DIYbanter - View Single Post - Lead-free solder is such a PITA (rant/whinge)

Ralph Mowery

In article ,
says...

A quick check of the Goyen catalog shows they draw about .05 to .07 Amps
depending on the coil at 240 volts.

Ok, that's better and less than the 5A fusing current for #34 awg.

That is around 10 to 16 watts. The DC resistance of the coils was not
given. The coils on many of the valves can be changed to several
voltages.

10 - 16 watts might get the coil quite warm if energized continuously.
Probably not enough to melt solder, but certainly will add a few
degrees to the heat from the furnace.

WE had hundreds of that brand where I worked and some were pulsed every
30 seconds or so and some were almost always on. Hardly any problems
with the coils. The ones that were on most of the time ran hot enough
that you would almost burn your hand. Some of them were where the room
temperature was over 100 deg F. The plant made polyester and the
process required about 300 deg C of heat. I said room, but those areas
were not occupied except to check on the equipment from time to time.

Most problems were either the rubber disk wearing out or the plunger
enlarging due to all the beating they take or the spring wearing out.
The plunger is enclosed so no way for it to touch the coil form. While
it could be something in the coil, I would think that as many that he
changed out it must be something external.

One other thing, is the coil all the way seated on where the plunger is
? If not it could be drawing enough current to burn out the wire. We
often left the coil hooked up to the conduit and just changed out the
mechanical part. Mainly did that to keep from having to go to another
floor and find the power source for the coil. Found that we needed to
stick a large screwdriver or other item in the core of the coil or a
fuse would blow or the coil would burn out.