Carlin Ignitors

Paul Fredricks_3

We've run into this a bunch. Using an Ohm meter we haven't found any that show as bad. But that thin blue spark is a dead give away. Sometmes you have to cycle the burner 20 times before it shows up.

Carlins original stance was that the ignitors either work or they don't. They have since changed their mind on that.

I think one thing that is important is that the ignitor is wired for interupted ignition. I have a feeling they don't deal well with being powered full time. Not to mention the fact that this saves energy as well.

The Kid_2

Carlin Ignitor

Many of you know about the testing precedures for the carlin ignitors.
However I would like to hear from you regarding the spark characteristics.
I have found that in a bad carlin ignitor the spark will change to a very thin blue line after it has had power to. Resulting in reset problems.
I had a very aggrevating service call this pass winter. The season before i had replaced a standard transformer with a carlin ignitor and after this years annual service i had had several call backs...UGG!!! after exhausting all the posible problems i had over looked the ignitor. Why? well i replaced it last season.....shouldn't of been a problem Right? Ya well this is what i had discovered. I took the ignitor completley out of the burner curcuit and powered it up with my pigtail. Sure enough after a few minutes the spark changed from a fuzzy yellow line to a very thin blue line @ 3/4" apart.
Happy from my discovery i wasn't done. I took the burner out of the unit disconnected pump re-installed the ignitor powered up the burner and observed the spark at the end cone. Then put a brand new ignitor on AND WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE...the spark was two inches longer and violent...nice......Let me know if this has been a topic once before for I have not seen it ..Thanks The Kid

Glen

I like

all the Carlin products but have had several intermittent failures with the ignitors - all different but lock outs nonetheless. The three year warranty can't be beat - and I'll choose to overlook these niggling problems based on other superb service performances.

Steve_35

We've had similar problems

I was talking with Carlin tech support earlier this year because I was getting VERY frustrated with replacing ignitors after 10-20 months service. I don't care if they warranty them or not. They don't cover our time or aggravation.

He told me they found there were some problems with pre 2005 ignitors that have for the most part been resolved and that only around 25-50 ignitors out of over 200K had been returned with a 2005 date code. That's not bad but let's see what happens when they have a couple years on them.

The other thing he said that most interested me was they have an ignition trasnformer tester being field tested now. He said it should be on the market within a year and that it WOULD detect intermittent faulty ignitors. I think it put a load on them so they heat up as that seems to be when they start getting flakey.

These were much easier to catch once we got an Onwatch monitor.

John@Reliable_10

Here here,

quote:"I think one thing that is important is that the ignitor is wired for interupted ignition. I have a feeling they don't deal well with being powered full time. Not to mention the fact that this says energy as well". Couldn't agree more. Seems to me that most lock outs would happen after iron core transformer was replaced w/ ignitor and old 8184's still in place. We went back to iron core if 8184 primary control was still used and call backs went down.

Nick L. in Vt

date codes

01-19-03 was a magic number for our company. about 25 that i know about just in 2005. had another three or four the first three months this year. too many draft regs were luanched across basements for that information:)

They call me "Hot Pipe"

Paul Fredricks_3

Agreed

Most of the ones I've changed have had an 03 date code. The one you mention sounds very familiar. It's became "When in doubt, change it out". I'm not a parts changer, but these 03 ones make me feel like one.

They call me Paul, cause that's my name.