Heater/apex issues

[slipknotgrrl83]

OK guys I really need help. Since yesterday my heater is coming on at 79.1 when I have it set to come on at 78.6 and it's staying on only a few seconds then turning off then repeats that process over and over again. I can figure out what's wrong. I have tried restarting and nothing. It is in need of an update but I wouldn't think that would cause this. help!

 

[OREGONIC]

Following. Im new to apex aswell but i do know that only 2 of the plugs, believe plug 4 & 8, can be used for heaters and dosing pumps. They have a relay and are 10amps if I remember correctly. What port do you have your heater hooked up to?

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

Following. Im new to apex aswell but i do know that only 2 of the plugs, believe plug 4 & 8, can be used for heaters and dosing pumps. They have a relay and are 10amps if I remember correctly. What port do you have your heater hooked up to?

4, I have had it for 2 years no issues till now

 

[OREGONIC]

4, I have had it for 2 years no issues till now

You definitely have more experience then i do with apex then. Curious what the cause is.

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

The fan is now doing the same thing. Should I press reset button on energy bar? Or is it fried??

 

[OREGONIC]

Have you tried restarting the apex i know there is an option in it somewhere. Or possibly you have a temp probe that is going out, new probe is alot cheaper then replacing the apex. Or this could be a good reason to justify picking up the new style apex

 

[tupes]

I believe it's under the system menu. Anytime I have a Wi-Fi issue that clears it up.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Following. Im new to apex aswell but i do know that only 2 of the plugs, believe plug 4 & 8, can be used for heaters and dosing pumps. They have a relay and are 10amps if I remember correctly. What port do you have your heater hooked up to?

It depends if you have an EB8 or and EB832. EB8's have both TRIACs and relays. The TRIACs don't switch properly with low current devices; heaters are usually OK. All of them have current limits which need to be observed.

Can you show a log of the temperature as well? All I can see is that your heater is switching on and off after 3 minutes or so. How big is your tank and heater? Also, where do you have the probes and heater located? Where are you reading the temperature? What do you have the thermostat on your heater set to?

Reset for the Apex is under 'Misc' - I kind of doubt that's the issue, but it won't hurt to try it.

 

[MaddyP]

Does your heater have an internal thermostat? It could be the internal thermostat is out of wack, thinking the tank is a certain temp and keeping it from coming on even though the Apex outlet is turned on.

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

I just have the jr which is an eb4. Finnex heater no thermostat on it itself. I restarted it and made the on/off temp a little more widespread. Heater in sump, probe in dt. Seems ok so far. Will post pic when home. Also i ordered another probe in case it is going bad

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

29 gal with 10 gal sump

 

[Sleepydoc]

This is an obvious question, but you're looking at the temperature from the Apex temp probe, right?

 

[rkpetersen]

I doubt your temp probe has gone bad. It does happen, but those things are rugged, and when they die, they generally read very high or very low, not just a bit off.

Instead of the built in Heater programming, you could pull down the Advanced control type, and enter something like:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Temp < 78.7 Then ON
Defer 001:00 Then ON
If Temp > 78.7 Then OFF

With this kind of programming, the relay in the energy bar will activate quite frequently, as the Apex attempts to keep the temp in this narrow range. These relays are supposed to be good for a million plus activations, so at 100/day, for example, that's a bit more than 27 years. (The Defer command is just for a bit of hysteresis to prevent overly short activations; can be adjusted based on review of subsequent temp input graphs. )

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

I doubt your temp probe has gone bad. It does happen, but those things are rugged, and when they die, they generally read very high or very low, not just a bit off.

Instead of the built in Heater programming, you could pull down the Advanced control type, and enter something like:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Temp < 78.7 Then ON
Defer 001:00 Then ON
If Temp > 78.7 Then OFF

With this kind of programming, the relay in the energy bar will activate quite frequently, as the Apex attempts to keep the temp in this narrow range. These relays are supposed to be good for a million plus activations, so at 100/day, for example, that's a bit more than 27 years. (The Defer command is just for a bit of hysteresis to prevent overly short activations; can be adjusted based on review of subsequent temp input graphs. )

Ty I will try that! Still not very good with the coding lol

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

This is an obvious question, but you're looking at the temperature from the Apex temp probe, right?

Yep lol

 

[Engloid]

When you click to go to advanced, you will see where apex coded the things you put in the blanks on the screenshot you posted. That can sometimes help you learn what the coding does and how it works.

 

[fredjr]

Have you updated your firmware?

 

[DLHDesign]

Depending upon environmental factors (room temp, proximity to windows, etc.), you could end up with more fluctuation than 0.2 in brief windows of time (ex; door opens to the outside and chills the surface temp, lowering the reading temporarily).
It may also be due to the flow in the tank; water up-swelling from the bottom of the tank (further away from the lights) could lower the temp around the probe before surface temps (or the lights) warm it back up. You would have to have some odd flow patterns, I'd think, to get that, however...

Just throwing out a few less likely (but not impossible) consideration. If this setup has been in place for a while (2 years, you said?), then it's unlikely that any of those are new things that would be happening. Increasing the differential between the on/off numbers (as you've said you've done) would make the most sense to me (mine are 0.4F apart, for example).

 

[slipknotgrrl83]

I fixed the issue, not sure how but fiddled with settings and is working flawlessly now.