Heating Help

Burner Hesitates - test & comments

@ August 9, 2010 6:56 PM in Burner Hesitates

　
I have had this symptom occur for as brief as a hiccup or as long as a minute. A few seconds is typical. The burner stops even though not at high limit temperature then starts up again. Right now it is just a possible sign of something starting to go bad rather than a flat out failure.
I have measured voltage out of the aquastat while running. The voltage stayed near 120 even when the Carlin burner stopped briefly for N seconds. So the aquastat was still commanding the burner to run while it stopped. That rules out the aquastat as causing the intermittent pauses I think.
If it were overheating of the motor, what would be the effect? Would the motor shut itself down? Does it recover after the over temp condition goes away?
If motor shuts itself down, then the Carlin control photocell would not see a flame and would go into a reset, lighting the red LED after 45 seconds.

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@ July 17, 2010 9:57 PM in Burner Hesitates

I guess I wasn't completely clear.  The temperature I referred to is boiler temperature.  "My Carlin burner often stops running briefly even though the AQUASTAT hi limit temperature has not been reached on the boiler temperature guage."  So I dont think the room "thermostat heat anticipator setting" would come into play as Dave suggested.  Hope I understood the comment.  Thanks

Burner Hesitates

@ July 17, 2010 1:57 AM in Burner Hesitates

My Carlin burner often stops running briefly even though the hi limit temperature has not been reached. After a few seconds or maybe even 20 seconds it starts up again. As a test, I set the aquastat very high while observing operation. It still happens. Could be the aquastat I suppose but if the temp is nowhere near the hi limit why would it happen. Could it be anything else other than aquastat?