Not so thrilled with the Beckett 7505A-0000. Crapped out

cwilliams2000

This primary is not even one year old, and the burner got a bit of carbon build up on the retention head and it made the burner lock out late last night, it wasn't noticed until the AM.   Cleaned the head, checked everything, things seemed neat and tidy.  The bigger issue was when the water temp dropped one of the bleeder valves above started weeping water and a puddle formed, plus floor surface tension let some run down a pipe and clearly some got into the primary though it didn't appear to be much.  Turned it on and the relay clicked a few times and the display kept showing 0V for the line voltage and then it would alternate.  Used an air compressor and blew out what didn't seem like any water and finally it did fire, then shut down again, more air and seems to be back in business.  My fault for not having a direct spare to swap, but in many years my honeywell controls have gotten wet with mishaps, etc and this just surprised me that it would fail so easily, I am getting another, but I think I will ultimately swap to the new Honeywell 7284U.    The reality that these controls do occaisonally get some water spray or drip and I would think the internals were potted or something to anticipate this, the other design flaw is that there are a few holes on the top edges so the water seems to get right into the unit.

icesailor

Don't blame the ptimary:

How is it the primary's fault that water dripped down on it. I would be looking at the cause of why the water dripped down on it in the first place.

I see this often when boilers go off on safety. Usually I trace it back to an expansion system that is undersized. When the boiler/system cools down, the pressure drops way below what it is set for and the fill valve opens and starts letting water in. The float vents are shot from alternately sucking in air and letting it out. Then, hot water fouls the seat and they leak evaporated water leaving a big white powder residue on the float vents. Primaries aren't designed to be outside in the rain.

If you were MY customer and this happened, and you asked me why it happened and what was I going to do to fix the problem, I would have to say something. Blaming the primary when the original problem was a carbon build up on the retention ring. A problem with that burner that is common as is sand at the beach. Fix the carbon problems and the prinary won't be asked to do its job. Shut off the burner when there is no fire.

It could have been worse. I've heard of them not shutting off and draining the oil tank.

cwilliams2000

I hear you, but I expected more

I wouldn't say that is the primary's fault but I would have expected more, and I don't know many boilers that at some point haven't had some water spill or splash from something either on the burner or on the controls and I just haven't heard of one failing for this.   I know my old old Honeywell has either had water splash on it or get wet and this didn't happen.  Considering Beckett is by far the minority of primary controls and I suppose I took a chance by getting one for me it didn't hold up in the same environment other controls did.  

My next control will be a R7284U from Honeywell.  Beckett's clip on controller is terrible, difficult to snap on and easy to bend the pins.  The contractor stand alone tool is better and the price is basically the same.

My hope is that Beckett will replace it for free and they are always good about things like that but if a control is going to sit in a boiler room for 10-20 years it needs to be able to take some trouble IMO. 

World Plumber

Electronics

Electronics and water don't mix. The old contacts could take some moisture but should have been changed if they got wet. It's not Beckett's fault that your system was piped to allow water to get into the controls. It protected you from a dangerous situation. Why did that come about? Dribbling nozzle or lack of maintenance, etc.? Then the layout of the system lets water get in the control. You get one of the new Honeywell's wet I doubt you'll fair much better.

Robert O'Brien

Get used to it

Everything is or will be electronic very shortly,it's unreasonable to expect them to play well with water!