H150 Will not ignite

[Roxie0416]

I have a Hayward H150 Millivolt heater that is about 12 years old. It has been well maintained over the years.

At the end of last season, I noticed that the heater was not igniting. I went through the troubleshooting procedure in the Hayward manual. The first step (after verifying the pilot is lit) is to jump the gas valve. I did this and the heater ignited. The instructions say to remove the jumper wire immediately and when I did this, the heater stayed on. I contacted my local pool store and they advised me to replace the thermocouple. I did this and checked the voltage. The new thermocoulpe was generating about 475 ma, more that enough to ignite the heater but I still had no luck. After more troubleshooting, I decided to change the thermostat. I did this about 1 month ago but the heater is still working only sporadically.

Any thoughts on what I should look for next? I ordered the switch only for the pressure switch assembly but will not have it for another week or so. The current one is testing OK but for 3.00 I figured it was worth a try.

Any input will be appreciated.

 

[markayash]

Have you tried blowing out all the burners? Mine would lite and shut back off and after a quick blast of air in each tube it started working..Guessing there was a partial blockage where it hits the thermocoupler

 

[Roxie0416]

Have you tried blowing out all the burners? Mine would lite and shut back off and after a quick blast of air in each tube it started working..Guessing there was a partial blockage where it hits the thermocoupler

Checked all the orifices at the beginning of the year for spiders and there were none. Good idea to check again.

 

[danpik]

Jumpering the gas valve indicates that there is trouble in the safety circuit. (this is why they wanted you to unhook the jumper after the test). The safety circuit is nothing more than a daisy chain of wires and switches. Each switch (sensor) is 2 potential resistance connections that may be dropping the milivolts from the power pile low enough to not allow the circuit to light. Jumpering it allowed the gas valve to get enough power to open the valve and once removed the power thru the switches was enough to keep it running.

You need to trace the wiring from the gas valve thru to each connection and remove and clean the connections. Most times the connections are spade connectors and the simple act of unplugging and replugging them is enough to "clean" the connection.

Dan

 

[markayash]

Mine looked cleaned but cleared something..Might would lite and shut off in a few seconds.
i have a small compressor and just blew all around

 

[Roxie0416]

Checked all the orifices at the beginning of the year for spiders and there were none. Good idea to check again.

I went out again to today to give it a try. I started by jumping the gas valve and the heater ignited OK. I then proceeded to jump every switch and the heater would still not ignite. May have to start looking for a bad wire.

To be continued.....

 

[markayash]

When I had issues somebody said bad grounds are common so check that

 

[Roxie0416]

When I had issues somebody said bad grounds are common so check that

I checked all the wiring I could this evening. One suspect wire but I changed it and still nothing. Going to Menards tomorrow morning to get a bit for the Dremmel. I will clean all the connectors and see what happens.

 

[Roxie0416]

Cleaned up all the connections on Saturday morning and the heater fired right up. Not sure if it was a bad connection or wire but momma is happy!

Hoping to get through this season. When I take it out of service after labor Day I plan on rewiring it.

 

[markayash]

After my control board died i made this. Need to make a new one, getting torn up