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Post by csulaguy on Jul 24, 2018 23:18:43 GMT
I'm not overly confident in the accuracy of my infrared thermometer; it's surplus/e-waste from the company that made it, but it does work, so I might need to compare it to a Fluke. Have another temp gauge with a K-type thermocouple (one I bought myself retail and another, also e-waste/surplus) and they're both alike in readings. Anyways, looking at the unit from the door - left header tank is about 30 degrees, bottom of evap is about 22-23 degrees, and right header tank was over 40. Frost line is just below the header tank. I got it about 1/3 of the way up after the NCG purge, but it went back down.
By comparison, running the soup can OUTSIDE with much higher humidity and heat (at night), frost line went to about 6/8-7/8 of the right header tank. Forgot to measure temps, and it kept running, as there was nothing in the cabinet. But even without the heater, it ran quiet. I'll swap the heater into the soup can when I hopefully get to move it in the house today and use it as my "daily driver" for the beer fridge.
Meant to post this earlier, but Proboards went down for a bit, and I had to get the AC fixed on my truck (small leak from the low pressure valve that we fixed). I'll take some photos and see about putting them on here. I'm really good about resizing images to be small, yet effective!
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Post by cablehack on Jul 24, 2018 23:50:48 GMT
left header tank is about 30 degrees, bottom of evap is about 22-23 degrees, and right header tank was over 40. I'd say that's the problem. The bottom of the evaporator should be in the lower single digits; I was getting 3F with a float valve in reasonable condition.
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Post by csulaguy on Jul 25, 2018 0:14:56 GMT
So more than likely, the valve seat is worn out? I need to do some more studying to understand the concept and purpose of the float valve and seat, though I sorta have it figured out.
I already took out the heater and I'm trying to get it up in the air, if my Chinese garbage engine hoist doesn't crap out on me (good 'ol Harbor Freight).
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Post by birkie on Jul 25, 2018 1:53:30 GMT
I don't have any firsthand experience with CAs yet, but it sure sounds like it is struggling maintain properly low evaporator pressures. The float meters the liquid such that it enters the evaporator at the same rate as it condenses (maintaining a constant level in the float). With a compromised float seat, gas or liquid can pass from the high to the low side at will regardless of whatever the float is doing, making it hard to pull the evap down to the right level of vacuum. The compressor is doing a lot of useless work in this case.
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Post by csulaguy on Jul 25, 2018 2:35:55 GMT
Interesting, and that somewhat makes sense. I'm guessing the point of the capillary tube is to restrict flow in the same way, so that liquid enters the evap the same rate it condenses, but without actually having components that are prone to wear?
I got the soup can mounted inside, using the engine hoist. I also have to touch up some paint (it wasn't that great anyways, because it was painted outdoors), but it's had all day in 105 degree weather for the crankcase to heat up, plus the heater is in it right now. I'll reset my Watts Up Pro and then get an idea once it maintains temp what cycle times look like.
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Post by birkie on Jul 25, 2018 2:48:56 GMT
Interesting, and that somewhat makes sense. I'm guessing the point of the capillary tube is to restrict flow in the same way, so that liquid enters the evap the same rate it condenses, but without actually having components that are prone to wear? A cap tube is simpler in construction, but much more complicated to understand. It meters liquid through to the evaporator, but the rate at which it flows through the cap tube is a function of its geometry (length, diameter), the viscosity of the fluid, the pressure differential, etc. So it behaves differently under different operating conditions. I think it took cablehack a lot of experimentation to find the right tube dimensions for his machine (which runs slightly slower RPM, at 50Hz mains). Searching the forum should reveal the dimensions of cap tubes people have found that works well.
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Post by csulaguy on Jul 25, 2018 3:23:44 GMT
So the soup can has been running now for maybe half an hour, with about 15 minutes on the heater by itself (as aforementioned, it had been sitting outside in direct sunlight, where it was 100-105 all day). Started right up, nice and quiet. First frost already present, and the frost line is a bit higher than the Form B. Hopefully around this time tomorrow, it'll be back to regular cycle times, so I can see how long it's actually running.
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Post by csulaguy on Jul 25, 2018 8:33:38 GMT
Lovely. No more attachments on here. And I even resized my images, so that they'd be under 300K each. Oh well. I'll upload them to the Google Drive folder, under "Paul's CA-2-B16." Wanted to show a picture of the frost line. I didn't finish up with sealing the top (the no oxid on top wasn't in good enough shape to reuse, so I used some insulating tape I found by accident at Home Depot). The accumulated frost is maybe a week's worth of buildup; I don't remember the exact day I set up the CA inside my hallway. **EDIT** I figured out the shared folder now. Also, I was never asked for my credentials, but it shows the folder as "Shared with me." Perhaps because I already have a Google Drive account at my university (with literally unlimited space, though it shows on my computer as having a storage limit of 1EB). I also uploaded OCR readable PDFs of all three manuals. Not sure if anyone else has done this before, but if y'all can use it, great. If not, well, it was worth a shot. Excuse the mess/clutter on my driveway. A gazillion different projects, obviously, and a lot of cleaning/organizing as well. The CA without the cover on the relay is seized. It came with the cabinet that had the rotted/wet cardboard. I've since rehabilitated the interior, replaced insulation, replaced a textolite piece, and hope to polish off the rust spots and actually use it. The other CA pictured is the one originally referenced in this post, which includes the frost line photos (there should be 3 of 'em). The soup can photos show the same cabinet, but with the tops swapped. This is supposedly the original cabinet to this top. drive.google.com/drive/folders/1paBRJ3kQ_AyIZBhRq3CP-MQ5u1IWr9Tf
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