[lesstutrey]

So i bought a SS a year or two ago from NCSpecV, who was dumping off all his extreme cooling gear. I got a great deal on it.. because he neglected to tell me that when he got it from scott it had leaked, and he apparently got pissed off and kicked the thing. Bottom line is that it wasn't working and the case was endlessly beat up. I had him ship it to scott so he could do the work he was going to do for NCSpecV who just never bothered sending it in to have it fixed. When he sent it to scott he did a terrible job packaging and i was shown pictures of how it arrived. But all was good, he fixed the leak, replaced the homemade SLHX with a commercial SLHX and got it to operational mode and i was only out 420$ (120$ more than what i expected due to repairs). I received the unit and saw why i kept getting told i'm just fixing it so it works, not doing cosmetic repairs. Seriously, i wonder what the original owner did to the thing. It really looks like someone got mad at it and beat the every loving crap out of it. So i turned it on and it pulled to -46 (which is really all the more the condenser is capable of) and then took apart the case, stuck it on a shelf and kinda let it sit. I pulled it down twice just to make sure i didn't blow anything.

So i've been bit by the cold bug (i think winter does it to me) again and i've been getting some stuff preped for some subzero fun. Found a friend with a trailer, so i can go get my dewar filled. I will finally have ln2, wooot. But in prep i figured some SS work would be useful before i did ln2. I love SS for that reason, it really lets you max out your board, maybe not the processor.

So i went to turn this on sunday and no dice. I noticed a loose butt splice, so i pulled the ends out and quickly twisted them together to try and get it to start, but still a no go. I noticed that another butt-splice had come undone (i don't use them for this reason) but i didn't really have time to fix anything else. So i came back last night and hooked up that wire and blamo, thing turns on. Only.. the fans weren't connected. So i quickly hoooked them up and watched my DT pull only to -36. What the heck? It's sat around long enough that if it has a leak, it shouldn't be pulling down pretty much at all. So i got sad and dejected and started pricing r410a (about $250 for a 25lb tank and a manifold, could get epa 608 cert, am thinking of joining HVAC union if this college thing doesn't pan out, due to family connections). But while i was doing that i was just thinking, seriously, wtf a leak? That thing has sat WAY too long for it to only have leaked off an oz or two of gas. Then i remembered something about this unit, it has two k-probes on it. It used to have an external display so one is for that (the display has a broken leg on a resistor that i need to fix, and then i think it's good) and the other was for your DT or whatever since they are more accurate. Plugged it into the one for the display, watched it pull down to -46 and I was happy. I called it a night after realizing the key-ring on the evap head was too frozen to get off so i can position the other k probe.

So since i gotta move this probe... should i mount it on the evap with electrical tape or on the suction line? I noticed the one i was getting -46 was on the top of the evap head reading off the top i think (couldn't tell without taking off the key..). Also, since i don't have a key-ring tool, what the heck should i use to take the key off with?