jackj
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Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 26, 2023 22:44:25 GMT
Great news! We finally have some prolonged cooling action!! I have added 5.6oz of refrigerant gas only so far to the system and after about 45 minutes of runtime the freezer evaporator is starting to sweat up in the first few passes. The far side of the freezer evaporator is not as cold though. Refrigerator evaporator is only slightly cool as of right now and the condenser coil is warm but doesn't feel warm enough. I'm going to let the system run for a bit longer to see if the rest of the coils get any cooler. I still think I may need to add a bit more refrigerant but for now I'm just going to celebrate the fact that we have sustained cooling!
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Post by turbokinetic on May 26, 2023 22:54:52 GMT
Great news! We finally have some prolonged cooling action!! I have added 5.6oz of refrigerant gas only so far to the system and after about 45 minutes of runtime the freezer evaporator is starting to sweat up in the first few passes. The far side of the freezer evaporator is not as cold though. Refrigerator evaporator is only slightly cool as of right now and the condenser coil is warm but doesn't feel warm enough. I'm going to let the system run for a bit longer to see if the rest of the coils get any cooler. I still think I may need to add a bit more refrigerant but for now I'm just going to celebrate the fact that we have sustained cooling! That is excellent! You are on the road to success. Gone from moisture blockages to a low charge but stable condition.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 26, 2023 23:41:24 GMT
Great news! We finally have some prolonged cooling action!! I have added 5.6oz of refrigerant gas only so far to the system and after about 45 minutes of runtime the freezer evaporator is starting to sweat up in the first few passes. The far side of the freezer evaporator is not as cold though. Refrigerator evaporator is only slightly cool as of right now and the condenser coil is warm but doesn't feel warm enough. I'm going to let the system run for a bit longer to see if the rest of the coils get any cooler. I still think I may need to add a bit more refrigerant but for now I'm just going to celebrate the fact that we have sustained cooling! That is excellent! You are on the road to success. Gone from moisture blockages to a low charge but stable condition. Thank you very much David! Your baking method really did the trick with my moisture issue. I knew once I saw water droplets in the vacuum pump oil that things were finally starting to move in the right direction. I just powered the system off and a layer of frost finally had formed around the first few freezer evaporator runs and the compartment temperature dropped down to only about 50 degrees. I'm going to let the compressor cool off for a while then add in probably another 1.5oz of refrigerant and see where we are then. Hopefully then I will have cooling throughout the full freezer evaporator and refrigerator evaporator. I will report back in a few hours...
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Post by turbokinetic on May 26, 2023 23:53:32 GMT
That is excellent! You are on the road to success. Gone from moisture blockages to a low charge but stable condition. Thank you very much David! Your baking method really did the trick with my moisture issue. I knew once I saw water droplets in the vacuum pump oil that things were finally starting to move in the right direction. I just powered the system off and a layer of frost finally had formed around the first few freezer evaporator runs and the compartment temperature dropped down to only about 50 degrees. I'm going to let the compressor cool off for a while then add in probably another 1.5oz of refrigerant and see where we are then. Hopefully then I will have cooling throughout the full freezer evaporator and refrigerator evaporator. I will report back in a few hours... You're welcome. Hope to hear of success. Work obligations are heavy now so I can't promise I will be able to reply again for about 24 hours.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 27, 2023 2:33:51 GMT
Well things are continuing to improve! I charged in about another 1.5oz of refrigerant and now the freezer compartment is freezing cold with a lot more frost on the freezer evaporator and a temperature around 0 degrees after running for about 45 minutes. Refrigerator evaporator is a bit cooler but not as cold as I would like it to be. Condenser coil is nice and warm now though. I'm guessing the refrigerator evaporator may take a little while longer to come down to temp since it is cooling a bigger space and I'm also guessing it's in series with the freezer evaporator so it takes longer for the refrigerant to reach it. Maybe I need to add bit more refrigerant...
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Post by turbokinetic on May 27, 2023 9:41:10 GMT
Looking better! And also yes, needs more refrigerant to cool the fridge evaporator.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 27, 2023 20:54:55 GMT
Added about another ounce of 152a to the system and after about 3 hours the freezer is still sub-zero and the fridge compartment is down to about 56 degrees. Sounds like I still need to add some more refrigerant to the system, but I will need another can of 152a. I have added about 8.5oz of refrigerant total so far which seems like a good amount, but this system probably was charged with a little more since it has 2 evaporators to cool. I did notice that upon startup, all of the refrigerant sitting in the fridge evaporator instantly boiled off and got the evaporator ice cold for about 30 seconds. Hopefully another ounce or two will do the trick but we are still inching closer and closer to complete success!
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Post by turbokinetic on May 27, 2023 21:43:08 GMT
Added about another ounce of 152a to the system and after about 3 hours the freezer is still sub-zero and the fridge compartment is down to about 56 degrees. Sounds like I still need to add some more refrigerant to the system, but I will need another can of 152a. I have added about 8.5oz of refrigerant total so far which seems like a good amount, but this system probably was charged with a little more since it has 2 evaporators to cool. I did notice that upon startup, all of the refrigerant sitting in the fridge evaporator instantly boiled off and got the evaporator ice cold for about 30 seconds. Hopefully another ounce or two will do the trick but we are still inching closer and closer to complete success! Again, wonderful to hear! Hope to hear of complete success soon.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 28, 2023 3:49:16 GMT
Okay I think we are finally approaching the end of this project here. I'm at about 10.1oz total charge now and the refrigerator compartment evaporator is for the majority nice and frosty with the far right side being not quite as icy. We have been running for about 3 and a half hours and we are down to around 38 degrees now in the fridge! I am hoping the thermostat will cut things out here soon so I can breathe a sigh of relief that things are working as normal again. I may add just a bit more refrigerant if things don't cool down any further and since the fridge evaporator frost line is not completely covering the entire evaporator. I have the thermostat turned up to the highest operating temperature, but I'm not sure what the exact cutout temperature is. With that being said, does anyone here possibly have a service manual and schematic that covers this refrigerator? I would like to take a look at how the thermostat works in this system.
