Jandy Jxi heater issue

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J

Jrock817

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2018
104
CT
Pool Size
24000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool RJ-45
As title states, I have a 4 year old heater, Jxi model, natural gas. Working fine up until yesterday. I’m getting check ign steps error code. When I run it, I took panel off, LED on panel not blinking at all. Not solid either. Trying to look up ways to troubleshoot, I’m out of warranty, but I’m comfortable working with panel. I can shut off power and have at it, just don’t know where to start.

edit…. I also turned off breaker and reset everything. Nothing else different, pool running great, can’t be water pressure, temps are reading. Blower goes on, but after it cycles a few times (I can hear panel “clicking”.) It shuts off and panel reads check ign steps, but the panel led never flashes
 
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Do you get a puff of heat from it before it shuts off?

If not, I would check your igniter or check your gas service.

@setsailsoon dug deep into his JXI heater.
 
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+1 ignitor most likely I had to replace mine after 1 season. I now keep 2 spares. Easy replacement. You should smell gas if it is the ignitor as it tries to light and then gives up.
 
I would try the simple stuff first. This error means something in the safety circuit is in a "not safe" mode or as Pool mentioned above it got to the end and there was no ignition source so it shut down. First time I got this it happened randomly. Sometimes it would work sometimes it wouldn't. You've already tried the very simplest stuff so here's what I'd do next:
  • Carefully open the lid as the while you are going through the ignition sequence. Look at the glass eyeball to see if you see the igniter glowing. If it does you don't need to replace the igniter. If not, check the igniter itself and replace if it's bad. It's not super expensive but we see a lot replaced that are good.
  • Next when the blow starts wiggle the connectors at each sensor and see if that makes the gas valve open. You'll hear a loud metallic click when the relay opens the valve. If it works then that connection is bad. All you need to do is remove, clean, and replace. This simple fix eliminated the problem for 5 years before a major lightning strike took my heater out again. With great help from experts on this site I was able to fix even this at way less than 30% the cost of a replacement.
  • If this doesn't work then you should look at the red light on the top side of the grey fenwal ignition module (as shown in photo below) blinks and count the number of times it blinks. I know you've reported it doesn't light at all but please check again. This may mean you need to do more in-depth work to determine if it is faulty. It rarely fails and it's very expensive so it's worth confirming before you just replace it. In order to see it properly you need to release that panel and swing it out if you have not done this yet. Do this with power off. There's a round hole that you can put a pencil in the hole to release the latch then swing it out to latch it out about 90 degrees.
If this doesn't solve your problem please report back and you'll have to do more advanced trouble shooting. Below is a photo of the fenwal module.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
1630427705096.png
 
setsailsoon said:
I would try the simple stuff first. This error means something in the safety circuit is in a "not safe" mode or as Pool mentioned above it got to the end and there was no ignition source so it shut down. First time I got this it happened randomly. Sometimes it would work sometimes it wouldn't. You've already tried the very simplest stuff so here's what I'd do next:
  • Carefully open the lid as the while you are going through the ignition sequence. Look at the glass eyeball to see if you see the igniter glowing. If it does you don't need to replace the igniter. If not, check the igniter itself and replace if it's bad. It's not super expensive but we see a lot replaced that are good.
  • Next when the blow starts wiggle the connectors at each sensor and see if that makes the gas valve open. You'll hear a loud metallic click when the relay opens the valve. If it works then that connection is bad. All you need to do is remove, clean, and replace. This simple fix eliminated the problem for 5 years before a major lightning strike took my heater out again. With great help from experts on this site I was able to fix even this at way less than 30% the cost of a replacement.
  • If this doesn't work then you should look at the red light on the top side of the grey fenwal ignition module (as shown in photo below) blinks and count the number of times it blinks. I know you've reported it doesn't light at all but please check again. This may mean you need to do more in-depth work to determine if it is faulty. It rarely fails and it's very expensive so it's worth confirming before you just replace it. In order to see it properly you need to release that panel and swing it out if you have not done this yet. Do this with power off. There's a round hole that you can put a pencil in the hole to release the latch then swing it out to latch it out about 90 degrees.
If this doesn't solve your problem please report back and you'll have to do more advanced trouble shooting. Below is a photo of the fenwal module.

I hope this is helpful.

Chris
View attachment 369028
Click to expand...
The sight glass is glowing…. The clicking I hear is the igniter turning off I guess. Now that the sun isn’t right above me I can see it. I still am not getting any blinking at the LED on the panel. I did not swing it 90, but I removed the metal panel and can see it clearly. I checked every wire going from the panel to the gas valve, they all look fine, the jumpers on the valve that connect to the on off toggle to the relay, and the weird swiveling connection 90 degrees to the on off switch are all connected, no corrosion. It seems to be the gas valve. Is there a way for me to check if there is gas coming to the heater? Is there some sort of valve I can access? The shut off to the meter is right on the outside of the unit.
 
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ajw22 said:
Do you get a puff of heat from it before it shuts off?

If not, I would check your igniter or check your gas service.

@setsailsoon dug deep into his JXI heater.
Click to expand...
i have glow from my igniter, but my gas valve is not opening. i took all connectors off today, cleaned them all, and put them back on. still nothing. also, no flashing lights from the panel led after sequence fails. it says fault check ignition steps, not ignition fault
 
Jrock817 said:
The sight glass is glowing…. The clicking I hear is the igniter turning off I guess. Now that the sun isn’t right above me I can see it. I still am not getting any blinking at the LED on the panel. I did not swing it 90, but I removed the metal panel and can see it clearly. I checked every wire going from the panel to the gas valve, they all look fine, the jumpers on the valve that connect to the on off toggle to the relay, and the weird swiveling connection 90 degrees to the on off switch are all connected, no corrosion. It seems to be the gas valve. Is there a way for me to check if there is gas coming to the heater? Is there some sort of valve I can access? The shut off to the meter is right on the outside of the unit.D
Click to expand...
Do you smell any gas coming out of the exhaust?
 
