Possible TEC Failure Mechanism

[Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

Melcor sent me a new catalog and I have been reading it.  There may be a 
failure mechanism for the TECs that I have not considered.

Suppose you run it cool with wet air.  Water will condense on the TEC.  It 
can now soak into the TEC elements.  Now if you run it really cold, the 
water will freeze and fracture the delicate crystalline material.  This is 
about what I usually see.  A slow decrease in cooling capacity.

The solution:   Keep the inside of the camera dry.  Run the dry air an hour 
or two *before* turning on the camera.

For those of you that have ill cameras, I am slowly getting to the point 
where I can trade out cameras.  I have a bunch of parts coming soon from 
Cary Chleborad that will allow me to complete the batch of cameras that I 
have been making.  I think I will order some more TECs so that I can make 
repairs.  This time I may seal them up to keep moisture out.

Tom Droege