I’m so appreciative that you continue to keep the older equipment alive. You truly inspire me to continue doing my part as well. Working on cars, tractors, and heavy equipment

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! I have also enjoyed car tinkering off and on over the years; and my real job is for a Caterpillar dealer. Lots of fun, of course!

I like your videos, I never knew there is so much to keeping a fridge working and how they have changed over the years. You explain things very well. I installed a couple mini split heat pumps in my house 5 years ago and continue to be amazed at how quiet they are and my house is more comfortable than when i had another place with central air. I always wondered how they work and your videos shed some light on that.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! Glad you are finding my videos useful.

I don't know much about refrigeration but I enjoy watching most any type of restoration. Thanks

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Do I have to go ahead and say it? This is a really cool project 😎

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

That's an interesting compressor. It's nice to see into something that is normally carefully sealed up.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

It is interesting. When I saw it on eBay it caught my eye.

I love seeing any thing refrigeration and specially a diy experiment like this looking forward to many more

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

As always I am fascinated by your work. Interesting watching what happens through the view port. Thanks as always.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoy my videos!

Cool experiment. Enjoyed seeing it come together. Also "Not a GE" and the Rock auto magnet stickers. Lol

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! Got to have a little sense of humor!

Glad you got this compressor put back in use for testing fantastic project

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thank you! It is a fascinating piece.

Great project, glad you got that cool compressor too!

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! It was a find of opportunity on eBay, as said. No idea how it got there.

I learn a lot from your videos. Helps keep the refrigeration going in my dairy.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for the comment! My uncle was in the dairy business in TX for many years. Always enjoyed helping out when we would visit. They would save nonworking vacuum pump and fan motors etc. for me to repair each year on my visit!

Neat little fun experiment!

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Thanks Davida, keep 'em coming!

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

You're welcome. Glad you are enjoying these.

Very interesting! Thanks David

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thank you.

That's a super neat project. Seems like it was quite power efficient too, ya?

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Yes, especially with a run capacitor motor. However, the overall efficiency is unknown because we don't know the run cycle versus off-cycle duty. It is undersize for the cabinet and I can say for certain it has very high duty cycle compared to the 1/8 HP Monitor Top unit for which the cabinet is designed for.

Another fine job sir👍

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Excellent work!! I enjoy watching your videos .

really cool! I would keep that all together just as a cool demo piece :)

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! I will keep the cooling unit together for sure. The cabinet, I need to test run a Monitor Top unit on that for the time being.

Great video! thanks for share your work!

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Glad you're enjoying the videos!

Really enjoyable project. I would assume that an iced up evaporator will lower the suction pressure and mass flow rate. That I would assume will reduce the oil return from the evaporator 🙏😄

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

That is likely true; however the iced up evaporator also results in long run cycles, due to the thermal mass. Long run cycles help with oil return. So it's a toss-up as to how much effect this actually had, in my opinion. The room ambient temp seems to make the most difference. Anything 70 or above, it returns to the nominal charge level regardless of the frost, if I am observing things correctly.

Does the build up of ice on evaporator affect oil return? Enjoy seeing these videos and seeing vintage refrigerators being restored.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks! The ice buildup doesn't directly affect oil return, but it does make the run cycles and off-cycles much longer. The long cycles are actually very helpful to the compressor. Long cycles help with oil return. The heavy block of ice takes longer to cool down and warm up than a bare evaporator, so it helps with the cycle times. Some early designs had hollow evaporators with a compartment of "freezing solution" which would turn to slush and hold cooling for longer in the off-cycle, to get the same effect.

It's all about velocity.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

For sure. Tubing size needs to be correct. The flooded evaporator is a worst case for low or no velocity!

It seems like frost buildup might also have an effect on oil level. Maybe less or slower evaporation? Maybe a bubble of boiled refrigerant floats up and takes a bit of oil with it to the top to get sucked out? Not sure.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Possibly; but what I didn't mention in the final part of the video (important and bad to omit) is that the ambient was in the 40's and 50's preciously but it is in the 70's now, so the room is a lot warmer.

This might be a bit off topic from what you discussed in the video, but I need a little help with my AC. The condensor cuts off a lot even when the thermostat still demands cooling. If you don't mind, I left you some messages on Facebook, & I will absolutely appreciate your input

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks. I have been unable to keep up with messages but will look for yours sometime soon.

Why can't there be more Channels like yours? Everything recommended to me is ClickBait: mostly "will it run after 400 years in a swamp?" garbage. Your channel is prompting me to look for some HVAC night classes as I cannot fully appreciate your knowledge until I get my feet wet and learn some fundamentals. 'Preciate you.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for the comment! I totally agree that the fake click-bait videos are poisoning KZread for many of us. It is shocking how the general populous are not able to see through many of these, even when the videos are clearly totally fake.

I wonder if you disconnected the fan for a while in the winter if the oil level would come back up.

So the only part that gets cold is where there frost there's no in wall coil? Can u add an auto defrost cycle like in these setup?

