Chilled water problem

[merleman]

I am working on a 60 ton Trane chiller. Dropped two compressors on same circuit. Hooked up gauges and could smell burnt rerigerant. When I went to reclaim the refrigerant I started sucking water out of the piping. Took the reclaimer off. Opened the gauges and lots of water ran out. I am positive that their is a leak in the heat exchanger(evaporator) and it is leaking water into my refrigerant piping. Will I ever be able to get all the moisturee out of this system? Did this harm anything else in the circuit? Blow with dry nitrogen and vacuum really well with multiple oil changes? Has anyone else encountered this problem before? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Roger

[Shophound]

What kind of heat exchanger? Shell and tube or flat plate?

You gotta find and fix the leak in the heat exchanger, and then you're in for a long haul with the vacuum pump and several drier changes. A cold trap prior to your vacuum pump will reduce how many times you'll need to change the vacuum pump oil, but you're in for several oil changes, regardless.

[heavymetaldad]

also , once the refrigerant is transferred, and your water side leak is repaired, use a 1/4 drill bit to let the r718 out of any low points. This will speed dehydration, as will a cold trap. it's time consuming, and since you said you have burnt gas, customer may be better served with a new machine.

[mallron]

60 ton cold generator? With the price of clean-up you could probably sell them a new machine.

Maybe consider an oiless vacuum pump, we use them on wet machines and they work great. They're really expensive though.

No matter what you decide to do, make sure you figure out what caused the machine to freeze, I doubt that it cracked on it's own.

[ChillerWisperer]

I agree with Dad and Ron...It's toast. Time to price a new one for them.

[lipsoffurry]

Was there a seperate 115v circuit ran for the evap. heater? Stuck flow switch? Was the flow switch interlocked with the starter?

[merleman]

The unit was ran 4 years without any water treatment. A company came in cleaned and flushed the system about two months ago. I am assuming that the piping was corroded and when they cleaned and flushed it created a leak. The refrigerant leaked into the water and then the water leaked into the refrigeration circuit and damaged both compressors. I am hoping that I can replace the heat exchanger for both systems clean the system and get them going. I am very concerned about getting all the moisture out of the system. Very well maybe time for a new one.

[hvac_superman]

I have a printing company that neglects to change their filter on the water side, when they get the alarm they adjust the pressure switch so the alarm goes off then I get a call. Two times I have dried the same system out. It can be done but it's very time consuming. Both times I had to change the compressor and the last time I trashed my vacuum pump. I bet I changed the oil on that thing no less than 20 times. I would get the evap isolated right away and start draining and cutting and get the pump on as soon as possible. Even before I get the new evap in.

[mallron]

what evap on this chiller? baffles or plate? if it's plate then I'll guess that whatever they used to flush attacked the stainless steel.