My Fog Storm 1700HD is a total piece of junk. First year I had it it lasted about an hour before the switch on the heater tripped and did not reset. I took it apart and reset it for this year. This time it only lasted about 10 minutes before tripping. I didn't have time to take it apart until today. Now it trips and resets after just a short burst of fog. Do you know if I can bypass this or where to get a replacement? I couldn't find a parts list online.
American DJ Fog Storm 1700 HD stopped working, repair.
This is just a short post to pass something along (kind of busy today).
My fog storm 1700 HP worked fine yesterday when I tested it. But last night when I did a run through, it had crapped out.
Was not even warm. It appears the low fluid sensor magnetic float stuck, turning on the little LED in the front and turning off the ability to make fog. Fog tank was more than half full. So it just sat there for the evening.
Today when I had a chance to take it apart I found the overtemp switch on the heater assembly had not reset, pushing it's little plunger fixed that. I'm assuming when it sat there most of the night and did not run once it got hot enough at some point to trip the switch, which might be normal and happen often, but we would never see that, if it resets as it should have.
I found a youtube from American DJ where they say a common problem with their 1200 and 1700 that get sent back is the magnetic float gets stuck. They say if you have fluid and still see the green LED on the front panel, bang the tank up and down a couple times and see if it goes out.
For a long time I couldn't get mine to free up, and was going to just jump the switch in the black plastic housing (under tank). I saw it supplies 12Vdc but did not get the chance to determine if it was a reed or Hall switch. Before I got a small rod and poked in down the floats center hole, finally freeing it.
Hope this helps in case someone else has one of these POS, um.. I mean fine machines...
My fog storm 1700 HP worked fine yesterday when I tested it. But last night when I did a run through, it had crapped out.
Was not even warm. It appears the low fluid sensor magnetic float stuck, turning on the little LED in the front and turning off the ability to make fog. Fog tank was more than half full. So it just sat there for the evening.
Today when I had a chance to take it apart I found the overtemp switch on the heater assembly had not reset, pushing it's little plunger fixed that. I'm assuming when it sat there most of the night and did not run once it got hot enough at some point to trip the switch, which might be normal and happen often, but we would never see that, if it resets as it should have.
I found a youtube from American DJ where they say a common problem with their 1200 and 1700 that get sent back is the magnetic float gets stuck. They say if you have fluid and still see the green LED on the front panel, bang the tank up and down a couple times and see if it goes out.
For a long time I couldn't get mine to free up, and was going to just jump the switch in the black plastic housing (under tank). I saw it supplies 12Vdc but did not get the chance to determine if it was a reed or Hall switch. Before I got a small rod and poked in down the floats center hole, finally freeing it.
Hope this helps in case someone else has one of these POS, um.. I mean fine machines...
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Never mind, I found it. I'm going to order a new one and hope this fixes the problem.
I've determined that my thermostat isn't the problem. It is the sensor on the heater that activates the pump. My thermostat was tripping because it was doing its job. The heater was becoming too hot because the sensor never activated the pump. I cut the wires to the sensor and now it will basically do short burst non stop on automatic mode or whenever I want on manual. I haven't been able to find a replacement part online. They just sell the heaters with the sensors already installed. I'm not paying $100 to replace a heater that works. Any ideas? I'm not very knowledgeable with electronics.
I've determined that my thermostat isn't the problem. It is the sensor on the heater that activates the pump. My thermostat was tripping because it was doing its job. The heater was becoming too hot because the sensor never activated the pump. I cut the wires to the sensor and now it will basically do short burst non stop on automatic mode or whenever I want on manual. I haven't been able to find a replacement part online. They just sell the heaters with the sensors already installed. I'm not paying $100 to replace a heater that works. Any ideas? I'm not very knowledgeable with electronics.
That makes more sense. So running the fogger with the sensor disconnected would probably not allow the heater to actually heat up because it would think that it is already at the proper temp. I put it back together and it seems to be running properly now but I have no faith that it will stay that way. I took a picture of the sensor that was threaded in to the heater. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on where to get another, better sensor.You probably have it mostly right. I would expect the overtemp tripped because the sensor switch didn't open to indicate to the controller the correct temp had been reached. Rather than because the pump didn't run, to keep it from overheating. If it depended on the pump running you couldn't ever just leave it in standby as it would overheat from not making fog. I am also assuming the temp sensor is a normally closed switch that opens when it reaches fogging temp, based on you saying cutting the wire allowed the pump to come one (implying the unit now thinks the correct temp has been reached and the sensor/switch is now open). If it does have a crude switch temp sensor it would go a long way explaining why their ETS (supposed to start reheating before it needs to shutsdown and reheat) doesn't actually work.
If you don't want to (or can't ) take the heater apart to get to the sensor switch (which could look a lot like the overtemp switch w/o the top reset pushrod),
you might be able to add one to the outside of the heater box near the overtemp switch. The trick would be to figure out what the correct temp at that spot is when the machine reaches operating temp. But it might work. If you decide to try I can read the temp of the heater box next to the overtemp sensor on mine.
Here is a video showing a little more detail about how the Fog Storm 1700HD performs: http://youtu.be/cz9uSG6UKy0
It's a switch for the temperature sensor. I don't think the sensor is a safety against overheating because the heater comes on whether the circuit is open or closed. That should be the thermostat's job. I think it's just there to operate the pump when the heater is hot enough to pump fog juice through. It fails pretty miserably at that job too. With the switch in "manual" mode I can fog almost indefinitely. I know eventually I would have to stop and let it heat back up but I was able run it for about a minute of continuous fogging just fine. I didn't want to run it anymore so as not to abuse the pump and waste a lot of fog juice. That was a lot of fog.
I'm a little confused now. Maybe we are speaking about two different parts, or they make the 1700HD in more than one configuration.
The part in your post #7 is the part I am saying is an overtemp safety sensor intended to shut the unit down it if the heater becomes too hot.
Looks like this: http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/1447429512/KSD301_manual_reset_thermostat_16a_250v.html
Note the plunger on the top of both parts, used to manually reset it when tripped by higher than limit temp being reached.
Also note the machine stops heating and making fog when this is tripped, until the machine's case is opened and the plunger pressed back down.
In less complex (cheaper) machines an automatically resetting thermostat (no plunger) is used to divert power from the pump until hot enough to fog properly.
If the rest of your machine is working as intended I do not see how the switch I describe would act as you describe. When this switch has opened the heater no longer can complete it's circuit, and can not reheat again until the plunger is manually pressed.
Perhaps you thought I was calling the item you show in post 15 a safety sensor. I think that item is a temp sensor used to tell the unit it is hot enough to fog.
It could be a switch, and if opened might allow the pump to run. But I suspect that won't help you a lot in the long term.
The new switch is on the temperature sensor, not the overtemp sensor which I did replace with a new one. If the temp sensor ever fails and gets stuck in the closed position (like it did this year) I can manually switch it to an open circuit which will trigger the pump. Upon doing so I could leave the remote in automatic mode but it would run constantly or I would need to switch the remote to manual mode. I would have to push the button every time I wanted fog but it would still be better than not having fog at all.
I hate this machine! I went to test it today for Halloween night only 3 days away and low fluid sensor is stuck. Piece of junk.
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