Ask Caleffi

#9 The heat is on... but for who?

Caleffi North America, Inc. Episode 9

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0:00 | 25:46

It can be a time-consuming project to troubleshoot why a zone relay board doesn't "appear" to be working, especially when the heat is literally ON for the contractor, but OFF for their customer.  

Greg and Dan take our audience through a step-by-step process of isolating and solving the "no-heat" calls including how to locate the source of the power loss.  It's (another) don't-miss episode!

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00:02

[Music]

00:06

welcome to ask Caleffi

00:08

the podcast that dives into real-life

00:10

problems that plumbing and hvac

00:12

technicians face in the field

00:13

we're your hosts from the Caleffi tech

00:15

support team i'm greg tubbs

00:17

and i'm dan firkus welcome we look

00:20

forward to sharing some stories from our

00:21

tech calls and using our background and

00:23

expertise to make your days a little

00:28

easier

00:30

hey there welcome back here we are on

00:32

episode nine we're going to be talking

00:34

about troubleshooting

00:35

zone relays today how we doing dan we're

00:37

doing good welcome back everybody thanks

00:39

for tuning in

00:40

so today's topic can get pretty time

00:43

consuming

00:44

real fast i mean you know we'll try to

00:47

keep this discussion

00:49

as more of an overview listeners

00:52

if you're having issues just give us a

00:54

call because these things can get off in

00:55

the weeds

00:56

real fast absolutely there's a you know

00:58

a lot of different directions you can

01:00

take this i think we're going to do just

01:01

an overview on troubleshooting today

01:03

yeah i mean we get plenty of calls from

01:06

contractors

01:06

toward usually towards the end of the

01:08

day i was just going to ask you what

01:09

time of day do you get those calls greg

01:11

i mean it's all times of the days let's

01:13

be honest

01:14

i mean it seems the majority of them

01:16

during heating season come in the end of

01:18

the day they just got done with a tr

01:20

uh with a replacement or trying to get

01:23

the heat going yeah trying to get the

01:24

heat on

01:25

and they throw the switch the homeowners

01:28

standing there

01:29

and things don't go the way they're

01:31

supposed to lights go out

01:32

and literally the heat is on yeah

01:36

well the heat's on for them not for the

01:38

customers right that's right

01:39

well we've both been there boy that

01:41

reminds me of a call i had last week

01:43

yeah there's a contractor out in

01:45

minnesota he had

01:46

one of our zone valve relays evr boards

01:49

sure

01:50

and he was using our valves and they

01:51

were new valves new board

01:53

um and he was calling me to confirm that

01:56

our board had shorted out and he needed

01:58

to run to the supply house and pick up a

02:00

warranty board

02:02

and get that replaced so before i just

02:05

gave him the nod and okay to

02:07

run off and do that i started asking

02:09

them some questions and

02:10

pushing them through some steps and he

02:14

tried resetting the power

02:15

and the board wouldn't come back on so i

02:17

had him

02:19

you know initially disconnect all his

02:20

thermostats and disconnect all his zone

02:22

valve wiring so it was just a plain

02:24

board

02:25

no low voltage wires connected and i had

02:27

him reset the power and lo and behold

02:29

the board came

02:29

on the power light was on board was

02:32

working

02:33

imagine that yeah and that's that's what

02:35

we got to start off with right

02:36

we gotta eliminate the problem you know

02:39

we want to be able to verify that

02:40

it's the board or it's something outside

02:42

the board yeah so long story short with

02:44

that and we'll get into the

02:45

troubleshooting side

02:47

as we started jumping out and testing

02:49

the board

02:50

and found out the board was working well

02:52

we started to

02:53

reconnect the thermostats and all of

02:56

them work

02:57

they called for heat lights came on

02:59

started reconnecting the zone valves we

03:01

got to the third zone and he reconnected

03:03

that valve and tested it and boom the

03:05

board went out

03:07

you know which then immediately he

03:09

looked at the zone valve

03:10

oh i must have a bad relay or a bad

03:12

actuator sure

03:13

it's a brand new clefty actuator plugged

