In this month’s troubleshooting problem, the equipment is a reach-in food and beverage storage unit that is designed to maintain a cabinet temperature of 40°F. The restaurant manager’s description of the problem is that the unit seems to run constantly, yet doesn’t keep items as cool as they should be. She also said that the unit has only been in service for a month.
The design of this equipment, shown in Figure One, employs both a finned evaporator and condenser, a perimeter hot tube to prevent cabinet sweating in a humid environment, and a capillary tube metering device that is also attached to the suction line in order to create a heat exchanger.