Post by cyr7823 on Feb 3, 2018 22:16:33 GMT
Hi all,
I'll start off by saying thanks to everyone who posts here and all the knowledge this forum has accumulated; it has been extremely helpful. I've been lurking/reading this forum for the past 3 weeks while troubleshooting my CA and I am about at my wits end trying to get it running again.
To start off I picked up a CA-1-B16 a couple years ago, thought it would be a fun beer fridge. The person I bought it from had it stored outside in Montana for a year. All it needed was a minor wiring fix in the control, new door gasket, and it was up and running again. Amazingly the original heater was still working too. I didn't do any maintenance on it (purging), mostly because I didn't know and it was running great so I left it alone. I kept the bottom of the cabinet at 4C and it's in my basement which is around 18C.
Three weeks ago I noticed pretty good ice buildup on the evaporator so I thought a defrost was in order. After the defrost the compressor was stalled. I have a kill-a-watt on it and I noticed the heater stopped working. Thinking this was my problem I set out to rewire the machine, referencing a couple of threads on here. Turns out the wiring to the heater had failed but the heater itself was still good, measuring 1000ohms. While doing the wiring upgrade I also recorded the resistance across the run and start windings for reference, nothing seemed out of the ordinary:
Common to Run: 3 ohms
Common to Start: 21 ohms
Start to Run: 24 ohms
Star/Run/Common to the case: 926 Ohms, hmmm. seems low.
I also changed the relay to a RO81 since the original relay contacts looked a little worn. After all rewiring was done, I let the machine sit over night and let the oil heater work.
The next day when I went to turn it on, still stalled. I toggled it on/off and could hear the motor load changing. After reading more about the CA machines and NCGs, I checked to see if there was a vacuum. Sure enough when I went to purge while the machine was room temperature there was pressure pushing through the oil in the purging screw. I went through 3 rounds (3mins purge, 1min wait) trying after each time to get it to run. Finally after the third it spun up and I could properly purge. Armed with pans of hot water I started the purge procedure. While the machine was heating up it stalled a couple more times, but I continued the purge sequence until the entire top of the condenser and half of the bottom felt the same. I didn't want to over purge so at this point I stopped and let the machine pull the cabinet down to 4C. Frost line looked pretty good, left side frosted up and the right was 3/4 frosted. Once the cabinet reached temperature it cycled off. I noted hearing the unloader.
When it went to cycle back on, stalled. I cycled to the control several times noting that each time the noise sounded different, like it was locked up trying to work through something. At this point I was now thinking maybe it's an oil slug since the heater quit working who know when. After 15min wait, when I went to switch it on it fired up like nothing was wrong. Ok, so now I'm thinking I need to work some oil out of the evaporator. I left the door open and cycled pans of hot water in the evaporator for 2 hrs. A few times during that I heard the compressor load up and I thought it would stall but it worked through it. After the 2 hr run I let the cabinet pull down to 4c. Evaporator frostline was good, bottom of the evaporator I noted the temperature being -7c. Pretty good. Thinking that I worked through the NGCs and oil slugs, my CA would be running great.
This time I got 2 cycles out of it before stalling on the third. Did it still need to purge more? I didn't smell any methyl formate during the last purge so maybe. After 15mins and cycling it on/off 5 or 6 times it spun up. I started another round of purging. This time cycling pans of hot water and a towel on the top of the case. I managed to do another 6 or 7 rounds of purging (3min/1min) before the bottom of the condenser was warm and I caught a brief hint of methyl formate. Again, let the cabinet pull down to 4c.
This time I got 1 cycle and the compressor stalled on the second attempt. During the start attempts while stalled I looked at the amp draw on the start and run windings. Run pulls about 10A, start 4A; which seems right based on the coil resistance. There was a few times I noted the start winding pull no current during the start attempt so that seemed odd. Like resistance is so high it goes open circuit. Normal running conditions with cabinet at 4c it would pull 2.4A while running.
As it sits now I can get the fridge to start up if I let it sit for a while, and after a couple toggles of the start switch. It will not cycle on it's own, just stalls. I'm guessing this is because after the pressures equalize it's easier for the compressor to start. Did I partially lose my start winding? Do I have blockage somewhere in the system? Maybe my compressor bearings are just worn out. I also tried a 3n1 Supco 810 on it, didn't make a difference.
It still cools great when it's running. I just can't get it to cycle on it's own anymore. Any help is much appreciated!
PS - I picked up a CK-2-B16 for cheap a few days ago, little rough and TBD if the compressor runs. I'll be starting another thread on that one soon.
