Rosco Delta 300 Fogger problem

Drassogh

Member
Hi ll, I am new to this forum and desperately trying to figure out what is wrong with my fogger. I have tried asking for help from Rosco, but since they discontinued my fogger they will not give me any help. I have tried calling some local technicians I found who are licensed to work on my unit, but they have informed me they are not allowed to work on it because it has been discontinued. I tried calling around to a few general electronic repair places in the area who work on stereos or guitar amplifiers and no one is interested in working on it. So here goes my issue...

My unit was not heating up. I opened it up and tested a few parts for continuity and looked for blow fuses or obviously burned parts on the circuit board. What I found was a burned out thermostat which is mounted to the heating element and connects two big wires. I assume this is an on off switch and when the heat gets too high the thermostat switches to off and stops the heating.

I found the exact part replacement at Full Compass and replaced it. Now the unit turns on, heats up, and produces fog. The problem is that it only seems to work for a minute or so, then the 'heating' light sort of randomly goes on and off. The heating element seems to get much much hotter than it used to when it was working properly. I am guessing that they may have sent me a bad thermostat and for some reason if the unit is too hot the fog burns instead of vaporizes? I am not too familiar with the technical side of how this stuff works, just know how to do enough soldering to replace things that are obviously burned out. I would love it if I could just take it to a repair shop, but I seem to have run out of options. Any suggestions on what to check out to fix this myself, or anywhere that might be able to help me around Oakland, California?

Thanks!
 
Sounds like you have/had a clogged coil and it’s/did overheating your system.

You need to clean it.

Water and vinegar is the standard but if ts as bad as tovthe point of burning out it could be super gunked up and won’t function til you find a new coil.

Pictures of everything and video is always a helpful way to help solve a problem.
 
Out of curiosity, was your original thermostat unit installed with the gooey white heat sink compound? Did you re-install it with some? It seems to me that a poor connection between the heater and that sensor could cause your problems.

I'm in the Bay Area as well, and don't have any shops to recommend that would take outside work. I've had to learn how to do a lot of my own repairs on out of warranty equipment as well, things like replacing triacs in dimmer packs and keeping the foggers and movers running. I guess we live in a time when most technology is simply disposable.
 
Sounds like you have/had a clogged coil and it’s/did overheating your system.

You need to clean it.

Water and vinegar is the standard but if ts as bad as tovthe point of burning out it could be super gunked up and won’t function til you find a new coil.

Pictures of everything and video is always a helpful way to help solve a problem.

Thanks for advice. I have tried cleaning it using distilled water only a few months ago. It ran the distilled water through the unit, but was still heating up a lot more than it used to. What is the ratio of water to vinegar? I have white vinegar, apple cider vinegar and distilled water here, but I read on another forum people recommending white cider vinegar. Any idea if the white vinegar or apple cider vinegar is good enough? or should I find some white apple cider vinegar? I will try to post pictures if I get it open in the next few days.
 
Out of curiosity, was your original thermostat unit installed with the gooey white heat sink compound? Did you re-install it with some? It seems to me that a poor connection between the heater and that sensor could cause your problems.

I'm in the Bay Area as well, and don't have any shops to recommend that would take outside work. I've had to learn how to do a lot of my own repairs on out of warranty equipment as well, things like replacing triacs in dimmer packs and keeping the foggers and movers running. I guess we live in a time when most technology is simply disposable.

The original thermostat didn't appear to have any of that compound on it (unless it fell off and disappeared over time). Just seemed to be screwed directly onto the metal frame that surrounds the heating unit. Just thinking about how the unit functions, I know prior to replacing the thermostat the machine wouldn't heat up at all, and replacing the old one with a new one fixed that problem. I understand the thermostat is just an on off switch that turns off when it gets to a certain temperature, and the thermostat only has connectors to two large wires which just seem to pass the current to the heater when the thermostat is in the 'on' position. The only thing that makes any sense to me is that the new thermostat is broken and not turning the heater off, and possibly the overheating has caused a secondary problem. I can try attaching the thermostat using the heat sink compound and see if that helps. The thermostat I bought was brand new and identical to the old one, but I am wondering if they might have sent me a bad one that somehow is stuck in the 'om' position and wont turn itself off.

