QUESTION FROM Snuss69

My house has boiler fired baseboard hot water split into three zones. Two zones are heat and the other is for hot water. Suddenly the zone that heats the bedrooms has gone on while the windows are still open. It was 52 degrees outside and 80 degrees inside with the thermostat set to 55 degrees. I played with the thermostat and the circulator did not shut off and when I disconnected the thermostat. There is a circuit board located near the circulator with a relay on it. I disconnected a black wire from that and the circulator shut down. The other zones are still functional, so it appears to be an element of the circuit board that is bad. Does that entire part have to be replace or can the components be diagnosed and replaced?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD

Dear Snuss69:

It sounds like your circulator relay has gone bad. I would suggest that you replace the entire relay, rather than trying to diagnose and repair the relay piece-by-piece.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com

FOLLOW-UP FROM Snuss69

It is helpful. Thanks.

This particular relay has been a problem. I had repaired a crack in the solder that prevented the heat in that zone from kicking on a few yearws ago and it was this same zone. The other two have never been a problem. Must have been the one made on Monday AM after a bad weekend!

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD

Dear Snuss69:

. . . that's funny about the Monday morning part!

Yes, if you have had problems with this relay before, I would definitely recommend replacing the entire relay unit. The worst case would be if you were away sometime over the winter, and the relay failed to open the circulation pump, thereby allowing pipes to freeze. Again, this is a worst case scenario, but for peace of mind, even though it sounds like you are quite handy, you might want to install a reliable new relay rather than continuing to repair the existing one.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com

FOLLOW-UP FROM Snuss69

Thanks again. Nice site and I appreciate the advice.

It looks like they run about $80 and they are easy enough to install.