Evaporative Water Coolers - mastercool problem.....frustrated!!!

I have dual (upstairs and downstairs) master cool evap coolers. they run to wall controls that are 24 volt...those are fine, i checked...I have cleaned all items on the roof (connectors, connections, etc) there is a box on the inside that has the hot wires coming in, a transformer, and the 24 volt going to the control in the house. There is a circuit board in that box..it is probably shot. I have cleaned all connections....but my problem is that mastercool doesn;t exist anymore, no one has parts, and the guy at the store says that all coolers now are "inline" meaning the "big" wires go through the control dial...........it is hot, and I am tired of hearing the wife...please give me any advice of where to go...the coolers are probably 14 years old, and all the stuff is in wroking order up top (the other is working fine)...I am going refridge ASAP, but not right now.....I will try to get model numbers (older,weathered, etc) or pics if need be....just point me to where to buy the new electrical box! Thanks!!!!

model number outside of unit is p710801a mastercool plus...I have the whole electrical pulled out now form inside the unit....board, connectors, etc....looks fine, but has to be fried

A fried board would look fried. See my post in the thermostat section. Do you have voltage going to the control box? Do you have 24 volts output from the transformer?

look fried how?? how do I check for power at unit with out killing myself?? I have a few styles of testers (probe with a light, meter....just tell me how to check if you could...thanks

Here are some pics of the piece I took out of the unit on the roof..and what the wall switch looks like

Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket (http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t27/robby1824/cooloer/?action=tageditalbum)

robby..pics are not showing....

You need to copy the html code for the picture...(not the photobucket address), then use the "insert image" button and copy the code into the window that pops up.

If I may throw in my two cents worth. Those low voltage controls in some of those units were unreliable, I think the older ones were better though than the new ones.
You can buy a low voltage cooler thermostat at lowes, it will have a control box that mounts on the cooler and a new thermostat for the wall.
The problem with some of the old mastercool units, is that the low voltage cable was a special type of cord that had phone connection type ends on them. If this is the case with yours, you will probably have to replace with regular thermostat wire.
I couldnt see any pics either but it wont do much good, if it's shot, you will have to retrofit a different system into the cooler.

First we need to decide which forum you want to work in. I suggest this one, this multiple forum thing makes us all nutso. Use a volt meter, not a tick tester or neon light. You're going to have to do some live voltage testing, if you'e uncomfortable wih that, pick up the phone. Otherwise, turn off the power, get the switch hanging out by the wires, get your meter ready and turn the power back on to the unit. Now, do you see a transformer? Is there 24 volts at the output of the transformer?

I will stay here for the answers...forget the other one for now....the wall switch is fine..I traded out the one downstairs that is working, and still nothing. It has to be up in the box that are in the pics...the wires seem to be normal screw in connections..If I can just put a new one in and 86 the old, that is fine by me, I will look at lowes today for that. My user name on PB is robby1824....my password if needed is dakota1824...not a problem since I only use it for here! I have 2 wires bare at the cooler now....probably one hot, an the other ground...I can put breaker back on and check...what am I looking for?? I have a basic volt/ohm meter...what do I put the dial on, and which wire do I check....just for an FYI to make sure I don;t have a power failure in the wiring.....

OK...took off the board from the housing...that one link looks like the housing I have.....I also put another pic of the portion of the board where the 24 volt wire assembly plugs in...the tranformer is hard wired to board, but the board looks fried to me where this takes palce on the circuits......I would like to just find a whole new assembly like this.....don;t know where though.

got it put back together to test...will hook up later today. Ihave the volt meter, I know the OHMs are green on the dial, but there is white that says DCV.(10, 50, 250,1000 ) then red ACV same settings, then white again DCmA(.5, 50,500) what do I put it on, and when I have it powered, which probe do I use to check...there are 4 connectors for the wires...do I touch each one??

Yes, that does look suspicious. Give these folks a call:

DIAL MANUFACTURING (http://www.dialmfg.com/main.htm)

At the website click on the parts catalog until you come to a digital low voltage controller. It looks like it will be the easiest thing you can do. I didn't see any replacement boards in their catalog.

