T-Fal Beer Tender Failed, Fixed, Low Quality: Model VB2158 (Krups too)

OK, here we go. This beer tender has a thermo-electric cooling system. One morning when it was very quiet, I heard the fan cycling on and off repeatedly. I looked over and the Power LED would fully illuminate, flicker to a dim state, the fan would slow down, then the Power LED would illuminate to full brightness, the fan speed up, flicker to a dim state, etc. The cycle was less than 10 seconds. The green thermometer LED was not glowing meaning the beer was no longer cold.

I decided that I might as well take it apart to see if it was something simple. Yes, I defied what most would do and did not just throw it in the trash.

I disassembled it by removing four screws on the back. I found a black box that snapped open to reveal two circuit boards. One of medium complexity with an IC, three large heat sinks, several transformers, diodes, resistors, and capacitors. The other board was relatively simple.

I noticed, that the thermo-electric chip, fan, and both LED’s were wired to this small board. The only connection between the small board, and the “big” board was one connector labeled 12V.

I figured that the larger board was a fairly complex power supply.  I unplugged the power supply and checked the voltage with a voltmeter. It read a steady 12 volts and change. Next, I plugged it in and again monitored the output voltage. Now the voltage would start at 12V then quickly drop to less than 2V, then fluctuate back to 12V, then to 2V repeatedly.

My guess was that the power supply board was bad, so I got a car battery charger and powered the small board. The beer tender worked great. So, I was right, the power supply had failed.

With only a voltmeter at hand, I started checking resistors, and diodes. I found that one capacitor did not show open, but had a resistance of 190 ohms. This looked wrong. I also noticed that the top was bulging. The top end usually blows, when they fail catastrophically, so this looked like a bad part.

I de-soldered the capacitor, then checked the resistance. It should be open or infinity, but it read 3.4 ohms, so I knew it was shorted. I found a 1000 microfarad capacitor at Radio Shack for $1.79, Same capacitance, but with a higher voltage capacity (35V versus 16V). I installed the new capacitor, and the beer tender now works like a charm.

So here’s what gets me disturbed, many household electronic goods are total pieces of shit. Everything I buy fails prematurely. And the expected repair is so expensive, that the logical course of repair is to 1) throw in garbage, and 2) buy new widget.

In my opinion, this is because everything we buy is from China. Why, because they make things for very low cost.  You read the paper, how many times do people substitute cheap stuff in the process to save a penny? Cardboard in rolls you eat, cement in fake Tylenol, baby formula with no nutritional value.

Capacitors that SUCK! Dishwashers, washing machine, refrigerators, coffee makers, toys, etc. They all suck.  Valve stems for tires that blow off causing instant deflation. My instant shade, the FIRST time I unzipped the zipper for the cover/case, it fell off. 

Made in China, made to fail.

However, we design this stuff, and source it to China, then we buy it. It’s not really a Chinese problem, we are buying the Low Quality Goods perpetuating the problem.

BTW, I think the Krups Beer Tender is the same.  From what I can tell, T-Fal doesn’t sell this replacement part. You can get the part from Krups for the low low price of $54. What a deal-o-rama!

For further information, the company that made the power supply is www.hanny.com.cn. Yeah baby, let’s buy some more crap from them.

Good thing I have en engineering degree and actually know what to do with it.

Board before repair:

After Repair:

Three Months Later: October 2011

FAILED AGAIN.

So this time, I removed the power supply and two different capacitors failed. These are larger 150 microfarad, 200V caps, so Radio Shack does not stock them. I found a pair on DigiKey for around $5 including shipping. In a few days, I'll remove those installed in China and we'll see if it works again. My eleven year old knows how to visually spot a blow capacitor from this project. At least I am raising his technical competence!

November 14, 2011

Here are the capacitors that failed in late October.

Notice the tops are sort of bulging or domed.  Also, take note of the black device that looks like a resistor standing somewhat vertical at the nearest corner.

I received the DigiKey caps, and soldered them in. I then connected the 120 VAC connector, and the 12VDC connector to the sister cooling board to see if everything worked. To my dismay, nothing worked. I thought that this time maybe something more serious failed. I decided to waste a few more minutes. I verified that the board was getting 120VAC. I also verified that 12VDC was not being delivered. I decided to start at the 120VAC end of the board and look around.  I thought that the next device just to the left of the nearest corner in this photo was a transformer, so I checked the voltage. Nothing.  Since this is right next to the 120 VAC source, I noticed that the little black disc capacitor and the black device that looked like a resistor were in the path. The device looked open, so I took a utility blade to cut the rubber sheathing. It was shrink tube covering a fuse that had blown. I was going to fix this correctly and maybe install a fuse holder, but I was impatient. I found a similar 2.5A 250V automotive fuse in the garage. I soldered leads on it to mimic the fuse on the board. I soldered that in, and I now have cold beer and have thwarted the design that was intended to make me send another few bucks to China by buying a new Beer Tender to replace this POS.

Don’t buy one of these, just keep some cold ones in the fridge!

Update November 29, 2013

Today, I attempted to extract the last little bit of beer out of a mini-keg and got not warm, but HOT beer. Since I had two previous power supply failures, I figured it had failed again.

However, the power supply was happily out putting 12.7 VDC. I noticed that the fan did not spin freely, and was not running. With a little pushing the shaft in and out, it would run, but not reliably. I Googled the part number, and found that these fans cost $20+. Even used fans on eBay were $10 with shipping. I decided to see if the fan could be fixed. Under the decal, there is a rubber plug that can be removed. Below that was a tiny split washer which I pried up with a small screw driver. This required some fiddling around, but I got it out. I then pushed out the fan and shaft. After adding something called Lock-Ease (lubricant with graphite), the fan works like new.

When removing the fan, I had to break the rubber retainers. I drilled some holes in the housing just above the fan and used wire tires to hold it in place. Then I used wire ties in the bottom holes to secure the bottom to the external vent grates on each side of the tender.

Cold beer is flowing again. I will publish this on a You Tube Video and place the title here, if you are interested.