RKE controller, heater issue. Help please

[7Reefer]

My temp has not fluctuated in over a yr. It is set at 78. Never goes higher and never lower than 77.8. Yesterday it read -77.5. I don't recall ever seeing the minus sign on front of the number. I tried to diagnose the problem and found it will not turn on and off after adjusting set temperature. It stays either on or off. I power cycled it, reset to factory default etc. I woke up today and the temp read -75.4 so I checked with a floating thermometer and it read over 82. My house temp has not changed. Could it be the probe? How do I calibrate it? Or other issue?

Thanks

 

[mike007]

Can you put heater in a bucket and check with your thermometer. It could be that the contacts on heater are sticking.

 

[pickupman66]

So, its showing a NEGATIVE temp on the RKE??? could be a bad temp probe. have you tried to re-calibrate the temperature?

EDIT,


to calibrate the probe, on the CONTROLLER hit the "IN" button. then go to that module (SL1) and then hit the right arrow to go over and select the Temp. change the value to a KNOWN temperature that you know is accurate. arrow up to the save and wait for the raw data to stabilize. once done, hit "ENTER" to save it. it should now show the proper temperature value.

then set up your controller function for the heater as normal.

 

[7Reefer]

Thanks, now the temp has gone up to -77.9 but the heater has been unplugged all day! The channel the heater is usually plugged into is "on".

 

[pickupman66]

Did you recalibrate? If so and it went back to the negatives, your temp probe is shot. they work off resistance. The channel the heater is plugged into should be as follows

Mode...controller
Device...sl1 temp
Set point...78.5 (your choice)
On when.....below
Hysteresis. ... .5