She'll & tube condenser piping

[RANGER1]

Working on a shell & tube condenser where it's liquid drain actually goes above condenser by 170mm before entering liquid receiver.

How does that work?

[mad fridgie]

Pressure,
You are drawing from your receiver, so the receiver pressure lowers, the condensing pressure is higher, so as long as the inlet to the condensate line has a liquid seal then liquid will flow to a lower pressure point

[RANGER1]

Pressure,
You are drawing from your receiver, so the receiver pressure lowers, the condensing pressure is higher, so as long as the inlet to the condensate line has a liquid seal then liquid will flow to a lower pressure point

Its on a R22 Vogt ice machine & in lines between condenser outlet to liquid receiver is a liquid/suction line heat exchanger.
I was going to mount a new shell &tube above it so it drained down hill, but would have a trap with the liquid drain liquid/suction heat exchanger.
Will get rid of old shell & tube.
I was surprised to see it like that, why would you not just mount it above if you could!

[Magoo]

Possibly the old hx had a sub cooling bundle in bottom section of vessel.

[RANGER1]

Possibly the old hx had a sub cooling bundle in bottom section of vessel.

Magoo, not from shat I can see, as tube bundle down to the bottom if that means anything.
i think it was mounted incorrectly comparing to latest Vogt web site

[Magoo]

Just that Vogt are fairly sharp on what they design and install. Possibly for pump down capacity as the vertical evaps have a truck load of liquid in them. Be careful as the receivers run really low liquid levels as the receiver is the hot gas source for harvesting. Little to not a lot of liquid required in receiver, just a liquid seal to feed evap., most stacked up in water cooled condenser in your case.

magoo

[RANGER1]

Magoo's, looks like someone "hand made" brackets or mounts for this shell & tube.
The welds look like someone did them without a weld helmet!
I think it has worked in the past, but tubes are severely fouled & can't clean, let's say to risky with 15K of R22. its 20 yrs old so had its day.
Its one of those jobs, the more you look at it the more things you see wrong on this one.