Also try these folks:

Welcome to Essick Air, Inc. (http://www.essickair.com/)

ask what this is:

Essick Air Products, Inc. - CC2000B (http://coolerstore.essickair.com/p-161-cc2000b.aspx)

They don't give much info.


Another choice is to homebrew your own controller, but it won't be intuitive.

Went to lowes..they do have the whole enchilada..for $89..wall unit, etc...the problem I see is that there are no plug outlets for the water pump and fan motor (2 speeds)....do i buy the pigtail's for both and hook them into the board in the power box at the unit so I can just plug in?? I am sure that I could cut off plug and wire direct too.....might be the simplest solution to just re-do the whole thing like the other poster said...that was his suggestion. I probably connot find the exact unit anymore...I will try to call that place though..

I never would have gueesed that Lowes would have something. Just hard wire it and be done with it. Are you having to change from low voltage to line voltage down to the wall thermostat? If yes, you will have to replace the cable that runs from the cooler to the wall box. If it's 24 volts, just wire it up.

I never would have gueesed that Lowes would have something. Just hard wire it and be done with it. Are you having to change from low voltage to line voltage down to the wall thermostat? If yes, you will have to replace the cable that runs from the cooler to the wall box. If it's 24 volts, just wire it up.

This is what I mentioned in the post I left this morning. Lowes sells two different low voltage kits, one from Adobe air, which is out of business and one from dial which is cheaper and a much better setup.

it's actually 24 volt down to the wall unit...transformer in it and everything....they guys at lowes didnt; even know it! Asked and they said no...but I went and found it...even had 2! I will have to look hard at it...is it hard to hard wire it in?? or easier to just put the pigtail in and plug it in......would hate to cut something and not be able to find where it goes....the wire attachements are pretty simple screw in things..just put the wire in and screw it down...

Went to lowes..they do have the whole enchilada..for $89..wall unit, etc...the problem I see is that there are no plug outlets for the water pump and fan motor (2 speeds)....do i buy the pigtail's for both and hook them into the board in the power box at the unit so I can just plug in?? I am sure that I could cut off plug and wire direct too.....might be the simplest solution to just re-do the whole thing like the other poster said...that was his suggestion. I probably connot find the exact unit anymore...I will try to call that place though..

Cut the wires from the old control unit but leave it in the cooler. Mount the new box in the cooler onto the blower housing and run new wires accordingly between the new control and the old control.
This way you can still use your old plugs.
Does your cooler also have the extra outlet for the dump (purge) pump? If so, the new Dial brand control has that feature built into it.
The next question I have to ask is which model did the lowes store have? The one you want is the Dial brand, the other brand they sell which is called Masterstat is now out of business and doesnt have the dump pump feature.

It can be a little tricky to wire up, hopefully you have enough knowledge to do it. The Dial kit is a little bit complicated for the non experienced. Just do what I said in the previous post and you can leave your old outlets in the cooler.

I don;t have the dump pump anyway.....let me look at what I have again before I take the plunge...I wish I wrote down the model number etc from the unit at Lowes! I will look online.....

nothing online...I will go tomorrow and get the model...but it is the cheaper one..smaller box that i want to get....the other one had master something on it, so that must be the obsolete one..good. Thing about lowes...don't work...take it back!

nothing online...I will go tomorrow and get the model...but it is the cheaper one..smaller box that i want to get....the other one had master something on it, so that must be the obsolete one..good. Thing about lowes...don't work...take it back!

Yeah, that is the right one. Smaller box, cheaper price and much better unit.
I installed a ton of those masterstats and most of them took a dump after the first couple of years. I have installed a few of the dial ones with no problems so far.
If you google dial cooler parts, you can find thermostats on their site and that unit you want is on there.
If you have any problems installing it, I will be in and out over the next few days and can help you along.:thumbup:

awesome! thanks....I can even take my laptop up.....thanks. Will probably go pick it up today..have a golf tourney over the next 2 days, but will work it out with you. Should I pick up the pigtails? Or just hard wire it.....

