JPH06347092A - Method of diagnosing and displaying failure in full automatic type bath device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To conveniently repair a full automatic type bath device by estimating a failure portion and its failure occurring place on the basis of the flowing condition of hot water into a bathtub in every predetermined change-over operation at each portion during the operation of hot water feed or additional heating and converting the failure place into a predetermined failure display cord to be displayed. CONSTITUTION:Water is mixed with high-temperature hot water from a heat exchanger 4 for feeding hot water, and hot water at a set temperature is supplied by a hopper 6. In this case, when a hot water feed rate sensor 23 is in an OFF state, the sensor 23, a hot water drop-in valve 14 and a supply change-over valve 21 are judged as failure, and a predetermined display code corresponding to this failure is displayed by flickering on a display unit. Then, the supply change-over valve 21 is changed over to the side of a heat exchanger 5 for additional heating, and a return change-over valve 17, to the side of a circulating pump 16. In this case, when the hot water feed rate sensor 23 is in an OFF state, the supply change-over valve 21 and a water feed change-over valve 24 are judged as failure, and a predetermined failure display code corresponding to this failure is displayed by flickering on the display unit. By this method, the failure can be rapidly and accurately repaired.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a failure diagnosis display method for a fully automatic bath apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, a fully automatic bath device has started to spread. This fully automatic bath device automatically sets the hot water temperature and water level to the set water level by pressing the fully automatic switch after setting the hot water temperature and water level with a remote control, etc. When the temperature is lower than the set temperature, the heating is automatically performed, the heating is stopped when the set water temperature is reached, and a buzzer or the like notifies that the bath has boiled.

Further, even when the hot water remaining on the previous day is reheated and bathed, the fully automatic switch is pressed to automatically replenish the lacking water, and then the remaining hot water is boiled to the set temperature. Is. As described above, the fully automatic bath device automatically performs most of the operations, which is very convenient.

By the way, in the case of the fully automatic bath apparatus, the structure of the hot water supply mechanism and the reheating mechanism is complicated, and it is difficult to deal with a failure. For this reason, in the conventional fully automatic bath apparatus, each part is checked using various sensors, and when a failure occurs, the failure content and the failed part are displayed on a remote control display or the like with a three-digit numerical code. I was doing.

The content of the three-digit numerical code is, for example, 1
The second digit represents the failure content (eg "No abnormality", "Sensor abnormality", "Functional component abnormality", "Electrical equipment related abnormality", etc.), and the second digit is the failure part (eg "Thermistor"). ,
Represents "water volume sensor", "water level sensor", "switching valve", "fan motor", "pump", etc., and the third digit is the malfunctioning model name (eg "bath device", "water heater"""Heater","Cooler", etc.), and the service person who receives the telephone call judges the failure content, failure part, failure model name, etc. based on this three-digit numerical code, I was doing repair work.

[0006]

However, in the recent fully automatic bath apparatus, the function is further improved, and
The structure is also becoming more complicated, and it is becoming difficult to quickly and accurately identify the location where the failure has occurred, even if the failure display is made using the three-digit number.

That is, a large number of switching valves are used in the hot water supply mechanism and the reheating mechanism of the fully automatic bath device, and moreover,
For these valves, compound valves such as three-way valves and four-way valves are often used. These three-way valves and four-way valves are valves that are rotated by a motor, and the position of the valve is determined by a limit switch.The valve is connected with multiple wires in connection with this limit switch. In addition to this, a relay for drive control is also incorporated.

[0008] Therefore, even if the failure of the valve is simply displayed, it is not possible to know which part of the valve is defective only by this, and it is not possible to easily specify the failure occurrence position. For this reason, there has been a problem that it is difficult to carry out failure repair unless it is specifically specified which part of a composite valve such as a three-way valve or a four-way valve is out of order. If hot water is used in the kitchen while hot water is being supplied to the bathtub, the flow rate of hot water supplied to the bathtub will be extremely reduced. There was also a problem that it could not be detected, and the failure judgment was erroneously recognized.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to be able to reliably estimate both a failure portion and a specific failure occurrence portion thereof, and to make the estimation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a failure diagnosis display method in a fully automatic bath apparatus which is further repaired by displaying both the failure site and the failure occurrence site with a predetermined failure display code.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the failure diagnosis display method of the present invention detects the inflow state of hot water into a bath every predetermined switching operation of each part during hot water supply or reheating operation. Then, based on the detected inflow state of the hot water, the failure site and the failure occurrence site during the operation are estimated,
The estimated failure part and the failure occurrence part are converted into a predetermined failure display code and displayed. Further, the failure display code is a number having a predetermined number of digits.

