Resolved: Heater makes an awful igniting sound when it shouldn’t come on

[dennisfarm]

First time poster, long time lurker!

This started a few weeks ago: my heater is making a rather loud clicking sound as if it’s trying to ignite or “click on” even though it’s turned off on the heater itself (and off on my Intellitouch board and app). After 2-3 seconds it makes a loud “click off” sound. Several minutes go by and it will repeat this cycles.

Has anyone run in to this?

Other conditions:
This seems to happen more frequently when the pump isn’t running — I have it running every day from 11am - 5:30pm; it’s more frequent at night (when the ambient temperature here is warmer than the morning fwiw)
For a few days the heater wasn’t respecting the set temp in my intellitouch, I flipped the breaker to power cycle it and it seems to be following the intellitouch now. Previously the heater was chasing the set point on its display (which should be the max temp) vs the set point in intellitouch
After that restart I had a “fault check flow” error which I was able to correct with a slightly higher RPM going from 1800 to 1850; the error didn’t return
I have a new filter arriving Friday.
I have a ghost in my intellitouch that randomly schedules the lights to come on from 8am - 5pm; while under warranty Pentair hasn’t successfully sent anyone out despite 2 service tickets
Pentair DID send someone to flash my pump firmware when I called them about that issue a couple years ago based upon what I read in this massively helpful forum
I live in cold winters of foothills to cascade mountains in Washington State and keep the pool full all year, heated to 45 degrees and run the pump so it doesn’t freeze. So I’m putting more strain on the heater than 2 years of ownership and service might imply.

 

[Poolbreh]

Can you post a video on YouTube and link it? You may have multiple things going on. The heater has to pass multiple safety sensors before igniting. It could be a short in the fireman switch, and if you have a versaflo you could be hearing the internal actuator clicking to open. I think we need to determine what the sound is first and work from there.

 

[dennisfarm]

Thanks @Poolbreh !

 

[dennisfarm]

Here's the overall layout in case that's helpful: (looks like my reply with the YouTube video is in the moderation queue)

 

[dennisfarm]

Might be hard to see in the video but in case it's helpful to you, the display shows "Gas Heater is Off Press Pool or Spa" and then it toggles to say "Spa Heat Water: 55 Set: 60".

 

[Poolbreh]

Something is causing the heater to try and fire. Inspect low voltage wire for any breaks or chew marks. You are hearing the versaflo trying to close bypass, which is first step of the heater firing. The display is also indicating it’s probably a short. You could also disable remote so all controls are local to the heater, if it continues with remote off it may be internal. The low voltage runs from the heaters spa/com or pool/com to the intellicenter dry relay. Depending on the demand the ic will close or open dry relay.
When the remote is disabled it will only run on the controls of the heater and not the low voltage.

 

[dennisfarm]

Thank you @Poolbreh !

Most of the cabling is in conduit (I'm assuming that's the high voltage), and I don’t see any signs of rodents. I opened up the heater, as well as the EasyTouch control and they all look very clean inside.

When you talk about "versaflow", would that be my IntelliFlo pump? If so, I'm including a photo of what I think would be the low-voltage to the back of the pump. That cable looks fine throughout its course.

The only thing I noticed that looks out of the ordinary is corrosion on the copper grounding wires. Please let me know if I should address that or ignore.
Given the lack of obvious breaks, chews or even presence of rodents, I followed the advice in the screenshotted instructions (7.2.2). This put the heater in "remote tstat enabled" mode. I have not heard the loud clicking with the pump on or off. [side note: in my video the pump was obviously running, but in my observations the sounds happen far more frequently when the pump is off.]

One thing I’m wondering is why is the mode for the heater for local control called “remote tstat”? Or is that our issue — and your image of 7.2.2 is how to get the heater to the proper mode for remote control? That by NOT having it in remote tstat mode means it was in the wrong mode? FWIW in the past 22 months I haven’t ever seen the display indicate “remote tstat enabled”.

I hope this is a thorough update and I greatly appreciate your help!

 

[dennisfarm]

Oh I forgot to add: I did not follow the last bullet in 7.2.2, changing the set point 104 degrees. I can do that if it's necessary?

 

[Poolbreh]

The low voltage for the heater is the two black wires connected to the remote terminal on the board of the heater, those run to a dry relay on the intellicenter.
The versaflo is the black box on the manifold of the heater. When the heater gets a cfh the versaflo will open up making that noise. Since the settings of the heater were not in remote mode and you have the desired temp above current temp. The heater had demand and called for heat opening the versaflo. Your pressure switch didn’t close so it never went to the next step of ignition.
Turn the heater on from the intellicenter and max the temp on the heater itself. It should respond to the intellicenter now. I would run a few tests of turning heat on and off from intellicenter to make sure it’s running appropriately. When the heater is turned on from the intellicenter you’ll gain access to the temp control of the heater.

 

[dennisfarm]

Thank you @Poolbreh

I’ve maxed the set point on the heater and told I intellicenter to turn on the heat. It *thinks* it has turned on the heat (flame icon showing on EasyTouch) and it’s showing the water temp at 59 vs a target of 75.

The display on the Jandy heater is saying the water temp is 61.

Nonetheless, the heater has not fired up.

Before putting it into this remote tstat mode, however, I was able to turn on the heater via EasyTouch fwiw.

 

[dennisfarm]

I should add that the pump did turn on (as did the UltraUV) when I asked intellitouch to turn on the heat. Basically everything behaved as expected except for the heater.

Is there another mode I should look to try?

 

[Poolbreh]

What does the heater display with it turned on from the easytouch?

 

[dennisfarm]

 

[dennisfarm]

In case it’s helpful here’s what EasyTouch displays:

 

[Poolbreh]

Click spa on the heater and set to max. it’s hooked up to the spa/com on the board. Let me know what happens.

 

[dennisfarm]

no difference.

I set spa heat to 103°, spa LED is on, turned on pool heat from easy touch, pump ran as expected, no heater.

 

[dennisfarm]

Also there is no spa fyi.

 

[Poolbreh]

Hmm, the manual says to specifically hook low voltage up to pool/com. But you said it worked previously.
It’s just a setting to save temp for different profiles. It’s designed like that for older systems. There is no difference on how the heater works between the 2.

 

[Poolbreh]

I hope I’m not missing something, but I would turn the power off and move the low voltage on the heater board so it’s connected to pool and com and run the same tests. It doesn’t explain the fact that it worked previously though. Unless it was user error and it only appeared it was working the way it should.

 

[Poolbreh]

About 14 minutes in he shows how it’s wired. In the video it shows the second light right of the pool button is red during the call for heat.