- Oct 25, 2015
- 5,812
- Pool Size
- 28000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Folks,
Some may remember my adventure several years ago that generated the "Chk Ign" error code. Nothing in the trouble shooting manual helped and it turned out my supply wires had the insulation perforated by a weird lightning strike. It created enough current leakage to interfere with the sensitive flame detection system. The root cause lightning strike was also complicated by a self-inflicted "make it even worse" move that happened when I accidentally dumped about a bucket full of rain water on the control board and main wiring while the heater was powered on. That took weeks of chasing down rabbit trails. Fast forward 5 or 6 years to the present. I just finished an OB pool a few months ago and just got too busy to fully test the brand new heater. Well now it's getting to be that time for evening dips in the spa. So I turn on the heater and nothing... just an "AFS error" on the display along with the AFS led illuminated on the control board. So I checked the switch and I know I've read about many, many of these being replaced needlessly. It seemed to work as it should but when I shorted the wires connected to it the ignitions sequence at least progressed further. It now had the "heating" light blinking and the fan seemed to be running on a very low speed. That seemed weird but I rationalized maybe it was a part of the newer Fenwal ignition modules. I was beginning to also rationalize that the switch must be bad but logic didn't really support that. The fan was never starting and the Fenwel is waiting for the AFS switch to "tell it" that there was flow in the blower suction tube. That couldn' happen with no blower operation. So I went back to basics. Check the simple stuff first. Check the power input at the junction box inside the heater. Only read 123 v. I verified it was set up to run on 240 v so I checked the voltages inside the box at the other end of the wires. Only 123 v again! There are 3 terminal screws on the breaker. Middle is nutral and the two outer are hot terminals. You guessed it! The electrician wired it from nutral to hot which is 123 v. I remember when they were wiring the heater and the helper did the heater connection. I guess he wasn't quite ready for prime time.
So this should be chaulked up as another thing to check for AFS error... if the heater is set up for 240 double check the power is correctly hooked up and not at 120 v. Another give-away for this is the fan runs at a very low speed... it's never supposed to do this and that means power level is very likely the problem. Even though this issue was specifically for the Pentair heater I have the internals and control electronics are almost identical as Jandy and I'm sure most other brand heaters.
I hope this helps somebody.
Chris
Some may remember my adventure several years ago that generated the "Chk Ign" error code. Nothing in the trouble shooting manual helped and it turned out my supply wires had the insulation perforated by a weird lightning strike. It created enough current leakage to interfere with the sensitive flame detection system. The root cause lightning strike was also complicated by a self-inflicted "make it even worse" move that happened when I accidentally dumped about a bucket full of rain water on the control board and main wiring while the heater was powered on. That took weeks of chasing down rabbit trails. Fast forward 5 or 6 years to the present. I just finished an OB pool a few months ago and just got too busy to fully test the brand new heater. Well now it's getting to be that time for evening dips in the spa. So I turn on the heater and nothing... just an "AFS error" on the display along with the AFS led illuminated on the control board. So I checked the switch and I know I've read about many, many of these being replaced needlessly. It seemed to work as it should but when I shorted the wires connected to it the ignitions sequence at least progressed further. It now had the "heating" light blinking and the fan seemed to be running on a very low speed. That seemed weird but I rationalized maybe it was a part of the newer Fenwal ignition modules. I was beginning to also rationalize that the switch must be bad but logic didn't really support that. The fan was never starting and the Fenwel is waiting for the AFS switch to "tell it" that there was flow in the blower suction tube. That couldn' happen with no blower operation. So I went back to basics. Check the simple stuff first. Check the power input at the junction box inside the heater. Only read 123 v. I verified it was set up to run on 240 v so I checked the voltages inside the box at the other end of the wires. Only 123 v again! There are 3 terminal screws on the breaker. Middle is nutral and the two outer are hot terminals. You guessed it! The electrician wired it from nutral to hot which is 123 v. I remember when they were wiring the heater and the helper did the heater connection. I guess he wasn't quite ready for prime time.
So this should be chaulked up as another thing to check for AFS error... if the heater is set up for 240 double check the power is correctly hooked up and not at 120 v. Another give-away for this is the fan runs at a very low speed... it's never supposed to do this and that means power level is very likely the problem. Even though this issue was specifically for the Pentair heater I have the internals and control electronics are almost identical as Jandy and I'm sure most other brand heaters.
I hope this helps somebody.
Chris