03:15

in there oh boy

03:17

so had him go down disconnect the

03:20

the actuator um and ohm his wire out and

03:23

he had to short it

03:24

low voltage wire wow imagine that well

03:27

this

03:27

and this valve was located away from the

03:30

control and had an existing low voltage

03:33

wire in place so he had used an existing

03:35

wire

03:36

only to find out that there was a short

03:38

in the existing low voltage wire

03:39

right and we find that a lot especially

03:42

in change outs where either they never

03:44

had a panel

03:45

or they did a complete boiler upgrade

03:48

but

03:48

you know they've always had zone valves

03:50

and remote locations in the past and

03:52

right let's be honest we're going to

03:53

reuse the wiring if you can

03:55

yeah i mean you're trying to save time

03:57

and save time which saves cost and

04:00

you know you already have a zone valve

04:01

so you replaced it you put a new zone

04:03

valve in you put a new relay control in

04:06

but boy you know to string a new wire

04:07

and you know maybe you have to fish

04:10

a wire somewhere it's not that easy so

04:12

you know

04:13

it's just a wire yeah why wouldn't i

04:15

reuse it sure why not

04:17

you wouldn't think that would be a

04:18

problem but it's an older home maybe it

04:21

got rodent damaged

04:22

who knows i mean anything can happen all

04:24

i know is in talking to him he was

04:26

pretty excited because

04:28

he was ready to jump in his truck and

04:29

run to the supply house and get a new

04:31

board and come back

04:32

and rewire the entire board pull the old

04:35

one out put the new one in and he

04:38

hit the switch started powering on the

04:40

thermostats and had the same problem

04:42

and we've had them calls oh yeah i'm on

04:44

my third board and it's still doing the

04:46

same thing well guess what

04:47

you know what it probably isn't the

04:49

board you know i mean weird things

04:51

happen

04:51

but i doubt it's the board so then you

04:54

did the right thing

04:55

you walked them through isolating

04:56

everything off and kind of starting from

04:58

scratch and going one component at a

05:00

time

05:01

you think about it in the time it would

05:02

have taken him to get in his van drive

05:05

to the parts store

05:06

or to the supply house get a new board

05:09

he he ran a new wire and everything

05:12

worked and he was done

05:13

yeah looked like the hero all done and

05:16

he was running

05:17

right and builds confidence with your

05:19

customer certainly does

05:21

so zvr boards the valve boards a lot

05:24

more

05:24

things going on there with thermostats

05:27

the pumps and switches and switches and

05:30

the valves themselves

05:31

right right when we go from there to a

05:33

zsr

05:34

the pump relay a lot more simplistic

05:37

yeah a lot simpler on the low voltage

05:39

side

05:39

yeah it's thermostats that's right right

05:42

yeah it's

05:43

pretty easy sure yeah with that board

05:46

you're just bringing power in

05:48

um one thing nice about our boards

05:50

whether it's a zvr or zsr

05:52

board is that it has a transformer so

05:55

the zsr is going to be built onto the

05:58

board it's going to be soldered onto the

05:59

board

06:00

where the zvr is going to be exterior

06:02

mounted in the cabinet

06:04

and it plugs in with a four prong molex

06:06

plug into the board

06:09

yeah that's exactly it and the nice part

06:12

about the zvr too

06:13

is say you have multiple zones

06:17

where you have multiple actuators

06:20

getting wired into one zone

06:22

you can add some uh some expansion

06:25

yeah by by installing that expansion

06:27

transformer and plugging it into

06:29

the factory setup of uh molex plugs

06:32

there

06:33

right yeah you can take it from the

06:34

standard 4d v8

06:36

transformer zvr 103 and 104 right

06:39

yep to the 80va yeah and the zvr 106

06:43

comes with 80va where the transform it

06:45

comes with two of them

06:46

ready to go right but you know you you

06:48

get into

06:49

you know some of competitors you know

06:51

actuators where they have a real high va

06:53

draw

06:54

for opening um if you have those on a

06:57

three or four zone panel with a 40v8

06:59

transformer you can easily add that

07:00

expansion to get adva

07:03

and power those higher higher va

07:05

transformer or

07:06

actuators sure so

07:09

