I have the opportunity to grab an older BM23 for $75, but there is not much information available about it. It has not been used in a couple of years, but the seller plugged it in and it still gets "cold" but no idea on the temp. I don't need the tower , regulator, or taps as this will be a nitro set up and I have ordered new parts. The interior is beat up while the exterior is in decent shape. I like a project and have read that these things are tanks. Just curious if it is worth the effort cleaning this thing up and gambling on it being in okay mechanical shape? Does anything look really problematic in the interior? Appreciate any feedback. I am completely new to this.
Unfortunately the seller is not on site and for the $75 asking price is not going to travel to where it is stored to further test it. He plugged it in a week ago and that cup of water was cold the next day. I would think that if there was a leak in the refrigerant that after two years of being in storage, it wouldn't get cold. Is that the case generally? The interior looks pretty bad, so I didn't know if I would be able to clean it up and get rid of the rust. From reading some more posts on here last night, it seems like people have had some success restoring these old BM23's. It does come with a commercial size keg so I figured at worst I am out maybe $30 if I bring it home and it doesn't get down to proper temperature.
If you are adventurous you can make this work. But be aware that a refrigerator that does not get cold is an expensive brick. It certainly can be fixed by any competent HVAC technician. Call you local refrigeration contractor and ask how much a compressor service for a Beverage Air would cost. There you go. It is not so much a refrigerant leak but a possibly worn out compressor. BM-23s are legendary but like any mechanical device it will wear out. Especially if it has been abused. Don't worry so much about the interior rust. It is fairly common and the galvanized surfaces tend to begin to show rust as soon as a keg is put inside. Check the door gaskets too, though that is a pretty easy fix. The fan needs to run strong. The unit must be able to cool below 38 and not be running continuously. The t-stats give out but also a quick and easy fix. Cheers
Thank you very much for the advice. I am going to get it this weekend. I will update the thread when I have it home and running.
Well, I got it home. My friend can return the keg to his distributor for $50, so I am only out $25. Unfortunately the evaporator fan won’t run. I have a 5 gallon bucket in their now and will take the temperature in the morning. Will the evaluator fan not running cause the water not to get down to temperature?
I tried to get the evaporator fan going, but it won’t spin. The motor is locked up. Had ice on the coils so I shut it down and will order a new motor.
I got it cleaned up some yesterday. Despite my scrubbing of the interior, there is still an hydrocarbon/oil smell from the interior. I don’t know if there is an oil leak that i can’t see, but I don’t want to take off the cover over the evaporator coils.
I’m going to do a big update in a bit, but I got the new motor and then needed to order a new fan blade and bracket as my older versions didn’t match. I had to do some modifications to the bracket, but got it to fit. Plugged it in and put a 6 gallon bucket of water in it. Got down to 38 degrees after 24 hours. Going to clean up the interior some more and we will see how long this lasts.
Ok, so I need more help. I got everything working and reinstalled everything, but apparently at some point in the process the thermostat gave out on me. The compressor wouldn’t cycle on when I plugged it in. I bypassed the thermostat and it started up immediately. So my main question is do I need to replace the thermostat or can I just use a plug in digital controller? If I use the plug in digital controller I’m assuming the evap and compressor fans will always run together. Is this a problem? Does the evap fan run separate from the condenser fan with normal operation?
Yes. Either. Replacement is easy and cheap too. No problems. The outboard t-stat will turn off all power to the unit when it switches off, as if it were unplugged from the receptacle. They run at the same time. It is very easy to replace the internal t-stat on a BM-23. There are a few different varieties. Just unscrew the plate holding it up, inspect the model number and order a new one. They are drop fit. It is likely one of a few kinds of a Honeywell. Good luck.
I ordered a internal mechanical replacement as they were cheap. Does the evaporator fan only run when the condenser is on in normal operation or does it run past when the condenser cuts out to defrost the evap coils? That is my only concern with the digital controller. Thanks for the info.
I'm not 100% certain but 99% sure the fan only kicks in when the compressor is running. Unless it was hotwired at some point. The tower cooler however is 24/7/365. Cheers
Got the new thermostat in yesterday. Was a breeze to install though my old knob doesn’t fit with the new thermostat. Stuck a couple of 2 gallon jugs of water in there last night and cranked it to the coldest setting since previously the lowest I got it was 38 degrees after 48 hrs. I checked on it this morning and in less than 10 hours the bottles had frozen about 60%. So after replacing the evaporator fan motor and the thermostat as well as cleaning the condenser coils, this thing is working great! The condenser fan is a bit noisy, but it stays in the garage. Overall I ended up getting it for $25 and put about $100 in parts into it.
