No coincidence.

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macdenewf

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2012
77
Spring, TX
I recently took over doing the pool chemicals from a service company. It’s a salt water pool but oddly enough when I took my water to get tested there was hardly any salt in the pool (800 ppm) and makes sense now as he did tell me he has been adding chlorine pucks frequently. Well. I boosted the salt up and am currently at 2600 ppm and the weirdest thing happened. My heater won’t kick in fully. It will come on the 1st stage but won’t kick in high and turns off after about 2 mins running.
I can only imagine that there is some sensor in the heater getting pooched by the extra salt and consequently the higher conductivity.
It worked flawlessly and I use it 3 times a week…as last as Friday night past so I have to imagine it’s slat related.
Appreciate any thoughts.
Cheers
Mac
Jandy pool controller. Jandy 400k btu LXI heater.
 
Mac,

It looks like your heater is trying to use a remote T-Stat instead of the one in the heater... Is your heater in some kind of remote mode? Do you have an automation system?

Jim R.
 
That remote tstat seems to be the message I always see when I open that panel on the heater.
But I’ve tried 3 different modes and all the same. Starts fir about 3 mins and throws heat but doesn’t get to high ( normally I can tell by listening that it’s on the high setting )
Tried in spa mode off remote.
Tried in pool mode off remote.
Tried in service mode off the main control panel. ( in pool mode and in spa mode ).

Neither time did it flash an error code. Just shuts down afte a couple of minutes.

Even tried rebooting the system by shutting all the power off at the breaker.

Odd. But still don’t believe in coincidences :)


Will have to poke at it some more to mow or when it’s light out.

Thanks.
 
macdenewf said:
That remote tstat seems to be the message I always see when I open that panel on the heater.
But I’ve tried 3 different modes and all the same. Starts fir about 3 mins and throws heat but doesn’t get to high ( normally I can tell by listening that it’s on the high setting )
Tried in spa mode off remote.
Tried in pool mode off remote.
Tried in service mode off the main control panel. ( in pool mode and in spa mode ).

Neither time did it flash an error code. Just shuts down afte a couple of minutes.

Even tried rebooting the system by shutting all the power off at the breaker.

Odd. But still don’t believe in coincidences :)


Will have to poke at it some more to mow or when it’s light out.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Thermostat is what caused it to turn on and off so if there’s an error related to the thermostat, then it’s a likely thinks it’s already up to temperature and shuts down or some kind of fail safe protection if the thermostat is bad.
 
All I can say at this point is gremlins.
I poked with it a half a dozen times and the last time I turned the heater on..it stayed on amd I’m typing this from the comfort of a 102 hot tub.
But I would like to know what the issue was.
Last year I changed the temp limit switches. ( my Not nice person dog chewed through the wires).
Anyway. When I replaced the sensors I noticed that the ones I took out had a conductive grease on the top and the replacements didn’t come with any so I tried to re use what was there but wasn’t much I could get off.
I searched through the install manual and couldn’t see any mention of thermally conductive grease yet when I search limit switches in general there seems to be multiple posts on the topic.
Anyone know if there is a specific grease to buy or is any thermally conductive grease acceptable.
Not sure if this has anything to do with the issue but can’t hurt.
Thanks in advance.
Mac.
Bperry said:
Thermostat is what caused it to turn on and off so if there’s an error related to the thermostat, then it’s a likely thinks it’s already up to temperature and shuts down or some kind of fail safe protection if the thermostat is bad.
Click to expand...
 
Gremlins are at it again.
Tried to fire it up 3 times. No luck. Starts. Runs for a while then just shuts down. Hopefully the 4th will work.
Is the thermostat you’re speaking of the high limit switches that are screwed into the bottom of the black manifold on the outside of the unit?

Makes sense if the thermostat thinks it’s at temp then it wouldn’t flash an error code
 
macdenewf said:
Gremlins are at it again.
Tried to fire it up 3 times. No luck. Starts. Runs for a while then just shuts down. Hopefully the 4th will work.
Is the thermostat you’re speaking of the high limit switches that are screwed into the bottom of the black manifold on the outside of the unit?