You wont find the female motor outlet anymore, as that is a mini plug special to mastercool. This is why I suggested leaving the old control box in the cooler and wiring from the new control into it, so you could use your old outlets.
It might just be easier though, if you elimintate the old box and just cut the end of the motor cord off and the pump plug off and hardwire them into the new control.

I don;t think it is possible to wire it in to the old.....I can cut the old and try to use them that way....let me get the unit and look at it to see what the best option will be, or better yet, what you think! I will post some pics of both for you, and you can tell which may be best....

I don;t think it is possible to wire it in to the old.....I can cut the old and try to use them that way....let me get the unit and look at it to see what the best option will be, or better yet, what you think! I will post some pics of both for you, and you can tell which may be best....

You can cut the wires off at the circuit board in the old unit and take the old circuit board out and throw it away.
This will leave you with a nice empty box to feed new wires in from your new control box. I have done this twice this year on a couple mastercools. Like I said, mount the new control onto the blower housing and then run your wires from there to the old control box.

hi sammy....bought the new box/controler...the plugs are hard wired to the old board,...do I cut those off?...are those the wires you mean?? I will be home soon, and can look at both....I am sure you know exactly what I have, and the pics show as well. I should just be able to wire the plugs direct to the NEW board/connections. I think that is what you mean. I will probably just use the controler and the new box..the plugs will just hang free and plug in. I will just mount inside the unit....or I can put it inot the old box since it easy to screw in, and the plugs are mounted in the bracket...I think the new box will just fit in....just want to make sure I cut the correct wires.

Yeah, cut the wires off at the board. This should leave you with a couple of inches of wire to your plugs.
I dont know if that will leave you enough wire to get up into the new control box, if you want to have them hanging out the bottom.
You may just have to forget about using the plugs and hardwire everything in. Mount the control box onto the side of the blower housing and run your hot feed from where the old control is over to the new unit.
I just put one of these controllers on my neighbors cooler yesterday and there are a couple of things I should point out.
The new unit comes with a little jumper wire that you will use between the LINK and N LINK terminals. Your hot feed coming into the control will go to black on L1 and your white (neutral) on N. The rest is very easy. I need to ask. This is a 110 volt cooler, correct? If so, then follow the dirrections I just gave. Good luck.

ok...I am sure you know which wires go where...I am fine with just getting the plugs wired and figure out the logistics up on the roof....it is all sealed inside the unit anyway....

yes 110 by the way....I have a menagerie of colored wires now....orange is 240 I think, so no worries there......thick white, thin white,...thick red....thick white with green stripes.....black, and black with yellow stripes....2 green, 1 thicker....obvious grounds....I have a yellow and a white out of the power supply at unit....yellow went to black on board, and white went to both white from board, and then green to ground....probably makes sense to you....on the new unit I have FLo, FHi, FCom..link L1, N, NLink (these are the short wire you said to link)..PP PCom...then dump connects, which I don;t have.....

one more quick thing sammy....my 24 volt wires are gr, bl, y, r........I assume that does not matter, as long as they are connected to the corresponding connections....if I have to change I think I can pull through new stuff, but I shouldn;t have to I would think

one more quick thing sammy....my 24 volt wires are gr, bl, y, r........I assume that does not matter, as long as they are connected to the corresponding connections....if I have to change I think I can pull through new stuff, but I shouldn;t have to I would think

Color doesnt matter as long as you hook them up the same way on the thermostat. Sounds like your doing fine so far, keep us posted with the results.
By the way, how are you getting by without a dump pump? You must live in an area with good water. If we didnt have those on our coolers here, the Celdek media would be shot in one season. By having a dump pump, I can get four years out of mine and my customers.
If you ever do decide to use the dump feature, make sure you dont buy an actual dump pump, as this has an already built in timer. Obviously your new control box would do that for you.
All you would need to do is buy one of the little cheap 5,000 CFM pumps and wire it in.:)

do you know which color on the plugs go where in the new unit?? how about the power...where does that go in...I am now in your hands with regards to hooking it all up right...I mentioned above what colors I have, and the connections inside the new unit...I am just trying to hook up the plugs at this point...I can always cut away the male pugs up top and hard wire direct....just need to know what wires go where as the old board didn;t have much info on it.....

