Simondjuk
Well-Known Member
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.
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.
