Freon/meat cooler

[Dana]

I was given my father-in-laws 6'x6' walkin cooler. It hasn't been in operation in years and I don't believe has any freon charge. Today I wanted to see if I could get it going. After bypassing the pressure switch everything came to life. The condensor motor, the fan in the cooler and the other fan near the compressor.

My question is can I get some automotive R134 cans and recharge the system? If so which line do I introduce it into low I assume? Also it doesn't have shrader valves to connect to they look like jic fittings is that the norm?
Thanks dana

[Dana]

Moderators, Somehow I double posted this thanks to my iPhone. Please remove one of the threads.

[Ed]

No to the R134.

You need to get a commercial cooler person to check it out, vac down the system and recharge with the proper Freon, if its still available.
IME, a residential HVAC has no business working on them if they're not familiar with it. A good one will tell you to call the right guy.

We had an old cooling unit for grandpa's walk in apple cooler, finally scrapped it as it was so old nobody knew anything about it and didn't want to......

Ed

[submarinesailor]

Most likely it is R12.  Very hard to get right now if you can get any at all.  If you can find any, be careful if it comes from south of the border.  There for a while the Customs people were finding a lot of propane in the containers.  BOOM!!!!!!!!

Bruce

[Tom L]

if you can't get the existing cooler to work, I have a walk-in, in my house that runs off of an air conditioner 8000btu
and a coolbot controller,
very easy to set up and I can get my 6 x 6 x 8 ft box down to 35 degrees with this combo.

would just have to cut a hole for the AC unit and frame it out like a regular window mount. run an extention cord inside to run the controller and have power for the AC.

works really good for aging meat , hanging deer ect.

[Dana]

Toml, I would be interested in learning more about your setup.

[Qweaver]

I do have a mostly full bottle of R13 if that would help.  You've got to be sure what it uses.

[Dana]

I do have a mostly full bottle of R13 if that would help.  You've got to be sure what it uses.

Thanks for the offer.  I'm sure it takes R13 as it's old. I'll have to get a ac guy out I guess to check for leaks the gas is too expensive to have leak out.

Still interested in how a window ac unit would be controlled as well.

[DDDfarmer]

If it's 20 years or so old it most likely has R12, fairly simple to convert to R13 I think our unit was around the $500 mark. I could be wrong was a few years back now.  But get the proper tech to set it up the first time, should run for years.

[Tom L]

I do have a mostly full bottle of R13 if that would help.  You've got to be sure what it uses.

Thanks for the offer.  I'm sure it takes R13 as it's old. I'll have to get a ac guy out I guess to check for leaks the gas is too expensive to have leak out.

Still interested in how a window ac unit would be controlled as well.

this is the controller website. very easy to install and cheaper than a commercial chiller unit
works as advertised. just a note, if I were to do it again I would put an air conditioner in the box that is larger than
recommended.
http://www.storeitcold.com/