Help Wanted - QBD Beverage Cooler (Beverage Air?)

[maxstead]

I am having issues with cooling in my commercial beverage cooler and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

I picked up this unit about 7 years ago, and it was not working at the time. Had to change the evaporator fan - relatively easy fix and all was good.

The other day, my pints were on the warm side - ok, room temp, and it is no longer cooling.

Some cleaning of the condenser and compressor coils, and some inspection found no heat in the compressor coils.

The compressor starts fine and runs (its warm but not schorching hot) and the two fans are running - lots of air moving in the cabinet - just not cold.

Looking in the box where the condenser coils are, there is a bit of corrosion around the top of the coils.

Any ideas what to check? Its a sealed system, so no way to check freon levels that I can think of......

[THE ICEMAN]

I am having issues with cooling in my commercial beverage cooler and I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

I picked up this unit about 7 years ago, and it was not working at the time. Had to change the evaporator fan - relatively easy fix and all was good.

The other day, my pints were on the warm side - ok, room temp, and it is no longer cooling.

Some cleaning of the condenser and compressor coils, and some inspection found no heat in the compressor coils.

The compressor starts fine and runs (its warm but not schorching hot) and the two fans are running - lots of air moving in the cabinet - just not cold.

Looking in the box where the condenser coils are, there is a bit of corrosion around the top of the coils.

Any ideas what to check? Its a sealed system, so no way to check freon levels that I can think of......

First of all, welcome to the forum...
The unit you have is most decidedly not a Beverage Air. I have worked on units such as that for 25+ years & I only recall seeing a QBD once or twice. I think your terminology of the components may be a bit confused. The condenser coil is located by the compressor & the evaporator coil is located inside the cabinet.

From the info you have provided it sounds like your unit is low on refrigerant. There would be two likely places a leak could develop on that unit. If you look under the compressor & condenser coil you will see a pan with the discharge line snaking back & forth. That is used to boil off the water generated from the evaporator & sometimes that line can corrode over the years resulting in a leak. Take a quick look in the pan & see if there is any oil residue around those lines. The other & more likely location for a leak is in the evaporator coil. In either case you will need to get a hold of a company that routinely services low temp systems to check for leaks. A simple HVAC company will not work.

Another possibility would be a restriction in the system. The most likely place for that to happen would be the filter/drier or the capillary tubing... Or sometimes both. Make sure your serviceman checks that as well. Good luck...


THE ICEMAN