£0.43 Fix for Meaco DD8L Dehumidifier

[JafaJones]

Hello, I have a Goldair dehumidifier which is a rebadged version of the unit in discussion and have been having similar problems that I would appreciate any comments and suggestions.
My dehumidifier appears to cycle off, I assume when the humidity reaches the selected level but mostly (but not always), appears to struggle to restart, especially if the fan speed and humidity settings are not at high. I can see the fan show signs of starting to move but in the end, unless I give the fan a nudge, the unit stops with the fault light flashing. I can restart by turning the power off at the wall and on again after 3 seconds at the fan will typically restart if the fan and humidity settings are high or I give the fan a nudge.
My question, could this be a fan motor bearing lubrication issue, and if so I assume I can put a drop of light oil on both bearings but would appreciate any guidance; or is this likely to be an electronic issue.
Your help much appreciated.
Regards
Mike Jones

 

[Sharp740]

I have now reassembled the dehumidifier, and have done some probing on the control PCB:

• The 1.6A fuse (circled in red in photo) is intact (I had already measured this before disassembly)
• I get continuity on the thermal fuse chain, connected between TC1 and TC (confirming yet again that the thermal fuses are indeed intact)
• The -5V and -12V rails are operating and within tolerance (why negative rails? no idea!)
• There are no signs of life of any kind, even if leads are wiggled or components tapped

It looks like I might need a new control board, unless anyone has any other suggestions?

I have the exact same problem.

I can hear a faint hiss when the power is connected, and if I wiggle the connector to the switch board, some of the LED's will just light up a little bit.

Did you end up buying a new control board?

 

[nikakis30]

I made a mistake. The thermistor is shown at post #106.

Ok guys. I replaced the thermistor with a100K finally and the machine worked at full speed for 10 minutes. I hope this is the right value for the thermistor. Here in Greece is summer now so I have to wait a little to be 100% sure.

 

[Lomax]

I can see the fan show signs of starting to move but in the end, unless I give the fan a nudge, the unit stops with the fault light flashing. I can restart by turning the power off at the wall and on again after 3 seconds at the fan will typically restart if the fan and humidity settings are high or I give the fan a nudge.
My question, could this be a fan motor bearing lubrication issue, and if so I assume I can put a drop of light oil on both bearings but would appreciate any guidance; or is this likely to be an electronic issue.

I can't remember the type of motor used for the fan in these machines, but if it's a normal AC motor it depends on a start or run capacitor to get going - if it has one it could be that this has gone bad, a fairly common fault with AC motor driven devices.

Edit: I found this photo of a DD8L fan motor on eBay - it does have a capacitor fitted, it's the small grey plastic box:

I have the exact same problem.

I can hear a faint hiss when the power is connected, and if I wiggle the connector to the switch board, some of the LED's will just light up a little bit.

Did you end up buying a new control board?

No, I picked up a used DD8L instead, which worked out about the same as a new control board. However, this unit also has a fault in that it never turns off! Very frustrating. My plan is to move the control board to my previous unit, just haven't got round to it.

 

[JafaJones]

Thanks very much, I will disassemble and check, is there a way to check if this is faulty?

 

[Lomax]

Thanks very much, I will disassemble and check, is there a way to check if this is faulty?

Not unless you have a multimeter that can measure capacitance - and even then you can't be sure if the ESR has gone too high. Considering how cheap a replacement is (should be no more than £1) I'd just replace it and see if that fixes the problem. With an AC motor that does not start when everything else seems ok (it's getting power, windings are not burned out, etc) I'd say there's a very high probability that the capacitor is at fault.

 

[Lomax]

I will disassemble and check

Having recently had one apart I can confirm that the main fan motor in the DD8L Junior has a 1 microfarad 450 volt P2 class polypropylene starter capacitor. It's hidden under a plastic cover:

 

[daniel.weck]

Meaco DD8L Junior here. Turns itself off after a few minutes, triangle warning light blinks. I am cleaning up the insides, just a little bit of dust, nothing excessive. I noticed that the center of the spinning white honeycomb wheel is a bit damaged, like if the fan motor casing had been rubbing on it. The fan wobble a little, indeed. The white dessication wheel turns slowly, as exepcted. It stops rotating when the warning light comes on (but the fan continues its shut down cycle for a few minutes)

 

[Lomax]

Meaco DD8L Junior here. Turns itself off after a few minutes, triangle warning light blinks. I am cleaning up the insides, just a little bit of dust, nothing excessive. I noticed that the center of the spinning white honeycomb wheel is a bit damaged, like if the fan motor casing had been rubbing on it. The fan wobble a little, indeed. The white dessication wheel turns slowly, as exepcted. It stops rotating when the warning light comes on (but the fan continues its shut down cycle for a few minutes)

This could be because it's overheating, which would happen if the heater fan motor has stopped working. This is mounted on the lower part of the desiccant wheel, on the opposite side to the heater element. You can run the machine with the covers off, attach the water level sensor with some tape to the water tank (or just stick a magnet on it) or the machine will stop with a full tank warning. You should be able to see the heater fan motor spinning.

