Oil Seperator Faultfinding

[ChillyKiwi]

Hello fellow fridge friends!

I have a query in regards to oil seps.
If a sep float is malfunctioning and the float is stuck open, would you still get oil returning to your reservoir? Or would it be mainly discharge gas?

I carried out the test where you measure oil return line temps and found it did not go up or down as it should when oil sep functioning.

Just keen to get everyone’s experiences/fault finding process on oil seps and red’s

[seanf]

Came across a multi comp system where discharge gas seemed to have blown the oil out of the reservoir. It had been coming from a compressor that was switched off, but its discharge check valve seemed to be passing and gas was going down the oil return line. All the return pipework and oil reservoir were up at discharge temp.

Another was a single compressor system where the oil sep return line had been stuck closed for awhile, and the customer had been topping the comp oil level up. You could see an oil level in the refrigerant receiver sightglass, and when the system was started up, the top of the oil sep would warm up alot quicker then the bottom 3/4's.

Sightglasses on oil return lines, seperators and reservoirs are handy.