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TROUBLE WITH ALPINE

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PAULY9214
PAULY9214 Member Posts: 1
in Gas Heating
HAVING TROUBLE WITH A FEW OF ALPINES WE HAVE INSTALLED  FLAME SENSOR  KEEPS GETTING DIRTY..ANY  IDEAS

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  • CMadatMe
    CMadatMe Member Posts: 3,086
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    Combustion Analyzer

    Start there and make sure the setup is per the install manual.
    "The bitter taste of a poor installation remains much longer than the sweet taste of the lowest price."
  • Tim McElwain
    Tim McElwain Member Posts: 4,621
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    Hi Paul

    This is what I got when I contacted Burnham: This is Ron Becks territory but I e-mailed local rep here in New England.



    I just spoke with Jim Buhaly who has been dealing with Paul on these two boilers and he filled me in on all of the details. The gas services are new and the combustion is dialed in for 5.7% O2 on High and Low fire with a zero offset on low fire. He is experiencing a reddish coating on the flame sensors when he takes them out and a slight drop in flame current. I'm suspecting cross contamination as the cause as I see this same reddish tint in the condensate of boilers that are getting contamination. Jim temporarily has pulled the flue sensor access plate to allow more basement air into the mixture to see if that helps any. He is also going back to look for other signs of contamination. Ron beck is away on vacation this week and Jim already has a call into him about it. Ron was discussing this with me a week ago when I was in Lancaster.



    This is what I sent back to Burnham rep:



    On a number of different Mod/Cons with weird combustion chamber conditions and flame sensing issues I am finding that locating air intake near certain kinds of vegetation can be the cause of some problems. In particular when the plume envelops the plants and they actually start blooming in the winter and giving off what ever pollens they are know for. In four different cases we asked the customer to move there plants away from the exhaust/air intake and the problems seemed to subside. This also is a problem with fertilizer sprays in the spring and summer when DHW is being produced by the boilers. This has also occurred on several warm air furnaces I have seen.



    They are working on it I can assure you of that Paul.
  • AFred
    AFred Member Posts: 81
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    Alpines

    How often are you needing to clean the flame sensors?

    Whats the application(high temp/low temp)?

    Are these boilers new or a few years old?

    They need a better than perfect ground all the way back to the panel. Not just grounding it to conduit.

    Start there, follow the wire all the way back to the panel, run a separate ground wire if you have to.

    -Andrew
  • EddieG
    EddieG Member Posts: 150
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    Condensate

    Tim is the expert, his post is on point. But I would also make sure that the condensate removal is working properly. Have seen a lot of issues on mod/con's related to condensate. Proper combustion readings are a must along with proper venting and gas pressure.
  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 2,785
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    Pet Peeve

    My Feeling with the issues I encounter with sensors on the alpine and the pure fire , same boiler , can only guess . Better off installing German equipment ... Sorry to say this but true , its all about the buck and the CEO's bonus with American equipment . Since I am the one in the middle of the night fixing these issues of what I call poor designing ... Pure Fire high temp sensors , do I need to say more ..... I may seemed to have a peeve ... The GB's just keep running ,
    I have enough experience to know , that I dont know it all
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