Ideal 150 not cooling properly

[eyegasmdesigns]

I have an ideal 150 I have just finished restoring. Before restoration the unit was cooling to about 40 degrees inside and might have been a little low or overcharged with Freon. It did frost up the sides and all like its supposed to do then just not cold enough. Now that we have it all back together we pulled a vacuum and charged the unit it doesn't frost up on the sides now and we can't get it any lower than 50 degrees. everything electrical has been replaced during this restoration and the thermostat appears to be working fine. Is this an issue of over charge or what? I have read the other post and have gone by what people said the gauges should read when we charged it

[krovel]

ok, this is just a newbies suggestion but when i did my westinghouse it was kinda the same thing. I had to move my temp probe around a bit to find a the sweet spot. i put it in the spot that was made for it "go figure" and it never would get below 45 but things were freezing up. I moved the probe around and it finally started working like a charm.

again just my .02

[MoonDawg]

 It did frost up the sides and all like its supposed to do then just not cold enough.


Now that we have it all back together we pulled a vacuum and charged the unit it doesn't frost up on the sides now and we can't get it any lower than 50 degrees.

        We are not familliar with the 150 here in the U.S. but it must be designed like the 55 where the cooling coils are inside the liner.
The 85 and 300 have a removable compressor/evaporator unit.

        I'm not an expert but from my experiences, both instances you have described sound like a blockage in the system.
The first was a symptom of moisture in the freon, when it freezes it blocks the capillary tube and halts freon flow until it the ice melts.
The second sounds more like a solid material blocking that tube or...... a slow leak since the time you filled it.

        If you removed the compressor for restoration and used the factory fittings to separate the lines, look there for a leak.
They are not trustworthy once they have been open. Eliminate them and solder the lines if necessary.

        So my advice is to start over, make sure to add a new drier and test the lines to make sure there is flow, before re-charging.

http://soda-machines.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=385&Itemid=14

       

[johnieG]

Always change the filter/dryer on any system that has been open for more than a few minutes to atmosphere if you didn't cap the lines, especially if it's the original unit. pulling a quick vacuum & slapping a charge in isn't going to help.

[eyegasmdesigns]

Thank you everyone for the input. This site has been amazing. I was reading on a previous post that the pressure should be 30-40 psi and that is what we did when filling it. I looked and studied some of the other post here and found 15-25 psi so I called on an old a/c buddie who had actually worked on some of sliders before and he came by and reclaimed our mistaken overcharge and set it to 25 and it's working perfect it stays about 36 degrees in the cabinet now. Again thank you for all the help and if anybody has any questions on refurbishing a 150 I would be more than happy to answer  what we did and how. This is a great unit and easy to do compared to the 55 with the tar everywhere. I will get some pics up soon

[johnieG]

Thank you everyone for the input. This site has been amazing. I was reading on a previous post that the pressure should be 30-40 psi and that is what we did when filling it. I looked and studied some of the other post here and found 15-25 psi so I called on an old a/c buddie who had actually worked on some of sliders before and he came by and reclaimed our mistaken overcharge and set it to 25 and it's working perfect it stays about 36 degrees in the cabinet now. Again thank you for all the help and if anybody has any questions on refurbishing a 150 I would be more than happy to answer  what we did and how. This is a great unit and easy to do compared to the 55 with the tar everywhere. I will get some pics up soon

So all's well that ends well, but it always begs the question, if it was indeed overcharged, then where the heck did the overcharge come from?  ( IE:if it's not cooling just don't assume it's low on freon, you gotta' get the gauge set on the system)

Plus you have to approach sliders a tad differently than a standard evaporator core, they are super easy to overcharge & flood the lines and they'll ice up all the way back to the compressor ( do to the evaporator lines detaching from the tank wall)

[eyegasmdesigns]

Johnie G we had gauges on the machine and I had read a post that stated the gauges should read 30-40 psi and that is what we did so that is where the over charge came from. The Evap lines on a 150 are attached to the side of the tank wall with welded straps not with the tar as the 55's are it made it nice when restoring it