Boilers - Steam and Hot Water Systems - 2 Zones 1 not working

I'm a newbie- could use some help. I have oil fired Weil McLain furnace and radiant baseboard heating. I get hot water to shower and one zone, however I am not getting heat to main level of house. I have taken a picture and put on photo bucket where if you enlarge you will see that I have labeled what pipes get hot and which are cold. Thanks for any help.

http://i578.photobucket.com/albums/ss221/drudnits1/furnacehotandcoldspots.jpg

Those silver boxes on the pipes are your 'zone valves'.

It appears that the two vertical ones are for the heating zones in the home, and the horizontal one is for the water heater.

The left side vertical one is apparently not opening.

This could be a thermostat or wiring problem, or it could be a problem with the zone valve itself.

If you have someone turn up the thermostat while you are at the boiler, you should be able to hear the motor in the zone valve turning as the valve opens. When the valve is fully open, it should trigger the boiler to fire and circulate hot water into that zone.

Try that and let us know what you find...

p.s. have you checked the batteries in the thermostat?

NJ Trooper,

Thanks for the quick reply. I have changed the batteries, same thing. I hear the motor on the working zone, when I turn up thermostat on the trouble zone I don't hear anything. Connections are tight. If I need to replace zone valve-where can I purchase?

One more thing...

On each valve there is a lever on there to manually open the valve.

If the valve is open by a signal from the thermostat, that lever will move back and forth with very little resistance... but if the valve is closed and you manually open it, you will feel the resistance of and hear the gears turning inside...

If you manually open that valve, you should be able to get some heat into that zone by turning up the OTHER thermostat so that it fires the boiler and starts the pump. Because the valve is manually opened, it will also move heat into that zone as well.

It could be that the motor itself inside the valve is shot...

You CAN just replace the motor. I would recommend replacing the powerhead as a unit though. You don't have to drain the system or anything...

Those are Honeywell V8043 valves, is that correct?

The USUAL problems with these valves is NOT the motor, but rather the ENDSWITCH... (just a little extra info for reference). What we usually see is that the valve will open, but the endswitch will not trigger the boiler.

I like Patriot Supply. Always had good luck with them. There are a few places that may have lower prices on line, but I'm willing to bet that they can't ship as fast!

However, at the moment, their website seems to be down!

I fired up the other zone and manually over rode the valve- and there was heat. Like you said, it took pressure to move unlike the working valve which moved easily. Yes, it is Honeywell V8043. I will replace the powerhead as a unit as you suggested. Thanks for all your help.

http://www.patriot-supply.com

Remember though, that without actually checking for 24VAC at the zone valve when the thermostat is calling for heat, it's a gamble replacing the powerhead.

If you have a multimeter, you might want to do that first... there should be 24VAC at the yellow leads when the thermostat is calling.