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Exactly. The evaporator is the only part which gets cold. Convection circulates the air around inside the cabinet to cool everything else. There have been attempts at self-defrosting versions of these, but they have always performed poorly.

@m.m.radiochannel1969

5 ай бұрын

@@davida1hiwaaynet but modern fridges have coils in the wall to help cool/freeze food. Or is it just any freezer part that circulates the cold by convection and fan.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

@@m.m.radiochannel1969 There're several ways they make them. Manual defrost freezers have a coldwall design with the evaporator in the cabinet walls. Manual defrost mini-fridges work exactly like the one in this video - there is an evaporator and convection cools the cabinet. Systems with auto defrost have a tube-and-fin evaporator coil with a fan to circulate cold air throughout the cabinet. When it is time to defrost the coils, the fan and compressor are stopped. Then a heat source is turned on at the evaporator coils. Because the fan is stopped, the heat is trapped just around the coils, to melt the ice from them. The heat doesn't migrate to the rest of the cabinet to warm up the food significantly. After the coil has warmed up enough, the defrost cycle ends, and the fan starts and cooling starts.

I would like to know how you choose what refrigerants to use when you can't get them anymore. Like Sulfur dioxide ect.. I enjoy your channel alot!! I have a 50 or 51 GE my parents got new that im hoping to restore. It ran until they moved 2 years ago.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the comment! That is a very good question which doesn't have a simple answer; concerning choosing refrigerant substitutes. Much of it is based on knowing the properties of the factory specified refrigerant; and then comparing it to available refrigerants in today's world. The temperature-pressure relationship chart is one such factor. The lubricant solubility and possible damaging effects on compressor construction materials are also important aspects. Systems with an expansion valve will require modifications or adjustments if you change any aspect of the refrigerant. Capillary tube systems likely will work without modification, although the operating limits will be changed. For instance, the maximum ambient temperature in which the unit can operate may be reduced, if the refrigerant placed into the system operates at a higher pressure than the original. The first part is engineering, but that only gets you to an educated guess as to what may work. Testing is required. There are a few of us who make tests of different refrigerants in known system models, so that we can say for certain what is a safe substitute. For instance, it has been known for years that R152A works very well in the GE Monitor Top refrigerators. That can be recommended without question because it is tried and true. Some general guidelines: Very old compressors with screw-terminal studs where the wiring connects are a special case. They have rubber seals which can be attacked by hydrocarbon refrigerants and POE oils. Never attempt to use anything containing propane or butane; and never try to replace the oil with POE in these designs. This is generally anything other than General Electric, before the 50's. Oil solubility. In the early days, a combination of refrigerant and oil which would blend together (miscibility) was considered a drawback. The systems were designed for oil which floats on top of the refrigerant, as opposed to blending into it. These systems also work with miscible combinations and many were charged with mineral oil and Freon-12. It is not required to replace the mineral oil with POE oil when charging these with R152A. This is because the system design does not require oil miscibility for proper operation. Replacing the oil with a different type often causes lots of problems with blockages and contamination relate failures. POE oil has a very aggressive solvent nature and will stir up and dissolve sludge which would remain harmlessly stuck on the bottom of the sump, with the original oil. In the 60's they started miniaturizing compressors and using less oil volume. This is where things are less clear. Any of the older compressors with a large oil capacity, combined with systems having short lines between the compressor and rest of the system will work with or without oil miscibility. Therefore trying to replace the oil is only adding a huge risk with no benefit. They sell direct replacements for R12 under a variety of names. These are unsuitable for flooded evaporator refrigerators because the blends separate in the evaporator. Furthermore, they often contain hydrocarbons. These work well in larger industrial systems, but are not engineered for smaller systems such as those shown in my videos. As of now, the most reliable single-component R12 replacement is R152A. It has been proven in many systems. It is not a universal replacement for R12 in all systems, and requires testing if used in a system not already tested. For the older R114 Frigidaire systems, the same can be said about R1234ZE. It works in these units very well, and could theoretically work in other designs using lower pressure gases but would have to be tried on a case by case basis. Due to the nature of the refrigeration industry and the manner in which politics has become baked into this industry; we will continue to face a recurring series of phase outs, bans, and forced changes. Until things change up top, this will continue under one guise or another. For this reason, we need to continue investigating alternatives.

@Camcodrummer

5 ай бұрын

@@davida1hiwaaynet so recovery and cleaning for some of these ( or all of these ) is smart. I can see phase out without regard for anything made before 2000. Making restoration of old units a real task. Thanks for the reply.

@davida1hiwaaynet

5 ай бұрын

@@Camcodrummer Yes, the current attitude of companies is to be sure nothing can be used indefinitely. It is of course a money game. As far as refrigerant, these domestic systems from the late 40s' and newer have very small charges in them. It's hard to recover them without collecting a lot of air. I use the recovery machines primarily for systems with R12 or R22 ; or large systems I have charged with modern gases; and found not to work correctly. Some of the very early ones need 50 ounces or more of refrigerant.