Cruisair Charging

[truk4u]

I have a bedroom Cruisiar that is not doing the job as well as the other two. I have made sure the condensing coil and evaporator is clean. This Cruisair does not make any condensation water from the drain tube, while the other two discharge water almost constantly due to GA humidity.

I hooked up the gauges and added freon slowly until the sight glass cleared and all foam was gone. The Cruisair manual has charts to help identify the correct charge, but I'm not getting to their numbers. The manual states to add freon until the sight glass is clear.

My problem is the high side will only get to 105 when it should be at 210. The low side is at 60 and should be closer to the 70 mark. Jack mentioned he got around 45 degrees at the suction line and I'm getting 65.

These are the room air temps with OAT at 82 degrees:
A/C air temp at the vent 69.3
Air intake (return) 74.7
Room temp 76.5

So, my question is how do you determine the amount of freon to add without overcharging? I think I'm low and adding more freon should bring the numbers closer to the manual numbers.

[jimshoen]

Hi Tom,
Contact AAP in Milford, VA 804-633-9454.
Three of the people there are Fred, Johnny, and Bill.
You may have a leak in the system.
These systems will High Pressure shut down if the freon is over charged.
Getting the optimum performance out of my system has been part science and part art (luck).
My bedroom unit is a problem also.
Jim

[GDeen]

Had trouble with my galley cruiseair holding charge couple of months ago. One thing I learned from both Prevost and talking with Johnny at AAP is that the rebuilt and new cruiseair units are going through the roof in cost.

Mine was not holding a charge and it turned out to be a leaking hot gas bypass valve. Very hard to detect, but the Prevost tech did an excellent job of hunting it down, cutting it out, and sweating in a new one. No problems since.

[jack14r]

Truk,You are not there yet,add freon until you feel the suction side get(beer cold) then shoot it with the IR gun and slowly add until you get it to the lowest temperature,if you go past the low temperature point and you have the hi side hooked up you can reduce the charge by opening the hi side valve for a second and freon will be forced to your freon jug.At 65 degrees it will take much more freon than you think and there should be bubbles in the sight glass when you are finished.

[Prevost.Rick]

truk call me rick 813-833-2284 there,s a couple things that could be wrong

[truk4u]

Jack - The manual is very specific stating the sight glass shouldn't have any bubbles. I called AAP like Jim suggested and talked to Johnny and he said the same thing you said, the sight glass SHOULD have bubbles. So I'm thinking maybe the newer units are a little different then the old ones. Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a try. I do remember at POG 1, Lester told us it had to be Beer Cold 30!

Rick - I'll be calling....

[jack14r]

You are right,I think that it all changed about 1996,let us know how you fixed it.

[Kevin Erion]

What is the best IR reading on the suction side, I am reading 42 on one, 43 and 40. Should I get into the low 30's with them? I also know it depends on where you shot the IR, I am shotting the fitting the the line goes into and that also has the scrader(sp) valve. We are going to play with these on Monday so a # to try to get to would be helpful. It was about 85 inside the building this morning when I was shotting these temps.
Thanks!

[Kevin Erion]

I went down to Steve Bennett's today and we checked out his, different #s but still made very good cold air. I think this is going to be one of those deals, kind of a guessing game?

[jack14r]

Kevin,I take a rubber band and put it on the trigger and then wedge the gun into the area near the schrader so that it will not move,this way I am at least not moving the IR gun.Your temps look very good,if it were to get into the low 30's i guess it might freeze.

[Kevin Erion]

Thanks Jack, good idea to hold the gun in one spot. I will see if I can get mid to high 30's!

[truk4u]

Jack,

I had to give up because we took a trip to the Smokey Mtns., but I'll be back on mine this week. I was only getting 65 temps with the gun at the suction side near the shrader valve. I'm going to call Rick as he suggested and try to determine why I'm only getting 105 on the high side. I would like to think that I am undercharged!

Kevin will get to 36 while polishing the fittings!:p

[Kevin Erion]

I guess I should stop, already polished!