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#1
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Help with an old thermostat
I have a old boiler furnace. I'm having an issue where the boiler
periodically wont come on and the house temperature will continue to drop. If I turn the thermostat up, the boiler will kick on and will maintain the set temp for some time but will eventually fail to kick on again. Based on the fact that I can get it to kick on by adjusting the thermostat, I'm assuming the issue is thermostat related but I'm not sure if the thermostat itself of the sensor...or maybe I''m totally off base. |
#2
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Help with an old thermostat
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#4
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Help with an old thermostat
On Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:33:16 -0500, wrote:
If it's the old Honeywell type with the mercury bubble inside, they MUST be level, but the contacts may be failing, and of course, make sure the mercury did not separate (unlikely but possible). Is this like milk separating from cream? I have digital now and I know I will never need to know this, but I'm curious. |
#5
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Help with an old thermostat
From your description, it sounds like it could be a bad thermostat, but
"old" is a relative term. Over the years there have been a number of types of thermostats and controls used on boilers. The most common type today, is what Honeywell calls a "series 80" which is low voltage two wire. There have been series 10 through series 90 thermostats and controls used over the years. The first thing you need to do is identify what you have. Remove the thermostat from its base, and if it's for heating only, note how many wires it has and if they are low voltage or line voltage. Once that's determined it would be easier to solve your problem wrote in message ups.com... I have a old boiler furnace. I'm having an issue where the boiler periodically wont come on and the house temperature will continue to drop. If I turn the thermostat up, the boiler will kick on and will maintain the set temp for some time but will eventually fail to kick on again. Based on the fact that I can get it to kick on by adjusting the thermostat, I'm assuming the issue is thermostat related but I'm not sure if the thermostat itself of the sensor...or maybe I''m totally off base. |
#6
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Help with an old thermostat
On Apr 5, 10:25 pm, wrote:
I have a old boiler furnace. I'm having an issue where the boiler periodically wont come on and the house temperature will continue to drop. If I turn the thermostat up, the boiler will kick on and will maintain the set temp for some time but will eventually fail to kick on again. Based on the fact that I can get it to kick on by adjusting the thermostat, I'm assuming the issue is thermostat related but I'm not sure if the thermostat itself of the sensor...or maybe I''m totally off base. I have a gas furnace but had the same problem. We had an old mechanical thermostat that just wouldn't hold a constant temperature. I don't really know what goes wrong with those old thermostats but it almost seems like they just stiffen up over time and don't respond to temperature changes fast enough anymore. My old thermostat would also show that it was 68 degrees in the house when I could *feel* that it was about 55 at best. Once it did finally kick on, it would run full blast for hours trying to catch up, and then would overshoot the target temp because again it was not responding fast enough to the temperature change. But then when it kicked off, it would stay off all day again. Sounds like the same problem you're having. Went out and bought a $25 digital programmable thermostat and the problem was solved. Good news is thermostats are so cheap and easy to install that you could just buy a new one as an easy diagnostic. Took me 20 minutes to install it and required nothing but a screwdriver. |
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