MPI 441 beeps then shuts down....

[zukimon]

Hello all, looking for some knowledge here as I am at my wits end. I have a 441 that is roughly 5 years old. This is the first winter that I have used it, so I don't know any history on it other than when I bought it, I was told that it hadn't been run but maybe 3-4 times. It sure looked as if that was accurate as I took the grill off to simply clean out the dust and the burner pot looked as if it had never been hot.

Anyhow, here's my problem. My heater will, at intervals/time of it's choosing, simply beep and then shut completely down as if you unplugged it from the wall and within 2 seconds, it will power back up and after it has cooled down it will go into the purge cycle and start back up again. When I say it powers down, I mean it looses clock memory and everything. The display turns off and it completely powers down as if you pulled the plug from the wall.

I pulled the thing apart and checked the board for burnt spots, bad solder joints and anything that looked burnt or wrong. I unplugged all connections and checked the terminals for tension and have simply found nothing wrong. I eliminated my wall recepticle by replacing it and watching it closely with a DVOM and there is no fluctuation in voltage and my TV is on the same outlet and I see no symptoms with it.

What I have hypothisized is this, but I hate to spend the $46 I was quoted today on a guess, could my power transformer have a bad wire in the coil that is getting hot and coming apart and when it cools enough, it "spark welds" itself back together? Other than that, I can't help but think that it's a board problem and I am not setup to tackle working on it, IE, no O-scope or know how to use it.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long first post.

[HayZee518]

take off the front grill. when you start the heater and its in its purge cycle, feel the bottom of the combustion pot near the silver cap. this is the cover for the igniter. when the heater starts, the igniter glows red hot and after the purge, fuel is fed to the burner mat. once the fuel saturates the mat, it's supposed to ignite and burn. then the flamerod kicks in and tells the computer there's fire! if your heater doesn't even make it this far, I would suspect the microprocessor is shot or else on its way out. maybe this is why the other person sold it to you but didn't tell you about its short comings.

[zukimon]

Hay, thanks for the reply. Here's the thing......the heater will start and run normal but at certain times of its choosing, it will do the beeping and shutting down like I stated. I have used it for this entire season so far with no problems other than what I am describing. It was running last night when I posted and as soon as I made that post, it acted up like I stated, only it beeped, shut down, powered back up and beeped again and shut down, then it powered back up and started working normally. ??? It doesn't matter if it's been running for 12 hours or 1. It doesn't matter what temp I have it set on or how cold it is outside. I honestly think it has to be something on the board causing this.

I tried something last night that my father said he does with his heater once a season. I ran the temp up to 90* and left it there for about 20 minutes. He said someone local told him to do this once a year to "clean out the pot and chamber." Don't know if this will help, or if there's any truth to this but it seemed to run OK the rest of the night.

[HayZee518]

90 degrees? that combustion pot must've been red hot! a little bit of overkill I'd say. I'm surprised it didn't trip out on overheat.

[zukimon]

It never would get up to the 90* mark and actually shut off. It only made it to about 84* before I turned it back down. My house is hard to heat, without a doubt. :-\

[zukimon]

Since it has been almost a year, I was just wondering if anyone has any new thoughts on this problem? I have noticed that it does not matter if the heater is even turned on, it simply has to be plugged in the wall and it will beep and shut down for no good reason.

After burning it a few times in the last few weeks, it appears as if my flame isn't correct now and I assume that it is due to this non-complete burn cycle that is caused by the powering down. Where I used to have a nice blue flame last season, I now have a large red/orange flame.

Does anyone have any ideas whatsoever as to what is going on with my heater? I simply don't have the money to throw at this thing, but I am willing to spend what I need to make sure I can stay warm this winter.

Thanks in advance, Bryan