# Other Aquarium Forums > Equipment and Accessories >  How to tear up your Hailea chiller. (HC-150A)

## li_gangyi

**Disclaimer, be careful working around mains voltages. Water and 220VAC do not mix well together. Although unit is pretty well sealed with plastic shrink tubing and RTV on splices, its possible water may enter connections and electrocute you if youre not careful. Youve been warned.**

Friend (Actually Fuzzy, he's alot more active here in the forums then me) had a unit in that was thermal cycling, compressor and condenser coil were getting real hot, compressor kept resetting with a constant burp burp burp sound (according to him, I never did run the unit enough till it reached that state, leaving the compressor to cycle like this is a sure way to end its life prematurely.)
Bought unit home, together with a loaner pump to test the system out and hopefully fix it (still dont quite know whats wrong yet, for all I know, it might be the compressor. Was lucky this time though.



The victim. I think this has a 1/10HP compressor. 



The pump, pretty solid unit, I just submerged it and fed the output into the chiller.



Tools you need, yes thats an ice-cream stick. The test pen on top left is optional. You can tell a lot by feel and sound. A small rubber mallet is way better than whacking with a hammer.

To remove the outer plastic shell. First undo the screws near the base around, there should be 7, 3 on either side and one on the back.
Next you need to remove the fittings on top. As well as take out the lock nut. This is accomplished using the Popsicle stick and mallet as shown here.


Gently ease the bugger out, the back end of a plier would probably work also, dont use the pliers jaws as itll harm the plastic. 

Do the other side and then slide the cover off gently, dont yank too hard as the control panel is still connected.

To disconnect panel, press on tabs and pull apart firmly, grasp by the connectors and not the wires. Pulling out the wires will not be fun.
Removing the panel is easy, just push on the 2 tabs on each side of the panel and slide the whole assembly out. Like so.



A close-up of the tabs here. To get a better idea.



Once out it should look like this.



Connect the panel back temporary for the testing phase. Setup the test bed now; I used a clothes peg to hold the tubing. You need to provide some flowing water, without water the evaporator coil would probably freeze up pretty quickly.

If the unit was ever turned over (upside down) at any point during the disassembly phase, its a good idea to let it sit (right side up of course) for 30mins to let the refrigerant settle down.

Heres what it looks like inside.



 It uses a fixed orifice system, pretty normal for a small setup like this, and yes it does have a $$$ non-copper evaporator coil.

 

The compressor uses R134A refrigerant, no valves for filling/manifold gauge attachment. If required Id go ahead and install a sight glass to make filling idiot proof.



My test setup.



 Turn the power on and let it run, set the required temperature to something low, say 18deg, after a bit, a relay in the control panel should click and the compressor will hum to life. 

This is where it gets important. Look carefully at the fan; it should start spinning the second the compressor comes on. If it doesnt its broken. You can later confirm by disconnecting the fan and measuring the resistance across the 2 wires. If its infinity (open, like on mine), the fans broken.

If the compressor doesnt startup, it might be the relay or loose connection, or a broken compressor, currently beyond the scope of this post, maybe if theres demand.
If you blow a fuse its likely the compressor or fan is shorted, disconnect the fan temporarily and let it run, 2-3mins of running and it doesnt blow the fuse again should mean the fan is borked (can re-confirm with a multimeter), if it still does the compressor is the culprit. No real way to fix it unless the compressor is replaced, probably non-economical.



Remember to unplug the power before working on the inside (removing fan etc.)
To remove the fan, undo the 4 screws holding the fan. You might need to use a 6mm spanner to break it loose. 



Heres the broken fan (for this example).



Part II: (Updated)

Located a close enough replacement, this was a 220VAC unit, 0.125A, Sunon branded. Kaichin Electronics @ Sim Lim Tower had it, $10ish.

Fan came with leads already attached. I cut the old fan out, got some heatshrink, and joined the existing fan wires to the new, soldered and heatshrinked the joint, and then cable tied the entire deal neatly.

After the fix, chiller works good. Unfortunately I didn't snap pictures of the fan replacement process, but it should be fairly simple. If you can't solder, I suppose you could join the wires together using terminal blocks. 

Like these.



Verify the fan now works when the compressor kicks in. If it does, repair complete.

I have a .doc of the above post incase the pictures disappear after sometime... can't attach files that big though. PM if you want it.

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## wllm33

hi,
sorry i am not too sure of this thread.
are you saying we can diy the maintainence of a chiller, and we can refill the refrigerant ourselves?
if so, this is a very important part in owning a chiller because finding someone to service a chiller is difficult not to mention the cost.
thanks for clarification.
 :Smile:

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## li_gangyi

There's no need to refill the refrigerant if your system is not leaking. In a closed loop system it's not used up. More importantly, you need to find out where it's leaking, fix it, before pumping all existing refrigerant out, and re-filling.

To do that, you're gonna need at minimum a vacuum pump, a tank of refrigerant, as well as the pressure gauges, not things most people would have lying in your house.

