electronic aircleaner insulator breakdown??

[scorman]

We have a standard Sears in-duct air cleaner with two slide-in "elements"

I installed it and have mainainted it for many years. Heard a continous arcing one day. All the plates and wires are intact and the unit was cleaned with a pressure washer and allowed to dry.

I get continuous arcing from the element frame to the metal rail that it rests on. The same element exhibits the same problem independent of front or back position.

Upon close examination, one of the white insulators looked "burned" ...I broke it apart and note what looks like a black carbon filling? I was expecting a solid white nylon insulator. The removed insulator did not impact the mechanical integrity of the unit, so now there is a finite air gap there. The unit still arcs.

An electronics guru told me that over time, these insulators "breakdown". Anyone ever hear of such a thing?

They are not replaceable parts, but I could probably disassemble the element and substitute nylon "insulators".

Any advice other than chucking the entire unit?? Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[Zyp]

scorman;

Some inferior EAC [electronic air cleaners] use nylon or plastic insulators where as the more expensive EAC manufacturer's use glass. Glass has a considerable amount of less breakdown. The washing and not allowing to thoroughly dry cause's premature failure of the high voltage insulators. BTW: the voltage these collector cells are exposed to is 8,700 volts DC. A considerable amount of voltage, especially if your body is the go between. Be very careful handling these elements. Be sure you ground the element before removing them from the cabinet. Usually there is a ground / test button on the front panel for this purpose. [Even though you might shut off the electricity to the unit prior to removing the cells, they can hold voltage for a very long time because of their design.]

[-zero]

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Don't you trust your guru?

Google it yourself then. If you don't trust a guru you spoke to in person, why would you trust a bunch of responses from Usenet? You won't... So, that's rude of you to waist everybody's time like that, and not too sharp of you to waist your time like that. But it's your time, so enjoy yourself.

HTH,

-zero

[scorman]

zero,

sure, but he didn't answer my question of how to fix it

ummmm...I spent two hours googling to find a related subject and came up with NOTHING

You must constantly deal with idiots .. not rude to ask if anyone has had a similar experience, nor to ask if rebuild is worth the effort ..better to "waste time" on groups than spend pointless hours rebuilding something that can't be done!

still waitng for someone more knowledgeable than you on this subject

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[Noon-Air]

Call Sears and order a replacement

So do you want a medal?? ....I think Sears has those too

Whats rude is wasting others time and your own regardless of what your local tech says. If you don't like what he told you, then call another one to come out to give you a second opinion....and no thats not gonna be free either.

You seem to know as much as anybody about it and you consulted a tweak instead of a tech.... They don't last forever. either call the guy that installed it, or call a tech to replace it.