Monitor 41 issue

[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]

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]

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]

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?

[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]

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]

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.

[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]

I did take the copper line from the solenoid pump to the burner out to test it. I blew through it and thought that it moved freely enough. I did not run a wire through it. It was a bad assumption on my part. I did run a bit through the connector at the pot. I don't recall every metal to metal contact needing a gasket. I'm sure that it was said somewhere. There was no gasket when I took the ignitor out so it must have disintegrated completely over time. I made sure to replace every gasket I saw that I had exposed. Plus, the flame rod was bad. My next step was to replace the flame rod but I just thought that I would bring it in at this point to get looked at. I don't think that I lost any money by replacing the parts that I did because the service guy would have done the same. I just lost some time. But I did learn a lot about my heater which I am appreciative of. Hopefully others reading this will be able to help themselves as well. Thank you for all of your advice.

[cadman44]

I wanted to take a mintue to share a success story. Last November I had a lot of trouble with my Monitor 41. I got it going and everything was running well until this past Saturday.

I woke up to loud whining noise in the other room. I didn't know where it was coming from. Was it a neighbor doing something outside? It didn't take long to figure out that it was coming from my heater. It was that "jet engine" sounding noise that is commonly referred to in these posts.

When I rebuilt the unit this fall, I changed the bearings even though it wasn't making noise at the time. When I bought the bearings at the local skate shop, they came in packages of eight so I had extras. I took the blower apart and replaced the bearings again. All in all, it took just over an hour to replace them. I turned the unit back on and it works great again.

When I spin the old bearings in my fingers, I can tell one of them has definitely gone bad. The funny part is that the original bearings lasted for probably 20 years and this one lasted about 3 months. Hopefully it is just a defective part and the new ones will last another 20 :-)

As I had mentioned earlier, I learned so much about my heater from this forum. Between working with some of the people on here and reading other posts, I feel pretty confident that I will be able to keep it going for years to come.

[hawkins111]

bearings

All ball bearings are not the same. More than likely the bearings you bought are ABEC-1 quality bearings. These are the same as you see on EBAY. ABEC is a group that rates bearings. The higher the ABEC number, the higher the quality of the bearing. A # 1 bearing is the lowest quality of the listed bearings. If you buy from a bearing store or other quality outlet you will get a better bearing. An ABEC 7 or 8 bearing from Bearing Engineering will cost you $7.00 to $10.00 each. These are the bearings Monitor used when they built the heater. They expected them to last for a long time. Tempkin or SKF or the company in New Hampshire, all have quality bearings that will serve you very well. If you do buy your bearing from a Monitor dealer you will pay the normal price plus their mark up. Monitor does not sell that many bearings, so they put it to you when buy one from them.

Tom

[cadman44]

Yeah, if I find that these are wearing out quickly, I will definitely get a higher quality model.

[InTheWoods]

just filled up the tank.

I got a monitor 41. I also have one in the addition built off of my trailer. They both feed off from the tank outside. The one inside my trailer stopped working. I figured it was because the K1 ran so low that it clogged a line or something. BUT..
The one out in the addition was still running. Eventualy when the K1 completely ran out it stopped. Well i just filled the tank again. Turned the Monitor on in the addition. It started off making this air blowing sound. (fan wasnt spinning) and then switched to a gurgling sound with about 3 or 4 lights on.. and then after a minute or so it came on heat blowing. Well, the one in my trailer does the same exact sequence, the only difference is this one shuts down after a few minutes of the gurgling and begins flashing all lights. I opened the top of the pump box screwed to the wall next to the heater and thats already full of K1. I dont think it would be a clogged line because if it were, wouldnt the other monitor out in the addition stop running too? And if it were a clogged line, why would that pump box be full of K1? Can anyone help a young man with a 3 kids out in this cold weather in maine? Thanks..

[HayZee518]

the inlet pressure to the heater should be about 2-5 lbs pressure. that translates to a gravity feed of about four inches above the fuel inlet to the heater. running the heater until the tank dries up is not a good omen. the remaining fuel in the tank may be laced with water and crap that settles to the bottom of the fuel tank. in the sump tank is a stainless filter that gets clogged and must be cleaned. the sump tank itself must be cleaned out of the brownish scum that accumilates in the bottom of it. the high lift pump may have its own filter that needs to be cleaned out too.

[Bryand]

Been a while since I messed with a lifter pump but from what I can remember there is a filter in it. But no where in your post did I see where you reset the float in the sump on the monitor.