New pool owner, 2 year old heater not working?

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poolemiro

Member
Jun 18, 2020
9
London, Ontario, Canada
Hi all, just moved into a new house with a pool. Had a pro open it up to start and the pump needed replacing, which was expected. What we didn't expect was the pool heater, which is apparently just 2 years old to not work.

It's a Jandy JXI 260N gas heater. The thing is, when you turn it on it fires up and the panel is lit, but it just will not respond to any button presses. It stays on the settings it is showing and after a minute or two, it stops firing as well (panel still on, but no heating sound). The panel shows pool temp at 73, desired at 86, and it is set to "Spa" heater but no buttons work so it's not like I can change it to pool heater.

I had someone come out to look at it and they called Jandy who had us try some different button holding combinations to reset things but that did not work. I'm the end they recommended changing the power control board or something like that. That part was apparently going to cost around $800 (Canadian) plus install. And no one could guarantee that this was even the issue. It just might help.

Our pool guy (not the gas fitter who called Jandy) says Jandy is Crud, it probably won't work even if we get that part, and that were better off just getting a new non-Jandy heater.

I do not know who to believe. It does seem like an electronic or electrical issue. Has anyone experienced something like this with this line of heater? I'm not handy, but I'm comfortable with electronics. It just feels like this thing is not too far away from working and, at most, replacing the board should do it, but I'd love to have more confidence in something like that before dropping the $. Thanks in advance.
 
Can you show a picture of the system?

Can you show a video of the heater starting and running?

Is the gas valve in the heater on?

Are all gas valves going to the heater on?

What is displayed on the screen?

What are the first four characters of the serial number?
 
Last edited:
In addition to Jame's request can you please confirm the unit tries to light once only? After shutting down does it try to light again after a minutes or does it just stop? What does the display read after the heater stops? Is there any "fault" message on the display right after? Any indication of water dripping from the bottom of the heater?
 
I'm not a Jandy fan or anything but I don't think their heater is much different than other brands internally. Some of the control components are actually identical. Connections are often the problem but can be eliminated and proper diagnosis can usually identify the correct component before you start replacing parts. We see too many people start replacing expensive parts trial and error and it doesn't solve the problem. There are 3 major control components and a couple connections that can be tested. The experts can talk you through the test process to improve your odds considerably before you start laying out big $ on guesses.

Any way to contact the previous owner to find out the history? Lightning strike or anything like that happen before it quit working?

I'm not familiar with Canadian pricing but the Universal Control Board is about $400 from reputable dealers in the US.

Chris
 
Wow, just joined but love the responsiveness of this community. Thank you! I'll try my best to answer the questions.

It is a Jandy JXI260N, serial number starts with L18X. Unable to speak with the previous owners directly, but they did warrant that everything was working when they last used it (last season), but that the pump was on its last legs (and they left us a new pump).

For what it's worth, when we opened the pool, the water was very dirty and it took quite some time (and a couple of times cleaning the filters) to get things clean and there was a lot of debris (sand, etc.) in the filters - not sure if that would affect things with that running through the heater eventually. Before things were running well, there were times I saw dirty water coming out of the jets. Water is fine now. May replace the filters this season or next (they are old), running at roughly 20 PSI.

Here are some pictures of the system:
20200619_102101_HDR.jpg
20200619_102051_HDR.jpg
20200619_102111_HDR.jpg
20200619_102034.jpg

Here is a video of it being off, while the pump is one, just for sound reference:
drive.google.com

20200619_102210.mp4

drive.google.com drive.google.com

Here is a video right after turning it on (the switch is inside the garage, so I can't capture the exact startup, although I do see it flash some version number momentarily):
drive.google.com

20200619_102239.mp4

drive.google.com drive.google.com

You can hear that it powers up and I can feel the hot air coming out of the vent. I don't see any error messages on the display, which stays on. However, it does not respond to any button presses whatsoever. After a couple of minutes it shuts off and does not try to come back as far as I've noticed, but maybe I'm not waiting long enough. I think the gas valve is on (as seen in the pictures?).

Thanks again and I hope this information helps.
 
JamesW said:
Check the gas valve in the heater.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Sorry, I'm really not familiar with the hardware. Do you mean the yellow handle in one of the pictures? Or something inside the heater (e.g. do I need to open it up)? Any details you can provide around what the valve looks like, how to find it, and what I should be checking (and any precautions I should take) are appreciated. Thank you.
 

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James, I was thinking the same thing but mine (exact same heater as mine) displays remote or TSAT when it's in that mode. Pool, you can confirm by entering service setup mode using the procedure shown on p 27 under section 7.1.1 and scroll until you see "Remote". Then press Menu. You should see "Remote Off". If not scroll until you do and then press menu.

Any further diagnosis would require disassembling the panels and messing with 240 vac electronics raceway components plus the gas supply system internal to the heater. I appreciate much that you know your limitations as this can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I would try to find a qualified service rep that can diagnose rather than guess what's wrong. He should look for the proper operation of the LED's on the Fenwal and test the connections to narrow down to the universal control board. And he should be able to tell you with certainty he won't charge you for the part if it doesn't solve the problem.

We're glad to have you on the forum and I wish I could help more.

Chris
 
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Thanks guys. I tried a few more startups and the heater stayed on. However, the buttons were still the issue. I powered everything down, disconnected the power, and removed the control panel from the top. Everything looked ok on inspection, cleaned it a bit. When I restarted, the only difference was the menu button responded to presses. Basically it would either say that it was in "Spa mode" (as in the video above), but I could press the Menu button and it would give me an option to change the Spa Mode from "Heat" using the up down keys. However, the up down keys, the Spa button, and the Pool button, do nothing. I was not able to enter any kind of diagnostic either, again, because I suspect the other buttons are not working or being detected.

I'm not comfortable with the gas stuff, but fairly comfortable with the electronics. I'm planning on taking a closer look at the rest of the connection, at least at the boards, etc.. It really feels like this is either a wiring/connection issue at best or a problem with one of the boards at worst. I'll take a shot at the best case and, if not, call someone in to diagnose the board. I'll come back with updates.
 
Quick update: I'm pretty sure it's the electronics. The thing is, the heater works and it tries to heat the pool the level it is set at (e.g. 86 degrees). I'm just unable to change the settings. So while I would like to get this fixed, at least I can still operate the heater (simply by turning it on when we need it and turning it off when we don't).
 
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