chris in bc Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 I have an AP 960D frozen food vending machine with a tower for friendship! The serial number is 010503. The unit was not cooling and still is not cooling even after installing a new TEMP sensor for $80 bucks. The unit was turned on after the new Temp sensor and allowed to run. It never cooled, I checked the temp by pressing and holding the C/CE key......it displayed C1 ++/--. After 2 hours the machine still did not display a temp. The machine did not feel cool either. I can hear the fan, I can hear water dripping, glass door is heating. I have replaced the temp sensor so now I think it is time to replace the FDB ( food driver board ) located at the bottom left of the machine. INTERESTING TO MENTION; 3 weeks ago I did notice ice building up on the line covered in foam that enters the vendor. This line is found by opening the frozen food vendors' door, down on your hands and knees and on the right side below the sliding door is a line that is visible and then disappears into the machine...I did see some ice there. Any suggestions-I do think the Food driver board has been power surged and needs repair-but I do have a GFCI on the back--------? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 It sounds like your evaporator is frozen solid. The ice on the line into the cooling unit indicates it had been running nonstop for a long time, usually because of the frozen evap. You should have also had several Defrost Errors. Open the inner door and press the door switch then release it. Do you year the air duct flap in the cooling unit close (a tinny sound)? Press the door switch and do you have any airflow from the back of the machine? Release the switch and do you hear the flap close again? If there is no air flow and there is ice on the freon line into the unit then your evaporator is definitely frozen. This is most likely due to a failed evaporator fan. You will have to pull the unit out to diagnose it. Turn off the machine and tower and disconnect all harnesses from the power box on the left. Remove the power box (two screws at the top then lift it off of the lower mounts) then remove the vent screen and the two or four screws holding the condensing unit in place (two down into the cabinet floor through the front of the unit's base and maybe one in each end of the base). Route the door switch wires out of the way to the right so they don't get cut when pulling the unit out. Begin to pull on the sides of the unit to break it free from the machine, rocking it back and forth, slamming the base back in with your foot, anything to break the seal. This can be a royal pain in the golpher and you might have to work it for awhile. The top seal of the evaporator can stick to the styrofoam air plenum above it. If you can't break it loose, then pull out the bottom shelf and using a straight edge from the inside of the styro air plenum, run it between the styro surface and the vinyl seal to break the seal. You may damage the seal but DO NOT damage the styrofoam! When you get the unit out you will have to disassemble it to inspect the fan motor. If this is getting too far into the repair for you then you need to call a repair tech. By the way, hopefully you don't have the frozen cabinet on a surge suppressor. You can do that with the tower but not with a refrigerated machine. If you need more help with this, PM me with your phone number and I can walk you through it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris in bc Posted September 7, 2013 Author Share Posted September 7, 2013 So sounds like I will need to pull the cold pack out. 1) what am I looking for when I pull this unit out and how do I test it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Once you get it out, if it's frozen then it has to thaw. When defrosted remove the evaporator cover (where styro is). There is one screw on each side as well as one screw holding the compressor cover to the evap cover. Remove the white foam block between the evap and the air duct. Remove 2 screws on air duct and lift it out. Now check if the squirrel cage motor spins easily and freely - if not it needs to be replaced. Pull it out, regardless, after disconnecting its harness. Make sure all water has drained from the evap box. Make sure the heavy copper wire from the drain tube is secured under the end of the evaporator to heat the drain. Wipe out grime from the inside of the evap box and run hot water through the drain hose. Reinstall the (new) fan motor and properly route the harness through the hole in the evap bracket using the original bushing. Install the air duct and 2 screws. Install the foam block. If the orig fan was good, then you need to have the unit recharged. If the fan was the problem, then inspect the gasket on the bottom of the styro block - it must be intact. Reinstall the styro block and secure the metal cover with 5 screws. The top gasket must be intact with no gaps. Reinstall the unit in the mach in reverse order, start it up, and see if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorris1953 Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Have worked on one a couple of times..... I believe it has a squirrel cage evap fan motor. Very common for them to go out and not cheap. I think around $180..... This guy bought this frozen machine (if it is the same one) and had it shipped here and it didn't cool. So after several hours on the phone etc they decided it was the control board down in the bottom left side. They sent us one, we installed it and it still didn't cool. So I got to looking at the back of the control board and noticed it had 3 relays. In