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screen printing => Equipment => Topic started by: Homer on June 13, 2012, 03:27:43 PM
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we have been running our dryer -it's a 60" vortex- for about an hour, then all of a sudden the safety alarm went on and the dryer shut down. According to the manual, it's saying we are not getting a flame. So I have some spare flame rods here, but I'm not too sure how to tell if the old ones are shot. Will they look corroded or do they just burn out? I'm waiting to hear back from the guy we picked it up from but I'm kind of stuck at the moment. anyone have any ideas what else it could be?
Oh - one of my guys said he saw a spark next to the gas train, near one of the solenoids. We checked all the wiring and I can't find anything loose or burnt out. It blew a fuse in the main panel, we replaced it but I gotta find out what caused that spark. any ideas what to look at?
Sonny -I will try him, but I hate to bug the guy. .
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Homer, try Darryl Kuebler at All-Pro Service, allprosvc1@aol.com
Steve
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Ahhh, welcome to the world of gas.
I'd say try replacing the flame rod and see if it changes anything.
If it is predictable, watch the flame and see if it actually goes out before the alarm
goes off.
The flame rod is super high voltage (small amperage though) so that could be your spark.
The wire for it is pretty special stuff and needs to be in good condition.
Check everything else though; gas pressure, air filters, valves, etc.
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we have been running our dryer -it's a 60" vortex- for about an hour, then all of a sudden the safety alarm went on and the dryer shut down. According to the manual, it's saying we are not getting a flame. So I have some spare flame rods here, but I'm not too sure how to tell if the old ones are shot. Will they look corroded or do they just burn out? I'm waiting to hear back from the guy we picked it up from but I'm kind of stuck at the moment. anyone have any ideas what else it could be?
Oh - one of my guys said he saw a spark next to the gas train, near one of the solenoids. We checked all the wiring and I can't find anything loose or burnt out. It blew a fuse in the main panel, we replaced it but I gotta find out what caused that spark. any ideas what to look at?
Sonny -I will try him, but I hate to bug the guy. .
You willl not be bugging him. He is on the road picking up two primo Ray Pauls.
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Can you take a pic of the flame rod and post it here or send it to me via email? I know what our's looked like when it was the culprit of our dryer downtime so I can at least tell you that it looks better, the same, or worse than ours did.
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so here's the deal. yesterday, we had a guy from the electric and gas company snooping around, looking to shut off the gas for the building next to us. . .we had the dryer running for about an hour -so we think the guy shut off our gas, and we were running on what was charged in the lines. . .so as of now, we don't think we are getting gas in the building and I do not have anything else that runs on gas to even check. For the hell of it, we took out one of the plugs in the gas train, and we didn't smell gas, so we are pretty sure that's the culprit. I have to wait until morning to call the gas company. this whole gas thing is totally new to me so my first thought was machine went down. I never would have thought we didn't have gas, we JUST turned it on about a week ago. . .but on the good side, M&R said they are sending out my CPU tonight so the auto will be going again tomorrow. . but the dryer next to it may not work. it took us all day to work our way down to this conclusion. . .I wonder if I can bill them back for time lost.
if this doesn't work, or isn't the problem - I'll take pics of everything and see what is going on here. thanks guys.
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Homie, even our computerized residential smart meter still has a manuals shut-off valve for emergencies.
Can you see if your meter has the same? Perhaps that's all it is.
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take out the rod and the spark plug and clean them with a wire brush. Then try again. Thats helps us on the International.
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Your dryer should have a pressure gauge on or near the inlet, that'll tell you if it's
the culprit.
Turning the gas off and on to your shop is easy and should probably be common knowledge
in case of a line break before any shutoff valves.
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our Raypaul has a high/low gas pressure cutoff - too much or too little pressure and it cuts the gas - there should be a reset switch somewhere...
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yeah there are two gauges, a high and a low, and 3 shut offs. I had to adjust the pressure according to the blueprints, they were off a bit. I was talking to Todd @ Interchange and he helped me narrow down a few things. Basically what was happening is the dryer would fire up, run for an hour or two then shut itself off. Like a high temp switch was stuck or something. Then it wouldn't fire back up for a day or more. So I thought maybe a relay was shot or bad wiring or a pressure regulator went bad. I spent a day tracing all the wires, testing relays and they were all fine. I took out the flame rod and it was 7.25" long, the blueprints say to cut it down to 4.5" - so i did and it fired right up, ran all day yesterday. I know nothing about gas or burners -any of this stuff so I'm learning as I go. Thanks guys for the input, I really appreciate it. J
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interchange is good people.