kind of getting back into some of the

07:11

troubleshooting um

07:13

maybe we slow it down a little bit and

07:14

kind of pick that apart yeah i think we

07:16

should

07:17

so number one i think you want to locate

07:20

the cause of the power loss right

07:23

that's really what we had to do sounds

07:24

easy yeah it sounds easy it sounds real

07:26

easy

07:27

but by isolating everything off

07:29

thermostats

07:31

zone valves then you're plugging one

07:33

component in at a time

07:35

however you want to do that you can go

07:37

one thermostat one zone valve so start

07:39

with zone one

07:40

and start plugging them in make the call

07:42

for heat right if everything kicks on

07:44

pump runs all that works well without

07:47

overheating that that mov

07:49

in there um we know the dead zone's fine

07:52

right so then we continue that process

07:54

keep on going down the line until

07:56

you have one that trips that thing out

07:59

yeah well and that's an easy way

08:01

to you know quickly find out what is

08:04

causing the problem

08:06

but if you're convinced it's the board

08:07

that's causing the problem one nice

08:09

thing

08:09

i like to do you know once i get

08:11

everything disconnected i'd like to

08:13

you know i mean ideally i'd like you to

08:16

have a meter

08:17

and go through and check for your

08:18

voltages at your thermostats check your

08:20

pumps

08:21

um check your actuators you know your

08:25

motor terminals for your actuators for

08:27

voltage

08:28

but you can make a simple jumper wire

08:31

and

08:31

run the board through its paces jump out

08:33

the r w at the thermostat see if the

08:35

light comes on and it calls

08:37

on a pump relay see if you get 120 volts

08:39

at those pump terminals

08:41

right you got a valve relay look for 24

08:43

volts at the pump

08:44

at the motor terminals at the motor

08:46

terminals and then

08:48

in order to verify that that part works

08:51

i mean typically you're gonna see a

08:53

light on only when

08:55

the end switch is made right so you need

08:58

an end switch

08:59

or a jumper wire to jump out the end

09:01

switch terminals

09:02

of the board just to verify and then you

09:05

know it'll close the xx terminals for

09:07

the boiler

09:09

because that's just a dry to contact

09:10

right and then it'll also send 120 volts

09:13

to the system

09:14

pump right yeah and then that's one

09:17

thing

09:17

important to remember is that you know

09:19

for you guys who use two-wire zone

09:21

valves

09:22

you can use them with our boards but you

09:24

may notice that

09:26

okay thermostat light came on my zone

09:28

valve powered open but boy my pumps or

09:30

my end switch aren't coming on

09:32

yeah i'm sorry pumps or um pump yeah or

09:34

end switch

09:35

which light is not coming right yep yeah

09:38

and then you don't get

09:39

a end switch closure on xx in the upper

09:42

upper right hand corner left hand corner

09:45

there and you don't

09:46

get uh pumps energized right and you

09:49

what you won't

09:50

until it sees the end switch closed so

09:52

that you know it's set up to where

09:54

your thermostat needs to call and the

09:56

end switch for the actuator needs to

09:58

close

09:59

before that board will turn the boiler

10:00

or pumps on so if you have that two-wire

10:02

actuator

10:03

it's important to make sure you put a

10:05

jumper in at your end switch terminals

10:07

so that

10:08

that board will go into the next step

10:10

well i think the biggest thing to

10:11

remember is that we have that resettable

10:13

link to protect that transformer so

10:16

you know if you if if you see that go

10:18

out and you reset the power to the board

10:20

and you see it doesn't come back on it's

10:23

kind of time to rewind

10:24

yeah it is i agree and that's that's a

10:27

resettable fuse

10:29

well let's rewind a little bit let's

10:31

kind of go back and talk about

10:33

the troubleshooting maybe we can kind of

10:34

touch on the specifics of the

10:36

of these boards yeah that's a great idea

10:38

why don't we start with the zvr series

10:40

that's the

10:41

the board that i just talked about from

10:43

the tech call i shared

10:45

right that's perfect you know we offer

10:47

three different

10:48

models of the zvr a three zone the zvr

10:51

103

10:52

yeah a four zone the zvr 104

10:55

and a six zone the zvr 106. so that's

10:58

