Fixing the Dreaded Boilermate Buzz: Control Board Repair
- SMITTY
- Member
- Posts: 12520
- Joined: Sun. Dec. 11, 2005 12:43 pm
- Location: West-Central Mass
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
- Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
- Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler
Right before I shut down for the season I thought I heard my oil boiler kick on/off several times within a 30 second stretch. Heard it going to bed one night recently, went downstairs, and the boiler had caught right as I got down there , of course. Tonight, the wifey went to bed, and she calls me in the room and asks why the boiler kicked on/0ff 12 times in 30 seconds. WTF .... so go downstairs and the place reeks like someone fired up a diesel tractor down there. The problem? ELECTRONICS, of course. When I look at the Amtrol indirect-fired water heater display, it's flickering very rapidly, and the "dash" symbol (like a minus) is displayed next to the word "ON" - that only happens when the power is interrupted, and the unit restarted - once the dash disappears, the unit kicks on the circulator, if needed, and then the burner on the boiler.
Well this som bitch was also buzzing like a hornets nest, along with the flickering. The burner was kicking on/off because the unit would command the circ on ... and then would go haywire and kill the command - this would happen over and over. No wonder I've gone thru 1/4 tank of oil since March! ...
Found the manual tucked away, and retrieved the part number for the board. 2704A233. Google found several of them ranging in price from $170 - $260!
A little more investigation turned up the solution I was dreaming about A FREE ONE!! This guy posted an EXCELLENT tutorial on the DIY forum on how to fix this electronic pile of crap without spending a dime. If anyone has the same unit I have - the Amtrol Boilermate (Home Depot special), model WH-7P, check out the post #12 by the guy Mikie from NC - I printed it out, and might tackle that job tomorrow.
I owe that dude some beeers! http://www.doityourself.com/forum/water-heaters/3 ... oblem.html
Well this som bitch was also buzzing like a hornets nest, along with the flickering. The burner was kicking on/off because the unit would command the circ on ... and then would go haywire and kill the command - this would happen over and over. No wonder I've gone thru 1/4 tank of oil since March! ...
Found the manual tucked away, and retrieved the part number for the board. 2704A233. Google found several of them ranging in price from $170 - $260!
A little more investigation turned up the solution I was dreaming about A FREE ONE!! This guy posted an EXCELLENT tutorial on the DIY forum on how to fix this electronic pile of crap without spending a dime. If anyone has the same unit I have - the Amtrol Boilermate (Home Depot special), model WH-7P, check out the post #12 by the guy Mikie from NC - I printed it out, and might tackle that job tomorrow.
I owe that dude some beeers! http://www.doityourself.com/forum/water-heaters/3 ... oblem.html
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- Joined: Sun. Sep. 30, 2012 8:20 pm
- Location: Ithaca,NY
Smitty
Awesome detective work. I know where there are several of these units that are in the scrap heap because of the same reported problem . I can have them for free, I think. I love how the co. knows the problem and they just want to sell you another mother board with the same design flaw. I owe you the same beers, if I could just get my wife to stop drinking it all
Good hustle
Waldo
Awesome detective work. I know where there are several of these units that are in the scrap heap because of the same reported problem . I can have them for free, I think. I love how the co. knows the problem and they just want to sell you another mother board with the same design flaw. I owe you the same beers, if I could just get my wife to stop drinking it all
Good hustle
Waldo
- SMITTY
- Member
- Posts: 12520
- Joined: Sun. Dec. 11, 2005 12:43 pm
- Location: West-Central Mass
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
- Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
- Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler
Thanks man - yeah it worked out good. Hey if you can repair all of those, you could make a killing selling them on eBay.
A successful mission - we've got BUZZ free controls, and no more multi-kick-on b/s with the oil burner. Very happy. Cost me ZILCH - that is mint!! YEAH!!
