Help! I have three of five bays down from what I believe are blown 24v fuse on timers

[doublj70]

Hello,
I have a location with 5 bays withe Etowah Valley quick pay timers. It has been working fine for years with no major issues, but over the last week, I have had three timers go dark (the 24v is still on as the coin and bill acceptors are working, just the timer display is off). I spoke with Jim Gosnell last week and he mentioned there are 5amp fuses on the timer board itself that can blow. I have never had that happen before, and it has happened in multiple bays. That is what has me stumped. If it was one bay I could imagine a bad transformer or something. Has anyone had an issue like this? I'm trying to figure out how to troubleshoot it. My wash is basically down until I can figure this out. Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, John

 

[I.B. Washincars]

A dead 3-phase leg can make a wash do some crazy stuff.

 

[Ayerule]

The power company replaced power poles and switched the high leg on me. Something else to look for.

 

[robert roman]

“Any advise would be greatly appreciated!”

Since average sales revenue from three wand bays is $160 a day, I would hire an electrician.

Licensed journeyman charges about $60 an hour whereas service provider is about $100.

My stuff was all labeled plus schematics so I never had a licensed electrician on site for longer than a couple of hours to fix anything.

 

[MEP001]

I'm guessing you don't have a voltage meter or haven't checked for power?

A typical electrician won't be able to make heads or tails of a SS wash wiring. I'd find someone with experience in the field.

I'd ask if these fuses all blew at once or over a period of time, but you almost never come back to post an update.

 

[cwguy.com]

Try calling a local tv repair shop.... Order some extra timers (until you fix your others) and a meter (if you do not have one).

 

[doublj70]

Thanks for the replies. I had a hard time tracking this problem down so I wanted to give an update. Contrary to a couple of the replies, I actually do own a meter. The problem was intermittent and the timers blew the fuses over a period of several days. I assumed it was an issue with the primary voltage, as it was affecting multiple bays which each have their own 24v transformer. It turned out to be a shorted foam brush solenoid coil. My theory is that since all the commons are tied together on that manifold block, that was why it affected multiple bays. Since as soon as the 5a fuse blew in the timer, the solenoid was no longer energized, which made it hard to troubleshoot. At Jim Gosnell's suggestion I put a 4a inline fuse on the 24v output of each transformer, so that fuse would blow first. I went through like 20 fuses before I found the bad solenoid, but once I removed it from the system, no more blown fuses.
Thanks, John