going to take care of

10:59

anything with zone actuators or zone

11:02

valves

11:02

right yeah and we're not going to talk a

11:04

lot about the details we're going to

11:06

spend a lot of time talking about

11:07

troubleshooting but

11:08

just for knowledge those boards can be

11:10

all connected together to

11:12

you know allow many boards to be added

11:14

or

11:15

unlimited amount of zones yeah so

11:19

but yeah when you look at those boards

11:21

what's nice is that you know they have a

11:23

transformer provided with them

11:24

so for a zone valve relay board your

11:27

your

11:28

valve actuators are going to be all

11:30

powered on low voltage 24 volts so it

11:32

has

11:33

the transformer with it and

11:36

actually that transformer is externally

11:38

mounted in the cabinet

11:39

it's not soldered onto the board it

11:41

plugs in with the four prong molex plug

11:43

right so the zvr 103 and zvr 104 come

11:47

with a singular

11:49

40va transformer and you have the

11:52

capability

11:54

of plugging in an additional 40 va

11:56

transformer for

11:57

those systems that have multiple

11:58

actuators where maybe a 40 va

12:00

transformer isn't enough power to do it

12:02

yeah it's nice we have a big cabinet

12:04

that that board is enclosed in it'll

12:06

allow space to

12:08

put that second transformer if you need

12:10

that absolutely so you can

12:11

put 80 va where the transformer where

12:14

the zvr 106

12:15

automatically comes with two 40 va

12:17

transformers that you plug in when you

12:19

get it installed

12:20

and and they're ready to go with 80 vh

12:23

of transformers right

12:24

yeah so you'll get you'll get power for

12:26

your thermostats um

12:27

or your zone valves right from the

12:29

onboard transformer so all you really

12:31

need to do for a power source is bring

12:32

120 volts into that board

12:34

right you know from there you know it's

12:37

great

12:38

you know we have thermostat terminals

12:40

for each of the zones

12:41

at the thermostat terminals you know you

12:44

have your

12:45

your r and your w terminal and you also

12:47

have your c your common terminal for

12:49

those power robbing or or smart

12:51

thermostats so you can power those right

12:52

off the board

12:54

directly below them at the same zone

12:56

location you're going to have

12:57

a location to wire in your zone valves

12:59

you're going to have two motor terminals

13:01

and two switch terminals for end switch

13:04

right

13:04

and that end switch has got to be wired

13:06

right definitely has to be wired

13:09

yep it's looking for that end switch to

13:12

close

13:12

for that board to go into the next step

13:14

of its of its operation

13:16

right which would be energizing the xx

13:19

terminal to bring on the boiler

13:21

and then also powering the the pumps

13:23

through the relay

13:24

right so when you look at wiring you

13:26

guys are going to find it they're pretty

13:27

simple to wire

13:28

thermostat ties into the zone thermostat

13:30

location

13:31

the corresponding valve ties into the

13:33

valve location

13:35

you'll do that for zones one two three

13:38

or all the way through six or as many

13:39

zones as you have right

13:41

and the only time it really gets muddy i

13:43

think is when you got

13:45

somebody trying to wire in like an old

13:46

taco 570 series that three wire

13:49

that sucks a lot of juice um or one of

13:52

the weird

13:53

like white rogers four wires sure that

13:56

get wired totally different and

13:57

if you ever need help with wiring those

14:00

please call us

14:01

call call in and we'll we'll get you

14:03

through it yeah we i mean

14:04

i know we have some wiring diagrams in

14:06

our wiring guide that show how to tie

14:08

those in but we're always here as well

14:10

um so one nice feature as well is that

14:13

you'll be able to tie in

14:14

a system pump a secondary pump or a zone

14:17

one pump

14:18

right into that board the zone one pump

14:20

would be used if you're setting up a

14:21

priority it gives you the ability to

14:24

to control up zone one as a pump versus

14:26

a valve in a priority application maybe

14:29

for domestic hot water

14:30

right provided you install the jumper in

14:33

the end switch

14:34

exactly yep that's for sure we get that

14:36

an awful lot and

14:37

they get everything down to the wire and

14:40

