Current State - I cannot get my Rheem 406A with Honeywell gas valve to sustain heating. It heats for about an hour and then the flame strength peters out (starts at 8, runs for a while, then drops off quickly before the unit shuts off - unit then tries to relight but can't). I then have trouble lighting it again. The only faults I get are "No Pilot Sensed" and "Ignition Failure". There are no faults that have to do with cutting off the boiler. The pilot always lights. Sometimes, I need to jiggle the pilot around to get the pool heater started. The unit has 4.25" wc gas pressure before the valve, currently. When the unit runs, gas pressure drops by about 2" wc.
I have consulted this board frequently but cannot seem to solve my problem. I am uncomfortable spending the money to replace the heater because I am unconvinced that a new heater will fire and serve consistently. I would like some help determining this by being able to confidently determine why this pool heater is not firing and that a new one will fire reliably.
Original problem - flame rollout observed at the end of the season in 2022. Replaced the sensors but that did not fix the problem The 18-month saga begins:
Fixes applied:
Thank you!
LJP
I have consulted this board frequently but cannot seem to solve my problem. I am uncomfortable spending the money to replace the heater because I am unconvinced that a new heater will fire and serve consistently. I would like some help determining this by being able to confidently determine why this pool heater is not firing and that a new one will fire reliably.
Original problem - flame rollout observed at the end of the season in 2022. Replaced the sensors but that did not fix the problem The 18-month saga begins:
Fixes applied:
- Rebuilt burner. See photo of burner. Seemed to be low gas flow issue with 5-year old burner that looked like heck.
- Had the gas line to our house rebuilt by the gas company. Minor fix to gas piping to pool heater. Plumber ensures that there is plenty of gas to the heater (12" wc?)
- Replaced the ignition assembly.
- Tested the gas valve to satisfaction by testing and switching them out and observing no improvement.
- Replaced the control board.
- Had a green licensed boiler tech fail to fix the pool heater but also failed to specifically tell me why I neeeded to replace it.
- It appeared as though he was parts changing. For example, I didn't think the control board was the issue but he did it anyway. I was aware of the testing procedure in the manual and his resolution. I had already explored it. It did not fix the problem.
- He indicated that the heater needed 12" wc pressure at the unit.
- Read in the manual that the unit needed 4" wc and not 12".
- The pilot looked like the olympic torch at 12".
- I added a gas regulator to get the pressure down to 4" wc per the manual.
- Unit started firing more consistently but still intermittent. A couple of times, I heard a pop before the unit shut off. I thought it might be a high temp cutoff so I cleaned the heat exchanger (see #10).
- Checked ground and rerouted it to a point with less rusty footing. Connection is tight and terminals are clean.
- Cleaned heat exchanger in-situ - it isn't perfect. See attached before and after pictures. Haven't heard the pop before cutoff since.
Thank you!
LJP