ISO Hobart LXeR dishwasher wiring diagram/service manual. Anyone have one?

[fixbear]

Hobart does not like to share. There is one inside the machine though.

[ectofix]

We had Hobart come out for some training of us in-house techs last year.  Our own developed experiences from working on our own machines…along with the Hobart guy’s further capabilities and training – made for some very fruitful and enlightening dialog to further our knowledge as well as the Hobart techs.

 

Of course, we DID ask for copies of tech manuals for OUR newer Hobart equipment (FT900, CLe and LXi dishwashers, HL series mixers, etc.).  Some time ago, I’d already managed to get pirated copies of manuals for our older Hobart stuff through some aggressive searching of the internet.  However, I couldn’t find anything on the newer stuff.

 

He said “NO can do.” 

 

He further explained that even THEY can’t have a manual (hardcopy or PDF), especially on newer equipment.  All of Hobart’s technical manuals are locked up in Hobart’s own cloud.  Technicians in the field access those manuals through their company-provided laptop. 

 

So what I derived from his explanation is the Hobart technician service portal has security measures which prevents ANY tech manual files from being copied, printed or shared in any way.

 

Your dish machine is relatively new, so it definitely falls into that category.  So there ya go.  You’re not getting a manual.

[fixbear]

I have run into this problem many times over the years with several manufacturers. The only way I have found around this is their greed for a sale. Work with your purchasing to include the spec for service documentation and manuals with all machines. Do not allow payment to be completed till documentation is on site. It is amazing how sales can make things happen outside the rules. Commissions are a big motivator.

[sp21500]

The LXe line of Hobart Dishwashers have been designed and engineered from their European Division and brought over to North America with what they claim as the latest and greatest energy savings.  That being said, these units are an absolute nightmare to troubleshoot…. the wires are not color coded like we are used to in North America, and all Black (similar to other off shore manufacturers), special tools are required for component replacement, its stuffed with all kinds of probes, sensors, and the LXeR has a plastic flow restrictor that can cause fill errors as well…. basically what I am saying is that the Service Manual helps to a certain degree, but more times then not, its a guessing game figuring out which component has failed for the error that is showing. Hobart Corp has a funny way of doing business, whereby they rush new products to market before proving that they work properly, and had a hell of a time debugging this model after it was first introduced several years ago, and had repeated main board failures that caused all kinds of weird and freaky things to happen, which took several versions to rectify.

[ectofix]

Thanks for your insight on the matter, sp21500.

 

partstownjohn had proposed a question some time back (in another thread) asking whether manufacturers make things like they used to.  The first manufacturer I thought of was Hobart.  Hobart has made drastic design changes in most of their equipment in the past 15-20 years, I’ve looked at most of those changes as a give and take.

 

Their dish machines are a great example. Particularly their flight and conveyor dish machines.  We have examples of older and a newer models of each on our property.  Prior and current construction FT900 (no FT1000s) flight machines.  Then, we have one ancient C-line and a less ancient (more like their latest) C-Line A conveyor machines.  The numerous CLe conveyor machines we have were installed just in the past five years.

 

The one common feature that I (and we ALL) can appreciate in the newer dish machines are their revised and simplified controls/wiring.  Troubleshooting the newer FT900s and the CLes is a breeze when compared to being faced with those older units’ masses of wires, that box full of individual control components, the hard conduit running to remote boxes everywhere, etc.  The control board’s LEDs and simplified layout in these new machines GREATLY enhances accessibility and visualization of what is (and what’s NOT) happening when trying to find a problem.

Furthermore, the overall machine’s redesign for accessing major components (the pumps and motors) – especially in the CLe machines, is a DRASTIC improvement over the older machines.

 

On the other hand, I’m still not sure what to think about the prolific use of plastics (for lack of the proper name) in their plumbing.  For instance, I DO consider the FT900’s plastic-y pump outlet manifolds to be a flawed design.  Obviously Hobart did too, since the replacement setup is now made of metal.  In only a mere five years of service life of our six FT900s, we’ve had to replace at least half of those plastic manifolds with their metal replacement counterparts.  Not exactly a cheap repair either.

 

So…yea, Hobart is certainly making their mistakes.  Even still, after having worked on many other brands in the past, I still consider Hobart machines to be the best in quality out there.

[nunning]

If you go to the website my.hobartcorp.com you can find any service or parts manual for units they still support. You will not need a log in or password. Hobart decided to share this info a few years back. Should be able to find what you need. You will need your ML# for specifics. You can also order parts from a commercial site instead of from Hobart. Pricing is the same, but easier people to deal with. The site for parts is thesmartpartsestore.hobartservice.com – You will need to set up account, but all purchases are credit card. Hope this helps.

Angie

[john]

In case anyone is curious about that post, or has more insight they’d like to share, find it here Your thoughts: do they make things like they used to? 

 

Thanks ectofix for your input, I am always fascinated to hear about how things were once made. I think folks get a nostalgia for “the old days” and only remember the good bit, like when parts were metal instead of plastic, but forget about problems like accessing major components as you mentioned.

