Auberins pid got 'toasted'

[hvhunter]

I was doing a batch of ribs yesterday morning.  When I went out to check on things, the Auberins pid Dual-Probe PID WSD-1204CPH was off.  I checked the toggle switch in the back, and it won't move.  The unit seems to be toast.
I sent an email to Auberins; still waiting for a reply this morning to see if I can send it in for repair.

I am curious if this happened to anyone else?

[NePaSmoKer]

I was doing a batch of ribs yesterday morning.  When I went out to check on things, the Auberins pid Dual-Probe PID WSD-1204CPH was off.  I checked the toggle switch in the back, and it won't move.  The unit seems to be toast.
I sent an email to Auberins; still waiting for a reply this morning to see if I can send it in for repair.

I am curious if this happened to anyone else?

Yep

I have had mine re built 3 times now. They will respond back to you.

GL

[Salmonsmoker]

Did you check the fuse to see if it's blown? That happened to me once when I accidentally shorted out the heating element. Thought I'd fried the pid. The fuse saved the unit.

[hvhunter]

I didn't check the fuse, since the toggle switch was locked up.  I was in contact with Suyi; going in for repairs.

[Salmonsmoker]

Suyi is great. They'll have you fixed in no time.

[pensrock]

I'm not sure if you added a second heating element or not but I suspect it may have something to do with the problem if you did. Your temp controller goes to a SSR and I'm not sure what the one in your is rated for but suspect 10Amps because it was designed for the stock Bradley. But a SSR rated at 10A can only really handle 5A because we use AC power and it take 5A on the top of the sine wave and 5A below = 10A. With the mod or a larger heating element I would want at least a 20A SSR to be safe. You may want to ask Suyi about this, if they need to replace a SSR maybe he can fit a bigger one in. I suspect many of the failures are because of this but cannot confirm it.

[hvhunter]

"I'm not sure if you added a second heating element or not but I suspect it may have something to do with the problem if you did. Your temp controller goes to a SSR and I'm not sure what the one in your is rated for but suspect 10Amps because it was designed for the stock Bradley. But a SSR rated at 10A can only really handle 5A because we use AC power and it take 5A on the top of the sine wave and 5A below = 10A. With the mod or a larger heating element I would want at least a 20A SSR to be safe. You may want to ask Suyi about this, if they need to replace a SSR maybe he can fit a bigger one in. I suspect many of the failures are because of this but cannot confirm it."

I did add a second heating element. Thank you so much for the heads up. I will contact Suyi and find out. With all the posts I read about adding a second heating element, I never came across anything that mentioned the SSR.

[Salmonsmoker]

When you find out if the added element caused an SSR failure let everyone know. I bought a 2-probe pid for back-up and have a 900W element. May be worth sending in for an upgrade if that's the problem. Although, I've been running my 900W element with the single probe pid for a couple of years without any problems.

[hvhunter]

Will do.

[hvhunter]

I rcvd this email from Suyi.  They are good!

A 10A SSR will be able to handle 10A. But the heat generated by 10Amp of current is 2 times of 5amp. So, for a controller to run 10 amp, the controller gets hotter during heat up. The higher temperature making the other components, such as switch and socket, less reliable, The controller you have is WSD-1201CPH. Most likely, the problem is the switch. The earlier model has a smaller switch. The switch can barely handle 10 amp. So, it has higher failure rate when running 10A.  What we will do is put replace the double pole switch with a single pole switch. It will handle better for the 10A. current.

[pensrock]

Good to hear.  I still think he may be wrong about the SSR but if they have been finding under sized switches then that may be your problem. But there are others who have sent their Aubers in for repair several times, It can't be the switch each time if they are replacing them with a better switch. A good rule of thumb when it comes to SSR's it to double the size for the amps you plan to use. So if you want to handle 10A then you should be using a 20A SSR. But I'll defer to Suyi, he knows what they are putting into their controllers so hopefully knows if it will handle 10A or not. My temp controller I built using an industrial instrument has a 40A SSR, it was only a few dollars more than a 20A so why not. I have never once had a problem with mine. Knock on wood....

[Toker]

I had the same problem before and the trouble was the switch. My pid was acting EXACTLY like your.