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  1. #1
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    Sep 2017
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    Big problems please help, tinkering on this unit for 1 year and still wont work right

    Hello every one I am finally at witts end with this project. I have been tinkering on it for over a year.
    I have tried other forums for this cooler and the residential said to go to the commercial forums because I am using a 1/3hp compressor and the system is too large. The commercial forums tell me its too small and to go to the residential forums. Please help I am ready to shoot this thing.

    Here is what I am trying to do. I have taken a 12CF chest freezer and installed a STC 1000 Digital controller in it to turn it in to a large refrigerator. Inside my modified freezer I am storing four 5 gallon kegs of home made beer at a temp of 35.5 degrees f. There is no problem with this part.

    Here is the core problem.
    On the lid I drilled a hole and put in a 4 faucet beer tower with the lines running down inside the refrigerator to the kegs. When I pull the beer from the tanks it gains heat from the tower and starts foaming like hell. On a 12 oz pour the temp of the beer climbs from 35.5F to 45 degrees F. So I am gaining 10 degrees, on successive pours it climbs to 42 degrees F so the tower cools down by 3 degrees on the second and third pour.

    So I know that the metal of the tower is absorbing heat from the ambient temp of 90 degrees F. I have calculated that the brass in the tower retains 97 BTU's/hour ( I can show my metallurgical math if you desire).

    The towers surface is 1.72 square feet yellow brass absorbs heat at 67 BTU's/ hr so if we take the surface area of the tower and multiply by 67. The surface of the tower is absorbing heat at 115 BTU's from the air per hour. (67.0 Btu · ft/(hr · ft2 ·°F) @ 68 F) Both Perlick and Micromatic seem to agree with this number based on 4 faucets they say heat load of 25btu per faucet. my unit is also a 4 faucet. erroring on the extream side of caution, 115 BTU's from the tower, and another 100 btu for the faucets.

    Now the beer that runs thru the lines is at 35.5 degrees. I think I need to get the beer tower down to 32 degrees F. to prevent foaming for a proper pour at 35degrees F. So if I did my math correctly, 8.33lbs (weight of water/beer) X 3 degrees X 60gph = 1499 BTU/hour

    So if I did my heat load correctly I have static heat load of 312 BTU's without any beer being dispensed. With beer being dispensed I have a heat load of 1811 BTU/Hour.

    So to solve this problem (the beer tower is equipped with glycol cooling lines) to cool of the tower and the product. I have built a glycol cooler.
    I purchased a 1/3 hp danfoss 103g5880 compressor that has a btu rating of 2555 btu's/hr @ 30 degrees F using lbp/hbp (what ever that does, low back pressure high back pressure)

    I have purchased a commercial condensing unit that is rated for 2800 btu's that has a cooling fan that is adjustable speed.

    I have taken 50' of 3/8 copper tube and made a double coil to use as my evaporator in my glycol bath. The glycol bath is 2.5 gallons circulated thru a Procor rotary vane glycol pump pushing 80 gph.

    So to cool the glycol bath down from ambient temp my initial static heat load (no pumps on no product thru lines) from 90 degrees to 30 degrees is 60 degrees X 8.3lbs X 2.5 gallons = 1245 btu's hr.

    Perlick says that an additional heat load for the lines is 25btu/yard (assuming it was carring a product line which mine is not, but I add it to be on the safe side), I have 2 yards going to and 2 yards coming from the tower. so 4X25=100 BTU + 1811 btu before, so now my total heat load is at 1911 btu's/hr

    Once the bath is cold and the tower is working the heat load will then be at 1911 btu's/hr. so the compressor should be running at 75% or running for 45min/hr.

    So the compressor should be able to handle the 1245btu initial cooling of the glycol without the pumps,
    then the 315 cooling if the glycol pump is running,
    and the 1596 btu's when the beer is running thru the lines.

    Here are my current problems.
    Now With my current set up I can get the glycol down to 32 degrees F but it takes about 3 hours to cool the bath. where by my calculations it should take only 30 minutes.
    Once I turn on the glycol pump on to cool just the tower without beer, the bath jumps from 32 degrees to 48 degrees F and will not come down. Which I find is very strange since the heat load is only 315 btu's only 1/10 the btu's rated for the compressor.

    I know that the diameter of the copper tube for the evaporator affects the heat absorption, and speeds used for cooling. is 3/8 X 50' too long or too small diameter?
    I am also using a TXV inplace of the cap tube to make the unit more efficient. The TXV is of appropriate size and the orifice is also of correct size. The other problem is that with my current set up, the compressor gets HOT, hotter than I feel comfortable touching for more than a moment.

    Can you please help me sort this out step by step starting with verifying the math in the heat load calcs. I am attaching photos of how I have set up the system.

    P_20170912_204828.jpg


    Please help me out I am loosing my mind, thus far it has cost over $800 to build this with the pumps and trying to get it all up and working. Please any help will be greatly appreciated.
    Last edited by born2dive9702; 20-09-2017 at 01:16 AM.

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