Top 5 troubleshooting tips for your Secoh blower
Adam Colley
Founder & Managing Director, successful entrepreneur with a wealth of Water and Wastewater knowledge and experience. A business lead with insights to sales, commercials and industry knowledge and experience
Let’s face it, nobody would buy an air blower unless they had a very specific and important use for it. Whether it is for aerating a fish pond or a sewage treatment tank, blower breakdowns can be very frustrating and the immediate risk to both fish and the health of bacteria in a treatment tank are very pronounced.
Secoh air blowers are solid machines and can run for many years without issue - assuming proper maintenance is performed. However, if your blower doesn’t start or has totally stopped, this handy troubleshooting guide will give you the top 5 causes and solutions for when the worst happens and how to remedy it.
1) Secoh Unplugged: No, this is not referring to a stripped back acoustic album of all the best Secoh musical classics, rather, it is referring to the most fundamental of causes for a Secoh blower to ‘not start’ - being physically unplugged from the power supply. It’s very easy to leap to the conclusion that a blower is broken and call out an engineer only to be advised of the importance of plugging in your electrical items if you want them to work.
Action: Plug it in!
2) Damaged Power Cord: Over time, if the blower is not properly installed, the power cord can become damaged causing the Secoh blower to stop working either permanently or intermittently and should be rectified immediately.
Action: Important: Disconnect the power.
Check the cords’ continuity with a multimeter set to the following symbols
Check the multimeter is working by touching the two probes together and wait for a sound or for the display to show a number at or near to 0.00. Then touch each end of the cable with the probe – paying close attention to the colour of the wire to ensure you are probing each end of the same wire. If you hear a continuous sound or the display stabilises at or around ‘0.00’ the cord has continuity.
It may be worth getting a helper to slowly flex the cord while testing it to see if there are any breaks but be aware that small breaks may remain undetected. Replace any power cord if you have reason to suspect internal damage.
3) Power Supply Fault: One issue that could arise is a fault with the power supply itself.
Action: Check the power supply by plugging in another electrical item that is known to be working. If the item powers up, it is safe to assume the power supply is working fine.
4) Auto-Stopper Activation: Most of the Secoh JDK range features a device designed to protect the blower in the case of a torn or warped diaphragm – the Auto-Stopper - essentially a switch that turns the unit off if there is an imbalance between the two opposing diaphragms. Such imbalances can be caused by a diaphragm becoming damaged over time, providing less resistance to the movement of the magnet held between them. If you can see the warning light while the unit is not working, this is very likely to be the cause and is very easily rectified.
Action: Turn off the power. Move the auto-stopper back to its central position, put it all back together and then power the unit back up. If the Secoh blower begins working again without issue, the auto-stopper is likely to have been activated as a false positive.
If the blower begins working and then stops after a split second, it is likely that one or more of the diaphragms are damaged. Replace the diaphragm by purchasing one of these official Secoh diaphragm kits.
http://atacsolutions.com/spares-and-accessories/diaphragm-kits.html
5) Off-set magnet: Secoh blowers function by rocking a magnet, suspended between two diaphragms, back and forth. Sometimes the magnet gets stuck to one of them and the blower will cease to function.
Action: Turn off the power and centralise the magnet. Sometimes the diaphragms have become ‘baggy’ due to overheating, so they no longer hold the magnet as centrally as it should. If you have experienced this problem, you might consider replacing the diaphragms.
So, there we have it. If you experience a problem that is not listed here or want to discuss any of them further why not contact us on 01622 822 400 and we will talk you through it.
Also, it is worth noting that the best approach for preventing any of the above issues is to perform regular maintenance by changing the diaphragms annually and treating your blower to a full service kit every three years. You can purchase a service kit via our website.