Why wont my Hot Dawg light?

nappyjim

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.

EdTheHeaterMan

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.

nappyjim

EdTheHeaterMan 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.

pecmsg

nappyjim said:

EdTheHeaterMan 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!

Jamie Hall

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.

hot_rod

sounds like spark ignition? Need to check the sparker, gap, clean it off. Gas pressure ok? We are getting into low gas pressure season

EdTheHeaterMan

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.

pedmec

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.

HomerJSmith

Ed, I do annual maintenance every 4-5 years. That's funny.

Illinoisfarmer

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

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

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

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

EdTheHeaterMan said:

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

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?