lots of water in system?

[airon]

Hi all

Ok heres the deal. had a blown water cooled condenser. Duke twin soft serve unit.
but could apply to any system.
System had no low pressure control and operated by temperature only.
Dont know how long unit ran with negative pressure. short story compressor and system full of water. water reg valve works but is a dual condensing unit with water discharges in same line.
Initially thought I could vaccum water out, quickly diluted the pump oil and changed it. Removed and drained receiver and anything else I could. Compressor works perfectly so I also tried to pump it out that way with some success. flushed with gas etc.. 2nd drier in system and TXV failed locked up but with some flow. new TXV on its way. I suspect I will still have water in system when I open it back up.

Any suggestions on how to better remove large amount of water from a sealed system thats still in good mechanical and electrical condition??

I first suggested new unit but at 15-20k a pop.

[the mojo]

Yes ,seperate the system into two parts. C.U. from the evaps. Don't install the new TXV until you achieve @ least 500 microns in the evaps. Change the oil out in the pump. Again evac to @ least 500 microns. Plan on another LL high capacity filter and suction filter to boot. Evac the entire system to @ least 300 microns. Plan on 3 day run time. Remove the high cap. filters and install a standard filter with a fresh charge of gas.

[refrigman22]

Blow it out with nitrogen and alot of it, If you have core driers stuff them full of tampons "no joke it works" Change the oil repeat as many time as it takes. Don't change mech. parts until you know the waters gone. Pull deep Vac. Good luck.

[KB Cool]

Yes, just keep at it. Changing dryers, blowing out with nitro, overnight vacumms and 3 days later it should be dry . I had an upright not to long ago that sucked in water. And after 3 days, I finally got it cleaned up. I was literally dumping water out of the new dryers into my hands that I had just installed minutes earlier.

[hvac_superman]

Vacuum vacuum and more vacuum. I had a large chiller that filled up to the roof with fountain solution. I had to vacuum it for roughly two weeks with many vacuum pump oil changes. Not only was there water but acid from the fountain solution as well.

High capacity water removal filters. There may be nothing wrong with the txv, it may just be ice freezing. Did you change the oil in compressor? It will float on top of the water and there may be very little oil left in system depending on where you drained the water from.

[airon]

Thanks all.
The system is easy to isolate high and low sides and did do multi deep vacuums from both sides and will do again. Also heavily purged with gas. First blow roughly 1/2 cup of water removed, Using compressor only another 1/4 cup out of the liquid line. 2nd opening still a bit of water from liq line and at TXV
I did not install a suction filter however and possibly this is the reason for the failure of TXV or AXV in this case. I am sure its locked and a suction filter may have saved it. first 2 LL driers were hi capacity and oversized.
System has min oil and still on R502. Just so happens that I still have about 120 lbs of 502 left and was happy to have a use for it as I have few other outlets for it. With the mfg approval still using 502.
I did not change the oil as it is a can . I did however stir it up fairly well by running comp in the hopes of separating oil and water. Of course in this situation I cant get a visual on the oil. I should do an acid test but not sure what that will accomplish in this case.
Have to say I feel a bit silly asking to borrow some tampons from the gals. No core driers anyways. Truth is I have seen this done before with larger systems.
I was under the misguided perception that the water would float above the oil. If water below the oil it's possible oil sealing some water in while vacuuming. Tough to remove all the oil but will try and then add fresh min oil.
At any rate will see what happens when new valve arrives. I will repeat all processes as suggested.

glad to have your inputs as every once in a while a guy can go nutty trying to figure some things out no matter how long we've done this.

[icemeister]

One way to speed up the water removal process and protect your vacuum pump from a lot of moisture is to use a cold trap. You can fab one up easily using a 30 lb recovery cylinder, a 5 gal bucket and some dry ice.

Here's a tech tip article from Heatcraft that discusses it a little bit:

http://www.heatcraftrpd.com/resources/techtopics/Tech%20Topics%20Evacuation.pdf

[fitter638nyc]

I was told that R22 like water so you may use that as a flush or to brake you vacuum and like others have stated you need a cold plate so you save your pump.

[thegoodhumorman]

Sounds like one of those disasters that will take up a ton of your time- on the bright side once you get if working it will likely last until the next holiday weekend...

Seriously I hope your customer has been made aware in no uncertain terms he will probably be buying a compressor during the upcoming year- If it lasts longer thats great but at least he can't hang it around your neck once any acid has run its course on the comp windings.

Oil does trap moisture/water beneath it - you may even consider just sticking in a replaceable core drier shell until sys is cleaned up but thats a large component to fit in an area.
I think you should be able to pickup some of the aforementioned industrial tampons at your local supply house- Alco markets them since it fits in with the rest of their product line. (package w/ Rosie O'Donnell photo)

Ditto the advice about components- no use changing parts until your system is clean enough to run.
Good luck!

[berg2666]

Blow it out with nitrogen and alot of it, If you have core driers stuff them full of tampons "no joke it works" Change the oil repeat as many time as it takes. Don't change mech. parts until you know the waters gone. Pull deep Vac. Good luck.

Build you a heat exchanger you can run the nitorgen thru to heat it up even more. Say your at a plant that has steam available. Heat the nitrogen with the steam before you put it in the system.

[Poodle Head Mikey]

It is impossible to pull water through oil. It is impossible to dehydrate an oil emulsion oil with a vacuum.

So do yourself a favor and pull the compressor. Dump the oil and let it drain well. Solder a 3/8" flare fitting into the suction and discharge connections. Use a big pump and 3/8" hoses. Set a 1500 watt electric heater pointed right on it.

Blow out the remainder of the system with dry nitrogen - use a lot of pressure. Let the cylinder empty. Solder an access valve in each compressor connection and connect a big pump with 3/8" lines.

Pump two hours and then purge with dry refrigerant. Repeat until it will hold a 500 mike vacuum for a few hours. A heater will help.

When it's all dry, break the vacuums and reassemble the unit. Measure in the correct amount of compressor oil. Use a suction and liquid drier.

Have a lab check a refrigerant sample for water after 24 hours of initial run time to make sure you got it all.

[t527ed]

It is impossible to pull water through oil. It is impossible to dehydrate an oil emulsion oil with a vacuum.

So do yourself a favor and pull the compressor. Dump the oil and let it drain well. Solder a 3/8" flare fitting into the suction and discharge connections. Use a big pump and 3/8" hoses. Set a 1500 watt electric heater pointed right on it.

Blow out the remainder of the system with dry nitrogen - use a lot of pressure. Let the cylinder empty. Solder an access valve in each compressor connection and connect a big pump with 3/8" lines.

Pump two hours and then purge with dry refrigerant. Repeat until it will hold a 500 mike vacuum for a few hours. A heater will help.

When it's all dry, break the vacuums and reassemble the unit. Measure in the correct amount of compressor oil. Use a suction and liquid drier.

Have a lab check a refrigerant sample for water after 24 hours of initial run time to make sure you got it all.

what he said....



oil floats on water so you have to totally drain it.

maybe more than once.

heat on the compressor while evacuating will help to.