# Walk IN freezer/cooler wiring method



## blue968

HI Guys,

I am wiring a restaurant walk in freezer and cooler. I have a couple of questions.

1. Is it requried to have liquidtight inside of the freezer/cooler?? I feel the answer is NO due to that fact that all of the connection on fans are not in a sealtight location. I understand I have to bring liquidtight into my switch supplying power for the timer and fans, but from there I should be ablt to switch to M/C. Am I corect???

2. I had ran a 10/3 to my disc outside for my compressor and taped off that to feed the heaters inside the freezer. The way I understand it is that the heaters and the condensor will never be on at the same time due to the interlocking timer. Am I corect??

3 Is it required to have a conveinace outlet inside of the freezer???

4. I had read on this forum that sombody had put the lights and door heater on a GFCI??? Is that mandtory??? 

I have very limited info on this freezer/cooler as far as wiring and specs. I have contacted the freezer manufacturer and they were no help at all. The HVAC guy will not tell me a thing and not even explain how this thing works. After reading alot about this I fugred out there is the solenoid on the coil located inside the freezer that controls the freon to the compressor and thats how it turn on an off eliminating any control wiring to the compressor.

Also the wiring diagram I have shows a 15 amp fused disc. taped of the 30A circuit to feed the fans in the freezer. Has anybody done this???

I would appreciate any guidance ont this.

Thanks


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## randomkiller

1) It needs to be liquidtite, no mc inside the box.
The NEC isn't the only code involved here it also has to meet sanitary regulations from the health department..

2) Partially correct, when the defrost heaters are on the compressor should be off unless the unit also has hot gas defrost as a first stage. 

3) You don't need a convenience outlet inside a walk in.

4) Never had to use a gfci for the mullion heaters or light.

Never had a 30 amp circuit for the fans inside the box most often they are very little amp draw.


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## alcoelectrical

randomkiller said:


> 1) It needs to be liquidtite, no mc inside the box.
> The NEC isn't the only code involved here it also has to meet sanitary regulations from the health department..
> 
> 2) Partially correct, when the defrost heaters are on the compressor should be off unless the unit also has hot gas defrost as a first stage.
> 
> 3) You don't need a convenience outlet inside a walk in.
> 
> 4) Never had to use a gfci for the mullion heaters or light.
> 
> Never had a 30 amp circuit for the fans inside the box most often they are very little amp draw.


I would like to add the necessity of an outlet for 'service' at the roof top of the box near the equip.


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## blue968

Thank You for your help.


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## MechanicalDVR

alcoelectrical said:


> I would like to add the necessity of an outlet for 'service' at the roof top of the box near the equip.


 
And a light fixture if it's out on the roof.


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## 480sparky

MechanicalDVR said:


> And a light fixture if it's out on the roof.


According to.....?


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## MechanicalDVR

480sparky said:


> According to.....?


 
That's the way it is in my neck of the woods.


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## nap

MechanicalDVR said:


> That's the way it is in my neck of the woods.


Is Rhode Island in your neck of the woods?

and what the hell does "my neck of the woods" mean anyway? I have always wondered about the woods having "necks".


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## randomkiller

nap said:


> Is Rhode Island in your neck of the woods?
> 
> and what the hell does "my neck of the woods" mean anyway? I have always wondered about the woods having "necks".


 
To the best of my knowledge on "woods" it refers to a "stretch" or area there of, if that helps you any one the definition. 
We have to have gfci outlets and lights on RTUs in most of the areas we work in.


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## blue968

HI Guys,

Thanks for the replies.
The walk in cooler/freezer is approx 8x10 for each. Also my condensors are located on the side of the building just like a residential condensor would be. I do have a conveinance outlet there.

Starting from the begining and please correct were needed.

1-In the cooler I have a 1.6A, 120V fan and outside I have a 95A LRC condensor

2-In the freezer I Have a 16.5A 208V defrost heater located under the fans which is connected to the time clock, 1.2A, 208V fans and also a 208, 1.3A receptacle for the heat tape.
The condensor has a 125 LRC (locked rotor curent) 208V

Sequence of installaton

1- this is What I did, I brought out to my cooler condenser a 12/3 and installed a disc and went straight to the condensor with 20A 208V 

2- I had brought over a 10/3 to my freezer condensor disc (located outside next to bld) went into the line side and came back out of the line side into my freezer timeclock thru a 20A double pole single throw switch (for disconnecting means). Off the line side of the switch I hit the 208V heater outlet for heat tape. Off the load side of the switch I hit the time clock and followed the schematic for the wiring the defrost heaters and fans. Off of memeory I hit the T-stat off the N and 4 terminal with the N passing straight thru the T-stat directly to the pressure valve which controls the flow of freon to the consensor which interns physically turns the consensor on and off by the flow of freon. Term 4 is broken on and off by the T-stat to power up the pressure vlave. 

Does this procedure sound correct??? 

My concern is that the equipment in the freezer box is protected by a 30 A breaker and does seem correct to me?? I had spent most of my day on Sunday reading the code book but its not very specific to walk in coolers??? Or im not understanding it which is possible.

Should I pull a seperate 20A 208V (12/2) to the Freezer time clock?? Now my concern would be that the heaters draw just over 16A (which already exceeds 80%) then I add the 208V outlet which is drawing just over Amp, Im afrais it will trip the breaker???

