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Post by elec573 on Oct 25, 2017 5:48:34 GMT
To help my dr get nice and toasty I put a 500watt quartz light under evaporator. 7$ and then you have a work light / hand warmer after word .
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Post by birkie on Oct 25, 2017 11:18:08 GMT
Sounds like a DR that isn't warmed up yet. Even with a heater they seem to have a warm up period. So good to hear it runs! Thanks! That's a good point about being warmed up; I didn't run it nearly long enough to get all the metal in that dome to stable operating temps, so I shouldn't complain. It was a bit on the cool side in the garage too.
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Post by jnorris90 on Oct 25, 2017 11:37:37 GMT
Thats so cool!! Ive never seen or heard one of them run! Glad you got it up and running. Cant wait to see it progress!!
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Post by blackhorse on Oct 25, 2017 12:21:45 GMT
Sounds like a DR that isn't warmed up yet. Even with a heater they seem to have a warm up period. So good to hear it runs! Yes they do. About 24 hours it seems. I wait that long before starting mine. Other equipment mfgrs using heaters say to wait 24 hours after applying power before starting. I've noticed the refrigerant boiling off sounds in the crankcase of DR takes about that long to subside (meaning the refrigerant has migrated out of the oil).
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Post by birkie on Oct 25, 2017 12:49:29 GMT
Sounds like a DR that isn't warmed up yet. Even with a heater they seem to have a warm up period. So good to hear it runs! Yes they do. About 24 hours it seems. I wait that long before starting mine. Yeah, this one had the heater for a little over 24 hours. Both the DR3 and the DRA2 (for which I actually waited about two days before startup) had refrigerant condense in the sump and started rattling about 15-20 minutes into pulldown, forcing me to tilt them to keep the oil inlet above the refrigerant line. It took a couple cycles before I could put the DRA2 back to level without it rattling; the sump stayed 'dry' after that point. Don't know if that's typical. I'm eager to get the control working smoothly on my DR1 so I can see if it behaves the same way, before it gets too cold in the garage. I have an irrational feeling that my luck (with motors that aren't seized, and floats that aren't plugged) will run out when I fire up the DR1, though.
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Post by birkie on Sept 27, 2018 2:19:04 GMT
An update! I have been able to find some time to give our sad but mighty DR3 a little attention. First and foremost was to remove the SO2, and determine how much remained in it. The copper lines below had a nasty green corrosion on them, and the connections between the lines and the evap all had significant rust. The service port spent most of the summer soaking in Supco 88, with occasional taps with a hammer. The purge screw came with the splines stripped almost bare, so it was a bit of a challenge getting it open without resorting to extreme measures, like drilling it out. It finally succumbed by attrition! I'm grateful for that stroke of luck. After a few hours of watching SO2 harmlessly bubble through a sodium carbonate solution (and six empty boxes of washing soda later), I ended up neutralizing a little over 13 lbs. I knew it had some refrigerant in it, but was not expecting it to have retained its entire charge! At least all the SO2 is safely gone now, so I can start opening it up for repair/rebuild.
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Post by coldspaces on Sept 27, 2018 3:39:51 GMT
Wow those lines are green, must not have been from an so2 leak.
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Post by ckfan on Sept 27, 2018 12:02:16 GMT
Very nice. So did the washing soda completely neutralize the SO2? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t catch a whiff every now and then.
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Post by birkie on Sept 27, 2018 12:32:42 GMT
Very nice. So did the washing soda completely neutralize the SO2? I’d be very surprised if you didn’t catch a whiff every now and then. It was surprisingly odor-free. I had a hard time knowing when to stop because it was too easy to overshoot (add too much SO2) before any odor was detectable. You're supposed to stop after it becomes effervescent and you start smelling SO2). The first time I did it, I put twice as much SO2 in the bucket as I should have, because I just kept going until I got a real whiff of SO2! It took a half box of additional washing soda to get it all reacted. All that extra SO2 was just dissolved in the water. I also hooked up nitrogen through a ball valve to the other side of the service kit, so I could blow out the line each time I had to change the solution. I'm sure that helped a lot too. Lots of little holes in the end of the pinched-off copper line made the evenly distributed jets of tiny bubbles
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Post by turbokinetic on Sept 27, 2018 14:25:33 GMT
Hey, glad you're moving forward with this repair! Once the stink factor is removed, working on it will be a lot more pleasant! Now I got to go back and read all the back story about this one!
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