When I open up the box (approx 5″x5″) there are some wires, and what looks like a small electric motor.
attached to the motor is what looks like a tiny metal square that is vibrating to make the noise.
It is pretty loud.
There is no labeling, writing, or marking to tell me what this part of the boiler is.
Any ideas?
Your control box has an on board transformer. They sometimes get noisy with age, a new control will take care of it.
how do you drain and refill central heating which has a combi boiler?
Your control box has an on board transformer. They sometimes get noisy with age, a new control will take care of it.
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depending on the location of this “box” it is either your aqua-stat (a thermostat for the water in your boiler) or if this box is mounted to the blower motor its your reset switch( if this is vibrating and not clicking to disconnect it wants to so it can indicate to you a problem with your boiler that needs servicing). either one of these is not very expensive by themselves but the repair on a boiler that old may not make sense. a new boiler will save you alot of money if so many different ways. get a service technition YOU TRUST to look at you system and do a heat loss on your home. you may find that fixing and continuing to use your existing boiler will actually be more expensive than swaping out for a (likley smaller) new more efficiant one.
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Your description sounds to me like a contactor. It is likely your pump relay that is vibrating. Those have a metal plate with contacts on top of a coil. The metal plate is spring loaded to open. When the coil gets weak it vibrates against the spring tension.
It may be your main control or only the pump controller. It likely has both 24v thermostat wiring and 120v both going to it.
There are a bunch of different types, some with separate transformers, some not. In some it is your main transformer. The old ones often have connections like T1, T2, L1, L2 and maybe a “B”.
Usually the labeling was on the inside of the metal cover.
I can’t tell you exactly what one you need to replace it because there are different types and a bunch of ways of wiring up the controls.
You could take it off and go match it. But otherwise you might need somebody with a good knowledge to deal with it.
It is possible to replace or wire in a separate contactor but that also takes a superior knowledge of the schematics or wiring logic.
For example on mine it has double contacts and can be used to break both the pump voltage and the 24 volts to the burners.
And with repairs over the years the way it is wired may have been changed with replacements of different controls. But if you replace it with an identical one you only have to wire it in the same.
Good Luck.
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I have a similar one and I’m an HVAC repair tech.
If you are not qualified to check electricity and gas. DON’T.
a/ electricity :- you cannot see it.
b/ Gas, you cannot see that either.
Both will kill you with out a blink. Snap quick!!!.They both don’t take prisoners.
So get a qualified techo to check.
magoo
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Thats your boiler TALKING to you and saying “REPLACE ME!”
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I think its the 50 year old boiler death rattle, if i were you i would look into replacing it, you will save money on yearly heating costs by having it replaced
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