Heater got stuck on

T

trivan

New member
This evening, while checking the tank before bed I noticed that my tank temperature was at 80.5 deg. My Apex was set from 78 - 79, with the email and alarm at 81.

I using the basic heater set up and the heater itself is set to 81.
The datalog shows the rise in temp starting at 22:00 exactly. Is there anyway to troubleshoot what the problem is and what may have cause the outlet to stay on? Temp probe is pretty accurate, and I double checked that it was still in the water.

Thanks in advance.
 
How do you know the heater didn't turn off at 79? Just because the temp hit 80.5 doesn't mean the heater was on.
 
Ah good comment, but I checked the status page and it was showing it was on, I also saw the litte red light on the heater itself. I turned it manually off, checked the set up on the outlet page and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Turned it back to auto and it shut off.

Sorry I left that detail out.

Btw, you'll be getting a starbacks from me for your excellent guide.
 
Placement or accuracy of the Apex temp probe shouldn't matter. If the outlet programing is correct, and the probe indicates the temp is over the limit - regardless of the tanks actual temperature - the outlet should turn off. Since you checked the data log to confirm the Apex knew the temps were high, you should check the Outlet XML file to see if the Apex thinks it sent an "OFF" signal to the outlet at the appropriate time (i.e. at the time the data log shows the first overtemp). If the Apex did not send an outlet OFF signal, then go to the outlet setup page and post the programing you find under "advanced".

I have had the Apex claim to have changed the state of an outlet but had the EB8 not change. I don't know why that happened and it hasn't repeated in a long time (that I know of) but it has happened.
 
Thanks for thetroule shooting tips.

Is there a way to get the XML from a prior day? I can see todays XML for the outlet XML, but can't see yesterday's data.
 
trivan said:
Thanks for thetroule shooting tips.

Is there a way to get the XML from a prior day? I can see todays XML for the outlet XML, but can't see yesterday's data.
Click to expand...
Yes, add the following to the url displayed after viewing the report and resubmit:

?sdate=110120

The format is YYMMDD.

Todd
 
So I looked at the logs:
At 21:01:09 the heater was switched on
And not until I manually turned it off at 23:54:50 did another log get recorded

The temp log was as follows:
21:00 78.1
21:10 78.3
.
.
21:50 79
22:00 79.1
It kept rising until I saw it at 80.5
The program from advance is as follows:
Fallback OFF
If Temp < 78.0 Then ON
If Temp > 79.0 Then OFF

Given the last post, I'm not sure if a problem will be found. I since put a 2 degree spread 77-79 and set the heater to 80' with alarms at 81.
Thanks again in advance.
 
The code is correct. Do you happen to have another heater outlet with a duplicate name or a phantom EB8? Look at the Module List on the Module Setup page. While you are checking for the phantom EB8, make sure that the SW Rev shows 008(OK).

Todd
 
No phantom eb8, and I do see the 008(ok).
You may be on to something with the heater outlet. The main is "heater"' while I set up a few virtuals which one which I must of missed while renaming was left named "heater_D5". Could this be the possible cause of the error?
 
'heater' and 'heater_D5' should be fine, they're not duplicates.

Is that temp probe on the base module or on an expansion module?
 
Were you re-programming it last night before this happened? If so, what was the high temp cut off set to prior to this? What bothers me is this statement:

Turned it back to auto and it shut off.
Click to expand...

That shouldn't have happened unless by some fluke you had the temp originally set higher, modified it in the program, thought you hit 'update' but didn't, then saw the temp rise, went in to the program, update then it went to auto and turned off. I know it's a long shot but that's all I can come up with.
 
I also noted this statement:

"I turned it manually off, checked the set up on the outlet page and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Turned it back to auto and it shut off."

If you had turned the outlet off manually, then set it to AUTO, how did it turn off again? Did it turn back on by itself? Also, are you certain you did not have it set to Manual ON after playing around with the programming and virtual outlets? I know I have done this.
 
Good catch, but I meant to convey that it stayed off, and didn't come back on when switched to auto. I slept with my phone last nite to make sure I would hear any alarms if it did happen again and it hasn't. I have the apex using txt messages.

I've had this running for 2 weeks now during my cycling, and the heater is the only thing I haven't touched. The entire day it worked fine as the logs will show and last night I didnt touch the tank at all.

I appreciated everyone help, I'm willing to say it was some gremlin for now, the apex is an amazing product and the support here even better. I hope this doesn't happen again, but as I posted prior I have set my heater to 80. It was set at 82 so I quess I have some back up there.

I'm more then happy to keep providing further data if people want.
 
Last edited:
As I mentioned earlier, I've had the same Apex gremlins strike, but it's been a long time since anything the the experts here couldn't attribute to my poor programing or other operator error. It is, however, a very good reason to make sure you set up your system for external phone/web access in case you need to remotely fix a problem.

Good luck with your new tank.
 
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