Old Cruiseair mineral oil charge ounces, R22 ounces

[sdowney717]

This is for a standard type F water cooled condensor with twin remote coolers, a split system.
For some reason this information just is not findable and I tried.
Example here, desired information is not shown
http://www.dometic.com/FileOrganizer...-Operation.pdf

When new, they were precharged. The one I have is from the early 90's.
Years ago, the copper line cracked at the condensor, so I removed from boat and sealed it up. when line cracked, it lost some oil. I figure to add perhaps 8 ozs of oil. On putting oil into the system, can you tip up the condensing unit and pour into the suction port?
Also what is the approximate R22 charge for this.
It is a 1 1/3 ton system, 16000 btu per hour, 120 volt. One cooler is 1 ton, other cooler is 1/3 ton, condensor is 1 1/3 ton.

Whenever I get this working again, I will post back any detailed information or discoveries I make.

[sdowney717]

I found my wire chart. It is very simple hooking up the condensing unit
On mine it is 2 large gauge purple and white wires which simply run the compressor.
A smaller blue wire which turns the reversing valve on for HEAT, for COOL mode, this is not energized. This is controlled by the temperature control.

A small red wire which turns on the sea water pump
So you hook up only 3 wires on the condensing unit relay.
These wires are on the black central relay inside of the electrical connection box on the condensor.

purple to purple
white to white
blue to black

red to water pump
There are 3 rotary knob controls on the remote cooler.
Off - on - run.
What I recall is on starts the water pump and fans on the remore coolers, Run starts the compressor. Off is off.

Fan speed, this only makes a small difference in the fan speed.

Temperature control
Temp control if it is hot out, turn all the way to heat and you wont get the blue wire energized. It is just too hot like today it was 100 outside for the bimetalic points to close for heat. Simply this control cycles the compressor on and off as the selected temperature is achieved in the air.

What is interesting is for the cruiseair the compressor lets say it is in cooling mode. Turning the know steadily warmer till it would engage the reversing valve for heat will suddenly reverse the flow of refrigerant. I wonder if that causes some stress on the system. I assume the compressor will shut down as you pass a point on the temperature knob turning slowly, and as you continue to turn it will energize reversing valve and turn compressor back on but say you turn it very fast. Then wonder what will happen. Perhaps the compressor overloads it's internal breaker and as the breaker cools to reset, the pressures subside and then it can restart ok.

Long time ago, there used to be a plug for this harness and it completely disintegrated. So the wires are attached directly to the condensing unit's relay.

Inside the electric connection box there is a black GE relay, a VERY large and long capacitor and a smaller round capacitor. One must be a start relay, (the big one) another a run relay(smaller one).

[sdowney717]

Learning some more. these are charged by standard type ports. The ports are opened by valves sealed under a screw on cover.

When new, these valves are shut and the unit is precharged.
After an install, these valves are fully opened CCW all the way. At that point the charging ports are sealed. (no shraders in them)

To charge, turn these valves in about one turn, CW. This will expose the charging port to the internal refrigerant lines.
They make a square handle for the charging valve. Previous owners had used vice grips, please dont ruin the stem!

If you find them stuck or rusty, then I sprayed with KROIL and got them moving. There is no reason to go more than one turn CW, why risk the stem seal?

There is a third port with shrader valve which I suppose is for monitoring system pressure.
Always charge on the low pressure suction side which is the large diameter tube.

When your finally done, put grease on these and put the covers back. Make sure you turn the valves back all the way CCW. I noticed someone had used some teflon tape on these cover threads.

I have type F remote condensing with WFAH: Rotary Knob

A bunch of links
http://www.marinemechanic.com/New-Folder2/cruisair.htm
http://www.dometic.com/FileOrganizer...-Operation.pdf

http://www.boatelectric.com/L-0200-F.pdf

install information
http://www.beardmarine.com/pdfs/L-2167.pdf
http://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.co...s/Cruisair.pdf

[sdowney717]

picture showing the condensing unit and valves on front.
I removed the bottom and sealed the compressor with PL Premium and fiberglass tape
Coated all the exposed metal with PL and painted it white.

Picture shows the stem caps removed and the various connection and charging ports. Suction port on left, pressure port on right, cooling mode.



I ran the unit and it works when the purple and white wires are energized.
Short black capacitor is the start, tall is the run.
Center pressure switch detects if pressure is too high and will turn off compressor. (purple wire runs to it)


Black wires goto reversing valve. Blue wire from harness attaches to central black wired terminal on relay.
I sucked in using a vacuum pump about 6 ozs of mineral oil, then the reversing valve got stuck in heat mode. So rap lightly on its end and it freed up back to cool mode. I upended the unit to do that and help oil get in past the strainer can in the refrigerant line so who knows.
The new electronic control actuates that reversing valve when turning the unit on to keep it from freezing up.
I was thinking that is a nice idea and might be a good idea to create a circuit to do that when it is turned on. Although I am not sure how to achieve that or when it should take place in the start up sequence.



This compressor was replaced in 93
There are 3 accumulator strainer - filters? in the lines.


One on top and 2 lower. I was wondering if the top one was added when compressor was replaced.

I also had to resolder one of the water tube ends. I used silver solder. I also removed the plastic tube that holds those ends on if they break loose which could then flood the bilge. To remove squirted a lot of dish soap and water mix into the cooling tubes and managed to pull it out. I was thinking perhaps a nylon tie to the hose clamp or just dont worry about it. It was broken anyway and did not want to heat it when soldering and have it melt inside the cooling tubes.