I have a Peerless WBV-03-W burner with two zones in the house and a pair of Grundfos UP15-42FR circulators. The burner is working, and the water is hot but isn't circulating. There's a TACO on the side with the green light on, and both red zone lights come on when the thermostats are turned up.

I had a friend with electrical knowledge look it over, and he doesn't see a problem there. I've read up on bleeding, but this model doesn't seem to have the screw that I see referred to.

The pumps get very hot, and there is a small, persistent noise that comes from one of them when the thermostats are turned up.

The upstairs zone stopped working last winter, but the heat from downstairs kept the upstairs warm, so that wasn't addressed at the time.

Any clues are appreciated.

You probably first need to take a close look at the pumps being air-locked, especially with a non-working zone last winter.

It's too late in the season to start learning now. The emitters.... radiators,baseboards, or convectors should have bleeder screws on them. Your system needs to be at the proper pressure and the air needs to be bled from the zones. Sometimes with fin-tube baseboard there are no bleeders and there are boiler drains to allow for purging the air.The system also needs a means of automatic air removal.

How would I determine if they're air-locked? This model seems to have no screws to turn to release air.

You would not necessarily be looking aT the pumps themselves but at the zone(s) in question. Each zone should have a way to eliminate/purge air from the system.

How much pressure you have in the system? Perhaps a a few pics?

Attached are a few pics of the burner. The temp on the Honeywell aquastat(?) is high because I set it to 180/200, imagining in my amateur way that it might simply not be hot enough. I turned it down just before taking the pic.

The house is over 100 years old, and that radiator shown is downstairs. Upstairs is all slant fin -- though it looks like it was also radiator, converted at some point.















Again, thanks for the help.

the little silver 'thingy' on top of the radiator in the last picture is an air bleed valve

you will need a small square 'key' to turn the shaft and bleed the air

make sure the auto fill valve for the system is operational


if you still do not understand - call in a pro

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

Osborne:

Bernbeau said to make sure autofill is operational you can do that by just looking at the pressure gauge. It looks like you have approximately 15lbs of pressure. Pressure should read I believe 12 to 20 lbs . Presently your pressure looks fine. When you bleed air out of your white radiator with the key that you purchase from the hardware store. You use key to let air out until you see a steady stream of water have a bottle to catch water. Then turn the key and close the bleeder valve. You should bleed air out of all your radiators/Slant Fins. The Slant Fins if you take the cover off should have a bleeder valve somewhere. You may need to use the key or a screw driver to bleed air out. Bleed air out more than once if necessary.

Then go look at your gauge it is important that it reads 12 to 20 lbs of pressure. If the pressure is 12 to 20 lbs then your auto fill is working correctly. If pressure does not read correctly 12 to 20 lbs then you need to let water into your system by lifting handle up on your auto fill valve which looks like a bell with a handle. I could not see autofill on your system probably out of sight in picture. Auto fill is brass colored. Lift handle(let water in) until you have correct pressure on gauge. You do not want to run burner without water or proper pressure in system. Do not hesitate to check on your gauge. Check gauge right after you bleed system.

Please respond and tell the forum how you did.


I am not a Plumber.


Best of Luck.

If you have an old-fashioned hardware store near you, ask for a radiator key. Or, go to a big box store and try to find someone that knows what you're talking about. That should take a half day. Good Luck.

there is a rotation tester magnet for grundfos pumps. it will tell you if the pump, is spinning.
check if your oil man has one you can borrow..
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"... the little silver 'thingy' on top of the radiator in the last picture is an air bleed valve..."

...whose outlet end happens to be painted shut. You'll need to take a paper clip or 1/16" drill bit and clean the outlet end to make it work.

That rotation tester is pretty cool. Will it work on Taco 007 circulators also?

Well, I bled the radiators and got all water, no air. With a friend, I tried to bleed the burner, though it wasn't clear that we were effective, and the circulators are still not running. Below are pics of the hose setup. There were two zones, and we expected two spigots, but found only one. We didn't sense any air to speak of.

One detail: in the last pic, above the Honeywell aquastat, you can see a yellow valve. That was put in by a burner guy this summer. There had been a valve at the left end T joint which was corroded, and he said it was incorrect anyway, so he replaced it with the valve. It's been my guess that the air got into the system then, but I also don't know if he was right.

(Sorry they're sideways. They straightened out on the PC, but then flipped sideways again when they were uploaded.)

I was wondering packy, would a clamp on ammeter determine the same thing? If current was flowing, the pump would be spinning I would assume (but I don't know for sure)

it would tell you if there is power going to the pump but not if it is spinning.

You need to verify that the valves that need to be open, are.

The only valve that I can see that's closed is the one that's directly above the Honeywell. I misspoke earlier, by the way. That valve didn't replace another valve, but a dial that controlled the flow. Below is a pic, I marked up the location of the dial.

But it's my understanding that only mixed water heading to faucets, to moderate an overhot flow.

That's true, but that may not why it was there. The tankless coil in that boiler is rated for so many gpm. It may have been a flow restrictor of some sort. To prevent overly hot water from getting to the fixtures, there should be a thermostatic mixing valve.
On a different not...Have all the leaks been stopped on that boiler? There is evidence of leaks all over that boiler. The burner tube is so corroded, I'd be afraid it would fall off the boiler. Call in a company that specializes in boilers and HVAC, to get things running for this season. Start squirreling money away to replace that mess.



Edited 1 times.

It's only 7 years old. Why would it be leaking so much?

The tankless coil may have required re-torquing after initial firing. You can see where it leaked from the bolts, meaning it was(is) loose. As for the other leaks,they are just poor plumbing. I'm amazed that boiler is only that old. I've seen 50 year old boilers that look better. Who installed it, an oil company?

Would these bleed the pumps of air?