Robobrew Circuit board Cooked

[Teve]

Just a heads up about a problem i am dealing with with my Robobrew Gen 3. A fellow home brew club member who owns a RB told me about his unit overheating inside where the circuit boards are. He showed me a picture of the discolored soldering on his main board. I pulled mine apart and could smell the fried board before i got the bottom off. Mine looked just like his with cooked soldering plus a scorched place on the reverse side. Good thing i did not use it again before checking. It would of gotten ugly when it started smoking and reeking of burnt plastic. So take a look inside of yours and if its bad contact your point of purchase and do not use it.
Also i understand that a upgrade kit is out there with a new board and new led screen-old screen will not work with new board.

Cheers,
Teve

 

[jimfire85]

Just a heads up about a problem i am dealing with with my Robobrew Gen 3. A fellow home brew club member who owns a RB told me about his unit overheating inside where the circuit boards are. He showed me a picture of the discolored soldering on his main board. I pulled mine apart and could smell the fried board before i got the bottom off. Mine looked just like his with cooked soldering plus a scorched place on the reverse side. Good thing i did not use it again before checking. It would of gotten ugly when it started smoking and reeking of burnt plastic. So take a look inside of yours and if its bad contact your point of purchase and do not use it.
Also i understand that a upgrade kit is out there with a new board and new led screen-old screen will not work with new board.

Cheers,
Teve

 

[Teve]

View attachment 626142 View attachment 626143
View attachment 626142

Thanks Jimfire85.
Great idea about replacing the wire. I will be doing that once i get a new board and screen. Reading online others have had this issue so much so that Brewer Dude on line shop sells a kit for replacing those parts that they said came from the manufacturer. Funny thing when i contacted Kegland they said they really did know what was wrong with my unit and to contact the shop where i got it.
Thanks again

 

[augiedoggy]

a few years ago there was a thread about some SCR boards found on ebay that many were using to control thier elements failing the eaxt same way with the same undersized solder trace... one person soldered a heavier jumper wire to correct it in that case there was a fuse that would sometimes fail at the connection points as well.
the issue is the current is too much for the traces and the heat from the resistance, over time burns everything up. replacing the element connectors and soldering them on will help once you get the replacement board..
I think the case may be that the board was designed for a certain (220v) voltage and amp load and its being used for a higher amp current in 120v applications.

 

[Sauls]

So what’s the best thing to do for someone shopping? Wait for this to get sorted out? Do the upgraded models have a new part number or a way to tell or does the new screen look different?

 

[augiedoggy]

Thanks Jimfire85.
Great idea about replacing the wire. I will be doing that once i get a new board and screen. Reading online others have had this issue so much so that Brewer Dude on line shop sells a kit for replacing those parts that they said came from the manufacturer. Funny thing when i contacted Kegland they said they really did know what was wrong with my unit and to contact the shop where i got it.
Thanks again

"kegland" .. formally known as kegking are just distributors for these. They do not make them and I doubt they have any input in the design.

 

[processhead]

So what’s the best thing to do for someone shopping? Wait for this to get sorted out? Do the upgraded models have a new part number or a way to tell or does the new screen look different?

With growing interest in electric brewing, there is a lot of new competition with companies trying to satisfy demand for a plug and play brewing solution.
Failures like this is an unfortunate consequence of companies rushing a product to market that has not had adequate R&D before being launched to the market.
The reputable companies will stand by their products, but that doesn't help the customer during down time while they wait for a solution.

What to do? Yeah, waiting for the reviews to trickle in before buying might be the best option.

 

[Teve]

With growing interest in electric brewing, there is a lot of new competition with companies trying to satisfy demand for a plug and play brewing solution.
Failures like this is an unfortunate consequence of companies rushing a product to market that has not had adequate R&D before being launched to the market.
The reputable companies will stand by their products, but that doesn't help the customer during down time while they wait for a solution.

What to do? Yeah, waiting for the reviews to trickle in before buying might be the best option.

