JE Adams 6-in1 issues

[OurTown]

We bought a used JE Adams 28000 series 6-in-1 vac months ago and just now have time to go through it.

http://www.centralvacuumstores.com/vacuums/vacuum-cleaners-/car-wash-units/power-units/j-e-adams-28000vr-ultra-6-in-1-vac-and-more

I put power to it and the only thing I saw that lit up was the 115v selection lights on the front. I checked the 24vac transformer and it was bad so I replaced that. Powered it up. Same thing. No display, no bill acceptor (MARS) lights. After about a minute the main circuit breaker tripped and smoke came from the new transformer. Back to square one. It has an IDX BT907 display timer. Could something in it be fried drawing too much power? This vac looks like an electrical nightmare and must be the most complex vac out there. We only paid $400 for it so I'm willing to put some time and money in it.

 

[cmawash]

sounds like a central control board, adams has up dated conversion boards for some unit, we don't have this model but we believe same board goes in other units, by the way, board is about Plus $600, takes about 4 hrs and is fun to work on in the field electronics are consumer grade and just don't hold up

 

[OurTown]

I didn't see anything like that. It looks to me like it is controlled by the IDX timer.

 

[OurTown]

I talked to Jim at JE Adams and he said that machine is a nightmare to diagnose. He was super nice and really wanted to help but didn't really have any ideas other than maybe the timer is bad. I put in the new transformer with a fuse on the hot 24v side and disconnected the coin mech and relay circuits. Turned it on and immediately blew the 4 amp fuse. Next I removed all wires from the timer except the 24v hot and common. Blew another fuse. There are not any obviously burnt components on the timer circuit board. I'll call IDX when I can.

 

[MEP001]

I replaced a control board on an Adams fragrance vac the other day. I don't know if yours takes the same board, but this one was about $400 and took about 30 minutes to swap. You can narrow it down to the board by labeling each plug (They're labeled on the board, unplug and put a label tag on them one by one) and hopefully you can determine if it's something like a shorted solenoid or wire.

 

[OurTown]

This one does not have a control board and is controlled by the IDX display timer.

 

[OurTown]

IDX said they can repair the timer for $60 min to $160 max. A new one is about $550 at KR so it's getting shipped to IDX today.

 

[OurTown]

Mike at IDX says it's cost prohibitive to repair the timer. He offered a new board for $450 which is everything but the case. I called Dixmor to see if they made a timer that was equivalent and he offered two options.
One is a LED 9 multi-function but would require making some brackets to mount it to the back of the door.
https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-26205-9-multi-function-led.aspx
The other option is to put a retrofit kit into the IDX case.
https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-59775-dixmor-led9mf-idx-kit-9-multi-function-led-retrofit-kit-with-brackets.aspx
IDX is shipping the old timer back to us and I'm leaning toward the retrofit kit but would like to know what you guys think.

 

[MEP001]

That's not surprising, I sent a Fragramatics fragrance timer in for repair and he told me the same thing. Evidently they've changed up production and all the old stuff will end up being "not cost effective to repair." Dixmor still repairs their old stuff with no problem. I'd probably do the case swap retrofit.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

I have done two dixmor retro fits since winter on the big time IDX timers on my fragramtic vacs exactly like your talking about where you keep the red case and it worked out awesome for me going to eventually do all mine at my wash. You get to use the dixmor remote and program them sitting in your truck which is nice to me. The display has big bright bold letters also and you can see them in the middle of the day. The wiring is a little different that's all comes with brackets and screws for inside the case. The only problem I seen is you will have to drill a small hole to run you a Alarm last min beeper out of.

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

Here is mine with LED9 kit

 

[MEP001]

Do many people use the vac with it lying on its side?

 

[tdlconceptsllc]

I guess so. You didn’t know that was the new trend

 

[I.B. Washincars]

Do many people use the vac with it lying on its side?

That probably makes it ADA compliant.

 

[OurTown]

We bought the conversion kit. It appears we need a relay because the IDX timer had an input for each function and the Dixmor needs multiple pin inputs for one of the functions. I'm not exactly sure what type to buy. Can anyone make a recommendation for one? It's just for isolation purposes of the two pins.

 

[OurTown]

It looks like I need a DPST or a DPDT relay. For some reason the DPDT is more common and less expensive. My local Grainger branch has these in stock or I could order something similar for less money if I can wait:

https://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-24VAC-5X837

https://www.grainger.com/product/OMRON-Relay-Socket-4DG59

Is this the direction I should be heading in?

 

[OurTown]

Vaczilla is alive now but there are a few issues:

1. The Mars validator doesn't work or even have any lights on it.

2. One of the three fragrances isn't priming.

3. When it gets up to pressure the tire inflator air compressor vibrates the top of the vac more than I would think. It sounds good so I'm thinking it's just because they mounted it directly to the sheet metal. It's a Thomas 1207 compressor and I'm thinking about mounting it with some type of isolation mounts.

4. In two motor vac mode the suction is so so and is definitely not as strong as our two motor Doyle vacs. In three motor vac mode it has crazy suction. I looked on the inside and there is not any kind of check valve for the third motor. Is this normal?

There are more things to iron out but they are minor. I'm just happy that the majority of things work on it because some of these parts are a little crazy priced.

 

[OurTown]

Also someone suggested that maybe this thing was ran on low voltage for a period because of the fried transformer and display timer. Since then I found the validator not working and a fuse blown on one of the vac motors. If that was the case would the validator be totally fried and not repairable? We were kicking around the idea of just deleting it and just going with quarters and Cryptopay.

 

[MEP001]

It's normal for JE Adams vacs to not have a check valve on the turbo motor, but realistically it should have one. I've never tried these, but it beats what Fragramatics puts in theirs.

https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-35016-vacuum-check.aspx

 

[OurTown]

I saw that in looking for one. The description says if you are using a single door vac then you need their gasket also but I'm not sure why.

https://www.kleen-ritecorp.com/p-35017-vacuumcheck-adapter.aspx