Hurricane igniter

[Ron Johnson]

10 month ago I replaced my Hurricane CO45 with a refurbished one from ITR in Richmond BC. Refurbished means everything inside the stainless steel case is new including the water-jacket. The furnace operates perfectly EXCEPT it will not start [ignite] unless there is 14+ volts coming to the igniter. BTW the voltage at the furnace with no charging is 12.68 volts. The furnace will run on less voltage but will not start.

After cleaning all the battery contacts and the grounds with no change I ordered another igniter from ITR [even though this one is new] installed it and the furnace starts normally. Without a micrometer I could not detect any difference in the thickness of the elements but have sent the old igniter back to ITR for them to examine. Just wanted to post this as a 'headsup' for Hurricane owners possibly experiencing 'voltage' issues.

[Mike Groves]

Ron,

I want a different direction and replaced the Hurricane/water heater with the Oasis Combi.  Cost was about $4500 plus installation or $5151.00.

What was the cost (in US dollars) for basically replacing the insides of the existing Hurricane?

Mike

[Ron Johnson]

I considered the Combi but as Fulltimers we have gotten used to always having hot water whether the furnace is working or not so .. we kept the separate H2O heater. We paid CAN $3000 installed [in Canada] for the CO45. All the wires, hoses and exhaust matched up which made life easier re the install.

[Mike Groves]

Ron,

Sounds like a pretty good deal.  What's the wattage of the hot water heater?

Mike

[Ron Johnson]

1500 watts I believe ...

[Fred Brooks]

           Ron,

      Over the years and having serviced more than 50 hurricanes, I have found that where the ignitor is installed, sometimes the retainer clip digs in and chaffs the insulation on the wires. Remove the ignitor and inspect or replace if damaged.  Regards Fred

[Ron Johnson]

Thanks Fred .. I actually wondered about that as I was installing the new one trying to be as gentle as possible but you have now installed that possibility firmly in my head for future troubleshooting.

[Joel Weiss]

I considered the Combi but as Fulltimers we have gotten used to always having hot water whether the furnace is working or not so .. we kept the separate H2O heater. We paid CAN $3000 installed [in Canada] for the CO45. All the wires, hoses and exhaust matched up which made life easier re the install.

By way of comparison we went in a slightly different direction last spring.  We had the Hurricane removed and shipped to ITR for refurbishment.  Kevin replaced pretty much everything except the water jacket for ~$1k.  We incurred some hefty shipping charges because it was shipped via 2nd day air in both directions, but despite that we ended up paying <$2.5k in total for the refurbishment. 

We spent the summer on Prince Edward Island and it was cold enough that we've used the system on quite a few nights and it has run perfectly.  Since we had a 30A site for much of the summer we often operate with the water heater turned off with the Hurricane supplying us with hot water.