Weil McLain AB-80H Control Board Fire

sgibb16

Just wanted to follow up and let everyone know that Weil McLain did end up warrantying the part after all. Even though their paperwork says claims must be submitted by a certified installer or however they phrased it. 

Jamie Hall

I'm no more keen on the difficulty in getting parts for repair on new equipment than anyone else is. There's a reason I run old equipment. However, it is not entirely the fault of the original manufacturer, or at least not directly. First, building anything on the west side of the pond is getting insanely expensive, and it's not going to get any better. Second, until recently, while shipping was slow, ocean freight was cheap -- cheap enough to make it worth shifting manufacturing to somewhere less expensive.

But then you have the problem of installation and repair by authorized dealers vs. anyone with a truck and a box of tools. That problem is on the lawyers. If something goes amiss with an unauthorized installation, the first and often only inclination is to blame the manufacturer -- and then sue them. That doesn't fix anything, but costs everyone a lot of money. Think about it.

109A_5

Hello @sgibb16,
Curious, how did they compensate you for the claim ? Did they send out a replacement control board so now you have spare ? Which may be helpful in the future.

sgibb16

@109A_5
They credited the supplier I purchased the board through and the supplier issued me a refund. 

Mustangman

I am from PA. We have experienced power surges from the electric company over the last few years. I got involved on a high end Carrier unit and a multi zone ductless that drove me nuts. The electric company came out and checked it and said they are within spec. They took a 5 minute test. I was thinking they would use a data logger over night. The owners were getting impatient so I got online and found a data logger. It took a few days, but finally I got a very high reading. The Electric company pulled their service and put it on a different transformer. Problem gone. The other unit showed under current. I was lucky as nothing burned. Again, the electric company came out. They ended up repairing the under voltage.
My point is, don't rule out an external force causing you grief. You guys all work with this new stuff. Most is not polarity sensitive but the parts are really delicate. Good Luck

David_Chandler

Hello all,

Just went to investigate an electrical smell in my basement to find my Weil McLain boiler was smoking from the control panel. Once I shut off the power and pulled the board out, I googled the issue and found this thread. My board looks identical. Blue filter capacitor in the power supply is melted and the board has smoke/burn marks all the way up. My boiler was still running when I shut off the power, so I am hoping to just replace the cap and clean the board up. Will definitely be calling the manufacturer tomorrow morning. Wish me luck!

pedmec

I feel your pain. i have (4) Lochinvar's SBN1000 maintaining a nursing home. The boiler integral manifold is leaking at the welded joints on two of the four. I was told that the manifolds only come when you purchase new heat exchangers which is a lie as i have already replaced one pre-covid. You look in the parts catalog and its not even listed. When i called tech support they acted like the boiler was installed during the civil war. "it's 12 years old and has been out of production". Really? 12 years old and its considered old. That's really ridiculous. I understand that they don't build them like they used too but when my dog can out live a boiler something is wrong.

I feel manufacturers of mod/cons are letting shoddy installers off the hook. For any manufacturer to say that 12 years is an old boiler is a disgrace. i have put so many in and most are running 20 plus due to proper maintenance. they condemn there own boilers because they dont want to help

109A_5

Hello David_Chandler,

They either had a bad batch of capacitors, or something about that circuit design is beating up those capacitors. I believe that Cap it is part of a snubber circuit for the TRIAC.

Good Luck !!!

I believe the failed Capacitor is similar to this.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/epcos-tdk-electronics/B32671L0332J000/1532414

David_Chandler

Hello all,

I was able to find a local HVAC company that would order the replacement board for me and have it overnighted, so I was able to get my system back up and running before the cold Buffalo, NY weekend. Interesting thing is the burned up capacitor was 1mfd 1kv, the new board has a 3mfd 1kv capacitor. Guessing that means they are aware of the issue, but did nothing to take care of customers who already had this system installed and running. Probably low chance of a fire from this issue since the cap is inside a big metal box, but definitely higher chance of a fire than if they had done a voluntary recall.

If anyone has this boiler running in their home, I would suggest taking a look at this cap to see if it is the old value or the new value. Could save your home, or even lives…

109A_5

Not that it matters much (unless you plan on trying to repair it) but the capacitors pictured earlier in the thread seems to be 3n3 which would be 3.3 nano Farad or 3300 pF Film Capacitor 1000V (1kV) Polypropylene (PP), Metallized Radial, not micro Farad, a 3.3 micro Farad,1000 Volt capacitor would be physically much bigger.

0.0033 uF = 3.3 nF = 3300pF

I wonder if the chip resistor values are different too. they seem like they may part of that circuit.