£0.43 Fix for Meaco DD8L Dehumidifier

Simondjuk

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My Meaco DD8L dehumidifier suddenly stopped working. Completely dead. The fuse in the plug was good so knowing that Meaco charge £70 for a repair, which I wasn't about to spend on a well used dehumidifier, I thought I'd open it up and take a look.

I started by looking at the control panel which houses a glass fuse, this too was good. I then decided to do some basic testing as the thing not having a glimmer of life in it suggested a fairly fundamental issue. On probing the incoming terminals, only two were live, one marked 'L' to which (predictably enough) is attached the live core of the mains flex and the adjacent terminal marked 'TC'. Nearby is a terminal marked 'TC1', which on looking at the back of the board is clearly the supply to the unprotected side of the glass fuse holder, the protected side of which powers the rest of the board. This terminal was at 0 volts, but obviously needed to be at 230 volts for the machine to show any signs of live. 'TC' to 'TC1' tested open circuit.

Tracing the wires down through the unit, which did involve dismantling just about all of it, there are two thermal fuses in the 'TC' - 'TC1' circuit. One was fine, the other was open circuit. I bridged the fuse to test, and the machine worked. Replacement fuses are £0.43 plus P&P from the UK or £3.84 for 5 with free P&P from an eBay seller in Taiwan.

These dehumidifiers, whilst very effective, have a bit of a reputation for failing. The two thermal fuse in question are mounted one each side of the heater element and only rated a 99 centigrade, so it seems quite possible that a modest overheat from a build up of dust or the inlet grille being briefly obstructed could easily cause one to trip. I understand that Meaco generally blame failures on the filter not being cleaned regularly enough. Whilst I suspect that dust inside the machine was the cause of mine stopping working, since the filter was clean but there was plenty of dust inside the machine, it appears it's more a design issue than a lack of maintenance. The filter is after all nothing more than a coarse gauze.

Either way, at 43 pence and about an hour to strip, clean and rebuild once every two years if it lasts as long on its second fuse as it did on its first, I can live with it.
 

gregcope

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You must be well pleased with such a cheap fix!

Wish I as so lucky, my PIR outside light failed. Replacement too 3 hours to sort (mostly wiring).
 

VicMallows

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Thermal fuses seem to be the cause of failure in a great many products, often for no obvious reason.

No doubt mandated by our super-safe culture ......and probably welcomed by the manufacturers who can always answer "better safe than sorry ...it was for your protection ... and NO it worked as intended and is NOT covered by guarantee" :(
 

yotter

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Many thanks for that tip, mine is still working but if it failed out of warranty, I would probably be tempted to just replace rather than fork out £70 so I shall look out the screwdrivers and look for the thermal fuses.

I had another issue with mine, when the tube was fitted for constant drain, the water collector was still filling up and eventually shut the machine down due to being full. Reading the manual (I know), revealed that making a small hole in the top of the drain tube will avert this problem, although in my defence, the manual did not explain the symptoms well.
Angus
 

stupew

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Hi OP.
I have the same model and same problem. So went about starting to strip mine, but I'm on the point of throwing it in the bin! I have taken every single screw I can find out, but the control panel wont come off! There must be some hidden screws somewhere if you could help me please!??
Cheers
Stu
 

rubbishman

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Hi OP.
I have the same model and same problem. So went about starting to strip mine, but I'm on the point of throwing it in the bin! I have taken every single screw I can find out, but the control panel wont come off! There must be some hidden screws somewhere if you could help me please!??
Cheers
Stu

control panel is a stick on plastic strip 4 screws under that,feel for the holes with your finger tips then punch through the stick on strip with a screwdriver.
 

Anders_P42

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I had another issue with mine, when the tube was fitted for constant drain, the water collector was still filling up and eventually shut the machine down due to being full. Reading the manual (I know), revealed that making a small hole in the top of the drain tube will avert this problem, although in my defence, the manual did not explain the symptoms well.
Angus

Thanks for that tip, recently had this issue.
 