The main purpose of this thread is to show that some things are self-fixable pretty easily (such as a broken fan etc), and to locate the source of your problem (and then decide if it's worth fixing).

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## wllm33

guess the refrigerant part is more of a specialised part of the chiller, from what i was told by my air con friend.

so taking this part out of the discussion, will the other things be manageable assuming we take care of the electricity with water danger into consideration.

just on the similar tone, what exactly is servicing a chiller really implies, when people says the chiller needs to be serviced regularly?
thanks.

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## li_gangyi

> guess the refrigerant part is more of a specialised part of the chiller, from what i was told by my air con friend.


Yes, it's a little more involved then normal conditioners, but it can be done (the problem with these chillers is there are no valves for re-filling, so the lines have to be cut and a valve added.) Wouldn't worry about it however, if corrosion is kept in check, refrigerant shouldn't leak out anywhere.




> so taking this part out of the discussion, will the other things be manageable assuming we take care of the electricity with water danger into consideration.


Being careful around electricity always helps.




> just on the similar tone, what exactly is servicing a chiller really implies, when people says the chiller needs to be serviced regularly?
> thanks.


Nothing much for these kinda things. Basically cleaning the condensor is the only main thing. If it's working in a marine tank there might be some deposits on the copper tubing, wipe it down to get rid of those. Severe corrosion and dirt on the condensor can be fixed with a chemical cleaning, don't do it regularly though, it can attack the coil, if you do it, make sure you wash the entire coil out properly. Good idea also to at this time straighten out any bent fins. 

Nothing much you can do about the evaporator side. It's inside a sealed plastic tank, unless you can replace the shielding foil, I'd just setup a small loop to flush out the buildup inside and call it good.

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## Fuzzy

And voila just like that I have a working chiller again  :Opps: 

It would have cost $85.00 to get the chiller repaired, so all of you with malfunctioning chillers, feel free to drop him a PM to get yours fixed 
for a nominal service charge!  :Grin:

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## li_gangyi

> **Disclaimer, be careful working around mains voltages. Water and 220VAC do not mix well together. Although unit is pretty well sealed with plastic shrink tubing and RTV on splices, its possible water may enter connections and electrocute you if you’re not careful. You’ve been warned.**


*

Lol looks like this thread has invited the attention of a mod, who made my text more visible... *waves hands* xD
*

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## stormhawk

One question. Isn't it easier to check if the fan is spoiled, if you can't hear the whirring sound of the fan in motion when the chiller is in operation?

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## li_gangyi

You're gonna need to tear it down to replace it anyways... 
If your chiller allows you to look through the condensor to see the fan it's one way, otherwise it might be difficult to seperate compressor noise from fan noise.

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## goody992828

what exactly is servicing a chiller really implies, when people says the chiller needs to be serviced regularly?
thanks.[/QUOTE]


Hi 

This means that you need to clean the dust that is sticking onto the fins.... as dust act as an insulator which means your efficiency of the chiller is affected during heat transfer = longer time in cooling = more $$

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## Fuzzy

> One question. Isn't it easier to check if the fan is spoiled, if you can't hear the whirring sound of the fan in motion when the chiller is in operation?


Actually the compressor can be louder than the fan, and you can't visually inspect the fan because its in the middle. In my case I didn't realize the fan was the problem because the chiller was still kicking in at intervals almost the same as regular operation, I just happened to check the tank temps and got a shock, I don't typically do this more than once per 48 hours.

Also you need to isolate if its really just fan itself, or a larger problem with the circuit that is malfunctioning causing the fan to stop.

Less likely but additionally there is the possibility that the compressor was damaged or has failed along with the fan. Especially if you check temps are irregularly as I did that week.

Not sure how much thermal cycling would have to occur before this happens though.





> Hi 
> 
> This means that you need to clean the dust that is sticking onto the fins.... as dust act as an insulator which means your efficiency of the chiller is affected during heat transfer = longer time in cooling = more $$


I think they also flush the internal reservoir, check for refrigerant leaks, straighten out any bent fins and confirm that the thermostat is still properly calibrated when most places of repute do a chiller servicing.

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## stormhawk

> You're gonna need to tear it down to replace it anyways... 
> If your chiller allows you to look through the condensor to see the fan it's one way, otherwise it might be difficult to seperate compressor noise from fan noise.


Yes I understand, but my point is, isn't it easier to listen for the fan in operation, *before* we open it up to replace it? That's what I'm saying. If the noise of the compressor and the fan cannot be easily differentiated, then the opening up of the chiller is of course necessary.  :Smile:

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## Fuzzy

> Yes I understand, but my point is, isn't it easier to listen for the fan in operation, *before* we open it up to replace it? That's what I'm saying. If the noise of the compressor and the fan cannot be easily differentiated, then the opening up of the chiller is of course necessary.


heh, if the chiller is not working for any reason it needs to be opened up anyway I believe was his point

But he's also more electronically DIY capable than I am, he'll take apart anything that isn't working to fix it.

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## Shadow

> One question. Isn't it easier to check if the fan is spoiled, if you can't hear the whirring sound of the fan in motion when the chiller is in operation?


