a wet wet chiller

[hvacker]

I'll tell ya something I did once when some plugged humidifier ports blew holes in a large evaporator. Changing it out was dificult in a timely way so I reasoned menthol alcohol would displace the moisture. I isolated the evaporator and blew 2 gallons of alcohol with nitrogen. No particular fire problem in this case but you still need a whole lot of percausions. The alcohol was blown througe the evap and washed down with water as it came out the other side. Nitrogen was blown through until the alcohol was evaporated. After that deep vacumms and purges. I was lucky as this happened in the winter and the compressor never ran. Chemically I don't think alcohol should be in a chorline based system so you need to be sure it's all out of there but the system continued to run for years after that. Sometimes you win.

[R12rules]

Wait a minute!!! You mean to say you didnt spend MORE MONEY on repairing that chiller than you would have spent on replacement?


Cool!!!

And what did your materials cost for said repairs?

[airworx]

you don't have to replace all those things you listed.
change evap, install shell and core drier, put in hi moisture dries evacuate through a foreline tank then suck oil back in compressor and start up. thats it. weve done a bunch of these and we don't change parts because they got water in them, its not necessacary.

[aaronforprez]

hey! someone who thinks i can actually do it!

back to R12rules's comments on page 2. R12ruels is correct in his assuptions.

i have been talking back and forth with a service rep from the chiller company and they seem fairly optimistic with me fixing this. i would have thought they would have rather sold me a new system if they felt my chances were terrible. but maybe they want to sell me the $3000 in parts and then sell me a new chiller next month

someone else asked if i have high water cores for my suction line, and i do. i have 2 sets of high water cores and 1 regular one when i get all finished up. i also have a bunch of filters for the LL drier.

i'm going to win this battle. (i'm trying to keep a positive mindset at least.)

again, i can't say this enough, i appreciate everyone's replies. i hope to put in 6 hours tomorrow. i'll keep you updated!

[R12rules]

Originally posted by hvacker
I'll tell ya something I did once when some plugged humidifier ports blew holes in a large evaporator. Changing it out was dificult in a timely way so I reasoned menthol alcohol would displace the moisture.

I like this idea.

Also, has anyone considered CF-20? Johnstone sells this stuff for flushing sealed systems.

It's pretty safe.

[aaronforprez]

i just ordered a gallon jug of CF-20. so i'll let you know how it works. it cost roughly 40 bucks for the gallon. i'm not sure how much a guy has to add or not.
we'll see tomorrow when the UPS man brings it to me.
(the joys of having the parts house 2 hours away )

[R12rules]

Originally posted by hvacker
I'll tell ya something I did once when some plugged humidifier ports blew holes in a large evaporator. Changing it out was dificult in a timely way so I reasoned menthol alcohol would displace the moisture. I isolated the evaporator and blew 2 gallons of alcohol with nitrogen. No particular fire problem in this case but you still need a whole lot of percausions. The alcohol was blown througe the evap and washed down with water as it came out the other side. Nitrogen was blown through until the alcohol was evaporated. After that deep vacumms and purges. I was lucky as this happened in the winter and the compressor never ran. Chemically I don't think alcohol should be in a chorline based system so you need to be sure it's all out of there but the system continued to run for years after that. Sometimes you win.

Hvacker, did this work out fine for thr system?
Do you believe it would work well for this chiller here?

Your saying you didnt spend thousands of dollars on parts to repair this chiller you fixed up?
That's great!

[aaronforprez]

yeah, that would be interesting to hear how that job went for him.

today i added 2 cups of methanol to each compressor and 4 cups of methanol to the condenser. in the propane industry we add it to our large storage thanks. they say it displaces (or sucks up i guess) 7 times it's volume of water. i dunno how it does it or why (they didn't teach us that in school) but we add it in the winter when tansport loads of propane come in wet.

tomorrow i'll push another tank of nitrogen through the system and i'll start the vacuum pump.

and i think the CF-20 is more for acid clean up. so i'll add that with the oil when i'm ready to fire the system up.

so far i've spent 3250 in parts and have been there for 16 hours. i'll be there for a while yet i'm sure

[R12rules]

Originally posted by aaronforprez
tomorrow i'll push another tank of nitrogen through the system and i'll start the vacuum pump.

and i think the CF-20 is more for acid clean up. so i'll add that with the oil when i'm ready to fire the system up.

Have you picked up a chill chamber?

The CF-20 is not an oil additive. It is a flushing solvent to be blown thru the tubing and components while the sealed system is not sealed! But while it is open to the atmosphere.
If you add CF-20 in with the oil, you will dilute the oil and cause many problems.

[aaronforprez]

yeah i got the jug a few days ago and that's what i read on there. that comment about adding it to the oil was a guess that it was an additive, but after getting it and reading the instructions i found that it was not.

[turbovac]

each pint of water will make a thousand cubic of vapor, to dehydrate the chiller you will need pumping ratios of
150 to one, any water in the pump will ruin this ratio,
a pump with an adjustable ballast will help remove water from the oil, the gentlemen were dead on about the use of
a cold trap. good luck

[R12rules]

Originally posted by turbovac
each pint of water will make a thousand cubic of vapor, to dehydrate the chiller you will need pumping ratios of
150 to one, any water in the pump will ruin this ratio,
a pump with an adjustable ballast will help remove water from the oil, the gentlemen were dead on about the use of
a cold trap. good luck

Turbovac ....ssssshhhhhh... your gonna scare people with talk like that!

Dont go throwin' around that scientific jargon .... you might wake the dead!




Seriously ... thanks for the info.

I haven't heard from Aaron in days.

Maybe he forgot us?

[no8no3]

Maybe he's still working on that chiller......LOL