After fixing everything else with my 11 year old heater and getting it to work perfectly for a couple months, I flipped the switch to heat the spa on Easter only to have dead silence other than what sounded like gurgling. Closer inspection showed that there was a very thin film of water underneath the heater with no obvious source. The "service heater" light was on and underneath the control board was the AFS light glowing an angry red. That means something wrong with the blower or the juice headed to the blower, so I was hoping that there was a chance the leak was something minor and ignorable while the blower failure was just a broken or chewed wire. A guy can dream, can't he?
I just opened the case to look inside, and to my horror I watched a small, steady drip exit the air orifice grill on the blower. That's the intake vent on the right side of the blower (when looking at the manifold in front). From what I know, the only things flowing into the blower are electricity, natural gas, and air, so I assume that this isn't some sort of faulty o-ring on the blower assembly that would take five minutes to fix. Without tearing the heater apart, the only thing I can think of that might be causing a blower that sits above any sort of water piping would be a pinhole leak in the exchanger (AKA "tube sheet coil assembly") that is uncannily aimed right into the mouth of the blower from below. The water would then be soaking the fan blades and the motor, perhaps shorting stuff out, perhaps only to the point of interfering with the free turning of the blades and causing the gurgling sound. Because the blower isn't blowing enough or at all, the AFS light comes on and everything is shut down.
Does that sound like the underlying cause of the leak? And if so, is it worth it to buy a new blower assembly and a new water exchanger for an 11 year old heater?
Thanks,
Nick in Palm Springs
I just opened the case to look inside, and to my horror I watched a small, steady drip exit the air orifice grill on the blower. That's the intake vent on the right side of the blower (when looking at the manifold in front). From what I know, the only things flowing into the blower are electricity, natural gas, and air, so I assume that this isn't some sort of faulty o-ring on the blower assembly that would take five minutes to fix. Without tearing the heater apart, the only thing I can think of that might be causing a blower that sits above any sort of water piping would be a pinhole leak in the exchanger (AKA "tube sheet coil assembly") that is uncannily aimed right into the mouth of the blower from below. The water would then be soaking the fan blades and the motor, perhaps shorting stuff out, perhaps only to the point of interfering with the free turning of the blades and causing the gurgling sound. Because the blower isn't blowing enough or at all, the AFS light comes on and everything is shut down.
Does that sound like the underlying cause of the leak? And if so, is it worth it to buy a new blower assembly and a new water exchanger for an 11 year old heater?
Thanks,
Nick in Palm Springs
