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Burnham ES2 IQ Panel Question

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ftres
ftres Member Posts: 3
in Gas Heating

I have a Burnham ES2 boiler with an IQ panel but I have no options installed.
I just had a problem where the boiler wouldn't fire - Status 15 and Error 5 on the IQ panel.

I have a service contract with my gas utility so someone came and fixed the issue by cutting the two blue wires and connecting them together. He said this bypasses the limit that was causing the error. He said this fix is provided by Burnham and since I have no IQ options installed, I don't actually need the IQ panel at all.

In fact, he said that boiler came two ways - with and without the IQ panel. Mine happens to have it installed from the factory though it's not being used.

He said this fix will permanently prevent that Err 5 from happening again, which he said is quite common but he didn't replace the board.

Here's my question. Could the IQ panel fail again in the future with some other error? And is the IQ Panel really not needed?

If my boiler doesn't really need that panel, is it possible to eliminate it if it should fail again in some other way in the future?

I asked the service guy and he didn't know but he said he'd imagine you could put other wires together to just cut out the panel entirely but he didn't know which pairs to connect.

So I want to know for the future should this panel fail again with some other error.

Can the panel be bypassed entirely and how would it be done? Which wires need to jumped to make that happen?

I know that some people will say to just replace the board if it fails, but I'm thinking that if it's not needed and not being used, it's better to just eliminate a point-of-failure from the mix.

Thoughts?

Comments

  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 7,510

    Can you post a pic of the blue wires and where they go?

    Screenshot_20260526_193801_My Files.jpg Screenshot_20260526_193932_My Files.jpg

    I'm not too familiar with those boilers, but how was there an error 5 if there are no cards?

  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 12,453

    Error 5 is not associated with any specific card, @HVACNUT .

    I installed a Crown Boiler with that same system and chose to use both the LWCO card and the ODR card. After spending nearly two weeks trying to get that setup to operate reliably, it was nothing but trouble.

    In the end, I disconnected the entire IQ system and bypassed all of the IQ panel limits so the boiler was essentially wired as if the IQ system had never been installed in the first place. It took me about two hours to rewire everything.

    I ultimately had to give the customer a discount for all the additional trouble because there was no outdoor reset functionality afterward, even though the customer had paid extra for that feature.

    Not a fan.

    Edward Young Retired

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

    HVACNUT
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 17,223

    is this user error or is this the chrysler problem? was something not installed right because they didn't tell you, or would it have been a great idea if it worked, if they had accounted for what was going to happen when they put it out in the real worked?

  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 7,510
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1897421#Comment_1897421

    OK, but I assume the boiler here has been in operation for some time. If the tech bypassed something in the options card area, shouldn't that have already been done? It wouldn't always have shown "sta 15", and "err 5" ? How did it ever run? I'd like to know which Blue wires were spliced through.

  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 12,453

    As I recall from my one unplesant experience with this control, I believe there is a limit circuit that includes the flame rollout switch and blocked vent switch that is in series woth the blue wires that come from the IQ panel. if the aux limit, LWCO or the ODR feature requires the burner to stop those blue wires interrupt the limit circuit. If there are no cards in the IQ panel, then the blue wires are not needed to open that circuit since there is nothing to open. The fact that the IQ panel can still malfunction and open those blue wires in the circuit is probably part of the problem with the whole idea. I don't believe there is any new euipment since that time that offer this IQ system

    As you can see the Boiler Control still has a high limit sensor incorporated in the system, so that "jumping" or "shorting" (I believe shorting is the incorrect term however others use that term for this procedure) the IQ panel's blue wires do not affect the unit's safe operation. (See Red ovals)

    Screenshot 2026-05-27 at 9.27.15 AM.png

    Edward Young Retired

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

  • ftres
    ftres Member Posts: 3
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1897433#Comment_1897433

    This boiler has been in service for over 13 years. I have the IQ Panel installed but there are no options installed. The service tech said since I have no options installed, the IQ system isn't needed in my case. I have a separate low water cutoff that's not part of the IQ system.

    So that got me thinking that if it's not needed and is just another (expensive) point-of-failure, then why not just eliminate it entirely if it fails again. Hence my original post. Is it really not needed in my case and what's involved in eliminating it?

    Here are the pictures requested by @HVACNUT

    IMG_0178.jpeg IMG_0179.jpeg IMG_0180.jpeg IMG_0181.jpeg
    HVACNUT
  • HVACNUT
    HVACNUT Member Posts: 7,510

    It looks ok. Its just weird that after 13 years it needed to be done. If there's no option limit card, it must be internally jumped. But now its not?

    As long as everything works the way it should, the circuit with the blue wires is complete. 24 volts goes from the transformer into P4/1, out of P5/6, and that starts the blue wires safety circuit that continues through the vent damper end switch, then to the gas valve. All safe. Just strange.

  • ftres
    ftres Member Posts: 3
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1897445#Comment_1897445

    Well, the boiler wouldn't fire up because of Err 5, so instead of replacing the board, he just jumped those wires and now it's working fine (as much as I can tell). I have notes that a board was replaced 3 years ago but I'm not sure if it was the IQ Panel or the main control board above it. My notes say IQ but I think it may have actually been the main board. Not sure.

    Two things though:

    1. I hear a faint beeping from the IQ Panel. Can that be reset and should I care? It's showing no errors and the boiler is in a room where that beeping can barely be heard. But does the beeping signal that there's still a problem I should care about?
    2. Could the IQ Panel still fail and shut down the boiler? Or did jumping the blue wires take care of that never being a problem in the future?

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