everything's working but that

14:41

yeah well i don't have a i don't have an

14:43

actuator on that it's just the pump

14:45

okay all you need to do is slide that

14:46

inside that piece

14:48

two wire in there a single wire in there

14:50

and it

14:51

works right yep and then it'll give you

14:54

you know your end switch to turn your

14:56

boiler on it gives you an auxiliary

14:58

relay

14:59

and a zone one end switch for like your

15:01

modulating condensing boilers that might

15:03

have a separate end switch call for

15:04

domestic water that's right

15:07

but when you look at troubleshooting and

15:08

that's what we're going to focus on

15:10

today

15:10

you know that board has a built-in

15:14

uh resettable link that protects that

15:16

transformer protects the low voltage

15:18

side

15:19

provided you don't put too much juice

15:21

through it

15:22

yeah yeah that's for sure i've seen

15:25

those

15:26

i've seen those get cooked before yeah

15:27

they do get cooked and

15:29

you wonder what they did to uh to fry

15:31

them but it has to be a pretty bad

15:32

short yeah um but so but that's exactly

15:36

what it's there for

15:36

it's to protect the board in the event

15:38

of a short so

15:40

you know you guys i shared that call

15:41

about the contractor

15:43

on site in minnesota having that board

15:45

short out

15:46

let's talk a little bit more about

15:48

troubleshooting so let's say you get it

15:49

connected you wire it up and you have

15:51

that

15:52

that resettable link go out and take the

15:54

transformer out what do you do then

15:56

well i think i'm i'm going to start off

15:58

with

15:59

isolating all the low voltage

16:02

components right off the board i'm

16:04

taking the thermostats off

16:06

and i'm taking the actuators off and

16:09

probably unwiring

16:10

the end switches because i mean it's

16:12

another rabbit hole we can jump down

16:14

we've had it where guys have wired the

16:15

end switch to the motor and then pin

16:17

that pin that thing

16:18

open which closes the switch and that's

16:22

a direct short right

16:23

right we've seen that happen too but but

16:26

for all practical purposes

16:28

we're going to isolate all the

16:29

components off and then i'm going to

16:31

start with plugging the transformer in

16:33

turning it on making sure the light

16:35

comes on nothing funny is happening okay

16:37

i'm going to wire well that's the big

16:39

key you know once once you get all your

16:41

low voltage wiring pulled off the board

16:43

and guys always i can almost hear them

16:45

cringe on the other end of the phone

16:46

when i tell them okay well

16:48

you know leave the power off to the

16:49

board and disconnect all your low

16:50

voltage wires it's like

16:52

you know much time i spent wiring this

16:53

board now you want me to disconnect

16:55

everything we need to do it you do

16:57

because you have so many different

16:59

avenues of where that short could be

17:01

right so like greg said and then reset

17:03

the power to it and if your

17:04

green power light comes on okay that's a

17:07

good sign

17:08

yeah then you start adding your your

17:10

pieces of

17:11

of the puzzle back together wire that

17:13

thermostat in

17:14

make sure the call for heat comes on

17:16

wire the motor wire the end switch make

17:18

sure that all comes on

17:20

if that's all good you move on move on

17:23

to the next zone

17:24

and continue to do the same thing you

17:26

know thermostat

17:27

light comes on for zone two you plug the

17:29

motor in

17:31

for the the zone valve and all of a

17:33

sudden the light goes off

17:35

all right what do we have going on

17:37

that's exactly what i had with that

17:38

contractor in minnesota do we have a

17:40

shorted wire

17:41

do we have a miswired zone valve far

17:43

away that we don't know about

17:45

because something is wrong there but you

17:48

know it's short

17:49

yeah you know i get that question a lot

17:50

with guys using thermoelectric

17:53

actuators yeah you know especially you

17:55

know not

17:56

not our brand but you know there's a lot

17:58

of different brands out there

18:00

but i'll get calls from contractors with

18:01

different brands and you know they give

18:03

you four color wires

18:05

yeah okay well what what two are the end

18:07

switch and what two are the motor

18:08

yeah is it is it yellow and red i mean

18:11

