Heater Problems: Jandy Lite 2 FL 3 Error Code - Means its detecting a flame when it should not be. There is no flame. Is it the board or the sensor

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caliskier

caliskier

LifeTime Supporter
Aug 24, 2014
435
Oklahoma City, OK
Hi, I have the Jandy Lite 2 Heater. Display is working, it says the pump is running which is correct so its detecting flow. It also knows the temperature of the water. When I switch it to on it does not turn on. Eventually I get a service error code FL3. Which means: flame detected when no flame should exist. Trouble shooting guide says:
1570934701618.png
I do not see any damage, another site said to replace the board or the sensor. How do I test if the sensor is working? Any other solutions would be welcome. Below is the picture of the sensor.

JANDY R0334300 LAARS LITE 2 FLAME SENSOR
www.yourpoolhq.com

Jandy R0334300 Laars Lite 2 Flame Sensor

Jandy part number R0334300 Pool Heater Flame Sensor Original Jandy Laars replacement part Laars Lite 2 LD and LG (mfg. 2000-2009) Laars Lite (1997-2000) Jandy Lite 2 LJ (2000-pres)
www.yourpoolhq.com www.yourpoolhq.com
 
There should be two test points to check for flame current FC+ and FC-. Use your multimeter to check for current or voltage.

You need a "True RMS" multimeter that can measure microamps DC and volts DC.

You should get zero microamps DC and zero volts DC.
 
You might be able to find someone local who can repair the circuit board, but it's usually better to just replace the bad part unless you have a lot of confidence in the repair shop and the cost is low.
 
JamesW said:
You might be able to find someone local who can repair the circuit board, but it's usually better to just replace the bad part unless you have a lot of confidence in the repair shop and the cost is low.
Click to expand...

EDITED, tested it by disconnecting the black wire from the board and running the multimeter in series with the sensor. It is a Tru RMS. It measured 9.0mV and 2.4mA which would indicate the system thinks there is a flame there. Is this the board or is this the sensor? I could not find the FC- FC+ test points
 
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Do you have a picture of the board?

Do you have this?

512BGHbO9OL._AC_SY400_.jpg


See the FC +/- test points?

Is the LED flashing twice to indicate flame with no call for heat?
 
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JamesW said:
Do you have a picture of the board?

Do you have this?

512BGHbO9OL._AC_SY400_.jpg


See the FC +/- test points?

Is the LED flashing twice to indicate flame with no call for heat?
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the help!!!
I edited my original post, reposting here. I tested it by disconnecting the black wire from the board and running the multimeter in series with the sensor. It is a Tru RMS. It measured 9.0mV and 2.4mA which would indicate the system thinks there is a flame there. Is this the board or is this the sensor? I could not find the FC- FC+ test points.

I do not see that box you are showing, below is what I see... No flashing light either.
Trouble shooting guide...


IMG_1904[1].JPGIMG_1906[1].JPG
 
The two terminals labeled Flame S should be where you test. There should be a black and a green wire. The green goes to ground.

Are you measuring 2.4 milliamps or 2.4 microamps?

There should not be any voltage or current measured. If there is, it might be due to a stray current from somewhere or maybe a bad control board.

After testing at the test points, turn off power to the heater, wait a few minutes and then measure the voltage and current again.

When you touch the two multimeter probes together, do you get zero amps and zero volts?
 
JamesW said:
The two terminals labeled Flame S should be where you test. There should be a black and a green wire. The green goes to ground.

Are you measuring 2.4 milliamps or 2.4 microamps?

There should not be any voltage or current measured. If there is, it might be due to a stray current from somewhere or maybe a bad control board.

After testing at the test points, turn off power to the heater, wait a few minutes and then measure the voltage and current again.

When you touch the two multimeter probes together, do you get zero amps and zero volts?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the continued help, response in red.

Are you measuring 2.4 milliamps or 2.4 micro-amps? I should have said micro amps. I used the micro-amp setting and got 2.4

There should not be any voltage or current measured. If there is, it might be due to a stray current from somewhere or maybe a bad control board. - Ok

After testing at the test points, turn off power to the heater, wait a few minutes and then measure the voltage and current again. - Initial test before power off at the points you recommended was 10.2mV and 3.4 micro-amps. After 5 min power down it was 3.6micro-amps and the mV were all over the place. but somewhere between 8 and 2 when it settled down

When you touch the two multimeter probes together, do you get zero amps and zero volts? - Yes, 0 micro-amps, 0 volts.
 
