Jandy Lite2 - Short Cycle On/Off - w/Video

[oneskinnydave]

Hi TFP'ers!

First post on here - just moved into a house last fall and getting my first pool up and running! I'm a former pool tech (a long time ago though) so I'm slowly remembering all the fun I had "back in the day"!

I finally had our propane tanks filled this week and got a chance to fire up the 'ol Jandy Lite2 - I had the pool inspected by the company I used to work with (very trust worthy!) and they said it looked good, but I didn't have enough propane before it was closed to really let it roll. I had a company help me open it, and they said it was working just fine when they fired it up - but again, I didn't have enough propane/pressure to keep it going.

Propane folks came out this week and today I fired it up to 80 in "pool" mode and went to check how it was working - it ran for about 30 seconds and shut down as I watched the "pool temp" sky rocket to 90! I'm not getting any error codes or anything so I hadn't started to take a multi-meter to anything just yet (and it's late in the day) - but to me it seems like flow/temp sensor on the outbound side. I can't find anyone here that has the exact same issue, but pretty close but no one really posted their resolve!

I have the valves opened all the way in/out of the heater - and there is great flow coming out into the pool - so I don't think there could be much blocking...but hadn't really dug in that far. My other thought was either of the high limit switches - but I figured I'd get an error code if those were off? I do know the heater hadn't been used for a few years...but again, no problems at all firing up or throwing any error codes...so that's kind of good!

I did take a video of it, if that helps:
Jandy Lite2 Heater Cycling Fast - YouTube

Back when I was a tech - I really only handled the simple stuff...heaters were definitely not my thing! I was more the "get that _____ out of the pool" guy and fixing valves/plumbing/etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
D

 

[ps0303]

Your two valves are in the wrong position. Turn one or both 180 degrees. Right now you are bypassing water from the heater.

 

[oneskinnydave]

Your two valves are in the wrong position. Turn one or both 180 degrees. Right now you are bypassing water from the heater.

Well....that sure is embarrassing! I could have sworn they were in the right place, the guys that opened said they leave them open no matter what just so issues don't happen with the heater!

My brain must no be working great after the opening either...I have 3 different valve types in there....Hayward, Jandy...and an old Pentair thrown in there. I rebuilt 2 of them...didn't even think to look at the heaters to see how they were going!

I'll crank them open and see what I get

Thanks!

 

[oneskinnydave]

Aaaaand of course that worked. Thanks, appreciate it!

Any tips/tricks/thoughts on keeping this 'ol thing going? I know they can get pretty tempermental...luckily it is enclosed inside a house - but just wanted to see what folks do for keeping them going!

 

[ps0303]

That's an older one so just use it as much as you can before something breaks. No real yearly maintenance or anything like that to do to them. They work or they don't.

 

[oneskinnydave]

Hello!

So - today is the day I fired it up to get it ready for the weekend! I have the valves actually open (!) and it is definitely heating up/cycling off within 2 minutes or so of running. Current water temp is around 74 - I had it set to 80 and it cycled pretty quickly. I bumped it up to 90 and it's staying going reading the water temp as 87.

Here's a few things I do notice:
-Pressure gauge on filter jumps 5-6psi when routed through the heater
-It really has not been run for a long time...I am really surprised there is no knocking/clanking/etc!
-Are there some quick things I can pop open/unscrew/poke at to see if there is anything impeding the flow?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[ps0303]

You have a simple system so if the valves are in the correct potion, you have flow. Evident by putting your hand on one of your returns in the pool.

Seems odd that by bumping the temp up on the heater, it stayed running.

Yes pressure could go up by that much with running the water thru the heater.

 

[oneskinnydave]

Ok - good to know about the pressure!

Yeah - I can definitely feel the heated water coming out of the returns which is a good thing - but yeah bumping it up to 90 seemed to get the heater going....now that is has heated up to about 78 (which is about where I wanted it)...the 90 degree setting is short cycling a little so I just shut it down.

 

[ps0303]

I would check the resistance of the temp sensor and see if it is reading correctly for the water temp. If it is then I suspect the system board is having issues.

 

[oneskinnydave]

Sounds good - I think that's what I was looking into when I got caught up in actually using my pool this weekend

I pulled this online - this is what you talking about correct?

Thanks again for chiming in on this!

 

[ps0303]

Yuuuup!