Quooker PCB short circuited

[Tahirawan11]

Hi,

I have a quooker water heater in my kitchen. I was on holiday last month. When I came back I found that the water heater is not working. On inspecting, I found that water has leaked from the tank and caused a short circuit in the PCB. I would like to know how can I perform troubleshooting to identify the failed components and then if it can be repaired? See pictures for details

I can turn ON the quooker and it seems to work but after some time the LED flashed 4 times which indicates an error in the PCB

I am a newbie in electronics and only have a multimeter to do any diagnosis.

thanks in advance

 

[Bluejets]

New parts to the damaged area.
Not a lot one can do with what you have there as far as I can see.

 

[Tahirawan11]

New parts to the damaged area.
Not a lot one can do with what you have there as far as I can see.

Thanks but how can i check which components of PCB (relays, resistors etc) are blown ? First i was thinking there must be a fuse that is blown in case of short circuit but i dont find any in the board

 

[Bluejets]

What makes you think there is anything blown on the control board?
From the looks of it , it's been a bad connection on a high current load that has taken out a connector.
That in turn appears to be driven via a relay (output drive is isolated from the other pcb coponents) so my guess would be, board is more likely than not, ok.

 

[73's de Edd]

Light reflections are letting me see that . . . . .That board seems to have a good sprayed on conformal coating except possibly / likely directly UNDER the IC's and relays. A drop of water hiding there can take days to evaporate internalward.
If my situation, I would be warming up my oven to 250 and taking that board and submerging its bottom inch into a tray of 70% iso alcohol . . .or vodka.
Then do a heavy and forceful swishing around in it.
Then you transfer it to that warmed up oven to do two or so d e e e e e e p drying cycles after the oven is turned off.
When you repeat the heat again after chill down.

 

[Tahirawan11]

Light reflections are letting me see that . . . . .That board seems to have a good sprayed on conformal coating except possibly / likely directly UNDER the IC's and relays. A drop of water hiding there can take days to evaporate internalward.
If my situation, I would be warming up my oven to 250 and taking that board and submerging its bottom inch into a tray of 70% iso alcohol . . .or vodka.
Then do a heavy and forceful swishing around in it.
Then you transfer it to that warmed up oven to do two or so d e e e e e e p drying cycles after the oven is turned off.
When you repeat the heat again after chill down.

Thanks for the reply and i will give it a try and by the way do you know the name of the the horseshoe connector? I could not find it on the market

 

[Bluejets]

They (both plug and socket) will be oem parts.

 

[Coen]

I had a Quooker with the same connector failure, but only found that out during replacement of the carbon filter. Since the unit still shows a flashing led, the electronics still seem to work. During startup it checks a number of safety related parameters. But the connection to the heating element is not one of them. I can disconnect it and it still will start without an error. It is more likely that it sees a problem with the temperature sensors and/or the connection to the tap. If you pull out the small 3.5mm connector, it will also show the flashing leds (4 times). But if it is a problem with the temperature sensor, it will flash 3 times.
So it is more likely that you have a problem with the connection to the tap (the small connector) and/or the electronics checking the analog values (it is a number of resistors linked in serial that create a specific voltage that needs to be within a specific range).

 

[Tahirawan11]

I had a Quooker with the same connector failure, but only found that out during replacement of the carbon filter. Since the unit still shows a flashing led, the electronics still seem to work. During startup it checks a number of safety related parameters. But the connection to the heating element is not one of them. I can disconnect it and it still will start without an error. It is more likely that it sees a problem with the temperature sensors and/or the connection to the tap. If you pull out the small 3.5mm connector, it will also show the flashing leds (4 times). But if it is a problem with the temperature sensor, it will flash 3 times.
So it is more likely that you have a problem with the connection to the tap (the small connector) and/or the electronics checking the analog values (it is a number of resistors linked in serial that create a specific voltage that needs to be within a specific range).

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and it is good to know that someone knows about the Quooker in this forum, I have a Quokker PRO3 model. I have recently replaced the tap as the last one was not working and the service technician told me to change the tap and in doing so i had to change the electronics as well.
Anyway this time after reading the previous posts in the thread I understood that electronics should still be fine as there was no visible damage present, so I cut the switch and replace it with 3x cableshoe pins as I could not find the same connector in the market. Once I reassembled the Quooker, it started normally and it seems to 'work' fine as there was no LED blinking and after 30 minutes i used the tap and the came but it was cold and it seemed that the quooker never heated the water. And when I restarted the Quooker now it blinks 4 times after the restart.
I don't want to spend a huge amount again on the tap or the PCB and i guess the damage i have is not covered under warranty? But i was wondering if there is any place where I can find the 'temperature sensor'. Should I use the multimeter to check and the Continuity test ?
The quooker does not sell Temperature sensor as a service part but only replace the entire container. And I am not sure what to replace the PCB (electronics) of the container.

