Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

Constant lochinvar nightmare

Ironman or similar hero I’m hoping you can help me. I own 2 knights lochinvar units both purchased in oct 2011 my plumber passed away and I can’t find anyone to solve the constant issues I have with 1 of my units. I keep getting lockout flame fail ignite it was only happening when it got real cold below 15 degrees but now it’s happening all the time. I’m so sick of paying people to come and study my manuel and never solve the problem. Can u point me to a lochinvar tech in my area or give some advise please

Comments

  • tim smith
    tim smith Member Posts: 2,752
    What model of boiler? exact model.
  • What's your city and state?
    8.33 lbs./gal. x 60 min./hr. x 20°ΔT = 10,000 BTU's/hour

    Two btu per sq ft for degree difference for a slab
  • needheathelpmom
    needheathelpmom Member Posts: 5
    The Manuel says knight wall mount models WH 55-399
  • needheathelpmom
    needheathelpmom Member Posts: 5
    And the water heater is a lochinvar squire
  • needheathelpmom
    needheathelpmom Member Posts: 5
    Model number on unit WHN085 my tentants unit is model number WHN055 but they look exactly the same excerpt hers works
  • needheathelpmom
    needheathelpmom Member Posts: 5
    Worcester massachusetts
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    Have you had the boilers serviced and cleaned recently?
  • SuperJ
    SuperJ Member Posts: 609
    delta T said:

    Have you had the boilers serviced and cleaned recently?

    Sounds like the original poster has already had some people to look at it, but needs help finding the right person for the task after some disappointments.
  • Tinman
    Tinman Member Posts: 2,808
    I'd say its a lack of competent service nightmare rather than a Lochinvar nightmare. The WHN is a very good boiler. Other than this great site, you may want to check Lochinvar's site for one of their approved service providers in your area.
    Steve Minnich
    delta TGordy
  • delta T
    delta T Member Posts: 884
    @SuperJ Mostly I'm wondering if the heat exchanger has ever actually been cleaned...

    Isn't @GW close to there?
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,160
    edited November 2018
    delta T said:

    @SuperJ Mostly I'm wondering if the heat exchanger has ever actually been cleaned...

    Isn't @GW close to there?

    About an hour (Northampton) away... when the construction isn't too bad. @Charlie from wmass isn't that far, either.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,366
    I agree that we need to get a competent tech on site. Try the contractor locator above.

    Was the boiler setup with a digital combustion analyzer when it was installed? If so, did the installer give you a printout of the analysis?
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • GW
    GW Member Posts: 4,691
    Sorry I’m not familiar with that boiler and I’m a lightweight with travel, 20/30 minutes, maybe further for a bigger install job. Hope it all gets fixed soon!
    Gary Wilson
    Wilson Services, Inc
    Northampton, MA
    gary@wilsonph.com
  • tim smith
    tim smith Member Posts: 2,752
    Sorry about delayed response, as long as been serviced and combustion tested lately, get the later version of flame rod, knurled rod, helps improve flame signal.also make sure the ground lead is clean and tight. I can honestly say with close to a 100 WHN boilers Installed, we only had one give us ignition problems and this fixed it. We are very familiar with this boiler, in almost 8 yrs, we have never had to replace more than igniter/flame rods on all these boilers. And no, I don’t represent Lochinvar, just really respect their firetube boiler, aka WHN, KHN models. Have your tech Go over issue with tech support before putting in anymore parts except maybe updated flame rod.
  • Brewbeer
    Brewbeer Member Posts: 616
    @Charlie from wmass just tuned up my Loch WHN 55 a couple of months ago.

    Love this boiler (photo in signature).
    Hydronics inspired homeowner with self-designed high efficiency low temperature baseboard system and professionally installed mod-con boiler with indirect DHW. My system design thread: http://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/154385
    System Photo: https://us.v-cdn.net/5021738/uploads/FileUpload/79/451e1f19a1e5b345e0951fbe1ff6ca.jpg
  • modconwannabe
    modconwannabe Member Posts: 49
    Throwing this out there in case it's helpful: I had frequent lockouts on an otherwise finely tuned Triangle Tube and had the igniter replaced, and things still didn't work. Only way I could get it to ignite was by "choking' the intake so the gas was extra rich. A different plumber came and instantly realized that something was up with gas flow, measured the meter while boiler was ignited at max and sure enough that was the issue. Turns out that the microfilter in the internal gas valve had been fouled with extra fine dust, likely as a result of work on the line up the street. Had to replace the whole valve as apparently you can't swap the filter, but it's been fine ever since.
    May be unrelated but thought I'd mention in case nothing else works.
    Alan (California Radiant) Forbes
  • BernardCuzzillo
    BernardCuzzillo Member Posts: 4
    @modconwannabe: Correct. It looks like about a #110 strainer which would pass about 0.14mm particles.
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,561

    @modconwannabe: Correct. It looks like about a #110 strainer which would pass about 0.14mm particles. </bl

    @BernardCuzzillo
    What does the size of a Triangle Tube gas valve filter have to do with this post? The original post...

    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,425
    edited May 2019
    I know a good Medium, maybe we can have a seance. Oh, well.

    I had a lockout on a Lochinvar fire tube recently. It turned out to be the Molex plug on the circuit board. Unplugging it and replugging it solved the problem. This isn't the first time I had a problem with Molex connectors.

    Yours was the exact problem I faced.

    Funny how experience make us wiser. Some say it's the only way we learn.
  • Le John
    Le John Member Posts: 226
    I would ask the tech to have his combustion Analyzer ready and then call Lochinvar Technical Support at 800-722-2101. They will walk him through any adjustments to the gas valve both on High and Low Fire settings. This step is crucial to having the boiler live a long an healthy trouble free life.

    He may have to inspect the burner and heat exchanger to make sure the burner is clean and the heat exchanger isn't blocked.
  • modconwannabe
    modconwannabe Member Posts: 49
    Zman said:

    @modconwannabe: Correct. It looks like about a #110 strainer which would pass about 0.14mm particles.

    I had mentioned it because the symptoms the original post described pretty well matched what I had experienced and then had solved: cold weather, mysterious failure to ignite followed by lockouts. As I said, may not be the same issue, but figured I'd throw out my experience in case it was helpful. If every plumber knew the exact answer to every situation, and they all agreed, this site wouldn't have thousands of posts, would it?
  • Zman
    Zman Member Posts: 7,561
    @modconwannabe
    I guess the reference to the TT boiler is vaguely similar to the original post.
    I really dislike the title "constant lochinvar nightmare" being rehashed over and over again. To be fair to Lochinvar, it should be titled, "how do I find a competent tech"
    "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"
    Albert Einstein
    CanuckerTinmanJUGHNE