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Post by csulaguy on Sept 12, 2018 16:37:42 GMT
About how long does it take for a DR1 evaporator to fully frost? Obviously, I'm not expecting it to be as quick as a CK.
With that said, I have 2 DR1s. One had the heater plugged in and warmed up well over half a day, the other one, a few hours. The former got cold fairly quickly, and it stopped chilling. The compressor is loud, but still works, but there's no cooling going on. The latter, with the heater not on as long, started cooling fairly quickly; the underside of the top chamber registered about 18 degrees, and the bottom of the evap was in the low 60s, after being on about 10 minutes.
Also, I did peruse the service manual PDF, but is there anything else I can do to troubleshoot a not cooling situation?
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Post by Travis on Sept 12, 2018 17:46:26 GMT
One of them has a restricted float. You might try heating the line under the float and see if it improves. It might improve with exercise.
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Post by csulaguy on Sept 12, 2018 17:50:37 GMT
Could I get away with heating it with a heat gun?
Also, about how noisy are the compressors once the evap/cabinet cools down and it starts cycling normally? Or are the DR1s supposed to be relatively noisy?
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Post by Travis on Sept 12, 2018 18:08:58 GMT
They’re relatively quiet when functioning properly.
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Post by csulaguy on Sept 12, 2018 18:34:08 GMT
But is some noise normal when running for the "first time", bringing the cabinet and evap temp down?
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Post by csulaguy on Sept 12, 2018 19:09:09 GMT
I just answered my own question. The DR1 (with the heater that was only on an hour prior to running) is super quiet, and my infrared thermometer measured the evap as 8-10 degrees. That's considerably better than my CA (if y'all haven't noticed, I'm NOT a fan of the CA). I'll eventually power it off, as the cabinet is missing insulation.
On that note - if the insulation isn't wet, there's no reason to separate the cabinet and change it, is there?
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Post by cablehack on Sept 12, 2018 22:08:07 GMT
if y'all haven't noticed, I'm NOT a fan of the CA CA's have been my only refrigeration for about the last five years - nothing wrong with them if you take the time to understand them. |
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Post by Travis on Sept 12, 2018 22:51:52 GMT
Paul,
Your CA’s are sick and need repair.
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Post by elec573 on Sept 13, 2018 3:49:37 GMT
Paul don’t take it the wrong way but I have to agree with Travis. Cablehack has had great success with his as well as other members.
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Post by turbokinetic on Sept 13, 2018 13:46:32 GMT
I just answered my own question. The DR1 (with the heater that was only on an hour prior to running) is super quiet, and my infrared thermometer measured the evap as 8-10 degrees. That's considerably better than my CA (if y'all haven't noticed, I'm NOT a fan of the CA). I'll eventually power it off, as the cabinet is missing insulation. On that note - if the insulation isn't wet, there's no reason to separate the cabinet and change it, is there? Hi Paul. I am of the opinion that the insulation in these is very hard to analyze without taking the cabinet apart. There is more than just R-value at play. The insulation system needs to stop circulating air currents between and around the insulation materials as these are what carry moisture and heat in to the cabinet. It seems, from looking at pictures of others' cabinet repairs, that often the insulation fails around the rear near the lightbulb socket where you can't see it.
It's an inexpensive job (but a time consuming one) to re-insulate the cabinet. But in my opinion well worth it!
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Post by csulaguy on Sept 14, 2018 16:06:37 GMT
if y'all haven't noticed, I'm NOT a fan of the CA CA's have been my only refrigeration for about the last five years - nothing wrong with them if you take the time to understand them. I feel that you're a different case, but maybe because you're an expert in the CA in particular. In fact, it was a quite detailed How-To that you did (I feel like it was on a different site) that really piqued my interest in this hobby. Paul, Your CA’s are sick and need repair. Paul don’t take it the wrong way but I have to agree with Travis. Cablehack has had great success with his as well as other members. Yup, you two go that that right. I got lucky with two that probably have the worn seat/float problems that seem to plague CAs, though the one I got from you Herb has much better cycling times than the soup can. Oddly, my mother really likes the soup can and wants that fridge in her house (I was going to give her a CK). Unfortunately, I'm nowhere skilled enough at this point to put on a capillary tube, let alone figured out how to recover refrigerant yet to make such repairs. Someday, I'll learn how to do it. I just answered my own question. The DR1 (with the heater that was only on an hour prior to running) is super quiet, and my infrared thermometer measured the evap as 8-10 degrees. That's considerably better than my CA (if y'all haven't noticed, I'm NOT a fan of the CA). I'll eventually power it off, as the cabinet is missing insulation. On that note - if the insulation isn't wet, there's no reason to separate the cabinet and change it, is there? Hi Paul. I am of the opinion that the insulation in these is very hard to analyze without taking the cabinet apart. There is more than just R-value at play. The insulation system needs to stop circulating air currents between and around the insulation materials as these are what carry moisture and heat in to the cabinet. It seems, from looking at pictures of others' cabinet repairs, that often the insulation fails around the rear near the lightbulb socket where you can't see it.
It's an inexpensive job (but a time consuming one) to re-insulate the cabinet. But in my opinion well worth it!
I almost disagree - it's an expensive job, but it didn't feel all that time consuming to me. A few hours, that is, to pull out the inner portion, cut styrofoam insulation to fit, put it back together, make sure the screw holes line up, and then put the textolite panels back into place. To narrow my question down - any problems with the 5 cu ft cabinet insulation? These DR1 cabinets obviously don't have the luxury of a light socket. Oh, and I now have CA # 4. I couldn't pass up on this gorgeous cabinet, and it's somewhat local (need to make a trip to my mechanic anyways, so this would be maybe a 200 mile segue) - www.ebay.com/itm/GENERAL-ELECTRIC-MONITOR-TOP-REFRIGERATOR-1933-34-/362430778002Oh, and the irony - why am I going to said mechanic/friend? He has a R134a recovery machine; I need to pull all my refrigerant, replace the RCV on my compressor (common failure on VW AC compressors), put the refrigerant back in, and hope that was the problem (did it once before - it's like the difference you get from purging NCGs on a CA). |
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Post by birkie on Sept 15, 2018 1:05:05 GMT
[quote author=" cablehack" To narrow my question down - any problems with the 5 cu ft cabinet insulation? These DR1 cabinets obviously don't have the luxury of a light socket. Problems? No. But if you do re-insulate it, you'll probably get great run times. The thermocraft paper has a similar r-value to fiberglass (but is nicer in many ways). Your DR1 could have a fibrous insulation, almost like celotex (but I don't think it is celotex), which is a bit worse from a thermal standpoint, but much heavier. |
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