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leak

Kal Row
Kal Row Member Posts: 1,520
in A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration
most evaporators are made with, evaporator width U-tubes going through a plate at one end and little U's, brazed, glued, friction-stir welded, or ultrasonic welded, at the other end,

well, the steel plate, ate through the copper at the U-tube end - i could hear it - but the leak detector was all over the place, as was leak die, the condensate tray was full of oil, and soap did not give me bubbles until i ripped away a bunch of fin with a long nose vise grip to expose the inside of the middle section, that a bubble formed on the inside where the u-tube goes through the plate,

the cause was probably vibration from a bad pulley/bearing – waiting on the pully

I will drill holes in the plate around the tube – push the pieces inward and braze the hole once I expose it –

the is a 10 ton packaged commercial york unit and I must say that this is a poor design using a plate with drilled holes instead of a plate with punched flared holes that would probably not have cut through the copper – many companies are not only using flared oversized holes, but also a non hardening putty/glue

Comments

  • don_120
    don_120 Member Posts: 15
    No surpise

    Make them cheap to compete..Good find Kal,although I wonder
    if it not going to be the domino effect after you make the repair.

  • Jeff Lawrence_24
    Jeff Lawrence_24 Member Posts: 593
    About 10 years ago

    Before there were 5 year warranties, I was doing contract work at a bilding. The accounting office unit wasn't cooling any more, so they asked me to look at it.

    It was a gas fired package unit with AC. The vibrations over the 55 weeks since it had been installed had rubbed a screw head into the bottom of the condenser coil. The manufacturer wouldn't warranty the coil and the owners wanted a new coil. I patched the coil, and recharged it so they could get through. 4.5 weeks later, the coil was delivered and installed. I id make sure that all the possible 'rubs' were eliminated when I installed the new coil.

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  • Kal Row
    Kal Row Member Posts: 1,520
    took steps to alleviate vibrations…

    but with the unit being 17yrs old – it’s only a matter of time – the whole unit would have to be changed as they built a room around it and it’s almost imposable to service, but for now it's running textbook temps and pressures
  • Kal Row
    Kal Row Member Posts: 1,520
    i never let any part tuch each other...

    i even spread ou the capillary coils from the expansion valve, or the hi or low cut offs, cause i had a leak once where touching capillary coil segments wore through

    so nothing should touch anything else without being tied down or grometed

    even had it happen to free floating wires that wore through and shorted because of an unbalanced blower due to incomplete cleaning – those are just the worst – will shake a machine apart – so wires too have to be wraped/tied/grometed
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