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Post by csulaguy on Nov 13, 2020 10:03:32 GMT
For whatever random reason, I powered up my FEA earlier tonight. Initial power draw went up to 203 watts, and then went down gradually to about 130-ish. I didn't hear much refrigerant boiling and wasn't sure if it had a restriction or something. Well, the frost line ended at the back of the evaporator, and only the back two channels. Nothing forward was frosty. So that being said - could I have a leak somewhere? David helped me refill it with R-152a, and it was working beautifully when I tested it out earlier in the year, but it had been sitting in the garage. When I first got it, it also had hardly any R-12 in it.
Would the best course of action be to evacuate what's in there now and pull a vacuum, and see how long it holds?
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Post by turbokinetic on Nov 14, 2020 5:52:51 GMT
For whatever random reason, I powered up my FEA earlier tonight. Initial power draw went up to 203 watts, and then went down gradually to about 130-ish. I didn't hear much refrigerant boiling and wasn't sure if it had a restriction or something. Well, the frost line ended at the back of the evaporator, and only the back two channels. Nothing forward was frosty. So that being said - could I have a leak somewhere? David helped me refill it with R-152a, and it was working beautifully when I tested it out earlier in the year, but it had been sitting in the garage. When I first got it, it also had hardly any R-12 in it.
Would the best course of action be to evacuate what's in there now and pull a vacuum, and see how long it holds?
It's hard to detect a multi-month leak with a vacuum test. Probably best to use a sniffer on it in a very still environment, where there won't be air currents to dissipate the refrigerant. If it still frosted at all, there will be plenty in there for a sniffer to pick it up. If I remember; this one had some line puncturing service valves installed on it. Those are always suspect. |
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Post by csulaguy on Nov 15, 2020 20:18:33 GMT
For whatever random reason, I powered up my FEA earlier tonight. Initial power draw went up to 203 watts, and then went down gradually to about 130-ish. I didn't hear much refrigerant boiling and wasn't sure if it had a restriction or something. Well, the frost line ended at the back of the evaporator, and only the back two channels. Nothing forward was frosty. So that being said - could I have a leak somewhere? David helped me refill it with R-152a, and it was working beautifully when I tested it out earlier in the year, but it had been sitting in the garage. When I first got it, it also had hardly any R-12 in it.
Would the best course of action be to evacuate what's in there now and pull a vacuum, and see how long it holds?
It's hard to detect a multi-month leak with a vacuum test. Probably best to use a sniffer on it in a very still environment, where there won't be air currents to dissipate the refrigerant. If it still frosted at all, there will be plenty in there for a sniffer to pick it up. If I remember; this one had some line puncturing service valves installed on it. Those are always suspect.
Yup, that's the one. And per our off-the-forum convo, I got the frost line looking beautiful, all the way up. I didn't keep it plugged in (shut it down after it cycled off on its own, so I could use that extension cord for my soldering iron for another project), but it took maybe 5-6oz of 152a.
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