Upstairs heating not working

Pops_20

Hi All, I have gas fired central heating that is divided into zones; upstairs, downstairs and water.
About a week ago the main trip switch kept tripping when turning on the upstairs heating. This resolved itself after a few hours, but then the upstairs heating was stuck on when only the downstairs was on.

A few days later, the upstairs heating got permanently stuck OFF. No more power cuts either.

I think I have narrowed down the problem to the motor which sends the water to the upstairs. It is getting power as the light is on but its not moving. I assume there was an issue with this which led to the trip switch tripping, and then got stuck in the on position.

There is a manual lever on the side of this but it will not budge. I can move the lever on the downstairs motor.

I am reasonably handy with mechanical type repairs. What's the next step here? Replace the motor for the upstairs? Is this difficult to do?

Thanks.

crazy_kenny

Pops_20 wrote: »

Hi All, I have gas fired central heating that is divided into zones; upstairs, downstairs and water.
About a week ago the main trip switch kept tripping when turning on the upstairs heating. This resolved itself after a few hours, but then the upstairs heating was stuck on when only the downstairs was on.

A few days later, the upstairs heating got permanently stuck OFF. No more power cuts either.

I think I have narrowed down the problem to the motor which sends the water to the upstairs. It is getting power as the light is on but its not moving. I assume there was an issue with this which led to the trip switch tripping, and then got stuck in the on position.

There is a manual lever on the side of this but it will not budge. I can move the lever on the downstairs motor.

I am reasonably handy with mechanical type repairs. What's the next step here? Replace the motor for the upstairs? Is this difficult to do?

Thanks.

They are motorized valves. Pretty easy to do. Push yellow tab and turn to remove.

crazy_kenny

You could try switching the good one to the problem side but if you have a wiring issue you could blow that one too.

Wearb

Take the head off the broken one and see if its easy to move the spindle on the valve. If not, its likely that valve needs replacing.

Pops_20

I tried to remove the broken motor but the manual override lever (yellow tab) is firmly stuck in the auto position. I was able to remove the downstairs one with ease.

Don't really want to go sticking anything into it to try free off the manual lever while there's power running to it. Any suggestion on how to get it off? Brute force?

punisher5112

Pops_20 wrote: »

I tried to remove the broken motor but the manual override lever (yellow tab) is firmly stuck in the auto position. I was able to remove the downstairs one with ease.

Don't really want to go sticking anything into it to try free off the manual lever while there's power running to it. Any suggestion on how to get it off? Brute force?

Turn the power off, give it a few taps and try wiggle

Pops_20

punisher5112 wrote: »

Turn the power off, give it a few taps and try wiggle

Thanks.. that got it off. The spindle on the valve is easy to move by hand on both valves.

I turned the upstairs motor upside down and a load of water came out... I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's what caused the power cut and the failure of the motor.

No water visible around the pipes or the valve and the downstairs motor is dry.

Could I replace the motor or would I be best off investigating how water got into it?

punisher5112

Pops_20 wrote: »

Thanks.. that got it off. The spindle on the valve is easy to move by hand on both valves.

I turned the upstairs motor upside down and a load of water came out... I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's what caused the power cut and the failure of the motor.

No water visible around the pipes or the valve and the downstairs motor is dry.

Could I replace the motor or would I be best off investigating how water got into it?

I'd definitely be looking at how water got in....

It may well be a small leak when it opens its shooting up into the unit.