Goldline GL-30-LCO Controller full-time on

[Opihi59]

New to this forum, but not to forums in general. I have a Goldline GL-30-LCO SunEarth INC electrical solar control which switches the Grundfos pump for my Solar Water Heater. I have replaced this several times for this issue but there must be a better fix. The present controller is less than 2 years old. At present, it makes the pump run full-time on. I have not found similar threads on this forum.
What the system is set to do via a dual thermistor type thermostat, when the difference between tank temperature and the roof grid is 12 degrees, it turns on the pump which then circulates the hot water back into my tank until the difference in temperature is 4 degrees (Fahrenheit). Then it shuts off the pump. My controller for some reason abruptly has started running full time, so the water constantly circulates between the tank and the roof, no matter what the water temperature is. The previous time this happened, as well as now, I was unable to "reboot" this by unplugging for several hours, then plugging the controller back in. My thermistors seem to be okay, it is as if some relay type element in the controller is stuck, and it just keeps the pump running full time.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot this, rather than just replacing the whole controller every few years? Happy to hear your thoughts and suggestions.

 

[OzSolar]

Welcome to the forum.

Generally speaking, in my experience, those Goldline controllers are rarely a problem. Sounds like a bad sensor thinks that your collector is at or near freezing and has turned the pump on for freeze protection. Is the far-right LED lit? Or maybe you were at freezing, and it was doing its job?

Those are 10k thermistors which are pretty easy to trouble shoot. 10K means that at 77f they will read 10,000 ohms. Do you have digital voltmeter and the documentation that came with the Goldline?

I found the below in their manual.

 

[Opihi59]

OzSolar, thank you for your welcome and your insight. I didn't get any email notification of your response so did not notice your valuable input til now. Perhaps there is a frost setting, but it never frosts in Honolulu, though a malfunction is a malfunction whatever the etiology. This thing ran continuously since I posted, but this am it is not running. The module shows only the single light glowing, and not both lights as it does when it has the pump running.
I'm not one to feel satisfied that "it has fixed itself," but if it has somehow popped back into a proper mode, I can't really test it; I'm going to let it go as it wishes for the next few days or so and will wait and see. I do appreciate the link to the manual, and suggestions. I'll keep these so I can interrogate it properly if it is still demonstrating failure.
Thank you for all the input.

 

[Opihi59]

Still functioning properly, I will keep watching. Thanks.

 

[Manz808]

My controller is set to auto and I never see the second led light light up. What triggers it? What’s Your settings set to? I left it stock set at in the middle for both dials but for the past few months, I have been relying Oh using my electric to get My water Hot.

It’s been working great for a year and half and bills been low. Till I noticed that it started to increase month to month, I checked the timer. And. The time dial was off. I’m guessing from outages time to time maybe could’ve caused it to become mis timed. So I opened the box and messed with the switches. Put it in the on position and the light lights up. Grant it this was all done at night when I got home so I don’t know if it’s doing anything.

I have 20 solar panels and bill has been low. When I opened the little gray box timer, the on and off pieces fell out and I noticed the time was off. And in my head I thought to have it turn on at 8am then turn off around 6pm. Figure the solar panels would work regardless and the electric would only be used durning those times. But I think I was wrong about that. So I set the timer to come on at 6pm and off at 8pm. And I don’t have hot water durning the day. Figure give it a few days or so to get hot or whatever’s and nope. I end up relying on the electric to get hot water. Opened the box and watched videos on it. Unplugged the pump from the unit then replugged it. Put the switch in the control box to the “on” position and the pump gets fairly hot pretty quick. Idk if that’s normal or what. I have a thermometer mounted on top of the heater and it just stays in the 100 degrees range. Plus or minus a line or two. Even when the water is hot from having the electric on. I’m sure I’m missing something. Improperly set or something. Would appreciate some help please

 

[Manz808]

Here’s what it’s been reading for the most part.

