Mikuni MX 60 timer advice please

[lesrollins]

Hi

What's the best way around putting a timer on my mx60 I would like it to come on for an hour a day while I am at work so I have hot water when I get home. Sometimes I don't finish until 11.00pm. So it's not fair to run it so late at night. I am off grid but have solar panels so looking to have it on for a hour about midday when I know the power will be put back in the batteries.

Thanks

[NMEA]

Any simple 12v or battery powered timer will do the job, you can keep the current switch ans simply interupt the signal cable (should be white) with the timer.

[Robbo]

I think the wiring is the same as the mx40 so this manual should help: http://the-norfolk-broads.co.uk/fileattachments/M/text_MX40Instructions.pdf

[lesrollins]

Wheres the best place to get a 12v battery powered timer and can it be connected at the back of the main on and off switch

[lesrollins]

Would this eBay item do the trick 151999894284 and would it be able to handle the power on the start up procedure

[nicknorman]

You don't seem to have had many replies, I guess because most people have an MX40- including me. I can therefore only tell you what that is like, but hopefully the 60 is the same.

 

The power supply is permanently connected. The heater is turned on and off with a switch that also has an LED in it. This switch just sends a command to the heater's controller, it doesn't switch the main power. So the general idea I would say is to put a timeswitch in series with this switch. The switch is left on and the timeswitch used to turn the heater on and off. So the current rating of the switch only needs to be very small.

 

We have a programmable thermostat which is in effect the same as a timeswitch - you set high temperature for when you want the heater to come on, and a low temperature for the rest of the time, maybe 5C so as to give some frost protection.

 

Ours was easy to install since it is battery powered (battery lasts a couple of years) so just the 2 wires to connect to the heater switch.

 

The one you link to is high current and so probably consumes more power and of course needs a 12v feed.

 

Edit this is the one we have. Although you could probably get something cheaper.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIEMENS-RDJ10-GB-Daily-Digital-Programmable-Room-Central-Heating-Thermostat-/141999400061?hash=item210fd2e47d:g:56kAAOxydB1SeNw2

 

Note the comment in the spec about "volt-free contact" which means that the relay contacts aren't connected to anything inside the stat. You'd need to make sure that an alternative was similar, although I think they probably all are.

Edited August 8, 2016 by nicknorman

[adrift]

You don't seem to have had many replies, I guess because most people have an MX40- including me. I can therefore only tell you what that is like, but hopefully the 60 is the same.

 

The power supply is permanently connected. The heater is turned on and off with a switch that also has an LED in it. This switch just sends a command to the heater's controller, it doesn't switch the main power. So the general idea I would say is to put a timeswitch in series with this switch. The switch is left on and the timeswitch used to turn the heater on and off. So the current rating of the switch only needs to be very small.

 

We have a programmable thermostat which is in effect the same as a timeswitch - you set high temperature for when you want the heater to come on, and a low temperature for the rest of the time, maybe 5C so as to give some frost protection.

 

Ours was easy to install since it is battery powered (battery lasts a couple of years) so just the 2 wires to connect to the heater switch.

 

The one you link to is high current and so probably consumes more power and of course needs a 12v feed.

 

Edit this is the one we have. Although you could probably get something cheaper.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SIEMENS-RDJ10-GB-Daily-Digital-Programmable-Room-Central-Heating-Thermostat-/141999400061?hash=item210fd2e47d:g:56kAAOxydB1SeNw2

 

Note the comment in the spec about "volt-free contact" which means that the relay contacts aren't connected to anything inside the stat. You'd need to make sure that an alternative was similar, although I think they probably all are.

Hi I also have s mikuni mx40 and a Siemans thermostat . I have just bought the boat and the owner said he could not make it work . Do you think it should . I want a system to stop freezing if off the boat.

Ta

[by'eck]

Brilliant unit - haven't even needed to change the batteries in over four years of use. It does of course have a frost stat mode kicking in around 3° C and off around 6°C