Continental Call Back Box of the year

[AllStateTech]

Working on a refrigerator 2 door continental with the condiment top, R-134 A. A fellow tech replaced a compressor, captube and drier and blew the lines out or so he says. A week later went back and replaced the drier he, found it restricted. I followed up to work on the box unit running warm low on gas, pressurize with nitrogen no leak found cut back on cap tube 1.5 inch, replace drier(CLEAN DIRTY CONDENSOR!!!) Did a triple evac after finding no leaks on my joints. Pulled around 300 microns on this system. A week later another tech went back and found a restricted drier. He called up continental and they told him to drill a hole in the receiver, isolate the evap and blow it out often oil gets trapped in there and its a good process to do after a burnout. He added a pigtail fitting to evap did as they told him and box is working fine now. Has anyone ever encountered this? The tech also stated when 134 gets extremely hot say from a really dirty condensor coil it often turns into oil due to high temp? if this is true why?

[kklobas]

Hopefully you mean accumulator. Cap tubes can't have a receiver and work properly.
The Poe oil is what needed flushed from overheating. 404 will do the same thing, it's the old oil.

[AllStateTech]

yes i do, haha thats what happens when I wake up too early and jump on the forum. So the oil just breaks down?

[Pascone10]

What I have learned is the oil actually turns into a wax like consistency.. I usually install an oversized drier in and stay away from the copper spun driers. Sporlan has a drier to help with this situation I believe.

Next time I would take that accumulator out and tip it over to see if there is a lot of oil in there..

How bad was that condensor when you went back? I wonder IF the head was high enough to screw up the oil with the new compressor..

[AllStateTech]

Yeah I wish I was the tech who went back to see if the accumulator had a lot of oil in it. Lets just say the tech before me who weighed in charge immediately ran in a vaccum after I cleaned the condenser, it very well could have been... That's crazy a wax consistency, yeah you could oversize the drier but then you'd just need to compensate and add more charge. I had a 0-32 cap tube sporlan drier on it. How big have you gone on a small system like that?

[Pascone10]

Yeah I wish I was the tech who went back to see if the accumulator had a lot of oil in it. Lets just say the tech before me who weighed in charge immediately ran in a vaccum after I cleaned the condenser, it very well could have been... That's crazy a wax consistency, yeah you could oversize the drier but then you'd just need to compensate and add more charge. I had a 0-32 cap tube sporlan drier on it. How big have you gone on a small system like that?

The Driers with HH on them have charcoal which will help remove that wax..

This is what you want..http://sporlanonline.com/literature/40/40-337.pdf

This is a mechanic in the fields letter...
http://sporlanonline.com/literature/40/40-169.pdf

[kklobas]

the c032 cap-t is perfect. best bet is to make sure oil is flushed out well,then new drier and cap tube. yes- if it gets to hot it breaks down, leading to repeat failure if not cleaned up well

[AllStateTech]

Thanks for the info pascone! Yeah besides nitro is there any flush agent that is worthwhile in reefer systems ?

[kklobas]

there are a few available at rsd, johnstone, etc.... add a little flush based on system size, then purge well with nitro to clear out flush.
good after bad burn outs that nitro alone won't clean up also.Or for conversions to POE oil

[indy2000]

Working on a refrigerator 2 door continental with the condiment top, R-134 A. A fellow tech replaced a compressor, captube and drier and blew the lines out or so he says. A week later went back and replaced the drier he, found it restricted. I followed up to work on the box unit running warm low on gas, pressurize with nitrogen no leak found cut back on cap tube 1.5 inch, replace drier(CLEAN DIRTY CONDENSOR!!!) Did a triple evac after finding no leaks on my joints. Pulled around 300 microns on this system. A week later another tech went back and found a restricted drier. He called up continental and they told him to drill a hole in the receiver, isolate the evap and blow it out often oil gets trapped in there and its a good process to do after a burnout. He added a pigtail fitting to evap did as they told him and box is working fine now. Has anyone ever encountered this? The tech also stated when 134 gets extremely hot say from a really dirty condensor coil it often turns into oil due to high temp? if this is true why?

how many hours labor is on this unit for repairs?

you have a model and serial number?

[AllStateTech]

I don't even want to know lol... Nope unfortunately it was a while back why have you had issues with continentals?

[indy2000]

I don't even want to know lol... Nope unfortunately it was a while back why have you had issues with continentals?

I'm reluctant to offer repairs to units of this style and cost as usually the repair costs are not justified when comparing the cost of a new unit.

I've been burned by these in the past.

good luck.

[timebuilder]

I'm reluctant to offer repairs to units of this style and cost as usually the repair costs are not justified when comparing the cost of a new unit.

I've been burned by these in the past.

good luck.

I know of a well-known casual dining restaurant whose name is reminiscient of a 1960's Rolling Stones hit. They have a warehouse full of old, used equipment that they deliver to new stores to cut costs.

Then, they have no maintenance.

Then, they want you to repair the old junk, and then they complain about how much it costs.

Penny smart, pound foolish.

[Mike19]

POE oil breaking down and forming "wax", and plugging up driers and cap tubes is fairly common on small systems. As noted its usually caused by running for a long time with a dirty condenser or non-functioning condenser fan motor, which overheats the oil and turns it into wax.

You should see what some of that cooked oil looks like, kind of dark with small chunks in it. After you drain it, you can tell why the cap tube and drier keep plugging.

If its really bad we will pull the compressor, drain the oil, and refill the compressor with new oil. Also flush out the system as best we can with nitrogen and maybe some rx-11.

For driers on cap tube systems, I like the Sporlan C052CAP-TT-HH

Its amazing how much money people will spend to repair, instead of replace. Its like they have it in there head - they look at a 10 year old reach-in, and say "theres no need to buy a new one, this things only a couple years old"

I had one small system I worked on for literally six hours. I put a new cap tube in, drained oil in compressor and refilled, then I actually took the condenser out and blew rx-11 in it and shook it, turned it upside down and drained all this black sh** out.

[Mike19]

I know of a well-known casual dining restaurant whose name is reminiscient of a 1960's Rolling Stones hit. They have a warehouse full of old, used equipment that they deliver to new stores to cut costs.

Then, they have no maintenance.

Then, they want you to repair the old junk, and then they complain about how much it costs.

Penny smart, pound foolish.

Well you can do what I always do. When you get everything up and running you can drive off in your van singing "Good Bye, Ruby Tuesday".

[AllStateTech]

Yeah it probably wasn't worth it but I got paid for my time, thanks for all the explanations... Man I hate those continental boxes

[AllStateTech]

So rx11 is a flush that can be used for ac and refrigeration any other flushes you use ?

[Mike19]

So rx11 is a flush that can be used for ac and refrigeration any other flushes you use ?

I've only used rx11 from nucalgon, that seems to be the only flushing solvent the wholesalers around here carry.

I don't use it all the time, usually only if there is a restriction inside of a coil or if the tubes are full of baked oil or burnout residue, stuff like that.

I know its a volitle solvent and will evaporate, but I don't like the idea of the residue of whatever it flushed being left in the system. So whatever I am flushing, I will typically cut the tubing at the low spot (ie. bottom of the coil, low spot in tubing) and blow it out with nitrogen when I am done, so all the crap will drain out.

[timebuilder]

Well you can do what I always do. When you get everything up and running you can drive off in your van singing "Good Bye, Ruby Tuesday".

Yes, knowing full well that next time might be my 19th nervous breakdown, and I can't get no satisfaction.

But, time is on my side.

[AllStateTech]

Lol