IC40 Surge Card Blown?

[jklocke]

A couple of weeks ago I found my IC40 not working and tracked it down to a blown fuse in the IC40 power center.

Finally got around to replacing the fuse this weekend, and when I threw the breaker for the power center it immediately had smoke coming out of the port for the cable that goes to the salt cell. Thankfully I had disconnected the cable when I was troubleshooting why the power was out.

You can see in the bottom of the picture where the wires look like they got fried so I'm guessing the surge board is also fried, although the green light was on the whole time there was power going to the power center, and the fuse did not blow.

I'm guessing the power center is about 10-12 years old. Am I ok to just replace the surge card with this one - Pentair Kit Surge Board PC100 521034Z? Or would I be better off replacing the entire power center? I'm not sure what the life expectancy is for the power center, although I would guess that the life of the transformer is longer than 10 years.

I appreciate any suggestions and advice any has.

 

[Jimrahbe]

J,

The only way to know for sure is to test it..

The transformer should have about 24 Volts AC coming out of the transformer and going into the surge card.

The surge card takes the 24 VAC and turns it into about 35 to 40 volts DC..

I'd never stick in a new surge card unless I knew for sure the transformer was ok...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[jklocke]

Great point on not putting a new card in there until I know for sure the transformer is ok. Thanks for that.

Any ideas on how to test? Try to get a quick reading while it's smoking? I can't think of any other way to do it. I should be checking on black and red wires, correct?

Thanks-
Jeff

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jeff,

There should be two wires that come from the Transformer and go to the Surge card. You need to use a voltmeter and test between the two inputs.. Check between the two wires and not between each wire and ground, Should be 24 to 30 volts AC..

Not sure on your specific unit, but if the wires just plug into the surge card, you can just unplug one of them.. That will take the surge card out of the circuit..

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[jklocke]

I think they do plug into the surge card, I'll have to check - and find my meter. I haven't seen it since I moved 2 years ago!

Thanks.