Our house is heated with hot water. 3 zones. 2 downstairs 1 upstairs. Each with own thermostat. Haven't used the upstairs zone in years since we are happy to sleep in the cold. We now have a guest and I decided to give her some upstairs heat. Zone valve won't turn. I assume for sitting so long. I can turn the others by hand. There's a little thumb wheel sticking out of each side of the zone valve for turning it. They are White Rodgers valves. Any suggestions as to how to free it up without having to shut down the whole boiler to remove the valve?

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

OK. Tapped on it with a small chisel and hammer and got it freed up. Once it moved about 1/4" it seemed to come completely free. We'll see how freely it operates with the thermostat.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Thankfully, Honeywell designed their valves properly, and, when the motor eventually goes bad, you simply replace the motor without the need to break into the water system.

My nine valves are now about 10 years old and I've had two motor failures in that period. $30 and 20 minutes to fix.

Well, the thumb wheel is turning but the valve inside the body does not appear to be turning. There is no heat on the downstream side. Not sure how to proceed? Not sure how that thumb wheel is attached to the valve body and why the thumb wheel would turn without the valve body itself turning.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Probably slipped the sleeve or stripped the splines or similar. the valve is siezed and the only alternative now is probably changing the body as (hopefully) BC stated.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Not familiar with White Rogers, but without the valve turning, you've got no heat...............

....................says the master of the obvious..........

I'm skeptical of the stripped splines hypothesis due to the fact that the thumb wheel has resistance similar to the other functional valves. I'm wondering if I have an air lock in the system since I've drained it since the last time the valve was opened and when I filled it again, I didn't open that valve so the water that filled the upstairs radiators had to back up thru the return lines. I'll let it run for a while and keep bleeding the air from the upstairs radiators.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Is it circulator powered or gravity fed?

I usually run my system using gravity only because the circulator moves too much water and the furnace cannot keep up with the cast iron radiators............especially when they are cold.

In this condition, certain areas can accumulate air over time and I must run the circulator periodically to move it to the radiators.

Circulator powered but I haven't put my hand on that pump in many years to see if it's actually running I'm thinking that with the water feeding up the return lines, it would have pushed the air back down the feed line pressuring the line right above the zone valve.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

When the thermostat calls for heat, how much time elapses before you can feel warmth at the inlet to the radiator closest to the furnace?

If the circulator operates, this time is less than 30 seconds. If it does not operate, the time is about five minutes.

I'm not sure that applies to my system. It was designed with a huge boiler and 4" steel pipes for gravity feed. I put a new smaller boiler with a circulator pump but kept the large pipes apart from the new copper I plumbed in right next to the boiler.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

............that was your mistake.

This house held 125 gallons of water with 2.5" pipes in the basement and 3/4" pipes running up to the various radiators.

All the 2.5" is gone..........replaced by 1" copper.

The system now holds about 30 gallons.


Ever figure out how much oil it takes to heat up that entire amount of water to the point where it can do some heating?

It's not bad in a cold environment where you've got to keep the heat on continuously. But, any system where the heat is on with a duty cycle of less than 50% (most spring and fall days), the cost is astronomical.


The timing for the heat will be delayed significantly with the larger pipes............don't know exactly how much.

Yes, there's a lot of water in those pipes.
When we bought the house it needed tons of work, it had been abandoned for a couple of years in temperatures of 25 below zero. My wife an I did all the work on a very limited budget. Lots of radiators were cracked. We disassembled them and replaced the broken sections with good sections from other radiators. Replumbing the whole heating system was out of the question due to the costs and time involved in a 3200 sq ft house. We had to fix all the broken water lines, replace all the roofs, fix all the interior damage from leaking roofs, replace all the switches and fixtures which had been stolen, etc etc. . . All this while both of us held full time jobs. So, the shortest, least expensive road to functionality was our only choice.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Sounds like an airlock might be possible.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Absolutely. Get the air out at every radiator. Just the compression of the air can effectively stop a system like you described.

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

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