I've had my Kane 250 for a couple of years. The Oxygen cell seems to have died as the O2 and CO2 readings are not credible. Just wondering if there are any other servicing/calibration options other than returning it to Kane? The CO cell still seems fine (which was the one I thought was more fragile and likely to suddenly die).
Mine seems to ask to be sent home every two years more or less. The first warning sign of expenditure coming up is when the unit takes more than 20 seconds to initialize. After that it's not long before it starts taking the full three minutes to come up followed by refusal to work.
Let me know if you find a cheaper was of renewing it. I suppose in reality it just needs a new oxygen sensor, if there are any calibrations required then that might be more tricky. Although getting 20.7% on fresh air should be easy enough.
The unit still _thinks_ it's working fine, and initialises in
20 seconds. However, with any boiler running at full power, it still registers around 18% Oxygen, which is garbage (and on the border line for it even trying to work out a CO2 reading). Should be somewhere nearer 6-13% oxygen for the boilers I regularly service.I'll probably send it back to Kane - cost around £140, but I can manage without it until next summer/autumn now, which will give me almost an extra year's life from the new cell when fitted.
In message , Andrew Gabriel writes
You have an air leak on either the pump diaphragm, the filter or somewhere in the sample probe/hose. It's worth checking the filter housing and connections to it to make sure there are no cracks and it's all seated properly. Does the Kane & May have a leak test facility or does it detect low flow for blocked filters/sample probes? If so, you can eliminate the sample system and filter housing although relying on a flow detector for this may not be reliable enough to detect a small leak. It's possible to have an air leak on the pump chamber/diaphragm but not fail a leak test as the sample cell is often open to air on the exhaust.
Oxygen sensors of many types can be had from City Technology and because they age the analyser will probably auto calibrate over a given range of fresh air output (usually 7-13mV output, below 7 and the sensor is worn out) Should cost, for a one off, about £30 but if you hunt around you can find them for as little as £12. Unfortunately it looks as though you would need to break calibration seals to replace the cell yourself so that's another stitch up by a manufacturer.
The Kane doesn't have an air leak detector, but if I block the inlet, the pump labours (only tried this for half a second as I imagine that in itself might damage the pump). I attached the hose and probe and blocked the probe inlet and pump similarly labours, so I don't think there's a leak in the analyser, hose, or probe. Also, the Carbon Monoxide readings are exactly as expected, and if there was a leak I would expect them to be similarly reduced. Filter looks good as new (the unit gets miniscule amount of use compared with what it was designed for -- used around 5 times a year).
I'm not going to change the oxygen sensor myself, but it was interesting looking at City Technology's oxygen sensors. Not one of them has a life in air of more than 2 years, and my Kane is 2 years old, so that also points to the Oxygen cell having died.
I wonder if storing it in an oxygen-free atmosphere would increase the oxygen sensor's life?
Thanks for the follow-up.
I wonder if its more like they gradually get poisoned by various gases.
Dave
In message , gort writes
They do get poisoned but they are a fuel cell so they degrade as they are exposed to whatever gas they are designed to detect. Poisoning can be caused by several gases for o2 sensors and letting the cell membrane get wet will kill it in fairly short order. Any substance that blocks the permeable membrane will, obviously, stop the cell working as well. I occasionally used to see cells that didn't drop below a certain output as the O2 level dropped in the sample cell. Never worked out what went wrong with them but didn't spend much time on them, they were just replaced.
To extend the life of an O2 cell, sealing it in an airtight container works, it doesn't have to be oxygen free as the cell will consume the oxygen inside. It will take a while for the cell to recover when you remove it from the container but probably not more than a few minutes.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Clint Sharp saying something like:
When you say 'hunt around', do you mean there are other stockists? I've got a KM700 which will need a new O2 sensor sometime soon and the idea of paying 140ukp just for a replacement sticks in my craw a bit, especially if they auto calibrate.
In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes
Lots of places sell O2 cells, City Technology are a manufacturer I used to use, we got ours badged with our name. I have seen at least four different manufatcurer's cells in the UK but they were all of one type, the Kane & May could use something completely different though, you'd have to open it and match it up. As with anything, you get what you pay for, some of the really cheap cells lasted about four months.
The auto calibration I'm used to on automotive gas analysers works because the analyser knows that atmospheric O2 is 20.95% for the purposes of the MOT test and calibrates the output of the cell after purging (auto zero) to mean 20.95%. The reason they can auto calibrate for O2 is to accommodate the ageing of the cell (13mV when new and down to 7mV when exhausted) This does NOT mean that the unit can self calibrate for all the gases it measures so for gas certification work you would still need the factory/service agent calibration, indeed you should have this calibration for any kind of work where you rely on the readings and life may be at risk if incorrect.
They auto calibrate but only while the sensor is still alive.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Clint Sharp saying something like:
Yes, well that's sensible, of course; I must delve further into this.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Ed Sirett saying something like:
What I thought - so when the startup O2 reading can't anymore it's time to replace.
Except that sending it to Kane gets the unit checked over and a certificate issued which I can wave under the nose of the CORGI inspector as needed.
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