I run a recreation concession stand with a commercial air-cooled ice machine inside. It’s the classic problem - in the summer, the exhaust heats up the concession stand so hot that the air needed to cool the condensers is too hot causing it to stop making ice. I’ve found the key temperature to be 110. If it’s 110 degrees inside :eek:, it won’t make ice. Plus, makes for a miserable working environment.
Is there a reasonable way to vent the exhaust outside? There is a window nearby. I’m afriad if I fashion some duct work, it will cause the machine itself to overheat. I’ve also thought about an in-line fan to help pull the hot air along the ducts.
If you make a duct to carry the condenser’s hot exhaust air to the great outdoors, then fresh makeup air will be drawn into the interior of your stand through whatever other openings exist. This should work nicely to keep the interior of your vending stand much closer to ambient (not only is the waste heat from your ice maker being dumped outside, but so is any other heat from the interior of your vending stand).
The alternative would be to duct fresh outside air to the condenser’s air intake, and let it dump hot exhaust air to the interior of your vending stand. Your ice machine will perform just fine since it’s getting nice cool outside air for cooling purposes, but the interior of your vending stand will still get warm. The configuration you proposed (ducting hot exhaust air to the great outdoors) is preferable.
As long as the duct is big enough to accomodate the required air flow rate, you shouldn’t have any problems. If you do have a problem, it’ll be the same one you had before - condensers will be too hot, and it’ll stop making ice. No damage, just shut down and make a bigger duct.
Of course, you could get partway there just by opening the window and sticking a fan in it blowing out (without any ductwork). This will get hot air out of the whole stand, which should help both you and the ice machine.
If you do install a duct, it will certainly need a fan. (Maybe, if things are just right, and the duct went straight up through the roof you wouldn’t need a fan, but I don’t think you’re putting holes in the roof, right?)
The ice machine’s condenser should already have a fan (presumably this is a commercial-grade ice maker where the emphasis is on making lots of ice quickly, as opposed to a residential fridge, where the emphasis is on silently making small quantities of ice). On the off-chance that it does not include a fan, then yes, one will be required in order to forcibly direct warm air into the duct.
The plan to duct the hot air outside won’t always work - 100 F isn’t terribly hot… its not Death Valley hot… its not Melbourne (Florida or Australia… ) hot !
If its 100 F outside, you’d need to cool the space with an air conditioner …