Sparta_Automation Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 ok, I have an AP320 Freezer unit. It works about 99% of the time...but that 1% I have to throw away all of the food, as it has turned on the health shutdown and the temp is about 45 degrees, not -15 as normal. It will work for about 2 weeks before failing, and it has done it 4 times now. There are no errors other than the health shutdown. Looking at the machine I thought that maybe it was too close to the wall, it was about 8 inches, so I moved it out to about 20 inches, still failed after about 2 weeks. I thought that maybe I had a filter clogged, cleaned all filters, cleaned the grill in front of the compressor....and again it worked for about 2 weeks before failing. Once failed, if I leave it alone for a day (roughly), the machine starts working just fine again. I also thought that it's not sealing correctly, so I checked all of the door seals and it looks fine (and I would have expect it to fail all of the time if the seal is not correct). Last time it failed, and previously one other time, I noticed that the insulated pipe on the front of the compressor had ice on it, which is probably the issue, but don't understand why it takes so long to manifest....and more importantly how to fix. Is it just a low freon issue, or an indication that the compressor is having issues? Any help would be appreciated. thanks Travis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted October 27, 2009 Share Posted October 27, 2009 Its froze up. I have 5 of these. There is a lot of little things youy need to fix to get this machine working. Do you know how to pull the cooling deck out of the machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparta_Automation Posted October 27, 2009 Author Share Posted October 27, 2009 Yep, I can pull the deck out. What do I need to do to fix this unit...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 If it has a ball stop drain remove it. if you are looking at the back of the cooling deck you will see the drain on the left. Beside by the compressor. Get a piece of solid copper wire not real thick. About what you would wire a house with. Remove the top cover off the cooling deck and make sure that water will drain out. I have always took a shop vac and cleaned it out when doing this it will help to keep this running. Put a bend in the wire and feed it in the drain from the outside and wrap the wire around the heater under the evap coils then wrap it around the compressor line that stays hot. This is the part no one likes install cooling deck. Remove the bottom shelf then make the machine unleavel. Then pour water down the evap coils. Till I starts to drain. I know that sounds bad but it works you may have issues with the door closing but that's takes care of it going down since I did this I have not had one go down Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Check your fan motor inside the cooling. deck. Check that the heater is working. The reason that this happens is that the cooling deck drain is in the wrong spot. When this machine goes in defrost mode. The ice that melts falls off and re freezes in the drain and then every defrost mode the ice gets bigger till it hits the fan and locks it up then the machine is down. with the wire in place in defrost it gets hot and with it on the compressor it stays warm enough to melt any thing left after the defrost mode. You want the machine to lean back and you want the right back side to be lower then the rest of the machine so the water will drain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snack dude Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 I have to say that I do not have one of these machines but that is one of the best fixes I have ever read. Nice job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Well thanks snack dude. Its the only thing that I have found to fix the freeze up with these machines. I was just waiting for some one to call my way crazy for fixing this machine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IVEND11 Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 Sparta. Have you had any luck fixing that machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I have just bought a used AP 320 with 310 control module it reads out of service the 320 cools down right away to -7 F read from a tempertute gage i put on one of the racks. I want to use it as a frozen mach i have the temperature control jumper set at F. Before I got it was used as a no. 2 mach. I have had FNB jumper set to C1 and C2 unpaired and paired. back and forth till Im blue in the face. The motors never have turned not once going though the tests. And when I change the temp I it is always at -7 F I suspect that its realy -15 F the defult jumper seting and my tem gage is off. Its like the 310 is not talking to the 320. The only thing I can say for sure is when I flip the 310 on in a minute or 2 the 320 fires up every time and cool right down like clock work. I have open and close the frezzer door thinking it might. Thinking the health reset this has not worked . I have unpluged the 320 so the 310 could reconize it. I have reset to factory defult or I thinkist Machine reset in Security Menue Heading. And when i press any selection display reads invalid choice. when in the 110 range or 210 and so forth. One thing I know about this 320 and 310 is that they were not runing together in the past. I could be wrong but I dont think its bad equipment there is some damage to the communication wiering harrness