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it is. they were the ones that use a mesh glued in place as demisters. nothing more than a pieces of twelve inch pipe welded with some holes in it, or at least seems that way. high discharge temps melt the glue and them puppies come apart. honestly though, the client could have spent the dough to let us clean the water passages on the heads and saved A LOT of money cutting them effers out.

Originally Posted by flange

They often use a cheaper, horizontal unit with no sight glass or anytihng, and its welded into the discharge line. The tend to come apart. We replaced all three on a three compressor rack at only five years or so.

Man....That is truly sad to hear...I mean there are some 50-60 year old ammonia sytems out there with the vertical Frick seperators tyhat still do there jom

They often use a cheaper, horizontal unit with no sight glass or anytihng, and its welded into the discharge line. The tend to come apart. We replaced all three on a three compressor rack at only five years or so.

Ice rink...NHL???? They uhhhhh..prefer the CIMCO units...(CIMCO is across the street from the NHL I am told)
R-717....adding a gallon a week to an ammonia system...Not good at all....
Is your oil seperator a Frick vertical unit???
Does it not have sight glasses for the oil level??
Does it have a functioning oil heater???
Slugging a large recip with ammonia/oil like I think you have can be "Non-Habit" forming should you blow a head off...
As a previous poster stated, after 40 years it is very possible that the mist eliminator in the seperator has left town...collapsed....squished...etc.
Call Frick and get a new seperator before someone gets hurt.

Is this a commercial refrigeration or cimco rack? are the heads water cooled? often times these are mycom recips with water cooled heads. when the water passages are not cleaned as part of a pm program, the compressors run hot. The oil sperators they use have very little tolerance for high discharge superheat, and the element comes apart internally and stops doing much work. . I assume this is welded into the system, and there is no way to take it apart.
Any way, you may actually have an issue with the seperator, and the oil is getting carried through the evap condenser and then back to the evap. trap could be just fine and clear, and appear to be working ok.

Then again, I could be waay off base.

jah,,,

Originally Posted by heavymetaldad

do need a lot more info.
what kind of system?????????? dx. brine, liquid overfeed?
mystery float and sillynoid is where?
screws or recips?

The float and solenoid are the reason that I'm assuming recips - but you know about that assuming stuff...........

do need a lot more info.
what kind of system?????????? dx. brine, liquid overfeed?
mystery float and sillynoid is where?
screws or recips?

Originally Posted by klove

Does that mean it's operating at 150% of it's rated capacity? Are you using screws or recips (I'm assuming recip)? Brine or DX? What is the load running? Does the 100 hp run loaded? If it's a recip, will it pump down and hold? Condition of oil in the crankcase if it's a recip? Crankcase temps? Will the 100 make ice, or is it just to hold after the base is formed? Are you running the peak load compressor when you should be running the smaller comp to maintain? Whewww - Sorry, I'm all out of breath..........

i'll assume he's got screws due to the seperators..............
didja check the coaleser elements gasketing? are they secured tite?
in my plant i have to regularly check them.

Originally Posted by rickstoys09

The suction pressure is 25 , discharge is 140-150, 17-19"f suction 185-195f, the old comp used more oil, the comp operates at 50% more than loaded up, and the seperator is in the right way, I think because the system is not loaded most of the time,

Does that mean it's operating at 150% of it's rated capacity? Are you using screws or recips (I'm assuming recip)? Brine or DX? What is the load running? Does the 100 hp run loaded? If it's a recip, will it pump down and hold? Condition of oil in the crankcase if it's a recip? Crankcase temps? Will the 100 make ice, or is it just to hold after the base is formed? Are you running the peak load compressor when you should be running the smaller comp to maintain? Whewww - Sorry, I'm all out of breath..........

Originally Posted by rickstoys09

I have a 200 hp,and a 100hp compressor, the 100 hp operates ok, the 200 hp compressor is only 1 month old and uses 2 gallons of oil every 2 weeks, the oil seperator has been cleaned and the return line new, also the float and the solinoid is new, they drained about 2 gallons out of the evaporator last week, I am thinking may bee there is some liquid or the seperator internally is not operating,the system is 40 years old. I am stumped why the oil is not returning to the compressor, the system holds 900 lb of ammonia.

The suction pressure is 25 , discharge is 140-150, 17-19"f suction 185-195f, the old comp used more oil, the comp operates at 50% more than loaded up, and the seperator is in the right way, I think because the system is not loaded most of the time,

Is this a cascade system, does it have a 2 stage oil return (3 oil receivers with heaters in each?)

Originally Posted by klove

Not specifically on an ice rink, but I have seen it on a low temp system once, and I've seen accumulators installed backwards. The reason I asked is to try to reinforce the notion to the OP (and anyone else that wants to ask a question here) that he knows the specifics and history of his system. But just because he knows doesn't mean the rest of us have a clue. That leaves us to say "OK, here's 1257 different reasons that you could lose oil from a compressor. Let us know what you find".

Very good point, we "assume" people know what we are talking about. Temps and pressures ect ect help us all.

Originally Posted by trouble time

Klove;
Good point I did not think of the separator in backwards, have you ever seen this?

Not specifically on an ice rink, but I have seen it on a low temp system once, and I've seen accumulators installed backwards. The reason I asked is to try to reinforce the notion to the OP (and anyone else that wants to ask a question here) that he knows the specifics and history of his system. But just because he knows doesn't mean the rest of us have a clue. That leaves us to say "OK, here's 1257 different reasons that you could lose oil from a compressor. Let us know what you find".

Klove;
Good point I did not think of the separator in backwards, have you ever seen this?

Is this a direct expansion or a brine system? Is the 200 hp an addition or a replacement? If it's a replacement, has it always done this? If it's an addition, then it has always done this - is the separator in backwards?

As has been stated, you need to give your complete operating data, and I'll add to that by saying that you need to give any info at your disposal. As it stands, we know that you have a 200 hp compressor that loses an average of one gallon of oil per week, and then the question of "why?". That ain't much to go on.

Is the 200 Hp compressor working unloaded? Is the system set up so that the 200 ton is first stage? Pressures and temperatures would help....

Ice Rink Refridgeration

I have a 200 hp,and a 100hp compressor, the 100 hp operates ok, the 200 hp compressor is only 1 month old and uses 2 gallons of oil every 2 weeks, the oil seperator has been cleaned and the return line new, also the float and the solinoid is new, they drained about 2 gallons out of the evaporator last week, I am thinking may bee there is some liquid slugging, or the seperator internally is not operating,the system is 40 years old. I am stumped why the oil is not returning to the compressor, the system holds 900 lb of ammonia.