I am just curious if anyone has had problems with this heater. My pool was built five yrs. ago and this is the second heater that has failed on me. Same manufacturer and model. The ignitor keeps failing. I bought a new ignitor and it failed in one week. I have a new ignitor and it won't even heat up. I did a continuity check on the new ignitor and it is okay. Is there anyone here who can help. I am not getting any help from Pentair. The parts on this heater are expensive. Another thing, each time I replace the ignitor the old one has this white crystalline residue on it. It appears the insulation in the burner box is failing.

Thanks in advance.

Bill

Welcome Bill to the forum ....while things have been picking up we are in our "slow" season, but hopefully someone with the appropriate expertise will be along to advise you shortly.

Pentair discontinued the MiniMax heater some years back. Most common issue was a bad PC board. The new heater is the MasterTemp, based on the Starite heater (Pentair owns Starite as well).

Where are you buying the heater(s) from? You are definitely buying old stock, and I would assume limited support from Pentair on such an old heater. Perhaps you can contact the seller and ask for some assistance (although a reputable seller would not have sold you that heater, in my opinion!).

The MasterTemp is a great heater, so I would not hesitate to consider Pentair again. You were sold bad goods the first time (when it may not have been known about the problems), and again the second time (shame on the seller). Hopefully it wasn't the same operation.

That white residue could also be calcium from a leak. Do you notice any water/leaking inside the heater anywhere?

I also Have the Pentair Minimax NT. Recently it stopped heating the spa (the heater won't come on). I cleaned the filter thinking it may have been a low pressure issue that was preventing the heater from cycling on. Well I fired up the heater in "Pool" mode and it was working. Then I tried "Spa" mode and it wouldn't come on. No click, no gas smell, no fan turning.

My pool is five years old. Apparently the company that finished the plumbing sold me all the stuff that was on it's way out...obviously to save themselves money. Live and learn.

What should I look for to get the heater to fire up in Spa mode?

Question 2. I tried to turn on the spa light and the GFI keeps popping. I reset the GFI and same thing. Pool light works fine.

@eddie: IT could easily be the Pool/Spa rocker switch or the board. Swapping the connections on the switch will tell you. If the Pool side of the switch works consistently, its the switch. If the problem moves to Spa side working, it's the board.

@friscokid: How did Pentair's support fail? Have you tried signing up for http://innovationlab.pentairpool.com ? They are very good.

Scott

The only rocker switch I see is the one on the side of the panel and it's marked on/off. Is that it??

Is your front panel this one ?
http://www.parts4heating.com/Pentair-47 ... 472086.htm

Scott

Uh, NO.

Anyway, amazingly no one ever asked me if I had a remote pool system, which I do. So I turned the heater on manually at the heater panel and it worked fine. So the heater works in POOL or SPA mode. The problem is probably in POLARIS EOS remote system. I traced the line that goes to the heater panel from the Polaris circuit board. The line is in good condition and the circuit board and Pentair heater panel show no signs of corrosion. All is plugged in and clean.
The remote does activate the everything, including the heater for pool mode, but not the heater for spa mode.
So, now what?

I guess the good news is I can still use my spa. I just have to get off my lazy butt and walk over to the heater and push the spa button. OMG that's too much work.

Thanks very much for trying to help me through this. I'm actually on car sites where I help others out, now and then, and I really appreciate those who step up to the plate to help.

OK, then you have the DDTC controller on the heater.

You have an NT400TSI, right?

Do you have it in remote on the heater itself? Remote will let you turn on th heater by the Polaris unit..