right well i bet i've had guys wire them

18:14

wrong where they wire the end switch to

18:15

the motor terminals and the motor

18:17

terminals

18:18

to the on switch and then the board

18:20

doesn't do any and then it doesn't do

18:21

anything but it doesn't short the board

18:23

out either no because that actuator is

18:25

is right now closed and the switch is

18:28

open so it just sits there

18:29

right right so you know then you know

18:33

i find myself a lot of times then

18:34

exploring the other manufacturer's zone

18:37

valve and helping them

18:38

right which is part of what we do help

18:40

you figure out which wires are actually

18:41

the end switch because

18:43

when we get off the tech call we want

18:44

you we want that board working

18:46

absolutely yeah so it really boils down

18:50

to

18:51

isolating the individual components out

18:53

and

18:54

going through it one step at a time now

18:56

you can test this with a meter too

18:58

i mean that's honestly if you want to

19:01

get good with your meter

19:02

learn how things how voltage travels

19:05

when everything is working

19:07

you know test between r and w on a call

19:09

for heat

19:10

you're not going to read 24 volts

19:12

because it's a closed circuit right

19:14

you go between r and common no matter

19:17

what you should read

19:18

voltage what about w and common great w

19:20

and common on a call for heat

19:22

you just completed the circuit so now

19:24

you're going to read

19:25

your low voltage 24 to 28 volts right

19:27

what about on

19:28

call that's on a no call for heat no

19:31

call for heat w to common

19:32

you should read zero volts yep

19:34

absolutely

19:36

all right it's a good way to test if

19:38

your thermostat is actually calling

19:39

yeah because i've had guys that have

19:41

done that well i just turned my

19:42

thermostat to heat and it's not calling

19:44

well a lot of the thermostats will have

19:47

um

19:48

delays built into they do so if you turn

19:51

your thermostat

19:52

on and you go back to your board and

19:53

it's not calling and you check between

19:55

r and c and you have 24 volts and you're

19:57

checking w to see and you don't

20:00

well that tells you that thermostat's

20:02

not completing the circuit to tell that

20:03

board to come on so you either have to

20:05

wait through

20:06

the delay um or find out what's going on

20:08

in the thermostat that didn't complete

20:10

that

20:10

yeah maybe the wire's not hooked up or

20:12

thermostat's in a delay or

20:14

sure who knows what right there's so

20:16

many different ways it could be

20:18

yeah and that's what makes us daunting

20:20

yeah well the

20:21

yeah it is and you know that's where

20:25

trying to determine is it a thermostat

20:27

issue is it an actuator issue is it a

20:30

board issue is it a piece of wire

20:31

sure i've seen new thermostat wire come

20:34

off the roll and be shorted internally

20:36

yeah and honestly i there's one

20:39

manufacturer

20:40

maybe a couple of them out there of

20:41

thermostat wire like they have that

20:43

strip string and if you pull hard on

20:45

that strip string and all of a sudden it

20:46

binds

20:47

guess what you're doing in there you're

20:49

actually skinning the wire off

20:51

and i had some not long ago where i did

20:53

that

20:54

and i stripped it all the way down i

20:56

think i stripped it about two feet in

20:57

and here three of the wires had been

20:59

skinned and if i would have applied any

21:01

power they would have shorted

21:02

right so just kind of let that be a

21:05

lesson to you

21:05

it doesn't take much no no it certainly

21:08

doesn't

21:09

so i think we've covered the the zvr

21:12

pretty well

21:12

we also have the zsr the pump panel out

21:15

there

21:15

right yeah that that board is designed

21:18

for

21:19

separating zoning with pumps right

21:22

thermostats and pumps yep thermostats

21:23

and pumps there's no valves there's

21:25

nothing extra in there and that one's

21:26

pretty simple really it is pretty simple

21:28

i mean we do have three different

21:30

transformer sizes depending

21:32

on what size boards you have you know

21:34

that comes in the three the four

21:36

or the six zone option but then we also

21:38

have a smaller single zone option for a

21:40

single pump switching really

21:41

yeah so we have the zsr 101 single zone

21:46

