if the air is being sucked into or is coming out of the valve? The air you hear could be water slowly filling the lines as it's making it's way through a stuck circulator.

Welcome to AS. We will get you figured out. :)
 
@Bill G I have a heat exchanger on my water tank as well, but can't seem to get it to work. I'll fire up a separate thread on that one, as I think it's mostly due to my inexperience.

@OH_Varmntr my circulator is a taco 007-F5. Yesterday I used a ribbon and held it against the drain valve to see if it was sucking or blowing, but it wasn't enough to see anything. Once I saw your post, I remembered a box of stuff left behind by the previous owner. There was a "new" pump in the box, which was opened, but the flanges looked like they hadn't been used. It matched the pump that goes to the house, which is a 009, and the flanges were rotated 90*. I decided to try it, and it worked!

I couldn't rotate the flanges on the piping, as the shut off valves are part of the flanges. Now the body sticks outward, and there's barely enough room to shut the door, but I have heat. Thanks for the tip on this. I'll look into a cartridge kit for my old circulator, and swap it out so I have more door clearance. Thanks for the help!
-Ed
 
@Bill G I have a heat exchanger on my water tank as well, but can't seem to get it to work. I'll fire up a separate thread on that one, as I think it's mostly due to my inexperience.

@OH_Varmntr my circulator is a taco 007-F5. Yesterday I used a ribbon and held it against the drain valve to see if it was sucking or blowing, but it wasn't enough to see anything. Once I saw your post, I remembered a box of stuff left behind by the previous owner. There was a "new" pump in the box, which was opened, but the flanges looked like they hadn't been used. It matched the pump that goes to the house, which is a 009, and the flanges were rotated 90*. I decided to try it, and it worked!

I couldn't rotate the flanges on the piping, as the shut off valves are part of the flanges. Now the body sticks outward, and there's barely enough room to shut the door, but I have heat. Thanks for the tip on this. I'll look into a cartridge kit for my old circulator, and swap it out so I have more door clearance. Thanks for the help!
-Ed

That is great news!
 
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