Drain pan icing

Hello people,

I have a problem with a freezer in my bakery, most techs are too lazy to fix its correctly. The issue is my drain pan icing up, the ice blocks the outlet of the drain pan, condensate over flows into the freezer - ice everywhere!

Had problems with this freezer icing in the past, we had other issues i solved with the help of people on this forum.

I have rerun the pvc drain (thought it was a pitch issue), have a clear swing check valve on the line too. It flows to a sink in the basement.

The manufaturer of the box told me years ago to run 6 defrost cycles at 20-25 min, recently my fridge tech made it 4 cycles at 40 min. Could this be an issue???

What is the best remedy? Is there a heater i can add to the pan under the coil?

Incase you are wondering, yes the coil heaters are working.



Thanks in advance!
-Jack

Hi Jackie
I take it this is electric defrost. First I would get rid of the swing check in your drain line and put in a S or P trap with an inspection point.
Put some heater tape either down the drain or wrapped around the drain in the freezer and insulate it.
If the tray builds up ice this will need a a heater installed in the tray, in some cases the tray may have to be insulated as well.
You say you have had problems with the freezer icing up, I assume this is the evaporator which would be caused from excessive moisture from your product a leaking room or from the drain.
The number and length of defrosts will be dependant to the amount of ice forming, if you can reduce this you can reduce the number of defrosts.
regards
Paul

Paul,

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, electric defrost.

I wanted to put a trap on the line but plumbing supply was out for them.

If i put heat trace down the pipe, you think it will solve my problem? I imagine if the line is clear the water should flow down. Oddly the freezer was completely empty, i have pretty new gaskets on it, the access on top is closed and i have extra insulation on top of it - so not sure where moisture is from....

I just remembered i had to put heat trace down the line of another freezer that gave me trouble in the past. But i dont rememeber if it should be wired on all the time, or only during deforst cycle?? How many watts per foot for heat trace?

Heat trace will solve the problem.
it should work with the defrost heaters.

Hi jackie
If you don't have a good air tight seal on the drain moisture will be drawn up the drain and cause some ice build up on the coil.
I would leave the heat trace on all the time. In Australia heat trace comes in 16, 33 and 48 watts / metre, if you have a major ice problem it may be best to go for the highest.
Regards
Paul

Pual is really experienced , mentioned evey thing

on thing i want to add that all controller have dripping time , where unit stay off after defrosting
so you can check that your dripping time should not be Zero , because unit should not running right after completion of defrost cycle.