Aluminum evaporator repair

[rastamon]

Ok, I did it. Nicked the aluminum evaporator and lost refrigerant. Any suggestions on repair? I've been told JBWeld. In the Bahamas and trying to work this out. Suggestions?

[ColdEH]

That sucks . Yes jb weld should do it . It must be super clean and rough sanded . Make sure you don't plug the passage with glue and most important don't get sanding dust inside the passages , they will work there way around and plug your cap tube or filter drier . Do you have a good guy to evac the system and recharge ?

Regards

[a64pilot]

JB weld is as good as anything, but I'm afraid you will end up replacing it soon, if there is one available, don't even bother with the repair attempt.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by rastamon

Ok, I did it. Nicked the aluminum evaporator and lost refrigerant. Any suggestions on repair? I've been told JBWeld. In the Bahamas and trying to work this out. Suggestions?

When my daughter was very young we carried ice cream bars in the rectangular evaporator plate compartment near the top outboard side of the fridge. Unfortunately, sometimes the bottom layer would freeze to the surface of the plates, making extracting a bar problematic. Unfortunately, she--then 7 or 8--decided the use a steak knife to "chisel" a bar she wanted free. She did get her ice cream bar but also managed to punch a small hole in the evaporator plate.

As a temporary measure (that subsequently lasted another 8-9 years) I cleaned the--by then room temperature--evaporator up, lightly sanded the area over and around the obvious hole with fine sand-paper and used a portable 12v shop vac to remove the sanding debris, wiped the area clean with 90% alcohol from our medical cabinet and when it was dry, applied some epoxy resin (the material that comes in the West System Patch kits) to the area and over laid the hole with a slightly larger than postage stamp sized piece of fiberglass cloth from the patch kit, pre-saturated with epoxy. Once that all kicked off and became quite hard, I sanded the surface smooth with fine sand paper and used a little white "Enamel Repair" paint to cover it with. Our refrigeration tech came by the boat to recharge the system and expressed skepticism with the repair but it held, and continued to hold for another 8-9 years, until the compressor in our, then 19 year old, unit gave up the ghost and we replaced the whole system.

FWIW...

[rastamon]

Yes, found a refrigeration guy in Marsh Harbor. Has gauges and refrigerant. Not sure how qualified he is but I am in the islands and I broke it so, no problem. Pretty difficult to order in parts here and we're cruising so hope to temporary it for a few months. Thanks for the heads up⛵️[emoji227]

[rastamon]

I would be happy with a year! I didn't think of the cloth patch. Probably help keep epoxy from infiltrating the line.