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Post by joneske on Apr 4, 2019 18:12:00 GMT
A friend of mine recently purchased a DR1. The history of the machine is pretty vague, other than the cabinet had been used to store paint for several years, no one knows for sure when it last ran. We were prepared to install one of the heaters from Paul’s group buy, however, when we plugged it in, it was drawing 14 watts and appears that the original heater still works. It also had the original warranty seal on the control cover which we immediately voided. This may suggest it was taken out of service early in its life and has been sitting unused for years. However, it started right up and appeared to be cooling, (the evaporator started getting cool and the coils began to warm) and a little frost began to form on the top of the evaporator. Unfortunately, that was the best it did. After texting with David and Aaron I tried a heat gun on the valve area of the float. It did sound like there was a small amount of refrigerant flowing after doing this, but the evaporator never did begin to frost, nor did we ever hear any significant boiling and it never drew more than 94 watts. All signs seem to point to a restricted float. We decided to shut it down for the night and let the heater to work for a day or two. We’re planning to reread Ray’s thread where he dealt with the same issues. The owner is over an hour a way from me, and I go out there every few weeks, but my hope is to give him enough information for him to try to get it to break loose without having to open it up. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Here are a couple of pics: drive.google.com/open?id=1R540S2KeTVU0LeaU8n9m62F198zv00bO |
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Post by turbokinetic on Apr 4, 2019 22:38:55 GMT
A friend of mine recently purchased a DR1. The history of the machine is pretty vague, other than the cabinet had been used to store paint for several years, no one knows for sure when it last ran. We were prepared to install one of the heaters from Paul’s group buy, however, when we plugged it in, it was drawing 14 watts and appears that the original heater still works. It also had the original warranty seal on the control cover which we immediately voided. This may suggest it was taken out of service early in its life and has been sitting unused for years. However, it started right up and appeared to be cooling, (the evaporator started getting cool and the coils began to warm) and a little frost began to form on the top of the evaporator. Unfortunately, that was the best it did. After texting with David and Aaron I tried a heat gun on the valve area of the float. It did sound like there was a small amount of refrigerant flowing after doing this, but the evaporator never did begin to frost, nor did we ever hear any significant boiling and it never drew more than 94 watts. All signs seem to point to a restricted float. We decided to shut it down for the night and let the heater to work for a day or two. We’re planning to reread Ray’s thread where he dealt with the same issues. The owner is over an hour a way from me, and I go out there every few weeks, but my hope is to give him enough information for him to try to get it to break loose without having to open it up. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Here are a couple of pics: drive.google.com/open?id=1R540S2KeTVU0LeaU8n9m62F198zv00bO
Hi Kevin. Glad to be of help, but wish the phone service had held out longer before I disappeared! 
It sounds like you're on the right track with the restricted float. Hopefully you will be able to get this problem resolved without opening the system. I know that the CA and DR machines typically have float problems (of different origins). The CA's have a very well documented cap tube conversion procedure thanks to Cablehack and the other CA pioneers! I wonder if a DR cap tube conversion has ever been attempted?
There's a tool which uses compressed air to produce a very powerful vibration. It's called an air hammer or air chisel. This would destroy the tubing and other parts of a MT if used directly on it. However, it might very well be useful to vibrate the float chamber and loosen up stuck parts. You would need to make a wooden adapter to give the tool a very soft point of contact.
Just a thought!
Sincerely,
David
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Post by Travis on Apr 5, 2019 1:07:28 GMT
Let it run for a couple hours and see if it improves. I have one that had been out of service for decades and it slowly came alive.
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Post by birkie on Apr 5, 2019 3:25:27 GMT
I'm aware of CK cap tube conversions (and TXV conversions), but not on a DR.
Hopefully, this one will open up with enough coaxing. External heating and banging/jarring (and letting it run) is about all you can do from the outside. I gave up on mine and purged the SO2 so that I can cut the line beneath the float to poke something up there and free the restriction, but it seems like many (most) will eventually free up with persistence.
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Post by elec573 on Apr 5, 2019 4:13:42 GMT
I’d try the heat again and like Travis said let it run . I had a similar problem with one of my drs but after the heat gun it frosted up for me . Also did you try rapping on the float?
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Post by joneske on Apr 5, 2019 14:26:14 GMT
Thanks guys. I think we have a game plan now. I will report back with any progress.
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Post by joneske on May 2, 2019 23:23:06 GMT
We worked on the DR1 again last night, and sadly not much to report on the operation at this time. We were worried there may have been a leak where it was rusted at the suction line, so we soap tested it and the good news was it seemed to be ok. It did cool briefly when we first fired it up, but eventually it went to back to running without the evaporator cooling. We cleaned up the rust and treated it for the time being. We did discover something interesting however. We pulled the top with a hoist to get at the line and discovered a foot pad in each corner of the cabinet interior. They were dirty, but in pristine condition, basically new old stock. The best we could figure was they were packed that way and missed when the unit was uncrated. Here some pics of how they looked when we found them: drive.google.com/open?id=1gwEXAfQKV259F168jg_yJihs_AYsigCH |
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Post by Travis on May 3, 2019 1:17:53 GMT
The foot pads being there is great. I’ve never seen that.
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Post by coldspaces on May 3, 2019 4:24:42 GMT
That is a real cool pic of the foot pads. Very interesting!
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Post by elec573 on May 3, 2019 20:52:03 GMT
Very interesting find . I remember seeing someone else posting about seeing a hand written note . Inside on the fridge to some one else on the line . Back when people worked on putting things together. Yours can be
used at least.
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