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Post by turbokinetic on May 28, 2023 10:16:51 GMT
Okay I think we are finally approaching the end of this project here. I'm at about 10.1oz total charge now and the refrigerator compartment evaporator is for the majority nice and frosty with the far right side being not quite as icy. We have been running for about 3 and a half hours and we are down to around 38 degrees now in the fridge! I am hoping the thermostat will cut things out here soon so I can breathe a sigh of relief that things are working as normal again. I may add just a bit more refrigerant if things don't cool down any further and since the fridge evaporator frost line is not completely covering the entire evaporator. I have the thermostat turned up to the highest operating temperature, but I'm not sure what the exact cutout temperature is. With that being said, does anyone here possibly have a service manual and schematic that covers this refrigerator? I would like to take a look at how the thermostat works in this system. That is excellent to hear more good news. Unfortunately I don't have a manual on this model but possibly others do. Normally, with this style of system, the thermostat cycles off based on the temperature of the fridge compartment evaporator, and depends on the fact that the freezer evaporator has more surface area to keep that compartment cooler. If you don't have a 100% full frost on the fridge evaporator it may not cut off.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 28, 2023 16:27:56 GMT
Okay I think we are finally approaching the end of this project here. I'm at about 10.1oz total charge now and the refrigerator compartment evaporator is for the majority nice and frosty with the far right side being not quite as icy. We have been running for about 3 and a half hours and we are down to around 38 degrees now in the fridge! I am hoping the thermostat will cut things out here soon so I can breathe a sigh of relief that things are working as normal again. I may add just a bit more refrigerant if things don't cool down any further and since the fridge evaporator frost line is not completely covering the entire evaporator. I have the thermostat turned up to the highest operating temperature, but I'm not sure what the exact cutout temperature is. With that being said, does anyone here possibly have a service manual and schematic that covers this refrigerator? I would like to take a look at how the thermostat works in this system. That is excellent to hear more good news. Unfortunately I don't have a manual on this model but possibly others do. Normally, with this style of system, the thermostat cycles off based on the temperature of the fridge compartment evaporator, and depends on the fact that the freezer evaporator has more surface area to keep that compartment cooler. If you don't have a 100% full frost on the fridge evaporator it may not cut off. You are right David, maybe I do need to add another pinch of refrigerant to get a fully solid frost line throughout the whole evaporator. I will say the sensing bulb is located on the right side of the evaporator where the frost was not as strong. I will add another oz and a half and see if that does the trick. I did take apart the thermostat last night and nothing seemed out of the ordinary with it. I would have taken pictures of it while it was apart, but it was around 2 in the morning and I was running on fumes. I did take a picture of it before I removed it and it looks a bit different than the ones I have seen discussed here on these forums. It has screw adjustments for cut-in and cut-out temperatures and the bellows is screwed on to the back of the thermostat with a plunger that seats in the bellows which moves one of the contacts.
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Post by turbokinetic on May 28, 2023 17:26:46 GMT
I expect that thermostat will function correctly once the whole fridge evaporator is cooling. That is a constant-cut-in thermostat for the cycle-defrost design of this fridge. If you replace it, you'll need to use a constant-cut-in model.
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 28, 2023 22:19:15 GMT
Well it looks like the thermostat functions sort of. I now believe I have sufficient charge in the system. The fridge evaporator has full frost now including on the thermostat sensing bulb area. My problem now is that the thermostat will cut out normally but it won't cut back in and turn the system on again. I think I remember reading somewhere that the thermostat should cut in at about 40 degrees, but the temperature will rise past that and nothing will happen. I can get the system to turn back on if I tap on the thermostat knob a few times. Everything looked fine when I disassembled the thermostat last night and I cleaned the contacts while I was at it. I'm hoping I don't have a problem with the bellows and sensing line since it will be a pain to fish out. What do you all think?
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Post by turbokinetic on May 28, 2023 22:22:09 GMT
Well it looks like the thermostat functions sort of. I now believe I have sufficient charge in the system. The fridge evaporator has full frost now including on the thermostat sensing bulb area. My problem now is that the thermostat will cut out normally but it won't cut back in and turn the system on again. I think I remember reading somewhere that the thermostat should cut in at about 40 degrees, but the temperature will rise past that and nothing will happen. I can get the system to turn back on if I tap on the thermostat knob a few times. Everything looked fine when I disassembled the thermostat last night and I cleaned the contacts while I was at it. I'm hoping I don't have a problem with the bellows and sensing line since it will be a pain to fish out. What do you all think? More than likely the thermostat needs adjustment on the cut-in setting. One of the two brass screws showing on the front of it should be the cut-in. Did you put a few drops of oil on the pivot points in the thermostat?
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jackj
New Member
Posts: 21
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Post by jackj on May 29, 2023 19:40:37 GMT
Well, everyone, I believe we can finally call this project finished! I backed out the thermostat cut-in adjustment per David's advice, and things are cycling normally again. The system has been running and cycling for close to 20 hours now, and both compartments are cooling great, with the freezer below 0 and the fridge at about 29 degrees at cutoff. This was my first attempt at working on something this old, and let me tell you, it has been a very enjoyable and rewarding experience getting this fine piece of American engineering running again, and I don't think I would have been able to do it if I hadn't found this wonderful forum! I want to give a special thanks to ckfan, marko, and especially David. All of your expertise and advice made this all possible, and I couldn't have done it without you all. Attachments:
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