WTF Man... :( I shoulda stayed in today

[Stewie007]

Well, I don't know what's going on, but I decided to run some tests today to make sure that everything was kosher....

Turns out, its not.

I am not at all sure what the problem is, but perhaps you can help.

Inexplicably, discharge pressures kept climbing, and temperature reached about 160F. Superheat reached a ridiculous 35 degrees.

I probably messed things up more when I got frustrated and adjusted the TXV down. Bad idea. Well, I figured out where the midpoint was later when it was off, so I thought I reset it.

Turned it on and pressure just climbed....and climbed.... and climbed.....

What I don't understand, is that last week superheat and subcooling were perfect. I pulled down to a frosty -3 to -4 in the reservoir. Now today, I don't get but 12F, but with dangerously high condensing pressure and discharge temperature. Its not supposed to get that hot. For the record, we're talking about near 400PSI at one point.

I have a feeling that I need to change my oil separator drain valve relay. Is it possible that the thing is full of oil and my compressor is low on oil because of it? Or shall I just use some dynamite?

[tiborrr]

Could be the chiller is sucking in air on the suction side (leak in the evaporator).

[Stewie007]

Nope, no leaks. The suction pressure is too high to allow for that anyways. A leak in the evap would have trashed the unit by now, too.

Some folks thought the orifice was too small. I'm going to check, though, to see if the TXV has a bad Power Head. For the time being, though, I've taken a short break from work.

There is blockage somewhere in the system. Too much refrigerant is being held in the condenser. The discharge pressure climbs because it cannot get into the condenser fast enough. I am thinking that either the TXV, or solenoid valve is blocked or has a faulty part in it. The Filter/Drier could be plugged as well. First, I'm going to check the TXV since I can work on it without dropping charge. If that checks out, the solenoid valve may be the culprit. But I'll need to recover the refrigerant to take that apart. First, I'm going to test for a temperature delta over the solenoid valve to see if it is metering refrigerant. Then I'm going to remove the bulb from the suction line and test to see if it has lost its charge. If not, I'll have to take the TXV apart to inspect it. If that appears to be fine, then either the filter is plugged, or the solenoid is bad. Either way, if I gotta evacuate the charge and replace any parts in that solenoid, then the F/D is going to change as well anyways.

At any rate, I'm burned out from that project. :p Taking some time off. hehe

[flesheatinvirus]

Dump the charge and run some Nitro through it then a deep vac with recharge.

[Stewie007]

I've recovered and I'm evacuating right now. The power head responded to ice, and it responded to my hand. It is possible that the charge selection still needs to be changed. That might explain the hunting. I am going to hold off on recharging. I've already checked for leaks, and it holds vac.

I'm going to re-design a thing or two, so when I have free time I'll make the changes.