Was a bit of work for me though, not having the correct equipment for the job. I have no solder sucker and a giant 230W gun!! Made this take MUCH longer than it should have. All told, just under 2.5 hours from start to boiler kick-on. I tried using a stripped 18awg wire to "mop" and "flick" the solder off. Then I tried making a sucker from a little rubber bulb used for batteries - that didn't work so well, so I used it to BLOW the solder off! Was a pain trying to heat all 8 contacts at once to remove the little legs from the board. I jammed a screwdriver under it, and kept twisting while I heated. Eventually that little prick came out! If all this heat didn't kill the board, then anyone out there with the LEAST bit of mechanical know-how will successfully pull this off, especially with the correct equipment!
Here's the abbreviated directions in my own words based upon the information supplied by Little Mikie on the DIY website:
First I had to remove the affected relay, and a little 3/16" round 4.7µ capacitor related to it. This relay is located adjacent to the hot & neutral leads in the lower left hand corner when you orient the board that way. Now with the relay removed, looking from the COMPONENT side (not the solder side) of the board, there will be 6 holes (PADS), then 2 below it, where the legs of the former relay went. Like this, only rotate this little drawing inside the arrows 90°CLOCKWISE so that the "6" are at the top and the "2" are at the bottom: >>> ::: : <<<
Starting at the lower left (the pair by themselves, below the six pattern) is pad 1 .... directly above that in the lower left hand corner of the "6" is pad 2 .... above that is 3 ... and last one on that side is pad 4 ... then ACROSS the TOP toward your right is pad 5 .... and so on down to the very last in the lower right hand corner which is pad 8.
SO:
FOR 120V INPUT:
FOR 24V INPUT:
Some pics of the process ....
The assembly:
A successful mission - we've got BUZZ free controls, and no more multi-kick-on b/s with the oil burner. Very happy. Cost me ZILCH - that is mint!! YEAH!!
Was a bit of work for me though, not having the correct equipment for the job. I have no solder sucker and a giant 230W gun!! Made this take MUCH longer than it should have. All told, just under 2.5 hours from start to boiler kick-on. I tried using a stripped 18awg wire to "mop" and "flick" the solder off. Then I tried making a sucker from a little rubber bulb used for batteries - that didn't work so well, so I used it to BLOW the solder off! Was a pain trying to heat all 8 contacts at once to remove the little legs from the board. I jammed a screwdriver under it, and kept twisting while I heated. Eventually that little prick came out! If all this heat didn't kill the board, then anyone out there with the LEAST bit of mechanical know-how will successfully pull this off, especially with the correct equipment!
Here's the abbreviated directions in my own words based upon the information supplied by Little Mikie on the DIY website:
First I had to remove the affected relay, and a little 3/16" round 4.7µ capacitor related to it. This relay is located adjacent to the hot & neutral leads in the lower left hand corner when you orient the board that way. Now with the relay removed, looking from the COMPONENT side (not the solder side) of the board, there will be 6 holes (PADS), then 2 below it, where the legs of the former relay went. Like this, only rotate this little drawing inside the arrows 90°CLOCKWISE so that the "6" are at the top and the "2" are at the bottom: >>> ::: : <<<
Starting at the lower left (the pair by themselves, below the six pattern) is pad 1 .... directly above that in the lower left hand corner of the "6" is pad 2 .... above that is 3 ... and last one on that side is pad 4 ... then ACROSS the TOP toward your right is pad 5 .... and so on down to the very last in the lower right hand corner which is pad 8.
SO:
- Pad 1: Coil
- Pad 2: NC contact set 1
- Pad 3: Swinger contact set 1
- Pad 4: N.O. contact set 1
- Pad 5: N.O. contact set 2
- Pad 6: Swinger contact set 2
- Pad 7: NC contact set 2
- Pad 8: Coil
FOR 120V INPUT:
- Jumper 1: From pad 3 to pad 4
- Jumper 2: From pad 5 to pad 6
FOR 24V INPUT:
- Jumper 1: From pad 2 to pad 3
- Jumper 2: From pad 6 to pad 7
Some pics of the process ....
