Woods Fan Controllers

[studentspark]

A commercial kitchen has two ME 1.6 fan controllers.

Both controls manage to alter the speed of the fans. How ever BOTH controllers do not change in fan speed instantaneously it takes about 10 seconds. (Is this normal)
Also when you rotate the dial, it turns continuously, i.e it does not stop when it reaches 10 on the dial, you can turn the dial 360 degrees and keep on going round and round . Is this a fault or is it how the controller operates.

The owner thinks they are faulty, I just want to check that this is not normal operation before changing them.

Price for these units is weird, some companies charging over £100
but some £40 for the same unit.

Thanks

 

[ricicle]

Are they potentiometers and do the knobs just need tightening onto the shafts ?

 

[ricicle]

I've had a look, they are. See if you can locate a tiny grub screw on the dial and see if it is tight on the pot. shaft. (You will need to get the dial in the correct position first )

 

[oasistechnical]

the controller are triac based units and yes they will not instantly speed up the fan,
they ramp up the voltage/curent to the fan slowly to prevent inrush current to the motor, thereby not overloading the motor/blades

if they are working fine, leave em.

if they are not change em!

we have just completed a refit of a restaurant in town with two controllers
i x 10 amp incoming cool air and 1 x 16 amp (multitapped transformer type unit) for extract (transformer is `tapped at deferent voltages via a multipole switch controller)

is one is a woods unit

hope this helps you

now going back to the alarm side of this forum.

and yep we do commercial and industrial electrical installation works as well as cctv/intruder and fire alarms, my position is Managing Director of all i survey and alarms is my filed of expertise, and my business partner is the electrical engineer in the organization)

Oasis