Heat! Vertical 6 Case/ Vendo 110

[fabes]

I have been running my vertical 6 case for the first time inside all day today and it's warming up my office quite a bit. Is it normal for these machines to give off a good amount of heat? Also, how often should the condenser fan kick on and off?

Thanks!

[collecture]

On most of my machines, the compressor and condenser fan kick on 2-3 times per hour - on for 10-15 minutes, off 20, on 10-15....
On my restored WB-60 with new insulation, it kicks on every hour or so for 30 minutes, off for an hour, on for 30.....
A fully stocked machine is best. The cold product acts as a great insulator.

And it looks great....glad I could help!

[fabes]

Thanks Tom. So the heat its giving off is normal too?

[johnieG]

When you refrigerate the inside of the machine that heat has to be moved outside the "box", so you are exchanging the heat from the inside to the outside air via the compressor assemblies condensing unit, on average about 3500 Btu's an hour... including the "waste" heat of the compressor motor itself. I'm assuming that your condensers cooling fan is working by blowing air through the coils.

[fabes]

Thanks johnieg,
Yes, the condenser cooling fan is blowing air through the coils just fine. My office is currently being used for my 2 year old's bedroom as well, so I want to make sure that the machine is 100% safe in the house.....

[johnieG]

I'd put it on an appliance/air conditioner rated timer & keep it off when you're not using it, & turn it on 1-2 hours before you want to serve sodas out of it. I also assume that you've rewired it as well, I don't ever trust 40-plus year old wiring on any old device be it a soda machine, my antique radios, or pinballs, etc. and neither should you. I rewire all of my customers machines & my own too. safety first.

As a side note, If you measure the electrical current "draw" of the compressor, it will give you a good idea on the "health" of the motor, the current rating on the I.D. tag will tell you the manufactures original amps for the rated compressor in the machine, (IE: lets say 4.5 amps@120 volts) so if you were to measure the machines current draw with an plug-in / inline amp meter ( available at home depot or lowes down in the electrical isle) & it's pulling closer to 8 amps...you've got a problem, the more a motor ages, the more friction it encounters as it runs, electrical motors will try to keep up their rated speed by pulling more amps. this creates more heat, which will tax the motor even more, so it becomes a downward spiral, it could take years, it could take weeks..but it will fail ( if it's the original compressor and it's 40 years old, it's on borrowed time already)

so...in the example above, normally  the motor would use a nominal wattage based on watts law, volts x amps = watts ( yes I know you have to figure in the power factor, etc. too , but lets keep it simple for now you other techies out there) so, 4.5amps x 120volts = 540 watts of power, but at 8 amps that's 960 watts

something to keep in mind....

[fabes]

JohnieG,
I did rewire it and replaced the compressor fan motor.

As far as turning it off and on, that may not be an option because I am planning on also putting beers in there. If I turn it on and off, it'll spoil the beers. I'm also a craft beer collector, and I'm pretty passionate about keeping the product in the best shape possible.

I'll buy an inline amp reader and see where I'm at and then post what I get from it.

Is this what I need to buy.....

[johnieG]

Yep! that's the model I was talking about...