ReplyIce on bottom and little to non on top is a sign of leaking fill valve.
Check your pressures with the manual
Regular Guest
I have a Scotsman M#CU1526SA-1A. S#090413200140 first came up to it and it was pretty limed up. And I had ice on the bottom but not the top of evap. Suction was at 60 psi and 300 head with a 70 degree ambient. No leaking dump valve no leaking hot bypass valve. It was cold on one side warm on the other. Also I found the plating coming off the evap. Called tech support and gave them all the readings. I had 20 deg superheat 404 system. Theirs been ppl messing with it. Tech said bad evap the txv would be pulling low suction pressure if it was bad. I knew with the plating coming off the evap had to be replaced. So I took everything apart. Cleaned everything. Water level and water temp sensor. Pump, bridge sensor, valves, water trough. Replaced evap, drier. Took condenser coil out and cleaned with coil cleaner. It was restricted pretty good. Put everything back together. Now the water level comes almost to the top of trough. The sanitizer light stays on. And the darn thing does the same thing ice on bottom but not the top. Its ready on bottom but the top has a little ice.now I have 50psi suction and 205 head. I weighed in charge. No leaking valves. I'm thinking txv?
Professional Member*
Ice on bottom and little to non on top is a sign of leaking fill valve.
Check your pressures with the manual
R I P Icemeister
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Regular Guest
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Regular Guest
OK I double checked the water inlet. It fills to proper level then shuts off I can hear it. The water never gets higher. And I can see the drain and no water is coming out.so I replaced the txv. Pulled vaccume to 200 microns and weighed in 12 oz R404. When I first turned it on I had 210 head with a 80 psi suction. I'm freaking!!! As the water gets colder the suction drop to 60. It ran for ever only got to 50 psi. And it should be 35 at the end of freeze. At one point the water stopped at ice was in the water the water froze. Then it was good. The difference now is both lines coming out of the evap are frosted. And it makes ice on the evap even. But it takes for ever. When it did go into harvest the ice barely came out and just started melting. It was still too thin. Plus I still got high suction. I tried unplugging the pump. And the suction dropped to 30 in about 4 mins. I'm going crazy. The hg valve is cold on one side and warm on another.
Professional Member
How are you so sure the harvest valve isn't leaking? If water isn't leaking into the sump during freeze, then you only really have two possibilities: leaking harvest valve or weak compressor. Pinch off line to harvest valve, and if that doesn't fix it, it is a weak compressor.
Professional Member*
Evaporator plate separation?Originally Posted by darrin0819
Bad Valves in pump?
That machine is too small to be guessing and putting a lot of parts in. Replace it.
R I P Icemeister
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Professional Member
Wow I initially thought this was a 1500# unit based on model number; didn't realize it's an under counter unit. I agree with Pec, you already have enough evidence to condemn the unit: evaporator plating coming off plus refrigeration issue. Recommend replacement.
Regular Guest
I first replaced evap. It was under warranty. After that tech support said bad txv. Replaced that now I got height suction. 85psi start 55 when done it takes over 30 mins to make a batch. Comp is running 6 amps which is in spec. Now Scotsman is sending a different txv. Since I'm getting 3-5 deg superheat. Said that unit should be10-15 superheat?
New Guest
Although we had an ice machine in school, I've never worked on this machine. Read part of book supplied. I would be focusing on the freeze cycle. Superheat shared - book says good for model. Although you weighed in charge, curious to know what subcooling is. Didn't see that in book. Would verify charge, yes?. Also I would focus on Freeze cycle and specifically how water is coming in contact with evap. "At start up the controller operates the water pump and purge valve to drain the reservoir. The float valve refills the reservoir after the purge valve shuts off. When the reservoir has filled, the
compressor and water pump start. After the discharge pressure has increased past the cut in point of the
fan pressure control, the fan motor(s) will begin to operate and warm air will be discharged. The fan
motor will switch on and off as the discharge pressure rises and falls. Water flows over the evaporator as
the refrigeration system begins to remove heat. When the water temperature falls to a preset point, as
measured by the water temperature sensor, the controller shuts off the water pump for 30 seconds. The
freeze cycle resumes when the pump restarts and ice begins to form on the evaporator. As it forms, the
water flowing over the ice moves closer and closer to the metal tip of the ice thickness sensor. When it
comes into contact with the sensor for a few continuous seconds, that signals the controller that the
freeze cycle is complete. Last question - Does evap have distributor? If so, could top part be malfunctioning?
