Bad Honeywell boiler control

Tim Carlson

Anyone else having problems with the Honeywell L8148A boiler op control that comes on the Burnham and Buderus boiler?

We replaced 7 or eight last year, none older than 3 years, some less than a year. One customer is on his third on a four year old boiler. All burnt out the B1 termial. The rep said he hasn't heard of any problems,(of course), but sure sounds like a design flaw to me. And no, it isn't a problem with a loose connection, or a mechanic damaging the push terminal.

Its hard to charge a customer to replace a part on a boiler we installed, that you expect to last decades, when it fails 6 months out of warranty.

Tim



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BillW@honeywell

L8148

Tim, where are you located? Is this control one that came with the boiler, or one that was added on during a service call? Do you still have the old controls and what date code are they? Did you talk to a Honeywell rep or to a rep from Buderus or Burnham?

Unknown

L8148A Control

Tim,

We too have not seen any significant failures of these controls in the field on our boilers. As you know from my posts here on The Wall, I am not one to sidestep or to skirt issues with our equipment. If you are having problems with control devices, we certainly want to know why. Is it possible that there is a common denominator to these failures. We do see external devices such as extra pump relays, combustion air devices and power venters wired into these controls from time to time that can cause this to happen. If you have had three in four years on the same boiler, we would like to know why. Let's try to arrange a jobsite visit to see if we can shed some light on this. Hope this helps.

Glenn Stanton

Burnham Hydronics

ScottMP

Strange

That was the same problem that I had the other night.

BUT mine was on a Slant-Fin and was at least 10 years old.

The problem was an intermitent output of 24 volts from B1.

See my post "Tim McElwain is da man".

Scott

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Unknown

Bill Wolfe

I was talking about Scott Milnes problem is class today and one of the technicians told me that he had a similar problem on an L8148E with intermittent voltage surges at B1 and B2 on the relay. He is going to bring in the old relay next Thursday to class and we are going to try it out and see what it does. i will let you know.

kevin

honeywell controls

I myself am not wild about honeywell period. I am sure that we all have had 8148's and 8124's that dont produce what the dail says they should. I just had an 8148 on tuesday that aws 15*F off...dial said 180....actual temp165...
I wish they would abandon the mercury capillary tube for the thermistor type. Although the boiler mfg.don't help this at al. They are looking for the cheapest way to have a control so they can be competitive.It would be nice if they offered it as and optional upgrade.Am I the only one who feels this way? kpc

Unknown

You are not alone Kevin

We have tried electronic high limits in the past and had nuisance problems with them. Our Opus boilers use electronic high limits with great success, but we also incorporate a remote bulb and capillary auxiliary high limit as an extra assurance device on these boilers. Although there are certainly controls that are not exactly accurate out there, the overall quality and dependability is still there from Honeywell. Hope this helps.

Glenn Stanton

Burnham Hydronics

Tim Carlson

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Tim Carlson

Bad Honeywell

Thanks for the fast response. I will reply 'off wall' to Bill and Glenn with the numbers they asked for.

There is no common demoninator to the failures, other than it is always B1 that is toasted, with sometimes an open circuit on C1. They all are only factory wired, with no additional loads. One relay was one week old, about half were 24 to 36 months.

We like Honeywell boiler controls, and know them to be very reliable. That's why we feel this is a design flaw or weakness.

Tim

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