Recharge the Freon?

Alrighty, so it looks like tomorrow I'm going to check out a Beverage Air BM23 kegerator I found on Craigslist. I'm getting it for a steal, but apparently it doesn't work. The fan and compressor come on, but only blow warm air.

My completely naive diagnosis is a freon leak, but having never seen the unit I could be way off. If I'm correct, anyone out there know how much ballpark it would cost me to get this thing fixed?

The deal I'm getting is so good that even if the kegerator is a lost cause, I'm still making out on the 20 lb co2, regulator, taps. If the repair costs are too much, I'll probably gut it and build a keezer. Still, I'd like to just get this unit working, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Any advice would be appreciated

You will find that servicing a commercial unit like that will probably cost more than what you paid for it. I bought a beat up one a few years ago, and it was noisy, inefficient and broke within a year. I was quoted $800 for a new compressor etc. I did the same thing you describe, gut it for making a keezer. Silent, efficient, and built to deal with hot or cold ambient temps. The commercial units are not usually rated for being run in hot or cold environments without some mods. Mine was on the back porch and the mild texas winter killed it.
my $.02

What did you end up doing? I bought a BM23 new, 8 yrs ago and haven't used it in 2 yrs. Now I see it's not getting cold and see ice forming on the evaporator. I believe it has a Freon leak. I believe you can get a vac and recharge for around $200.

This is an old thread, so OP may not see this.

Is fan running as it should?

If low on refrigerant, to do it right, your pretty much need a set of gauges and a good vacuum pump, and a supply of whatever refrigerant it takes. Also, evap/drier cartridge probably should be replaced too. If that is a solder in type, that is another set of tools & skills. If it is R-134 refrigerant, you may be in luck ,as auto supply places sell it. Otherwise, most places won't sell other refrigerants unless you have an EPA license.

But since you bought it new, it is probably worth fixing. Unless you want to get into a new hobby and buy the gear, might be good to have a HVAC tech service it, preferably one who is familiar with commercial restaurant equipment. That is going to cost, but is a commercial unit, so at least it probably can be serviced.

If it does take R134, you could attempt a DYI recharge with auto parts store kit, it might work, but probably not as good as new.

Yea, I realized it was old after posting, it looks like a lot of these are old. Mine takes 134. Don't have the equipment but I think I could do it if I did. I will have to search to see if they have a DIY for this here. Fan is running, I live in SWFL and has been humid the past few days. Ice was forming on the evaporator. I believe the door seal is good. I jumped the thermostat to ensure the compressor was running, feels warm and vibrates a little, cant really hear it. Probably a slow leak. I called Beverage Air, the tech told me that since it was sitting so long, that the oil is preventing the Freon to circulate. Looks like keg beer is getting cheaper down here vs bottled beer. Thanks for replying.

fwiw, it isn't hard at all to recharge a freezer or fridge...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/how-to-recharge-a-freezer-or-fridge.682877/
Cheers!

I haven't read the whole article but do you need to vacuum it down first? How much do you actually add, I know what the plate says, but it must have some refrigerant inside already. Thanks!

If one had thoughts of a permanent solution no doubt it would involve replacing the receiver/drier then vacuum purging the system before recharging. But that would presume a leak-free system. In this case, sans solving what much be a leak first, at best all you can hope for after revival is life-support via periodic top-ups, like I was doing, and there's no advantage to pulling a vacuum.

How much refrigerant to add is dependent on how much was lost. My freezer was only "mostly dead" when I started recharging it and so I don't think I ever put in more than 1/3rd of a total fill...

Cheers!

FWIW, a friend of mine ended up with a clapped out kegerator and rather than toss it, she had a refrigeration guy fix it. And for less money than I anticipated.

There's always an outlier case...

Cheers!

Well recharged according to instructions, temp has fallen below 40 degrees on the 5 setting on my Beverage-Air, bm23 within 4 hours. I have to purchase an accurate thermometer. So far so good, fingers crossed. Put a 5 gal bucket of water to test the temp in the morning.

Temp was at 30 degrees this morning, ice on top of water bucket, turned thermostat to 2 and compressor turned off. Going to see what happens with it today. May have overcharged a little.

Wess14 said:

I called Beverage Air, the tech told me that since it was sitting so long, that the oil is preventing the Freon to circulate.

Click to expand...

