Light Fixture will not turn off

[gnashty]

I have a 72" Aquatiflife T5 fixture with one of those built in digital timers. Today when I tried to turn the whites off they wouldnt. It shows the whites are in the "off" position but they stay on. Ive hit the reset button and unplugged, plugged in multiple times with no results....

I emailed aquaticlife customer support, I imagine the timer went bad. They are pretty good so I imagine they will send me a new timer even though im 2 months out of warranty.

Just figured Id drop a line here in case someone else had it happen and knew what the issue is...

 

[ichthyoid]

That's often the sign of a 'hung' relay (aka- it's stuck).

FWIW- usually caused by the control/coil going bad (open) in the 'on' position. You actually got lucky. It could have stuck in the 'off' position.
Someone smiled on you and decided you have had enough issues lately!

 

[gnashty]

ichthyoid;624437 wrote: That's often the sign of a 'hung' relay (aka- it's stuck).

FWIW- usually caused by the control/coil going bad (open) in the 'on' position. You actually got lucky. It could have stuck in the 'off' position.
Someone smiled on you and decided you have had enough issues lately!

That does look at in another perspective. Although the whites heat up the tank an additional .5 degree or so per hour so Im glad I caught it. tank was 81 (from 78.5) and rising. I need to get the chiller in....still sitting in the box in the family room.

 

[rbredding]

ichthyoid;624437 wrote: That's often the sign of a 'hung' relay (aka- it's stuck).

FWIW- usually caused by the control/coil going bad (open) in the 'on' position. You actually got lucky. It could have stuck in the 'off' position.
Someone smiled on you and decided you have had enough issues lately!

can you get in there and replace it?

 

[hhughes]

Obviously, what you have here is a "Ring" style haunting. Unplugging the permanently-on electronic device will only escalate this situation and cause the spirit to materialize and proceed to phase 3 of the horror movie. (Phase one; "do this and get haunted", Phase two "whoops, did that"...etc.)

The only proper course of action at this point in the movie is to get on the phone and locate not only an old AND young priest, but also a few hardcore wiccans and psychics. Invite them to your house (preferably, schedule the appointments 15-20 min apart to avoid any denominational upsets.) These measures will at least delay the spook long enough for you to get to holy ground, where you can only hope that the resident holy man will let you camp until the spirit in question finds resolution to its earthly conflicts.

 

[rbredding]

I laffed...

 

[hhughes]

(It goes without saying, I think, that if you have desecrated any burial grounds or insulted anyone's ancestors lately, you should probably start finding a way to make amends.)

 

[cr500_af]

hhughes;624490 wrote: Obviously, what you have here is a "Ring" style haunting. Unplugging the permanently-on electronic device will only escalate this situation and cause the spirit to materialize and proceed to phase 3 of the horror movie. (Phase one; "do this and get haunted", Phase two "whoops, did that"...etc.)

The only proper course of action at this point in the movie is to get on the phone and locate not only an old AND young priest, but also a few hardcore wiccans and psychics. Invite them to your house (preferably, schedule the appointments 15-20 min apart to avoid any denominational upsets.) These measures will at least delay the spook long enough for you to get to holy ground, where you can only hope that the resident holy man will let you camp until the spirit in question finds resolution to its earthly conflicts.

Gary, send 'em over when you finish up to make my acropora polyps extend at least once a month if you don't mind...

 

[sonofdagon]

Last year I almost bought the 36" 6 tube version of that until I thought about the internal timer failing. I bought the simpler Tek light at about the same cost. I hope the customer service treats you right.

 

[gnashty]

Just talked to James at customer service with Aquaticlife....awesome experience. First thing he said was I will get one out to you ASAP once I told him what the issue is.

I am one of 3 documented cases of this since they were sold. It is a bad relay as bill suggested. Im out of warranty but they are overnighting me a relay to install myself. It is quite a booger to get to and requires tearing the fixture down almost entirely but they are sending me directions. They said it shouldnt take more than 15-20 minutes. then I send the old relay back so they can troubleshoot so this doenst happen to anyone else or at least they can find out why...

Bill - you wanna help install?

 

[ichthyoid]

gnashty;624695 wrote: Just talked to James at customer service with Aquaticlife....awesome experience. First thing he said was I will get one out to you ASAP once I told him what the issue is.

I am one of 3 documented cases of this since they were sold. It is a bad relay as bill suggested. Im out of warranty but they are overnighting me a relay to install myself. It is quite a booger to get to and requires tearing the fixture down almost entirely but they are sending me directions. They said it shouldnt take more than 15-20 minutes. then I send the old relay back so they can troubleshoot so this doenst happen to anyone else or at least they can find out why...

Bill - you wanna help install?

Of course, just say when.

(nice to know I have not lost my edge

FWIW- I want to see this fail proof relay</em> they come up with. Good luck on that one!

 

[darcurr]

ichthyoid;624725 wrote:
FWIW- I want to see this fail proof relay</em> they come up with. Good luck on that one!

I've got one I'll sell you

 

[gnashty]

ichthyoid;624725 wrote: Of course, just say when.

(nice to know I have not lost my edge

FWIW- I want to see this fail proof relay</em> they come up with. Good luck on that one!

Thanks Bill - they never said fail proof - just want to find the cause of the situation. They said the 2 others it happened to havent shipped back thier old relays. I think that its cool they would at least try to find out "why" vs just shipping a new relay...

 

[ichthyoid]

+1

FWIW- Failure mode analysis is a lost art in our throw away world, IMO.

Cudo's to them for trying. That's one sign of a very good company!
(they don't just perpetuate the same 'ol stuff, but want to improve it)