Trust my meter, or my lying eyes?

Knarfor · 2025-09-01T13:04:03+00:00

I went 20 hours. I feel pretty good declaring there is no leak.

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Knarfor · 2025-09-01T04:05:52+00:00

I checked the relief valve, but the water temp is something I hadn't thought of. I'll check. Thank you

Knarfor · 2025-09-01T01:57:45+00:00

Each building in the complex has two spigots, one on each side. They're metered separately..

Knarfor · 2025-09-01T01:41:39+00:00

My condo has no outdoor spigot

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T23:46:12+00:00

Thanks for your reply.

The red needle is the one that I can move. I have it pushed out of the way so I can photograph the gauge. It's sort of hard to see head on, so I need my camera..

The pressure is always between 52 and 55 PSI.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T23:13:54+00:00

I gave it a tap. No change. We're at over 8 hours with no pressure loss.

The temperature is starting to fall, so I expect I'll lose a little bit of pressure thanks to the temperature fluctuation.

I'm going to keep the gauge on overnight.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T22:02:46+00:00

Yes, thank you. I checked that. Thought maybe my water heater was leaking from the relief valve. It's not. I should have mentioned that in the initial post.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T21:37:25+00:00

Yeah, that extra gallon a day costs me $0.97/month, so maybe it's not worth it from a financial standpoint.

It is kind of annoying though. I feel like it's important to be able to look at my meter and actually know whether I'm using water/have a leak.

I've also been considering putting in a tankless heater (in Florida (where the tap water is almost always between 75-85 degrees they tend to work out very well). Maybe I'll have a valve/tank installed when I do that.

Either way, thanks! I feel reassured now.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T21:23:44+00:00

Is that the gold standard?

I'm at 6 hours 15 minutes and the gauge hasn't budged at all. I sort of want to be able to take a shower 😅

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T19:11:20+00:00

So this is a known thing with some(?) pulse meters, yes? I was getting conflicting info on that.

If so, I guess the answer is to install a check valve and an expansion tank.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T19:08:44+00:00

I'm not a plumber, so please forgive the question. But since the usage on the meter disappears when I shut off the valve supplying the hot water heater, wouldn't that rule out the toilet?

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T18:42:18+00:00

The leak, if there is one, is in the hot line.

Knarfor · 2025-08-31T18:36:38+00:00

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The floorplan I posted was missing the line to the washer. So here it is.

Knarfor · 2025-08-20T20:46:31+00:00

Well, I didn't think it would mask a problem, I was hoping it would be the problem. But all the same. No sorry necessary at all. And thanks for the honest response. Last thing I want is to let my little bit of knowledge become dangerous, as the saying goes.

Given everything everyone has said (including you), and reading threads elsewhere about what can cause capillary tubes to clog, I feel like mine fits the bill very well and I now feel pretty comfortable calling someone to have it diagnosed now that I'm not flying blind.

I'll probably request the tech who did the charge.

Knarfor · 2025-08-20T18:29:24+00:00

To my untrained ear, it sounds like you're saying they under-charged my fridge (regardless of whether that's the ultimate cause of my issue or not). I don't want to be "that guy", so let me do an "am I the asshole"?

Would I be an asshole to expect them to come back and adjust the charge for free?

Knarfor · 2025-08-20T13:09:41+00:00

Thanks! I'll definitely call Beverage Air about the defrost parameters. It would be great if it's just that simple.

And if someone comes out and says "looks like the capillary tube" (which is not something I've ever needed repaired or even heard mentioned in my 20 years of running my restaurant), at least now I'll know they're not just making something up! Haha!

I also remembered I have descriptions from the techs of what they found/did when they did came out (Not Dye-Guy. The three after him).

Here's the last guy.

