Reactor is extremely hot

[uthsc]

Any thoughts on why a reactor is getting hot enough to cause a burn when handled? Thank you.

[harrison]

I assume you mean the exterior? The most likely thing to generate a lot of heat would be if the LEDs are on for long periods at high power – is this the case in yours?
Is the reactor working fine function wise?
If it is IS working as expeted the exterior should be at approximately ambient temperature (provided you haven’t set the LEDs to continuously output high power)…

Harrison

[uthsc]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I mean the exterior of the reactor and it does seem to be working fine, function-wise. Let me check with the lab tech regarding the LEDs and how long the experiment was running. Thanks again.

[uthsc]

The lab tech reported being burned on the middle exterior of the reactor. She said it overheated while she paused the experiment to make new media- about a 5 minute pause- and was glowing green during this time, but returned to normal operation when the experiment was resumed. A safety officer who came to inspect afterwards said the reactor was getting hot within 20-30 seconds of being plugged in, so the lab tech switched out the reactor with another on-hand and says everything is working normally again. Does this information give you any indication as to what went wrong? Is there anything we should be looking out for? Thank you.

[harrison]

Hello,
Yes – I believe I talked to your safety officer via email. It seems most likely there is some hardware fault, either due to a bad connection (i.e. during assembly soldering was not perfect), or if any water/droplets got into the reactor when your team was using it this could similarly cause some such issue.

[uthsc]

Please view these 2 images of the failed reactor and let me know if you have any thoughts on what occurred. Liquid appears to have originated from the circled portion and then dripped down to the bottom layer where you can see it on the board in the second picture. If you need additional information let me know. Thank you.
https://postimg.cc/gallery/HHfVZWX

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by uthsc.

[harrison]

Yes, it does look like it overflowed, likely due to either it being set up in such a way that the in/out media jar liquid levels are equal/above that in the reactor, or, if the output pump was not working effectively (i.e. making a poor seal on its tube).
It seems there is residue on other parts of the heat plate as well – so probably there was more in there than just a drip.
The fact that the liquid is on the chip in the second picture may indicate why the LED is malfunctioning – that chip is responsible for turning it off/on!

I’d recommend cleaning it all very carefully with alcohol, letting it dry, and seeing if that fixes it. Or, you might be better contacting the manufactuer (Labmaker) and asking if there is anything they can do to help.

[uthsc]

Thank you very much for the feedback. I’ll keep you posted if we find out anything else.

[Author]

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