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Posted by Ridge Kennedy on January 17, 2004 at 11:56:22:
Dear All,
Last Saturday we had a heat failure at our home. Specifics: Utica boiler about 12 years old with spark ignition system.
Symptoms: After turning system power off, when I turned it back on the piolot light would go on for a while, but boiler would not fire up. After a while, pilot would shut off and the ignition system would settle into a sequence of clicks and spaking, but no heat.
After troubleshooting, our plumber (very nice guy) isolated the mercury sensor switch as the problem. We replaced the original Utica (white-Rogers) unit with a new Weil-McLean(sp?) unit.
Boiler fired up (inside temp had gotten down to 45). Great.
Yesterday, I woke up and the house was cold. when to the boiler at it was doing the same thing (symptoms above). No heat. I checked everthing, pulled and reseated the mercsensor switch, no go. I called the plumber and he said he'd stop by.
I shut off power to unit rather than leave it sparking.
When our plumber came, he turned on power and the system fired right up.
Now I'm relly worried. Seems like I could lose heat any time and I'm not really sure what the problem is.
I would appreciate and thoughts about any components "upstream" from the sensor switch that might cause it to fail. Other things to check?
If I wanted to replace the whole ignition system, is there a way to do this cost-efficiently.
Thnak you for your time and consideration.
Ridge (West Orange, NJ) (Exit 145)