I think you can just use your hand. You should feel the warm wind/breeze when the compressor is running. For Resun chiller, you can actually see from the front, just open the air intake filter and you should be able to see the fan blade.

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## stormhawk

> heh, if the chiller is not working for any reason it needs to be opened up anyway I believe was his point
> 
> But he's also more electronically DIY capable than I am, he'll take apart anything that isn't working to fix it.


Point taken. Well in any case, a sticky is in order for this thread.  :Well done:

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## li_gangyi

If that happens... that'll be a 1st for me, my 1st post being stickied... (goes back to lurking).

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## li_gangyi

Update : posted above. Got a replacement fan, chiller now works good. Thanks for all the views.

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## Fuzzy

The replacement fan was purchased for the modest sum of $13.80 from Kaichin Electronics on the 3rd floor of Sim Lim Tower.

Its a Sunon 120mm High Profile, 220v, 0.125A Fan.

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## fish_bone

Hello. I'm using Hailea 150A for my 200l tank with temp set at 26C. My problem is that I think the chiller is taking too long to cool the water down. On average it's taking about 4 hours to lower the temp from 27C to 26C. Is that normal and if it is not, what could be the problem? Any advice would be much appreciated.

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## li_gangyi

Any weird noises from the unit? Cool water coming out of the outlet definetly? Did it use to do this?

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## Fuzzy

> Hello. I'm using Hailea 150A for my 200l tank with temp set at 26C. My problem is that I think the chiller is taking too long to cool the water down. On average it's taking about 4 hours to lower the temp from 27C to 26C. Is that normal and if it is not, what could be the problem? Any advice would be much appreciated.


It shouldn't be taking more than 30 minutes maximum. What canister or pump are you using to feed it? What is its flow rate?

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## fish_bone

No, there's no weird noise and cold water is definitely flowing because the temp does go down eventually but taking too long to do it (i.e 4 hours). It was previously used with my 100L tank and it took about 1.5hours to go down 1C. I'm contemplating opening it up today per yr instruction to check the fan.

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## Fuzzy

It should definitely not take 1.5 hours to drop 1C in a 100L setup.

Are you double checking the tank temperature with another thermometer? Something is definitely not right. I'm using a HC-150A on a 300L tank at the moment. It took about 30 minutes to get it from 29C to 27.5C.

900L/hr flow rate canister feeding it.

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## fish_bone

It is connected to a 1000 L/Hr Hailea pump and UV downstream of it. Looking at the outlet I would guess the eventual flowrate is about 500 L/Hr. Yes, I have separate thermometer to check the temp. They are about 0.3 to 0.5 degC different but quite consistent.

My electricity bill has increased almost 40% lately.

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## Fuzzy

Hmm ok its not likely to be a flow rate issue if that's the case, it might either be fan problems, airflow obstruction or a refrigerant leak.

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## li_gangyi

Unfortunately a small cooling system like that on these chillers means a small leak will result in a very noticeable drop in cooling efficiency, if it's not the fan, it's most likely a leak somewhere.

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## fish_bone

It's not the fan. I took out the casing and the fan is working fine. I also measured the flowrate (using calibrated container and timer - very crude measurement) and found the flow to be around 210 L/hr. Is that too low?

I took out the UV filter to improve flow and now is running/testing the cooler again. If it still doesn't work, I'm taking it back to the shop. I'm just about had it with this cooler.

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## li_gangyi

210 might be too low, is the chiller constantly kicking in and out? You know it is working when it's humming and the fan is spinning. 

During the entire time it's taking your tank down to the set temperature, is it constantly running full bore? Or is it kicking in and out? 

If it's 100% on all the time, there's something wrong with the chiller, if it's kicking in and out, there's something wrong with the flowrate.

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## fish_bone

It's running continuously for 3 to 4 hours until it reaches the set temp, i.e not kicking in and out. It always get stuck at 26.4 degC for almost 2 hours and slowly go down to 26 degC thereafter.

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## Fuzzy

210 L/hr is probably way too low, I think 400 L/hr is the minimum for this model.

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## fish_bone

Is it possible to attach an external cooler fan (similar to casing fan for pc) at the outlet vent of the chiller and wired it up with the chiller's fan in parallel? I thought of providing better cooling for the chiller. BTW I have changed my pump to 1300 L/Hr and it's taking about 1 hr 15 min for temp to drop from 25 to 24deg C. An improvement compared to before but still too long, I think.

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## Fuzzy

What is your ambient temperature? Going from 25 to 24C might take awhile for 100 Litres, how long does it take to go from 29C down to 26C?

Is the unit getting enough ventilation and are the front and back at least 2ft away from a wall?

Is your chiller located inside a cabinet?

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## fish_bone

Not too sure about ambient temp, around 31 deg C I guess for indoor malaysian weather. The chiller is located at corner of my living room. back is about 1.5 ft from wall and front is clear. I'm thinking of connecting it with an external fan to blow the hot air away from the corner, i.e improve the ventilation.

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