"New school"...junk?

[northcal]

I'm drywalling a brewshed these days. In the middle of mudding and taping yesterday and I go to hook up a small electric heater up to my Ranco digital temp controller for the night to keep the mud warm while it dries.

Should be no problem right?, especially since I've been doing this for the past few nights with no problem.

Well I plug the controller in and set the temp, but instead of displaying the current temp it says "E2". Messed around with the settings, but it won't work anymore.

OK, easy fix.. I'll just get the other Ranco. So I get my other one hooked up and I'm adjusting the temp down, I over shoot and press the up button, but it doesn't work! Temp is stuck at 50 degrees or lower...

What are the odds that two previously working Rancos both take a dump on the same day??

Well, I just plugged my 1970's electric heater in and set it on LOW, hopping that it would be enough heat, but not too much.

Well it worked, 65 degrees in the morning, but sometimes this new fancy equipment sucks!

:smack:

Rant over,

 

[bajaedition]

it wasnt chance

the heater drew to much power for the rancos rating and it fried the contacts

I know the ranco is suppose to be good for 16 amps
but with a resistance heater we need to consider the continuous load and do some derating

so we go 16 amps rating, at 80 percent and get and get 12.8 amps, that is the safe normal load for the contact

now derate that for continuous load. 12.8 x 80% and get 10.24 amps

 

[northcal]

Maybe baja? or maybe not?

I checked them again this morning after doing some digging online. Someone else had "E2" and "fixed" it by changing the temp differential and/or the Celcius/F.

Well that did fix it. Seems to work but when I change it back to the settings last night it doesn't work. If I can get used to C, I guess it works but I can't trust it.

The second Ranco still has the broken UP button!

The heater is a 1500W unit, I had it set to MEDIUM.

Thanks,