Sta-Rite Max-E-Therm Will Not Light No Error Codes

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jamescodling

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Sep 13, 2018
51
anthem/AZ
Suddently our pool heater stopped lighting. I had a decent pool guy come out and he told me he thinks, isn't sure, that it's the blower because there are no error codes and he changed out the igniter. Sigh. So I found that hard to believe so started on my own investigation (Electrical Engineer). Here is what I have found:

1. The blower starts up just fine.
2. I hear the igniter click.
3. The burner does not light.
4. I smell gas for a second.
5. I get an ignition lockout after three tries.

I've replaced the ICM as another pool "expert" told me it was likely the ICM. Not a big deal 100bucks on ebay. No dice, I swapped it out today exact same issue. I get no error codes on the board at all, just the ignition lockout on the ICM. Maybe the igniter the first guy swapped was also bad? Any other ideas? I've taken apart the gas setup and orifice is fine. Thanks for any insight! Jim
 
The Sta-Rite Max-E-Therm is the same as the Pentair MasterTemp so read up on fixes for both heaters.

Three flashes on the Fenwal box indicates no flame being sensed. You probably have a flame rectification problem. Read...

Heater Flame Sensing - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

You may also find things in here helpful - Pentair MasterTemp Heaters - Further Reading

Let us know what you find as you test voltages and the ground connections.
 
How old is the heater?

Are you checking for error LEDs on the back of the circuit board?

Any chance that a gas valve got turned off?

Check all valves on the supply line and the gas valve in the heater.
 
jamescodling said:
THank you for that! I'll run through the ground issue. It did have the infamous rat problem at one time so I'll check grounds to start off on this rabbit trail?
Click to expand...

There is a picture in the Flame Sensing wiki showing how rats corroded the grounds in a heater.
 
If there's gas, but it's not igniting, that points to a bad igniter.

If there's no ignition, you won't get flame rectification.

Also, just because you smell gas, it doesn't mean that you have enough gas pressure.

You should verify the gas pressure.

Check for water in the combustion chamber by removing one of the bottom manifold bolts to see if water comes out.
 
going to throw in a new igniter. $39 on Amazon right now so worth a shot. That thing is hard to get to! I checked the manifold bolts, no water when i loosened the bottom bolts. All the grounds look good, no corrosion but I'll test them with a meter just to be sure. The heater was working one day and stopped the next so wasn't gradual which leads me to believe the igniter the pool guy put in was a used/bad one.
 

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Check to see if power is going to the igniter.

Note that it's not going to be a flame sensing issue if we know that there's no flame.

If there's no ignition, there's no flame to be sensed.

We have to focus on why the gas isn't igniting.

That can be an issue with gas pressure (no gas) or no heat to ignite the gas.

Note that just because you smell gas, it doesn't mean that there's enough gas to do anything.
 
I've replaced the igniter and the fenwal, same issue. Only error code I get is the Service Heater light, not other lights. It's line pressure and worked fine before, just suddenly stopped working. All the wires are good and the ground is fine, no corrosion anywhere. Any other ideas of things to check?
 
If your heater is correctly connected to 240 Volts AC, the Ignition Control Module (ICM) will convert the 240VAC to an intermittent pulse to the ignitor.

Digital meters don’t read this type of signal well. (An analog meter will give a better reading than a digital meter).

If the ICM is bad, your volt-meter will read either 0 VAC or 240 VAC.

If your ICM is good, your meter will read some voltage between 0 and 240 VAC.

Exactly what reading you get will depend on the meter, but with a good ICM, the reading won’t be 0 VAC or 240 VAC, but somewhere in between.
Click to expand...

Is your heater connected to 120 or 240 volts?

It's a 120 volt igniter. If the heater is wired 120 volts, you should get a steady 120 volt reading.

If the heater is wired 240 volts, you will get a pulsed reading that is better read with an analog meter or a "True RMS" meter.

I believe that the current should be about 5 amps.
 
Last edited:
You can measure the current. I think that it should be about 5 amps. A true rms meter is best.

You can run 120 volts to the heater on an extension cord to see if that works. You would have to change the voltage selector plug.

That would be easier to measure the voltage.

You can remove the ignitor and power it directly with 120 volts to see if it works and how many amps it pulls. It should get red hot. So, make sure that it's not touching anything.

It's like a quartz light bulb, you don't want to touch it with your fingers because the oils can damage the element.
 

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