Jandy JXI400N - Trouble Air

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Not sure if I saw this mentioned, but you can replace the heat exchanger but if you don't know why it failed, it will happen again. 99% of the time when a heat exchanger fails it because the water was acidic and it created a hole(s) in the heat exchanger. So figure out why it did this and fix that or you'll be right back in the same place in time.

My business is working on pool heaters and I would never suggest replacing a heat exchanger on a unit. But if you have the time and can do it yourself, good luck.
 
ps0303 said:
Not sure if I saw this mentioned, but you can replace the heat exchanger but if you don't know why it failed, it will happen again. 99% of the time when a heat exchanger fails it because the water was acidic and it created a hole(s) in the heat exchanger. So figure out why it did this and fix that or you'll be right back in the same place in time.

My business is working on pool heaters and I would never suggest replacing a heat exchanger on a unit. But if you have the time and can do it yourself, good luck.
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My water is perfect (has been since pool was new) and the exchanger shows no signs of degradation. I have seen exchangers with acid water damage and the tubes are usually all eaten away. My tubes all look perfect. I had thought perhaps this might be stress cracks from the Mickey Mouse plastic pads causing the heater to sink and will correct that when I put it all back in. At this point I am pot committed.

Out of curiosity, what do (would) you charge to replace a heat exchanger and all the associated parts that go with it like gaskets and refractory?
 
PoolGate said:
My water is perfect (has been since pool was new) and the exchanger shows no signs of degradation. I have seen exchangers with acid water damage and the tubes are usually all eaten away. My tubes all look perfect. I had thought perhaps this might be stress cracks from the Mickey Mouse plastic pads causing the heater to sink and will correct that when I put it all back in. At this point I am pot committed.

Out of curiosity, what do (would) you charge to replace a heat exchanger and all the associated parts that go with it like gaskets and refractory?
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I wouldn't charge anything as I would not do that job. I will sell you a new unit or you will have to find someone else willing to spend the time to replace it. It's not worth it to pay a good tech to replace the heat exchanger. How old is the heater?
 
PoolGate said:
My water is perfect (has been since pool was new) and the exchanger shows no signs of degradation. I have seen exchangers with acid water damage and the tubes are usually all eaten away. My tubes all look perfect. I had thought perhaps this might be stress cracks from the Mickey Mouse plastic pads causing the heater to sink and will correct that when I put it all back in. At this point I am pot committed.

Out of curiosity, what do (would) you charge to replace a heat exchanger and all the associated parts that go with it like gaskets and refractory?
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BTW, do you have pictures of the current heat exchanger showing the end of the tubes as they exit the plate they are attached to?

NEVERMIND, I saw the pictures you posted.
 
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ps0303 said:
I wouldn't charge anything as I would not do that job. I will sell you a new unit or you will have to find someone else willing to spend the time to replace it. It's not worth it to pay a good tech to replace the heat exchanger. How old is the heater?
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5 years.
 
PoolGate said:
5 years.
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5 years is pretty young for this issue. I know you say the chemicals are spot on since it was built but a heat exchanger fails 99% of the time due to bad chemical management. Do you maintain your chemicals or do you have a company do it? If you do it, do you test weekly? You have to figure out the cause or your just putting money into something that will fail again.
 
ps0303 said:
Well something in the water quality caused this to leak in those 5 years.
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Does anything in my logs jump out as out of balance enough to cause this? I don't want it to happen again. What is the issue the 1% of the times it is not water quality?
 

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Galvanic corrosion is ALWAYS on the bottom of my list of causes .... I put Evil Garden Gnomes several spots above galvanic corrosion.

My vote - defective, but not catastrophically damaged, part out of the factory that held up for 5 years and finally gave up the ghost. Perhaps you had some water in the unit during a winter freeze and it stressed some part of the exchanger which led to premature death .... anything is possible, even EGG's ....

If a service person could bring a heater back to their workshop and work on it there with the help of the faithful office-gopher making runs to the hardware store, I bet it could be profitable to fix these units. But out in the field working in someone's yard with the nearest hardware store 6 miles away and no office-gopher to help out (because all of these heaters are designed for 3-armed human beings)... NOPE. Just replace it.
 
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I hate to pass up on DIY fix rather than replace just because the refractory pad isn't available. Replacement pads and other alternatives are available but unless you really know what you're doing it can be dangerous. One of the purposes of refractory is to protect the housing from firebox temps. At industrial sites we often repair damaged refractory and there are several different ways to do it. It works well to keep boilers and furnaces running between plant turnarounds but we have real experts involved. So this is one even I would avoid although I might look around to see if there's a used unit around that has an undamaged exact replacement you can find.

Chris
 
setsailsoon said:
By the way, did you check www.parts4heating.com? They are a very reliable dealer for many heater parts. They appear to have your refractory repair kit for $139.

Chris
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I have found these sites lie and say they have when they don't. I ordered a sheet of 1" refractory material to make my own using my old one as the pattern.
 
I would say that since you’re already in the hole for over $1,000 you might as well grab a second shovel and keep digging …. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that. What I meant to imply was that if I walked out to my heater and found water in the firebox, I do @ps0303 said and just replace the heater with new. Then keep the old one and strip it down for spare parts. But since you’ve spent the money already, I’m cheering you on :kim:
 
JoyfulNoise said:
I would say that since you’re already in the hole for over $1,000 you might as well grab a second shovel and keep digging …. In for a penny, in for a pound and all that. What I meant to imply was that if I walked out to my heater and found water in the firebox, I do @ps0303 said and just replace the heater with new. Then keep the old one and strip it down for spare parts. But since you’ve spent the money already, I’m cheering you on :kim:
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I am still not 100% sure the heat exchanger is leaking at all. It could simply be a gasket issue. I got a new gasket kit. I don't know a way to test the exchanger though since there are 12 tubes to test I would have to plug each one somehow and pressurize it.

And it is a shame to waste all that copper to I think it is like 30lbs of copper.

The other issue is I cannot get a new Jandy heater since they don't sell direct to consumers anymore.
 
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PoolGate said:
I am still not 100% sure the heat exchanger is leaking at all. It could simply be a gasket issue. I got a new gasket kit. I don't know a way to test the exchanger though since there are 12 tubes to test I would have to plug each one somehow and pressurize it.

And it is a shame to waste all that copper to I think it is like 30lbs of copper.

The other issue is I cannot get a new Jandy heater since they don't sell direct to consumers anymore.
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If you do replace the heat exchanger then maybe you can sell the old one for scrap metal. You might not get much more than a stop at Starbucks for it, but it’s better than zero …
 
Maybe this piece was warped? The new heat exchanger includes the metal surround so if so, that'll fix that as well.

It doesn't look like the large rectangle gasket was leaking it looks like water pool at the bottom and never got passed the gasket. Could be one of those round gaskets was leaking though.

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Some of those bolts look like they are pretty corroded. Definitely not a good sign.

Does anyone know how hot that area can get? If it’s not exceptionally hot, I would put molybdenum disulfide (MoSi2) grease on every bolt to protect it. Moly grease is used in very high temperature applications for lubrication and corrosion protection.
 
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JoyfulNoise said:
Some of those bolts look like they are pretty corroded. Definitely not a good sign.

Does anyone know how hot that area can get? If it’s not exceptionally hot, I would put molybdenum disulfide (MoSi2) grease on every bolt to protect it. Moly grease is used in very high temperature applications for lubrication and corrosion protection.
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I would imagine that plate gets very hot it is on the inside of the firebox/combustion chamber.

The bolts look worse than they actually are there is no real damaging corrosion on them.
 
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