FX-101 12.5V – Function and Troubleshooting ThermoElectric Chillers
Introduction to Thermoelectric Chillers
Double Chamber Wine Chiller
[“The purpose of this post is to explain the basics of a Thermo-electric wine chiller. Or any thermo electric cooling appliance. This technology uses a thermo-electric element to cool the chamber of the cooler. These cooling devices are also referred to as Peltier devices. The typical cooling temperatures for these units is between 45 – 75 degrees. The benefit of this type of cooling system is simplicity and cost. As you will see, there can be very few or even no moving parts to make a functional chiller.”]
A Typical ThermoElectric Cooling Element
TEC with Fan on both cool and hot side
[“This picture shows a typical Thermo-electric cooler (TEC). These are driven with a DC voltage in the range of 8V to 24V. You may hear people say hot side and cool side. The hot side for a refrigerator/chiller will always be outside stay as close to room temperature as possible. This allows the cold side to be as low as 40degrees F lower than the cool side and keep everything inside nice and cool. A control board will measure temperature and turn on the TEC to reach the desired temperature. A control board example is made by Foshan Hanyi 0757-83835908 and commonly referred to as FX-101 10.5 and the FX-101 12.5V.”]
Backside of Typical Wine Chiller
Cool Side of TEC refrigerator
[“This shows the back of a popular wine chiller. It has the power/temperature control board on the top and the TEC with the silver heat sink on bottom. Note, this model has a fan on the hotside to keep the hot side as close as possible to room temperature.”]
Backside of Another Typical Wine Chiller (Fan Less)
Heat fins for passive cooling on Vinotemp wine-chiller
[“This picture shows the rear of a Vinotemp wine chiller that uses a large radiator like fins to dissipate the head. This does require some airflow around the unit, but there is not a direct fan driving it. Some Vinotemp models that use this system are VT-BORDEAUX1, VT-BORDEAUX2C, VT-“, “BORDEAUX2H, VT-RIOJA 1, VT-RIOJA 2, VT-RIOJA 4, VT-BLEEKERBAR,VT-KENDALL WB, VT-“, “CHELSEA WB, VT-HAMILTON 3, VT-PORTOFINO3D and VT-BLEEKER2.”]
Critical Connections on Foshan Hanyi 0757-83835908 ( FX-101 10.5 and FX-101-12.5V )
Critical Connections on Foshan Hanyi 0757-83835908 ( FX-101 10.5 and FX-101-12.5V )
[“These are the critical connection on the control board for proper cooling operation.”, “120V should not be below 110V”, “Red light should always be on.”, “Green light is on when the board is trying to cool the chamber. If the chamber has reached its set point, the green light will turn off until the temperature in the fridge cavity rises enough to require cooling.”, “Three other connections from the temperature control know and temperature sensors are also required for the system to start controlling the wine compartment.”]
Measuring Input Voltage
A first basic check to see if the cooler is getting power
[“This is usually good unless there is a problem with the electrical in the residence. If there is not 120V here, it is likely a bad wall socket or a triped circuit breaker in the home.”]
Temperature Control Knob on Vinotemp
Counter Clockwise to make compartment cooler
[“When the knob is set all the way counter clockwise, the control board will cool the beverage cavity until the thermistor reaches 18Kohms. If the knob is set to the limit clockwise, the controller will only cool the chamber until the thermistor is 12K which is almost at room temperature.”]
Measuring the Voltage Drive to the TEC
Control board will send 12V to TEC if green light is on
[“When the green LED is on, there should be no less than 9V on the tabs that go to the TEC. If the red light is on but the green light is not, the board interprets the chiller to be at the desired temperature and does not drive the TEC.”]
Basic Parts for a Two Zone Wine Chiller
This is all that is need to make a TEC fridge.
[“These four pictures show all the basic parts to have a two chamber cooling system. Pretty simple really. And should be very quiet and reliable.”]
Thermal Imaging of a Working Chiller
Great thermal representation of a good working unit.
[“This image shows the hot side and the cool side of a TEC. The top two pictures show the cooling fins in the 40degree farenheight range and the radiator is above room temperature in the 90degree range. This is an image of a working unit.”]
This post is for people trying to diagnose a thermo-electric wine fridge. These appliances work by applying a DC voltage to the Peltier/TEC cooler. Also know as a cooling node, there are two things critical for these chillers to work properly.. power and airflow. This post applies to by not limted to the parts/models listed at the bottom of the post which can be serviced by ApplianceBoardRepair.com
Air Flow
The TEC’s have a hot side and a cool side. In order to make the cool side as cold as possible, heat must be removed from the hot side. That is why air flow on the hot side is so important.
Peltier/TEC Usually have a Heat and Cooling Fan – Make all fans spinCooling Node and Control Board – Fan
To be absolutely sure the fan is getting enough power, it should be measured at the power board. Below picture shows the measurement points on a common board. This board should be delivering 8V on
Power Board sends DC voltage to fan to cool the cooling node.Back of VinoTemp and screws to remove cooling node if needed.
Power to Cooling Node
Once you confirmed that the airflow and fans are working ok, you should check the power to the cooling node is acceptable. In this case the nominal voltage to the TEC should be 12.5V. If the voltage is significantly lower than this, it is very likely a problem with the power board or temperature control board. The measurement point is shown below
Measurement Point For TEC
The basics of this fan and TEC troubleshooting can be summarized in the following flowchart.
Basic troubleshooting for ThermoElectric Wine fridge.
An example of parts applies that this applies to are listed below. ApplianceBoardRepair.com can service all of these:
