A fan alone will not provide any cooling.. To actually cool anything requires a heat transfer device of some variety. Mechanical systems using either a Peltier function device or a compressor/condenser/evaporator system are required for actual cooling.
OR, does a fan blow air over the "cold-side" of a single Peltier device, while a different fan moves a different stream of air past the "hot side" of the same device ??
Airflow past a cooled surface is how heat is removed from the cold side. How else would heat flow be made to happen????

 

...does a fan blow air over the "cold-side" of a single Peltier device, while a different fan moves a different stream of air past the "hot side" of the same device ??

Yes, these appliances have fans on both sides of the TEC.

 

There isn't really a Peltier type construction in these wine coolers... The fans inside the cooler aren't even in direct contact with the internal heatsink....

?? I've never seen one that was not TEC-based. Not that I've seen them all.

 

I've got a HYS80 I've located the C8 it looks fine.

Everything works, fans, front panel, lights just not the cooling

What should I be looking for? I am a newbie, so don't have such testing tools. Also Is it safe for a newbie to work on this board? I see some scary 200V capacitors.

 

I've got a HYS80 I've located the C8 it looks fine.

Everything works, fans, front panel, lights just not the cooling

What should I be looking for? I am a newbie, so don't have such testing tools. Also Is it safe for a newbie to work on this board? I see some scary 200V capacitors.

Not quite a success, is it?
This thread is for success stories only.

 

My bad I followed a link from the post of all the PCB boards. My only success was finding C8. I'll post back when I'm fully successful.

 

My bad I followed a link from the post of all the PCB boards. My only success was finding C8. I'll post back when I'm fully successful.

No problem. A new thread has been created for you:

https://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/threads/repair-hys80-thermoelectric-cooler.195948/

 

Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

The symptoms on mine were:

• The display would turn on and display the current temperature
• All buttons in the front worked
• The fans never started and the temperature never went down

I fixed it by swapping out C8, after reading about it here and also noticing that it was running warm on my thermal camera:
View attachment 299314

Removed C8:
View attachment 299312

Replaced it with two 100uF, 25V capacitors in series (that's what I had on hand):
View attachment 299315

Since this is just a free fix for a friend, it's good enough.

Thanks again!

Do you have a list of the components on the board? Or the schematics specific to yours? I'm asking because I've the exactly same one as yours but I lost track of the capacitors.... And I haven't been able to find the correct list of components.

 

Do you have a list of the components on the board? Or the schematics specific to yours? I'm asking because I've the exactly same one as yours but I lost track of the capacitors.... And I haven't been able to find the correct list of components.

Just read the values off of the existing ones, should be easy to see.

 

And I haven't been able to find the correct list of components.

There are schematics and component lists in this thread and other threads in these Forums. But not all of these boards are identical and as suggested, it's better to read the components directly and then compare to the other lists.

 

Just wanted to say thank you for all who posted here.

As i repaired two FX-101Bs, bought an FX101 by mistake but found out they are basically all the same and interchangeable. I now fixed a way older Hanny board, so i've learned a lot. So I'll try to condense what everyone has done in a quick repair guide of sorts.

Basically the old hanny board, the FX-101 and FX-101B are interchangeable. The Hanny board has the peltier wires directly soldered to the board, the FX-101 has the peltier wires on spade connectors, but basically wiring is the same as the FX-101B. Just make sure you buy the 10.5 v 50w versions of the boards (in the USA).

So after fixing 3 of these boards (in wine coolers). They all suffered the C8 cap failure. What's interesting is one of the old hanny boards still has the same 47uf 25v capacitor at the C8 location as the newer FX-101 and FX-101B boards although layout is different, it's marked C8 so changing the cap out was easy.

Anyways, if you have a soldring iron, try the C8 capacitor fix first. Get one of those copper like desoldering braids cables. A little flux on it helps remove the old solder. With a tweezer, i was able to pull on the cap while desoldering the other side with the braid. The leads are cut short so it wasn't too hard to get the old ones out. The desolder braid does a good job of cleaning it up so getting the new cap in was cake.

