I have a hydronic baseboard heating system in my house with three zone valves and one circulator pump. I have been running water in the system rather than antifreeze. Over the past seven years I have had two of the zone valves fail. Last winter I decided to change out all three valves in hopes that I wont have to touch deal with them again for a while, (Honeywell zone valves). I was careful not to use too much solder when installing them and used lead solder. One valve is already hanging up after being in use for 11 months. Our water is somewhat hard and I imagine that this is part of the problem. I’d rather stick with water rather than antifreeze because I don’t want to deal with getting rid of the antifreeze when I’m working on system. I’m doing extensive renovations to this house while were living in it and am moving some of the baseboard heaters. With three zones is it worth considering switching over to three circulator pumps with check valves instead of the zone valves that I currently have???
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Lumberjack
I have installed literally hundreds if not thousands of honeywell zone valves over the years. I very rarely have to go back and replace the whole valve, after about 10 years the motors start going but the valve body seems to last approx. 15 to 20 years. Granted most of the areas we install have excellent water. I do work on a lot of island locations with poorer water in these cases I usually take fresh town water in 5 gallon buckets to the site and use this to fill the system. As a mater of fact I am taking 22 five gallon buckets and my purge cart on a water taxi on Monday to a job site.
If you have access to better water this could be an alternative. Once the system is filled and the air is purged the make up water line will introduce very little if any of the bad water into the system. Of course depending on the codes in your area you could have a closed system with no make up water.
Hope this helps.
KC:
I replaced the whole valve today and it looks like the motor had gone bad prematurely. I guess I didn't have to replace the entire valve, but it is done. I like your idea of using city water, I think that I might give this a try. Thanks very much for the advice.
Of course, if you already have a water softener, you should connect the fill to the 'soft side'. ....
Man, your story is exactly the same as mine. I have 4 zones on my hydronic heating system, and I have had to replace 3 of the motors in the last two years. They're amazingly expensive, worthless pieces of crap.
When I started up the system this season one zone wouldn't work at all, even when I "manually" opened the valve. The little rubber ball was stuck in the valve seat, thought I would have to replace it. Turned out that some rigourous banging on the valve with a screwdriver handle freed it up.
The guys at the local plumbing supply house swear by this stuff called "Silver King #5". It's some kind of water soluble lubricant that you put in the system. It's supposed to keep your pump and the valves running smoothly. For $11 for a dose I figure it's worth a try, I've put it in my system but it's too early to tell if it makes a difference. You might want to give this a try.
And if a valve really ever does go bad, you can remove the motor and then pull out the internal ball, without replacing the part that's actually sweated to the copper lines. Saves a little work, but no expense.
Thanks for the advice about "Silver King #5." Sounds like my stuck valve was a lot like yours - even in the way that it reacted to a screwdriver! It seems like conditioning the water is the way that I need to go.
Lumberjack would it be possible to install valves on both sides (or at least downstream) of the zone switches?
If this were done, seems it would permit you to shut down the bad line by closing the after zone switch valve and remove/service the bad switch with only a minimal mess on your hands.
Only problem I can think of would be when some dufus forgets to open up the valve before turning on the circulator pump.
To answer the original question, Sure, you could put in multiple small pumps instead one bigger one and a bunch of zone valves. Cost ends up about the same or often lower and if a pump goes out, you still have others to move water around. And you can select pumps for a known and constant task - each particular loop - rather the changing needs of 1, 2, or 3 loops going at once. It's how I plumbed my own house.
One downside is that is hard to find smart line-voltage thermostat. Most nice ones are 24-volts so end up with relays anyway. And smart thermostats make a big difference with RFH, especially with slab on grade in which the thermal mass and thermal inertia is so high.
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Griff:
When I originally plumbed the three zone valves I installed ball valves just above each zone valve in hopes that this would eliminate my drain and purge time. I really should have stuck another ball valve on the other side of each zone valve as you suggest so that I could make a motor swap as easy as possible. Next time one goes, I'll sweet in the additional ball valves. You live and you learn! Thanks for the feedback!