Frigoboat help

[Snboard976]

I have a keel cooled frigoboat system that is acting up. Evaporator plate is getting cool, but no frost is forming. On the thermostat I get a reading of 124 degrees. The green light is on and flashes three times which I belive indicates good voltage. The red light is off, but flashes three times which I believe is an error code.

Any ideas about the cause or how to trouble shoot it would be much appreciated.

[Snboard976]

The controller has the same light pattern.

[ColdEH]

How long have you had or how old is the system ?

This is what Richard Kollmann says about the 3 flash code

<li style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1" class="MsoNormal"> Danfoss and system assemblers tell us 3 and 4 flashed error codes of LED indicates compressor problems with the Rotor Blocked mechanically or Refrigerant pressure too high. After testing many variable speed BD modules ,I now know that there are failures inside a control module that will trigger the 3 flash error codes even though the refrigerant charge and compressor are fine. Resent problems prove that poor ground wires have triggered three flash error codes. The most common cause of Danfoss BD compressor three flash error codes are excessive refrigerant charges and contaminated gas vapors, such as air or test nitrogen which were not properly evacuated at the company assembling kits. Also Internet reports show most three LED codes occur after a service technician adds too much refrigerant. <li style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1" class="MsoNormal">


Regards

[a64pilot]

I believe you can also get a three flash code from a little corrosion or anything that will give you reduced current, I think it's because as voltage drops, amperage goes up and the three flash code is actually an over amp code?
Take a known charged 12V battery and wire it direct with a short piece of say 10Ga wire to the controller, bypassing all boat wiring, if that makes it work, then the fault is with the boat's wiring, a little corrosion of a slightly loose terminal is all it takes.

Its been my experience that electrical problems are often with the ground wire, but we always seem to focus on the power supply wire, but of course you need the ground to complete the circuit

[paccrest]

I had a keel cooler Frigoboat system that repeatedly acted up this season until I finally got tired of it and replaced the 15 year old system. Here is what I learned during several repair sessions with marine refrigeration professionals as they tried to diagnose the problem. You didn't say anything about pressures but I will assume that you are having a similar problem. At random times my high pressure side would go very high while the low pressure side would drop into a vacuum. When the compressor is on the low side should be around 3-5 psi and the high somewhere around 130-150...ish. If the high side goes too high and the low drops into a vacuum you have blockage in the capillary tube. At that point my SSC controller would kick out a 3 blink red light code indicating there was a problem with the compressor, however, it was not a compressor issue. My system was vacuumed out several times, there was no moisture and we had hoped that any foreign matter was also sucked out. After vacuuming the system it would run good for a few days or a few weeks then it would act up again. Here is our theory on what was happening. We believe that the tubing that runs through the condensor (in this case the keel cooler) had started to deteriorate with age and very, very small scales were flaking off and circulating through the system. The capillary tube is extremely small, the ID being around 4-5 thousandths. Sometimes that scale would flow through the system without a problem but other times it might get caught sideways in the capillary and block the system. At one time it took almost 400psi of nitrogen backflow pressure to clear it. Other times a small squirt of refrigerant did the job. If your problem sounds similar to mine I would be happy to talk to you about it but most likely, if your keel cooler is older, you will continue to experience problems until it is replaced and unless you are in cold water cruising grounds I would suggest going to a more reliable air cooled condensor. It was not cheap but I have been a very happy captain ever since! Let me know if you want to chat more about it.