Glasco slider help!

[collecture]

Ok - I bought this Glasco slider a year or so ago and decided I needed to see whether it worked. I kind of cleaned it up, put a working condenser fan in and did a rough rewire.
Question 1: The evaporated fan runs, but after a while will start to make a grinding sound. Opening and closing the lid will 'reset' it so to speak, but the grinding sound soon returns. What fan do you replace it with? Box fan from Radio Shack? Does the one Fun-Tronics sells plug right in or does it need modification?
Question 2: I let it run for about 75 minutes and it got down to 38-40 degrees, but the T-stat never shut it off. I can turn the T-stat off and everything will shut down, but it won't do it automatically. I shut it down when the evap. fan started making too much noise. The cooling lines had frosted over down to the compressor (see pic). Is this normal?
Question 3: In the second pic, do the red arrows point to valves for evacuating and recharging the system. After evacuating, can you safely disconnect the lines at the blue arrows. I will not be doing any of the refrigeration work - just wanted to know if that is what they were.
Question 4: How can the T-stat be replaced? I gently tugged on the sensor end and it didn't move. I did not want to break it.

Thanks for any input!

[SIGNGUY]

Tom,
Not sure why opening the lid will take care of the evaporator fan noise.. .it might be the Fan that is INSIDE the Cooling compartment Box that is making the noise? cause that is the one that will shut off when the lid is open? that could be grinding on something ?

[johnieG]

The sensor end of the T-stat' is just pushed up inside a small tube & sealed with some putty, (which by now is more like set plaster) it ( the sensing end of the T-stats' capillary line) should just pull (down) free.

if the Thermostat's ability to adjust it's set-point is gone, then the working fluid inside the T-stats' capillary line is probably leaked out anyway, so you really cant hurt it by being firm with it.  frosting back to the compressor may indicate an over-charged system with liquid refrigerant migrating back up the suction line that leads to the compressor ( this is the larger diameter copper line that attaches to the service valve shown in the picture) or in your case, a stuck thermostat controller that wont shut off the system when it reaches its desired temperature. I think it will clear up once you replace the T-stat'

[collecture]

Not sure why opening the lid will take care of the evaporator fan noise.. .it might be the Fan that is INSIDE the Cooling compartment Box that is making the noise? cause that is the one that will shut off when the lid is open? that could be grinding on something ?

John - yes it is the fan making the grinding noise, but turning the fan on/off by opening the lid seemed to make it temporarily stop. I was just trying to give it enough time to see if the T-stat would work and how cold it would get, but aborted after the fan started acting up more frequently. I didn't want to burn out the fan motor. I had it disconnected and out of the box and the blade moved freely - the squealing, grinding noise I think is coming from the motor itself.

Thanks johnnie! I guess I should order a contact type T-stat?? Any need to put puddy up in the tube again?

[collecture]

I just hung up with Janet at Fun-Tronics. She said Steve's notes to her said to use a non-contact type T-stat and run it up through the drain tube into the compartment.
Has anybody run it this way? I was hoping to have some sort of container down there for the condensation, but this type stat would prevent that.
Input?

[johnieG]

While the Glasco 50 has an air recirculation fan inside (as opposed to an Ideal 55 style which is a plain ol' convection cooling scheme)and you could run a non-contact type themostat's capillary up through the drain hole, it would sooner or later make contact with the liner at some point, so I suppose you'd have to slip a short piece if vinyl tubing over the capillary tube to insulate it from contact in the drain tubes opening/side-wall

Hmmm...I'd probably just use the correct contact-type in the original tube & seal the end with some plumbers putty on it. also you wouldn't risk any damage to the cap' tube of the sensing end by exposing it to snagging in the pre-load area from bottles, etc,

the circulating fan is just a standard  open-frame 120 volt AC motor, it's very common (typically used in bathroom exhaust fans) & fairly cheap to buy. they tend to howl when the bushings go bye-bye.  as you mentioned before, you can replace it with larger computer style muffin fan, or go on the cheap & gut a bathroom exhaust fan.