Chapter 14

14.9

Soda Fountain

The soda fountain provides a way to store and dis

pense ice cream, cold water, beverages, and syrup. It also
makes and stores ice. lt provides a compact, attractive
unit for these purposes. The design also makes serving
easy. A built-in ice cream cabinet usually occupies one
part of the fountain. Another part contains a water
cooling mechanism.
Evaporator outlet tubing from the ice cream cabi
net and the drinking water cooler passes around the bev
erage syrup containers. This keeps them relatively cool.
Beverages are cooled to the same temperature as the
water.
Syrups should be kept at about 45F (7C). Water
temperature should range between 32F and 50F (0C
to 10C). Ice cream, as mentioned, should be kept be
tween 0F and 10F (-18C and -12C).
Soda fountains are often difficult for the technician
to service. Since they are very compact, they leave little
space in which to work.
Figure 14-29 shows the complete cycle of a soda
fountain refrigerated by one condensing unit. The soda
fountain has an ice cream compartment, bottle compart
ment, syrup rail, and beverage coolers. It uses a thermo
static expansion valve. The ice cream evaporator has a
check valve in the suction line. The syrup and bottom
compartment evaporator temperature is controlled by
the two-temperature valve. The beverage cooler has a

Commercial

14.10
Freezers

Dispensing

Special applications of refrigerating systems are re

quired in soft ice cream-making machines, also known
as dispensing freezers. Temperature requirements will
vary depending on the product:
Frozen carbonated beverages, 25F (-4C).
Slushes, 28F ( - 2C).
Fruit or water ices, l0F to 20F (-12C to -7C).
Soft-serve ice creams, 21F (-6C).
Milkshakes, 27F (-3C).
Sherbets, 20F (-7C).
This unit uses a large refrigerating machine to cool
or fast-freeze the mix. It is then fed to the freezing cyl
inder. The same or a separate motor drives the stirring
mechanism or dasher. A 1 /2 hp (373 W) refrigerating
unit can fast-freeze one gallon of custard in about six
minutes.

Compartments

!
I

Wire

Check
Optional
I
SwitchValve Thermostatic
Parallel with
t Pressure Switch
Heat-X Heat
Interchanger

-~;r:~=---i

Ice Cream

~o:e~""
:

t ~; ~l~e'~ '_

- - -
------------,
s-o-le~-

vo~i-vde

559

solenoid liquid line shutoff valve. Note the sight glass,

heat exchanger, and drier mounted in refrigerant lines
near the condensing unit.
Many restaurants, soda fountains, and other public
areas use drink dispensers. A dispenser for ice and vari
ous beverages is pictured in Figure 14-30. Figures 14-31
and 14-32 show the fluid circuits and system schematic
diagrams for a beverage dispenser.

---------------.-T-X-V-al-ve------- .... ~
TX Valve,_

Systems-Applications

HeatX

Bottle Compartment

.I

-~----------
Regulator
Suction
Press

.I
I

Cooler

Pressure SwitchControls
Condensing Unit

Figure 14-29.
Complete soda fountain cycle diagram. Note solenoid valve and suction pressure regulator, and
how these valves control temperaturein various parts of the installation. (Dunham-Bush, Inc.)