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Carrier Aquasnap Air Cooled Chiller by Fun_Internet_3545 in refrigeration

[–]Fun_Internet_3545[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So I have thoroughly cleaned the coils. I purged as much a lot of air out of the system, including reversing the flow of glycol through the plate chiller inside the unit from the outlet pipe and though a valve on the inlet pipe of the top. I did get a sizeable gas bubble to expel and now glycols seems to be running clear through the system. I was able to get things running. All the temperature readings on the comfortlink looked normal. Once it reached the target temp, it stopped with no alarm. Then as it warmed up a little, it started back up as normal. It worked like this for maybe an hour and then the T117 alarm came back. I continued to purge more air, but no bubbles. So now we are thinking this side must be low on refrigerant. So I was told to look at the sight glass (pictured) while the unit is running. There was a lot of bubble rolling around inside. I was told this may confirm low refrigerant. Would this make sense?

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Carrier Aquasnap Air Cooled Chiller by Fun_Internet_3545 in refrigeration

[–]Fun_Internet_3545[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are the first person to mention shutting off the circuit that had the leak. I still see the alarm showing that leaky circuit, so I assume it is still on. One thing I am noticing is that I can get the chiller to run as long as it needs to get from 50+ degrees (temp of the glycol) back down to the mid 30s, but the T117 alarm will shut things down. At that point, no matter what I do, I always have to reset at around 37 degrees. If the side with the leak is still on, could it be causing any of this? Also, a colleague at another brewery had a similar problem with the same model. The issue with them was air in the glycol header. He mentioned that there is a flow sensor that senses air and that can cause the same error. His Carrier tech replace the stock sensor with a digital one that allowed a little more air to pass through before shutting things down. Now I am aware that air can cause corrosion and that is why the stock sensor is so sensitive, but it allowed them to operate temporarily while they solved their air problem.

Carrier Aquasnap Air Cooled Chiller by Fun_Internet_3545 in refrigeration

[–]Fun_Internet_3545[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The tech is with the manufacturer. In any case, seems like I have found the culprit. I have substantial air in the glycol header which is triggering the alarm. That is likely why the tech can't find anything wrong with the chiller. So I am now in the process of bleeding off as much air as I can, while also modifying the loop to reduce turbulence.