I believe the click you are hearing is the gas valve relay. There is no loud click when the igniter is powered. If your blower is running, igniter glowing, and you hear a gas valve click this means all the safety devices are in "safe" condition and the fenwal has called for gas valve to open. Your next thing to do is to verify gas supply. Please check all the valves from the heater back to your meter. It's amazing how often somebody simply shut a valve. A gas regulator failure for a 4 year old heater is extremely rare.. Do you have access to a gas manometer? Also, there should be a debris trap close to the heater. You can usually remove a cap off the bottom. Sometimes we've had water accumulate in the line. This usually indicates a problem in the line. Natural gas is bone dry. There' no water in the line to condense unless there has been a very significant failure in the gas supply.

Chris
 
An additional puzzling item you describe is the lack of red LED flashing. It should flash 3 times indicating ignition lock out if no flame is detected. You can verify what the gas valve relay sounds like by closing the gas valve and jumping 24 vac to the gas valve connectors.
 

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I should also add if you do not have training and experience with gas plumbing please get a qualified gas plumber to do this for your. Gas leaks can be very dangerous and lethal. It's well worth a call out charge to have a qualified gas plumber check flow and pressure for you.

Chris
 
setsailsoon said:
I believe the click you are hearing is the gas valve relay. There is no loud click when the igniter is powered. If your blower is running, igniter glowing, and you hear a gas valve click this means all the safety devices are in "safe" condition and the fenwal has called for gas valve to open. Your next thing to do is to verify gas supply. Please check all the valves from the heater back to your meter. It's amazing how often somebody simply shut a valve. A gas regulator failure for a 4 year old heater is extremely rare.. Do you have access to a gas manometer? Also, there should be a debris trap close to the heater. You can usually remove a cap off the bottom. Sometimes we've had water accumulate in the line. This usually indicates a problem in the line. Natural gas is bone dry. There' no water in the line to condense unless there has been a very significant failure in the gas supply.

Chris
Click to expand...
the sound happens, the the igniter turns off. there will be another click, and the igniter goes back on. i have run the sequence about 20 times, i lifted the panel to make sure no led flashes were happening, still no flashes from LED. my uncle is a licensed HVAC person, and does gas lines as well. he is going to come out next week. im just trying to troubleshoot as much as i can before he come. i just wish i could test the valve at some point, to see if gas is even coming out. thank you for all the replies.
 
setsailsoon said:
An additional puzzling item you describe is the lack of red LED flashing. It should flash 3 times indicating ignition lock out if no flame is detected. You can verify what the gas valve relay sounds like by closing the gas valve and jumping 24 vac to the gas valve connectors.
Click to expand...
Ok, so I shut off gas before heater, and turned switch on valve to off position, that gave me 3 blinking LED lights.
 
That's weird. I still think you should rule out gas supply issues before you go any further. If the gas valve relay makes the loud click and you have no gas odor the only things that can cause that are gas supply or gas control valve. The gas control valve is incredible reliable. One last question, have you had a lightning strike or one close by lately? That happened to me an caused a month of incredibly frustrating troubleshooting. I literally completely disassembled and reassembled the heater to figure out the fix. This is where I learned almost everything I know about this and similar heaters... the only good thing that came about from my lightning strike that caused over $5K damage.

Wait, one more question. We are talking natural gas not propane, right?

Chris
 
setsailsoon said:
That's weird. I still think you should rule out gas supply issues before you go any further. If the gas valve relay makes the loud click and you have no gas odor the only things that can cause that are gas supply or gas control valve. The gas control valve is incredible reliable. One last question, have you had a lightning strike or one close by lately? That happened to me an caused a month of incredibly frustrating troubleshooting. I literally completely disassembled and reassembled the heater to figure out the fix. This is where I learned almost everything I know about this and similar heaters... the only good thing that came about from my lightning strike that caused over $5K damage.

Wait, one more question. We are talking natural gas not propane, right?

Chris
Click to expand...
No lightning, and it was working up until day I posted. We had remnants of hurricane Ida, but it was just a lot of rain and wind. I’ll wait for my uncle to be available to check gas side. Thank you all again for all the help. I’ll post an update when he comes, maybe will help someone down the line.
 
setsailsoon said:
That's weird. I still think you should rule out gas supply issues before you go any further. If the gas valve relay makes the loud click and you have no gas odor the only things that can cause that are gas supply or gas control valve. The gas control valve is incredible reliable. One last question, have you had a lightning strike or one close by lately? That happened to me an caused a month of incredibly frustrating troubleshooting. I literally completely disassembled and reassembled the heater to figure out the fix. This is where I learned almost everything I know about this and similar heaters... the only good thing that came about from my lightning strike that caused over $5K damage.

Wait, one more question. We are talking natural gas not propane, right?

Chris
Click to expand...
yes, natural gas.
 
I'll be looking for your post. Any chance you have the valve on the gas controller inside your heater in the off position?

Chris
 
Still haven’t had a plumber come. They are all too busy. But I have gas to the valve, I have checked voltage and resistance everywhere, and it’s all in range. Only thing left to do is replace the gas valve, but another member here did that, and still had no opening of the valve. I hope I get this figured out. New valve should be here in a few days, hopefully at same time as plumber. Is there a way to force the valve open? Can I bring power to it in a different way? Anyone else have any clues?
 

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