Thoughts

Regards 
Nelson


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## Norcal

One thing NOT to forget is sealing conduits between walk-in & other areas if you dont seal them you will be going back to do so when lighting fixtures fill w/ water and so on...


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## blue968

Thanks for the advice.
I sealed the top and bottom of each penatration with duct seal.

Thanks again


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## nap

you have to seal the conduits, like, inside of the conduit. It prevents warm moist air from travelling through the pipe into the cold where the moisture will condense.


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## blue968

Thanks for the reply,
I did do the inside and outside at the top and bottom of the liquidtight.

Thanks


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## Burnerfixer

*Defrost Time Clock Wiring for Electric Defrost*

208/220V using a Paragon 8145-20

*1-2 *L1, *N* L2, *3* Defrost Heater, *4 *System Control (pressure,temperature) *X *Defrost Termination.
Sorry have been of forum for a while.


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## JohnJ0906

nap said:


> you have to seal the conduits, like, inside of the conduit. It prevents warm moist air from travelling through the pipe into the cold where the moisture will condense.


Absolutely.

300.7(A), for what it's worth.


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## blue968

*Walk In freezer*

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, However the job is all done and finally over. (Thank God LOL)
Anyway everything worked out in the end but I have to say I had go back there a 1/2 dozen times becasuse the breaker kept tripping. Me not being 100% confident in my work because I never done 1 of theesse I was checking and rechecking and everytime it checked out fine.
Well come to find out the condensor/coil was low on freon and kept locking up and tripping the breaker. 
It so happened when I arrived the coil was already defrosted and and would run fine wich is why I thought it was my problem. Well on my last round going there I had seen the condensor/coil frozen like a huge ice block and you could hear the thing trying to pull in and try to run thus eventually tripping the breaker.
Lesson learned make sure the unit is filled w/freon (Have the guy ck again, because he told me it was allset but it wasnt) I ended up getting a big oops for a payment. I dont know about you guys but oops dont exactly pay the bills!!!

Thanks for all the help and hopefully this will help someone else in the future.


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## Burnerfixer

The condenser is outside. The coil inside is the evaporator, and the charge would have nothing to do with tripping the breaker.
What I see many times is when the _"defrost heater"_ burns out, it shorts to the evaporator housing. This will cause the breaker to trip.


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## blue968

*condensor*

HI,

Im not an A/C guy but what was happening was because of the low freon it was freezing up the condensor and would not allow the flow of freon and would lock up. This very same thing happened to my home condensor every year, I had to have the freon charged and eventually we found the leak and problem was solved. 
Dont know the actual mechanics and perhapes I am explaining it wrong but all I know is if your condensor is frozen solid in my experiance the system is most likely low on freon.


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## Burnerfixer

The Condenser is on the outside of the box as you stated.
If this was freezing it indicates a problem of refrigerant overfeeding.
Yes your home air conditioner may freeze up for low refrigerant charge as a/c's are considered "high temperature". Pressure lower due to leak, temperature lower hence freeze up.
Walk-in's are low to medium temperature. Usually some icing on lower temperature systems.
But again for the circuit breaker to trip from a low charge ? Someones giving you a line of crap. :blink:


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## knothole

Yeah, I've never seen a froze up condenser cause a breaker trip.


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## hvacguy

I'm wondering if there is anyone who can help me wire in a new freezer set up in an old freezer box? I'm an HVAC technician working on an addition in a restaurant. The owners have asked me to install the freezer which I have not done before.
Here is a list of the components I have to wire in . . .
1 FJAL-A390-CFV-0154 HP 208/230 1PH COND. UNIT
1 ELC-120BK 12,000 BTU EVAP 208/230 1PH
1 EXPANSION VALVE
1 THERMOSTAT
1 FAN CYCLE CONTROL
1 DEFROST TIMER
1 SOLENOID VALVE 
1 SOLENOID COIL
I cannot find a wiring diagram to show me how they all tie in together. I can figure it out but time is of the essence (They have a wedding there this weekend!) so any help would be great.


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## Bob Badger

How about you do the refrigeration and they hire an electrician to do the wiring?


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## RIVETER

knothole said:


> Yeah, I've never seen a froze up condenser cause a breaker trip.


Condensers don't freeze up.


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## Magnettica

Question, I'm not even going to pretend I've ever wired a walk-in cooler, do all those devices have to be field wired?


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## hvacguy

Yes sir. The owners went with the cheapest equipment possible. Hiring an electrician is not an option due to time. We live in a VERY small town without a local electrician. I understand if yuns can't help me. Apparently, wiring a walk-in freezer is hard for electricians, too!


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## Magnettica

hvacguy said:


> Yes sir. The owners went with the cheapest equipment possible. Hiring an electrician is not an option due to time. We live in a VERY small town without a local electrician. I understand if yuns can't help me. Apparently, wiring a walk-in freezer is hard for electricians, too!


 be sure to have the fire department on speed dial just in case :thumbsup:


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## wildleg

an hvac controls forum might be the best place to go


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## hvacguy

Yeah, I feel like I just walked into a biker bar without taking out my pocket protector!


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## Speedy Petey

hvacguy said:


> Yes sir. The owners went with the cheapest equipment possible.


Typical.




hvacguy said:


> Apparently, wiring a walk-in freezer is hard for electricians, too!


No, not really. It's just that folks should stick to what they know.


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