I'll start off by saying thanks to everyone who posts here and all the knowledge this forum has accumulated; it has been extremely helpful. I've been lurking/reading this forum for the past 3 weeks while troubleshooting my CA and I am about at my wits end trying to get it running again.
To start off I picked up a CA-1-B16 a couple years ago, thought it would be a fun beer fridge. The person I bought it from had it stored outside in Montana for a year. All it needed was a minor wiring fix in the control, new door gasket, and it was up and running again. Amazingly the original heater was still working too. I didn't do any maintenance on it (purging), mostly because I didn't know and it was running great so I left it alone. I kept the bottom of the cabinet at 4C and it's in my basement which is around 18C.
Three weeks ago I noticed pretty good ice buildup on the evaporator so I thought a defrost was in order. After the defrost the compressor was stalled. I have a kill-a-watt on it and I noticed the heater stopped working. Thinking this was my problem I set out to rewire the machine, referencing a couple of threads on here. Turns out the wiring to the heater had failed but the heater itself was still good, measuring 1000ohms. While doing the wiring upgrade I also recorded the resistance across the run and start windings for reference, nothing seemed out of the ordinary:
Common to Run: 3 ohms
Common to Start: 21 ohms
Start to Run: 24 ohms
Star/Run/Common to the case: 926 Ohms, hmmm. seems low.
I also changed the relay to a RO81 since the original relay contacts looked a little worn. After all rewiring was done, I let the machine sit over night and let the oil heater work.
The next day when I went to turn it on, still stalled. I toggled it on/off and could hear the motor load changing. After reading more about the CA machines and NCGs, I checked to see if there was a vacuum. Sure enough when I went to purge while the machine was room temperature there was pressure pushing through the oil in the purging screw. I went through 3 rounds (3mins purge, 1min wait) trying after each time to get it to run. Finally after the third it spun up and I could properly purge. Armed with pans of hot water I started the purge procedure. While the machine was heating up it stalled a couple more times, but I continued the purge sequence until the entire top of the condenser and half of the bottom felt the same. I didn't want to over purge so at this point I stopped and let the machine pull the cabinet down to 4C. Frost line looked pretty good, left side frosted up and the right was 3/4 frosted. Once the cabinet reached temperature it cycled off. I noted hearing the unloader.
When it went to cycle back on, stalled. I cycled to the control several times noting that each time the noise sounded different, like it was locked up trying to work through something. At this point I was now thinking maybe it's an oil slug since the heater quit working who know when. After 15min wait, when I went to switch it on it fired up like nothing was wrong. Ok, so now I'm thinking I need to work some oil out of the evaporator. I left the door open and cycled pans of hot water in the evaporator for 2 hrs. A few times during that I heard the compressor load up and I thought it would stall but it worked through it. After the 2 hr run I let the cabinet pull down to 4c. Evaporator frostline was good, bottom of the evaporator I noted the temperature being -7c. Pretty good. Thinking that I worked through the NGCs and oil slugs, my CA would be running great.
This time I got 2 cycles out of it before stalling on the third. Did it still need to purge more? I didn't smell any methyl formate during the last purge so maybe. After 15mins and cycling it on/off 5 or 6 times it spun up. I started another round of purging. This time cycling pans of hot water and a towel on the top of the case. I managed to do another 6 or 7 rounds of purging (3min/1min) before the bottom of the condenser was warm and I caught a brief hint of methyl formate. Again, let the cabinet pull down to 4c.
This time I got 1 cycle and the compressor stalled on the second attempt. During the start attempts while stalled I looked at the amp draw on the start and run windings. Run pulls about 10A, start 4A; which seems right based on the coil resistance. There was a few times I noted the start winding pull no current during the start attempt so that seemed odd. Like resistance is so high it goes open circuit. Normal running conditions with cabinet at 4c it would pull 2.4A while running.
As it sits now I can get the fridge to start up if I let it sit for a while, and after a couple toggles of the start switch. It will not cycle on it's own, just stalls. I'm guessing this is because after the pressures equalize it's easier for the compressor to start. Did I partially lose my start winding? Do I have blockage somewhere in the system? Maybe my compressor bearings are just worn out. I also tried a 3n1 Supco 810 on it, didn't make a difference.
It still cools great when it's running. I just can't get it to cycle on it's own anymore. Any help is much appreciated!
PS - I picked up a CK-2-B16 for cheap a few days ago, little rough and TBD if the compressor runs. I'll be starting another thread on that one soon.
