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Gas boiler flame sensor issue

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MTC
MTC Member Posts: 217
in Gas Heating
I have a Utica UH15B Series II boiler in one of my rental units. It runs really well most of the time, but last year sometime I would have an occasional no heat call. Looking through the error codes and watching the cycle, determined it was not detecting the pilot flame and shutting down. Cleaning the probe would make it fire right back up and run normally for a week or two, then it would happen again.

I tried cleaning it a couple different ways, bending it just slightly closer to the flame, and finally replacing the entire pilot assembly with the ignitor, sensor, gas orifice, etc. That seemed to do well for about a year, and I just on this lovely cold Christmas Eve got another no heat call, and its the same issue. Scraped the end of the sensor with the edge of a utility knife, put it back together, and it fired right back up.

At this point I'm thinking I might be a little over my fairly knowledgeable novice head... is it a burn consistency causing it to soot up or something? Anyway, I'll likely have it checked by a professional, but wanted to get input here of what to expect (I don't have a particularly trusted boiler guy here, so tend to be skeptical and what to know as much of what's happening as possible before calling someone in), or if its something simple I can do, what would that be?

Picture is the old one I took out, with the sensor bent down a bit still. New one I left as it came.


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  • Tim McElwain
    Tim McElwain Member Posts: 4,621
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    That looks like a pilot for a SmartValve system from Honeywell the clip that is on the pilot allows you to remove the igniter and sensor and replace it. Do you know how to take microamp readings?
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,061
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    So HW SmartValves had spark igniter in addition to HSI.

    I have seen only HSI.......but I don't get to town often.
  • MTC
    MTC Member Posts: 217
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    Tim McElwain said:

    That looks like a pilot for a SmartValve system from Honeywell the clip that is on the pilot allows you to remove the igniter and sensor and replace it. Do you know how to take microamp readings?

    Yes, there is a little clip that you can remove and replace the sensor, in theory. Didn't seem too easy to get out and I wasn't sure how to find just that exact part, so I just replaced the entire assembly and am getting the same issue a year or so later.

    I have this multi-meter, but beyond that I'm a little limited. Would that suffice?

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ET5W0A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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