Which way to go?

Techman

I have a customer w/ a lobster tank that has an undersized condensing unit,but, only undersized during this summers heat wave.I also have a same size cond unit minus the compressor, so ,I am thinking of hooking up the cond coil/ cond fan motor /reciever tank in conjuction w/ the undresized cond unit. So, should it be in series or parallel ? And should cond coil #2 w/ or w/o recieves tank be hooked up before/after  cond unit #1 reciever tank ?Think away and advise away! I'm all ears! Not ALL ears,that is, I do have a few other parts!Thanks!

ddlong1286@yahoo.com

my opinion is

pipe the second condenser in parallel with the first and put a solenoid valve on it, controlled by a hi pressure switch to cycle it on when you need it. Receiver, after consulting a Sporlan Cold War paper, March 2007, all receivers should be in series. You probably remember the old Copeland condensers with dual receivers

Let us know what you did?

Don in MO

Eugene_Silberstein

Receiver in Series

As Don said, all receivers should be in series. Otherwise, there will be no flow through it.

Reminds me of a consultation I was called on a few years back. Fellow had just replaced the condensing unit on a commercial walk-in refrigerator. The low side kept pulling into a vacuum, no matter how much refrigerant he forced into the system. He gave me a call and I headed over to take a look at it.

He installed the new condensing unit just fine. Only problem was that the new condensing unit had a receiver and the system was operating with a cap tube.

Personally, I would attack it this way. Install the second condenser coil in parallel with the first, but I would leave the second receiver out of the picture altogether. As Don mentioned, install a solenoid in series with the second coil and control it by head pressure. As the head pressure rises, the solenoid opens, adding the second condenser to the mix.

Have fun and let us know how it works out!