Thursday, September 15, 2011

I have a purex tropical isle propane pool heater. The pilot comes on, the thermostat clicks but it won't fire.?

There is no external power source, according to the manual, the heat from the pilot overcomes the need for this. I am guessing sticking gas valve, i have changed thermostat and control panel to no avail. I think the heater is about 13 yrs old. It has a Honeywell gas valve. I don't know if it's interchangable. Any ideas? Thanks.
I have a purex tropical isle propane pool heater. The pilot comes on, the thermostat clicks but it won't fire.?
There is a couple of possibilities here. You may have a gas valve that has gone bad. It is replaceable, but you are probably looking at $200 or so for one of those. Before you condemn that though, there is a pressure switch on the heater that senses if you have adequate water pressure to keep the heater from boiling itself dry. It looks similar to an oil pressure switch on a car engine. Try jumping this switch and see if it fires up. Don't leave this switch bypassed. Just jump it for diagnostic purposes. That switch is a lot cheaper than a gas valve and they do fail occasionally.



Pool heaters use a thermopile for the pilot system, which is basically a whole bunch of thermocouples. It is capable of a lot higher current than a thermocouple. If that was defective or dirty your pilot would not remain lit so I don't think that is involved in your problem.



Good luck with it!
I have a purex tropical isle propane pool heater. The pilot comes on, the thermostat clicks but it won't fire.?
If the pilot comes on, theres gotta be a sensor that the pilot flame crosses immediately over to let the valve know that its ok to open up. Sometimes you can clean those sensors with very light sand paper and this might work
Another possibility is that %26quot;debris%26quot; has clogged the gas supply system.



The ODORANTS added to both Natural Gas and LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] contain SULFUR which can result in %26quot;flakes%26quot; of black looking pipe metal/Sulfur salts which can break loose, flow with the gas, and block filter screens or small passages in the system or gas valve.



Most current, up to date, codes require a TRAP in the %26quot;hard %26quot; gas supply line pipe as close to the gas valve as possible. IF your system does NOT have this, then %26quot;trash%26quot; in a small passage blockage could be the cause. Or a clogged inlet screen in the main gas valve.
I agree with pool guy.......follow the wires to the safty devices... remove and jump out those devices 1 at a time.......NEVER leave the devises jumped out.....if they are all in working order ..you will next need to check for proper gas pressure or call a PRO