[0011]

[Function] When you press the fully automatic switch of the fully automatic bath equipment,
Hot water at the set temperature is started to be supplied to the bathtub, and when the hot water reaches the set water level, the hot water supply is stopped, and if the hot water temperature at this time is lower than the set temperature, reheating is performed and the hot water is set. Hot water consisting of temperature is boiled.

The present invention detects the inflow state of hot water into the bathtub each time each component such as a valve is switched for a predetermined operation in the above series of processing operations,
From the detected inflow state of the hot water, the failure part at the time of the operation and the failure occurrence part are estimated, and this is converted into a predetermined failure display code and displayed. Therefore, only by reading the failure display code, it is possible to accurately know the details of the failure, the failure part, the failure model name, and even the specific failure occurrence part in the failure part, and the repair can be quickly performed. .

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a fully automatic bath apparatus constructed by applying the method of the present invention. The hot water supply device 1 includes a hot water supply heat exchanger 4, an additional heating heat exchanger 5, and a hopper 6. Water supply pipe 7 for supplying water to the water heater 1.
Is connected to the water inlet side of the hot water supply heat exchanger 4 via the incoming water temperature sensor 8 and the incoming water amount sensor 9, and is also connected to the hopper 6 via the water drop valve 10.

The outlet port side of the hot water supply heat exchanger 4 is connected to the hot water inlet port side of the hot and cold water mixing valve 12 via the hot water temperature sensor 11, and the hot water inlet port side of the hot and cold water mixing valve 12 is used for hot water supply. A branch pipe 13 branched from the water inlet side of the heat exchanger 4 is connected. Further, the hot water mixing valve 12 has a hot water mixing outlet connected to the hopper 6 via a hot water temperature sensor 35 and a hot water drop valve 14, and also connected to an external pouring tap such as a faucet via an external pipe 15. It is connected.

On the other hand, the hot water inlet side of the heat exchanger 5 for additional heating is
Pump water flow switch 36, circulation pump 16, return switching valve (four-way valve) 17, pressure sensor 18, reheating temperature sensor 1
It is connected via 9 to the return pipe 20 of the reheating circulation path 2. Further, the hot water outlet side of the additional heating heat exchanger 5 is connected to the outgoing pipe 22 of the additional heating circulation path 2 via an outgoing switching valve (three-way valve) 21.

The other valve opening of the forward switching valve 21 is connected to the hopper 6 via a pouring amount sensor 23, and the return switching valve 1 via a drainage switching valve (three-way valve) 24.
Connected to 7. Further, the other valve opening of the drainage switching valve 24 is connected to the hopper 2.

The control unit 25 is an electric circuit composed of a microprocessor (CPU) and the like for controlling the operation of the entire water heater and the failure diagnosis display operation of the present invention described later. In addition, the remote controller 26 includes the control unit 2
The remote control device is a wired or wireless remote control device for transmitting and receiving various signals to and from 5, and includes various operation buttons, a buzzer, a display and the like.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the external structure of the remote controller 26. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 27 is a fully automatic switch for performing a fully automatic operation, 28 is a reheating switch used when the hot water becomes dull or for reheating the remaining hot water, and 29 is another switch installed in a kitchen or the like. A call button for ringing the buzzer of the remote controller, 30 is a power switch, 31 is a first display that displays the current time and timer set time, and 32 is a second display that displays the set water level and the set hot water temperature. , 33 are buzzers. It should be noted that on the back side of the panel 34, there are housed switches and buttons that are used only occasionally, such as a water level setting button and a hot water temperature setting button.

In a normal time, as shown in FIG. 6, the first display 31 displays the current time or the timer set time, and the second display 32 displays the set water level or the set hot water temperature. Is displayed, however, when a failure is detected, as shown in FIG. 7, a three-digit number indicating the “failure content, failure part, failure model name”, etc. of the failure blinks on the first display 31. Further, the second display 32 displays a blinking two-digit number indicating a specific "fault occurrence point", and a fault display code consisting of a five-digit number is displayed on these two displays as a whole. Is configured to.

