Ideal 55 Refrigeration Unit

[sjo426]

Hello, I recently purchased my first ever soda machine, a Pepsi Ideal 55 machine, and have jumped into the restoration process. I've worked on cars/jeeps for years so I have plenty of tools and metal working knowledge but very limited when it comes to the refrigeration unit.

The unit kicks on and one side (the front) of the liner gets cold, but not the other........so not sure about that. I want to disassemble the the entire machine so I figure I need to have the R12 (is that what it has in it?) removed, however I thought a local appliance repair shop could do this, but so far no luck.

So I was hoping you guys could identify my unit (original? replaced?) and give me some tips on what direction to go.

This site is great and I thank you in advance for help now and in the future!!

[MrMark]

That looks like an old Tecumseh 1/4 HP pancake compressor. But it could also be a 1/3 HP. There should be a plate on the compressor identifying it as well. If it's the Tecumseh 1/4 HP, the tag will say AP4111. If 1/3 HP, AP3111.

And you are right, an appliance shop can or should be able to pump the R-12 out of it for you, assuming it needs to be pumped out. I would not recommend doing it if the refrigeration is working as it sounds like it may be. R-12 is on the endangered species list, and darned expensive.

As for confirming what refrigerant, typically there is a data plate on the deck in there area that is not shown in your pictures. On the left hand side of the condenser, mounted on the base plate as you look at the deck in the bottom picture, about where the 2 lines turn downward. Sometimes they get corroded /rusty so you can read them. I use some 2000 or higher grit wet/dry sandpaper to try and polish them up with damaging the data plate too much.

[sjo426]

Yeah, the plate has pretty much corroded away......I can see the last 3 letters of the maker are "seh" so sounds like you are spot on with Tecumseh. As far as the 4111 vs 3111 I can't find either number, but like I said, a lot of the plate is gone.

I've already had the R12 removed and the machine is pretty much completely disassembled, and I had planned on using Freeze 12 which I have read on this site is a good substitue for R12. And on the cooling of the unit, what would cause just one section of the coils to get cold?

Thanks!!

[MrMark]

Sjo426,

I'm inclined to think it's a AP4111 1/4 hp due to the two row condensor. Was the plate you found on the compressor, or on the deck baseplate? What about a unit data plate as required by U/L? It will also have test pressures, R charge and amount, and unit volts/amps. We can get an idea of compressor from unit FLA amps. I've got a lot of the old Tecumseh compressor data, specifically including the AP4411 and AP3311.

As for one side getting cold, and the other not, I would need to know the setup (I have not worked on one of these). Is there a separate cooling coil for each side? If so, are they each fed with their own cap tube, or are the coils in series?
Does each coil have it's own fan, or is it one fan for each coil (I doubt)?

My first thoughts are by the looks of the hot gas line out of the compressor are that you were low on charge. It looks to be rusty steel. After 30-40 years, that rust penetrates the tube wall and you get miniscule leaks. Usual evidence is a wet appearance of the line, caused by oil that is pushed out by the high pressure hot gas discharge of the compressor.
I recently replaced one with a steel air brake line from Autozone. It doesn't have to be steel and can be copper, but whatever you use, it MUST be brazed, and NOT silfoss'd (silfos has prosperous in it that degrades the steel.). Note the tube stub on the compressor and condenser are steel, not copper, or copper plated steel.

[sjo426]

The plate was from the decking, the only other plate I can find is on the compressor but doesn't have much data, just this number......E109102 (from what I can barely make out anyway). I think from the decking plate there is a spot that says "Volts 60", if that helps.

And I'm still new on some of this refrigeration lingo so I'll try and explain what I see for my set up. It seems very simple visually.......first the large tube that has the service ports goes up into the machine and the first thing I see it goes to is the drier (terminology? Looks like a cigar) and then the tube coils down the side, makes a "V" under the unit, then coils up the other side. At the end of that coil the tube gets very small and then goes into the condenser. That's it, so I don't think there is a separate cooling coil. And as far as fans, the only one I see is the one sucking air thru the condenser.

Thanks for your help, and patience!

[johnieG]

FYI, the Ideal-55 cooling system uses a single capillary feed up to the evaporator coils that are attached to the inside of the box liner (or rather they are supposed to be, as they often detach themselves due to the failure of the pitch or soft solder that secured them to the tank in the first place), this will cause the spotty cooling you may encounter with this & Glasco-50 sliders. So, if they aren't contacting the liner, it isn't going to get very cold in there.

[MrMark]

I'll 'splain the refrigeration circuit to you so you can better know the parts.

First of all and FWIW, you traced the refrigerant lines backwards, in terms of refrigerant flow. Refrigerant leaves the compressor out of the smaller of the two lines on it's way to the top of the condensing coil mounted with the compressor. The hot gas moves downward in the condensing coil where air is drawn past the fins and cools the hot gas, where it condenses to a liquid. It then travels into the cap tube as seen in the picture where there is a fitting which will allow the deck to be disconnected.
Liquid refrigerant then travels thought the cap tube up into the box. Preferably, the cap tube is soldered to the larger suction line to cause a heat exchange between the cool return gas and the warmer liquid line. This improves the liquid refrigerant quality as well as compressor COP (coefficient of performance). As the refrigerant leaves the cap tube and heads into the lower pressure evaporator, it begins to boil due to the heat in the surrounding components (as in the evaporator plates), and does this at a very low temperature. The result is a cold evaporator surface. Heat moves from a warm to a cold place, so with the cold evaporator surfaces, the heat is extracted from the contents of the box.
Once the refrigerant has boiled, it exits the evaporator into an accumulator (what you called a cigar shaped drier). The accumulator insures all liquid refrigerant has boiled off before heading back to the compressor, while at the same time causes any oil to be entrained into the return gas to replenish what has left the compressor.
 The refrigerant then returns to the compressor via the service valve as seen in the picture. And again, you can see a disconnect point of the suction line at that service valve which allows easy removal of the deck (more often, these units are soldered at this point, and the point where the capillary tube connects to the condenser.).
As JohnnieG indicated, the cap tube can be seen attached to the suction line in one of the pictures. It can be soldered or mechanically fastened in any way that insures a heat exchange contact. Personally, I have a heavy soldering iron that I have used to resolder the line when replacing a cap tube. But tie-wraps will work just as good.
And, while JohnnieG has more hands on with these boxes than I do, I don't think the cap tube/suction line heat exchange is your problem. You are low on charge, and if I would have spent a few minutes looking for pictures of a 55 slider, I would have have answered my own questions from above.

The info you were able to read off the plate (Volts xxx 60 yy, where xxx is probably 115 or 120, and yy is probably Hz or CY or Cycles) is standard info that applies to virtually all machines. The E number is probably the U/L file number for the compressor (it looks like one), and doesn't shed any light on the compressor model. If the plate above has surface corrosion making it hard to read, I've been successful using some 2000 wet/dry sandpaper to clean them up enough to read. Just go at it easy. Stamp indented plates as found on compressors, and the data plates as well, can be cleaned and rubbed with chalk to make them more legible.