Osmolator 3155 failed during power bump

[WhiteReef]

I purchased an osmolator 3155 2 weeks ago and has been running fine. However, a few days ago I had a power outage at my house. When the power came back on it failed to start the unit up properly. It was stuck with the red LED lights on and was not reading the water level. When I unplugged the unit and plugged it back in, it started to work just fine.

Since then I have simulated a power outage a few times and it comes back on just fine each time. The unit is installed in the sump, and I am using the single mount bracket for both sensors. When the power goes out the high water switch is tripped as the water in the sump rises. When the power is restored it beeps the normal start up sequence, then goes to the high water alarm. Once the water level is restored by the pumps in the sump, the green light goes on and things are happy.

My concern is that the power outage caused the unit to not restore properly. What can I do to ensure that I don't have a failure like this in the future?

 

[rvitko]

This code of too high and blinking too low light is a general error code (usually related to water damage but other issues can cause it) and will always require a manual reset unfortunately, as will a too low light. This is a safety because such errors can be serious and need attention, for example the tank could be leaking and it makes no sense to add more water. The best would be to avoid the scenarios which cause this.

1) Signal conflict, the float is raised and the optic sensor is detecting air, keep in mind it only detects air vs water so if a bubble were to be caught on it and the float was raised this error will occur. You can use the second magnet to separate the sensors so the float is above the water line in a return pump off situation, this does add the risk that more water can be added before the float would raise so this has to be taken into account. Some changes to plumbing and the sump layout should make it possible to strike a balance between how high the water goes in a return off situation and the need for the safety back up to not be too high up.

2)This could also occur if the pump had failed to prime, they can get airlocked especially if the reservoir ran empty and was just refilled, ten minute run time without top off triggers the too low shut down. If the sump then went to high and raised the float, you could see both. Making sure the pump is free of air by tipping it upside down while submerged will eliminate potential air locks.

3) The last option would be to back up the osmolator with a UPS, but this is generally not needed. You would still have to manually reset power if a too low or signal conflict occurred to restart the unit. It would only prevent this issue if it was being caused by some sort of surge or dip in power or an EMF issue from another near by device on start up.

In general power outages are a rare issue but they can certainly be problematic, I just don't have a surefire answer, their is a chance that a power outage could lead to a failure of the osmolator and many other articles of equipment, but generally they will restart and work normally.

 

[WhiteReef]

Thanks for the reply. I think I will separate the two switches as that probably will help. Also since I was not home when the power bump happened, I am not sure which of the causes were at fault.