August 14, 200916 yr Well, I'm soon to be ony my third in-line relay controlling a bathroom exhaust fan. The first one lasted quite a while compared to the 3 months for the second one. They're supposed to be good for up to 15 A inductive loads, and the fan is nowhere near 15 Amps, so what could be going wrong? Smarthome today said perhaps there's not enough of a load. Without adding an additional device to the load of the relay is there any safe way to increase the load, perhaps a resistor parallel to the fan? Though I've gotta say doing something like this kind of makes me wary of a fire. Has anyone experienced difficulties w/ an in line relay controlling an inductive load?
August 14, 200916 yr FWIW, I use an inline relay to control an outdoor outlet that is primarily used for holiday lighting. The load is probably no more than 5 or 6 amps, and I have had a 100% success rate with it. Good luck.
August 14, 200916 yr I'm using two to control exhaust fan/light units with no problem (after a few months so maybe I just have to wait ) One is an inline and the other is an SL relay - I think except for packaging they're essentially the same. Very possibly your particular fan is generating an on/off backtransient that's causing the unit to break down and fail. A nonpolarized shunt capacitor could solve that easily but you'd need to scope it to really see what's going on and what fixes it - could be easier on your life to just try a different fan unit. Also, the relays don't generate a lot of heat, but inside a box they still can get pretty well warmed up - if you haven't I'd try drilling some additional ventilation. It may just partly be a thermal breakdown problem over time. Aside from the fact that it's not likely to solve any problem, under no circumstances would I advise any sort of resistor anywhere in that circuit.
August 15, 200916 yr I think Smarthomes comment of adding load go to an old problem where a switch without any load would put more heat on the internal components than a switch that had a load attached to it. The load would draw the heat away from the switch. Steve L Smarthome
August 15, 200916 yr SteveL. I have been an electronic technician for over 50 years. I have never seen a load keep a switch cooler. Smarthome must really have some unique designs.
August 16, 200916 yr Not the overall temp of the switch but specific parts like diodes or a single resistor. Steve L Smartlabs / Smarthome
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