Hi,
I was given a non-working wine chiller, Bosch KWS38940. According to the donor, the 3-year old chiller stopped working suddenly and Bosch technician came and replaced the compressor under warranty. When the chiller still working after the replacement, the technician claimed the seal system is choked and quoted few hundred dollars to repair/replace the seal system. Donor decided not to proceed and given the chiller to me.

I've since worked on the chiller quite extensively to diagnose/confirm the problem, but need help to double check my findings:

The chiller compressor model is SECOP HTK70AA 220-240V 50Hz with a 3uF run capacitor, on R600a refrigerant.

Here's the symptoms: on power-up, the compressor (ovp) clicked and stayed on for ~30sec, then clicked off for ~2.5min, then repeat continuously. The compressor gets quite hot after ~30min.

Here are the list of tests done:
With power off:
- start relay is good, the windings are good with C-S: ~19ohm C-R: ~40ohm C-R: ~58ohm.
- seems like there is no refrigerant at all, pressing the service valve and no gas releases..
- installed another piercing valve onto the liquid line, open the valve and no gas releases either.
- using vacuum pump connected on one side and low pressure gauge on the other side, shows ~25inHG after ~20min. Swapped sides also same results.
- vacuum holding for as long as valves remain closed.
- vacuum a few rounds to be sure no more refrigerant in the system.
With power on:
- both side show no pressure when connected with the manifold gauges.
- opened both low and high side values, no suction, and no blow air either.

So my take is:
- no restriction in the seal system, and the newly installed compressor has seized, either dead on installation or damaged during all these tests...

Please help me with your assessment on my finds, and what other tests that can be done to determine if the compressor is indeed dead.

Thank you.
*ps: I have no experience on refrigeration, and all tests are based on google and youtube and reading on forum discussions like here.