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Pool heater maintenance

kevnmcd

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Pool heater is acting up. Small explosions when it cycles on sometimes. Wondering if anyone else has had that problem before and what they did to fix it? If not, anyone know a good repair guy in south OC?
 

GRADS

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What exactly do you mean by "small explosions"?
 

HOOTER SLED-

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Kind of in the same boat...need mine fixed too. U can maybe peek to clean the ignitor tip or make sure there are no spider webs near the burners...worth a shot.
 

RSoscia

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Try cleaning the burner orifices. Sometimes spiders can spin a web inside the orifice and cause gas not to go to the burner and then when an adjacent burner sends gas the cells fills with gas and explodes. Its worth a try Take a small wire and fit it thru the opening of the orifice or take a wrench and undo all of them and clean. Good luck
 

HOOTER SLED-

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Isn't it jb in so cal who does this in the Mission Viejo area?????
 

saucedaddy

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Pool heater is acting up. Small explosions when it cycles on sometimes. Wondering if anyone else has had that problem before and what they did to fix it? If not, anyone know a good repair guy in south OC?
For straight pool answers hit up GFaulk here on the boards. For repairs hit up Lloyd @
(714) 614-3539
 

BHC Vic

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Pool heater is acting up. Small explosions when it cycles on sometimes. Wondering if anyone else has had that problem before and what they did to fix it? If not, anyone know a good repair guy in south OC?

Parents old Hayward heater did this. My fix was turn the temp to warm not hot when turning it on. Worked fine [emoji2]
 

Uncle Dave

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Pool heater is acting up. Small explosions when it cycles on sometimes. Wondering if anyone else has had that problem before and what they did to fix it? If not, anyone know a good repair guy in south OC?

could be any number of things.

usually popping is a dirty burner - easy to clean on most units with a wire brush.

pressure switch cycling because the filter is dirty shutting it of after it ignites.

Bad ignitor combined with dirty burner

i had a stuck thermostat that would cause the unit to fire up then shut down

what kind of heater is it?

UD
 

kevnmcd

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From what I have read and consistent with others here sounds like the burners need cleaning. I will take a look at them and make sure they are clean. Thanks for the replies so far.
 

LHC Kirby

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For straight pool answers hit up GFaulk here on the boards. For repairs hit up Lloyd @
(714) 614-3539

I highly recommend Lloyd. Honest guy.... Might take a couple of days to get to you... But worth it..
 

G. Faulk

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From what I have read and consistent with others here sounds like the burners need cleaning. I will take a look at them and make sure they are clean. Thanks for the replies so far.

What type of heater? Was it installed after 2008? And do you know if its a low NOx heater?
 

Bucketlist

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Sauce Daddy and LHC Kirby have recommended Lloyd here for repairs. Does anyone know what city his office is located in and what is the name of his company? Thanks!
 

AQUA-HOLICS

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Lloyd is an independent repair man. His Co. is called POOL MEDIC. He is a paramedic for OCFA ( same department that throttle and I work for ) I just got off the phone with him a few minutes ago so if you need to talk to him about your heater give him a call. I give out his number all the time for all types of pool repair, hope this helps, Ray.
 

HOOTER SLED-

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It sounds like this is gonna be solved. My work here is done:D

U can always swing by Corona on your way out to the river and diagnose for me. :D The family has been bugging to get this Damn thing fixed. I'm need to tear into it a lil more.
 

HOOTER SLED-

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could be any number of things.

usually popping is a dirty burner - easy to clean on most units with a wire brush.

pressure switch cycling because the filter is dirty shutting it of after it ignites.

Bad ignitor combined with dirty burner

i had a stuck thermostat that would cause the unit to fire up then shut down

what kind of heater is it?

UD

The last problem you mentioned is what mine does. It used to warm up for one cycle then would not keep heating up the jacuzzi water. Then it started intermittently firing up. SometimeS it would work...then not. Now the gas turns on but then shuts right off and never fires. There is a green light that indicates system normal....it turns off when this happens...then turns back on when I shUT the switch for heat off. I have a Hayward.
 

Uncle Dave

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The last problem you mentioned is what mine does. It used to warm up for one cycle then would not keep heating up the jacuzzi water. Then it started intermittently firing up. SometimeS it would work...then not. Now the gas turns on but then shuts right off and never fires. There is a green light that indicates system normal....it turns off when this happens...then turns back on when I shUT the switch for heat off. I have a Hayward.

First thing to do is clean you filter and see if it continues. Lots of heater have a pressure switch that activates when the filter gets somewhat loaded and the flow across the heater drops. Old DE's are notorious for plugging up quick. at the 4 year mark mine would plug up in a month after cleaning stopping the heater.

Somewhere in there on mine its next to the output pipe - is a thermostat or what they call a "thermal regulator".

Because the water is hard to begin with and hardness goes up over time these stick - never open they stick closed. You can usually see where its stuck with deposits
Iva had to do three of these in 6 years due to them sticking closed on my pentair.

Everything fires up great then because it wont open the unit overtemps internally and shuts down, then it cycles over and over....

good luck boss.

UD
 

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HOOTER SLED-

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First thing to do is clean you filter and see if it continues. Lots of heater have a pressure switch that activates when the filter gets somewhat loaded and the flow across the heater drops. Old DE's are notorious for plugging up quick. at the 4 year mark mine would plug up in a month after cleaning stopping the heater.

Somewhere in there on mine its next to the output pipe - is a thermostat or what they call a "thermal regulator".

Because the water is hard to begin with and hardness goes up over time these stick - never open they stick closed. You can usually see where its stuck with deposits
Iva had to do three of these in 6 years due to them sticking closed on my pentair.

Everything fires up great then because it wont open the unit overtemps internally and shuts down, then it cycles over and over....

good luck boss.

UD

Ahhhh...so much like a thermostat in a car...that spring will move with the temp right? You know...after reading some stuff in the past I was leaning towards this being the problem but never tore into it any further. I'll have to give this a shot. I've cleaned the filter multiple times since it stopped working right. Just need to get this fixed...then replace the blower. Then I'll be in biz hopefully. :D Thanks for the info bud.:thumbup:
 

G. Faulk

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First thing to do is clean you filter and see if it continues. Lots of heater have a pressure switch that activates when the filter gets somewhat loaded and the flow across the heater drops. Old DE's are notorious for plugging up quick. at the 4 year mark mine would plug up in a month after cleaning stopping the heater.

Somewhere in there on mine its next to the output pipe - is a thermostat or what they call a "thermal regulator".

Because the water is hard to begin with and hardness goes up over time these stick - never open they stick closed. You can usually see where its stuck with deposits
Iva had to do three of these in 6 years due to them sticking closed on my pentair.

Everything fires up great then because it wont open the unit overtemps internally and shuts down, then it cycles over and over....

good luck boss.

UD

UD, if you have had to replace 3 thermal regulators in 6 years your pool water chemistry is most likely out of whack. Check your PH, but more importantly your total alkalinity, TDS, then pool conditioner. Next time you have to change a regulator look and see if the tip has a turquoise color. Master temp-starite heaters are very sensitive to water chemistry.

The heater "explosions" are most likely from dirty offices in the burner tubes or manifold, or low gas pressure resulting in damage to the burner tubes them selves. Have a qualified pool heater tech take a look, and make sure they check for gas pressure. Honestly it could be a handful of problems.
 
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