Case 2428
Colged Top Tech TT500 66136
If only I have one unit where I can say it made me swear, that would be it. Actually I had more than one machine that made me speak in foreign tongue. But this one made me learn a few more words I didn’t know existed. Several factors made this case difficult. At first the customer wanted one thing, that the machine gets fixed. But when the result didn't come quickly he became very disagreeable. Lying, yelling even at times. I told him to find someone else to fix the machine and he calmed down, a bit. Just a bit.
Second, the lack of knowledge of the equipment. This manufacturer also made the TT550, successor of the problematic machine. Some changes were obvious and others were more subtle.
Third, I wasn't the first technician to get his hands on this unit.
Here are the problems;
Unit will get error messages, 01, 02,03, 09, SAFE
High limit in the wash tank would trip and disable the unit.
This is what I found. The unit had scale deposits, rinse jets were clogged. This would explain some problems but not all.
Water level was high. The break tank would fill during wash cycle. The tank high temperature limit was tripped.
Error code indicated:
Time out rinse cycle (rinse cycle, did not empty the booster fast enough)
Time out drain cycle (water level did not drop fast enough)
On site I was able to resolve temporarily the high limit problem, the scale but not much else. I will not tell you how many visits I made to this location before I pulled it out and lend the customer a replacement machine for the duration. I know, very nice of me. This was more a question of pride than anything else. Didn’t make money, didn’t even brake even. Customer was a major pain. Beside all of this, I couldn’t let a machine get the better of me. Funny part (because you have to laugh, can’t cry) I ordered some parts for this machine and only for this machine. Guess what? Courier lost the package. I order parts from this supplier on a fairly regular basis and never, (that is never) did I ever have any problems getting parts from them. Of course it had to be this case. Funny, no?
I would like to open a sidebar here and propose the existence of the power of JINX. If I wasn’t a believer before, now I am. Yes, I believe someone is capable to jinx a machine or a project into failure. Hard to prove? Most likely. Anyway you look at it I can’t help myself and say “OH! Come on…” |
| Break Tank |
So here is the machine on my bench. Bravely, I remove all the panels to get a good look inside as it works. I connect the water and the electricity, expecting sparks to fly and explosion to erupt but nothing fantastic happens. It is actually on the side of boring. It heated up and filled a bit much as before. I start the cycle and as before the break tank fills. It’s not suppose to do that.
Now I am going to cut to the chase and tell you what I found. Because I tested the unit, tried different things. Sent emails to the factory. Got the responses. Tried what they offered. Got some parts in. Put some of the parts in. Ordered some more. And this went on for two months. Two months that every time I would look up from my desk I would see this machine on the bench. Every time I turned around, I bumped into this machine. I wanted it out and out bad.
Finally, here is what I found.
1) The bladder in the rinse pump ruptured, causing water from the wash system to mix with the water from the rinse system. This caused also the break tank to fill during wash. 2) The air trap had been position wrong, 90 degrees wrong. Technically you shouldn’t be able to do it but with a little torque it is possible to twist the air trap in the wrong position.
3) The seal on the pump failed so it was replaced.
I ran this unit in the shop for two days before it was delivered to the customer. What happened next? Well, if you’re ever in town, we’ll go for a beer and I tell you the rest.
