Very cool! That came out great! I love how effortlessly you can whip all this stuff together and fix an old appliance that nobody else would be able to fix!
This was an interesting project to follow. It was good to see how you used your knowledge and experience to bring together all those different parts into a working unit. Usually, I repair and restore telephones and sometimes radios and have to do the same thing. However, like yourself I really like to keep things as authentic and original as possible. I came across your channel while searching for info on a 1949 Westinghouse refrigerator that I am refurbishing. She works, just not well. Since I don't have any experience with refrigeration, I called in a tech. to check her out. The fella that came out diagnosed the problem as a low charge on the freon but couldn't do a recharge or top up, not because he wouldn't but because his repair company doesn't do that work. So, after searching around the area, I believe I have to do it myself. I would like to top up the current charge of (F-12) r12 with HFC 152A. So onto my question. Can r12 and HFC-152A be mixed together in a refrigeration system?
Hi Thomas. Thanks for your comment! I appreciate that greatly coming from a fellow restorer. As for the Westinghouse, they can slowly lose their refrigerant around the compressor terminals since they are not glass fused hermetic seals like the General Electric models of the same era. As for mixing R-12 and R-152A yes they will work as a blend and in fact Carrier sold a blend of these two compounds under the designation R-500. The Westinghouse is fully compatible with pure R-12 and also pure R-152A so it will function with a blend of the two. You may notice a step in the frost pattern on the evaporator (depending on the design and the proportions of the blend) due to evaporation temperature glide, but it will absolutely work. Having said that, you would be much better off to evacuate the system down to less than 400 microns Hg and start with a known good charge. This is because as the system leaks down it can run in a vacuum, and allow air to seep in. By evacuating it you ensure that any air or moisture has been removed. But, if you can't do that then it should work fine with a top-off charge; if and only if the system is still dry and air-free.
@@davida1hiwaaynet Thank you so much for the detailed reply. As I don’t have the equipment to recover refrigerant I will probably top it off. The info about the compressor slowly leaking around the terminals explains a lot. A couple of repair companies were very insistent that a sealed system could not leak even when I reminded them that the fridge was 75 years old. Again, thank you for the info. 🙂
@@thomaskrystaosborn4256 That is a shame they weren't in touch with reality. These normally don't leak but can seep. If it leaks down again in a few weeks, it will need more in-depth troubleshooting but one top-off isn't a bad idea.
in my research, mixing them to get something like R500 has some desirable properties. I've never had a project to try it on as I keep a few things topped up with real 12 and other things straight 152. We are so lucky that 152 is available since it is actually really darn good and you don't really have to worry about wasting it since the normal use case is spraying it out anyway!
Pretty neat! That could very easily have a dual function as a chest freezer, if someone wanted to. Could have a thermostat with enough range to work for either one.
Thanks! I expect the thermostat I ended up installing could be used as a marginal freezer at its coldest. Would for sure freeze water bottles on coldest setting.
We had to remove tar paper from car floors and we just laid dry ice on it for a few hours and the tar would just fall off/ peel up with no effort. we did it once with some liquid nitrogen we had left over from a joke. That stuff worked great and fast. Danger? didn't notice any!!
Eric, I did one from a 30's domestic fridge. It has the same compressor design, but used sulphur dioxide. Here I test it and take it apart. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2IgdEauioYw.html
i mean this one has a nice big drain in it for defrosting it would be one of the easiest units to defrost I feel, as long as it had a drain hose or someway to collect the water
Thanks! Yep it would be very easy. Also, since it's built for drinks and not perishables, you could turn it off overnight and it would take care of its self.
very nice, too bad you are so far away, i have a couple old condensing units you could have , copeland 1/4 2 cylinder 120v and a kelvinator belt drive unit.