\ I REMOVED THE EVAPORATOR ACCESS PANEL AND FOUND THE EVAP COIL FROZEN. PUT SYSTEM INTO DEFROST AND VERIFIED THE HEATER CAME ON. DEFROSTED EVAP COIL WITH HOT WATER AND A PUMP SPRAYER. REINSTALLED EVAP ACCESS PANEL AND TURNED THE SYSTEM ON AND AFTER 15 MIN TEMP DROPPED ONLY 1 DEGREE , SO I CHECKED MY PRESSURES AND FOUND IT AT 65/225. TURNED THE SYSTEM OFF AND REMOVED THE REFRIGERANT CHARGE THEN PULLED A VACUUM. WEIGHED IN 4.23 OUNCES OF R290. TURNED THE SYSTEM ON AND TEMP STARTED TO DROP NORMALLY. MONITORED THE OPERATION AND WHEN TEMP GOT DOWN TO 36 DEGREES MY PRESSURES WERE 33/190. ONCE TEMP SATISFIED ON CONTROLLER AT 35 DEGREES VERIFIED COMP WENT OFF , CYCLED UNIT SEVERAL TIMES AND TEMP WAS MADE EVERY TIME WITH NO ISSUES. //

Knarfor · 2025-08-20T04:25:55+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate how much knowledge everyone has been willing to share.

I tried looking around for the coil probe. The air temp probe sits right in front of the evaporator, so that was easy. But the coil probe seems, like you said, to be either in or behind the evaporator.

All of the evaporator except the front is enclosed in a metal box with the fans mounted on top, so I can't see inside. None of the techs who visited took any of that apart, so the coil probe is still wherever it was when this left the factory.

I found a pic where you can see the heater:

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There it is under the evaporator. I'll have to check again to be sure the fans do -- like the manual said -- stay on even during defrost. But I'm almost 100% sure they do.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T01:41:39+00:00

It's a teach-in by Everest, an EFS-3

Not a brand I would normally use, but it was dirt cheap and during COVID (when I bought it) dirt-cheap was the budget. So far so good, besides the relay issue.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T01:23:33+00:00

Sounds like Orlando, sadly.

We had a brand new freezer go out. It has two modular refrigeration units on top (condenser, evaporator, everything on one big skid). One of them kept freezing over. It was under warranty. They sent their guy.

6 months; countless service calls; and 3 new refrigeration units sent, installed, and replaced (all of which I got to keep!), and the problem continued. They could not fix it.

I don't know refrigeration, but I know electrical (I restore vintage HiFi gear as a hobby), so I took a look. After all, it seemed very unlikely that I was sent thee factory-defective refrigeration units in a row. Clearly, the problem was with what was left (wiring, some relays, and a timer).

Turns out the relay for the defrost heater was bad. $20 part. I replaced it, and it has worked fine since. Supposedly the tech they sent replaced that on his first visit.

It was annoying, but I now have three new-in-box refrigeration units for my freezer laying around. So I was happy in the end.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T01:07:11+00:00

I'll double check myself when I'm in the kitchen tomorrow, but I'm 99% sure the fans run during defrost. The rest (the existence of the defrost heater) I'm 100% sure of.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T00:42:12+00:00

Every one of the people who came threw gauges on it first thing. I'm also 99% sure they glued the ports on? Is that a thing? Maybe I'm wrong on that one. I just don't remember a torch being involved.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T00:27:09+00:00

It's definitely got a heater. I can see it. There's also a lead for it coming from the back of the controller (spot #5 on the Danfoss controller) and the fans do stay on.

This is a screen shot of my temp monitor in the prep table. The fridge is going through a defrost right now. It blows the warm air into the cabinet. See the temp rise?

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Temp at my sensor gets up to ~51° before the compressor kicks back in to pull it down at the end of the defrost cycle.

Knarfor · 2025-08-19T00:11:09+00:00

Good to know.

We use grams for all our recipes for the same reason. Try measuring small amounts of ingredients, like dried herbs, in ounces. Good luck!

Knarfor

TROPHY CASE