[kevink1955]

I have a Scotsman SCE170 under counter ice maker that is driving me crazy.

It makes a perfect evaporator plate of ice in 21 to 23 Minutes (within spec) goes into harvest where it should drop in about 2 minutes. It does not drop, the ice will hang onto the evaporator for the entire harvest (7min) by then most of it will be melted. Then the unit comes out of harvest what is left of the ice is so small it falls into the water trough.

Both the water drain (purge) valve and hot gas solinoid operate, you can hear the ice crack soon after the unit goes into harvest. It just will not let go of the ice, if I try to pull the ice off the evaporator at 4 to 5 min into the harvest it is still stuck and will not come off as 1 sheet.

I am thinking the plating on the evaporator is shot and that's why the ice is sticking. Anyone have any ideas, anything I have missed???

 

[Dowadudda]

yep

 

[wannafreeze]

I had an ice-o-matic that I got it going by pulling out the bottom horizantal bar of the bottom grid.the only thing is though the bottom cubes are double size.I don't change evaporators,just tell the customer to buy a new machine..
I will be checking a cornellius on monday just to condemn it too.two months ago replaced the txv.bottom grid is rusty.it stuck once one week after the repair.maybe I will sand it down to see if it will buy them some time.

 

[itsiceman]

If you can't pull the ice off at 4 or 5 min. your not heating up the plate. It is probably dirty too

 

[kevink1955]

The low side pressure does go up during harvest so I assume the hot gas solinoid is opening, the evaporator does make full cubes so I do not think it's undercharged. What else could cause the ice to stick.

 

[itsiceman]

Inefficient compressor, cond. fan not turning off, water purge valve not opening, flooding txv, cold ambient, hot gas valve not opening enough

 

[DoctorIce]

Make very sure the machine is level side to side and perhaps leaning forward a bit. Also the curtain has a tendency to not seat all the way down which causes weird problems.

 

[kevink1955]

Out of all the things listed the only thing I can aggree with would be "hot gas valve not opening enough"

I think I can rule out compressor ineficent and all other refrigeration problems as it makes a full evaporator of ice within the specified time. The condensor fan does shut down on harvest and the purge valve does dump.

The ice is just stuck, I have never seen a solinoid that did not open all the way but guess it could happen.

Anyone think it could be worn plating on the evaporator, I have 3 of these things and looked at the 2 that are working ok. I could not see any differance between evaporator condition but who knows. The 3 machines are in 3 diffrent buildings, the one that is giving me problems is on a diffrent water company than the other 2, makes me wonder about water conditions.

 

[itsiceman]

If you have access to the machines and a thermometer compare temps at the same points in the cycle like compressor discharge temp just before harvest on both machines.

 

[tbk]

Check the grip plates for loose, they are not supposed to move at all!
common failure and same problems on many of these 170's.
Oh and the new plate only cost $600.00 lol

 

[push 2 reset]

ice is more than likely forming in bettween the plastic grids that make up the evaporator causing it to do what you describe and this advice is only good if you did all the other checks that were told here. Just a question, why bother with this at all labor cost alone dictate that this machine should be scrapped it is not a problem that warrant futher trouble shooting the end result will be a high repair invoice so do yourself a favor and save a lot of greif, the customer will be much happier in the end rather thn trying a fix on an old machine

 

[kevink1955]

I aggree that it's not worth the time but they pay me to be here all day anyway. If it comes down to the Evaporator being bad then the machine will be replaced. I just want to be sure I am not missing something.

I am going to shoot temps and look at low side presure on one of the identical units before I give up on this one.

Been working on ice makers since KoldDraft had Float Chambers, always hated wating around for 1 or more cycles to see if it's fixed.

 

[idontgetit]

Dirty plate, ice forming other than on plate and bridging, grid seperation in that order if we are to assume that the harvest pressure is high enough.

Make sure the bridge is thick enough, I have seen the ice hang up when it was not heavy enough to pull loose of the vacuum pulled when it tries to seperate.

 

[yotaman16]

not fimilur with this model but does it use water asisted harvest?? and is that working properly... Correct water pressure to unit.. I had a new manitowoc under counter that used water assisted harvest and the unit wouldn't harvest.. They used a piercing valve to bring thge water to the machine and it wasn't open all the way and unit wasn't getting enough water.. To check if its the harvest valve not opening enough put a thermoter on each side and see if theres a difference in temp, and make sure the head pressure is where it needs to be

 

[Biblepoet]

Argghh! Somebody said the K word(Koldraft) (Rube Goldberg POS that they were/are)

B -

 

[kevink1955]

Argghh! Somebody said the K word(Koldraft) (Rube Goldberg POS that they were/are)

B -

Who would have thought that you could hang a container of water on a sump pump switch and figgure out how thick the ice was. Wasted more time seting them up.

But what about the old Scotsman (round cubes) It was a upside down ice tray with a rotating spray bar. They used to wear the drive lugs off, the gear motors would break the mounting bolts. They had Copeland Semi's and weighed a ton. They where fun

Anyway, I got back to the SCE 170 today. Someone had turned it back on and now the compressor is locked up so it's off to the scrap heap.

 

[Biblepoet]

Who would have thought that you could hang a container of water on a sump pump switch and figgure out how thick the ice was. Wasted more time seting them up.

But what about the old Scotsman (round cubes) It was a upside down ice tray with a rotating spray bar. They used to wear the drive lugs off, the gear motors would break the mounting bolts. They had Copeland Semi's and weighed a ton. They where fun

Anyway, I got back to the SCE 170 today. Someone had turned it back on and now the compressor is locked up so it's off to the scrap heap.

ah yes the AC25's and so on....methinks you should rethink your defintion of "fun"

B-

 

[bv6230]

loose grid

Check the grip plates for loose, they are not supposed to move at all!
common failure and same problems on many of these 170's.
Oh and the new plate only cost $600.00 lol

had same problem with loose grid ......had sweated back together saved alot of $$$$$

 

[schmuck]

had same problem with loose grid ......had sweated back together saved alot of $$$$$

What did you use to "sweat" it back together?

 

[Tommy knocker]

I aggree that it's not worth the time but they pay me to be here all day anyway. If it comes down to the Evaporator being bad then the machine will be replaced. I just want to be sure I am not missing something.

I am going to shoot temps and look at low side presure on one of the identical units before I give up on this one.

Been working on ice makers since KoldDraft had Float Chambers, always hated wating around for 1 or more cycles to see if it's fixed.

Shoot temps? Not with laser I hope. Hard to get accurate temp off of copper pipe with infared. IMO. If ice can't be pulled off after 4 min then it's frozen to something that is not getting hot gas. Even with plating issues after 4 min you should be able to pull it off. Unless its so scaled up heat won't transfer enough on side walls of grid. Have you cleaned it?