Honeywell S8610U3009 Furnace Intermittent Pilot Control

Works Really Great -- Very Happy.I doubt I will ever need another one but if I did, I would re-purchase this one in a heartbeat.The Honeywell S8610U3009 Furnace Intermittent Pilot Control lights almost instantly on my system. Some heating systems have programed delays and it can do that too. Reasonably priced, looks like it might work on just about any furnace, check first before ordering, they sure have a long list of compatible Pilot Controls it can replace. I am just a home owner, no business affiliation with this product in anyway.Here is how I came to purchase itMy 37 year old combination Carrier Air-conditioner/Heater's original Intermittent Pilot Control had failed, no spark. Our furnace is not used as much as some people would and I am relatively sure new units of today will not last that long, at least my neighbors did not. That exact Pilot Control part, is now manufacture discontinued. Carrier did have a catch your breath $400 new replacement part Carrier LH33CM600 that was on back order at the time. A bit desperate and not knowing about the Honeywell Control as I do now, I found a new Carrier LH33CM600 on e-bay for around $165, from memory. It was old stock but you could see it had never been installed. The Carrier unit made by UT Electronic Controls never worked very well and I never found a way to contact the UT manufacturer. Good news is, it lit the furnace but struggled a bit. I was able to reach Carrier’s technical support, they spoke with me but did not have answers to my technical questions, not how to install questions, nor did they have any suggestions. The new Carrier control worked through the coldest part of this winter and then failed.My Installation NotesI am not an expert, your situation certainly will be different, check with an expert first. Installation is a bit technical, more so for me on the Carrier part I first installed. Read all of the Honeywell instruction first. I might suggest taking a good clear color digital photo of your old units wiring before you start. Look inside your furnace or online first for a wiring diagram that might be helpful for identifying the wiring functions too. The high tension spark lead on my particular furnace was border line short on both of my replacement units but it worked with a bit of fiddling. In my case I also added a ground wire from the Pilot's assembly frame to the “GND” terminal for a good ground return path for flame rectification – Yours may already have one or certainly be different. In my system that’s how "SENCE" terminal detects flame rectification across the pilot flame when the flame is present. Again these are things I did on my system, not suggestions on how you should do your system. By all means don’t forget to turn off/disconnect all the power before working on your system.

For the wiring,For the gas valve: MV, MV/PV, PV, and GND (Burner) on my old unitAre the same on the new unit, MV, MV/PV, PV, and GND.Then there is, 24V (1) and 24V (2) on my old unitThe 24 V (1) and 24V (2) lines go to 24V (GND) and to TH-W on the new unit. (The 24V connector is not used.) Since 24V (1) and 24V (2) on the old unit are isolated and AC, I don't think it matters which to which, as long as one goes to 24V (GND), and one to TH-W, on the new unit.The new unit is more functional, in that it has a DIP selector switch (that I left alone) and an LED that blinks once the thermostat is calling for heat (which is when this new controller unit becomes powered.)Also, on my old unit, the spark connector was a spark plug type connector, and on this new unit it is a spade connector. No worries, they include a handy adapter with this control unit. After you hook it the up, make sure to slide the old orange spark plug insulator all the way down over the adapter and spade connector. This control unit also comes with an expansive manual (somewhat arcane though) and some handy information stickers to put on your furnace.Knowing these things, it's easy to hook up, and it works!Some other things - the overall flame system consists of,The pilot assemblyThe controller (this unit)The gas valve.I replaced the pilot assembly first ($70) - didn't fix it. Then this controller ($100) - fixed it. Next, I would have replaced the gas valve ($150).This is a Residio unit, not Honeywell though.

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(This Unit was Purchased to replace a Honeywell S8600H1006 Control Model in a Williamson Propane Furnace and the review should be based on that Information)Several weeks ago our Furnace (a Frankenstein Williamson Propane Furnace with a Coleman A/C Retrofit) began experiencing a number of start-up issues where the pilot light would light followed by the burner igniting and shutting off shortly after, or a short-cycle (where the furnace would operate for a few minutes, shut off, then try again after 10 minutes or so) or go through a warm-up cycle followed by a shut-off when the blower came on. Killing Power to the system for about 30-60 minutes would usually make things behave for a few days before the problems would arise again.Since our current plan is to go to a new Geothermal System in the next 20 months or so I wanted the keep the repair low-cost if possible and given the age and set up of the current system I knew the likelihood of finding an exact part-replacement was not likely so I was pleasantly surprised to see this unit and the positive feedback; I ordered this along with a Q345A1313 Honeywell Pilot Burner. While I did not believe the Pilot Burner/Sensor was the source of the problem, I also did not want to have the Furnace partially disassembled and find out it too needed to be replaced. The S8600U3009 shipped promptly from Patriot Supply and I had it in my Mailbox within in 5 business days from day-of-order.One thing I want to emphasize here for anyone reading this. YOU ARE MESSING AROUND WITH A MACHINE THAT MANAGES A HIGHLY COMBUSTABLE GAS. IF YOU ARE EVEN IN THE SLIGHTEST WAY AMBIVALENT OR UNSKILLED IN PERFORMING THIS KIND OF WORK HIRE A PROFESSIONAL WHO KNOWS THAT THE H#@! THEY ARE DOING. SAVING THE $$$ ON THE INSTALLATION IS NOT WORTH YOU OR YOUR FAMILY'S LIFE.OK, with that warning aside; installation was a smooth one, with theS8610U3009 being a physically-exact-drop-in replacement for the S8600H1006. All that was needed was to remove the mounting bracket that the old control unit was on, remove the control unit from the bracket, and then reversed the procedure with the new unit.The one issue that I ran into is same one that many reviewers seem to be running into, which is the input wiring connections of the new vs. the old Honewell units. With the Old Unit there was 3 24V connections: one was an output connection which was an obvious translation from the old unit, but the other two are more vaguely marked 24V(1) and 24V(2). The newer unit has a 24V-GND, a 24V, and a TH-W, with no clear documentation on how those should be translated. Like others, going with the obvious choices (which to me at least would be hooking up the 24V(1) and 24V(2) to the 24V-GND and the 24V connections) proved fruitless. Eventually it took spending a little bit of time going over the schematics of the old S8600H unit vs. the newer S8610U unit to figure out that the working setup was to connect the old 24V(2) line to the 24V-GND and the 24V(1) line to the TH-W connections. At this point the status-LED indicator came on and the unit attempted to cycle (which was not yet successful as the Gas was still shut off). This seems to be such a common issue, even with direct Honeywell -> Honeywell upgrades that it would be nice if this was mentioned in their generally well-written conversion charts and documentation.Once that all looked good, I shut off power, turned on the gas, and did a leak test on all the gas joints that may have been disturbed during the process. (I usually do a detector leak test - a good DIY detector is the General Tools NGD100 Natural Gas Detector which can also be found via Amazon - followed by a bubble test if the Detector produces any kind of positive result). With no detected Gas leaks after having the Gas repressurized for about 10 minutes, the Furnace was turned back on and run through a full cycle.Everything works great and the furnace has now run through about 30 cycles in the last 48 hours with no issues. I did not have to use the Pilot Igniter/Sensor Kit but have put it aside in case I need it in the future. In any case it was worth the few extra bucks to have it on-hand during the repair process.For the advanced DIY person, I would recommend this as a very inexpensive and viable alternative to a new furnace. The only reason I did not give 5 Stars was because of what seems to be a common wiring translation issue with the 24V connections is not well documented by Honewell, even for upgrades on their own units. If they had done that this would be considered a perfect repair experience.