Another Chiller Teardown & Rebuild

[Tech Rob]

This reminds me of a story I heard early in my career from one of my mentors. An owner had a motor burnout on a Trane sidewinder (model PCV or CVHA) and decided to replace the motor themselves. They disconnected the electrical, and removed the terminal-side motor housing bolts, and then chained the motor housing to a forklift (or something similar), and then they PULLED. That is, until they heard the sound of something inside "giving way". Yep, they completely skipped disassembling the compressor. I don't recall hearing what it was that broke.

Those people are well-deserving of a Darwin Award. Stupidity of that magnitude is about as common as catching a glimpse of one of those comets or some other cosmic event that only appears once a century and the results are just as awe-inspiring and spectacular.

[Tech Rob]

Mods,

Could you please rename this thread "TechRob a professional HVAC tech teach you how to repair the centrifugal chiller from LaCrosse Wisconsin"

Just kidding

[milkyway]

MODS

No he's not lol- this is a special post in my opinion - with the detail and pics -

[AiResearch]

Hello Rob, could you or someone else identify that "propane tank" on the side of the condenser for those of us not intimately familiar with low pressure refrigeration?

It appears to be a factory item.

(it still amazes me. the size of that suction line. to think of the volume of gas going through there. much higher than r22 for example per ton)

Thanks again for sharing~

[milkyway]

I believe it just holds water/air/refrigerant/moisture/ to become a rust bucket??

[AiResearch]

So the purge discharges into the cylinder instead of the atmosphere?

[Tech Rob]

It purges through the tank. The tank is filled with carbon pellets that adsorb the stray refrigerant from the exhaust. The tanks are supposed to be changed every so often as they become saturated with refrigerant.

[Tech Rob]

MODS

No he's not lol- this is a special post in my opinion - with the detail and pics -

Haven't you seen the FengsHVAC threads? There's no way that anything I do can be anywhere near as good as Feng.

[milkyway]

It purges through the tank. The tank is filled with carbon pellets that adsorb the stray refrigerant from the exhaust. The tanks are supposed to be changed every so often as they become saturated with refrigerant.

Thx for the clearity

[Band-aid Kid]

Thanks for the posts and the pics. Some mighty fine work.

[kdebolt]

nice job got a lot of room around and above that girl last rnewel I did we got a new motor and oil pump assy. saved a lot of time.

[milkyway]

Haven't you seen the FengsHVAC threads? There's no way that anything I do can be anywhere near as good as Feng.

Yea- no comparison -

[Nuclrchiller]

When I read Rob's post requesting the mods to rename this thread, I immediately knew who he was referring to. And I laughed. Funny stuff.