Desooting - Pentair MiniMax Plus Service Manual

Maintenance -
Common Causes of Sooting
1. Low gas pressure.
2. Inadequate air supply or inadequate venting.
3. Foreign material in burners and orifices; dirt,
spider webs, etc.
4. Excessive water flow can cause condensation
which will contribute to sooting.
5. Heater cycling rapidly; fires, shuts down and
refires quickly 30-45 seconds.
To remove a light soot formation without
removing the heater exchanger:
1. Remove burner tray.
2. Remove top, inner lid, flue collector and baffles.
3. Using a brush with plastic or wood bristles,
brush the bottom of the tubes and then the top of
the tubes.
4. Spray off residue with water. (Repeat steps 3-4
as needed).
5. Brush off burners.
6. Replace burner tray and baffles, then test fire.
P/N 38033

Desooting

7. If flames burn clean, replace baffles, flue
For heavy soot accumulation which cannot
be successfully removed by merely brush-
ing, the heat exchanger must be removed
from the heater.
1. Disconnect the plumbing at the flanges. Remove
When lifting the heat exchanger out of the fire box,
use caution so as not to damage the fire wall.
2. Remove the heat exchanger.
3. Place exchanger in an area that won't be
4. After spraying the exchanger with water, use a
5. Rinse the solution off of the tubes and inspect
collector, and top.
CAUTION
DO NOT USE WIRE BRUSH!
the thermistor, hi-limit wires from the inlet
outlet heater.
CAUTION
affected by chemicals or strong detergents.
mixture of detergent and water. Pour, spray or
brush on.
them, repeat if necessary.
1 8
Rev. C 12-1-00