Monitor 41 issue

[HayZee518]

Throughout the many postings on monitor heaters we have made mention about cleaning out the fuel capillary tube with a length of copper wire and a one eighth drill at the pot end. Also anything metal to metal for the combustion pot needs a ceramic fiber gasket [flamerod, heat exchanger, viewing window, pot to heater base, top cover etc] you found this out the hard way. but at least your heater is working now. good luck!

[cadman44]

Well, I finally gave up and brought it to the local shop to get repaired. I really wanted to fix it myself.


Come to find out it was missing the gasket at the flame rod and the fuel line from the sump to the burner was partially clogged. The line was moving fuel but I guess that the partial clog was enough. That and a new flame rod and the unit was good to go. $140 dollars and an hour later and I was out the door with a working heater.


Thanks for all the help.

[cadman44]

Well, I guess I spoke a little too soon. When I got home from work I found that the heater had shut off sometime during the day and all eight bars were flashing.

I tried to turn it back on but it went through the normal startup cycle and then shut off again. I bypassed the flame rod and the unit started fine. After it was running for a little while, I took the bypass out and the unit continued to run fine. It ran all evening, cycling on and off, until I went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, I found that it had turned off again over night. I unplugged it and plugged it back in. I turned it on and it started on the first try. It was running fine when I left for work. I am expecting for it to be off when I get home.

Any thoughts as to why it may be shutting off?

[cadman44]

I finally got around to fixing this unit.

With help from Hawkins111, I proved the fuel output to the burner. I replaced the blower motor bearings, burner, and the burner ring. I cleaned out the heat exchanger and blew out the flue with a shop vac. I also had to replumb the unit to the lifter pump because I ended up putting a kink in the copper pipe after moving the unit away from the wall so many times. I finally put it back together yesterday afternoon.

It appears to be working. I had it on overnight and when I woke up this morning it appeared to be working fine. I will keep my fingers crossed for a few days but it looks like I'm good. As I said before, thanks for all the help. I would have probably scrapped the unit without the help.

To others reading this, these guys know what they are talking about. If you are mechanically inclined and don't mind taking the time to run the tests they recommend, you should have some luck.

[cadman44]

I will try the shop vac test tonight. If I find that it is the bearing, where would you suggest is the best place to get one and is it an easy change? Would I need any special tools?

[HayZee518]

try the shop vac connection to the combustion blower inlet and see what the flame looks like. if the flames are blue then with the vac disconnected they return to yellow or orange then change the bearings on the blower. they are 608Z bearings, same type as used in inline skates.

[cadman44]

Yeah, that sounds like what may be going on. I am going to take the burner out of the combustion chamber and see if it is plugged at all. I took the sensor rod out last night and it had quite a bit of soot built up on the end. It was clean when I put it back together last week.

[HayZee518]

there is no easy way to clean the burner pot "holes" unless you completely remove the pot. the inside sleeve unbolts from the bottom of the pot. the pot receives air from the blower via a rubber elbow in the center of the pot location. there is a gasket that goes here. there are holes near the bottom of the inside sleeve and holes near the top part of the burner ring. my guess is that the kerosene fumes go out the lower holes, get mixed with air and flows out the upper holes, heating the burner ring and radiates heat to the heat exchanger, fins and finally outside. low air flow incompletes combustion and forms soot which covers everything in the burner pot. the flame rod will short out and lock out the unit and put the burner lights in the error condition.

[cadman44]

Well, I guess I spoke too soon. I got home from work last night and the heater had turned off again sometime over the day. I tried to start it a few times and no luck. I tried to go through the same trouble shooting from earlier. I bypassed the flame sensor and it ran fine again. I looked through the glass and saw some orange in the flame.

If I remember correctly, I can try to take the shopvac and push more air through the blower. That will tell me if the bearings are good on the blower, right?

I can also clean out the burner in case some of the holes are plugged. Is there a good way to do this?

Any other suggestions?

[cadman44]

Well, I have let it run for about a week now. The first day or two it had a couple shutoffs. I would start it again and it would run fine for a while. Since then, it has run without issues. So, at this point I think that I may be good to go. Thanks to all for helping me to get this going.

[cadman44]

Yes, I have a lifter pump located at the heater on the first floor. I have not measured the pressure at the heater. How would I go about doing that?

I did have a delivery of oil Friday morning. That could have something to do with the shutoff. I will let it run for a few days and see how it goes.

[HayZee518]

Where I live in New York we experience cold days of like 35 below zero so I completely removed the filter at the tank. I have ball valves wherever a shut off is required and I feed the heater with 3/8" truck air tank tubing and about a foot of copper tubing formed by tool into a ninety and a flare. the only active filter is the one for the heater sump. when the guy comes to fill the tank I usually get filter clogs for about three days then everything settles down and I get pure kero the rest of the time. my tank is tilted away from the outlet so any condensate that forms occupies the back part of the tank. this I suck out with a transfer pump. you say your tank is in the basement. do you use a high lift pump to feed fuel to your heater? have you measured the pressure at the heater? it shouldn't be more than 2.5 psi which is normal if the bottom of the tank is 16 inches above the floor the heater is mounted on. there is a paste you can buy that detects water in fuel. it changes color when it encounters water.
I have a stick measured off in inches so I can tell how much fuel I have in the external tank. I smear this paste on about 6 inches from the end of the stick.

[cadman44]

I ran it with the thermistor unplugged to push the unit to run on high incase it was fine at low but overheating at high.

I have not had issues with water before now. If it was just a small slug of water and is the exception vs. the rule, I will be happy. Except for that shutoff last night, everything seems to be running correctly. I saw some diagrams in other posts about how to siphon off water from a tank. Was there something there to test whether or not there is water in the tank?

I use dyed K-1 with a large tank in the basement. At the start of this process, I did clean the filter by the sump. I should probably clean the filter at the tank as well. I did put a new one in a couple years ago but have not cleaned it since I put it in.

I would like to thank you again for all your help. It is greatly appreciated.

[HayZee518]

with the thermistor unplugged the unit defaults to 42 degrees and keeps on running in high. BUT the safety devices are functioning. A slug of water will cause a temporary loss of flame and lockout, but usually the pot is hot enough to burn off the water. when you reset the computer and fire up the unit, it should run constant. remember use ONLY dyed or un-dyed K-1. Occassionally clean out the stainless steel filter below the sump tank.

[cadman44]

It did shut off again last night one time around 9:00 or so. I unplugged the thermistor and just let it run on high for a while just to see what would happen. It ran fine for 10-15 minutes. At that point i plugged the thermistor back in and let it go. I went to bed fully expecting it to have shut off overnight but it was running fine when I woke up.