 

[Manz808]

When I unplugged the pump then plugged it back in and put the switch to on. I noticed the temp was climbing after 15 minutes so thought I was. Onto something. But it declined and went back to normal. An hour later. Grant it this is all done at night

 

[Manz808]

By the way, how do you “short” the collectors terminal? I found the user manual but wasn’t sure how to go about it and didn’t wanna mess with the wiring before i break something. Is it simply unscrewing the positive and negatives from 1,2,3,4?

 

[Honolulu]

First post. I see some problems similar to mine.
1. Lately we've passed through some wet weather and I wasn't getting the hot water my wife and I were accustomed to. I have the timer turned off, so the heating element only runs when I allow it, IDK if this saves energy but it gives me something to do and only need the element a couple days/year.
2. So no hot water even though the sun has returned. Time to test. I unplugged to pump from the controller and plugged it into a live extension cord. The pump runs, validating that it's okay.
3. There's only the leftmost red LED on the controller, meaning that it's receiving power. The troubleshooting guide says to ensure the switch is in the auto position, but where's the switch? Online it seems the switch is inside the enclosure, that's where I'm going next.
4. Thermistors (two of them) are the next suspect; they don't weather well although my stuff is all under the house in the dry and dark. I will check them visually, then perhaps use my digital voltmeter to assess their resistance is about 10,000 ohms at 77 degrees.

 

[Honolulu]

Opihi59: Based on my 20 years experience with 10 panels in Kaimuki, you should see tank temperature near max (almost 150 degrees) on a sunny day in Hawaii. From what I read the controller is highly reliable and if you've replaced it several times, you may have a different problem, such as a loose connection. Wire connections can be funny things, my motorcycle had a bad main ground that would intermittently shut off the engine - in traffic! By chance I discovered that the ring terminal where it was bolted to the trans case, looked good, but there was just enough corrosion between the wire strands and the crimped connector, that it was an intermittent connection.

The other possibility is the thermistors (temp sensors) can go bad, see item 4 in my post above and test them. You'll need some way to measure resistance.

 

[Honolulu]

My controller is set to auto and I never see the second led light light up. What triggers it? What’s Your settings set to? I left it stock set at in the middle for both dials but for the past few months, I have been relying Oh using my electric to get My water Hot.

It’s been working great for a year and half and bills been low. Till I noticed that it started to increase month to month, I checked the timer. And. The time dial was off. I’m guessing from outages time to time maybe could’ve caused it to become mis timed. So I opened the box and messed with the switches. Put it in the on position and the light lights up. Grant it this was all done at night when I got home so I don’t know if it’s doing anything.

I have 20 solar panels and bill has been low. When I opened the little gray box timer, the on and off pieces fell out and I noticed the time was off. And in my head I thought to have it turn on at 8am then turn off around 6pm. Figure the solar panels would work regardless and the electric would only be used durning those times. But I think I was wrong about that. So I set the timer to come on at 6pm and off at 8pm. And I don’t have hot water durning the day. Figure give it a few days or so to get hot or whatever’s and nope. I end up relying on the electric to get hot water. Opened the box and watched videos on it. Unplugged the pump from the unit then replugged it. Put the switch in the control box to the “on” position and the pump gets fairly hot pretty quick. Idk if that’s normal or what. I have a thermometer mounted on top of the heater and it just stays in the 100 degrees range. Plus or minus a line or two. Even when the water is hot from having the electric on. I’m sure I’m missing something. Improperly set or something. Would appreciate some help please

Manz808, I've had to reset the Little Gray Box timer each time the power goes out, since it runs on house electricity. Also, the adjustable little things you screw onto the timer disc are marked "ON" and "OFF" and cause the Box to send power to the heating element in the water heater. I set mine at 6 and 8 pm just like you. In my 80 gallon tank with 4500 watt heating elements, the temp will rise 10 degrees in just under half an hour. A hot shower is about 105 degrees.

NEXT: The water heater element has its own adjustable thermostat and on my heater, one is set so if the water is at or over 130 degrees, they won't turn on. The elements also have resettable fuses on them and sometimes trip off. Using my Ruud heater as an example, there are two rectangular light brown panels screwed on to the tank shell. Remove one panel at a time (two small screws each) and you should see a red button about 1/4" in diameter. Use a stick to push it firmly if you're concerned about the 230 volts only inches from your fingers. If the button clicks and stays in a depressed position, you've reset the heater element and all should be good to go. I have two elements, check them both. The separate solar storage tank has an element behind a brown panel but it's not wired, just a dummy sitting there. It might be useful as a spare if one in the heater tank ever gives up.

