h400 wont light... IF error

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E

emdoller

0
Dec 27, 2010
117
El Dorado Hills, CA
Hi,

It's been raining for days here in California and today while there's break, I turned on my spa and the heater wont work. It has an "IF" error code which I guess means ignition failure. I've turned it on and off again a few times and can smell gas as it trys to light itself without success before showing the IF code again. I've read a few of the posts where someone said

"I have found that after heavy rains the combustion fan switch gets water in it and then the heater will
cycle like you describe. There is a small rubber hose that connects to the sensor, be sure there
is not water in it. This sensor tells the controller that the combustion fan is running and it is OK to
start up. Although the combustion fan maybe running OK if the sensor does not close the controller
thinks the fan is not running and won't let the heater start."

Sounds like this could be my issue. I've taken the two front panels off and am not sure where the small rubber hose is that may have water in it... can someone point me in the right direction?
 
Update: It's dark out now so I pulled the bottom cover off and cycled it again. When I turned it on, I could see that it was burning as it was glowing through the small glass window near the ignitor. Then I heard it click like it was turning on, the green light on the display next to heat lit for about 3 seconds and then it all went off. I tried to relight itself two more times repeating the same thing.

So it sounds like the igniter works but something is shutting it off... hmmmm...

Ed
 
Thanks. I'll give it a shot. I was thinking about trying to bypass each of the sensors to figure out which it might be before spending a ton of money. Is it right to assume the flame sense will "ground" if it detects flame? If so can I just put it to ground to bypass it?

Thanks.

Ed
 
The flame sensor and one of the nodes for the sparker are one in the same. I don't think it's ground but rather the hi-voltage side with the thick orange wire going to the control module. You can't test for anything that I know of. It'll spark and ignite the burners but not sense flame and hence, shuts down in a couple seconds.

Scott
 
Here's how I spent my morning:

First, I pulled out the flame sensor. I lightly cleaned it with some 400 grit sand paper and put it back in. Still didn't work.
I then hooked up a voltage meeter to the flame sensor and watched to see if the voltage changed when the flame came on and it did by quite a bit. So my conclusion is that it's not the flame sensor although of course it still could be.

Second, I checked via an ohm meeter if the vent and blower switches were working. When I fired up the heater both of them turned on so I concluded they are working.

Third I looked at the wiring diagram that showed the water press switch, 2 limit switches, and vent pressure switch are wired in series. So to test all of them I pulled the red wire off the water pressure switch and connected it to the return wire coming off the vent pressure switch. This did not fix the issue so my conclusion is that none of those are causing the issue.

My last option was to do the same with the gas valve so I pulled the wires off and tied them together. This blew the fuse on the circuit board so I wont do that again. I replaced the fuse and measured the voltage during the cycle and it changed when the gas started flowing. Not sure how the gas valve is generating voltage when there's no power going to it that I can see.

Anyway, having fun but can't seem to figure this out... hate to call someone as I know this wont be cheap... ANY IDEAS???

Thanks - Ed
 

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Just measured the voltage at the gas valve by pulling the wires and measuring. I though these were inputsto the board when in fact they are output from the control board to the switch.

Anyway, I could see the voltage turning on and then going off after a second or two. So what I don't know is if something is shutting this off or if this is the problem.

Still trying to figure this out. It's too bad the engineers that designed this didn't do a better job other then displaying "IF" code 
 
Ed

Here is a link to Hayward owners and service manual for the H series heaters.
http://www.hayward-pool.com/pdf/manuals/Manual285.pdf

Page 39 has the troubleshooting checklist for the IF Ignition Failure code.

Take a careful look at the wiring. Be sure all of the connectors are firmly attached.

Do you have 24v dc at the gas valve?
24v at the valve and the valve does not open completely then the gas valve is defective.
IF you don't find 24v at the valve, then the relay on the control module is bad and the control board will need to be replaced. :cry:
 
Thanks for the reply!!

When I measure the voltage at the gas valve it looks like it's ramping up (I can see it getting to 19v or so for a second or two) right before it kicks off. So I can't tell if the issue is with the gas valve, the board itself or if something else is shutting down the process because of another error. In other words is the board working with the correct voltage output and the valve is broken which causes the process to abort or is the board and the gas valve both working with something else causing the process to abort. I wonder if jumping the 24v to the valve would help figure it out. I really don't think it's the valve for two reasons. First I can smell the gas when it fails to light and the blower stays on for 20s or so and also when it's starting up I can hear what sounds like the gas turning on.

What a pain!! Not sure where to go from here and hate to start buying parts without knowing.
 
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