Rkl Temp Probe

[Kyle1970]

Any idea what causes temp probes to go bad?
Someone blew the circuit today at my place and didn’t realize tank was out for several hours. I get home reset everything and head unit says temp is 70 but heater didn’t want to come on.
I pulled probe from my fresh water tank, it registered 79 when I plugged it in.
Does an electrical outage cause issues?
Just coincidence?

I plugged old probe back in and recalibrated it, have the heater turned just barely above the shutoff temp as backup.

Any other thoughts or recommendations? Other then going Apex

 

[Kyle1970]

I’m at a loss.
This morning head unit reads 73. Alarm going off that heat is too low.
With another thermometer the tank registers at 71.
But the heater was off.

Heater is plugged in and works because when I change program from auto to on it stays on.

So I’m guessing the temp probe is shot.
But not sure why the heater wouldn’t be on.

Heater is plugged in.
Was on auto.
Auto set up as heater run by temp probe.
On below 77

What gets me is that nothing has been changed. Just the hydro outage.

 

[TORX]

I am not a RKL guy, but I have never heard of similar with Apex or GHL. You are right, none of that as it has been explained makes sense. The heater should be on if the temp is reading that low. My thought would have been that the heater was broken, but then you said that it works independently. Have you verified that the other outlets are working correctly or tried a firmware update. Sometimes they just need a flash and things work again on their own.

 

[Josh]

put both probes in 0'c water (aka ice water) most of these temp probes are resistance based RTDs (basically as temperature drops resistance rises) i know room temp is typically 10k ohms. If you have 2 put them in the same glass and check the resistances. You could email RKL to ask for the resistance curve of the sensors but like vs like should give you an idea of whats up

 

[Kyle1970]

I can take an ohm meter and measure resistance as long as I have them both in same temp water they should be the same.

I’m just thrown off as to why they suddenly changed...

Thanks for the idea @Josh

 

[TORX]

Th whole thing throws me off. Sounds more like an issue with your power bar. Have you tried the program on a different outlet? The sensor is reading correct +/- a degree. The heater is working independently. But the power hasn't switched on.

Try something else in the outlet like a light and put it on auto. When the heater should turn on, the light will. If the light doesn't, then the issue is the outlet.

Try the programming in a different outlet. If everything works correctly, then it is the one outlet.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[Josh]

I can take an ohm meter and measure resistance as long as I have them both in same temp water they should be the same.

I’m just thrown off as to why they suddenly changed...

Thanks for the idea @Josh

Exactly, i have no idea as to whether its software/controller issue or an issue with the sensor but its a way to at least hopefully rule 1 out. An old mentor of mine once told me "if you dont know whats wrong, prove whats right"

 

[Kyle1970]

So I tried the ice water cup to calibrate the probe.
Lowest it would go was 39.1

As well, when probe dropped below the point of triggering the alarm, the heater turned off.
So the alarm program is triggering the alarm and the turning off the heater. Completely the wrong thing to do.


While I was at it I tried my probe in the freshwater tank. It dropped to 32.5 which I find acceptable for a glass of ice water.


So that tells me the probe in saltwater is almost 7 degrees off.
That’s going to account for a lot of issues as well.
Maybe it’s causing massive temp swings.

My thought is to lower the probes calibrated temp by 1 degree a day.

Thoughts?

 

[Kyle1970]

4th day of adjusting temp.
Gauge reads 77, tried an external probe and it says the water is 85.
So. I’ve stopped.
Have new probe on order.
Not touching a thing until I get the probe and calibrate it.

Sorry, should mention I turned the temp down
85 too hot for my liking.