There's a stripe on the cap, make sure the lead next to the stripe goes in the hole that has the cross shading (on the circuit board). You will see it when you pull the cap off, but half the marking on the board will be shaded. Just insert the new capictor leads into those holes and i pushed in all the way, and bent the leads down, then just resolder and cut the excess leads off. That was it, i bought 8 panasonic 47uf 50v caps from mouser electronics. The cost per cap was very cheap, shipping cost more then the parts lol.

Anyways, if you have an old wine cooler and do not want to do any soldering, you can just plop in an FX-101, an FX-101B if you can't find your old board. But i encourage you to try to solder in the C8 capacitor first, it was a less then 10 min fix.

Thanks everyone who has posted here through the years, it has helped me a lot.

 

I just created an account to thank you all for this thread's fantastic amount of information. I managed to save an old 6-bottle wine cooler branded Vissani. It has an FX-101 board from 2010.
I tried first replacing just the C8 cap with no luck and ended up having to replace all of them. The last cap I replaced was the 2200uf 16v and it finally worked.

Thank you all!

 

An absolute nube here, but wanted to thank everyone here for their expertise and willingness to share that knowledge. The fact that I can post to the 'success stories' thread is a testament to that fact. Again, all I can say is a big 'THANK YOU! Now, to my success story.
We have a 15 bottle NewAir cooler (I'm guessing 10 ears old) that decided to die while we were vacationing in Iceland early September. Our neighbor, while taking care of our cats, herd it clicking and noticed a 'LL' error code on the temp led. She called us in Iceland and asked what she should do. I asked for the model and serial numbers off the back and suggested she just pull the plug out of the wall. While in Iceland, I emailed NewAir and was told that the 'board' probably had a problem, they no longer supported our model, replacement boards no longer available, and the only option was a new unit; $400+. But they were nice enough to offer 20% off their listed price. Thanks! On our return, I kept on looking at this pristine, dead fridge in the corner and resented having to pay an additional $400 and take this one to the dump. Luckily, I grew up with a mom in the 50's that had my brother and I take any electrical device/appliance apart if broken, to see if we could discover 'why'. We took tubes from the tv to the tester at the grocery store, tore apart toasters and waffle irons. Her feeling was that if it was already broken, we couldn't hurt it any more than it was. It would still be broken. Things were much more 'basic' then, but it was amazing how many times we were successful.
So, that was the attitude that I applied when I finally approached the wine cooler. I started on the NewAir site and found their 'parts' page and all the 'discontinued' boards. At least then I had an idea of what I needed. Then a week of futile online and youtube searching for naught. I was just about to give in, when I tried one more search. I'm not even sure what I put in the search engine to start, but amazingly this site popped up. I reviewed pages and pages of back and forth questions and answers and found others describing exactly my found condition. It was like someone was looking over me and directed me here. I found knowledgeable and helpful posters, pictures, parts lists, quality sourcing venders, schematics, everything I seemingly needed to attempt repair. Then, I found this 'Success Stories' thread and the post by MrChips describing a condensation of years of others trials and findings and the suggestion to make the replacement of 'C8' a starting point.
Well, my order from DigiKey arrived a couple of days go, as well as an order for quality solder, copper wicking, and a fantastic Solder Sucker (SS-02) by Engineer. I was ready. I dismantled the back, took pictures of the board in place with wire placement, and labeled the wires as to location. It took longer to set up my soldering station than it did to locate and replace C8. At that point, I was so excited, I thought I'd just plug the board back in to see if I was on the right track. I applied power and immediately had a red and green light on the board and heard fans running. I couldn't believe it. I turned the unit around and saw 72 degrees on the LED. I just sat there in awe. Then I noticed 73, 74, 75. Not what I wanted. I thought about the 12V to the Peltier Cooler and knew that it was working, but in reverse of what I needed and wanted. I thought about the 12V going through 2 spade connecters and wondered if I had made a mistake in reassembly. I looked at the pre-disassembly picture on my phone and noticed the black wire was on the top spade, not the red as I had it. Wires changed and reassembly. Plugged in and everything working with 72 on the LED. That was the longest minute I've spent in awhile, then 71, 70. Success!!!!!!!!!! After a couple of hours of run time, it is now at 65 and still dropping.
After reading through this wonderful blog, if and when it dies again, I will probably upgrade the fans and replace all the other Caps that are in a bag hanging on the back of the unit. Until then, it's off to thrift shops and Craig's List to see if we can find another 'dead one' to play with. Sounds like a great winter project. You have helped create a monster.
Sorry for the long, winded post, but I am overwhelmed with gratitude to everyone here for their willingness to share their time and expertise. I just hope I can pay it forward in some way in the future. jc

