Traulsen Commercial Refrigerator build

[usaftrevor87]

Well, I wish I could say it's up and running great, but having problems with off gassing from the insulation. Now I don't trust the insulation so it has to go. Which means dismantling the whole project. Wish I used screws instead of rivets. Pretty bummed right now, haven't touched it in days.

Damn that sucks... Maybe I should rethink my idea of using original insulation and rivets...
How did you know it was gassing of? Smell?

 

[nevrsummr]

Look under my posts for off gassing. There is a longer explanation there. My plan was to keep it under 225, but I tried to exceed that for burn in so that anything burning between 225 and 250 would already be burnt off.

Temp spikes are fairly common though, the smell was pretty bad and it has now coated the inside of my smoker, which means I get to scrub everything down again. After getting sick from it I decided it's just not worth the risk. Say I had a flare up, would have to throw out whatever was in there.

It's a real bummer because it's a lot of work to get it out, and then re-support everything because the foam is the structure.

The good news is once I get it all out of there, I will now have a smoker that can handle any temps.

 

[usaftrevor87]

Oh yea the foam is nasty stuff if heated. That sucks man...

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 11, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 11, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 11, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 11, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 11, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

Well, only about 2 hours and the insulation is gone. Going to pressure wash it to get a little more out if possible. Then the fun part. How to get it back together

 

[nevrsummr]

If you look at the burnt insulation in the pics, it shows an important point. One I missed. It doesn't matter if you keep the box under 200 degrees, the element will far exceed that in order to get the box temp there.

Glad it's gone good riddance

 

[usaftrevor87]

Glad it's gone & over though!

 

[nevrsummr]

Yea, me too. Pressure washed it today and picked up some parts to be able to put it back together. Ended up finding Castors for it that were the exact thread pattern as the original legs! They came with this crazy cool piece of equipment I have no idea what it was. But some neat parts I plan to use. See pics.

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 12, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

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• nevrsummr
• Jan 12, 2016

 

[nevrsummr]

There is a heat exchanger with 2 120v fans. Some kind of stainless tank. Switches, din rail, din rail components, a main breaker with enclosure. All sorts if usable stuff

 

[usaftrevor87]

Dude that is a gold mine!
Hook those fans up & you have a make shift dehydrator as well! Lol

 

[nevrsummr]

Heck yea. Any idea what I could use the heat exchanger for. It has 3/8 feed lines through it.

 

[usaftrevor87]

Not a clue lol
I guess I'm not entirely sure on how a heat exchanger works, mechanically speaking

 

[nevrsummr]

Basically the same thing as the radiator in your car. You can use it to pull heat out of the lines creating hot air, or you could run cool water through it and create cool air, or you can run it in a way that pulls the temp from the ambient environment and transfers it to the lines.

 

[usaftrevor87]

Oh dang... Sounds fancy haha