help with 818

[coldgyn]

I have an 818 that previously has had no problems. But, 1 in 10 times it will trip the breaker in the fuse box.

The customer is then trapped inside the bed. Really - there is no way for them to get out without alot of effort and crawling until I reset the breaker.

I have had it apart looking for exposed wires, burnouts or loose wires and have found nothing. It does not seem to matter how many times it has run in a row so I don't believe there is a heat issue.

The customers and employees report no burn smell or sparks or pops. Although it is really loud when it is running.

Does anyone have an idea of what to check next?

I already have a call into Patrik.

[northtanman]

Something that comes to mind and relatively inexpensive...and you'd have a spare if its not this...try a new breaker? Now, you've checked connections at breaker as well? Neutral and ground wire as well? I'd try a new breaker.

[Island Cove]

Rob says your capacitors are bad. need new ones. when they start going bad theys start drawing more amps than they need and so they trip the breaker. Also, what tap do you have your transformer set on? ours trip the breaker when we have it on the highest tap.

[Island Cove]

Also you need to get your backup battery replaced so the canopy will raise when this happens.

[coldgyn]

excellent guys I'll check and do all of that.

Which capacitors might need replacing? Is there a way to check them?

[Rob]

you need a meter that can check capacitors. most electritions don't have this. if you can take them to a place that tests small electric motor, they can test them. You can pick up new ones from tim mquay , California tanning supplies, 1-408-227-8599. great person to deal with

[Brian Oshman]

Use an amprobe with the bed running to check the caps. A dead cap will read zero amps.

[certan]

I think you should just buy the two I have for sale!!!

Enless parts come on!!

haha

[Natureboy]

I have never had a capacitor go on 4 beds in 5 years running non-stop.

If you have a "trip" type reset breaker many times they never hold and get week and you need to install a "shotgun style" slow blow fuse box.

Rob had this happen and so did I when I first ran 818's. After the new fuse box never had a problem again except for the odd fuse blowing every year or two.

[coldgyn]

Brian, will that show the bad one if it is working at the time? there won't be any voltage if the bed is not running across the cap right? And if the bed is running there would be voltage. Am I missing something? I probably am.

[coldgyn]

I'll try the breaker deal also. Thanks

[Rob]

I had one of our 818's trip and keep tripping. Patryck told me sometime they do go bad and that is what happens from time to time. When we bought ours, the only thing that was done to it was the upgraded glass. So the capsitors were the originals. I replaced 9 of them and it has never given me problems since.

[coldgyn]

So Rob, did you just keep replacing the capictors until the problem stopped or did you have 9 that were bad?

[Rob]

I had 4 that were bad, but I am going to replace all of them over time.

[Natureboy]

Originally Posted by Rob

I had one of our 818's trip and keep tripping. Patryck told me sometime they do go bad and that is what happens from time to time. When we bought ours, the only thing that was done to it was the upgraded glass. So the capsitors were the originals. I replaced 9 of them and it has never given me problems since.

I have never replace one single capacitor ever. You guys must have weird power out there in BC or something

[Rob]

I got that explanation straight from Patryck. He said that when he sold any 818, that was one of the first things he replaced.

[Natureboy]

Had a nice fire in an 818 about two months ago. Melted the entire starter, ignitor and most of the wires around the area. Luckily I have many spares.

[Saturn Boy]

im sure u already know this...but be careful when messing with the capacitors...they carry a charge and can zap the sh*t out of you

[UltrabronzSteve]

This thread is wrought with misinformation and Patryk seems to have a warped sense of history....

there are no "upgrade capacitors" for the 818 so I have no idea where that came from....also the original breaker size reccomended by Ultrabronz was too small and people are still advising the wrong size...

125 amp 3 phase and 150 amp single phase

[Brian Oshman]

125 amp breakers are tough to find and not available for some panels so you are stuck with using a 100 amp.

To measure the caps, turn the bed on and use an amprobe. Clamp one side and read the current with the bed running. You will read about 2 amps for every 25µf of capacitance. If you are reading more then one cap in series then the value should be the total of all on that wire.

This is an amprobe. It clamps around individual wires without any physical connection and reads the amount of current that is passing through the wire. It uses magnetic flux around the wire. It is essentially a single turn winding transformer. The wire is the primary side and the meter is the secondary side.



A capacitor(s) will compensate about 2 amps per 25µf of capacitance. If some are daisychained, you can read the total to see if it meets the 2 amp/25µf average. If not, check them individually up the chain. One that is not working will read zero or will not show a difference from the one before it. Clamp only one wire at a time.

Here are some examples:

This one with three 25µf capacitors totals 75µf of capacitance and compensates about 6 amps of current. This means that if combined with 6 amps worth of ballasts the compensation of 6 amps from the capacitors will half the total amp draw of the whole circuit and only draw 3 amps total. (I'm using these figures based on the diagrams to keep it simple and just averaging will get you through fine without any fancy calculations. You are just measuring the differences between the caps.)



This one here would be 45x2=90µf and would compensete just about 8 amps of current.