Pentair Max E Pool heating issue

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teamliu

Member
Aug 7, 2022
13
California
Hey guys, first time posting here, and really actually enjoy browsing through the forum.

My pool heat a Pentair Max E seems to be kicking on and off when switched to Pool mode but has a blinking "Heating" light and a solid "service" light. A local service guy recently replaced the thermal regulator a few months ago, at first he wasn't willing to and wanted to sell me a brand new unit saying it's toast.

He came back out and now claims he doesn't know what's wrong and could be the board. However playing with the heater today if I put it into "SPA" mode to heat there are no blinking lights, no service lights, and works normally. If I go from heating "SPA" mode to "Pool" mode it seems to work normally again. I'm not too sure if it will eventually trip, and shut off the burners since I've recently found this solution.

Do you guys think it's the backboard? Any help is appreciated!
 
The Mastertemp heater is a re-packaged Sta-Rite Max-E-Therm heater. Sta-Rite introduced those heaters into the market prior to them being bought by Pentair. Then Pentair immediately put the heater into their "cube" design and began selling the heaters both ways. The Max-E-Therm is still in production under the Sta-Rite name.

The following are the LEDs:

  1. .....PS (Pressure Switch)
  2. .....HLS (High Limit Switch)
  3. .....SFS (Stack Flue Sensor)
  4. .....AFS (Air Flow Switch)
  5. .....AGS (Automatic Gas Shutoff).
  6. .....Service System
  7. .....Thermistor
  8. .....Heating
  9. .....Pool On
  10. ...Spa On
  11. ...Service Heater.

Pentair MasterTemp Heaters - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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teamliu said:
Hey guys, first time posting here, and really actually enjoy browsing through the forum.

My pool heat a Pentair Max E seems to be kicking on and off when switched to Pool mode but has a blinking "Heating" light and a solid "service" light. A local service guy recently replaced the thermal regulator a few months ago, at first he wasn't willing to and wanted to sell me a brand new unit saying it's toast.

He came back out and now claims he doesn't know what's wrong and could be the board. However playing with the heater today if I put it into "SPA" mode to heat there are no blinking lights, no service lights, and works normally. If I go from heating "SPA" mode to "Pool" mode it seems to work normally again. I'm not too sure if it will eventually trip, and shut off the burners since I've recently found this solution.

Do you guys think it's the backboard? Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
A "solid 'service'" light? Which service light? There are two. How old is the heater?
 
1poolman1 said:
A "solid 'service'" light? Which service light? There are two. How old is the heater?
Click to expand...
It would be this one attached, I just installed this new membrane as well since the old one seemed to be falling apart.

I was playing with the heater after, and the heating light on the membrane flashed and doesn't heat. After a restart turning it back on the heating light goes solid and I hear the burners firing up then it turns off 5 seconds later. I restarted it again and it looks like the heating light stayed solid again and it fired up.

I let it run for 10 minutes and it seemed fine, but it looks like it's a hit and miss.... Appreciate your help!
 

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another update, fired up the heater this morning with the pool. It turned on when I hit the head pool mode, worked like normal for 5 minutes, and when I went back to check it looks like the burner stopped but fans were on as well as the "heating" light was flashing again. I hit the "spa" button and it quickly fires up again to heat, then switched it back to pool. Its been 15 minutes and it looks like it's still working but no idea for how much longer before the "heating" flashes again and it stops burning.
 
Just a random thought off the top of my head, but might this be related to the water flow/pressure switch where flow/pressure in the pool mode is just at the make/break point of the switch and by switching to spa mode and increasing the flow/pressure makes the switch more solidly??? I am not really familiar with the sequence of operation and fault codes for this heater and may be way off base on this.
 

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If you heater runs on SPA then run it there to heat your pool. There is no difference in the way the heater operates between the POOL or SPA buttons other then which thermostat it uses.
 
Hello all, just a bit of an update here. The pool heater has not been fixed yet, but recently I just saw some DE blowback in random areas of my pool. I removed the pool filter, and cleaned it again (it was cleaned a month ago by a pool company) I looked at it and saw some broken plastic pieces within the grids.

Could this be the reason for the heater to act up due to the loss of pressure, or blowback? I've ordered some new filters which should be here in the next few days.

The heater itself worked fine the other day however the jets to the pool were weak but the water was burning hot which isn't normal. Today I see a new error light on the heater (see attached image, but it's LED 11 and LED 5) so it's Automatic Gas shut off, and service heater. Is it safe to assume it's the damaged pool filter causing all of this? Throwing the pressure off, should I also replace the AGS switch?
 

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Jets in the pool weak and water burning hot indicates you do not have enough water flow.

What pump do you have?

You have a problem with your pump, filter or valves restricting water flow.
 
ajw22 said:
Jets in the pool weak and water burning hot indicates you do not have enough water flow.

What pump do you have?

You have a problem with your pump, filter or valves restricting water flow.
Click to expand...
I have a whisper flo 2.0hp - I also started noticing a sound like a water slapping noise at the elbow of the pipe that goes into the heater. The motor is not more than 3 years old either.
 
Look into the inlet to see if the manifold bypass looks ok.

Check the thermal regulator.

Look into the thermal regulator hole to see the internal bypass.

Check the stack temperature when operating.
 
Check the stack flue temperature with the thermal regulator in and then out.

While running, press and hold the On button will display the exhaust temperature display.

Here is what the normal exhaust temperature should be:

Below 250 degrees...very low

250 to 290 ..................low

290 to 350.................acceptable

350 to 480 ..................high

Above 480...................error/shutdown.

Note: HD models can be up to 75 degrees higher. HD models use a cupro nickel exchanger and the efficiency is slightly lower resulting in less heat transfer and more waste heat.

If the exhaust gas temperature is higher than normal then water may be bypassing the heat exchanger through a broken bypass valve.

If you hold down the "pool on" button, it stays on 80, and then flashes to 40, then back to 80, and then the 80/40 reading and E05 indicate that the board is not getting a reading from the sensor. It's usually a bad sensor or damaged wires.


1660928114334.png
1660928127039.png


Pentair MasterTemp Heaters - Further Reading

www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

If you undo the union, this part will unscrew so that you can get a better look into the inlet.

1660928500357.png

1660928603313.png


Maybe the heat exchanger is scaled on the inside or sooted on the outside.
 

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