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Why wont my Hot Dawg light?

nappyjim
nappyjim Member Posts: 6
Hi guys. Any ideas on what I can check here?

My 2yr old garage heater wont heat on first light usually. Sometimes it will, sometime it takes multiple shot. No rhyme or reason I can find. Sometimes it had trouble the first time its turned on in the morning, other times its been turned off and on multiple times in the day already and then decides to not light the next time. Heres a video of it not lighting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcLyEwid_Bw

Around 8 sec in you can hear the buzzing sounds which I'm assuming is the heater element.

Comments

  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 9,378
    edited November 2022
    I'm guessing since it is only 2 years old, the annual maintenance has not been done. People usually wait until there is a problem before doing annual maintenance. Sometimes it takes 3 to 5 years for that to happen. Once your annual maintenance is completed annually, your problems will happen less often.

    In the Installation and operation manual there is a section titled Maintenance. That might help to guide you. Or you can call for a professional maintenance in the spring or fall. HVAC service technicians don't have a lot to do then. Waiting for winter to call for service is what everybody else does. So you are normal! But that also means you will wait for service.

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

  • nappyjim
    nappyjim Member Posts: 6

    I'm guessing since it is only 2 years old, the annual maintenance has not been done. People usually wait until there is a problem before doing annual maintenance. Sometimes it takes 3 to 5 years for that to happen. Once your annual maintenance is completed annually, your problems will happen less often.

    In the Installation and operation manual there is a section titled Maintenance. That might help to guide you. Or you can call for a professional maintenance in the spring or fall. HVAC service technicians don't have a lot to do then. Waiting for winter to call for service is what everybody else does. So you are normal! But that also means you will wait for service.

    So pretty much chastise me, tell me what I should have been doing to prevent it and offer zero actual help for my current situation, other than read the manual; which I already had. I am looking for suggestions from experts, such as yourself I'm assuming. Something along the lines of, "well in my many years in the heating industry since servicing my first burner at the age of 16, issues like this are usually the cause of XYZ. So start there"

    I am also in the service industry and if I get asked a question about a machine on a forum specifically dedicated for such (ala HeatingHELP.com), I dont say, "well you didnt perform the PM on your machine every 6 months, read the manual or call a tech in 7 months. Thanks for visiting!"

    Hopefully other forums are more helpful to my direct current situation than you have been Ed, thanks.
    GGross
  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 5,291
    nappyjim said:

    I'm guessing since it is only 2 years old, the annual maintenance has not been done. People usually wait until there is a problem before doing annual maintenance. Sometimes it takes 3 to 5 years for that to happen. Once your annual maintenance is completed annually, your problems will happen less often.

    In the Installation and operation manual there is a section titled Maintenance. That might help to guide you. Or you can call for a professional maintenance in the spring or fall. HVAC service technicians don't have a lot to do then. Waiting for winter to call for service is what everybody else does. So you are normal! But that also means you will wait for service.

    So pretty much chastise me, tell me what I should have been doing to prevent it and offer zero actual help for my current situation, other than read the manual; which I already had. I am looking for suggestions from experts, such as yourself I'm assuming. Something along the lines of, "well in my many years in the heating industry since servicing my first burner at the age of 16, issues like this are usually the cause of XYZ. So start there"

    I am also in the service industry and if I get asked a question about a machine on a forum specifically dedicated for such (ala HeatingHELP.com), I dont say, "well you didnt perform the PM on your machine every 6 months, read the manual or call a tech in 7 months. Thanks for visiting!"

    Hopefully other forums are more helpful to my direct current situation than you have been Ed, thanks.
    Well had you done some troubleshooting and tested a few things and posted the results you might have gotten a better response.

    But, with the information given get it serviced annually like the manual states!
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 24,849
    I'm going to bet on electrode setting and wear, but I am by no means an expert on those things. That is, as has been said, a maintenance item -- but it's certainly one you could check.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,382
    sounds like spark ignition? Need to check the sparker, gap, clean it off. Gas pressure ok? We are getting into low gas pressure season :)
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    mattmia2
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 9,378
    Have you looked at the condition of the burner and the ignitor? if not, Look at them and tell me if it looks different that usual? Different than what a new one looks like. Can you take a video closer to the ignition? You know where the fire first happens inside the Hot Daug. Something like a spark hot enough to light the gas.

    Edward Young Retired

    After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?

  • pedmec
    pedmec Member Posts: 1,066
    Does it try to spark every time there is a call for heat. Or is there no spark. The difference being that you have to prove the pressure switch first for the ignition control module to initiate ignition.
    EdTheHeaterMan
  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,635
    Ed, I do annual maintenance every 4-5 years. That's funny.
    PC7060
  • Illinoisfarmer
    Illinoisfarmer Member Posts: 55
    We have that same (or really similar) unit in a little storage shed. I just wandered out there to compare. From the time that the thermostat calls for heat until the ignitor starts was 30 seconds. Once the ignitor starts, I can hear the main flame within 2 seconds. It sounds like your ignitor is 'sparking' for 6 or 7 seconds then stopping, but the main flame never takes off. I've noticed that when the Hot Dawg (I love it when things are spelled wrong intentionally) fires, it's fairly loud - like loud enough for my old man ears to notice. I'm not hearing that on your video. I'd take a look and see if it's actually lighting the pilot or not.

    If you're like me, you'll spend a lot of time on a ladder watching, and it will work perfectly every time - until you climb down.

    The pressure switch on ours went bad a year ago, and the inducer fan would run and run, but we would never get spark (which it sounds like you have). It seems like there was a troubleshooting diagram in the manual or inside the door - I can't remember where.

    Good Luck!
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 10,924
    hot_rod said:

    Gas pressure ok? We are getting into low gas pressure season :)

    This is by far my first thought, especially if someone didn't do the math when they installed it.

  • nappyjim
    nappyjim Member Posts: 6
    Can anyone confirm Modine does not check gas pressure? I was reading up on the sequence, it appears to me like gas valve is called to open and then igniter is told to spark, but its not checking to see what the pressure is.



    Heres a video of a successful light. I hear the same buzzing sound I hear in the failure video, but then I hear a click and then flame. I was thinking the click was the gas valve opening, but based on sequence, that happens before the igniter sparks (buzzing sound).

    I am ordering a manometer and also a new igniter. But wanted to get more thoughts.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_U9JdufJwU
  • nappyjim
    nappyjim Member Posts: 6
    pedmec said:

    Does it try to spark every time there is a call for heat. Or is there no spark. The difference being that you have to prove the pressure switch first for the ignition control module to initiate ignition.

    If the buzzing sound is it trying to spark, which I'm assuming it is, then yes it tries to spark everytime.
  • nappyjim
    nappyjim Member Posts: 6

    Have you looked at the condition of the burner and the ignitor? if not, Look at them and tell me if it looks different that usual? Different than what a new one looks like. Can you take a video closer to the ignition? You know where the fire first happens inside the Hot Daug. Something like a spark hot enough to light the gas.

    In my previous post I attached a video from a succesful cycle. Even playing in slow mo, I don't see a "spark", I just see the flame.
  • nappyjim
    nappyjim Member Posts: 6
    Incoming pressure was at 8, and outgoing was 3.5 . Manual states incoming needs to be above 6 and outgoing 3.5 But then in another place in manual it says incoming between 6 and 7. Does it matter that mine is above that?

    I replaced the spark and that appeared to work for a while but I am still not getting burner to flame on first try. I have smart home to I setup monitor to get track of if the burners light on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th try. Most of the time it is the first, but not always. Is that par for course? Or should I be getting light on 1st try, everytime?