Hey guys, finishing up commissioning my wiper, and the last thing that I thought would give me issue is what is nailing me. I’ve got 3 recirculating heaters that are all throwing the same error. It points to being a thermocouple issue, but on all three? When they were known working when I tested them before tear down? They are full of fluid without leaks and have no problems recirculating. When I kick on the “Hot Allow” it will run for a few seconds before throwing the following error:
I’ve taken off her skirt and found no shit stains on the board, all relays function as expected, and there are no loose wires. I do not have any documentation on these units and have yet to receive a response from Lab1st. I am curious if anyone has dealt with this and how they might have solved it or if you have any documentation. There are secret codes I can hit on the panel but I don’t know what they do!
The front panel makes mention of the alarms and errors, but doesn’t make sense to me. Especially on 3 units that were known working before (“gentle”) transit.
Model:
I have an american replacment if you ever want something a little more reliable.
Very strange they all failed. Is labfirst not helping?
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I don’t think they are bad. I think something fucky is afoot. I mean how does a heater go bad? It’s a resistive element. I think the brain box is confused. Just have to figure out why. I just emailed Lab1st today. Not sure how their support is.
Check all of your connections, internal and external?
Maybe a connector managed to work itself loose somewhere?
seems likely. Unless you reassembled them ALL in the same wrong manner.
It’s reading PRocess Value (thermocouple is working)
It’s NOT showing Set value.
Is it simply that they don’t know what you want of them?!?
What temp have you asked it to maintain?
Edit: check back in once you have the fine manual….
All of them. I set it for 0, 20, 30, 40, 60, 80C. It was reading 25C in my shop, so it seems that it is reading something. I have requested manuals from Lab1st but I am told it will be May 4th before I will have a response.
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Check the electrical. The circulating pump probably doesn’t pull enough electricity to cause an issue, but the heating elements may…
Check the manual too, of course…
It may be a voltage thing - the unit may be expecting 240v and only receiving 208v, for example. I’m saying that because it sounds like the units were moved and setup in a new location.
Hope this helps! Best of luck.
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Make a new thread on this (or other?) forums requesting manuals for your unit.
SOMEONE probably has them! lol
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I will try that first thing tomorrow. The pumps circulate fine, it’s just the heat doesn’t want to fire up. The cold traps also work as expected. I did have to do some wiring to get it set up, but I believe I did everything correctly.
Have you personally raised/lowered/set the temps on these successfully?
I’m not certain you haven’t just dropped them into programming mode…
If the answer to that is yes, then @bgleason is probably todays winner…
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Confirm the hz as well - that shouldn’t be the problem, but it is Chinese equipment, so expect the unexpected…
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I was able to set the temperature to whatever I wanted. When I kicked on “HOT ALLOW” to kick the heaters on, it would go for 10-15sec and throw that error. So I believe I was able to set temp but it was not able to run long enough to actually heat up.
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…so never successfully, still probably not “programming mode”…
So you feed their controlbox 208V 3ph, and it splits it out?
Or?!?
@bgleason label states it’s expecting 60hz
I’m sending it 220v single phase. It’s what all of em are wired for/expecting. I’m feeding 100amp off my breaker box through some big ass wire, so I expected it would be alright. I guess a multimeter would confirm or deny that guess.
Yea, fawk, it does sound like you know what you’re doing.
Next steps are the manual - to find out what the stupid error is.
And to get a multimeter to make sure electrical is correct.
Beyond that… I’m kind of stumped.
@cyclopath - agreed; just suggesting due-diligence! lol
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Thank you guys so much for sanity checking me! At the point I can get ANY documentation, I’ll drop it in here for others to reference.
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What’s new or different?
Did you change the fluid, connect to a new electric outlet, did it sit for a while and just starting it back up?
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So you DID have them working. Just not since discombobulated?
All three with the same error on the same time frame absolutely points at input electricity or (identically) disconnected/reversed connections internally.
If all you did to get here was move and wire, and didn’t lift their skirts or disassemble in any fashion before they first errored on you, it has to be about how they are being powered.
Did you change the set temp(s) before tear down?
That’s a lot of electrickery Timmy…
…probably not a bad idea to confirm it’s the right kind 
Correct. I showed up at the spot, started my inspection of the unit and confirmed that the heaters were working. After inspection we tore everything down gently and packed it for transport.
I am very curious how 1ph 220v could have wires backwards because it’s taking in 2 hot legs (Rod Stewart would be proud!). As stated I’ll fire it up tomorrow and check voltages and see if we are undervolting it in some way.
Nope we just cut the power and started loading.
You are absolutely right! This is the highest power system that I have worked on.
I know I may sound like a bumblefuck but I have specced all my wires, plugs, and such for the amperage we should be expecting. I believe I did it right, but I’m most certainly not an electron wrangler.
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Check incoming power on board when heater element comes on. I kinda suspect if they don’t error til the heater element starts acting that there’s an issue with incoming voltage droop
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