If you need a new dryer, I would certainly give them a shot...especially after winston stopped by here. He had nothing but praise for their work.
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interchange is good people.
If you need a new dryer, I would certainly give them a shot...especially after winston stopped by here. He had nothing but praise for their work.
kicker is I was lining up to buy one from Winston then Rick called me with this deal and yada yada, couldn't pass it by. . we'll see how good of a deal I got once we get really grinding out some shirts.
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interchange is good people.
If you need a new dryer, I would certainly give them a shot...especially after winston stopped by here. He had nothing but praise for their work.
I bought a new Interchange dryer and had nothing but problems! I bought a new M&R and it is quiet and can keep up better, it also uses less gas.
The only reason people buy an Interchange is that they have a beef or don't want to buy M&R. M&R is a QUALITY dryer. I think Interchange is in a smaller building than we are! Interchange service is lacking too. They may be NICE people but we needed a dryer that would work and not shut off 4-5 times a day! When we would call them at Interchange hell the office is only there once in awhile.
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Yeah, I had to get rid of an M&R dryer that was a POS. The interchange dryer is an awesome dyer. I asked the former M&R tech what dryer he would recommend and he turned me onto the interchange. Winston paid a visit to my shop a couple weeks back and was pointing out the differences between the 2 dryers and reaffirmed my decision.
I did have the motor fail about 6 months after the dryer was installed. They didn't even show a record of that brand motor ever being purchased. They got me a new motor and tech to come install it. The problem was fixed in a day...no problems since.
Homer, how was your tech support from interchange?
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Homer!
Congrats for learning to catch your own fish. It is not rocket science.
A flame rod detects the pressence of the flame. It needs, in most cases,
to be at or above 1.25 milliamps DC to operate correctly. They should be
inspected monthly, cleaned, they can be buffed lightly with 400 sandpaper.
Use anti-seize thread compound, and don't over tighten into the burner. Make
sure all wire is in good condition (ground wire included), and all terminal connections
are snug. Do not loose ceramic insert, which help insure, no arcing thru burner wall. All dryers manufactured in the marketplace, should conform to National Safety Codes! Period. All dryers
per code should have a Low Pressure & High Pressure Switch, an Air Flow Switch, And A
High Temp Switch. They also have to have a Double Safety Cut Off Valve. If memory serves
me correct, on a Precision Vortex if it is factory wireing, (check your schematics) Put
a Electrical voltage meter on wire #2(neuteral) and the other on#4 Low Pressure,#5High Pressure,
#6High Temp Switch,#7 Air Flow Switch. Where the 120 volt stops, is where the fault lies on
the safety circuit. Bingo. If you have power thru all above, then it is loss of flame (flamerod).
ALL Dryers should run troublefree, as long as the components are in good condition and have
PROPER MAINTANCE!!! As far as one dryer,out performing, another? Show Me the Data! Not
speculation of what a Salesman, or Manufacture is pitching for the day! The numbers don't lie,
the others? Well.....To each his own!
Alan! You need to post that pic, you sent me, of that "newly changed" flame rod. It was so
pitted, you could use it as a saw.
Winston
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B- Marc and Todd at Interchange couldn't have been more helpful. They could have said piss off, you didn't buy from me but they didn't. Great guys -I do like the guys I have worked with @ M&R too so there is no battle in book.
Winston - I am printing that out and putting it my note book for the dryer. I pulled out the flame rod and damn thing was over 7" long! I cut it down with the dremel and it's been running like a champ for the past 2 days. It did not have the ceramic insert on it by the way. I need to buy a back up set of rods so maybe they will have the inserts on them?
What does a typical maintenance schedule look like for a gas dryer? I am assuming cleaning the filter, check for wear on the flame rod, clean exhaust hood?
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Homer I know you,ve been ask a 1000 times already, but how do you compare the gas dryer to your old electric, besides maybe the electric bill? I know alot of ppl say gas is cheaper, but is there any other reason.
Darryl
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D -we went from a 24" x 10' national to a 60" x 30' vortex. The bottle neck at the dryer is gone, discharge in one pass down the tunnel instead of 2. We can run 3 presses at the same time and still keep up. as far as cost vs electric, no clue haven't got my first bill yet!
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We are averaging $670 in electrical savings versus our old dryer that was a gas/electric combo. And the fact that you'll likely not have a bottleneck there makes it a no brainer for those who can go gas. Hell, get a propane tank installed if you don't have gas hookup in your shop.
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Thats what we need is a larger dryer the one we have now is doing the job, but still it can't keep up with the press at full speed or is it I can't keep up LOL its one of the two.
Darryl