Gas Dryer Maintenance

[Admiral]

How often do you guys have to check and clean/replace the spark plugs and flame rods on your dryer?

I replaced the spark plug 2 months ago and the flame rod just now (cleaned it 2 months ago).  Both were surprisingly pretty carbon filled again and the flame rod green at the end.

I'm wondering if we should just do it every 3 months and replace every 6 months to help avoid any issues.

[ebscreen]

Hows your flame look?

I've gone through exactly one flame rod in 7 years of our first gas dryer, and that was just preventative.

Those two things are important to have as spares though.

[Admiral]

Hows your flame look?

I've gone through exactly one flame rod in 7 years of our first gas dryer, and that was just preventative.

Those two things are important to have as spares though.

Hot?

haha I mean it looks fine, I will just sand the new one clean and keep that as the spare.  We have had the dryer flame go out without warning a few times in the past week, I'm hoping it was just the modulator needed some adjustment - it was just replaced 3 weeks ago. 

I'm just surprised how quickly those things get dirty.

[244]

Hows your flame look?

I've gone through exactly one flame rod in 7 years of our first gas dryer, and that was just preventative.

Those two things are important to have as spares though.

is the dryer running on natural gas or propane? If it is one of our dryers this amount of soot on the flame rod in three months is not normal. What color is the flame at heat and when calling for heat?

Hot?

haha I mean it looks fine, I will just sand the new one clean and keep that as the spare.  We have had the dryer flame go out without warning a few times in the past week, I'm hoping it was just the modulator needed some adjustment - it was just replaced 3 weeks ago. 

I'm just surprised how quickly those things get dirty.

[Underbase37]

That does sound excessive

Murphy

[CGS]

EB is probably asking more along the ways of is the flame blue with slight orange tips or is it more orange throughout the body of the flame ?

An orange flame which will create a quicker carbon build up on the plug and rod.

[Admiral]

EB is probably asking more along the ways of is the flame blue with slight orange tips or is it more orange throughout the body of the flame ?

An orange flame which will create a quicker carbon build up on the plug and rod.

It's natural gas - it's more orange through the site glass, always has been from what I can remember.

We did just have professional maintenance done and the dryer taken apart and new seals put in less than 2 months ago too.

[ebscreen]

It's natural gas - it's more orange through the site glass, always has been from what I can remember.

We did just have professional maintenance done and the dryer taken apart and new seals put in less than 2 months ago too.

You want more blueish than orangeish.  First check the easy stuff, filters, belts etc. Though I'm sure they're good if you just had it serviced.
Double check your air switches, they're adjustable and could be set too low allowing operation without proper pressure.

I could be wrong but I think I remember hearing that carbon buildup can be additive in that you have a restriction somewhere causing a
sooty flame and then carbon can actually build up on the burner orifices itself making the flame even more sooty and so on.

[Admiral]

Here is a picture of it, sorry about the lighting but you can see how green the end is.

[cbjamel]

No picture Admiral.

Shane

[californiadreamin]

Excesive sooting/ carbon is known as "incomplete combustion " It is unsafe, uses more gas to receive
The desired results. It can be caused by a number of things, so you start at zero. What is gas pressure
Coming in? Higher gas with not enough oxygen is a start. Restricted exhaust ducting not pulling out enough old air, which causes dirty recirculated air to try and reburn. If you are using more water based
Products, more old air needs to be pulled out and exhausted h2o isnt the easiest to burn when being
Recurculated over and over. Are you in cold climate with tight buildings or hot climate with not so tight
Buidings? Cold climates,tight buildings need enough fresh oxygen make up air. Critical! Is it a external
Blower asisisted burner or a simple basket burner! One has cast manifold and other had aluminum.
If holes become to enlarged from wear. It can cause a problem. Excesive airflow over burner can cause
Problems, sometimes main blower rpm need to be slowed down. This is wher i would start and see where
The rabbit hole leads!
Good luck
Winston
904.3430848

[Admiral]

We have plenty of fresh air - the garage door is kept open at almost all times, only 4" in the winter but still letting plenty of fresh air in with our large 3' exhaust fan going most of the time.

We are in Michigan.  Gas pressure is between 6-6.3" w.c. which is in spec.  We don't do too much water-based printing only once a month.

The real issue I am trying to fix is on most days - it didn't happen yesterday but happened today - the dryer burner turns off and so it loses temp and the alarm goes off and they have to fire it up again.  I thought it might be the modulator low pressure adjustment and did 1/4 turn further but that didn't seem to change it since it went out today once.  I thought we matched it to the old one...


Thanks for the tips Winston, I will look into some other things to try improving it.

[ebscreen]

Check the flame rod wire for continuity.

What does the PID say when it loses flame? We had a thermocouple go out
and it would do the same thing, a few minutes of not knowing what temp it's at and it would
quit. But the PID would display an error code.

On American's there's also a last ditch effort safety snap switch set to open at 500f or so.
But they go bad and will open randomly and stop your flame.

[Admiral]

The PID stays steady - well of course the actual temp will drop but the set point and actual temp do not seem to drop out at all.  Maybe just for a moment like you are describing - we haven't had someone watch it for a whole shift to see what happens the one time it drops.

[ebscreen]

The PID stays steady - well of course the actual temp will drop but the set point and actual temp do not seem to drop out at all.  Maybe just for a moment like you are describing - we haven't had someone watch it for a whole shift to see what happens the one time it drops.

Haha yeah exactly. That's the fun part about gremlins. It would (hopefully) be obvious if it was a thermocouple issue.
Ours displayed UUUUU or something.

Also check your air limit switches, they could be on the cusp and a slight change in pressure could drop them out.