Coolstage

MK3 Service Information 

The following information has been gathered to provide a basic understanding of the Coolstage system and to allow a technical person to carry out some basic maintenance.

Noise from the pump:
Sometimes when a system has been in transit an air pocket can develop in the pump causing the pump to be noisy. Normally running the system for around one hour will solve this problem. Switching the system on and off a number of times will sometimes help to purge the air.

Click here to download our ‘pump bleed’ guide.

Alarm sounds:
If the Peltier head heatsink temperature exceeds +30ºC then the system will display an over temperature warning and shut down automatically to protect the peltier device from damage. This can be caused by the room temperature being too high (>30ºC) or by the water flow being too low. Check the water level by removing the top panel of the chiller unit. Also check the pump is working.

No characters on keypad:
Check you have mains power, is the fan running?, check mains fuse. If the system seems to work even though the display does not light up then it may be just the display it’s self – we have had some failures, contact Deben for an exchange keypad.

Vacuum level is bad:
Systems are tested to 1×10-3 Pa and should achieve this vacuum quickly. If this is not possible there may be a small leak on one of the internal water pipes. The design of these pipes was modified in March 2002 to solve this problem. Contact Deben if you think you have a problem with these pipes.

Fan not working:
Check that both fan is operating. The lifetime of the fan will depend on the operating voltage and operation time. 3 years of continuous operation is average lifetime.

Unable to achieve low temperature: 
Room temperature should be <25ºC, at this ambient temperature you should achieve –25ºC at 300Pa. You should also make sure the cooling unit is not sitting in a direct hot air flow (eg. Directly next to the SEM electronics vent. Check the water is at a good temperature (press CAL, 3), normal temperature should be below 25ºC. If the temperature is above this then you have a problem. You should allow the system to stand for at least 30 minutes before operating to allow the water time to cool. The Peltier on the cold head is fragile and will break if dropped, it could look OK but be broken internally. If the heatsink temperature is low (<25ºC) and ambient is <25ºC then you should get –25ºC at 300Pa, if not then the Peltier may be damaged. Contact Deben for more help.