weil mclain boiler.
the system is forced hot water with baseboard radiators.
there are two zones...one that's for downstairs and one for upstairs. house is about 15-20 yrs old.

when the downstairs is on the upstairs gets hot too but there's no movement in the zone valve. i can hear water moving through the closed valve so i assume the valve is done.

current zone valve is an erie 24v NC valve on a 3/4 copper tube...4 wires two red and two black.

going to replace that zone valve with a honeywell V8043E1012...good valve?

here's what i'm planning to do. going to drain the system since there's no on/off valve that i can use to isolate the zone valve. going to shut off the water going into the boiler and open the valve to drain the water.

i'll cut the copper pipe and sweat in a 1/4 turn ball valve and the honeywell zone valve.

then i'll turn the water back on.
at that point should i start up the boiler and bleed the radiators or should i just bleed first before firing the boiler?

also does a circulator pump push the water up or does it run with gravity and push water down? i'm guessing that it's pushing up.

thanks!

 

Before you replace the entire valve, you might want to do some more diagnostics and make sure that it's not just the POWERHEAD that's hanging up. The valve itself might be fine. You should be able to replace the powerhead itself very easily without draining the system.

If you do have to change the valve:

Be careful the color codes between the Erie and the HW ... my memory is not what it used to be, but I believe the ENDSWITCH on the Erie is the BLACK wires... and if the HW is the one with the wire leads, the RED wires are the ENDSWITCH... the HW valve is as good as any, all brands fail sooner or later.

Watch the amount of heat when you solder the new valve in, excess heat can damage the valve. If you aren't real skilled at soldering pipes, you might want to wrap a wet rag around the valve body to absorb some of the heat.

Absolutely FILL AND BLEED as much air as you can before firing the boiler! You most definitely do NOT want to fire the boiler unless it is 100% full of water!

The pump is the motor that runs the ferris wheel of water. Both the pump, AND gravity are doing the job. The pump adds the energy to the water that gets it to the highest point in the system, then gravity pulls it back down. Not sure if this answers the question though... did it?

 

i swapped out the motor (powerhead) and it was ok for a little while...but then eventually the valve would leak (yes i installed the motor correctly). i can hear water moving from that valve when the other zone is on. so downstairs i turn on the heat it gets hot upstairs as well as downstairs.

i have a volt meter and the installation diagrams for the erie and honeywell so i'll make sure the wires are the going to the right place. thanks for the info.

i'll open the valve and wrap a wet towel around it so i don't kill it.

thanks for your help!!