Sta Rite Max-E-Therm 400 LP problems, help please!

[finatic]

Hello,
Newbie here with a completely dead Max-E-Therm 400LP. I searched but could not find the answer to my problem. The heater is about 3 years old and have not had the best luck with it. I have needed to replace the thermal regulator twice, high limit swich, thermistor and the firemans switch fuse! This time the entire unit is dead.

After some troubleshooting with the owner manual I believe I have a bad control board but wanted an experienced opinion before springing the $$$ on a new one!

The control panel is completely dead with no error codes or LED's lighting up even after a power reset.
I confirmed 240V into the heater. The firemans switch (fuse) is OK
I am reading 24+ Volts AC at the board where the harness plugs in from the firemans switch.
Shorting Pins 5-6 on J6 does nothing.

I would really appreciate any help or advice. If other testing might be helpful let me know.
Thanks in advance.

 

[finatic]

UPDATE: Sta Rite Max-E-Therm 400 LP problems, help please!

I am no longer suspecting the problem is the control board on the heater unit.

The heater and spa pumps, lights, etc. are controlled by a Hayward Goldline Pro Logic PL-P-8 with the main and two remote control pads.

The heater would not come on with inputs from the main control pad or the remote pad in my home. Oddly, the indoor pad is working normally for all other functions except the heater. When the heater button is pressed the display indicates normally "Heater contol auto" but the LED won't light on the remote pad and the heater stays dormant. To my surprise today I was able to get the heater to turn on while using the remote spa side pad only. It will turn on and run for about 5 minute then turn off suddenly with no error codes or sytem lights.

This is very weird. Anyone have any experince with this Goldline controller? Now I am beginning to wonder if it's a bad controller or possibly remote control pad. Not sure how to test this theory.

Any ideas appreciated!

 

[Pool Clown]

When diagnosing your heater, first disconnect any remote device (controller), from the heater, so you can determine if the heater has the problem, or the controller is simply not turning the heater on.

 

[finatic]

Thanks Pool Clown for the helpful tip. I was able to get the heater to fire up and work.

It appears that the problem is somehwere in the heater control or relay circuit. As mentioned I have two remote control pads (one indoors and the other spa side) as well as the main control pad on the PL-P-8. It's funny that the spa side pad has been working completely normally but the indoor pad and the main pad wouldn't start up the heater. So to simplify things I unplugged the remote pads at the control unit to eliminate them to see if the main control pad would work by itself.

What I found is that the main pad works on all relays except for some reason only intermittently on the heater circuit.
I can hear the relay when it actually does work. The display will say that the heater is on but the relay does not engage.
If I start pushing other buttons/relays like the pumps and blowers then go back to the heater it begins to work again.

I would be interested if anyone else has run into this glitch. I am going to try to call Hayward and see if they have any ideas.