Next, the failure diagnosis display operation in the above embodiment will be described with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. First, after pressing the power switch 30 of the remote controller 26 to turn on the power, operate the water level setting button and the hot water temperature setting button (not shown) housed on the rear surface of the panel 34 to pour water into the bathtub 3. And its hot water temperature. As an example, if the water level is set to 40 cm and the water temperature is set to 42 ° C., the second display 32 of the remote controller 26 displays
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the set water level “40” cm is displayed.

Next, the fully automatic switch 2 of the remote controller 26
Pressing 7 will start the operation. In the initial state of this operation start, the forward switching valve 21 is set to a state in which the forward pipe 22 and the reheating heat exchanger 5 communicate with each other (step S1),
The return switching valve 17 is set to the omnidirectional open state (step S2), the drainage switching valve 24 is set to the fully closed state (step S3), and the hot water drop valve 14 is also set to the closed state.

In this initial state, the control unit 25 checks whether hot water is flowing through the pouring amount sensor 23 (hereinafter referred to as "ON") or not flowing (hereinafter referred to as "OFF") (step S5). In this initial state, since the valves of the hot water supply mechanism and the reheating mechanism are closed as described above, no hot water should flow to the pouring amount sensor 23. If the pouring amount sensor 23 is ON in this state
If so, it is determined that the pouring amount sensor 23 is causing an ON state failure, and if it is in the OFF state, the pouring amount sensor 23 is determined to be normal.

Therefore, when the pouring amount sensor 23 is ON, the faulty part is the pouring sensor 23,
Further, the failure occurrence point at this time is O of the pouring amount sensor 23.
It is determined that there is an N failure, the process proceeds to step S6, and a predetermined 5-digit failure display code corresponding to the ON failure of the pouring amount sensor 23, for example, “542-01” is displayed on the first and second display devices 31. , 32 blinks. Specifically, this 5
As for the digit failure display code “542-01”, as shown in FIG. 7, the first three digits “542” are displayed on the first display 31.
The last two digits “01” are blinked on the second display 32.

On the other hand, if the pouring amount sensor 23 is OFF in step S5, it is determined that the pouring amount sensor 23 is normal, so the flow proceeds to the next step S7.
Open the bath drop valve 14.

The hot water that has passed through the hot water drop valve 14 as described above reaches the hopper 6. At this time, the hot water pouring sensor 2
3 is OFF (step S8), and if ON, the faulty part at that time is the forward switching valve 2
1 or the failure of the drainage switching valve 24. Further, it is determined that the failure occurrence point is either the disconnection route side disconnection of the outward switching valve 21 or the drainage switching valve 24 fully closed side disconnection. , The failure display code "54" corresponding to this failure
"2-02" is displayed by blinking on the first and second indicators 31 and 32 (step S9).

Next, the forward switching valve 21 is switched to the pouring route side connecting the forward pipe 22 and the pouring amount sensor 23 (step S10), and the heat quantity of the burner is determined based on the detection outputs of the incoming water temperature sensor 8 and the incoming water amount sensor 9. Calculate and pouring heat exchanger 4
Hot water of a predetermined temperature is discharged from the. Then, while monitoring the hot water temperature with the hot water mixing sensor 35, the hot water mixing valve 13 mixes water to produce hot water having a set hot water temperature of 42 ° C.
Supply to hopper 6. Further, the hot water supplied into the hopper 6 is supplied to the bathtub 3 through the pouring amount sensor 23 and the going pipe 22, and the going pipe 22 is turned on depending on whether the pouring amount sensor 23 is ON (step S11). Check if it is clogged.

When the pouring amount sensor 23 is OFF, the pouring amount sensor 23 itself is out of order, the pouring valve 14 is not open, or the forward switching valve 21.
It is considered that it is one of the pouring side disconnection, and the failure part at that time is any of the pouring sensor 21, the hot water drop valve 14, and the forward switching valve 21, and further, the failure occurrence point at that time is , It is determined that the failure of the pouring amount sensor 23, the failure of the pouring valve 14 and the disconnection of the forward switching valve 21 on the pouring side, and a predetermined failure display code "542-03" corresponding to this failure is displayed. The first and second display devices 31, 32 are blinked (step S12).

