New Rheem/Raypack heater issues

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C

Cantabrigienne

Active member
Apr 13, 2021
39
Arkansas
Pool Size
40000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
Hello!
I have a pretty new Rheem gas heater, the pool wasn built and installed in April 2021. The heater worked great for one year, then stopped working in April 2022 and has been serviced at least 10x since then. At first, it was giving “high limit 2 is open, press mode to restart” error. This would happen anywhere from 10 mins to an hour after starting the heater, but we could never reliably get the hot tub up to temp. The various service calls involved replacing thermosensor (?), replacing the mother board, and a few other things they’ve tried. Whatever they do, it has usually worked again for a few weeks and then gone flaky again. At some point, tbe error codes shifted from “high limit 2” and now instead I’m getting “main ignition failure, no pilot sensed”. This happens after the heater powers up and starts heating successfully, but only stays on for maybe 10-30 mins. Seems like it just keeps cycling on and off.

The service provider doesn’t know what else to try. Our 2 year warranty expires on April 25th and then, I think, we’re just out of luck. I’m trying to figure out how to get this actually fixed between now and then (or, I’m sure it’s a long shot, getting raypack to replace the unit, which only worked for a year…)

Unit is P-M406A-EN-C.

Any suggestions???
 
Read here for ways to fix the HL2 errors - RayPak Heaters - Further Reading

It sounds like separately the heater developed a flame sensing problem. You need to remove the pilot assembly and examine it and clean it.

What specific model number heater are we discussing?

@swamprat69 may have ideas.
 
Is it normal to have this many issues with a brand new heater? I’m trying to figure out how hard to push for a full replacement before our warranty expires in 3 weeks…no idea if anyone has had any luck with that route. Just seems like they’ve tried everything and we keep having issues.
 
If they cannot get the unit working properly then you should push for a replacement. Sometimes manufacturers build some lemons.

It does sound like those problems should be repairable if the tech knew what he was doing.
 
Here is a blind swing, because someone has been looking inside the heater replacing boards etc, I'm going to look outside this heater.

A. It's not getting enough gas. The gas regulator outside your heater is working fine at times, then it's not. You can't really test that from the heater, unless your lucky and it begins to fail as your testing the heater for gas pressure.
B. Check the power going to the heater and make sure you are not running 208 volts to that heater. You need 120v or 240v. They were never really made to run on 208 but the older ones would. Would meaning they kind of could for a long while. The newer raypacks Crud out after a few months on 208v.

B. Is pretty basic, and can be over looked, and causes all kinds of weird problems even after the heater has been working fine for months.
A. Can cause you to replace one part after another, then replace the heater, after replace another heater for the rest of your life.

That board you had replaced is the most biggest piece of Crud. The new raypacks should just come with three or four of them.

So that brings me to C.

C. Each time you have a fault code while your chasing problems down, IE your pilot light is out because your board said so. Well, now your screwed. Your pilot light is fine, your board thinks its out. Now you need a New board again. It's as if you run the heater when it is not working, the board goes out, while trying to fire it up. And gives you a new fault code to a new problem that is not real. When you put a good board in and run the heater it runs or trys to then shuts down with a new fault code.
Round and round you go chewing through old and new boards, replacing blowers etc, instead of looking for the underlining problem.

Check The gas regulator, the voltage power, and the board. All at the same time, or you and raypack, and your pool company will chase this thing in circles for ever.
 
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