New member here, help me identify this machine

[zadd]

You could take the drain tube and run it to a different drip pan( bowl, cake pan etc.) to see if the collect condensation. It looks like this thing is close to a small refrig unit and the condensation collects in the bottom pan and then is evaporated. Vintage machines have a small removable pan. Just my 2 cents '>

Okay, guys...I figured out the problem.

Opening the locked front door of the machine reveals a little grate at the bottom (right above the can-catcher) where I can see the cooling unit, with a pan underneath.  Unfortunately, removing the 2 screws that are installed doesn't allow access to the unit.  Here's a pic:



Since I can't get to it from the front, I figured you *have* to be able to get to it from the back.  Looking at the plate I removed the previous day, I saw that it covered a section of insulation that looked like it was installed and sealed in with just silicone caulk.  I took my utility knife, cut through the silicone seal and was able to pry out this piece of installation.  This pic is below:



The inside of the machine was a mess.  What looks like rust, and all sorts of other debris (even a piece of "popcorn" styrofoam) were inside.  Here's 2 other pics:





See that black refrigerant tube?  It was *soaking* wet.  That's problem number 1.  That's obviously not insulated well enough, and I'll have to re-wrap it.  But, there's no way that could be the source of *all* the water, I thought.

So, I started looking at the drip pan.  This drip pan is apparently the "primary" drip pan, with the one I linked in pictures above as the backup/secondary one.  So I figured I'd make sure that the tubing running from the primary to the secondary was not blocked.  I filled up the primary pan with water, and it flowed right into the second one.  No problem there.

Then I figured I'd wait awhile and see if the primary pan had a leak.  Sure enough, I started noticing water pooling around the inside of the cooling unit *outside* of the drip pan.  Not good.

Looking at the drip pan (trying to remove it didn't work) I couldn't immediately see any holes (there was so much rust in it that it was hard to tell), until I started lifiting it up and down...then I spotted it.

Remember this pic?



See where the pieces of the grating have been removed?  That's corresponds exactly to where the hole in the pan is.

The mystery is whether the grating was removed to get to the hole, or the grating was removed to *create* the hole.  Perhaps the primary pan was overfilling and the previous owner put a hole in it to drain the excess.  Sounds dumb, but he may have had it in a location where he didn't care about a little extra water (like a garage).

These pans aren't *supposed* to rust, right?  Even though there's a lot of rust in the pan, I just figured that was mineral deposits from the water and not the pan itself.

Whatever the case, I need to fix the hole.  Since the pan is not easily removed, what if I cleaned out all the rust and debris from the area really well and then siliconed the heck out of the hole in the pan?

Not a permanent solution, I know, but once the machine "settles down" it shouldn't produce *that* much condensation anyway, right?  I'm thinking the silicone might do the trick.

Otherwise, where can I find a replacement pan for this?  Is this something I could modify from another machine?

Would really appreciate some advice on this from the experts here.  Thanks!

[loman4ec]

I think I would use fiberglass. You need to clean it as best as possible and then you could glass the whole bottom of the pan preventing any future holes.

Thanks for the tip, loman.  I'm assuming I can get thin sheets of fiberglass at Lowes/Hd?

I'd need to remove the pan, right?  Otherwise, I'm not sure I could adequately caulk all 4 sides where it sits now.

[loman4ec]

Yes you can get the fiber glass from lowes or home depot. I don't see why it would need to come out. Just cut the sheet to size and poor the resin on it and spred it around. It couldn't be easier but first lets see what the other members think about this idea.

So just put the silicone on it beforehand and then slide it into the pan?  That does sound easy actually.

[bubba]

The fiberglass that Loman is talking about is a fiberglass cloth that you mix epoxy and coat the fiberglass cloth. It will harden to an ultra hard substance that will not rot and be very hard to break.

Okay, so mix the stuff up and then slide it into the pan and let it harden?

Will the guys at Lowes/HD know what I'm talking about, or is this better suited for some place with better customer support (like Ace Hardware for instance.)

[zadd]

I would pull the pan an have a new one fabricated . The fiberglass trick is just a bandaid . If your going to keep this thing do it right and have a new pan made.If not you might as well clean it up and smear the silicon over the hole just as easy if not easier than the fiber glass mat and resin. You can go to a metal shop and have one made up for probably around 20$. '>

Thanks for the advice, Zadd.  I actually know a metal worker that can probably make me a new pan for even less than $20.

I'll go that route as a permanent fix.

For now, though I wanted to test that the hole in the pan was the cause of my troubles, so I cleaned out the area really well, globbed it with silicone, and then pressed down a piece of square plastic on top so I could ensure it was sealed (the silicone was sticking to my fingers otherwise).

Let that dry really well and then turned on the machine.  2 days later, the water is confined to the pan.  That's good.

The only other thing that I find odd is I can't quite decide on a thermostat setting.  Previously it was running too cold (running all the time probably contributed to all the condensate), so I lowered the thermostat some.

Using a remote thermometer, I've noticed a lot of fluctuation in the internal temp.  I didn't want my drinks below freezing, so I turned the thermostat until it stopped running when the internal temp got down to 31.8 degrees.  But then, the cooler didn't turn back on again until the temp rose to 41 degrees.  It's maintained this cycle (cool down to about 32, then warm back up to 42 before starting over) ever since.  Is a 10 degree fluctuation normal?