I've never heard that BS line before and I have worked on various refrigeration systems since ~1973.

If it needs a charge, there is a leak somewhere. Refrigerant does not simply disappear. It could be really small but it is there.

If you do open the system to replace any parts, or if it ever loses all charge, you will need to evacuate (vacuum) the system before you recharge using the amount by-weight of the proper refrigerant. The main reason to evacuate a system is to allow the moisture in the system to boil off and be evacuated from the system. For that reason if you do evacuate it, you should hold the vacuum on the system for at-least 20 minutes. Also, purging lines of air with refrigerant is important to prevent re-introducing moisture back into the system.

Most cars & newer small appliances use R134. Older large systems typically used R22 that has a much higher vapor pressure than R12 (old automotive and some small appliances). There is a tag on most systems that identifies the refrigerant and usually the charge by-weight.
You need different gauge sets for different refrigerants due to pressure ranges (R22) and connectors.

If you really want to diagnose you need a gauge set. This allows you to see the pressure differential and Pressure/Temperature relationship. Unfortunately many cheaper systems don't have a High side and Low side connector making them harder to troubleshoot.
If you have a very high differential pressure in a system that is running it could indicate a restricted or clogged (moisture/ice or dirt) expansion orifice. It will likely still cool but will be operating less efficiently and may tent to stop cooling after a while only to resume cooling after a shutdown.

Over filling will have a similar effect to under-fill but can also cause other issues. The main problem with an overfill the low side to high side differential will be less, thus preventing the cooling effect of liquid to gas expansion.

Maybe more info than you wanted...

day_trippr said:

... replacing the receiver/drier then vacuum purging the system before recharging.

Click to expand...

A lot of smaller systems don't have a receiver/dryer. That makes proper charge level more critical to prevent liquid refrigerant from entering the compressor. The receiver normally acts as an expansion tank to allow residual liquid refrigerant to expand to gas before it enters the compressor. The dryer (dessicant bag) absorbs moisture to prevent corrosion or icing on the low-side.
If it does have one and it is designed to be serviceable that is a key item to replace, especially if the system has been opened to atmosphere.

I know it has a leak, as long it's a slow leak I will keep topping it off. If it's a large leak the charge will not last long, that's when I will look into the leak and a way to fix it. Its holding steady now at 37 degrees. But the mechanical thermostat is set at 3, 9 being the coldest. That's why I thought I may have just tweeked it a little over. This is just a band aid, if it works for sometime great, if not, then I will find the small leak and have it repaired, vacuumed and topped off. Thanks for the replies!

Wess14 said:

[...]
This is just a band aid, if it works for sometime great, if not, then I will find the small leak and have it repaired, vacuumed and topped off.[...]

Click to expand...

An optimist!

My goal was keeping my dying K2 alive long enough to build K3 to the point that the last vital "organs" could be transplanted from former to latter before burying the former and christening the latter . Actually repairing K2 was never a consideration as I could not find evidence of the leak inside the compressor compartment and the rest was unreachably buried inside the cavity encircling the "food" compartment...

Cheers!

So I have have the Bev Air running cold for the past couple of weeks, still trying to figure out the Thermostat. Manufacturer says 4 or 5 to start out with, 9 being coldest. I keep it at 3 and it has been getting down to 28, and will go up to 38, should I just keep it at this setting or is there a problem with the thermostat. It has long running cycles and a couple of times when it was around 28, I would manually turn the thermostat up to turn off the compressor. Turning it up a little more that I thought to trip off the compressor. I live in SWFL where it's starting to get a lot warmer and humid so maybe I shouldn't worry about manually adjusting it and let it go. Just weird that 9 is the coldest and I am at 3 with 28 degrees. Thanks for any input!

Wess14 said:

So I have have the Bev Air running cold for the past couple of weeks, still trying to figure out the Thermostat. Manufacturer says 4 or 5 to start out with, 9 being coldest. I keep it at 3 and it has been getting down to 28, and will go up to 38, should I just keep it at this setting or is there a problem with the thermostat. It has long running cycles and a couple of times when it was around 28, I would manually turn the thermostat up to turn off the compressor. Turning it up a little more that I thought to trip off the compressor. I live in SWFL where it's starting to get a lot warmer and humid so maybe I shouldn't worry about manually adjusting it and let it go. Just weird that 9 is the coldest and I am at 3 with 28 degrees. Thanks for any input!