Adobe air changed their color codes a couple of times and I dont have the schematic with me at work.
If you want to just hardwire it, here is the hookup:

Once you have your motor cord stripped back, hook the black to fan high, red to fan low, white to fan common and set the green aside.
Once the pump is stripped back, hook the hot to pump power, the common to pump common and set the green aside.
Now hook your main supply in, you said you have a hot yellow? Hook that to L1 and hook your white to N.
Now hook up the little whit jumper wire between LINK and NLINK.
Now use the supplied wire nut and hook all of your grounds together.
Now hook up your thermostat wires. You should be good to go!
If you decide you want to use your female pigtails, you'll have to wait till I get home to my schematic. Thanks.

I kind of like the hard wire option now....seems easier to figure out....on the pump, what color is the hot and what color is the nuetral?? The rest seems pretty straight forward! I will leave myself enough "rope" for an error!

does the whote going to N act as the ground?? I know that the ground wires were all anchored to that...should I put another green wire in the bundle and ground it to the metal on the unit??

OH and by the way THANK YOU!!!

great...I get the info and it is a fricken lightning storm outside! Can't go up to the roof tonite...but at least it is cooler! I am going to hard wire it Sammy..that sounds best, and I don't have to worry about the other wires......just want to make sure i have it grounded well.....can't wait!

Is your pump cord the flat lamp cord looking type? If so , look closely at it and one wire will be smooth and the other will have little ribs in it. The smooth wire is the hot and the ribbed, neutral.
If it makes you feel better, you could add an extra wire to your ground bundle and screw it to the cooler frame or blower housing.
Too bad about the storm, we had a really good one here in vegas last night. Thank god we have a/c for backup, because the humidity was through the roof here today!

dude, you are the man....I appreciate all you have done for me here...and all the DIY experts on other projects.......it is still raining here (albuquerque)...humid too, so the swamps don't do too much.....I will cut the cords tomorrow and give you all the accolades you deserve on this site! I will let you know...the pump is newer, so it will see when I go up....let you know and take pics...thank you again a ton!

dude, you are the man....I appreciate all you have done for me here...and all the DIY experts on other projects.......it is still raining here (albuquerque)...humid too, so the swamps don't do too much.....I will cut the cords tomorrow and give you all the accolades you deserve on this site! I will let you know...the pump is newer, so it will see when I go up....let you know and take pics...thank you again a ton!

You are very welcome. Yes, I would like to see some pics. By the way, are those coolers ducted in through each room? If so, you might have an easy setup if you wanted to add some packaged rooftop A/C units. You could even set it up so you could still leave the coolers for your dry weather. This is the way I did mine when I added the new A/C unit and cooler.

we are thinking seriously about refidge units....they are both separate, and only cool, we have baseboard boiler heat...so it is a dedicated unit...I would think it is pretty simple....

Did what you said.....hooked it all up.....flipped the breaker........voila!! WORKED!!! Thank you a ton Sammy....you saved my day! What is a good brand/dealer for refridge?? probably 1200 sq ft on each one (up and down)........thanks again!

Did what you said.....hooked it all up.....flipped the breaker........voila!! WORKED!!! Thank you a ton Sammy....you saved my day! What is a good brand/dealer for refridge?? probably 1200 sq ft on each one (up and down)........thanks again!

I use Goodman, I even put one in my house and my mother inlaws house, that should say how much I trust that brand!
You will find quite a few contractors that dont like them because they used to be junk. They joined hands with amana a few years back and have since become a darn good unit. They also have a good warranty.
Our house used to be heated with natural gas but when I changed out my rooftop unit, I went with a heat pump instead. I think we came out ahead utility wise and the heat is not as blasting hot.