Battery Charge Maintenance, Alde pump stays on

JimEngel

The converter in the WFCO power center supposedly monitors battery charging and after a couple of days goes into a lower voltage maintenance mode. In setting up for winter storage I noticed that after several days the voltage did not drop down.

In tracing down what was going on, I discovered that the Alde circulation pump was running. Further investigation led the tool menu on the control panel: the second row left button is "Constant pump operation." The choices are Cont and Therm. Therm is the default and normal position, my unit was in Cont mode which explained why the pump was running. So far, so good.

But when it got colder I discovered that even with the control in Therm mode when the actual temperature falls below the set temperature the pump runs regardless of whether the gas is on at the tank, the 120 volt power is on or the controls are set to turn off electric and gas heat.

My measurement indicated that the Alde system was drawing .85 amps, not a small amount.

My conclusion is that the WFCO converter was seeing the current draw and assuming that the battery was not fully charged, and thus never went into maintenance mode.

So it would appear that in cold weather the pump is always running when 12 volt power is present, from the battery or the converter.

It is of course possible that I have missed something here, and any comments on logic or conclusions are most welcome.

Or is the operation of my particular Alde unit defective in some way?

Is this a "problem" or just the way it works?

At any rate for these reasons I have installed a switch on the 12 volt dc power to the Alde system so that when in transport, storage or just gone for the day we can be sure there is no Alde drain on our battery. Other than possible confusion in forgetting the switch is off, I can see no down side to this.

A further advantage of being able to shut down the DC operation has to do with the famous Alde little green fuse holders, with the fuses that can blow unpredictably at the most inconvenient moment, as for instance when you want some hot water or heat. It is said, on the internet so it must be true, that to avoid these random outages you should turn off the Alde when plugging or unplugging AC power, and perhaps DC power. But you cannot really turn of the heat function, only lower the temperature on the thermostat. Being able to just switch off the whole thing with one switch and then only turning it on when you need hot water or heat avoids a whole lot of opportunity to lose a fuse.

Sharon_is_SAM

JimEngel, we turn off the Alde control panel completely, then you won't have any operation of the Alde.  Also, We have not had any fuses blow by turning everything off before connecting or disconnecting AC.

JimEngel

Sam, what does "turn the Alde control panel of completely" mean?
As I understand it, you can not directly turn off the heat function,
you do this by lowering the set temperature, but that only goes down
to about 40 degrees.
When I have everything turned off, you can hear the fluid gurgling and
the hum of the pump motor.
Is there something abnormal in my Alde system?

jgram2

@JimEngel Which model do you have? The Alde manual for the 3010 model in the User Manuals, etc. Category on the left states on page 12: 3. To switch off the electrical operation, step with the – button to Off. And in the next illustration: 3. In order to switch off gas operation, press Off. Doesn't it work like that for your model? @SAM Is that how you turn off your Alde completely? Since we have the analog controls, I'm not familiar with digital.

 

Sharon_is_SAM

This from page 10 of the Alde 3010 online manual:

"To start the boiler, press the On/Off button and the start-up display is displayed. The boiler starts with the last selected setting."

You have the digital control panel.  If you just click off the on-off button, it shuts down the entire system.  If it continues to run at that point, then you may have a defect.

ChanW

We also have the analog control panel, but I happened to notice this past Fall that the pump will run even when both power source switches are off (ie: the 120v selector or the gas selector are both in the OFF position), when the thermostat is up and the room-heat switch position is selected. To me this is unintuitive.

So, on the analog control, the Hot-water/Room-heat selector acts as the pump switch, and needs to be shut off as well. 

Sorry I can't advise what the equivalent is on the digital control, but I'd think there would be an equivalent setting.

I'm sure someone with the digital control will pipe in when they're done sleeping off their turkey... 

JimEngel

SAM, I followed up on your comments and checked it out
on my system. You are correct, left button does indeed turn of the
entire system.
Somehow I got it into my head that the left button
was just turning the display on and off.
That's the problem with engineers, we think we
know better and just read the instructions quickly
if at all.
Thanks for the help.
I will leave the switch there because in case of some
sort of malfunction, as in the panel losing contact
with the unit, there is a fool proof way to turn
the whole thing.
Perhaps this is just another case of an engineer
over thinking the situation!

ChanW

Ha. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with that affliction.

JimEngel said:

........Perhaps this is just another case of an engineer
over thinking the situation!

Sharon_is_SAM

Glad I could help!  And glad I'm not the only one who over thinks:)

BrianZ

We have the same condition as initially reported here by @JimEngel.  When our Alde digital control is turned off completely with the left power button (after turning everything possible on the main menu to off), I can still measure .082 Amps across the fuse contacts of DC circuit #5, which includes the Alde.  The fans are also off, and it persists when the ceiling fan fuse is removed as well.
Have not played with thermostat yet - generally is left at around 65°.