 

An absolute nube here, but wanted to thank everyone here for their expertise and willingness to share that knowledge. The fact that I can post to the 'success stories' thread is a testament to that fact. Again, all I can say is a big 'THANK YOU! Now, to my success story.
We have a 15 bottle NewAir cooler (I'm guessing 10 ears old) that decided to die while we were vacationing in Iceland early September. Our neighbor, while taking care of our cats, herd it clicking and noticed a 'LL' error code on the temp led. She called us in Iceland and asked what she should do. I asked for the model and serial numbers off the back and suggested she just pull the plug out of the wall. While in Iceland, I emailed NewAir and was told that the 'board' probably had a problem, they no longer supported our model, replacement boards no longer available, and the only option was a new unit; $400+. But they were nice enough to offer 20% off their listed price. Thanks! On our return, I kept on looking at this pristine, dead fridge in the corner and resented having to pay an additional $400 and take this one to the dump. Luckily, I grew up with a mom in the 50's that had my brother and I take any electrical device/appliance apart if broken, to see if we could discover 'why'. We took tubes from the tv to the tester at the grocery store, tore apart toasters and waffle irons. Her feeling was that if it was already broken, we couldn't hurt it any more than it was. It would still be broken. Things were much more 'basic' then, but it was amazing how many times we were successful.
So, that was the attitude that I applied when I finally approached the wine cooler. I started on the NewAir site and found their 'parts' page and all the 'discontinued' boards. At least then I had an idea of what I needed. Then a week of futile online and youtube searching for naught. I was just about to give in, when I tried one more search. I'm not even sure what I put in the search engine to start, but amazingly this site popped up. I reviewed pages and pages of back and forth questions and answers and found others describing exactly my found condition. It was like someone was looking over me and directed me here. I found knowledgeable and helpful posters, pictures, parts lists, quality sourcing venders, schematics, everything I seemingly needed to attempt repair. Then, I found this 'Success Stories' thread and the post by MrChips describing a condensation of years of others trials and findings and the suggestion to make the replacement of 'C8' a starting point.
Well, my order from DigiKey arrived a couple of days go, as well as an order for quality solder, copper wicking, and a fantastic Solder Sucker (SS-02) by Engineer. I was ready. I dismantled the back, took pictures of the board in place with wire placement, and labeled the wires as to location. It took longer to set up my soldering station than it did to locate and replace C8. At that point, I was so excited, I thought I'd just plug the board back in to see if I was on the right track. I applied power and immediately had a red and green light on the board and heard fans running. I couldn't believe it. I turned the unit around and saw 72 degrees on the LED. I just sat there in awe. Then I noticed 73, 74, 75. Not what I wanted. I thought about the 12V to the Peltier Cooler and knew that it was working, but in reverse of what I needed and wanted. I thought about the 12V going through 2 spade connecters and wondered if I had made a mistake in reassembly. I looked at the pre-disassembly picture on my phone and noticed the black wire was on the top spade, not the red as I had it. Wires changed and reassembly. Plugged in and everything working with 72 on the LED. That was the longest minute I've spent in awhile, then 71, 70. Success!!!!!!!!!! After a couple of hours of run time, it is now at 65 and still dropping.
After reading through this wonderful blog, if and when it dies again, I will probably upgrade the fans and replace all the other Caps that are in a bag hanging on the back of the unit. Until then, it's off to thrift shops and Craig's List to see if we can find another 'dead one' to play with. Sounds like a great winter project. You have helped create a monster.
Sorry for the long, winded post, but I am overwhelmed with gratitude to everyone here for their willingness to share their time and expertise. I just hope I can pay it forward in some way in the future. jc

Hi,

A hearty congratulations is in order here

Are you talking about replacing an electrolytic capacitor? Then yes, it's amazing how replacing these components can quickly get something fixed.
I was able to get very troublesome devices back up and running just by replacing some of the larger electrolytic capacitors, and it's amazing to see the devices work like new again. A few dollars spent was well worth it.
For me, in all cases it turned out to be the caps in the power supply section of the devices. The capacitance goes down and the ESR goes up. I even got an automobile fuel pump controller circuit to work like new again just by changing two electrolytic caps. They were also used to filter the power supply rails.