Click to expand...

You could have a freezer thermostat instead of a refrigerator thermostat that could be causing your issues.

Dr_Jeff said:

You could have a freezer thermostat instead of a refrigerator thermostat that could be causing your issues.

Click to expand...

This is the original, OEM thermostat that came with the BM23 when purchased new by me.

FWIW I have taken a few kegerators, small display type coolers and refrigerators to my local trade school for repairs. They only charge for the materials/parts needed to make the repairs. I've had 100% positive results with their work. Since it is a school the instructors ensure every stone is overturned. I even had them make a set of rollers for a massive grain mill build a few years back. They will take on most any project you bring to them as they thrive on teaching kids how to do an array of repairs and projects builds.

Wess14 said:

This is the original, OEM thermostat that came with the BM23 when purchased new by me.

Click to expand...

Is the box empty or full of full or partially fullkegs?
If it is empty, that could be a part of the issue, as when it is full there is mass that helps to stabilize the temperature.

Full 1/2 keg, actively being consumed.

I generally don't time the run time nor the air temps in the box.
When I had a concern on one box, I taped a temperature probe to a keg, near the bottom third so that I knew it was measuring the beer temperature.

But if it worked fine before and now you have issues, my bet would be the thermostat.
It's an easy fix, and one can get them on Amazon for under 20$.
I've had a bad thermostat before and it would freeze kegs occasionally.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think I'm just going to let it go for now, it's not freezing up and the beer is cold, it's just weird it gets that cold on setting 3, 9 being the coldest.

Most everything is well covered here, for the OP I suggest simply monitoring the refrigerant compressor during the run period.

You might be able to feel your way through some troubleshooting. Kind of like historical brewing.... have you tried to wack it with the magic brewing stick???

Real business:
The refrigeration pump is a "suction cooled" hermetic compressor & motor, it relies on cold return gas to keep the motor cool.
Low gas = hot compressor = thermal cutout cycling = failure if not addressed.

Simply put when gas is low, return temperature increases. This added heat kills a refrigeration pump when nobody is looking. If you monitor the compressor temp on occasion, you may find when it is time to top-off before catastrophic failure. The top of the compressor getting HOT to the touch is bad.

Without a specification, Id guess the "suction return temperature" to the compressor should be 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit if not cooler. We measure the copper line with a thermometer and a few inches away from the compressor where radiant heat is minimal. This is normally the top line on the compressor with the discharge on bottom, you can tell by the cool and warm temperature of each.

Finally, a gas bottle with trigger and pressure gauge could be handy for reading suction pressure... Id assume you want to be near 30 PSIG while running (R134A). pressure reading is not very handy when the system is not running.


A bit of advice: use refrigerant cans without oil or leak-stop in them. Oil will accumulate and does not compress, leak-stop is just bad for moving parts. your system has plenty of oil already.

some great tips from others above. love the technical/trade school drop off idea and i need to try that with other projects over my head. i have a bunch of kegerators and many gotten on the very cheap on craigslist. i love it when they still run cold and all i have to do is change out the usual sankey keg coupler and clean the tap head, run new beer line and add the corky ball connector for the homebrew stuff. playing around with recharging car ac systems and retrofitting them from good old R12 to R134a got me some experience. I have some vintage R12 stuff that just keeps on running well so not going to mess with it. The newer cheaper Chinese fridges with R134a do not seem to last like the R12 ones did. But if your kegger is old and not cold but compressor still runs when called upon by thermostat to do its job, then topping off with a little bit of refrigerant (freon was dupont trade name but everybody calls it that like kleenex for facial tissue!) might be a good start. if the system has service ports to add it it easy with a auto parts store kit. if there is no service port on the copper lines going to and from the compressor go on ebay or local hvac store and get a "piercing valve" which bolts onto the larger copper line (suction) going to compressor, and there is a threaded piercing part that cuts into tube you usually use the little allen wrench that comes with valve. then you can add a little freon "gas" with can upright and let it run a few minutes and keep checking if the plate inside the kegger is getting colder. add a little at a time and let it cycle through a bit. do not dump in the liquid as you can put too much in and overcharge it. if that does not work then scrap the kegger for parts for keezer or pay an hvac guy to check it out with the gauges and such and give a real cost of repair vs replace. but i do like the technical/trade school idea as everybody wins there! good luck!