Is Your Woods Timer Switch Acting Up? Simple 2 Component Fix Inside!
Is your Woods timer switch just clicking and no longer turning on? Is it turning on, but turning off within seconds? If so, the primary load resistor and 100uf 50V capacitor inside may have failed.
These are two very inexpensive components (less than $1 combined), and may be all that's required to bring your $30 Woods or similar timer switches back to life.
If you have some rudimentary soldering and electronic DIY skills, this should be a fun and rewarding little project for you. Of course, there are many things that can go wrong with electronic switches like this, and this is just one example of what might be wrong showing the steps to diagnose and repair the problem.
After opening and looking at several of these switches in our home after I repaired this faulty one, all were showing varying amounts of overheating of that load resistor along with varying amounts of capacitor degradation (likely due to the heatsinking off the hot load resistor). This is an anecdotally low sample size, so it may or may not be a common problem with these switches.
In one of our Woods 60 minute timer switches that was still fairly new, I was still able to get the visual value reading off that specific resistor and it was in fact a 2K Ohm (red/black/red). I'm sure the 2.2K Ohm resistor I used in this specific repair will be fine or even a 2.4K; but that's your call.
I now plan on replacing these two components in our other Woods timer switches with 1W 2.2K high temp ceramic resistors and ensuring they are properly elevated off the PCB. I'll also be replacing the 50V 100uf electrolytic capacitors with better quality Rubycon, Nichicon or Panasonic ones.
New Woods Timer Switches:
Woods 60 Minute Timer Switch: https://amzn.to/3zMvp43
Woods 30 Minute Timer Switch: https://amzn.to/3NogHTL
Woods 8 Hour Time Switch: https://amzn.to/3BEBpwf
Components To Fix Woods Timer Switches:
1W 2.2K Resistors: https://amzn.to/4frZOoN
50V 100uf Capacitors: https://amzn.to/3ZW6O7n
Tools I Used:
Fluke 17B+ DMM: https://amzn.to/4eAchVQ
Desoldering Station: https://amzn.to/481cb7a
KSGER T12 Soldering Station: https://amzn.to/3TWI8YL
Time Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:14 Actual Problem
2:00 Diagnosing
5:21 Replacing Bad Components
5:57 Confirming Repair
7:09 Conclusion
DISCLAIMER: This video is for information & entertainment purposes only and in no way is it a substitute for proper electrical component repair instruction! As with any electrical DIY repair, you accept all risk at performing them and only you know if you have the required skills, tools and knowledge to perform such repairs safely without hurting yourself or burning your house down!
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