Manitowoc Ice machine taking too long to harvest..

[jan behnke]

Hi on that type is there a push bar in the middle of the Evap plate if so check this
Jan

[bernard]

I think the manitowoc is a fantastic machine and a lot of major companies are changing from scotsman to manatowoc over hear I,ve had the same problem onsmaller units than your type.The fault has always been the gas charge they advise you to take pressure with guage only as the gas lost in your line is enough to cause a fault.The machine will make three atempts then throw up a fault I will try and get you a phone number for help as there tech line is good.

Regards bernard

[nyTroX]

I could use the Phone number, thanks.

As far as using a gauge only to check pressures, I understand the reasoning, but this is a remote condenser type unit, and uses 12.5 lbs of refrigerant.I don't think checking the pressures with a standard gauge and hose setup would cause the refrigerant to fractionalize very much in this unit.
I'm leaning more towards the unit being overcharged, or the harvest pressure regulator valve being bad, as I was getting frost on the tubing directly after it going into the compressor.
This valve is supposedly just taking vapor from the top of the receiver, and I don't think it should be frosting up. I would think that it would only frost if it was getting liquid refrigerant, and then the harvest pressure regulator would kinda act like a TEV. This is why I'm leaning more towards an overcharge.
I'll find out soon enough the next time I get back there.
Also this is the first time I've worked on this particular machine, so I have no idea on it's history, other than the PC board was changed out 2 months ago.

Damn I'm long-winded, huh?