Faulty 30A Relay

Testing out my finally completed brew system today and I was on the last test of boiling water. About 10 minutes into it everything on the panel flashed off then back on and I smelled smoke. Opened it and the 30A relay for the boil was smoking and when powered up it would no longer switch on and off. Guessing the coil for the solenoid shorted causing the brief brown out while it was melting itself.



That is the relay that was on the boil element. For my other ones I have the brown cover ones that it looks like a lot of others have. No issues with those.

Anyone else using this relay with any issues? Either way I'm staying away from them now.

 

You need to give some more info here, but is that the relay that your PID fires? Or do you just direct fire your element or use a PWM? I ask because that's not a SSR so if you're going the PID route it's possible that the quick switching caused the relay to fail.

 

Relay is just switched so it's constantly on when in use. A SSR is used with the PID in Brewtroller.

 

I understand the difference. Just so we're clear, the "R" in "SSR" stands for Relay. You didn't post anything about your build and asked for help - I'm trying to help. Are you saying you're using a Brewtroller? Where is your relay installed? Do you have a wiring diagram, or at the very least a few photos with the relay installed in the panel? There are lots of smart, helpful people on this board. Someone will know what's wrong with your setup, you just need to tell us what your setup actuall is.

 

I was posting for the purpose of warning others that this particular brand of relay might be more prone to faults than the other one (brown/black cover) that I see everyone using. I also have two other relays (brown/black cover) that I have had no issues with and have a couple hours of use. This particular one smoke checked in less than ten minutes of use. Then again it could have just been made on a Moday. Do they even get weekends off in China?

The only system faults I could see causing the coil in the relay to fry would be either switching it with 240 or passing way to much current through the contacts causing the entire relay to overheat.

 

Gotcha. I misread your post as looking for advice. 10 minutes is a quick fail time. Not good.