|
|
Post by ckfan on Sept 21, 2017 22:46:17 GMT
It's always been in a conditioned space. The greatest temp swing would be about 10 degrees and even that would take several hours. It is bone stock except the wiring and door seal. I had it pushed up against the wall. No vents or air returns near it. So strange.
|
|
|
|
Post by blackhorse on Sept 22, 2017 4:31:13 GMT
Hmm. Yes, very strange.
The ice-cube test would be interesting. If the valve opens when it's cooled, then it's a flow problem. If not, then the float valve looks suspect. Which will lead to more crop circles--
|
|
|
|
Post by ckfan on Jan 21, 2019 13:51:50 GMT
So it’s been a long time since I’ve given this flat top any love. With the cold weather preventing me from doing much outside and my cabin fever in full swing I decided to do a little tinkering this weekend. This flat top has had an issue for a long time with just inconsistent performance over a period of time. You can read about it in all of the earlier posts in this thread. With how well my exercise with the D2 worked out for me recently I decided to do the same for the flat top. When it starts out warm it always wants to work so I wasn’t surprised that it did this time too. What did surprise me is that with a large pan of boiling hot water in the evaporator, the evaporator good and empty of refrigerant and nice and hot...this thing still brings the cold in spades. It has no problem freezing the pan of boiling hot water in an hour flat...with the door open! That’s right. It ran for an hour with the door wide open and a pan of boiling hot water in the evaporator. Couldn’t believe how well it did. Yesterday I followed that up with some power cycling at regular timed intervals to try and get the unloader to sound better. If this thing sits for a while it will sound weird when it first starts at room temperature. It will sound like the compressor isn’t working right and I believe what I’m hearing is the unloader not fully seating down. Several starts under high load yesterday seemed to do the trick. Now when it starts warm it sounds like it should. I’m going to continue to give it some exercise and will then do a test run for a few months to see if it starts to behave. If this goes well I’m going to do the same thing to my DR1, admittedly I’ll be a little more careful with it since we know they like nothing more than to give up the ghost. Especially when compared to the hoss that is a scotch yoke! One thing is for sure, if you have a working SO2 machine...use it. They like to be used and loved.
|
|
|
|
Post by turbokinetic on Jan 21, 2019 22:50:28 GMT
So it’s been a long time since I’ve given this flat top any love. With the cold weather preventing me from doing much outside and my cabin fever in full swing I decided to do a little tinkering this weekend. This flat top has had an issue for a long time with just inconsistent performance over a period of time. You can read about it in all of the earlier posts in this thread. With how well my exercise with the D2 worked out for me recently I decided to do the same for the flat top. When it starts out warm it always wants to work so I wasn’t surprised that it did this time too. What did surprise me is that with a large pan of boiling hot water in the evaporator, the evaporator good and empty of refrigerant and nice and hot...this thing still brings the cold in spades. It has no problem freezing the pan of boiling hot water in an hour flat...with the door open! That’s right. It ran for an hour with the door wide open and a pan of boiling hot water in the evaporator. Couldn’t believe how well it did. Yesterday I followed that up with some power cycling at regular timed intervals to try and get the unloader to sound better. If this thing sits for a while it will sound weird when it first starts at room temperature. It will sound like the compressor isn’t working right and I believe what I’m hearing is the unloader not fully seating down. Several starts under high load yesterday seemed to do the trick. Now when it starts warm it sounds like it should. I’m going to continue to give it some exercise and will then do a test run for a few months to see if it starts to behave. If this goes well I’m going to do the same thing to my DR1, admittedly I’ll be a little more careful with it since we know they like nothing more than to give up the ghost. Especially when compared to the hoss that is a scotch yoke! One thing is for sure, if you have a working SO2 machine...use it. They like to be used and loved. Yeah that cabin fever is a problem in the winter time! I've been covered-up with work and not had any time to tinker with projects at all these days.
|
|
|
|
Post by birkie on Feb 2, 2019 2:59:35 GMT
Oh, this one! It'll be interesting to see if it does the same thing where it stops refrigerating again (due to emptying the evaporator because of ___)
|
|
|
|
Post by ckfan on Feb 2, 2019 15:58:06 GMT
It’s really interesting stuff. When I’ve turned it on warm it’s always kind of sounded weird and I didn’t know what to make of it. I always kind of thought it sounded like the unloader was very sluggish to let go and allow the pumping action to start. Now that I’ve been giving it exercise it seems to be getting more decisive. The DR1 is behaving better too. It used to make the vibrating burr sound when you started it up. Now it doesn’t. It also had a stuck float when I first tried it since it had been sitting for so long. Now it seems to be working well. I really think that corrosion takes hold after a while when the machine is not really working hard and is just idling along as they often do when you use them as a drink fridge and don’t do any freezing with it. I have no idea if they will continue to work well once I try them on a long test though.
|
|
|
|
Post by stlvortac on Feb 11, 2019 16:00:00 GMT
mine has never been idled but when I first bought it and then later rewired it mine had similar symptoms on initial startup. It sounded as if the compressor was unloaded or low on refrigerant. The first few mins of operation the evaporator was only cool to the touch. About that time I’d hear what then I’d call a toilet flushing type sound, now assuming it was the float freeing up and the evap would immediately start frosting and the compressor sounded normal. Leading up to the float opening it made a bit of a gurgling sound.
Occasionally I had to put a tray of hot water in, symptoms were unusual frost patterns and excessive run times. It’s amazing how fast it’ll freeze a large pot of boiling water.
|
|
|
|
Post by ckfan on Feb 12, 2019 12:40:32 GMT
I actually gave it a hot supper last night in the form of a boiling pan of water. It gladly took it and ran. I turned it on and off during the process to excercise the unloader. It just kept getting quieter every time it started. I am beginning to think the unloader is a spot that gets gunked up. Makes sense since it is oil operated.
|
|