A running pump gets good and warm to the touch - it's got hot water running through it. Test the pump by plugging it into an extension cord. If it hums and runs, the pump's okay, unless the impeller is jammed and the pump's about to short. It won't last long if it's jammed, and might only "clunk" once when you plug it in, then not hum.

 

[Honolulu]

good troubleshooting guide I just came across

https://www.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityMilShines/Documents/12MaintenanceHPTroubleShootSDHW.pdf

hope it helps

 

[Manz808]

First post. I see some problems similar to mine.
1. Lately we've passed through some wet weather and I wasn't getting the hot water my wife and I were accustomed to. I have the timer turned off, so the heating element only runs when I allow it, IDK if this saves energy but it gives me something to do and only need the element a couple days/year.
2. So no hot water even though the sun has returned. Time to test. I unplugged to pump from the controller and plugged it into a live extension cord. The pump runs, validating that it's okay.
3. There's only the leftmost red LED on the controller, meaning that it's receiving power. The troubleshooting guide says to ensure the switch is in the auto position, but where's the switch? Online it seems the switch is inside the enclosure, that's where I'm going next.
4. Thermistors (two of them) are the next suspect; they don't weather well although my stuff is all under the house in the dry and dark. I will check them visually, then perhaps use my digital voltmeter to assess their resistance is about 10,000 ohms at 77 degrees.

Hey what’s up! Yea it’s been raining frequent lately. If you open up the controller there’s a switch you’ll see on the right side of it. Kinda upwards above the opening of the removable pannel. Can’t. Miss it. I ordered a sensor off of Amazon and I replaced the sensor. I used the multimeter and the collector sensor I guess was giving weird numbers for a sensor sitting on an hot line. Replacing the sensor gave slight warm water and some days it’ll be cold after all day of sun. So I’m deciding to just buy a new Goldline controller. It looks simple to swap.

Also, when I flip the switch to on, the pump kicks on, does Your pump get hot to the touch ?

 

[Manz808]

good troubleshooting guide I just came across

https://www.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityMilShines/Documents/12MaintenanceHPTroubleShootSDHW.pdf

hope it helps

Yes that’s the same guide I used.

 

[Manz808]

Manz808, I've had to reset the Little Gray Box timer each time the power goes out, since it runs on house electricity. Also, the adjustable little things you screw onto the timer disc are marked "ON" and "OFF" and cause the Box to send power to the heating element in the water heater. I set mine at 6 and 8 pm just like you. In my 80 gallon tank with 4500 watt heating elements, the temp will rise 10 degrees in just under half an hour. A hot shower is about 105 degrees.

NEXT: The water heater element has its own adjustable thermostat and on my heater, one is set so if the water is at or over 130 degrees, they won't turn on. The elements also have resettable fuses on them and sometimes trip off. Using my Ruud heater as an example, there are two rectangular light brown panels screwed on to the tank shell. Remove one panel at a time (two small screws each) and you should see a red button about 1/4" in diameter. Use a stick to push it firmly if you're concerned about the 230 volts only inches from your fingers. If the button clicks and stays in a depressed position, you've reset the heater element and all should be good to go. I have two elements, check them both. The separate solar storage tank has an element behind a brown panel but it's not wired, just a dummy sitting there. It might be useful as a spare if one in the heater tank ever gives up.

A running pump gets good and warm to the touch - it's got hot water running through it. Test the pump by plugging it into an extension cord. If it hums and runs, the pump's okay, unless the impeller is jammed and the pump's about to short. It won't last long if it's jammed, and might only "clunk" once when you plug it in, then not hum.

So I found one pannel with the temp setting. It’s some what in the middle. And thee little red. Button. I pressed it because I read somewhere it the heater might need. To be reset