We have provided the following archive of Q&A for reference purposes only. To get answers to your home improvement questions, please visit our new community forums.

Name: susan    City: maine

Question: my upstairs is tropical and the downstairs artic. There are 4 zones: 3 down and one up. The upstairs zone's thermostat is set at 58 degrees and the temperature reads 68-70. The system is forced hot water fueled by oil. The oil company's repair man said the thermostat was fine. He said that in the basement system there were magnetic valves, one of which was not shutting/adjusting the flow. He statted that I would have to wait at least 5 days for the thermostat to reset itself and then to call if the problem was not fixed. It's been a week. The upstairs is still tropical. And, the oil bill mounts. He would/could not give me an estimate on replacing the valve which would entail cutting and welding. I am hestiant to have the firm do the work. Is it true that it can take days for a thermostat to reset itself? Should I just pound on the magnetic valve in the baasement? What is advice for this problem??? Help.