Intermittent pilot ignition control - replacing cable/wires?

hurt_happens

@mattmia2 - impressive that you could spot anything from my blurry perspective photo. I'll take the board back out and thoroughly inspect, admittedly I was only looking for an issue at the main gas valve terminal.

Jamie Hall said:

I hope resoldering does the trick for you.

Our heat has been floating around 61° for the past week, and after thorough DIY investigation, my recourse has been to power cycle the boiler and cross fingers that the main gas would ignite. Although the house was being heated, it was failing enough that it just never got up to temp.

I was planning to replace the gas valve "just because" but then it dawned on me to test the voltage at the control, and sure enough it wasn't giving power. I lucked out when I pressed on the plastic retainer clip and it fired. Then I repeated several times for confirmation, and that narrowed it down to a bad connection at the control end.

Taking the plastic connector off and directly connecting the metal clips confirmed that it wasn't a wiring issue but the control itself.

Since resoldering those two connection points this morning, our house is a toasty 70°. W00t!

I'm 99.999% confident the issue is resolved, but I'll still investigate the board for additional cracks as well as verify the safety shutoffs that @mattmia2 recommended. I'll also post anything pertinent back to this thread for posterity.

Thank you both for walking me through this!!

mattmia2

If you take a jumper and ground the combination ignition/sense wire it will do the same thing as unplugging it, it will disrupt the flame rectification signal and the control shouldn't open the main valve at startup and it should shut down the main valve if you ground it with the burner firing.

109A_5

Hello @hurt_happens,

hurt_happens said:

I also have a hard time understanding how soldering points could be the cause, since it worked for so long and is now only working intermittently.

Poor solder connections are way more prevalent than you think. And that is how they often fail, good for years, then intermittent, then total failure. Age does not make them better. Vibration and thermal cycling does not help either. Inspect them all with magnification. Remove the old solder and re-flow with new solder. The solder connections of the pins that come out of the base of Relays are notorious for failures and not just with HVAC equipment.

If I had it apart I would definitely freshen up all the relay(s) connections and the spark coil too. Possibly the 1/4" external connection terminals if they looked suspicious.

Easy and inexpensive repair if you can.

nybigapple

This issue just popped up for me today. Same UT1003-611a pilot ignition control. Same issue, that I thought was a flame sensor issue. No problem at all with the pilot, but the MV is now failing to open the majority of the time.

Has resoldering the MV pins been a permanent fix the last two weeks? @hurt_happens

I would happily just buy another control unit, but the timing couldn't be more terrible with the holidays. Many local stores aren't open and online stores won't ship till after Christmas.

hurt_happens

@nybigapple - yep. It's been working flawless since heating the soldering points on December 7th. I haven't taken the time to melt any others (namely the one that @mattmia2 pointed out), but still plan to do so the next warmer day, which looks like it'll be December 25th.

Just heat up those 2 nodes with an iron and you should be all set. Good luck!

109A_5

Hello @hurt_happens & @nybigapple,
If you want the best longevity from your repair, remove the old solder and re-flow with new solder. Sometimes (if needed) to help remove the old solder add some fresh solder to the joint. Then remove the old solder and re-flow with new solder.

Steamhead

I seriously doubt any pro would try a repair like this. We would, instead, use this unit:

https://www.resideo.com/us/en/pro/products/energy/gas-ignition-controls/intermittent-pilot/s8610u3009-multi-system-intermittent-pilot-ignition-module-s8610u3009-u/

EBEBRATT-Ed

I am sure that someone with an electronics background could possibly make these repairs.

But those of us who are or were contractors could not be expected to attempt this even if we had an electronics background.



Liability is the reason.

No manufacturer would sanction doing those repairs to their controls. And no insurance company would cover this under any circumstances.

If you're lucky and can make it work, I would replace the control as soon as possible.

Your home and your family are worth more that what a new control cost JMHO

Repairing a control may be ok if the failure of that control can't cause catastrophic damage.

But an ignition control of all things?? Not me

hurt_happens

If the concern is that one of the safety mechanisms might fail, that concern exists without this repair... just because the poor quality solder job from the original manufacturer. I've got 60 year old computers with vastly more complicated printed circuit boards whose solder has zero problems to this day.

Sure, anyone in the profession is unlikely to make this repair - they tend to just replace parts. A few hundred dollars for a new ignition control, a few hundred dollars for the labor, and a few hundred dollars for emergency service since it's already cold outside.

Resoldering two solder points on a very simple PCB? I have *zero* concerns that I've somehow reduced it's safety. They weren't functioning correctly to begin with.

Personally - I'm quite sick of "value engineering", where obsolescence seems to be baked right into the quality of the product. This control module is such a simple design and is still $100 bucks at its cheapest... you can buy a PC video card that's vastly more complex for that same price.... and it absolutely won't have failed soldering points in 10 years. Highway robbery.

Solder away.

Jamie Hall

There's one minor difference between your PC board and a controller for a burner. The former won't burn your house down, and the insurance doesn't care what was done to it or by whom...

EBEBRATT-Ed

@hurt_happens

Go for it. It's your responsibility

HomerJSmith

Look for a solder break on the relays to the circuit board. This is where I have always found the problem. Remove the old solder with Solder Wick or such and re-solder with 50-50 lead solder, but don't tell the EPA.