Beverage Air EF46-1AS

[mhafley]

For some background, I have been doing mostly light commercial and residential HVAC for the past ten years but I keep getting more restaurant customers, so I am doing more refrigeration work the past year or two. I know some but obviously not enough. I have a Beverage Air RI Freezer, Model # EF46-1AS. Serial # gone. It is a 404A system. The unit used to pull down to -17F per customer, but I have seen it at -10F before. I cannot get the unit to go below 2F for anything. The condenser and evaporator coil have been cleaned. I recovered all of the refrigerant and pulled a vacuum to chech for any leaks. Vacuum held so I weighed in the factory charge amount of 23 oz. Suction pressure of 16.5 psi and discharge pressure of 235 psi. Refer components on top of two door reach in. Ambient temperature of 82 degrees in restaurant. I replaced defrost timer about 6weeks ago and unit ran with no problems until last few days. I called beverage air, tech support says pressures ideally are 18psi / 240psi suction / discharge respectively. They say to check air flow. Air flow appears to be good. I double checked all of the door and evap compartment seals and found no leaks. At a loss at this point. The owner keeps saying just add charge, that is what everyone else has done. Seems to me if I add charge, suction will rise making coil temp rise. Please help. Sorry I forgot to get SH/SC numbers. Will try to get them tomorrow.
Matthew

[VanMan812]

For some background, I have been doing mostly light commercial and residential HVAC for the past ten years but I keep getting more restaurant customers, so I am doing more refrigeration work the past year or two. I know some but obviously not enough. I have a Beverage Air RI Freezer, Model # EF46-1AS. Serial # gone. It is a 404A system. The unit used to pull down to -17F per customer, but I have seen it at -10F before. I cannot get the unit to go below 2F for anything. The condenser and evaporator coil have been cleaned. I recovered all of the refrigerant and pulled a vacuum to chech for any leaks. Vacuum held so I weighed in the factory charge amount of 23 oz. Suction pressure of 16.5 psi and discharge pressure of 235 psi. Refer components on top of two door reach in. Ambient temperature of 82 degrees in restaurant. I replaced defrost timer about 6weeks ago and unit ran with no problems until last few days. I called beverage air, tech support says pressures ideally are 18psi / 240psi suction / discharge respectively. They say to check air flow. Air flow appears to be good. I double checked all of the door and evap compartment seals and found no leaks. At a loss at this point. The owner keeps saying just add charge, that is what everyone else has done. Seems to me if I add charge, suction will rise making coil temp rise. Please help. Sorry I forgot to get SH/SC numbers. Will try to get them tomorrow.
Matthew

Does it cycle on the stat or run continuously until the defrost clock initiates a harvest?


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[2sac]

How close is the amp draw to the nameplate? Does it have a suction service valve and/or a receiver to try and pump it down?

[mhafley]

The unit runs continuously until the defrost timer kicks in. I have it set for 4 defrost cycles, once every 6 hours. There is no receiver, but it does have a suction service valve. I checked the amount draw of the defrost heater, 5.3A, but did not think to check Amp draw of compressor until after I left. I will get Amp draw of compressor and other components as well today along with SH and SC values. Where do I want to check the SH and SC temperatures for this for best results?

[mhafley]

Customer called this morning and unit is at -12F, so now it is working OK. I did notice that the fans stayed on while I was checking the defrost timers operation, so I corrected that so the fans do not run during defrost. Maybe that was the problem. I am still a little confused but as long as it is running at -12F I will let it be. Thanks.

[VanMan812]

Why so low? I didn’t look that model up but -17deg is very very low. Even the -12 it’s running now is pretty low.


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[pecmsg]

X-Valve or Cap Tube Metering Device?

Tin Can or Semi?

[mhafley]

The customer said it use to get to -17. It has an expansion valve and semi. Manufacturer says the unit should get to -10 with the control set at 7 so it is close to what manufacturer says. I told customer that 0 F is cold enough for health department but he wanted cooler.