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RayV

wrote:
RayV wrote:
My BIL called me over to help him fix a leaking circulator pump on his
system which was an easy swap and fixed the leak. But he still has a
big problem with his system, here's the current setup:

Boiler in basement
Split level house with all zone loops higher than basement
Three zones - all thermostats working properly
Circulator pump on the cold/return side of boiler mounted just above
boiler inlet
comes on with furnace (zone independent)
Flo-control valve on the hot/supply side of boiler mounted near ceiling
Air separater right after main flo-control valve with bladder expansion
tank
Three additional zone circulator pumps connected to the thermostat
relays
Three zone flo-control valves, one right after each zone pump

The problem is that whenever any zone calls for heat there is flow thru
all three zones. I verified that each of the zone pumps are working
indepently and correctly. He told me that the system has always
operated this way and he just sets the thermostat on the upper level to
50 so it never kicks on because he always gets heat up there. On the
zone I changed the pump the flo-control valve stopped the water from
coming out when I pulled the pump. I'm assuming the other two
flo-control zone valves are also properly preventing back flow. But
the problem is they are are always allowing hot water to flow forward
even if the pump for that zone is off. There are no zone valves on any
of the zones, only the flo-contral valves. The zone pumps, flo-control
valves and thermostats appear to be add-ons to the original system.

Does this system need a circulator pump for each zone?
Should there be zone valves installed for each zone?

RayV, After all of the suggestions made and what you have tried do you
have a fix? I'm curious to what fixed this problem and I'm sure the
others in the group would like to hear what the solution was.

-paul

I also posted this in alt.hvac and the predominate (reasonable) opinion
there and here is the main circulator pump on the inlet side of the
boiler is not needed in conjunction with the zone pumps. I suspect the
system would be fine with one pump and zone valves. The top floor
might not get as much flow if all 3 zones are calling at the same time
but the lower zones would eventually shut off.

This weekend I will go over and disconnect the wires to the 'main'
circulator and run each zone and see what happens. Worst that can
happen is I have to reconnect it.

If that doesn't work maybe I'll have him call in an HVAC guy for an
opinion. I could install zone valves for him and the parts would be
less than $400 (plus $30 for a bottle of vodka).

I'll post a followup after I try disconnecting the main pump.