 

[Martaine2005]

submerging its bottom inch into a tray of 70% iso alcohol . . .or vodka.

Drink the vodka and use isopropyl. You can thank me later

Martin

 

[Coen]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and it is good to know that someone knows about the Quooker in this forum, I have a Quokker PRO3 model. I have recently replaced the tap as the last one was not working and the service technician told me to change the tap and in doing so i had to change the electronics as well.
Anyway this time after reading the previous posts in the thread I understood that electronics should still be fine as there was no visible damage present, so I cut the switch and replace it with 3x cableshoe pins as I could not find the same connector in the market. Once I reassembled the Quooker, it started normally and it seems to 'work' fine as there was no LED blinking and after 30 minutes i used the tap and the came but it was cold and it seemed that the quooker never heated the water. And when I restarted the Quooker now it blinks 4 times after the restart.
I don't want to spend a huge amount again on the tap or the PCB and i guess the damage i have is not covered under warranty? But i was wondering if there is any place where I can find the 'temperature sensor'. Should I use the multimeter to check and the Continuity test ?
The quooker does not sell Temperature sensor as a service part but only replace the entire container. And I am not sure what to replace the PCB (electronics) of the container.

After restarting the relays (the orange 'blocks') should be actuated (you will hear a distinct 'click' when they engage) after a few seconds. This causes the heating element to get its power.

The temperature sensor is the connector with the 5 pins. You should measure a short circuit between the left 2 pins; on my Quooker the two red wires in the white cable running into the container. You should measure a resistance of about 66kOhm between pin 3 and 5 (green-yellow wire), and about 67kOhm between pin 4 and 5 (orange-yellow), and about 133kOhm between pin 3 and 4 (green-orange).
Mind you that these values are measured on my version, a Combi 3.0E from 2011.

 

[Tahirawan11]

After restarting the relays (the orange 'blocks') should be actuated (you will hear a distinct 'click' when they engage) after a few seconds. This causes the heating element to get its power.

The temperature sensor is the connector with the 5 pins. You should measure a short circuit between the left 2 pins; on my Quooker the two red wires in the white cable running into the container. You should measure a resistance of about 66kOhm between pin 3 and 5 (green-yellow wire), and about 67kOhm between pin 4 and 5 (orange-yellow), and about 133kOhm between pin 3 and 4 (green-orange).
Mind you that these values are measured on my version, a Combi 3.0E from 2011.

Ok, good i will measure those resistances but just to be sure do i need to measure them while power is off?

 

[Martaine2005]

Never measure resistance while the circuit is powered.
Not only will you get incorrect results, you may cause damage to the circuit, multimeter or yourself.

Martin

 

[Tahirawan11]

Never measure resistance while the circuit is powered.
Not only will you get incorrect results, you may cause damage to the circuit, multimeter or yourself.

Martin

Many thanks, i learned something new

 

[Coen]

You will even have to unplug the connector and measure it on the connector itself. Measuring 'in circuit' will also give other values.

 

[Tahirawan11]

After restarting the relays (the orange 'blocks') should be actuated (you will hear a distinct 'click' when they engage) after a few seconds. This causes the heating element to get its power.

I restarted the cooker few times and tried to listen to the distinct ‘click’ but I did not heard any sound from the relays and you are correct about theses clicks as i remember the click sound as well but now does it mean i should just replace both the relays with new ones? Or is there any other means (eg multimeter) to test them before desoldering?

The temperature sensor is the connector with the 5 pins. You should measure a short circuit between the left 2 pins; on my Quooker the two red wires in the white cable running into the container. You should measure a resistance of about 66kOhm between pin 3 and 5 (green-yellow wire), and about 67kOhm between pin 4 and 5 (orange-yellow), and about 133kOhm between pin 3 and 4 (green-orange).
Mind you that these values are measured on my version, a Combi 3.0E from 2011.

 

[Coen]

These relays are controlled by software running on the PIC16 controller. The software detects a problem and does not activate the relays but only starts flashing the led. This 'diagnostic feedback' does not provide any details about what is wrong, so now it becomes very difficult to determine what to do next. There are many test points on the PCB, but I do not have a working and accessible version at hand to measure the actual values to compare with yours.

Maybe you can use your new one to compare the values and try to find out what is wrong...