Blown AC - AC Adaptor

It sounds like typical Chinese poor build quality. (Value engineering). Did the original power supply get hot?  Or was it near to a heat source? There is a 130 degree C thermal fuse in the units, perhaps that has opened. If the power supplies were supplied with the main appliance they should be man enough to perform reliably. The output is 12 Volts A.C. Perhaps try a new 12 Volt A.C. power supply rated at 3 Amps or more. The polarity is unimportant as the supply to the lights is A.C. Ensure that the new power supply is suitably fused or has current limitation.

Z.

Sounds dire. 

Any chance to fit an adaptable box to it somewhere with a real transformer inside ?

A couple of strain relief glands and some chock block to complete the job.

Don't give the makers any more money..  ? 

Mike

Zoomup, sorry for not replying, I didn't see anything pop up to say somebody had replied.

Anyway see below for an update

mapj1, Zoomup, sorry for not replying, I didn't see anything pop up to say somebody had replied.

Anyway see below for an update

Now the importers for Broil King have sent me another FREE adaptor so that I could measure what is going on. But I can't run the adaptor for too long because we know it is going to fail.

So with the new adaptor and the three under hood lights disconnected i measured a reading of 0.071 mA, that was with just the 9 small lamps on the dials connected.

With one 10W lamp connected, plus the 9 small lamps, it measures   1.177 mA, with two 10W lamps, 2.443 mA and with three lamps 3.002 mA

Now I am not hugely into this type of measuring, I normally work with dBmV, C/N, MER & BER so it is out of my comfort zone and I am an O.A.P. so not in to learning new skills.

So with the adaptor output being 1600 mA and 20W, is it just solely undersized.

Should it not be a 3.3 amps (my measured 3 amps + 10%) and a minimum of 40W?

The design is obviously shot….Suprising as the Chinese usually get the origninal design path right, does not include the moonlighting in the house next door after the works have closed up for the night.

I'd follow Mike's idea and design and build your own or use a spare second hand supply. You could use either a linear system or probably better to use a switch mode power supply. Rate it to supply something higher than 20W…

Legh

Surely with that rate of failures they'd be bust by now. What's different about your installation or use? 

What is different, nothing.

I purchased the BBQ in 2017 and the first one blew in 2018, since then I've had one every year, supplied under warranty.

So I decided to look into why they were failing, all the importers for Broil King were doing was replacing the transformer with an identical replacement, which we know is going to blow at some stage.

When I spoke to a small local Broil King retailer, he said that he knew of about 5 other cases and had heard of a couple more.

One other thing, not that this is causing them to blow, but they are supplied with a 13 amp fuse in the plug top, should it not be 3 amps?

Based on Watts divided by Volts equals Amps, then add 10% (W / V = A)

Assuming that the label on the transformer is correct, it states that the transformer is rated at 20 Watts

So, 20W divided by 240v equals 0.0833333 amps, 10% equals 0.0083333 amp.

0.0833333 amps, plus 10%  0.0083333 amps equals 0.0916666 amp, basically less than 1 amp.

The nearest fuse size to 1 amp is 3 amps and that is why I think the plug top ought to have a 3 amp fuse installed and not a 13 amp fuse.

How important is the plug top fuse in this case?

Legh, this needs to be AC out, I may have this wrong, but I thought Switch Mode Power Supply's were DC out.

Going back to Mike's idea of a Toroidal Transformer, and he has listed the 80VA version, is there anything to be gained by going up to the 100VA or 120VA version, going from 80VA to 120VA only increases the cost by £4.00