Bradford White Icon system issues

[ruMike]

Hello,

I have a 50 gallon Bradford White Defender gas water heater. It was the wh that was installed in my house that I purchased in February 2021. I am the first owner. It is now very slowly heating up water. Basically only one shower before it gets cold and it takes probably overnight to heat up again. I cranked up the temperture and it has helped some. The gas valve on this is an Icon System which I understand to be a rebranded honeywell. I have checked the basic things on it : i.e flue, thermopile voltage (350 -370 mv), etc. What I have noticed is that the status light flashes green every second. The label states this is not an error, this just basically means that the main burner is on. The problem is that the main burner is not on. I have tried turning of the unit completely and restarting the pilot. The pilot lights up and stays on no problem. When I go through the reset procedure, the light goes to blinking once every 4 seconds. According to the label that is the blinking status when only the pilot is on. When I move to dial to hot the main burner fires up with a swoosh sound and the light sarts blinking every second as expected. After 2-30 seconds the main burner turns off again but the light continues to blink every second. I have removed the burner and looked at the pilot, and thermopile. The thermopile does not see to have any crud on it and still looks fairly new. Are these valves supposed to alternate their modes and reflect that with the appropriate blink codes i.e when the main burner is not on it should blink once every four seconds or does it always blink every second after it turns the main burner on the first time?

Has anyone seen anything similar?

What else should I test?

This wh is still under warranty but it seems like only a licensed plumber can request replacement Are there additional costs involved after the warranty?

 

[breplum]

parts are covered on warranty typically for six years. No labor.

 

[sawsaw]

Hello,

I have a 50 gallon Bradford White Defender gas water heater. It was the wh that was installed in my house that I purchased in February 2021. I am the first owner. It is now very slowly heating up water. Basically only one shower before it gets cold and it takes probably overnight to heat up again. I cranked up the temperture and it has helped some. The gas valve on this is an Icon System which I understand to be a rebranded honeywell. I have checked the basic things on it : i.e flue, thermopile voltage (350 -370 mv), etc. What I have noticed is that the status light flashes green every second. The label states this is not an error, this just basically means that the main burner is on. The problem is that the main burner is not on. I have tried turning of the unit completely and restarting the pilot. The pilot lights up and stays on no problem. When I go through the reset procedure, the light goes to blinking once every 4 seconds. According to the label that is the blinking status when only the pilot is on. When I move to dial to hot the main burner fires up with a swoosh sound and the light sarts blinking every second as expected. After 2-30 seconds the main burner turns off again but the light continues to blink every second. I have removed the burner and looked at the pilot, and thermopile. The thermopile does not see to have any crud on it and still looks fairly new. Are these valves supposed to alternate their modes and reflect that with the appropriate blink codes i.e when the main burner is not on it should blink once every four seconds or does it always blink every second after it turns the main burner on the first time?

Has anyone seen anything similar?

What else should I test?

This wh is still under warranty but it seems like only a licensed plumber can request replacement Are there additional costs involved after the warranty?

Call BW to see what they will do!

 

[ruMike]

I figured it out. Basically these icon or honeywell controllers have a common failure point on their solenoids that control the pilot and main burner valves. In my case the main burner valve solenoid was hanging on for dear life by a thread. I guess there was just enough contact to fire up the main burner for a bit and set the controller board into burner mode. It then would go out. I took off the cover and board and did the 9v solenoid test and the pilot valve clicked as expected. The main gas valve did not however. I took off the metal cover that covers the solenoids and carefully took out the main gas valve solenoid. It did not seem to have any broken wires but I could not get an resistance reading from the poles, and I could not get it to click with a battery directly. I decided that there must be a break in the coil somewhere so I put everything back together and went to fire up the burners. This time I got a valve failure code with the red blinks and it would no longer fire up so whatever I did had damaged the coil more than it already was. Since it was the weekend I was not very excited about having no hot water. Looking at some online resources I decided that a break in the coil was highly unusual and unlikely so I took everything apart again with the idea of re-soldering the coil at the poles. Looking over the solenoid a little closer and adjusting the wires, the one on the positive side came off. I resolderd it and tested with a battery again and walla it clicked. After putting everything back together it fired right up with the main burner burning until the water got up the the correct temp. The status lights changed as expected, i.e with the pilot on only it blinked once every four seconds. With the main burner on it blinked every second until the burner turned off. Looks like that is the weak point on these gas controllers.

 

[sawsaw]

Appreciate your update!