Today i went and talked with the shop i got the unit from. They had heard of my issue and went ahead and ordered the replacement parts for me before i even walked in to discuss it. That said I think Processhead touched upon a sad truth about this and many other products. We the end users are their wort making lab rats field testing their products for them. I think the design is good and the RB works as it should so once the bugs get worked out (by us) it will be a good purchase for a table top brew system. So i think the they have worked the issues out with the Brewzilla plus a three year warranty. We will see. I was wondering why so many of these plug and play units all look the same. Well Augiedoggy cleared that up so who is manufacturing them? Oh and the parts that were ordered for me are back ordered---seems that they are out of them at the distributor. High demand perhaps?

 

[Carolina_Matt]

This thread is part of the reason I'm hesitant to buy the Digiboil. It looks like the perfect machine for my BIAB needs, but given the price point I assume it will have more problems than the Robobrew and similar units. Once it shits the bed, it's pretty much useless.

 

[Eric_S]

I think auggiedoggie is probably right, that’s weird lol. Some of these designs originated in Australia and were adapted for the US. By switching to 120 they doubled the amperage and probably didn’t change the wiring other than the plugs.

 

[Teve]

When LG started importing refrigerators into the US from Europe same sort of thing happened. They started catching fire because they fudged the wiring. In looking at the Brewzilla the bottom has a bunch of vent slots and three feet to lift it and allow air flow. I think i will break out the angle grinder and cut my own. I think i these plug and play systems are being built by Amco/Kegland.

 

[augiedoggy]

When LG started importing refrigerators into the US from Europe same sort of thing happened. They started catching fire because they fudged the wiring. In looking at the Brewzilla the bottom has a bunch of vent slots and three feet to lift it and allow air flow. I think i will break out the angle grinder and cut my own. I think i these plug and play systems are being built by Amco/Kegland.

I'm fairly sure kegland does not make them although they may have had a hand in designing the alterations from the original hot water urns they are based off of....

Originally "keg king" sold them and then a bunch of employees left and started "kegland" taking products like the intertek taps and this from them... Both these products can be found directly on chinese manufacturers direct distribution sites like alibaba along with others such as the grain mills and beerguns they market.

Its been a while but over a year ago I found both the mash and boils and robobrews on alibaba without some of the accessories not made but the manufacturer of the kettle such as the chiller.. I was quoted as little as $75 to purchase some samples which I never did. I have purchased many "kegking" products from aliexpress and some came in the retail packaging and some did not.

 

[Teve]

An update on the bad board. I did get my hands on the 3.1 new board and screen. It came all by itself no instructions. The new board is a mirror image of the old one. After searching i found a site (Ontario Beer Kegs) that showed the new board next to the old one and it is wired up way different than the old one. I contacted a US distributor who sent me the correct wiring sequence -same as OBK site.
I also found that in inner heater element screw was way loose and was discolored by heat and the wire end was cooked.
Tonight i installed and repaired everything plus a new 14 gauge cord. Drilled a bunch of 3/8 holes into the bottom plate for more air flow and opened up the vents. I found that many of the vent slots were barely open and a few were even closed. I used a big screw driver slipped in and got the holes with some tapping to open up to about a 1/4 inch. Should be better air flow along with setting it on a wire grid shelf during brewing. Plugged it in and turned it on---hot damn it works! Will do a boil in a few days. Fingers crossed.

 

[processhead]

In your case, improving the ventilation won't hurt, but the overheating you are seeing is probably due to poor electrical connections.
Make sure any connection that carries current to a heating element is tight and uses properly sized wire.
Sometimes solder connections to circuit boards can be problematic that way too.

 

[tracyk]

I took the heat off the board by running it through a contactor, then back to the board. Go the the Brewzilla, RoboBrew facebook page. They talk quit a lot about this problem.

 

[Teve]

Put the new board and screen in then opened up the vent slots to about 1/4 inch then drilled out the small vent holes on the bottom and added a bunch more about 3/8 in size. Fixed a bad connection on one element. Replaced the power cord with a 14 gauge one.
Yesterday i did a test boil with 5 gallons of water. It hit 198 on the screen in a hour. Climbed to 208 and held there. I checked with my Thermopen and it read 209/210--good enough. Also put the thermometer into a slot to get a reading inside the wiring area. It read at 98 degrees. Not bad. We will see when it comes brew time how this Aussie does.