No high pressure port on danfoss compressor?

[OLD BAY]

I saved my pennies to convert my icebox to a fridge (I'm tired of hauling ice bags). Bought an ice box conversion kit and installed it myself.... drill a hole, runs some lines, wire it up, pretty easy.

I fire the thing up and return the next day, the evaporation plate is only 52 degrees! WTF? My beer is all warm. Hose connections are all good, compressor running.

Pull out the AC gauges, and there is only a low pressure port? Low pressure port's reading is real low (-10mmHg running, 15 PSI off). I fill it up per instructions to 15 PSI while running with R12 and BAM evap plate freezes in 3 min.

Now my question is, with only a low pressure port, how can I tell if there is a restriction, vs low refridgerant? I'm assuming low refridgerant given it's now working well and positive pressure on the "low" side.

Also, why did they ship this "precharged" kit with virtually no collant? Buyer beware.

Thanks for letting me vent, I feel better!

 

[swampratt]

the reason is simple the flow chart is 1 how cheep can we make it 2 how much can we charge for it 3 how short of time will it last As you sure on the R12 as that has been gone for a while. Feel the bends on the condenser coil and see where they are warm this will let you know about high side flow the part to check is the dryer strainer going to the cap tube you can find this by looking for the tubing that goes from the condenser coil and the evaporator plate if this feels cold or has ice on it you have a problem ie low on gas or restriction

 

[OLD BAY]

Thanks swampratt, it turns out it was low on refrigerant. I charged it up the specified pressure and it's been working very well. Prior to my charging it, the eval plate was cool only on the lowest coils, now it's cold almost to the top. The tubing connecting to the compressor has no ice, which I'm told is good (too much ice on the tubing between eval plate and compressor could mean an over charged system).

 

[Tuna Pursuit]

I can't believe how much you guys know about refrigiration! Impressive.

 

[OLD BAY]

I can't believe how much you guys know about refrigiration! Impressive.

Only by necessity! I can't afford to have someone else figure this stuff out.

 

[Blitzen]

My guess is that someone shipped you someones problem, in hopes that it would not return. We have had new product show up that was used and broken right out of the box with a note from someone else explaining the issues with the unit. Go figure!

 

[CEShawn]

Old Bay, I really like what you said right there... I can't afford others to fix my problems either...

Nice to have a guy on here that knows refrigeration...

Now I need to see about my ice cube bomb LOL But I will save that...

 

[OLD BAY]

Old Bay, I really like what you said right there... I can't afford others to fix my problems either...

Thanks, I finally have enough experience so that I actually save money doing work myself. When I was young I sometimes caused more problems than I fixed! Oh, my poor family....