DIY A/C unit glycol chiller question

[rkhanso]

I made a DIY glycol chiller. It just has water in it now, and the SSR in my Fermentrack controller is having trouble. So I've been manually turning it on for a while to chill the tank.
But last night I plugged it in and left it on for 12 hours straight. It's a big block of ice in the tank (Igloo cooler).

1. did I ruin my A/C unit (compressor, hot side) letting it run for 12 hours straight on full cool?
2. Might I have ruined the cooling fins/piping side that sits in the water?

 

[gromitdj]

@rkhanso Surprised that no one has volunteered any advice. I wish that I had some to offer.

I assume by now you've let it thaw and tried it out. What was the outcome?

 

[Bobby_M]

My guess is that no one has done this before.

 

[Tallgrass]

Maybe that block of ice is still melting?

I am also curious of the result. Most of the compressors I have seen have "overload protection" which appears to be a temp sensor. That should have protected the compressor.

 

[rkhanso]

There's also a hole in the cooler now that I'll have to patch. Or maybe get a new cooler.
I'll fill the cooler with water and give it a test to see if there are bubbles or if it still works, then report back.

 

[Barbarossa]

It's not a glycol chiller of you use water, isn't it?

Isn't glycol supposed to keep the water from freezing?

 

[Lalo_uy]

I bet no harm to system. Had seen many diy chillers with the big ice block. In deed is a way to store more “coold”, since ice could go below 0C

 

[fragged]

Should be fine, the block of ice is probably proof of that. Usually the evaporator freezes internally, in which case you end up with a vacuum on the low(cold) side of the compressor and no pressure on the high(hot) side. Now, there is a real good chance that you could have a hole in the evaporator from the frozen ice, you'd know that as soon as it thawed from almost every sense(certainly taste and smell of the air, atomized AC oil is gross).

Running at odd angles would be one of the only worries for a system, you don't want to pull liquid refrigerant into the compressor, liquids don't compress and something has to give... When I say all this I have no idea if these smaller(newer) units even have much oil if any. Might be like the new "oil-less" air compressors where oil-less really just means "limited-life".

 

[rkhanso]

It's working. Tested it today in anticipation of brewing soon - Centennial Blonde.
I'll have to do a lager after that - since this chiller can get down that cold, but use RV Antifreeze instead of water so I don't make another ice block.

 

[Lalo_uy]

Be awewre to use a food safe antifreeze, just in case of some leaks.