New Ignition Control Module "smoked" on Master Temp 400 Heater. Something else bad?

[Paul10456]

New Ignition Control Module "smoked" on Master Temp 400 Heater. Something else bad?

I took a lightning strike to my house, or in the very close vicinity about 2 months ago. Took out nearly everything electronic in the house. Ugh, still repairing things. My question surrounds a Pentair Master Temp 400 heater which went out.

After the lightning strike, I had to replace the inline fuse from the Aqualink system which turns the unit on, the main Control Board, and the Ignition Control Module. Everything worked for about 30 days though we only used the hottub twice.

This weekend, no heat. Everything appeared normal... fan turns on, yellow light comes on solid, gas valve comes on, no ignition. Yellow light blinks for a while and it repeats the process. No diagnostic failure LEDs. Noticed a little black smoke residue around the five connector white connector plug (S1/120, L1, L2, S2). Removed and opened up the ignition control module and the back of the PWB had black residue where something had obviously burnt. Ordered a replacement Ignition Control Module from Pool Supply Unlimited who I must say had the BEST customer service I have seen for a while (offered to send out replacement part today, and would credit my account when the defective part was sent back handling the warranty claim for me).

Now the question - Could something else downstream (like the igniter) also be bad that caused the Ignition Module to be bad? Or was this new failure just Infant Mortality? Called tech support at Pentair and they said nothing else downstream could have caused this failure. But hottub has to be working this weekend for a big party so can't chance it. Any of you pool experts been down this road before?

 

[danpik]

Re: New Ignition Control Module "smoked" on Master Temp 400 Heater. Something else ba

I believe these have a hot surface igniter. Check the output to it from the board for 120 volts on a call for heat. Don't recall the Ohms reading you should see on the igniter itself Maybe around 50 or so. If it is bad you will get an open circuit indication on the Ohm meter. A high voltage event will burn out these igniters. You can meter it but a visual will tell you if it is bad or not. You will see a white residue where the break is.

 

[Paul10456]

Re: New Ignition Control Module "smoked" on Master Temp 400 Heater. Something else ba

Okay, looks like the igniter is not that expensive so I will add that to the order and swap it out. Thanks. Will repost and let you know if it's fixed after this weekend.

 

[Paul10456]

Re: New Ignition Control Module "smoked" on Master Temp 400 Heater. Something else ba

Just closing this thread off. I replaced the Ignition Module and the Igniter. The igniter did not test as an open, but I replaced it as well since I had purchased it already. Unit fired right up and thought it was good. I let it run for a while just to be sure and after about one minute, the red Service LED came on and it stopped heating. After about 5 minutes, the yellow light came back on and it fired back up. It would repeat this cycle consistently. After some forum research, I found out you could hold down the Spa Heat for 5 seconds and it would show the exhaust temperature. This would climb to about 300 degrees each time when the Service light would come on. I checked the air inlet and found an interesting dirt dobber nest (a Texas thing, pics attached) which was restricting the air flow. Improved the situation, ran longer, but still failed eventually. Next pulled out the thermostat and checked to see if it opened in boiling water and it did not. Put it back together without the thermostat and it now works just fine, finally. A new thermostat is on order. So, ultimately three levels of problems to work through. The forums and youtube videos are extremely helpful so hopefully this post helps someone fix their unit