Professional Member
No offense to Scotsman tech support, and they may end up being right, but 55# at end of freeze is around 20 degree SST. You said it is supposed to be 35# which is more like 2 degree SST. When the old txv was in place you had 50# and evaporator was starving with uneven ice fill pattern. More with a new txv you have suction at 55 but even fill pattern. I find it hard to believe that by increasing superheat by 5 degrees you will magically drop your SST by 18 degrees. I still think it's a weak pump. I don't care if the compressor pulls 6 amps, if it takes 4 minutes to get the suction down to 35# with water pump off, ASSUMING the harvest valve its not leaking by, then I'm betting the compressor is weak.
Again I would pinch off harvest line to see if that changes pressure and freeze time, and if not I would condemn compressor. Alternatively I may pinch off suction line to confirm compressor can pull a vacuum.
Regular Guest
Guys I appreciate all your help. This is why I'm reaching out. I'm going by tech support cause the evap and comp is under warranty. But their answeres don't make since and I agree with you. Good name what do you mean by evap distributor? It does shut the water off for 30 sec. Trippointlo. I agree. Their sending me the new txv at 10 am in the morning. Tech support still don't think the comp is bad. Before I replace the txviI'm buying a pinch off tool. I'm going to pinch off the hg valve see if my pressures drop. Or if it freezer faster. And last I'm going to pinch off the suction line. When I do what should I see. I never really do it on can comp. Just big semi. I mean I learned to unplug the water pump from this place. But I don't know what I should be looking for. It should drop to what in what time? Thanks for info
Professional Member
With suction line pinched off it should pump into a vacuum pretty quick. As in around 3 to 5 seconds typically, maybe 10 seconds max. Obviously the bigger the compressor the quicker it pumps down, and the higher the suction pressure when you start the longer it takes, etc..
Just make sure wherever you pinch it off, you will have room to cut it out and put a coupling afterwards... obviously don't pinch the actual harvest valve stub or compressor stub
Regular Guest
I know when I check the valves on a semi I close the service valve see how long it takes to get in a vac.then I unplug power to see if it holds. That's on 1 to 1 1/2 HP. If it rises right away I was told to replace valve plate. Do you do the same for the small can comp? I understand what you mean by making sure I save room to hook the lines back up. When you guys braze. Do you let nitrogen in? Do you have a special regulator? Cause I was taught to not use nitrogen ever. I tried using my nitrogen with a reg regulator. Yea let's just say I couldn't stop it from leaking. I'm going to go today to see what happens. I'll post back
Professional Member*
I had a Scotsman Field Service Manager come into my works shop the other day, to go over the prodigy line, if the sanitize light is on, you have to run it thru a clean cycle to get ride of it, otherwise the controller will not fully energize everything to properly make ice. I was out on a Scotsman Warrenty call a couple days before he came in and had the same issue. Once I got the sanitize light to go off, it made ice properly.
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Regular Guest
U know I asked about the sanitize light being on. And tech support said that don't matter
Professional Member*
No...I believe as well as the evap issue that ur compressor was the issue the whole time...
Another thing u could have done is pull the sensing bulb off and put it in hot water and see if ur suction comes up...if it did, then we have movement on the valve and I'd start to point my finger towards the compressor... Plus this is air cooled yeah? Your head seems low....low head high suction...hmm...
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Regular Guest
Yea so when I got done putting another txv that's different from the one I got thefirst time. I had like 2 deg super heat with t first txv that iI replaced. So they sent me another one that was supposed to be a higher superheat. When I installed it I was getting 6-7 superheat. That's still low. This whole time I'm thinking one of the valves are going bad on the comp.I still had 75 suction start and 50 suction at the end. Finally I talked to another guy at manufact. He said Bad comp!!!!! Finally after being a parts changer. So I'm going to do the comp and post back. Thanks for all the help
Professional Member*
The sanitize light on Prodigy's is turned on based on elapsed time and means nothing to to the operation of the machine. You can change the amount of time that has to pass before it illuminates, or disable it so that it never illuminates if you wish. These programming changes are detailed in the service manual.
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