the zsr 103 three zone and zsr104

21:50

a four zone and a zsr 106

21:54

six zone correct yep and all three of

21:57

those will have different

21:58

well three and three of those will have

22:00

different transformer sizes

22:01

sure yeah so those transformers are

22:04

going to be soldered into the board

22:06

um they're not externally mounted and

22:08

plugged in like the zvr

22:10

series so uh those are soldered directly

22:12

onto the board but they still have that

22:14

resettable link

22:15

protection like like the other board has

22:18

right so if you have a quick little

22:19

short

22:20

it'll open up lights will go off it

22:23

basically go through and do the same

22:24

thing right isolate your thermostats off

22:27

that's the only low voltage

22:29

yeah cause that link is really only

22:31

protecting you on your low voltage side

22:33

right it's so it's gonna open up when

22:36

there's a low voltage short

22:38

and then from there you disconnect power

22:40

disconnect all your thermostats

22:42

repower it up if the green light comes

22:44

on you have power you know the board's

22:46

still okay so yeah so then you're gonna

22:48

go back

22:49

and plug in your thermostats

22:53

one at a time and see what happens right

22:56

now

22:56

yeah sooner or later you're going to

22:57

find that issue you are

23:00

and if one is giving you one in

23:02

particular has given you fits

23:04

then that is where you break out the

23:06

ohmmeter and start testing for

23:07

continuity

23:08

between your wires your thermostatic

23:11

wires and your thermostat wires

23:13

yep and most of the time we see a

23:15

problem on on three wire

23:17

not too often on on two wire but it it

23:19

could happen

23:20

you know if you got say the r or the w

23:22

wire

23:23

you notice the thermostat works fine

23:25

until you make a call for heat

23:27

and then all of a sudden the board goes

23:29

out chances are that short

23:31

might be in that w wire somewhere and

23:33

that could

23:34

i mean if you're not running a common to

23:36

your thermostat and you're only running

23:37

a two-wire

23:38

that could be a reason why your board's

23:40

not shutting off

23:42

yes if you haven't you have that wire

23:44

stripped inside the

23:45

the cabling you know that's giving you a

23:47

constant call for heat so if you get to

23:49

a point where

23:50

hey you know what i only have a two wire

23:52

thermostat

23:54

i don't even have the thermostat on the

23:55

wall i have the wire separated up at the

23:57

wall

23:57

and my board is continuing to call for

23:59

heat well that's a pretty good sign that

24:02

you know your wiring there's something

24:04

shorted in the

24:05

in the wiring yeah there it's scanned

24:08

apart and it's touching

24:09

the thing is that's not going to take

24:10

the board out it's not going to take

24:12

that resettable link out because it's

24:14

not as short

24:15

right it's just going to give you a

24:16

continuous call for heat

24:18

exactly and then when you get to the

24:20

high voltage side of that board we have

24:22

protection there as well

24:24

yeah in the in all the zsr boards

24:27

they all have a pump fuse that's

24:29

replaceable

24:30

right yep and we include a couple extra

24:33

fuses

24:33

with the board so you'll have a couple

24:35

extra in the cabinet sure

24:36

um but yeah fuse protection for each of

24:39

the pumps

24:40

and the system pump right and those are

24:42

good up to five amps

24:43

right yeah so that should cover any of

24:46

your

24:47

your modern pumps yeah i would say so

24:50

well greg i think we did a pretty good

24:51

job of covering both products series

24:53

and the troubleshooting side um so i'm

24:56

looking forward to coming back next week

24:57

what are we going to talk about

24:58

yeah so tune in next week to episode 10

25:01

and uh

25:03

basically we're going to go over what

25:04

you need to know about skull protection

25:06

yeah

25:06

go back to a plumbing topic i like that

25:08

sounds like a plan

25:10

great we'll see you guys next week see

25:11

you next week

25:14

thank you for tuning in if you ever need

25:16

help

25:17

please feel free to contact our tech

25:18

support team anytime

25:20

at techsupport.us caleffi.com

25:24

or call us during our business hours at

25:27

7

25:28

30 a.m to 4 30 p.m central time

25:32

at 414-238-2360

25:43

[Music]