I hear you on the disposable era. Asking around about this machine I have had a lot of people told me to just get rid of it and buy a new one. I know the problem can't be that complicated for a simple machine, and it is a really solid machine that really ought to have ten more years of life in it. I am a bit shocked how hard it has been to get any help from Rosco or any technicians. Thanks to both of you for the suggestions.
 
Well I finally got into it a bit today and things aren't looking great. I reattached the thermostat using the heat sink compound, turned it on and it did not heat up at all, just like it was before i replaced the thermostat. To make sure the problem was not something on the board or remote I tried jumping the thermostat with a wire, and voila, it heated up. I figured I would at least try to clean it while I had it set up, so I waited until it was ready hit the fogger button and got no response. The unit is extremely hard to open up to get to the parts, as it is assembled with tons of little metal pieces screwed together. My next step will be disassembling more of it and seeing if I can get the pump out to test if it works by itself. I found the part online for about $50 and it looks easy to replace if I can manage to get to it. I am also going to have to look at the CAT5 female jack that the remote plugs into. The locking tab seems to have broken off and the part was replaced a few years ago, so I am thinking it is also possible if the jack is loose and a soldering job has gone bad, it may simply not be getting the signal to pump from the remote. Unfortunately i don't have access to an outboard DMX control to test it that way. Still, even if I can fix the pump and replace the thermostat, teh fact that one thermostat burnt out, it's replacement worked as far as continuity, but then later burned out as well still has be concerned the heating element may be clogged up and and cause overheating which cause both the thermostats and the pump to burn out. I found a few heating elements for the Rosco 1500 and 1600, but since I have no specs for those models or my own, I am not sure they will work for my unit (Rosco Delta 3000) . With all the cost of all the parts and a lot of time to put into labor to replace everything, I may just try to find another decent used model on ebay or something.
 
This is why people say buy a new one and scrap the old one. They become Money pits pretty fast if you don’t get it right the first time.

It’s no surprise Rosco isn’t giving you help because they want you to upgrade as the one you have is outdated. Not to bash Rosco just my personal opinion.

If you think you have burned out your pump I wouldn’t bother at this point. Like you said it’s a pita to get things in and out.

Personally cut your loses and buy something newer or new with a warranty in case it something you are doing, no offense, but then you can RA it in and/or get some actual support.
 
I haven't scrapped mine yet mainly because I can't afford anything like this one new. Bought this on an auction used and a got it for $200 with a roadcase, only later realizing the quality of the machine, massive power output, and usefulness of the controls on fog volume and the timer. We use this at metal shows for for the effect of going from no fog to total fog in just a few seconds, and the cheaper machines I have borrowed just don't compare. We don;t make enough money as a band to invest $1000 in a similar machine new, though I have seen some old used models without a roadcase for around $300 on ebay. Alternately we get a cheaper machine with similar power and expect it to die in a few years and figure now I might have enough experience to repair that one on my own.

Anyway, I went back in to this thing, tightened all the connections round the pump and heater, and then just wiggled the input jack for the remote for a bit until everything was lit up correctly. This time it worked exactly as it should. So now I think The jack is the main problem, probably the input jack on the board has bad solder joints, though it could also be the solder joints on the remote, or on the remote switch's board, or the jack on the wire. I have a friend of mine better at circuit board soldering redoing the jack for me now. I may replace the wire that connects the jack to the machine next to eliminate all possibilities of the jack/remote connectors causing problems. Since it seems to work fine if everything is wiggled just right, I am convinced the problems have been caused by more than one bad connection.
 
Good troubleshooting, Dras.
 

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