Circulator pump seems hot

Hello,

I noticed that the outer casing of my circulator pump is hot to the touch. Is that normal or indicative of a problem? With the cold temperatures lately in Western New York, the boiler has been running about 7 hours per day now and getting a workout. I recently bought the house and I am not familiar with boiler systems. Using my temperature gun, the outer casing of the circulator pump has been reaching 145* when running for about 15 minutes. The water intake temperature that its pumping ranges from 60-85*. The heated water going to the radiators is leaving the boiler at about 130 - 150* Not sure if those metrics help. :-). Just wondering if I should take any proactive measures as we have sub zero temps coming up.

One additional question- at what point is the boiler considered to be running too long per day and could potentially cause failure or create a dangerous condition? i.e., like if its running 12, 16, 24 hours/day? I've been running about 7-8 hours a day during this cold spell... that's fine, right?

Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

k,
It depends what kind of pump you have. If you have a 1 piece where there is no coupling or other parts where the motor is separate then it is normal for the canister to be hot because that canister is actually filled with supply or return heating water.

These are called wet rotor pumps. Possibly a green Taco pump.

Boilers are made to run and will run as long as there is a call for heat. Nothing is carved in stone as to how long a boiler should run.

Each case is different and will run until the stat is satisfied.

It sounds like your system is running normally.

Hope tis helps a little.

 

I just went down to look at it- It's a black Taco cartridge circulator pump- model 007-5F - and I just noticed on the sticker that it has a max water temp of 240* F.... lol, well, that answers my question about if 145* being too warm.

Thanks.