Beer Chiller Malfunction

[glennk]

Hi guys, Sorry if this is the wrong board for this type of topic. If you move the topic please could you leave me a redirect so I can find my topic when I return.

I am currently experiencing a problem with a beer chiller I am using to chill my saltwater tank (In it I keep fishing bait such as crabs).

whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/keeping-peeler-crabs.php


The agitator is not working although I sort of thought this wasnt an issue.

My tank system is on 3 levels (3 plasterers baths filled with salt water). Without the chiller in the system, it all works with the water pumping from the bottem tank (platerers bath) into the top tank via a filter. Gravity then returns the water to the bottem tank through overflow piping.. In summer it gets very warm and would benefit from being chilled down on the warmest days.

Now talking about the chiller. I set it up by pouring cold tap water into the internal reservoir. I turned it on and then ran the tank sea water through the internal tubing using gravity to draw the water from the top tank into the bottem tank.

This worked fine for about a week. Howevere I have now noticed the water isnt cooling down. The compressor unit seems to start up ok on the chiller (It shakes when I turn it on) Howevere its not cooling the water. Also the fresh tap water in the internal reservoir does not seem to be cold.

Can anyone offer any suggestions ?

[Magoo]

For a start, very confusing post. A beer chiller used to chill sea water to cool bait is my interpritation.
If agitator in beer chiller is not running means very little heat transfer to sea water, if compressor shakes and does not cool, good chance it is not working. Probably electrical. The ice bank coil in beer chiller, is that copper or stainless steel. I am thinking you may have a corrossion pitting problem, loss of gas and a flooded compressor. Oh joy.
magoo

[Arthi]

How to calculated IPLV of Chillers.. Im doing project in this topic.. can any one help me...

[glennk]

Ok,

Ill try to simpliy things a little. Ill also take some pics later to illustrate my set up.

1 bait tank system for live crabs - Saltwater
1 chiller filled with fresh tap water.

water from bait tank runs in, then through the internal coils and back out into the tank. This water was coming out chilled, now it isnt.

[lowcool]

suggestion-replace compressor relay and all start/run capacitors

[glennk]

Ok,

These are things I am not familiar with. Do I need to get an engineer to look at it.

[Gary]

This worked fine for about a week. Howevere I have now noticed the water isnt cooling down. The compressor unit seems to start up ok on the chiller (It shakes when I turn it on) Howevere its not cooling the water. Also the fresh tap water in the internal reservoir does not seem to be cold.

Can anyone offer any suggestions ?

Try shutting the system down for 24 hours. If it then works okay, add anti-freeze to the tap water. Let us know how it works out, one way or the other.

[glennk]

Try shutting the system down for 24 hours. If it then works okay, add anti-freeze to the tap water. Let us know how it works out, one way or the other.


Hi Garry,

That turned out to be good advice. It had been turned off since yesterday. I turned it back on early this evening. JUST tried it again and its working fine (water in the internal reservoir is very cold and water goinf through the sytem is coming out cool.

Can you explain what had caused it to stop working and how anti freez will help.

Many thanks for your help.

[Gary]

The water froze in the chiller barrel, and the ice blocked the flow. The water couldn't move until the ice plug thawed. If you can find a thermostat, you can raise the shutoff temperature... and/or you can add anti-freeze to prevent freezing. Your choice, depending upon the temperature you need for your purposes.

You should be aware, however that salt water can also freeze, albeit at a lower temperature.

I'm assuming here that the tap water and salt water are separate?

If they are not, then you would not want anti-freeze mixed with your salt water. If this is the case, then you need to raise the shutoff temp and/or add more salt to lower the freezing point.

[lowcool]

gday glenn
i dont mind having the odd angle myself and am only curious as to why you would want to keep live bait so cold,i can only assume that this is your sea water temperature or is it something to do with growth rate,as with our crayfish when caught and tanked you lower the water temp in the tanks making them slower and easier to harvest then pack em in a box and ship em off.

[lowcool]

didnt realise yorkshire faces on to the north sea whats the water temps you have there?

[glennk]

Hi Guys,

Our summer water temps are about 12 degrees, but the crabs will tolerate upto about 22 degrees which is the temperature of the low water mud they live in. However they wont tolerate that water temp for more than 6 hours.

The problem I have is that my set up is in the shed and it gets very warm in there in summer. When I collect the crabs they dont like to be put into warm water, so what I do is I chill it down for about 4 hours and put the crabs in. This cool water livens them up and they settle into the tank. Once they have settled they tolerate fluctuations in temp(Just like they would in their natural environment).

What I can do is just use the chiller for about 6 hours around the time I collect the crabs, then I can turn it off.

[lowcool]

gday glen,if fault recurs check for excessive ice,condenser fan motor operation,condenser airflow through the condenser.it wouldnt hurt to have the agitator going as it reduces cold spots making cut out temperature average with water bath temperature.especially if an ice bank thermostat is used instead of a thermostat sensing water temperature only

[glennk]

I had my friend look at this. I had run out of gas which he has kindly refilled. Not it works fine although the water is now freezing. I will get some anti freez and a timer to turn the chiller on and off throughout the day.

Thanks for all your help.

[lowcool]

glad to hear your problems being resolved glenn.
happy angling