Glycol chiller repair

[dennsity]

My SS Brewtech glycol chiller has lost most of its capacity to cool. It gets the glycol reservoir down to target temperature eventually, but it can’t keep up with even a single 5-gallon batch if I want to go lower than 65°F. Cooling more than one batch, lager fermentations, and cold crashing are no longer possible.

It shows all signs of just being low on coolant. It’s a closed system, though. Even if I were inclined, I don’t have the tools necessary to find/fix a leak, add a
valve, and add top it up with coolant.

I’ve tried a few small appliance repair shops in the neighborhood, and they all decline to look at it or throw their hands up when they do. It’s basically got all the parts of a small refrigerator, so I am a bit stumped by their reluctance.

Anyone in the St. Louis area know of someone who’d be willing to look at a glycol chiller?

 

[wepeeler]

Is it this one? I have the same chiller and the top comes off to refill the fluid. You dilute https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS8F1UW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 with water. There is a sight "glass" ie plastic tubing that will show you when you get low. The top is secured by clips.

 

[DonT]

Is it this one? I have the same chiller and the top comes off to refill the fluid. You dilute https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MS8F1UW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 with water. There is a sight "glass" ie plastic tubing that will show you when you get low. The top is secured by clips.

I think what he is referring to is the refrigerant in the system.

 

[dennsity]

I think what he is referring to is the refrigerant in the system.

Correct. I am not referring to the glycol solution; I’ve got that figured out. I am referring to the refrigerant in the cooling system itself: R290.

 

[Raider7296]

R290 is just propane. Much better for the ozone layer. However, it’s also extremely flammable (your chiller should have very prominent warning labels about this). That could explain why the repair people you talked to are hesitant to work on it.

Unfortunately, consumer refrigeration equipment is almost considered disposable these days. Have you tried reaching out to SS Brewtech about it?

 

[shoengine]

Interesting info on R290

https://refrigeranthq.com/r-290-propane-refrigerant-info-fact-sheet/

 

[Broken Crow]

You could try asking these guys who they supply to that use R290 for recharges:
https://cksupply.com/about-us/locations/st-louis-mo/

 

[Dland]

Nothing that weird dangerous about propane based refrigerants. Been over this a bunch in car repair forums, have some running instead of R-12 in my old diesel Mercedes. I'd rather deal with it than R-134, which is a pretty strong carcinogen.

The reason no one probably wants to work with it is likely because it is consumer grade/semi disposable, as was previously mentioned. If it has refrigerant access ports, should be serviceable by most AC or commercial refrigerant techs. If it does not have access ports, piercing valve ports can be used, but not ideal. For what SS Brewtech gets for these, hopefully they have some customer support.

R-290 and piercing valves are available on ebay, no license needed to buy. If the choice is between messing with them and chucking the chiller, might be worth a try. To do a really good job, a vaccum pump and gauges should be used, but can probably get some results with just a basic charging kit.

 

[stealthfixr]

My IceMaster 2 glycol chiller from MoreBeer just started to cool very sluggishly after almost 3 years of continuous use. Up until now it has performed great, and it still works--just increasingly slowly. I am wondering the same thing about a refrigerant top off like a car air conditioner. The manual does not address this at all, and I am hesitant to just start tearing it apart. I wrote MoreBeer recently, so we'll see what they say. I am hoping the expectation is not that I buy a new $699 glycol chiller once ever three years!

 

[deuc224]

My icemaster compressor comes on and doesnt stop! It keep scooling and cooling and cooling. One day i left it on to see and it said it was -57, it wasnt that cold but thats the reading on it. It works sometimes and then it doesnt. Gonna replacemt he main ITC in front and see if that helps