MY Custom Sealife CHILLER DIED!!!!

[misereef]

Dose any one know if any company has taken over repairs for Custom Sealife? My 1/3 HP chiller died this morning (of coarse at 3:30 in the morning). It tripped my GFCI, and all pumps went onto battery backup, luckily I heard the ups beeping. Anyhow, I took it to a mechanical shop, and they said that the compressor had froze..... I have really only had it in use for 1 1/2 years... $700 down the drain :( People offered to fix for only $650... Forget it!! bought an aqualogic unit this morning.

Has anyone ever had any issue with these units?

[Achilles1882]

never a single problem with mine.... csl 1/3hp and it's like 5 yrs old....sorry to hear about your trouble though...

[misereef]

Yeah, I dont know what caused unit to freeze up. My tank is steadily rising in temp (80.1 in morn, now 81.0) I have my T3 & T4 velocity pumps dumping about 200 watts of heat into tank. I turned off my halides for the day, new chiller will not show up till next week, Ouch...

Thanks for the info

[dougc]

You could check with Tradewinds (http://tradewindchillers.com/contact.html) . The guy who used to build chillers for CSL now does the same for Tradewinds.

[misereef]

Nice! Thanks for the reply, I will try and give them a call, If I fix, I guess it will be my backup! Thanks!!

[wbeavers]

I have CSL chiller at home on a fresh water system, but it has a stainless steel evaporator coil. Stainless rusts in saltwater, If it rusted out the whole system is shot. If not you can have a new compressor installed. Also make sure you have a suction line filter dryer installed to remove any contaminents that may have gotten into the system when the compressor gave out.

[misereef]

This unit is a Titanium evaporator, I don't know what happened in the middle of the night, but it just hums now, and the overload device clicks... sigh

But that is a very good point about the suction line filter; I think I may just send the unit down to be repaired, rather than spending $700.

Thanks for the info.

[wrasse101]

wanna sell it ???? Just thought I'd ask.:D

[RustySnail]

FWIW; I prefer the Aqualogic unit to the CSL. The CSL I had for a short time was loud, the hose for the probe was very inflexible (must be solid copper tube inside), and the SS probe rusted (sent it back due to that). Check the condenser coil for dust build-up it's possible that it is clogged and the unit is not getting proper cooling of the "freon".

So I ended up with an Aqualogic 1/3 HP, it works much better; nicer compressor, hose, and coil. If I were to choose between spending 600 on fixing a CSL and 700 on a new Aqualogic I would go for the Aqualogic.

Also if you want to keep your tank from overheating until you can get a new chiller, cut your pumping down by 1/2 if you can; and cut the hours the halides light the tank down by 1/2 also. Run your lights during the evening/night and keep the room well ventilated and fan the tankwater to get additional evaporative cooling. I think Bay Area Ace Hardware is having a sale on fans so you might check out their weekend sale paper.

[wbeavers]

It sounds like a stuck compressor, Sometimes a hard start will work to unstick it. 1 in 20 chance. Also occasionally a good smack to the side of the humming compressor will unstick it.

[misereef]

I thought about that, but then I thought if I have to do this, I can't be around 24 hours to beat it... I sent it off to today to the manufactures to repair. I guess it will only cost around 300$... I feel a little better, they are going to clean all, and put a vacuumed side filter and replace compressor. Sad to say I am doing this after only about of 14 months of actual run time. But thanks for the thought!