R11 Centrifugal Chiller Oil Problem

[guapo]

Hi,
Check your compressor, low head pressure high suction... you will get low oil pressure.

[iceman007]

Hi,
Check your compressor, low head pressure high suction... you will get low oil pressure.

I thought it was the compressor as the suction pressure seemed high. Although in a vacuum, it was still high. The condenser pressure was on the low side, compared to the other two machines. It had been running at -45kPa suction. The other two machines oil pressure was at 150-200kPa. I think this machine had oil pressure of around 50-80kPa at most, and condenser pressure of 20kPa ?? (I'm struggling to get away from psi). Anyway, my thought was towards a worn bearing, as although the oil temp was OK initially, it could not maintain sufficent oil pressure, even after one of the service techs added oil to get the pressure up. It just seems that the compressor is not compressing properly. Although they are going to check the oil filters and drain out the oil and refill, I think the problem is deeper.

[Lowrider]

Excuse me! R11? (Not banned there yet?)

What brand?

[iceman007]

Excuse me! R11? (Not banned there yet?)

What brand?

You can run the chiller but if you recover the refrigerant it must be destroyed. York dating back to the very early 80s

[Lowrider]

Lucky B*st*rds! In Europe one's not even alowed to use it and you're the one's with the "hole" in the ozone layer!

We sometimes have problems with centri's running in low load is oil loss to the condensor which ends up in the evaporator. The older ones had just a return line to the compressor and the only way to get it back was adding some oil and let it run at full load for a few hours and then remeoving the excess oil. Leaving the extra oil in will result in the same problem.

What kind of oil pump is on it? could also be that it's not pumping enough or way too much an thus loosing the oil from the sump!