Just came in from replacing my damper solenoid yet again. Dormeyer 2005-M. First one went two seasons. Replaced it after an overnight failure with the spare that came with the boiler. Ordered two spares for the shelf. Second one failed after 3 months. Put a new one on first of October & ordered two more. New one failed after two burn cycles. Replaced it with the last one & waited for my order to arrive. I just installed another this morning. Amazon says to contact manufacturer because I bought them two years ago. This is getting really old when a solenoid lasts from a few months to only a few hours. Anybody have any experience/knowledge of a better quality replacement. Thank you!
Here is one made by Johnson Electric...might be "better"? Its more money for sure...but I've dealt with Allied before...top notch! https://www.alliedelec.com/product/johnson-electric/2005-m-1/70162474/ Is the damper and any linkage still moving fully and freely? Solenoids aren't happy until they are "home" when powered up...will get hot quickly if only making a partial stroke...and make sure its getting full voltage and good ground to the solenoid too. Your damper creosoted up? I've heard of this causing repeated solenoid problems for other people. Also, what cools the solenoid? Does it sink into its mount...or air cooled? Make sure it has a clean mount and any air cooling is still flowing adequately... My 2 ¢...
You didn't happen to notice that the solenoid sounded different recently (louder) did you? Or the replacements sounded different than the original? If they aren't allowed to make a full stroke (full open) they will buzz louder...or, depending on the design, there is sometimes a mechanism built into the solenoid that takes part of the coil out of the loop once it opens fully...the watts that it pulls at open should be much less than when its first activated...that JE solenoid I linked to says its 17.9W...I would assume that would be in the hold/open position...probably 2-3 (edit, I looked it up...its 4.9A when pulling from the fully extended position!) times that when first activated/opening...would just see a quick spike on a meter I'd say. Did the other ones burn up so to speak? Or just quit working and still look fine? Wonder if its possible that the mechanism that switches it from "open" to "hold" is stuck, or bent, and only the holding part of the coil is being powered...so then not enough power to pull open?? (if its that type of solenoid)
I did some digging. Johnson electric owns dormeyer. So it's the same part. That said, I think there's something causing these solenoids to fail.
2 of the 4 were very loud when open, the one I just put on makes no buzzing noise at all. The one that lasted a couple hours was also quiet. The original solenoid was getting loud on occasion, but lasted 1 1/2 seasons that way. I'm not sure what would be causing failures. Door moves very easily, spring is not real tight, I've kept it lubed up & clean, voltage is steady, I'm not sure what would cause the failure? Open to ideas, this is getting old.
You might try contacting the place you bought them from, or the manufacturer directly. Are there lot or serial numbers on them? If there are, are the loud/ failed ones from the same lot?
That's a good thought. I was guessing I just bought from a bad batch. They came from Amazon. So far the new one is quiet & no issues.
If it starts to make noise again see if pushing/pulling on the linkage makes any difference in the noise...that and check the voltage when it happens...I maintain dozens of "solenoids" (3 PH motor starters) and when they suddenly get noisy that's generally not a good thing...something is going on there IMO...might have had one bad one in there, but it would be highly unusual to have a whole bunch of them like that...and the fact that you've had decreasing life span on them reeks of an existing problem that is still there...hope I'm wrong and it turns out to be a bad batch, but I doubt they'd admit it even if it was true. I know you guys are a little colder up there than here, but still not that cold out...is it possible that with the lighter heating load that the boiler is idle longer and the door could be getting temporarily "glued" shut with creosote until the solenoid overcomes it? With the pull stroke pulling 10X the amperage than the "hold" position does that would take one out pretty quickly...I think I've read of other people having issues with this on their (other brand?) boilers...can't remember if they were getting glue shut, or open, but I know it was a creosote problem either way...don't recall what the cure was...(load less wood, but more often?) Another thing you might want to do to establish a baseline is shoot the coil with your infrared thermometer (I'm sure you have one, or 5) after its been on for a while, see if you can figure out what "normal" operating temp is...
Just thinking of what could be causing this to happen. Is the voltage on the coil and actual voltage within 10% of each other? I have seen where they got the wrong coil on a relay before and the box said one thing but the actual coil was different so see if the coils themselves are marked. I have also seen them get ac and dc coils mixed up and that would be causing an issue as well. An ac coil does use the armature to drop the amperage when it’s all the way pulled in so that could be causing them to burn up if it’s not getting set all the way. Dc coils not as much. If the voltage is adjustable you could drop it down some or maybe increase it depending on how it operates. They do make suppressors that you can put across the coil terminals that help keep the coils from burning up but that’s assuming that the coils are burning either open or shorting out. And I guess all this is assuming a coil problem. Can you check a new coil with a meter on ohms and then look at one that is not working and see if they are close in value? Long post sorry kind of thinking as I type. Let’s us know we will keep on thinking of things.
That's a good idea! Yes the bad ones would quiet right down if I held up slightly or just wiggled the door. The newly installed unit is dead quiet & there's no way for this door to get glued shut. It's well away form any creosote buildup I can open it without any resistance with just a finger. I suppose I could put a lighter spring on it. I'm gonna check resistance between new & burned out parts.
So just to update, the new batch of solenoids seem fine. The replacement I installed is quiet & no more issues. Fingers crossed I think I got a batch of defects. All were ordered and shipped same time same place. I'm betting they got a whole pile of rejects as well.
