How to troubleshoot a channel going offline?

[scyto]

My 240v hot water channel went offline on Jan 25th and has been collecting no data since then.

I checked the connection to the channel 3 block on the GEM and it appears to be ok, i removed both legs of both CTs and re-inserted them. What else should i do to troubleshoot?

--edit--
i did notice the channel has a grey dot instead of green dot on it - what does this mean?

In the UI it shows:
Sat, Feb 20, 2016
Max: -Infinity Watts
Min: Infinity Watts
Avg: NaN Watts

hmm it might actually be the HW heater that is faulty, we had scalding HW out of it, compared to normal when we came home. I guess that would mean that there would be zero reason to heat the water (normally it heats about once every hour / couple of hours).

I actually had temp set to 125F because which was always just nicely warm, so imagine surprise with scalding water, i lowered that, do you think i wonder if i should try the reset switch?

alex

[Teken]

My 240v hot water channel went offline on Jan 25th and has been collecting no data since then.

I checked the connection to the channel 3 block on the GEM and it appears to be ok, i removed both legs of both CTs and re-inserted them. What else should i do to troubleshoot?

--edit--
i did notice the channel has a grey dot instead of green dot on it - what does this mean?

In the UI it shows:
Sat, Feb 20, 2016
Max: -Infinity Watts
Min: Infinity Watts
Avg: NaN Watts

hmm it might actually be the HW heater that is faulty, we had scalding HW out of it, compared to normal when we came home. I guess that would mean that there would be zero reason to heat the water (normally it heats about once every hour / couple of hours).

I actually had temp set to 125F because which was always just nicely warm, so imagine surprise with scalding water, i lowered that, do you think i wonder if i should try the reset switch?

alex

Hello Alex,

1. Channels: In the set up page you can select when the LED will turn green indicating active or power being drawn. If its grey the value you have set (defined) say 5 watts has not been met and hence will be grey.

2. HWT: How old is the hot water tank? When was the last time you did a complete flush and fill? Have you ever had to change out the top / bottom heating elements or TSTAT?

3. What version of the DB firmware are you currently on?

[scyto]

Thanks for the suggestions, based on that I found this http://www.water-heater-repair-guide.co ... oting.html and used it to check the reset switch, tstats and elements.

For some reason (sticky thermostat?) it got super hot yesterday (i didn't take a reading at peak temp) and tripped the reset. Despite pressing it many times yesterday evening the trip stayed tripped.

No evidence that the tstats or electodes are non-functional and the electrodes don't appear to be grounded (assuming i did check right).

This morning it started heating after i pressed the reset and adjusted the thermostats lower. This makes me think one of the thermostats is failing but not yet dead. I think the trip kept tripping on the heater because the tank metal was so hot where the trip touches it. Overnight cooling helped it. Oh i guess the trip could be failing too. But the water really was super scalding hot last night.

I have not had it serviced since i have been in the house (2 years), the pressure release has been checked but not the andode, sediment etc - didn't know until last night that was needed! But awesome i had the GEM and DB to help me see whats going on, was about to call the emergency plumber but now can wait for non-emergency plumber to do regular maintenance next week.

[Teken]

Thanks for the suggestions, based on that I found this http://www.water-heater-repair-guide.co ... oting.html and used it to check the reset switch, tstats and elements.

For some reason (sticky thermostat?) it got super hot yesterday (i didn't take a reading at peak temp) and tripped the reset. Despite pressing it many times yesterday evening the trip stayed tripped.

No evidence that the tstats or electodes are non-functional and the electrodes don't appear to be grounded (assuming i did check right).

This morning it started heating after i pressed the reset and adjusted the thermostats lower. This makes me think one of the thermostats is failing but not yet dead. I think the trip kept tripping on the heater because the tank metal was so hot where the trip touches it. Overnight cooling helped it. Oh i guess the trip could be failing too. But the water really was super scalding hot last night.

I have not had it serviced since i have been in the house (2 years), the pressure release has been checked but not the andode, sediment etc - didn't know until last night that was needed! But awesome i had the GEM and DB to help me see whats going on, was about to call the emergency plumber but now can wait for non-emergency plumber to do regular maintenance next week.

That's great to hear you identified the unit is needing service. It can't be understated if you have little ones don't let them draw a bath / shower until you check the flow of water.

Keep us in the loop as to what the service tech finds and the root cause. I am however a little confused is the DB not recording the values when the system is operating?

That part wasn't too clear to me as you indicated the charts were indicating out of band phrases instead of actual values like 0 watts for low, average say 100 watts, and high being say 4500 watts?

[scyto]

Yup had the guy out to replace the thermostats and the cutout switch. Bah if i had known it was that easy i would have done it myself (probably ) seems ok now.

I hate that emergency service was $300 bucks for $30 of parts and and less than an hours labour. Oh well one can't be an expert at everything and i was leaving on business trip tomorrow so couldn't risk no HW for the wife next week.

But was awesome that the GEM let me see the issues, this morning the reset switch worked, and sure enough the HW came on and never went off - great troubleshooting tool.

[scyto]

Keep us in the loop as to what the service tech finds and the root cause. I am however a little confused is the DB not recording the values when the system is operating?

The issue was that once the reset switch was permanently tripped it shows no draw (not sure why it fluctuated from green to grey and back again a few times - maybe noise in the electrical panel?)

I didn't have any data going back to sometime in Jan - when my GEM apparently hit a bug fixed in latest firmware where the SEG upload and backfill was causing issues.

It is now all running pretty, but you know what it is like, when one has multiple issues it can be hard to sort wheat from chaff!