goes through the meatal mess but none of th wires are damaged. Any ideas would be kindly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Feral Vending Mechanic Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 It's not helpful, but man o man do I hate those machines. One thing to check is the cable that runs between the two machines. If the machines get banged around and the wire is a little loose, it can easily have a machine's leg smash down on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Man o Man I do like those machines but that's because I know what makes them tick and how to keep them working well. If there is damage to the insulation of your umbilical harness then you may easily have unseen damage inside the harness. You obviously have most of the wiring intact or the frozen cabinet wouldn't fire up or cool at all but I'll bet you have damage to some of the wires that lead to the motor matrix. The harness is a combination of MDB and other communication wires as well so I'd say the MDB part is good but the other parts aren't. There is also a possibility of a bad logic board or Food Driver Board though the FDB normally works or it doesn't, leading to the main logic board in the 310 possibly being the cause. Try another logic board and a different umbilical harness, not at the same time, of course. If one fixes it then you know what was wrong. One other thing to check is the coin mech and validator harnesses. There were some towers that had a micro-mech coin mech harness in it. You can't mix micro-mech and MDB in this machine so if you were to use a micro-mech coin mech and an MDB validator you will confuse the board and cause havoc in the machine. If you find this then change it all over to MDB. I have all parts for this so if you need anything you can PM me for it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 AZVender. How do I contact you for parts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted May 24, 2015 Share Posted May 24, 2015 You can PM me by hovering over my screen name and clicking on Send Private Message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I took the communication cable out and tested it for continuity and shorts it seems ok to me how ever there is substantial damage to the cover and probably need to be replaced, could you please give me a price and a hint what I could try next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 PM has been sent to you. Please check your PM box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HGreen Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 I have a similar problem as Sparta with my AP320.. I will give IVEN11's solution a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 (edited) That solution is a cheap crap shoot way to fix it. If you have an original evap box that is what your problem is. The updated fixes have been out for years. The original updates for the old boxes were new drain hose, new defrost bi-metal harness, new evaporator air plenum, new seals among other things. The last fix that AP came out with was a new evaporator box with a new fan design. This box has a shorter depth inside and a more pronounced slope inside toward the drain. There are also now aftermarket fans but they don't function any better, they just last longer. The only way to diagnose the issues is to pull the condensing unit out and diagnose it out of the machine. Go to the Downloads section and get the AP320 Troubleshooting Guide that I posted there. Edited April 10, 2019 by AZVendor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HGreen Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 This machine!! about 2 months ago our machine got a defrost error and shut down. Since then I've replaced the, defrost heater, drain tube and copper wire, the Bi-metal, the defrost relay, the power cord (because the GFI wouldn't reset) and the 6 port red connecter and pins (because there was burnt marks). This has the new fan which still works great and the newer deck refer box. What have I missed? I have an HVAC guy come out and gave it once over checking to connectivity and ohm and he couldn't find anything. I watched it all day yesterday and it would cool to -14 the compressor would shut off then kick back on at -8, and continue for several cycles then the GFI would trip. there was no error code. I cleared the old error codes and reset the GFI and ran a manual defrost, the defrost LED on the control board would come on solid red and about a min into the cycle the GFI would trip again. I decided to walk away for the night as the GFI would not reset. I did get a defrost error and then a health shut down, most likely because CAB 1 no longer had power. I will check the OMHs across pins 3 and 5 today during the defrost cycle, as that is the only thing I haven't done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lacanteen Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 If the GFI has tripped more that 3 or 4 times it has become weak. You will need a replacement 20A GFI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 Have you bothered to blow out your condenser and made sure the machine is 4 - 6 inches from the wall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HGreen Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 yes, I vacuumed and blew out every thing and it is 6" from the wall. It also has a brand new power cord. Just can find what keeps tripping it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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