Hi guys, I am new on here and had a question.
We have a water cooling system for supplying cold water to semiconductor equipment in a clean room. Unlike most cooling towers this unit is a little strange.
It has a 1 hp Copleland compressor and the 'evaporator' is a large coils of copper tubing in a 105 gallons of cooling water. It uses r134 as the refrigerant and it's designed to create a large block of ice on the tubing at night during low power once the ice is 2" thick it hits a small canister that freezes expanding and shuts off a refrigerant valve near the expansion valve, this causes the pressure in the compressor to rise,shutting off the compressor! It uses 14 lbs of r134!
I had to replace the expansion valve and switched over to R-22 which worked better but now the compressor is dying I have a Tecumseh 1.5 hp compressor (was off of cooler using R22).
But here are my questions: The ice water is just too darn cold and all the pipes leading to the equipment is sweating and running down into the electronics on he tools (they are designed for cooling water, not ice water!).
I wanted to replace to trashed compressor and remove the valve that shuts off the refrigerant and add a watlow controller to shut off compressor to maintain about 40 degree F water. I also wanted to use less R-22 as 14 lbs seems like a lot!
I know 134r uses PAG oil so should I flush out all the original parts, add mineral oil and install a new dryer?
Did I kill the old compressor by using the original 134r oil when I changed to R22?
Has anyone ever seen such a set up?
What are you experts advice on the changes I want to make?
Sorry for all the questions, I do all our smaller Neslab coolers but they all use R22 and will get cold but not freeze.. LOL!!
Best regards,
Phil
Mesa, AZ USA