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Electrical problem with spot free

Mchas

Active member
My spot free decided to stop working today. After probing around with a voltmeter it seems like one of these resistors (? Edit: googling the markings, might be “bridge rectifiers” whatever that is?) might be the issue. I am getting 24v on the left side but nothing on the right side when it goes to the relay (?).

Could one of these have gone bad? Is this a common setup? Seems kind of “home grown” to me - there must be a better way to do this?

Including a picture of where I think the problem might be. Didn’t think to take a zoomed out picture showing the rest of the components. Also including a picture of the cover to the relay that this leads to

Any thoughts are appreciated!

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Is this a poor man’s version of something like an IDX MX10 controller?
Sort of, more like a clone of Specialty Equipment's "diode box" that converted the 24VAC to 24VDC to power a DC relay. FWIW I've seen a lot of failures to IDX's multiplexers even though it looks like a better design and a little easier to work with. I use the GinSan one, which are about the same price. I wouldn't ever place the load of a spot free pump directly on the controller.
 
If you use a multiplexer, the easiest way to get the load off the device is to use a heavy relay or contactor with a 120V coil, run the line side of the power for the pump through the device to the coil, and wire the multiplexer per its instructions. You could even use a bank of relays instead of a multiplexer, but I like to have a delay on the pump which both IDX and GinSan multiplexers have.
 
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