- Joined
- Jan 15, 2007
- Messages
- 72
- Reaction score
- 0
First of all, Auberins makes good products and have great service from my experience. What I am about to say is probly true for most PIDs that a homebrewer would use.
After several successful runs with my SYL-(SSR output) PID unit on a heat exchanger I decided to use the unit in COOLING mode with simple ON/OFF configuration for a freezer thermostat. It was a BIG and OLD freezer. The unit died after a week or so of running just fine. (Note I had the PID powered with the same power supply as my SSR, and thus my freezer)
Anyway I emailed the guy and he was really nice about it, I'll just quote below.
BEGIN QUOTE
...
I am sorry to hear that. Is it possible that your refrigerator is generating spikes? Are you using the SSR to switch it on and off? One of our OEM customers that specializes in freezers puts a snubber on the power input to protect the controller.
We sell about 1500 of SYL-2342 and 2352 controllers each year. Most of them are for heating applications. The return rate is less than 1%. We noticed that the failure rate for inductive load, or the system that involves a pump in the same power line (e.g. espresso machine) has slight higher failure rate. One of the solution is put a ferrite bead on the input.
...
END QUOTE
Anyway he offered to fix mine for free, which is great. Again very good product and service -- I will probly buy a third PID from Auberins. I figure with all the PIDs I have seen on people's rigs they may want the info to ensure that their unit lives past the 90 day warranty (although he fixed mine past that time).
MY QUESTION for someone more knowledgeable than me: what's a good cheep snubber that I can get to protect my units in the future? (I am aware that I could just run two power lines but I dont want to, I'd rather use a snubber)
After several successful runs with my SYL-(SSR output) PID unit on a heat exchanger I decided to use the unit in COOLING mode with simple ON/OFF configuration for a freezer thermostat. It was a BIG and OLD freezer. The unit died after a week or so of running just fine. (Note I had the PID powered with the same power supply as my SSR, and thus my freezer)
Anyway I emailed the guy and he was really nice about it, I'll just quote below.
BEGIN QUOTE
...
I am sorry to hear that. Is it possible that your refrigerator is generating spikes? Are you using the SSR to switch it on and off? One of our OEM customers that specializes in freezers puts a snubber on the power input to protect the controller.
We sell about 1500 of SYL-2342 and 2352 controllers each year. Most of them are for heating applications. The return rate is less than 1%. We noticed that the failure rate for inductive load, or the system that involves a pump in the same power line (e.g. espresso machine) has slight higher failure rate. One of the solution is put a ferrite bead on the input.
...
END QUOTE
Anyway he offered to fix mine for free, which is great. Again very good product and service -- I will probly buy a third PID from Auberins. I figure with all the PIDs I have seen on people's rigs they may want the info to ensure that their unit lives past the 90 day warranty (although he fixed mine past that time).
MY QUESTION for someone more knowledgeable than me: what's a good cheep snubber that I can get to protect my units in the future? (I am aware that I could just run two power lines but I dont want to, I'd rather use a snubber)