Frozen Busted McQuay Chiller Tubes.....

[southparks]

Have fun drying that system out, it can be done but it's not fun...

[freonrick]

it shouldn't be too bad to dry out since the water was already drained. the only water would be what was laying in the tube.

[steveoo]

the guy recovering gas should of never done recovery with out water flow!

[zw17]

it shouldn't be too bad to dry out since the water was already drained. the only water would be what was laying in the tube.

And what has traveled into the system to make love to the oil.

That is the hard part.

[freonrick]

luckly they hadn't ran the unit, after dehydrate the system and oil changes they should be good to go. hopefully the freon is tested before it goes back in.

[browntrout]

Recovery was done wrong.. no running water is needed. Have the eddy current done and plug up to 10% of the tubes. If there is more than 10% busted it will need retubed. Sisterville Tank is a reputible company in WV. After tube repair continue with the dehidration with a cold pot you wont need no.more than 1 gallon of oil if you operate the pot right. Dry ice and acidtone. But it might take a few week if it got flooded. Deffinatly Check the refrigerant for water if its not.to.bad you can clean it yourself with desiccated filters . Hope.this.helps.

[jon98tt]

So the eddy current was performed this past Friday and they found a total of 14 tubes that had ruptured. All the tubes are located in the bottom two rows of the condenser or the sub-cooler. I have contacted a re-tubing company out of NY that will be replacing the 14 tubes. Luckily my local McQuay rep has a condenser tube that will work in this machine. The tube they have in stock is a little less efficient than the tubes that are currently in the machine but they assure me that they will be okay. I figure anything is better than plugging them.

I will be fabricating a cold pot to assist in the dehydration of the machine. I was searching for simple ideas. Here's what i have come up with. Using a piece of 10" steel pipe, capped off on the bottom with a welded steel plate. Then flanged on top with a blank off flange bolted on top for a seal-able lid, creating a canister. Then on each side of the canister weld two 1/2" thread-o-lets for hose connections. One connection will be lower on the canister and the other connection will be closer to the top. Then fill the canister with dry ice, as the moisture laden air is pulled into the canister from the machine through the lower port across the dry ice then out through the top port and into my vacuum pump. I assume the dry ice will freeze most of the moisture as the air passes by it. What do you guys think?

I will also try to attach a pic of the eddy current report on the condenser tubes.

[jon98tt]

2012-03-11_18-19-03_592.jpg

[zw17]

Your plan for the cold pot is spot on. You cannot build a better one.

[browntrout]

Iv never used that type of cold pot..it seem that moisture may still get through to your vacuum as the ice melts. Tho it may work heres an example of mine. Basically we had a aluminum pot aproximilty 20 inches in diameter by 36 inches tall with the hose fittings welded on, a bottom welded on and then we had another aluminum cylinder of smaller size down inside the pot then there was a lid welded on the top keeping the bigger cylinder seperate from the smaller one. You fill the small cylinder with the ice and acitone. The moist air that you pull from the chiller dosent actually come in contact with the ice but it freezes to the outside of the smaller cylinder. Once a day you thaw out and check the amount of water removed.

[zw17]

Iv never used that type of cold pot..it seem that moisture may still get through to your vacuum as the ice melts. Tho it may work heres an example of mine. Basically we had a aluminum pot aproximilty 20 inches in diameter by 36 inches tall with the hose fittings welded on, a bottom welded on and then we had another aluminum cylinder of smaller size down inside the pot then there was a lid welded on the top keeping the bigger cylinder seperate from the smaller one. You fill the small cylinder with the ice and acitone. The moist air that you pull from the chiller dosent actually come in contact with the ice but it freezes to the outside of the smaller cylinder. Once a day you thaw out and check the amount of water removed.

I retract my previous statement, this is the perfect cold trap (and on a mega size)

I thought the OP had a 'heat exchanger' built into his. I misread.

[jon98tt]

Iv never used that type of cold pot..it seem that moisture may still get through to your vacuum as the ice melts. Tho it may work heres an example of mine. Basically we had a aluminum pot aproximilty 20 inches in diameter by 36 inches tall with the hose fittings welded on, a bottom welded on and then we had another aluminum cylinder of smaller size down inside the pot then there was a lid welded on the top keeping the bigger cylinder seperate from the smaller one. You fill the small cylinder with the ice and acitone. The moist air that you pull from the chiller dosent actually come in contact with the ice but it freezes to the outside of the smaller cylinder. Once a day you thaw out and check the amount of water removed.

This does make more sense, I wasn't thinking about the fact that it will eventually begin to thaw.... Thanks

[browntrout]

Yea its always worked well me, iv also used liquid nitrogen in the past you'll.just have to weigh the cost I typically had to refill the trap 3 times a day to keep it from thawing. Good luck, also if your not putting a nitrogen purge on it while your dehydrating you need to sweep it several times a day.