Osmolator 3155 Float Issue

[ctopherl]

I have a tunze Osmolator that has only been running for about 8 months. Has worked perfectly until now.

Did a water change so I flipped off my power supply killing power to the tunze. After I was done and I turned everything back on, there seems to be an issue with the sensors and electrical connection.

All of the below behavior is happening when the main sensor is clearly out of water. I cleaned the sensor by letting it sit in RO+citric acid today and then wiped with a microfiber.

When turning on, it beeps as normal and the controller shows “level”. After a few seconds, the controller dies completely (lights go off).

When I fiddle with the white electrical connection, the controller kicks back on and alarms with the “high” light on. The sensors are out of water.

When I manually flip the float switch up, the controller switches to “low” and kicks the pump on. The sensor is somehow reading backwards.

Something is up with my sensor connections! Tunze please help!

 

[rvitko]

Can you clarify "white electrical connection"? The only white component is the pump/pump cable. The closest scenarios that match what you describe are-

1) Too high float raised, too high light only, during the 20-25 second start up cycle you may see no lights followed by too high and an alarm. The too high light is red and will be the only light on. The most common causes are a magnet affecting the float, installing the float upside down, disassembling the float and inverting the bobber which reverses the switching direction.

2) Too low within 30 seconds, this generally means a power surge or harsh power cycling erased all settings on the controller including the time limit, one of the more common causes is switching on multiple devices at once including some high loads like large pumps and lights which create a localized power surge, in this case the controller has to come in for reprogramming, the too low light is red.

3) Too high and too low lights on simultaneously, this is the water damage indicator. Both lights are red and the controller will emit a steady beep, beep, beep while the lights flash.

4) Bad pump or wrong power supply connected, the controller steadily turns off and on approx every 5-10 seconds, there is a power overload actuating a safety shut down every time it starts. Verify the power supply being used is labeled Tunze 5012.010, then try with no pump connected, if it stays on, the pump is faulty, but first verify the power supply is correct as without the load of a pump, the wrong power supply may successfully run the unit.

 

[ctopherl]

Can you clarify "white electrical connection"? The only white component is the pump/pump cable. The closest scenarios that match what you describe are-

1) Too high float raised, too high light only, during the 20-25 second start up cycle you may see no lights followed by too high and an alarm. The too high light is red and will be the only light on. The most common causes are a magnet affecting the float, installing the float upside down, disassembling the float and inverting the bobber which reverses the switching direction.

2) Too low within 30 seconds, this generally means a power surge or harsh power cycling erased all settings on the controller including the time limit, one of the more common causes is switching on multiple devices at once including some high loads like large pumps and lights which create a localized power surge, in this case the controller has to come in for reprogramming, the too low light is red.

3) Too high and too low lights on simultaneously, this is the water damage indicator. Both lights are red and the controller will emit a steady beep, beep, beep while the lights flash.

4) Bad pump or wrong power supply connected, the controller steadily turns off and on approx every 5-10 seconds, there is a power overload actuating a safety shut down every time it starts. Verify the power supply being used is labeled Tunze 5012.010, then try with no pump connected, if it stays on, the pump is faulty, but first verify the power supply is correct as without the load of a pump, the wrong power supply may successfully run the unit.

There may actually be two issues happening, I’m not sure.

It sounds like the bobber may be inverted as that is the behavior I’m seeing, although I definitely didn’t take apart the float or change anything intentionally. Is it possible for this to happen incidentally?

There is also the issue that when I first turn on the unit, if I don’t touch anything, it dies.

Here is a video:

 

[rvitko]

It looks like the sole issue is the float, it is upside down in the magnet holder. Moving the float wires is not doing anything, all that is happening is the controller is not actually functioning for 20-25 seconds, in that time it is running self diagnostic tests and the float is disrupting that so you get no display until it finishes the self diagnostic sequence.

 

[ctopherl]

It looks like the sole issue is the float, it is upside down in the magnet holder. Moving the float wires is not doing anything, all that is happening is the controller is not actually functioning for 20-25 seconds, in that time it is running self diagnostic tests and the float is disrupting that so you get no display until it finishes the self diagnostic sequence.

Ah close, the float is installed correctly but the entire magnet holder was upside down. That will do it, d'oh. The lights turning off at the beginning during the startup sequence threw me for a loop and made me think something was wrong as I have never seen that before (it usually kicks on instantly). Thank you for the help (rotated magnet holder back around and it works).