Manitowoc Indigo IY0324A-161 T3 T4 Long Harvest

[guest]

Sorry you’re right, wrong tag. IY0504A-161 is the model of the ice maker.

[fixbear]

Now we know that you have a Indgo series half dice, single evaporator, sigle TXV,  500 pound, air cooled single phase machine.  Great  Now you have obviously been in the service menu to read the thermistor temps.  But the question is why?  Do you have a event code E-number?  Like E01 or E02?  Or perhaps a 1 or 2 safety shutdown?  If so, make sure to let me know what firmware version you have.

 

Now the vast majority of ice machine problems come from a lack of proper cleaning.  With Manitowoc cleaner  Anything other will shorten the evaporator life and cause harvest problems.  Often when there is a problem a good-proper cleaning will solve it.  Troubleshooting a ice machine requires a complete evaluation of all the conditions.  After cleaning, does:

    the ice sheet form complete and even?

    Is the ice bridge about 1/8 inch thick? 

   Is the air filter clean and the condenser clean?. 

   Is the water sensor clean?

   Is the machine level both front to back and left right?

   Is the incoming water below 70F and adequate pressure?

   Is the water filter clean and in date? 

   Is the ambient air temperature below 90F?

   Is the evaporator/bin curtain fully closed and does lifting is open the reed switch?  (3rd LED at top left of board)

   Is water going down the drain from the water reservoir during the freeze cycle?

   Are water drains separate and vented?

 

Now, the thermistor values are only valid at certain points in the cycle.  Like T3 (inlet) and T4 (outlet) are the evaporator in and out and can only become useful 5 minuet’s into the freeze cycle.  T1 is the liquid line from the condenser and should never read more than 20 degrees above ambient temp.  T2 is the compressor discharge line. and is used during harvest to make sure that the temp stay’s above 150.  On bigger machines they are different.  Gere rally the display will flash and show a triangle if you have a thermistor fault. If it shows a 476F, that means the thermistor has a short.  Usually rubbed thru or pinched somewhere. Open would be a -22F.  The other ones have to be measured with both a temp probe and a ohm-meter. They must be within 10%

 

This is the service manual for all cubers, Make sure your reading for your model.;

https://www.partstown.com/modelManual/MAN-Indigo_sm.pdf

[guest]

Thank you for all the info. I will get this to our maintenance guy and let you know what we find out.

[guest]

Aloha,

    We started looking at the codes when we noticed the warning triangle on the display. We do not have an E code showing up. Display software is REV 3.01 and main software is REV 5.002. answer to most of your other questions is yes except for water sensor does need to be cleaned. We have an order in for the cleaner and will clean the machine as soon as that arrives. Thank you for the education you are give my maintenance guy and myself on these machines. It is greatly appreciated.

-Adam

[olivero]

As Fixbear mentioned above.

 

Cleaning is crucial, I’ve had multiple machines with harvest errors where it needed to be cleaned, also one thing I find more than not is the harvest probe getting scaled up to the point that the surface is uneven, sand it or clean it and it fixes it.

 

Had one just last week, cleaned it about a month ago, problem went away, 2 weeks later it acted up again (i forgot to clean the ice harvest probe) so I took it out and cleaned it, solved it so far.

 

A lot of times, it’s very simple.

[fixbear]

olivero wrote:

 

Cleaning is crucial, I’ve had multiple machines with harvest errors where it needed to be cleaned, also one thing I find more than not is the harvest probe getting scaled up to the point that the surface is uneven, sand it or clean it and it fixes it.

 

Sand it?  Never ever use any abrasive on the probes.  It makes microscopic scratches that change the available surface area and thereby the sensing conductivity.  It also makes for a quicker buildup of scale deposits witch in turn requires more often cleaning and sensing problems.  Soak them for a good 10 minutes or more in Manitowoc cleaner solution. 

 

This is what Manitowoc recommends;

[olivero]

Well i’ll be darned.

 

I never had a problem doing it that way but I guess it’s better to follow their way.

[guest]

Aloha,

   We cleaned everything with the ice machine cleaner and we still have T4 showing 475. So should we replace that one. Other than that it is producing ice of pretty good quality and consistency. It did take a day to get back to making quality ice again. We still do have that fault triangle symbol but no e codes as of yet. We are on the Big Island of Hawaii and refrigeration techs are either crazy expensive, un-reliable and/or not that good at most machines. Your advice and this site in general are extremely beneficial to us to learn how to fix this kind of things ourselves. We are ever so grateful.

Thanks

[fixbear]

The triangle does mean a thermistor fault

[fixbear]

Think of it like the wind is water and the probe is a flat plain. Now when it snows. the wind will keep it fairly clear.  Now we go to irregular terrain and we get drifts. That’s what one does to the probe with sandpaper.  Even a brown or green scrounge.  Blue is ok, but a toothbrush works well in the solution.