ACS Minima seems to have died today

alexgab

Posting to see if anyone has any ideas. I’m based in the US and bought my Minima about 5 years ago from 1st-line.

A couple days ago, my steam boiler overheated to about 145C. Pressure valves did their job but my PID display got steamy and appeared to have taken on some water. I let it dry out and yesterday, everything worked fine.

Today, I turned on the machine and just as the steam boiler was getting up to temp (125C), the machine shut off. The machine is effectively dead. Flipping the on/off toggle doesn’t do anything.

I’m wondering if I should replace the PID? Does anyone know how I can procure one? 1st-line here does not stock them and hasn’t been particularly helpful.

Any other parts I should consider replacing while I’m at it?

DavecUK

alexgab Today, I turned on the machine and just as the steam boiler was getting up to temp (125C), the machine shut off. The machine is effectively dead. Flipping the on/off toggle doesn’t do anything.

I’m wondering if I should replace the PID? Does anyone know how I can procure one? 1st-line here does not stock them and hasn’t been particularly helpful.

The part of the PID you see on the machines panel is simply a display piece, the main PID is inside the Gicar box (brain box of the machine). You should not need to replace anything..

alexgab Today, I turned on the machine and just as the steam boiler was getting up to temp (125C), the machine shut off. The machine is effectively dead. Flipping the on/off toggle doesn’t do anything.

This bit I am not sure about as whether a heating element cable is attached or not, shouldn’t make any difference. So perhaps something else is going on as well. You will need a multimeter to check power methodically from the mains cord and then on into the machine. It’s possible the arcing at the heating element terminals has caused a large current draw affecting something else along the mains input line that may have burnt out. e.g. the line cord connection into the machine or even into the wall socket etc..

Clearly the connector has been loose and arcing, finally causing the plastic to melt. They are a standard crimp on electrical connector of the “faston” type. They require a special crimp tool to fit them.

https://tinyurl.com/24cbwala

The tools from amazon are cheap and probably don’t make the crimp as well as the professional tool, but it shouldn’t matter.

alexgab

Quick update - I took apart the covers and looked around. It looks like this connection under the steam boiler got toasted pretty good.

Any advice on what this connector is, and how hard it might be to replace?

alexgab

Thanks for the pointers, @DavecUK

i got the replacement connectors and swapped them out under the boiler and at the power inlet.

Put things back enough to try and power it on. It turned on and the display flashed “100” for about a second before it died again.

Subsequent attempts to turn it on/off failed.

i suppose next steps would be to find a multimeter and test each connection.

DavecUK

alexgab Put things back enough to try and power it on. It turned on and the display flashed “100” for about a second before it died again.

The 100 or 106, whatever is the firmware number as it boots.

It certainly sounds as if something is tripping/burning out. How about you tell us more about the electrical system, fuse board, types of breakers etc..

alexgab

Ah I see. I’ve had it connected to a Kasa Smart Plug HS103P2, rated for 15A. It’s plugged into an outlet that is on a 20A circuit (seen on the breaker)..however I also noticed that the outlet itself is not a GFCI receptacle (does not have the T slot).

The boilers have always been set to sequential heating.

I’ll take some pictures in the morning of the rest of the circuitry in the machine but none of them seemed to have obvious damage.

DavecUK

alexgab Well first thing is take it off the smart plug, in case it’s gone bad (which can happen)…is it still not working?