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My Adler Barbour seems to make refrigerant.
On Sun, 5 Oct 2014 13:56:12 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote: Hi, Neal, You'll really need to put gauges on both sides to see what's going on. I spent MONTHS trying to sort out my Frigoboat; ultimately it failed, and I had to replace it. The cause is known, but the stimulus is uncertain (I'm one of only hundreds of similar experiences). The end result was the same. However... In the time I messed with it, I had wildly varying pressures. My issues were a blockage which would sometimes move, or not. Your gauges should have a temperature indication on them, and the suction side should read colder the lower the pressure. FWIW, +15psi should be about -8°F 134a temp. If you have a plate-mounted thermistor or equivalent for on/off, you could compare temps of that point (where it mounts) to the indicated temperature, with an IR heat sensor. It may not be exact (my and my technician's didn't agree, even with fresh batteries in both, and neither agreed with the thermistor's readout, nor the analog thermometer we hung in there, e.g.) but it will give you an indication of whether your gauges are correct. I'm assuming you've zeroed the gauge when not using it. I'm also assuming you purge your gauge line before attaching it, whether by bleeding or a can, the other way. When you get the lockdown/restart, where is the frost on your suction side? Right at the evaporator/cold plate-to-pipe? Somewhat inside it? Somewhere down the tube? Do you have an expansion valve, capillary tube, or constant pressure valve controlling your evaporation/boil/superheat point? Do you have a receiver/drier and sight glass? If so, any bubbles in the sight glass? In my new system, there's a CPV, and a pretty good tolerance for over/under charging as a result. YMMV of course. Oh man, thanks for the help but you've made things WAY too complicated. I'm not concerned with temperature readings on the gauge fittings. Who cares? I'm perfectly happy when the evaporator is ice cold all around so that it freezes cans of beer unless the thermostat is turned way down. It does just that when the pressure in the suction side gauge fitting is around 15psi when it's running. Neither am I concerned with pressures on the compressed side. If the pressure on the suction side is within specs then the pressure on the compressed side will also be within specs. The only thing that could drive up the pressure on the compressed side is if the tiny little capillary in the evaporator should become clogged which it obviously is not as the evaporator gurgles, hisses and chitters indicating that compressed r134a is making its way through the capillary where it then expands and freezes the heck out of my cans of beer which fill the evaporator to the brim. (It's one of those vertical ones an it holds about fifteen cans of beer which make a great drinkable holding plate system) All that other stuff you mentioned doesn't really apply as the Adler Barbour doesn't have sight glasses, etc. It has a low pressure cut off and a high pressure cut off and a high temp cut off and that's about it. It's never gotten so hot that it cuts off because of that. It does suffer from connection problems in the spade connectors to the control panel, though. One must clean them and tighten them by gentle crimping from time to time lest the resistance build to the point where they fail to pass current. It HAS and does cut off due to high pressure. Where the high pressure in the suction side in the morning after it's sat idle all night comes from is the question. Nobody seems to be able to answer that simple question. Instead, everybody wants to go off on oddball tangents. -- Sir Gregory |
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