A different hot water problem

Tony Shelton

Tony Shelton

BS Detector, Esquire
This is a three year old Landa unit.

The burner works fine for up to 4-5 minutes then starts spitting fuel and flame goes out.

Shut it off for a while and it works fine again for another 4-5 minutes.

Here's the kicker, when we plug it into an outlet OR into a separate standalone generator it works fine and never shuts off.

So you'd think it was a generator problem right? Well, we took a generator that works fine off another unit and put it on this one and the problem is still there exactly the same.

I'm stumped.

Any ideas?
 
Air sucking in somewhere or clog in fuel line or filter? Maybe it just runs faster on the bigger power supply enough to keep the fuel going.
 
I was thinking fuel filter. You could check the output of the generator and see what you are really getting it may be lower than it should be because of rpm. It could be because the motor or transformer is drawing excess power once it warms up and causes the motor to slow down. Could be the fuel pump too.
 
I think we got it.

When it first started doing this it was running at about 3030 rpm w/ an open wand.

We moved it up to 3400

Here's the lesson - SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF TROUBLE AND CHECK THE GENERATOR OUTPUT FIRST!!!!!!!

At 3030 rpm it was putting out around 100 or so volts

At 3500 it was putting out 140 volts!

The house outlet that it works fine on is at 122.

Once we set the idle back to the right speed it was good to go.
 
Brilliant troubleshooting

Paul Kassander said:
I was thinking fuel filter. You could check the output of the generator and see what you are really getting it may be lower than it should be because of rpm. It could be because the motor or transformer is drawing excess power once it warms up and causes the motor to slow down. Could be the fuel pump too.
Click to expand...

Paul and Tom,
that was BRILLIANT troubleshooting there !! Good Job !
:clapping:

Tony,
You now know why Landa used to put voltmeters on their Skids. :thumbup:

..And Tony..
if you want to have adjustable engine-pump output,
like Tom said..
stick with 12 volts. :thumbup2:
 
..one more thing about generators..
make SURE the "loaded voltage" stays between 115 and 125 volts !
..or the electrical components don't last as long as they should.
Low voltage makes 'em run HOT.. from drawing extra current..
like a bad connection that fries.
High-voltage breaks down insulation in coil-windings,
and zaps solid-state stuff like diodes & IC's.
 
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Thats what I was thinking Tony, rpm off.

Jerry could 12 v systems give you that much more adjustability than 120v.

How does the 12v generator work on the motor?.... is it if the 12v alternator spins slower it produecs the same 12v but less amps?
 
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