 

[daniel.weck]

Well, guess what ... after spending several hours dismantling every single part (thankfully most screws are identical, so no need to record their location), checking + cleaning every possible offending item ... my Meaco DD8L Junior works again! I have only used the laundry/max mode so far, and this has been running faultlessly for about 8h now! Perhaps the "smart" humidity control modes will fail when I next try it, we'll see (sensor defects?)

I didn't disassemble the motor that drives the white dessicant wheel, as it was working / rotating fine. However there was a funny moment when it made a regular clicking noise, just as I was running an intermediary test during reassembly. So I removed it, re-positioned it, and the noise stopped. It is mounted on rubber inserts, perhaps I screwed it in too tight first time around ... not sure.

I guess I was lucky.

This could be because it's overheating, which would happen if the heater fan motor has stopped working. This is mounted on the lower part of the desiccant wheel, on the opposite side to the heater element. You can run the machine with the covers off, attach the water level sensor with some tape to the water tank (or just stick a magnet on it) or the machine will stop with a full tank warning. You should be able to see the heater fan motor spinning.

 

[lustyd]

I have to say well done to Simondjuk for this thread which seems to bimble on with a couple of posts a month and continue giving more and more people value. I don't think I've ever seen such a slow burning thread that stays on the front page so well!

 

[GettingWetter]

Hope no one minds me resurrecting this.
I have a Meaco DD8L which had been working well for months until it tripped the fuse box during the night twice last week.
Now it trips the fuse immediately when powered on, as long as, or as soon as, the water collector is fitted.

With the water collector removed I can power the machine on and it will happily sit in its 'dormant' state.

I'm happy enough dismantling and repairing but I wondered if anyone might be able to point me in the right direction with this.
Many thanks.,

 

[GettingWetter]

Just to add some more information -
I'm finding that with the unit plugged in and the breaker for my circuits off (I.E. no live to the socket or device),
turning on anything else, such as lighting, will result in my main breaker tripping.

This only happens with the DD8L plugged in, and live is not connected to it, so it's a neutral-related issue?

Measuring neutral to earth on the prongs of the DD8L plug shows 20ohms, which does seem unusual.

Neutral runs to its post on the enclosed main board, where it's joined by an additional black wire.
Separating the two I can confirm that the black wire, alone, has 20ohms to earth.

Not sure what that wire is, yet, but it seemed like very relevant info.

 

[GettingWetter]

Heh, sorry to anyone reading this bump - Problem is solved.
I followed that black wire and found it runs directly into the heating element.

Removing that unit it was clear that the element was unevenly coiled/bent, and that in at least one place it was brushing against the outer casing.

Gently persuading it into a better position has solved the problem, although no doubt temporarily.

At least it's a nice easy one - Hopefully the description will help someone else, at some point.

 

[lustyd]

Good to see the protections working as designed

 

[GettingWetter]

No kidding!

 

[Tim-JS]

Hi, apologies for jumping into someone else's thread, but it looks like a great idea/resource to have it all together.
I have an apparently dead Meaco DD8L Zambezi which I'm hoping will also be a simple fuse fix, but I cant work out how to remove the handle in order to get at the screws underneath it.
If anyone knows how to do this, please could you post an explanation.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Tim-JS]

Hi, apologies for jumping into someone else's thread, but it looks like a great idea/resource to have it all together.
I have an apparently dead Meaco DD8L Zambezi which I'm hoping will also be a simple fuse fix, but I cant work out how to remove the handle in order to get at the screws underneath it.
If anyone knows how to do this, please could you post an explanation.
Thanks in advance.

Haha, scrap that Q, i've worked it out...
If anyone else comes across this and is also struggling, there's a "notch" in the holes that the handle goes into, and a plastic stud (?) on the handle fitting inside the hole.
If you hold the handle approx 30-40 degrees from vertical, you can ease the handle stud through the hole one side at a time.
It needs quite a strong tug to ease it out, but it does come...
Good luck.

 

[stardoorst]

Hi Tim-JS, have you fixed your Meaco Zambezi? I have two dead Meaco Zambezi dehumidifiers. They failed soon after the warranty expired. 5V is present on the pcb with the display but no signs of life. I am looking for a solution how to fix my dehumidifiers. Does anyone have any idea what more should I check?

 

[Simon_Kershaw]

Hi,
in reply to Redness, I had a fault on my DD8L - it would switch on normally, run for about a minute and then stop with the orange warning triangle illuminated.

I tracked this problem down to a faulty fan that blows air over the heating element, I managed to get a replacement part from ebay.
I reckon that with this fan not working the heater quickly overheats, hence causing the machine to shutdown.

I now unfortunately have another fault - not quite so terminal as the previous one though. I now find that I can only get it to run at its 'normal' setting . If I try to run it slower on its lowest power setting it stops after a few minutes. I'm not sure whether this is related to the low temperature it's operating at, at the moment (about 4 degC - its in a workshop). Has anybody any ideas?

Hello JW2021,
I have a DD8L with the same problem. Would you have the ebay link for the new fan part please? Also how does the top come off - I’ve underdone the two screws either side of the grill on the top , does it prize off or are there hidden screws/clips?