Jandy LT400N-L - Corroded Burner Tray Bracket

[GeorgeOttinger]

The heater is 10 years old. I've had relatively good luck with it - only had to replace the hi limit switches and brass plugs in the last 10 years, even with my admittedly poor maintenance of the water chemistry.

Recently, the heater would not light up and I figured it was the ignitor. I took out the burner tray and found the entire far end support bracket was completely rusted. The ignitor was laying on the bottom of the cabinet since the bracket holding it in place had completely disintegrated. The rough edges of the rusted metal had also cut through the ignitor wires.

I am not sure if it is worthwhile to fix this. I can only seem to find a replacement burner tray for about $900 - I can't find just the bracket that is rusted. Plus, I am wondering if anything in the control could have been damaged by the fault current when the ignitor wire shorted to the burner support bracket. On top of that, I noticed that the insulation on the far side of the cabinet is wet - wondering if I have a leak in the heat exchanger also. So many unknowns and the age of the heater are making me nervous about dumping any money into it.

So, I have two questions:
1) what recommendation would anyone have on a replacement unit? Brand? Model?
2) if I did try to rig up a way to mount the ignitor back on the rusted bracket just to see if it will light up, which way does it mount? Towards the outside, or towards the burners? The Jandy part breakdown is not clear on this.

Thanks in advance for any advice,
George

 

[ps0303]

From my experience, it's not worth trying to repair this. I would not try to rig anything especially when you are dealing in gas.

Raypak is what I currently recommend.

 

[jeverton]

I'm also in the same situation on a 10 year old Jandy 400BTU heater and recently had a homeowners warranty call only to have the licensed pool contractor state the rust was caused by improper placement of the heater and too close to the dripline on the roof. I called the pool builder and they stated this guy didn't know what he was talking about - these units are designed to be in extreme weather, especially in central TX! So I've asked AHS for a second optioning to see if they will replace the unit... If this doesn't work, I too want to find the right 400k BTU heater running on NG to replace the unit. What I've heard is the Hayward unit (H400FDN H Series) is the way to go. Any experiences on the forum? What would you recommend?

 

[ps0303]

I stopped working for the warranty companies as they always wanted me to deny as many claims as possible. Yes these units are designed to be outdoors but you can do a few things to help with the longevity of the unit. Put gutters up around the equipment so water isn't running off the roof onto it, make sure there are no sprinklers spraying on it, and make sure it's sitting on a concrete pad that is high enough off the ground that if the area floods, the unit isn't sitting in the water.

As for a heater to replace it with, go with a Raypak. A far better unit than the Hayward by far. From my experience, I replace lots of display and control boards, and keypads on the Haywards. Some only being 18 months old.

 

[jeverton]

Paul - Thank you for the guidance on Raypak... I suspect this will be the case with the next pool contractor and the AHS warranty claim. So net-net I'll be looking to replace the heater this year one way or the other and will definately use a licensed contractor.