shipment these relays had been dislodged. Push them back in and away it went. Then a few months later it quit cooling. Evaporator fan motor out. Lucky me I had one of these units in the shop. So I sold him the fan motor for $100. I still have the unit but it needs gassed up. 404.... If it is the same unit and you find yourself in need let me know. I will make you a good deal. Just send me some pics of the unit and I will check it with the one I have. I have no need for it. Was just keeping it around for the compressor. Just the Compressor will run you around $200 to $250 plus having someone install it. So could run up to around $500 if it is bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris in bc Posted September 8, 2013 Author Share Posted September 8, 2013 So it looks like I am pulling the cold pack out. After this is done how do I test the squirrel cage motor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 The only way to test the unit out of the machine is to purchase a test harness from AP. I use one to bench test every unit I work on. The main test for the evap motor is to see if it spins freely. They quite often begin to bind up in the bearings and sometimes actually come apart on the free end. If the fan is working you will hear it open and close the duct flap as it turns on and off. If there is good airflow up the back of the machine then the fan is fine. Of course, you won't have the air flow if the evap is frozen. If you find it frozen you should force a manual defrost. If the defrost won't run long enough to melt the ice or runs forever without melting the ice then you have a heater problem, thermistor problem, or the defrost relay is not working. Again, have you had any defrost errors, heath errors, can you see when the defrost cycles ran and for how long? If the baffle door hangs open or there is a gap between the leading edge and the inner door, you can freeze the evaporator, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris in bc Posted September 8, 2013 Author Share Posted September 8, 2013 So the 960 frozen food is running, lights are on, no errors. I opened the two doors on the machine and felt nothing after sticking my hand inside the machine 2 days ago. Now here are some facts- 1) The machine had been unplugged for 7 days-I plugged it in and came back to check to see if the beast was cooling-I felt no cold air what so ever! 2) I can hear the water dripping or what I believe is water dripping or flowing through all those lines ( I am not refrig savvy 3) I am pretty sure I did not hear the compressor "kick in" 4) Thanks for all your help what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Does the evap fan run when the inner door is open and you press the door switch? Is there strong air flow out of the rear vents toward the top of the cabinet? Do you hear the air duct flap close when you release the door switch? If the machine is not at temperature for a specific period of time the health control will turn off the lights and inhibit vending. Three questions: is your machine programmed for -10 deg or lower, what period is set for the defrost cycles (interval hours), is the FDB temperature setting (Hi or Lo temp) set for Lo with the jumper? Because you don't see the lights go out and you get no error codes, perhaps you have this set for refrigerated temps. Being turned off for several days means it certainly wasn't frozen when restarted. You should not hear any dripping sound but there could be a whooshing sound through the freon lines, especially if it's low on freon. Even if you have low freon or even a bad compressor, the evap fan will still run and give you proper circulation in the cabinet. I hope it didn't run so long with low freon or a frozen evap that the compressor has failed. I will say that if you hear a whooshing sound, your compressor is running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris in bc Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 I will check all this out tomorrow and report back-thanks for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I had the same "sounds" coming from one of my AP320's. It was a pain to fix, and basically was beyond my capabilities. I did install a refrigeration upgrade kit for $400, to bring it up to a more reliable unit...however that did not solve the issue. Ultimately, I had to take the cooling deck to a repair facility. They had to replace the blower unit, replace the dryer and recharge the unit. If I remember correctly, the tech said that the "water" sound is an indication of a low Freon charge. Good luck! Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 I had the same "sounds" coming from one of my AP320's. It was a pain to fix, and basically was beyond my capabilities. I did install a refrigeration upgrade kit for $400, to bring it up to a more reliable unit...however that did not solve the issue. Ultimately, I had to take the cooling deck to a repair facility. They had to replace the blower unit, replace the dryer and recharge the unit. If I remember correctly, the tech said that the "water" sound is an indication of a low Freon charge. Good luck! Travis Luckily he won't have to put the evaporator box upgrade kit on as you did since he has a model 960 that is already built with the upgraded box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris in bc Posted September 14, 2013 Author Share Posted September 14, 2013 what is your address AZ vend-we talked on the phone yesterday! chris in BC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted September 14, 2013 Share Posted September 14, 2013 Chris, Email is sent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.