 

C8 strikes out again!

 

Hi All, I just wanted to reply to this thread because it helped save me some headaches. I have the same PCB and one day the power went out while we were camping. I came back to check on things to hear beep/beep/beep... long story short, the 47uF caps (x4) where all replaced and it started right back up.

Now the twist, as a Senior EE, I have tons of parts, but in that cap profile I only had 100uF parts at the same voltage.... I said screw it... installed them.... flipped it on... and it worked as expected... looking at the schematic... 3 seem to be power rail caps and one may be some type of integrator for the display timing (that could be wrong, looked at schematic weeks ago), but whatever its function is, replacing all 47uF to 100uF worked in a pinch and it has been running for almost 3 weeks now with zero issues. Good, bad or indifferent, it is working and very little risk, so I'm not going back in at this point unless another issue arises.

Just wanted to say thanks for the info / shortcut to getting it fixed so I didn't have to try and recap/source them all.

Regards,
Chris

 

Thank you guys for the schematics and all the analysis done.
I repair mine just changing C8 capacitor.

Seems that my unit have another ones which also have drop their capacity... But for a quick repair I just avoid testing all of them individually.

 

Another success - and an excuse to buy a Peak ESR70g meter, which I absolutely love - it's designed to find bad caps without having to remove them. Get the optional needle probes to make in-circuit probing easier. My wine cave has two identical boards. The top run runs the warmest, due to physics (heat rises) and had 4 bad caps. The bottom had 2 bad caps.

Here are the reading I got for the top unit:
C8: completely bad, ESR over the 40 ohm meter limit
CAx: 28 uF, 27 Ohm (rating 47 uF)
C5: 17 uF, 5 Ohm (rating 22 uF)
C14: 4.1 uF, 15.7 ohm (rating 4.7 uF)
I probably could have gotten by without replacing the last 3, but they seemed to be on their way out.

For the bottom unit:
C8: 38.3 uF, 4.9 Ohm (rating 47 uF)
CA1: completely bad, ESR over the 40 ohm meter limit
The bottom unit was functioning normally, but the above 2 caps were suspect so I replaced them.

For reference, I used the following parts for repair, measured as listed:
CAP ALUM 47UF 20% 25V RADIAL. Digi-Key #1189-4118-ND. Measured 45.3 uF, 1.53 ohms
CAP ALUM 22UF 20% 25V RADIAL. Digi-Key #732-9277-1-ND. Measured 20.9 uF, 2.0 ohms
CAP ALUM 4.7UF 20% 100V RADIAL. Digi-Key #1189-100YXM4.7MEFR5X11-ND. Measured 4.23 uF, 2.6 Ohms

 

I wonder how it came about that C8 is doomed.

Electrolytic cap failure is a common thing, and is both 'random' and predictable. I mean that some caps fail due to defects or whatever, but the nature of the duty also dictates the life of the cap. High current and high temperature - unavoidable in some applications - accelerate death.

So did the designer make a mistake by not specifying a better C8? Did the designer get second-guessed by the purchasing department, who patted themselves on the back for saving a few pennies by making a "better" choice?

Some may say it's planned obsolescence but I don't buy that. It's my nature to embrace Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." I think stupidity is a far more likely explanation than any evil plan.

 

I wonder how it came about that C8 is doomed.

Electrolytic cap failure is a common thing, and is both 'random' and predictable. I mean that some caps fail due to defects or whatever, but the nature of the duty also dictates the life of the cap. High current and high temperature - unavoidable in some applications - accelerate death.

So did the designer make a mistake by not specifying a better C8? Did the designer get second-guessed by the purchasing department, who patted themselves on the back for saving a few pennies by making a "better" choice?

Some may say it's planned obsolescence but I don't buy that. It's my nature to embrace Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." I think stupidity is a far more likely explanation than any evil plan.

For consumer products, the price of every component is the lowest that purchasing can find. And some companies simply can not produce parts that last, so they sell them cheaper. The plan used to be that the product should become obsolete in six months, so if it fails in 8 months that wold be OK. Not sure if that plan is still common or not.