Leighb

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I can't recall if my Meaco is exactly the same model, but regarding the plastic tube for continuous drainage, it is - as I have discovered the hard way - vital to make certain that the machine is placed such that it is either plumb level, or with the tube outlet slightly on the "downhill" side. If it is not, then all that happens is that the internal container fills up and the machine switches off.
 

Simondjuk

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As already said, 4 of the control panel screws are hidden under the panel sticker. You can find them by feel, then just push your screwdriver through the plastic film.

When it comes to splitting the two sides of the body, provided you have all the obvious screws out, don't spend too long looking for any more. The two sides simply clip together. Get a thin blade in between the two edges and run it along the length of the join. Near the centre, there is a clip holding the two sides together. Push one edge in while pulling the other out, and the clip will disengage. Hard to explain but you'll see what I mean when you try. It's much more securely held together than you'd think by this simple mechanism and I spent ages looking for hidden screws that weren't there!
 
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Helpful thread guys. I have one of these, but so far, touch wood, not had any issues. Did have a problem with the drain tube, never knew about making a hole in the drain tube though.
 

Simondjuk

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In case anyone else has a failure of this mode and wants to dismantle and rebuild on the same day, I suppose it would have been helpful to point out that the thermal fuse required is an 'Sefuse SF96E', a Google of which term will find you plenty of sources.
 

Gwylan

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Well, don't you just love this place.

I have a bench covered with pieces and was about to chuck the lot.

Will now go and find these fuses and test & fix or give up.

Might have a replacement, non MEACO, to sell.

They [MEACO] wanted me to believe that the voltage on the pontoon was too low for the unit. Sitting there on the phone with the voltmeter showing 234!
 

Ian_D

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Its quite often something simple that causes most new things these days to fail.

Unfortunately things are made as cheap as possible, like they are 'throw away' items now! Which I HATE!

I recently fixed a friends Meaco DD8L - I cant remember exactly what the fault was, but it was something like either the motor became loose, or the fan itself became loose on the motors shaft or something, either way, a fairly easy fix. That said, they are fiddly to get into!
 

Ian_D

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Also, If anyone on here does have any of these Dehumidifiers that are destined for the bin, I would be interested in them - I am wondering if I can use some parts from them for a new custom heating build on my boat... The plan was to try and cobble it all together with my airblown heating system (which I've yet to fit!)

Condition doesn't matter, as all the outer casing will be binned anyway, its mainly the wheel im after inside.

Thanks in advance! Ian
 

Simondjuk

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Well, don't you just love this place.

I have a bench covered with pieces and was about to chuck the lot.

Will now go and find these fuses and test & fix or give up.

Might have a replacement, non MEACO, to sell.

They [MEACO] wanted me to believe that the voltage on the pontoon was too low for the unit. Sitting there on the phone with the voltmeter showing 234!

If one of the thermal fuses is your problem, your unit will have appeared to be completely dead despite a good fuse in the 13amp plug as the thermal fuse is the next thing in the supply circuit to rest of the unit. If you had any lights on the panel or other signs of life in the thing whatsoever, it won't be the thermal fue which is at fault.

If you've got it in bits but all the wires still connected, TC to TC1 on the board terminals (tested on the back of the board with their respective wires connected or on the wires themselves with them removed) will be closed circuit if both fuses are good, open circuit if one or both have tripped.
 
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SteveSarabande

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My junior model failed last night. Not a complete power loss though. It tries to start, the fan pumps out air, then after 15 seconds the red warning light flashes and it goes through it's shut down process

Pain as it has worked well since I got it
 

Anders_P42

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My junior model failed last night. Not a complete power loss though. It tries to start, the fan pumps out air, then after 15 seconds the red warning light flashes and it goes through it's shut down process

Pain as it has worked well since I got it

How old is yours? Mine had same issue, I've yet to send back for warranty repair. I bought another for boat and intend to use the warranty repaired one for flat.
 
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