The assembly:
Attachments
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- Member
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- Location: Ithaca,NY
:nice: Thanx for the photo's. Pictures' worth a thousand words. Again good hustle!!
Waldo
Waldo
- carlherrnstein
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- Location: Clarksburg, ohio
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: combustioneer model 77B
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In the future, if you need to remove solder from a board go to radio shack and ask for solder wick its like a ribbon made from woven copper. You place the ribbon over the solder joint and put the soldering iron on it and the solder melts and wicks into the ribbon.
- SMITTY
- Member
- Posts: 12520
- Joined: Sun. Dec. 11, 2005 12:43 pm
- Location: West-Central Mass
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
- Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
- Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler
Actually I ended up buying a solder sucker off Amazon. Was going to buy the cheap one, but I'm just so sick of all the cheap crap that breaks nowadays - I want it to work when I need it to. It looks like a little soldering iron, but has a squeeze bulb hanging off the side.
- mozz
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- Location: Wayne county PA.
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Axeman Anderson 1982 AA-130 Steam
You can also use the braid from a piece of tv cable coax. Flux helps to draw up the solder. I am wondering why you jumped the relay. Is something not going to work now or stay on all the time?
- SMITTY
- Member
- Posts: 12520
- Joined: Sun. Dec. 11, 2005 12:43 pm
- Location: West-Central Mass
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
- Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
- Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler
The sensor is a thermistor that goes up inside the tank. It plugs into the circuit board. No idea how it works, but it does. The tank is so heavily insulated that a remote bulb would be impossible. Only place you could put it would be on the HW output line, which would call for heat whenever the hot water wasn't used. Unless you could just wire that bulb into the thermistor ...
Was using rosin core solder - suppose to have flux already in it. Guess I just put a little too much heat on it. Anyway, that relay controls the switch from 120v to 24v. Since my house and system runs on 120v, that's why the jumpers are where they are. For 24v the jumpers go in a different location as stated in the instructions above.mozz wrote:You can also use the braid from a piece of tv cable coax. Flux helps to draw up the solder. I am wondering why you jumped the relay. Is something not going to work now or stay on all the time?
- McGiever
- Member
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- Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
- Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
- Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
- Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
- Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar
Thermistor would not work at 120 volts with an added aquastat. That is one reason why the transformer is in the controller.
However, there are controllers available that would use the existing thermistor, but why, Smitty's fix is pretty hard to beat.
On a side note, I run my BoilerMate controls at 24 volts and all is well thus far.
However, there are controllers available that would use the existing thermistor, but why, Smitty's fix is pretty hard to beat.
On a side note, I run my BoilerMate controls at 24 volts and all is well thus far.
- SMITTY
- Member
- Posts: 12520
- Joined: Sun. Dec. 11, 2005 12:43 pm
- Location: West-Central Mass
- Stoker Coal Boiler: EFM 520 Highboy
- Coal Size/Type: Rice / Blaschak anthracite
- Other Heating: Oil fired Burnham boiler
Yeah from what I've gathered in reading, that relay seems to only go on the fritz with 120v -- on 24v there's no abuse to it, as it's a normally closed relay and thus does nothing if fed 24v ... if I remember right. I could've done that had I known it was dual-power. I have a 24v transformer above the boiler for the 3 zone valves.
Yeah the thing's been working great! Now though, I think that short cycling problem caused my 17 year old burner parts to fail. Been noticing several clouds of black smoke billowing from the chimney at start up. More than likely it needs a new electric eye, ignition coil, and electrodes.
Yeah the thing's been working great! Now though, I think that short cycling problem caused my 17 year old burner parts to fail. Been noticing several clouds of black smoke billowing from the chimney at start up. More than likely it needs a new electric eye, ignition coil, and electrodes.