DESA salamander kerosene heater


  #1  
Old 01-31-22, 09:30 AM
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DESA salamander kerosene heater

I have ten year old DESI Brand 70000BTU MASTER that has always lit up and ran until today. I checked the air and fuel filters and both are lean. The Unit will start and run, but won't light up the kerosene for the heat. I see an igniter listed in the owners manual, and after ten years I get that it might be bad, but the local dealer is not answering the the phone. If anyone is familiar with this machine and has access to a part number or source for an igniter it would be much appreciated.
 

Last edited by PJmax; 01-31-22 at 01:52 PM. Reason: title corrected
  #2  
Old 01-31-22, 09:37 AM
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I assume you mean Desa.

Manual

It's a PP200 ignitor, but you should check to see if it is getting voltage. There are hundreds of YouTube videos on fixing these things. They are all pretty much the same. Desa, Ready, etc.
 
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Old 01-31-22, 09:38 AM
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Did you mean DESA brand ?
After opening link...... click on orange box for illustrated parts breakdown.

Desa R70DT kero heater
 
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Old 01-31-22, 09:43 AM
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The first thing I'd check would be the sparkplug.
 
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Old 01-31-22, 10:11 AM
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Mark.... we're showing our age.
I'd have said the same thing except it looks like this series uses hot surface igniters.
I find it hard to believe they've switched over to this ignition method.
 
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Old 01-31-22, 10:32 AM
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I didn't realized they changed them. Mine is about 25 yrs old or so. And while I did have to replace the igniter awhile back the most common problem is the plug getting sooted up. I guess the old method was too simple
 
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Old 01-31-22, 11:03 AM
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I had many different models. They all used a spark plug type device.
 
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Old 01-31-22, 12:31 PM
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Yes it is a DESA. And it does not have a spark plug. For the life of me I cannot find a serial number but it does have the Model number you sent above on one of the Decals. So if I can find a match for the PP200 SC and I have voltage at the connection, I should be good to go ahead and order one?
 
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Old 01-31-22, 01:50 PM
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If you have a 120v at the igniter connection and it's not glowing.... it's bad.
The igniter is available from several places.
You can also check it for resistance. It should be 50-100 ohms as a guess.

PP200SC igniter
 
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Old 01-31-22, 04:33 PM
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Thanks for the responses and advice. Getting 10 years out of a complicated tool like this is not too bad. Never let me down until today lol
 
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Old 02-12-22, 11:12 AM
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Is the igniter supposed to stay lit up when the heater fires up? I took it apart enough to view the igniter and do a test run., and it will light up the machine and blow hot air for a minute or two and then I can see the igniter stop glowing and go out, then the heater shuts down down completely. Made sure I had enough fuel, and cleaned both intake filters. Did not check the ohms yet but will shortly.
 
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Old 02-12-22, 11:59 AM
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Yes, it should glow constantly. Did you clean the photo eye? If it senses no flame either by malfunction or lack of fuel it will cause a shut down.

I think you can try bypassing the photo eye and if it runs fine then you isolated the problem. Some YouTube videos describe the electrical troubleshooting aspects more than others.
 
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Old 02-12-22, 01:49 PM
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Thanks for getting back to me. 20 degrees in the garage is too damn cold to be fixing a heater. It would start and run with kerosene flame until the igniter just faded to nothing, Then the fire went out and the fan motor shut off. I cleaned the photo eye but did not get to check the ohms reading on it. I think I will start with a new igniter and see what happens. I just wasn't sure that the igniter was SUPPOSED TO STAY LIT ALL THE TIME. Got it now.
 
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Old 02-20-22, 07:26 PM
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The new ignitor and photo eye got things started but I had to fool with the air pressure adjustment on the back of the heater to get it to stay lit for any period of time. Seems like a LOT of fuel is coming out ot the jet that feeds the combustion chamber. Looks like it is flooding the ignitor. Would not surprise me if I need a new one of those as well.
 
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Old 02-20-22, 07:40 PM
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I think the adjustment controls the amount of air that passes thru the venturi that draws the kerosene up.
Too much fuel is bad. The conversion to hot surface igniter is like taking a step backwards.

The best way to keep these things running is to run them out of fuel before storing them.
I've been doing that for many years and mine have never failed.
 
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Old 02-20-22, 07:42 PM
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You just need some vacuum hose and a gauge to set the pressure correctly. It says on the side how many lbs of vacuum it should be producing. That controls how much fuel is metered out. Old fuel won't help it run well.

If you don't have one you can probably borrow one from a parts store.
 
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Old 02-21-22, 08:43 AM
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I dump fuel out of anything with a tank on it now, (after learning the hard way what leaving a generator with gasoline in it sit for 4 years and having to clean it) so fresh fuel is not my problem here. I will get my own. If I can find the right threaded fitting, I think I have a vacuum guage in an old tune up kit for something else. Even though this unit is ten years old, I only used it occasionally for VERY short periods of time when the temp was just brutal. I see on the Utube that guys are taking apart the air pump on the back of the motor and cleaning/replacing the small square tabs, and or the whole internal rotor. Don't want to do that right now either, but it is what it is. At 75 i did not want to learn to be an HVAC guy, fixed OR portable.but here I go again.
 
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Old 02-21-22, 09:30 AM
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There is no point messing with the air pump vanes if the pressure is correct.
 
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Old 02-21-22, 01:37 PM
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I ordered some new filters, a low pressure guage, and a new injector nozzle. Guy I ordered those from agreed with you in regard to the pump itself. Not sure yet what the pump pressure should be for a DESA R70 but I see numbers on UTube between 4 and 5 psi.
 
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Old 02-21-22, 02:36 PM
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Should be clearly written on a plate on the side. My guess is 4.0 psi.
 
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Old 02-21-22, 05:22 PM
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Good Guess 4.7 in the Owners Manual. Its going to get all new filters, a new injection orifice, and its own guage. I also found out that DESA is out of business. Don't know why but there were a lot of heaters that are basically the same unit.
 
  #22  
Old 02-22-22, 04:55 PM
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If someone wanted to check things out more seriously, I think they will find that the hot surface igniters are NOT supposed to glow continuously. If the fuel ignites properly, the ignitor is supposed to turn off and stop glowing after 5-7 seconds. My adjustment by sound netted me a 5 psi on my new pressure guage today. I lowered the pressure with the adjustment screw to exactly 4.7 psi and with a new igniter, photocell and filters, the unit is starting and operating like new. thanks for all the replies. This machine is a LOT more complicated than I thought it would be lol
 
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Old 04-04-22, 02:53 PM
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Cold snap here in Ohio, so I fired up the DESA. It stayed running and I finished some paint work without heat loss, but there is something rattleing under the cover in the vacinity of the pressure pump. I did not play around with the pump per the advice in previous posts. I'm hoping I can see what is doing this at some point, but just thought I would put it out there in case this happend to somebody else.
 
 

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