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Author Topic: zone valve question  (Read 1981 times)

cdie

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zone valve question
« on: February 05, 2015, 09:16:47 AM »
I have a pressurized wood/oil system whereby I must keep a zone valve locked on at all times. this morning I noticed one of my valves had reset to normal operation. its an erie valve with the lever to lock open when needed. there is also a slide switch under the lever that says actuator switch that I havnt moved because I don't know what it does. why would the valve reset from locked open to normal use?
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LittleJohn

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Re: zone valve question
« Reply #1 on: February 05, 2015, 10:48:31 AM »
I am not familiar with the Eerie brand of zone valves, but most I have seen you can just remove the Actuator and then the valve says open.  So why do you not just remove the actuator??  Then the valve shoudl be open, RIGHT????
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slimjim

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Re: zone valve question
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2015, 11:32:35 AM »
There are 2 types of zone valves, first is the normally open which takes power to close the valve this is typically used for dumping heat in a power outage, second is the normally closed, this is the one folks use for heating zones, it takes power to open it, sounds to me like you have a normally closed zone valve that you leave locked open, it for whatever reason opened with a call for heat (under power) and it will lift the lock out and reset to the normally closed position if it gets powered open, in short you have the wrong zone valve for a dump zone!
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Wood boiler sales, service and installation for the Northeastern USA.

cdie

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Re: zone valve question
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2015, 12:51:51 PM »
normally closed, when I hooked my wood boiler up I thought i'd save money by using the existing circulator pump on the oil system. in order to do that I must have one of the zones open all the time allowing for circulation. I thought this an easy thing to do with what I thought was a lock out on the valve but it appears that when the thermostat tell the valve to open it resets it to normal operation once satisfied. there appears to be some sort of spring in the box of the valve that pushes the lever over to a position that will restore normal operation when the stat is satisfied even though I still need it open. right now I just have the lever tied back against that spring so that is continues to be hooked in the open position but just wondered if there was a better way. lj I don't want to permanently alter the valve open as I need the oil system to operate normally when I go away for longer period of time.
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LittleJohn

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Re: zone valve question
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2015, 01:06:45 PM »
Quote from: cdie on February 05, 2015, 12:51:51 PM
...lj I don't want to permanently alter the valve open as I need the oil system to operate normally when I go away for longer period of time.
Sorry, I did not mean to destroy the zone valve, as the ones I ave worked with you simply unhook the actuator from the valve.  Its all good
BTW the ones I normally work with look like this: http://www.westsidewholesale.com/uponor-wirsbo-a3010526.html?keyword=bing_shopping&utm_medium=cse&network=bingshopping&mr:referralID=54ff4418-ad72-11e4-8fa7-001b2166c62d
You can just unsnap the actuator and the valves springs open
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