Sta-Rite Spa & Pool heater shuts off

[dwolfe129]

I have a Sta-Rite 333K BTU/hr natural gas heater on my pool & spa (2007) and a mouse built a nest over the winter. When I turn on power, the key pad initializes until it displays R=5, then it shuts off. After that, nothing is displayed. I assume the heater goes through a system check and shuts off to protect itself because of a short (thanks to the mouse). I haven't located any obvious cut wires, but I'll explore in more detail this afternoon.

Does anyone know of the initialization sequence for the board that might point to where to start, ie. after displaying the firmware version (R=5), what does it check next?

When I opened the case and discovered the nest, it had a lot of small, chewed up pieces of insulation, but I don't see where the insulation was taken from. Where in the unit, is there yellow insulation with aluminum backing?

 

[Flippy]

I am having exactly the same issue, but mine is a big rat instead of a mouse. I have a Master Temp 400 but I think both heaters use similar electronic parts. On start up mine goes 888,128 and rc=8 which is the version of the control board. Just as it hits rc=8 the blower will start if it is working correctly. Even though there is a rats nest in mine I think the issue is a bad control board as mine will work when it is hot outside like during the sunny day and stops at night. Also my power lights no longer work for either the spa or the pool when it works while it is hot out. We have had a lot of rain and mine has always acted funny when it rained. Also in mine the insulation is from the bottom of the area where the gas is warming the water that is between the ground and what appears to be a tank. Hope this helps.

 

[bigdave]

I just posted the same exact issue yesterday, without the mouse. Starts with 128, then r=5, then power is not displayed like the system shut it shelf down. I just moved to a new house, so its time to learn the new pool and equipment...just when I figured out my old stuff...Hopefully we will get some clues on where to start trouble shooting.

http://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/93512-Sta-rite-SR400NA-not-starting

 

[ps0303]

Check all of the wiring inside the unit and make sure they didn't chew any of it. Many times they will chew thru wires thus causing different issues. What does happen is that the mouse/rat built a nest inside and you didn't find it till after you tried to use it and when you turned it on some of the **** they had in there was touching the board and caused it to short out.

 

[Flippy]

Check all of the wiring inside the unit and make sure they didn't chew any of it. Many times they will chew thru wires thus causing different issues. What does happen is that the mouse/rat built a nest inside and you didn't find it till after you tried to use it and when you turned it on some of the **** they had in there was touching the board and caused it to short out.

You are right, it could have been the metal backing from the insulation that touched my controller board. The nest was between the board and an electrical box. I tripled checked and could not find any chewed wires. I put out a bait station as well as put bait in the heater to hopefully kill them. The first night I found the nest I put a full stick in the heater compartment and it was gone in the morning.

 

[bigdave]

dwolfe129, Here is what I found with mine this morning. If you have a voltmeter, it only takes about 30min to take off cover and check the voltages. Just be careful not to short anything causing even more problems. If you short the controller board under the key pad with Pins 6 & 5 on J6 ribbon cable connection with a screw driver, you can confirm my fix in minutes without a volt meter. Just be careful. A wire or flat blade screwdriver will work.
____________

I believe I have found the issue. This morning I followed the "Heater will not fire - A" in the trouble shooting section of the manual (page 38).
http://www.pentairpool.com/pdfs/MaxEThermOM.pdf

I got to the very last box in the middle of the page, when I jumper-ed the pins 4&6 together, the heater fired up and started running. The flow chart says if the light goes on for the Pool at that time, then your answer is the membrane pad. Once the unit was running I tried to adjust the up/down buttons for the temp and nothing would happen, which confirms a problem with the pad.

 

[dwolfe129]

Bigdave
Thanks for the feedback. Today, I couldn't find any nibbled wires, so I'll take your advice and check the voltages. I appreciate having a plan instead of just replacing parts until it starts working again.

 

[Flippy]

Just an update if anyone was curious. I replaced my controller board today and everything works normally now. I still think this was an issue with the board getting wet during heavy rain. There was considerable corrosion around a jumper box in the bottom middle of the board. Dwolfe129 good luck on resolving your issue.

 

[ps0303]

Is your keypad membrane in good shape? That is were most water gets in.

 

[Flippy]

On mine it is. Prior to this I had the door taped up because I thought that is where it was leaking. When I took the panel off the first night it would not start there was water on top of the heat ex-changer. We had a really big thunderstorm that afternoon but it had been several hours since it stopped. Maybe a combo of the rat, foil backed insulation and it being wet caused it to fail.

 

[dwolfe129]

BigDave - thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The troubleshooting guide directed me to jumpering pins 6 and 5 which indicated that I needed a new membrane keypad. I replaced last night and the heater is working again.

I'm surprised that it was a membrane keypad issue since the display worked at first then shut off. The advice on this forum gave me the confidence to go through the troubleshooting sequence even though my symptoms didn't seem to match - "Heater will not fire". Easy replacement and not expensive. Thanks for the help.

 

[bigdave]

Awesome news dwolfe ! I received my replacement last week, just switched it out yesterday and I have a working heater. I think the membrane takes most of the punishment with the heat, even though it has shielded it still gets blasted by weather. Enjoy your summer !