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Blodgett DFG-200 Low Fan Oven Mode Not Working
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Thanks for letting us know.
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I kept thinking that putting the correct switch back in would be a good start. Glad you got it resolved. Thanks for the update. Coincidentally, your problem help us resolve our own.
After recently studying the oven’s circuit for YOUR problem, we had a similar issue. I’m an in-house technician at a VERY large property. Our shop is actually called “KITCHEN MAINTENANCE” and our work is dedicated solely to maintaining the many kitchens we have.
Anyway. Soon after your post, a co-worker was troubleshooting intermittent issues with a Blodgett oven’s blower motor occasionally not running. It was the bottom oven in our oldest set of Blodgetts. It just so happens to be as old as yours and with the same control panel. What a coincidence…
SO, after he’d looked at it…he was suggesting to me that maybe the motor needs replaced. I told him that “I seemed to remember” that there’s a relay in there which controls motor speed and that he should take a look at that relay.
A few days later, he approached me and said “YOU were right!”
I said “What are you talking about?”
He said “In that Blodgett oven I told you about. The relay was why the motor would occasionally not run”. He showed me the twenty-something-year-old ice cube relay he’d removed. Its contacts were seriously pitted.
I said “Oh! Okay then. Well…you’re ALWAYS telling me that I’m right! PLEASE quit doing that and tell me when I’m WRONG instead! I need to know THAT!”
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HAHAHAHA awesome, well glad it helped!! Relays are always a weak point…
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I like to change them to ones that have a LED indicator. Helps in knowing what is happening.
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Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what do the LEDs indicate in this case? That the relay is/isn’t making contact?
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You can buy ice cube relays that have a built in LED to tell you when the relay is energized. A big help if you are working on something that has a large relay logic system and you have a intermittent problem. The LED is just tied in with the armature coil of the relay. The spec’s have to match like control voltage and contact load current. They usually run about 1 to 2 dollars more that original. And it’s fun to watch the Christmas Tree effect.
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Relay logic? WELL, NOW I gotta share something. Here’s a smoker we have that once used relay logic. These pictures are from a few years ago:
This unit is the older of our two smokers. It (and its 2014 brother) will literally smoke a ton of meat each…in a single cook cycle. The smoke is piped in from a separate smoke generator (which burns sawdust) attached through a rather longish 6″ diameter flexible duct.
It cooks in programmed stages. The time or temperature-controlled cook stages are tailored to the specific products being cooked…or so the smoker to do a cleaning cycle. Yes, it washes itself too.
This mid-nineties vintage unit was designed with chill coils for cold-smoking too.
So along with this smoker actually bringing in the smoke, the programming (and all those little relays) introduces steam, electric heat from internal elements, varies the convection fan speed, sprays in a soapy solution or just water during a cleaning cycle, brings in chilled water through coils to cool the 6’x6’x8′ cooking compartment. I think there are additional relays there for other functions which this smoker wasn’t outfitted with.
A few years ago, this old relay logic system was upgraded to a PLC system when Enviro-pak was here to get our newly purchased, identically-sized unit up and running. I only have pictures of THIS unit though…including some pictures after its upgrade…which I don’t see a need to share here. Enviro-pak left allot of the old stuff behind during the upgrade (note the now-defunct chart recorders and bank of toggle switches) – so despite its revised controls, it’s still VISUALLY not clean or streamlined-looking enough to impress anyone.
When I get a chance, I’ll take a picture of the guts of the NEWER smoker. The stark contrast between this OLD unit’s mess of wires and relays when compared to the simplicity of how the NEW unit looks…is amazing. The new one also has a VFD for the convection blower motor control. The old unit still employs contactors to switch motor speed.
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Nice, but who ever worked on it did’t bother to reinstall all the wire way covers. Looks like a few added jumpers. Graph wiring clamps missing o the wires get pinched in the door. A a few hot fuses. Had to be built before the manufacturer adopted I-O programmable controllers. Love the french Crosiat relays.
I once recommissioned a portable rock crusher in Orting, WA. that had been canibilized and had no wire markings. There was two of these units that came off a bankrupt job in California. The dealer kept the better one for himself and my previous employer enlisted me. My flights, tool purchases, rental car, hotel, parts and labor for 5 days came to about $15,000. The dealer brought in a team from Sweden to fix his and spent $165,000. let alone they took 3 months. 468 page wiring diagram. 380 relays, Calibrated resistor blocks. They did provide me with pictures of the panel prior to my accepting the job, But it took a whole day of reading the wiring diagrams and parts manual, making a full list to send a runner for tools, Odering relays from NJ. And using one of my suppliers from the east coast for overnight on the relays. Manufacturer (Sweden) and dealer had nothing and wanted 3 weeks to deliver. Non off the shelf items I found a panel builder up in Everett that loaned me a table to make resistor blocks. And lables. Sure wish I had taken pictures like ectofix does.
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fixbear wrote:
468 page wiring diagram. 380 relays, Calibrated resistor blocks.
WELL…in the world of relay logic, I’d figured this smoker-oven was rather simple. Now I’ll just categorize it as “Relay Logic 101”.
I’m curious as to what its PLC variation looks like.
fixbear wrote:
Sure wish I had taken pictures like ectofix does.
Much of the convenience afforded by snapping a quick photo using a smartphone has yet to be realized by us old farts.
For instance:
When I go to our warehouse to pluck a part out of a bin, I gotta go write its rather lengthy stock number down onto a list when I get up to the counter.
I learned that NOWADAYS – instead of writing that bin box number down into my notepad…to then walk w-a-y up to the counter to write down AGAIN onto the warehouse manager’s clip board – INSTEAD…out comes my smartphone to snap a quick photo of the bin box’s number, then leisurely go jot the number down from what I took a photo of.
STUPIDLY simple.
I can’t convey the numerous OTHER ways in which taking a quick digital picture has made things SO much easier…when compared to ten years ago. It seems that I discover how to capitalize on it’s benefit more and more everyday. I pretty much take several photos a day to communicate whatever I need to- to someone.
After all, a picture is worth a-thousand words.
fixbear wrote:
Nice, but who ever worked on it did’t bother to reinstall all the wire way covers. Looks like a few added jumpers. Graph wiring clamps missing o the wires get pinched in the door. A a few hot fuses. Had to be built before the manufacturer adopted I-O programmable controllers. Love the french Crosiat relays.
All done before my time. Aside from correcting all that, I’d like to strip out or blank out the superfluous stuff too. The charts. The toggle switches. The extra temp probes. Other things. But…
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Chart recorders used to be required when you produced food in the danger zone. As well as monitoring available water in the product. If one was making a bunch of bacon or sausage or any other cured meats for off site sales you would still need them. After all, Salt Petre (potassium nitrate) is going as a thing of the past. To easy to make gunpowder with and still the surest for a safe cure. But today they have made it had to get and are forcing producers to go to Prague powder 1 or 2. also called Instant cure. A combination of sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, and salt. The salt locks up the water and the cure lowers the ph below were bacteria can survive.
Basically, the machine worked on the wire of food safety. That’s why all the probes, sensors and monitoring.I don’t know what your kitchen is using it for, but i’ll wager no where near it’s design use. Love to have acsess to one. Get to make real cured meats. Not todays garbage.
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