Cali,

Just on the odd chance the detector is actually working. Can you feel any heat coming out of the vent stack? Could happen from a leaking gas valve but very unlikely. Sounds like James is right again. You probably need a new control board. I went nuts with this issue on a Jxi heater that uses the Fenwal controller James illustrated earlier. If you end up replacing be careful about buying on eBay or Amazon. I went through 2 faulty replacements before I got a good one. These boards detect the flame by measuring the leakage to ground that occurs when 120v ac is applied to the rod. The flame rectifies and allows a tiny current to the burner which is "sensed" by the flame sense circuit. Your measurements appear to be correct for an actual flame... which seems unlikely from an error which is why I suggest you make sure there's not a flame. How ironic would it be if the detector is actually working?

I hope this helps.

Chris
 

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I suspect that there's a stray current coming from somewhere. Maybe through the ground.

Try disconnecting the green wire from the ground and check the readings again at the test points.

If there is a stray current, it can be difficult to track down.

Try disconnecting the main equipment ground to see if that changes anything. Measure between the main equipment ground and the heater chassis. Reconnect the ground after testing.

Do the same procedure with the bond wire if the heater is connected to the bond wire.

It might be the circuit board, but maybe not.

It looks like there have been repairs to the heater earlier.

How old is the heater and what other work has been done?
 
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JamesW said:
I suspect that there's a stray current coming from somewhere. Maybe through the ground.

Try disconnecting the green wire from the ground and check the readings again at the test points.

If there is a stray current, it can be difficult to track down.

It might be the circuit board, but maybe not.

It looks like there have been repairs to the heater earlier.

How old is the heater and what other work has been done?
Click to expand...

I disconnected the green and black wire, and tested from the green wire to the black same results. I then disconnected the 6 wire plug and tested those flame s points directly, the micro-amps were all over from 3 to 15. As far as repairs go, the only one I know of is the first year we owned it (came with the house when we bought it), I did not know to drain the water sensor and it busted the little copper pipe. But the heater has worked the last 4 years.
 
setsailsoon said:
Cali,

Just on the odd chance the detector is actually working. Can you feel any heat coming out of the vent stack? Could happen from a leaking gas valve but very unlikely. Sounds like James is right again. You probably need a new control board. I went nuts with this issue on a Jxi heater that uses the Fenwal controller James illustrated earlier. If you end up replacing be careful about buying on eBay or Amazon. I went through 2 faulty replacements before I got a good one. These boards detect the flame by measuring the leakage to ground that occurs when 120v ac is applied to the rod. The flame rectifies and allows a tiny current to the burner which is "sensed" by the flame sense circuit. Your measurements appear to be correct for an actual flame... which seems unlikely from an error which is why I suggest you make sure there's not a flame. How ironic would it be if the detector is actually working?

I hope this helps.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris, no there is no flame, I have my face next to the burners working on it, good thought though. "the vaccume doesn't work honey," "did you plug it in?" "doh" :) thanks..
 
It could be a bad board, but I would be reluctant to replace it without being sure.

I would check all of the electrical connections related to the pool equipment to look for a bad connection.

Is the equipment on gfci breakers?
 
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I am shutting the pool down for the winter, but I know I will come back to this post in the early spring. Here is what I think I should do. I should pull the board, clean it really good, check for any bad welds etc, resolder as necessary, then re-install. A hornet or spider or somethign could have got behind it and is making just enough current to make is screw up.
 
Ok, I would check over all of the equipment electrical wiring to make sure that it's all good.

Since all of the grounds are tied together, a stray current could come from anywhere.
 
Hi brother, here is the video I mentioned that might work to fix it... I have not tried it yet but I think its the same concept. You and I probably have a dirty flame sensor and its a safety feature where it thinks the furnace is blowing out gas when its actually burning. You just need to clean off the flame sensor, I think that will fix it. Like I said I have not tried it yet, but last winter this happened in my indoor furnace and it fixed it.

The other option is we have a bad board which is a $150 guess.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=heater+goes+on+and+off
If it does work, please post back...
 

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