Essex Keypad & Remote

[Paul J A]

Essex Keypad & Remotes 

This is a good place to start. They know these remotes on our Monaco’s.

https://www.a1electric.com/essex/KE-1701.htm

 

 

A1ELECTRIC.COM

Essex KE1701 Keypad Keyless Entry Systems

[vito.a]

Yes, I purchased a new keypad for our motor home from A1 Electric.  Part number KE-1701BHC has the original Monaco electrical connector.  

If you have the factory installed Viper alarm, you use the Viper 474V remote key fob with the Essex keypad.  

 

[MJ.STIGER]

Any one have issues with the KE-1701 Frying it self?  Just installed a new $300 dollar part about a month or so ago. It was working with out issue. 

Yesterday i went to the coach to do some work. Turned on the Chassis  and Coach Batteries. Opened the front door and smelt burning coming from the the passenger arm rest area. 

Pulled the Cup holder and smoke was bellowing out. Grabbed a screw gun and pulled the whole cover off trying to see if there was fire. Before pulling an extinguisher. 

Come to find the Keypad was smoking from the back where the wiring goes into the epoxy. Keypad was hot to the touch near keys 1/2. 
It was so hot that the wiring Red, Black and White wires just pulled out. No signs of cut or frayed wiring. 

Looking to see if any one has seen this with this keypad? 

Concerned that it did what it did and thankful i was there. Also concerned to why it did not blow a fuse. Its possible it did i did not check the voltage. But something Cooked in this unit. I reached out to the manufacture to see if its covered in warranty. 

 

 

[jacwjames]

I have an Essex keyless system in my 2002 Windsor. 

Took me a while to find the power source in my wiring diagrams.  In my case it gets power from the small buss bar in my passenger side rear electrical bay, it is a 10 amp auto reset circuit breaker, same circuit that supplies power to the radio memory. 

It does show 2 in line fuses in the wiring harness, no idea where those would be, probably under the dash near the controller itself.

Do you know where you code reset button is.  It is a momentary button for resetting codes. 

[MJ.STIGER]

yes the code reset is just inside the cup holder. I will need to check those locations and have to pull the meter out to see if i still have voltage. all my wireless remotes do still work. 

 

[jacwjames]

I have a DPF copy of my wiring harness, finally found the circuit breaker by to doing a word search. 

[Dr4Film]

Wow! You are one lucky dude! I can't imagine what may have happened if you had not been there to find this failure so quickly.

I installed one of those keypads in January 2023 but I had purchased mine from a vendor on eBay. No problems, thank God!

Seems to me that there should be at least a one year warranty on the keypad.

[MJ.STIGER]

Dr4flim i agree. I work in the access world and the essex product has always been top notch. This one seems really odd. I did reach out to the manufacture via their website. Still nothing back from them. Going to give it a day or too then call direct. 

[MJ.STIGER]

So Essex Called me today. And said they had not heard of this issue. But did say it sounds like it was shorted in the potting of the keypad. And asked my to let the vendor i purchased it from to send it back for replacement under warranty. 

Good news is they read my comment that i sent in and called back to discuss and are going to replace the unit.