[sp21500]

Ectofix I agree with you on the Cline, CLe, and FT, as access to the motors and other components on the CLe Series is a definite improvement over the C44 and C44A series. The AM Series Door Type, AM14 & AM15 are great workhorses and easily serviced, the only issue with the AM15 was Hobart used a thinner gauge of Stainless, and there was some structural issues initially around the door posts, but that has been rectified.   

 

I differ on the LXe line though for reasons stated, and prefer the simplicity of the SR-24 and LX30/40, and for that matter the WM-5H, as with any of these 3, if a problem arose, I pretty much knew what the issue of resolution was, before I even arrived, and that makes a Techs life so much easier.

 

Hobart Germany manufactured a Pot Washer UTXH which you guys in the lower 48 never saw, and it was full of plastic components which included pump shells and transfer tubes, and was brutal to work on, and I believe the introduction of plastic into North America FT came from there.  But unfortunately they could not stand up to the heat and stress on the FT and as you mentioned it has been replaced.

[john]

Thanks nunning for the info on Hobart’s resource center! That link is here: Home – Resource Center 

 

I found two manuals pertaining to the LXeR at these two links

https://my.hobartcorp.com/resourcecenter/ProductDocumentation/F38404.pdf 

https://my.hobartcorp.com/resourcecenter/ProductDocumentation/F38435.pdf 

 

Unfortunately, neither of those manuals seem to have a wiring diagram. However, If you look at this documentation, check page 10 for a picture of the wiring diagram (Fig. 16). I was able to zoom in and read the schematics, though I cannot be certain this is the full diagram. https://my.hobartcorp.com/kroger/ProductDocumentation/(F45477)%206-15.pdf 

 

I hope this information is useful!

[ectofix]

Not intending to beleaguer everyone on this topic…but I DO tend to do that sometimes.   I’m going to share a little knowledge here. 

 

After my fifteen years with a service company, I became an in-house tech. We have allotta Hobart equipment here.  Some very old stuff and some relatively new.  From counter-top equipment to scales to mixers of every size to all variations of their dish machines (under-counter, door, conveyor, flight).

 

About a year ago, I had INTENSELY researched the internet for Hobart SERVICE manuals.  I tried every possible combination of search parameters to find them.  The Hobart resource center was the starting point.  It offered NOTHING.  I came up with SOME stuff on the world-wide-web, but more about that later.

 

Nunny (and John) shared that Hobart link, which will be very helpful for those who didn’t know it was there.  From my experience, Hobart and Vulcan have just about the best website layouts of ANYONE out there for getting literature on their equipment.

 

To be clear though, Hobart does NOT make SERVICE MANUALS available to anyone except their technicians.  Operating and installation INSTRUCTIONS?  Yes.  Spec sheets?  Yes.  Catalogs and Videos?  Yes.  Service manuals?  NO.

 

Nunny is correct that you don’t need a logon ID and password any longer on Hobart’s website for getting certain literature, but only for the things I said YES to.  Their Smartparts feature is great for zooming in on their on-line parts breakdowns without having to thumb through a manual or scroll PDF.  I’ve used both (the resource center and smartparts) for years.

 

Vulcan’s website is very similar for getting literature.  Their resource center is under a tab that opens a nearly identical layout as Hobart’s.  The difference is that they DO provide SERVICE MANUALS.  So there’s a tab for SERVICE MANUALS on Vulcan’s website which you won’t find on Hobart’s website.

 

FWIW, Hobart and Vulcan (and a bunch of others) are owned by the same conglomerate – ITW (Illinois Tool Works).  Much like Manitowoc (who once were only known for making cranes and ice machines) and Middleby Corporation.  To a lesser extent, there is Standex and other food equipment GROUPS.

 

Hobart does (or once did) offer special consideration for in-house techs, per a bulletin published in 2008.  Here’s a link to that bulletin:  Hobart Bulletin – SB 08-6003 – In-house service manuals

 

With regards to that bulletin, I DID stumble across some so-called service manuals compiled for use by Kroger techs (like John alluded to).  Kroger apparently put theirs on-line for universal access.  The ones I found (again, a year ago) were only a compilation of what’s already available in their resource center, except maybe with the additional inclusion of a schematic that’s specific to THEIR equipment, which you can otherwise find when removing a panel to work on one.

 

Across the ocean, the Brits had a select few manuals available, written by their UK Service Training Centre (sic).  Those were merely a Readers Digest condensed version of critical technical info.  Not overly helpful, but more than you’d find in an INSTRUCTION manual meant for just the owner of said equipment.

 

A year ago, the Aussie Hobart website still had their website door open for me to download manuals on my mixers (up to the HLs), slicers and a few other things.  Their dish machine stuff was useless because, as sp21500 was saying, that equipment is completely different from what we have in the U.S.  That door has since been slammed shut though.

 

Anyway, there ya go.  If someone has another avenue for getting a SERVICE MANUAL, please share it.  Otherwise, I must go upon what that Hobart tech I mentioned earlier had told me.