Reasons for Hot Surface Igniter failure?

Timco

I replaced the old Robert Shaw controller with a generic White Rodgers ( I think honeywell makes a very similar unit) unit that had 'cards' that you could insert to change the ignition time. One was 17 seconds as I recall.

http://www.johnstonesupply.com/2/OnlineCatalog/ProductDetails/tabid/1780/Default.aspx?Product_Code=L39-565

Hope this helps. It sure made my troubles go away!!!

Tim

PeterGriffin

2nd one in a month

A little less than a month ago I replaced an igniter on an American Standard Freedom 80 furnace. (mod: AUD080C924J1, I memorized it now!) Seemed like a standard change-out...then I got a call today that the furnace had quit again. I go to the house, and sure enough, the igniter is gone again. It looks pretty oxidized (I think it's oxidation) for something that has only been in there a month. I checked the gas pressure, thinking maybe it was too high and stressing it(poor guess?) but it was fine.

I checked the amperage and it was fluctuating between 1.4 and .8 and the voltage would pulsate between about 60 and 90 VAC. I have seen other models that have a pulsating voltage, so I'll assume this is normal. The customer has said that was probably the 4th one in a year that has failed, I'd like to come up with an alternative solution to hers, which is changing out the furnace, but I'm not sure where to start!

Anyone have any input into this?

Thanks!

Rankin


Here are some pics of the igniter: http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w310/BryanRankin/?action=view&current=DSCF0709.jpg
http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w310/BryanRankin/?action=view&current=DSCF0713.jpg
http://s179.photobucket.com/albums/w310/BryanRankin/?action=view&current=DSCF0712.jpg

jim lockard_4

A/S furnace

A/S made two differant igniters a 120 volt model and a 80 volt model. they also have a 120 volt control board and a 80 volt control board. If you put the wrong combonations of boards and igniters together in about every 2 weeks the igniter will fail. We went throught this so I know. Get the serial # off the furnace, get the part# of the board like a CNT ??37 or so and the part # off the igniter and make sure they will all play nicly together. Your A/S or Trane tech rep should be able to help out. Jim Lockard

Timco

I found out the hard way that many newer HSI's are made for 17 second delay, and my older controller was keeping it on for 45 seconds. They were burning out 1-2 every season. I like the previous post's idea but any info is good info...

Tim

ScottMP

TIMCO

What did you do ??

I can't belive you guys are talking about this as I was just about to post also.

I have a good friend who I installed to hot air furnaces for about eight years ago. Just about every year I have replaced a HSI. While watching it last night ( after the sixth replacement ) I noticed that the ignitor stayed on for quite a while untill ignition. What can I do ? These are Olson furnaces.

Scott

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Mitch_4

Olsen Furnaces

Scott. (or any one else for that matter)

I am in technical Support for ECR international - Olsen Division.

The Ignitors are still available. If the furnace has the White Rogers 50E47-xxx series controllers, the proper ignitor is the Norton 201W with a 45 second warm up time. ECR part number 20834.

Later furnaces used the White Rogers integrated controller the 50A50-xxx series that uses a 17 second warm up time. The ignitor was a Norton 271W our part number 26789.

Your wholesaler can order them from our head office in Utica New York.

Feel free to email me if you have any additional inquiries.

Regards, and safe and Happy New Year.

Michael Breault
Technical Services / Training
ECR International
519-627-0791 x228
519-627-8176 (fax)
"Your Single Source solution
For HVAC Products"

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

Planned Obsolesce

They figured a way to make them last for about a year. Like so many other items we buy now, they are designed to break so they can sell more product. My mothers old stove lasted for decades without changing 1 ignitor, the new stove I change it about every year. Bob Gagnon

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jim lockard_4

crazy

hHow did we get from American Standard freedom 80 furnace to the Olson product with white/rogers universal control boards?? J.Lockard

Ken Field

Pulsing voltage

In addition to what others said, you may want to check your grounding. Had a Carrier furnace recently where the screws holding the control enclosure were not tight causing a loss of ground for the controls to reference. This also caused the HSI output to appear as a pulsing voltage. Fastened the screws and problem went away. There was no physical ground wire from the Junction box to the control enclosure so the chassis was being used as the ground

John Mills_5

Intell boards

You need a meter with true RMS to read exactly on the voltage. Otherwise you will get your meter bouncing around a bit in the 80-90 volt rage. Is the furnace in a dirty environment? Laundry room? Fumes? You are putting the IGN00117 in it? While we haven't found the 80v SiNi to be troublefree as some claim, we've never had anything like you are seeing.

As for other units, we've not had good luck with anything but the factory ignitors. The Robertshaw we use for Williamson Gasaver IIs are the worst. If we put the OEM on, tend not to have trouble. As was mentioned, there are differences in warmup times.

PeterGriffin

A FILTHY environment!


It's an open basement, laundry etc down there, the furnace was quite dirty, filthy even. I had offered to come back and clean it, but they are insistent on it being replaced. (It's on an indian reservation, they don't pay for it, the Band Council makes the decisions. Neither tenant or Band is real big on any preventative maintenance, but that is a whole other story in itself).

I am using the direct replacement IGN00117. John, you seem a little more familiar with these units, should I be having a pulsating voltage? I seen this before on another Am Std. (CUD maybe?) where the wholesaler gave me the wrong board, and I couldn't get it to ignite, because of the low voltage.

I will be sure to check my grounds next time I am there as well. What would you suggest as to a meter? The voltage clearly has a pulse, you can see it going from dim to bright. I have a Fluke T5 iirc, you can see a bit of it in one of my pics.


Thank you, and thank you everyone for the replies!

Rankin

Ed_26

ignitor failure

Also, a dirty furnace/fan/duct system will cause the unit to cycle too much, also oversizing furace, undersized ducts cause cycling issues.