Then, the forward switching valve 21 is switched to the additional heat exchanger 5 side and the return switching valve 17 is switched to the circulation pump 16 side (step S13), and the pouring amount sensor 23 is turned off.
It is determined whether or not (step S14). When the pouring amount sensor 23 is OFF, the failure part is the forward switching valve 21,
Either of the drainage switching valves 24, and the failure occurrence point at this time is determined to be the disconnection side disconnection of the forward switching valve 21 or the drainage switching valve 24 fully closed side disconnection. Predetermined failure display code "542-04"
Is blinked on the first and second indicators 31 and 32 (step S15).

In each operation after step S16, the same determination process as described above is sequentially performed, and the operating state of the pouring amount sensor 23 or the pump water flow sensor 36 is detected every time a predetermined valve is switched, and the operating state is determined by the operating state. The failure part at that time and the failure occurrence part in the failure part are estimated, and a predetermined failure display code corresponding to each failure is blinked and displayed on the first and second indicators 31, 32.

As the main operation after step S16, the in-pump air discharging operation (steps S19 to S27) for discharging the air in the reheating circulation pump 16 and the return pipe 20 are performed.
To the return switching valve 17 is evacuated in the circulation path so that the pressure sensor 18 can effectively detect the water level in the bathtub 3 (step S30-
S36), a bathtub hot water supply operation (step S42) of supplying hot water to the bathtub 3 is sequentially executed until the set water level is reached. Then, when the hot water having the set temperature of 42 ° C. is finally poured into the bathtub 3 by the set water level of 40 cm, the operation is completed.

As described above, in the case of the present invention, hot water supply /
The failure of each component and the location of the failure are estimated for each stage of the series of additional processing operations. For example, regarding the disconnection of the drainage switching valve 24 on the fully closed side, step S1
5, S21 and S29 are checked for failure, and if the stop side disconnection of the drainage switching valve 24 is checked, the failure is checked at one position of Step S9, and if the additional switching side of the forward switching valve 21 is checked, step S9 is performed. , S15, that is, the failure check is performed at all the two locations, that is, all the locations of all the component parts are always checked once from the start to the completion of the hot water supply or reheating operation. No missed detection will occur.

Then, the serviceman who has received the notification of the failure only reads the failure display code displayed on the first and second indicators and refers to the failure display code column described in the repair manual. Thus, the details of the failure at that time, the failure part, the model name, and the failure occurrence point in the failure part can be easily known, and the repair can be performed quickly.

[0033]

As described above, according to the failure diagnosis display method of the present invention, not only the failure part but also the specific failure occurrence part in the failure part can be estimated and displayed. It is possible to quickly and accurately carry out repairs.

Further, since all the locations of all the constituent parts are checked once every time from the start to the completion of the hot water supply or the reheating operation, the failure location is not missed, which is more reliable. It is possible to monitor various failures.

Further, since hot water is used in the kitchen while supplying hot water to the bathtub, the amount of pouring water into the bathtub is extremely reduced,
Even in the case where the failure cannot be accurately determined, in the case of the method of the present invention, most of the components perform the failure check at the same place several times from the start to the completion of the series of processing operations. As a result, it is possible to perform a failure check again on a portion that could not be checked after stopping hot water in the kitchen, and a more reliable failure check can be performed as compared with the conventional one.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of a failure diagnosis display operation of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example (continuation of FIG. 1) of the failure diagnosis display operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example (continuation of FIG. 2) of the failure diagnosis display operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an external front view of the remote controller used in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example during normal use of the remote controller.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example when a failure occurs in the remote controller.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 hot water supply device 2 additional heating circulation path 3 bathtub 4 hot water supply heat exchanger 5 additional heating heat exchanger 16 additional heating circulation pump 18 pressure sensor 19 additional heating temperature sensor 20 return pipe 22 forward pipe 23 pouring amount sensor 25 control Part 26 Remote control 35 Mixed hot water temperature sensor 36 Pump running water switch

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inflow state of hot water into a bathtub is detected at every predetermined switching operation of each part during hot water supply or reheating operation, and based on the detected inflow state of hot water, a failure part and its failure part during the operation. A failure diagnosis display method in a fully automatic bath apparatus, comprising estimating a failure occurrence location and converting the estimated failure location and the failure occurrence location into a predetermined failure display code and displaying the code. 2. The fault diagnosis display method in a fully automatic bath apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fault display code is a number having a predetermined number of digits.