Evap a/c control board

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 5:02 pm

Of course our air con has crapped out right at the start of a heat wave, and it's almost unbearable in the house right now. It's a Bonaire integra evap unit and the control board isn't putting out a signal to the solenoid on the water inlet so no water comes in. Also the solenoid controls the drain valve and when the solenoid is closed the drain is stuck open so filling up the tank with the hose doesn't work.

My question is does anyone know where we could buy a control box? The technician came out and charged $160 to tell us what we already knew, and says a new control board is another $700

Ridiculous money IMO. The control box that's up there is an EAC2003S, will later models fit? Only one I can find on the net is an EAC2008 for $300.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 6:13 pm

That is all 240V stuff up in there isn't it?

Be cheaper in winter I bet

In an emergency what about plug the drain hose outlet so it fills and stops full, but guess it all works in conjunction and won't start the fan until it knows its belly is full ...

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 8:09 pm

Yeah all 240V. That might work actually, but we'd have to keep going up there to re-fill as the water evaporates. The system (when it's working) refills itself via float valve on the mains inlet. I thought of running 15m of cheap speaker wire from the solenoid down to the garden watering timer to turn it off and on...but the a/c solenoid requires 24V AC to operate

I'm thinking these control boxes are distributed by Bonaire and only sold to technicians/repair mobs i.e not to general public to carry out their own cheap repairs.

tambox · Post by **tambox** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 8:46 pm

Whats wrong is it just the solenoids operation or is the control unit dead?

tambox · Post by **tambox** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:30 pm

Generally in something like this there are 4 levels of failure, 3 are self fixable, if you can solder and use a multimeter.
These are only valid if the control knob and/or buttons still work ok.
If they dont, then it could just be power supply or fuse.

If they do.
1. Dry joint or dirty connection. Check, by that I mean closely look at, the pins on all the connectors, unplug, then check for dirty or coroded pins. Measure the resistance of the solenoids at the controller board connector, to make sure they are still ok.
2. Circuit board dry solder joins. Remove the controller board (mark all the plugs for re-assembly). Using a magnifying glass, or good eyesight and some light, check the solder joins for cracks (very fine) or dis-colourisation/oxidation. If so remove component clean pins and re-solder. This may mean it has failed and needs replacement, follow 3.
3. Output driver component failure. It is common for the output driver component to fail. You can de-solder the driver that is conected to the solenoid wires (trace the pcb tracks) usually a 3 pin component. Look up its part number (written on it) on find out how to test it, from info on the net.
4. Internal controller failure - bad luck.

Or buy a new one.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:31 pm

There's no signal coming out of the control board to operate the solenoid. The solenoid itself is fine. Everything else works just that annoying little thing

tambox · Post by **tambox** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:33 pm

Try dry joint or output driver component.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:37 pm

Yeah thanks for the pointers. I was hoping to find a complete control board on the net somewhere so it would be just plug and play, but they don't seem to be available. Except for the 2008 model which I'm not sure would be compatible with our 2003 unit. Still the 08' one is $350 nearly half what it costs to get it from the technician (just looked at quote again, make that $750 installed

tambox · Post by **tambox** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:38 pm

No harm in looking at something that dosent work

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:45 pm

I hear ya, I'll see if I can bring the board down into the house and go over it. Maybe not tomorrow though; 44 degrees forcast and hotter on the roof...or maybe that will be motivation

Brumby Kid · Post by **Brumby Kid** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:54 pm

44 degrees and catastrophic fire day for us tomorrow Sam.
Lovely!

NOT!

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:55 pm

and that temp would be in the shade - add at least another ten degrees when you are up stickin' yer head in the swampy.

When you are up in there maybe have a look to see how the float valve is set up, as I am certain yours is same age as some units in our family where you hear the whomf, whoomf as the water fills the units basement and the fan only clicks in about the time you'd think it is full. The float valve would then maintain the full level without disrupting the fan function. Maybe hook up your own overflow, assign a tap monitor to turn tap on once an hour or so and rig the float to full position to activate the fan and pump - see if that works ??

tambox · Post by **tambox** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:04 pm

When you check the connections, make sure the "thing" that its conected to can be seen at control board connector. Easy to measure if they are solenoids or switches.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:07 pm

Brumby Kid wrote:44 degrees and catastrophic fire day for us tomorrow Sam.
Lovely!
NOT!

Yeah and I'm supposed to be dropping off a dizzy for inspection to a certain workshop at Gepps cross...with no air con in the car either! Sweat on the way there, sweat on the way back, come back to a hot house...there's no relief

Jonno I think the fan is just on a timer to come on after a set time when the water is high enough for the water pump. Also I'm pretty sure the solenoid just stays open the whole time and when the water evaporates enough the float drops to open the valve, let more water in and closes off again. It would be good if I could connect the hose straight to the bottom of the inlet pipe bypass the solenoid completely and leave the tap on, water level would regulate itself then and just unblock the drain plug when we're done

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Fri Jan 04, 2013 8:27 am

or do what other cunning people do - go to shopping centres with the best cold air and stay all day