Removing faulty evap heaters

[Talylawdi]

Hi All

Do any of you old school engineer's have any indian tricks for the removal of stuck defrost heater elements from evaporators.

Got a couple of friga bohn evap's which have faulty element's which are stuck in coil block.

Thanks

[cadwaladr]

One way is to leave them in and use the holes alongside,works for me is the evaporator still frozen up if so warm it up with a propane (powerful)blow lamp the type roofers use but be very carefull !

[Talylawdi]

One way is to leave them in and use the holes alongside,works for me is the evaporator still frozen up if so warm it up with a propane (powerful)blow lamp the type roofers use but be very carefull !

Hi

Thanks for reply. Know where your coming from, but this evap does not have spare holes that i can see from both sides of evap coil. Elements are blown on ends and must be blown in middle also. Have mangaged to twist them in situ, but they won't budge left or right. It's a carcass blast chiller with two seperate systems hanging above the carcass's. They are only running one during day, so having staff to raise set point during day on frosting coil to isolate compressor, keep evap fans running and keep evap coil block clear untill i can sort something out. Don't like the quality or the engineering of these French evap's, SEARL i prefer.

Regards

[monkey spanners]

Slide hammer, will need to rig up a way to hold the element. Might damage the coil so a kind of kill or cure operation! Though without heaters the coil is no good anyway.

[Talylawdi]

Slide hammer, will need to rig up a way to hold the element. Might damage the coil so a kind of kill or cure operation! Though without heaters the coil is no good anyway.

The hammer allways wins in the end. ha. Think there's a gap in the market for someone to design a element puller.

[monkey spanners]

The hammer allways wins in the end. ha. Think there's a gap in the market for someone to design a element puller.

This is the sort of thing i was thinking of,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFdA01l32u8

[Talylawdi]

This is the sort of thing i was thinking of,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFdA01l32u8

Interesting. I see what you mean. Can you buy these anywhere, or is it a DIY like guy on video?

[Grizzly]

Painful to watch video!
But brilliant mod all the same, I have never tried to grip a heater rod like that.
It may just work?

I have in the past gripped pins etc. at 90 degrees to the direction I wish to move them and smacked the side of the grips.

Which in it's most basic form may work?
However a slide hammer is a much more efficient option.
Grizzly

[monkey spanners]

Interesting. I see what you mean. Can you buy these anywhere, or is it a DIY like guy on video?

The slide hammers are available on ebay or probably local tool shop or automotive store, same with the mole grips. You'd just need to figure a way of joining the two if you don't have a welder. Maybe silver solder them once you've cleaned the chrome off, or take the adjusting screw out and put it through the slot in some unistrut with a washer, then use some channel nuts etc for the hammer shaft.

I have not tried this, its just an idea to get some force applied to the heater in the right direction, though i have seen the slide hammers in use pulling wheel bearings out of axles so they can pack a punch.

[niceman]

Have you tried a flaring yoke to clamp on the end of the element and brute force with a twisting action, but evap has to be completly defrosted to do this, it has worked for me.

[Magoo]

Had similar issue with a failed heater rod, the major problem was limited clearance at each end of evap. So just took that rod out of the circuit, bypassed. Defrost still did the job.

[Talylawdi]

Thanks all

I really like the slide hammer idea. Had a quick search online, my local machine mart sell them. There's another vid on youtube where a guy has taken the adjusting screw out from base of mole grips and threaded them directly into a slide hammer puller, something similar to your idea monkey spanners.

[bigrac]

Oldish thread, but did you manage to remove the heaters in the end. I've got the same problem with a friga bohn.. The heaters run through copper tube instead of the fins, and no more spare holes now as already another 2 seized heaters. Managed to get half a heater out, it snapped in the middle, and found it had blown in a few places in the middle. No chance with the other heaters. Looks like the evaps scrap now..

[cadwaladr]

Some evaporator are not really engineered correctly/poor quality,and sometimes the cut off temperature is set way to high by engineers or bad location of the termination probe,converting them to hot gas defrost is always an option although some say it destroys compressors not in my opinion if a suction regulator is installed.

[Talylawdi]

Oldish thread, but did you manage to remove the heaters in the end. I've got the same problem with a friga bohn.. The heaters run through copper tube instead of the fins, and no more spare holes now as already another 2 seized heaters. Managed to get half a heater out, it snapped in the middle, and found it had blown in a few places in the middle. No chance with the other heaters. Looks like the evaps scrap now..

Hi All

I take my hat of to monkey spanners. Bought a slide hammer puller set from machine mart, came with adapter with 12mm male thred. Threaded straight into my mole grips. Had some down time on chiller with stuck defrost heaters today. Slide hammer and grips worked great. Removed two coil heaters which had blown in the middle. Thanks again monkey spanners.

[Grizzly]

Hi All

I take my hat of to monkey spanners. Bought a slide hammer puller set from machine mart, came with adapter with 12mm male thred. Threaded straight into my mole grips. Had some down time on chiller with stuck defrost heaters today. Slide hammer and grips worked great. Removed two coil heaters which had blown in the middle. Thanks again monkey spanners.

Now you have 16 replies you can give MS the credit He deserves (IE rep points!)
Click the star at the bottom of his post and a rep point is added.

I would do this for you only I cannot yet as I have to give more to others before I can award MS again.
You will come across this function in time Talylawdi!

Grizzly