Makes sense if the thermostat thinks it’s at temp then it wouldn’t flash an error code
Click to expand...
I don’t know anything about the specific heater but the thermostat is likely a heat sensor that measures the water temperature. Look for an electrical diagram to find it. Mine also has a flame sensor that detected when the fire was actually lit. If it opens the gas valve and doesn’t detect flame within a few seconds, it shuts off the gas. Since yours sounds like it shuts on and works for at least a few minutes it sounds like that’s not the issue.
 

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swamprat69 said:
Don't know if this is at all helpful, but this compound is commonly used in temperature sensor wells in boilers https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-10...ocphy=9030785&hvtargid=pla-500430329992&psc=1 . Is the sensor well metal? Brass is most commonly used in boilers. This would assure good heat transfer from the well to the sensor.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that.
The well itself is part of the inlet / outlet manifold , and it's some sort of composite material, certainly not metal....but i'm pretty certain that there is a brass plug on the inside of there well that the sensor butts up to....so should be metal on metal from sensor to the contact point.
Cheers
 
To get the best advice it would be good to give a full description of your system, i.e. type and brand of control and brand of heater. Without that its just guess work on where to look for the problem. What you describe on the bottom of the manifold are, usually, limit switches that would also cause an error code on most modern heaters it that was the issue. The "thermostat" on a heater is the control where the temperature is set (dial, digital, depends on the heater) that has its own sensor in the header. If you have a remote system it, too, has a temperature sensor in the plumbing, acts as a second thermostat, and will turn the heater off based on the setting you input. More information needed.
 
macdenewf said:
I recently took over doing the pool chemicals from a service company. It’s a salt water pool but oddly enough when I took my water to get tested there was hardly any salt in the pool (800 ppm) and makes sense now as he did tell me he has been adding chlorine pucks frequently. Well. I boosted the salt up and am currently at 2600 ppm and the weirdest thing happened. My heater won’t kick in fully. It will come on the 1st stage but won’t kick in high and turns off after about 2 mins running.
I can only imagine that there is some sensor in the heater getting pooched by the extra salt and consequently the higher conductivity.
It worked flawlessly and I use it 3 times a week…as last as Friday night past so I have to imagine it’s slat related.
Appreciate any thoughts.
Cheers
Mac
Jandy pool controller. Jandy 400k btu LXI heater.
Click to expand...
replying to my own message :)

So several nights in......last 2 times i fired it up - it worked straight away....so who really knows what the issue is / was.
Sadly ignorance is bliss....before taking over the pool chemicals i never gave any of this a thought....but now that i'm looking at the chemicals every day ive discovered my salt cell was totally pooched, my heater has been acting up and while im hoping this isn't a problem...i do have this odd little leak.

When the pool is running - i'm assuming that the water is running through the heater - regardless of being on or off. I cant see any valves anywhere so im pretty certain its flowing all the time when the pump is on. I've noticed this little leak on the inlet manifold...its a drip really - about once every 5 seconds. But here is the odd thing. It only does it when the heater is on. It seems to be coming form the threaded connection on the inlet manifold of that LXI 400. I cant imagine what changes from heat off to heat on that would cause that drip. I don't think its a temp related leak ( meaning something changes dimensions ..expands...from being heated up and causing the leak) as it starts immediately after the flame starts.

Its hard to tell if it stops immediately after the heater is turned off as the whole manifold is wet.

Odd..just one more gremlin to be on the look out for!

Cheers
 
Bperry said:
I don’t know anything about the specific heater but the thermostat is likely a heat sensor that measures the water temperature. Look for an electrical diagram to find it. Mine also has a flame sensor that detected when the fire was actually lit. If it opens the gas valve and doesn’t detect flame within a few seconds, it shuts off the gas. Since yours sounds like it shuts on and works for at least a few minutes it sounds like that’s not the issue.
Click to expand...
I’m starting to get annoyed at this heater. It’s been hit and miss for the past 3 weeks.
I bought new limit switches amd a new thermostat. Going to open it up this week end and give it a good through inspection. I’ve never cleaned the burner orifices before so will swap out the parts and give it a tube up and see what happens.
 
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