| 摘要 |
A method of and apparatus for making, cooling and dispensing carbonated water or beverage wherein the method has the steps of providing a single supply of condensed refrigerant, discretely routing a first portion of the refrigerant to a precooler and precooling the water only to an intermediate moderate temperature of about 40 degrees F (5 degrees C) with the first refrigerant portion, carbonating the water before or after precooling, transferring the precooled and carbonated water to a final cooler of the ice bank type and final cooling the carbonated water and syrup to as close to 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) as is possible, and discretely routing a second portion of refrigerant to the ice bank. The discrete flow or refrigerant to the precooler and the discrete flow of refrigerant to the ice bank final cooler are each discretely controlled and portioned and routed, with this method and apparatus having extremely high efficiency and making very cold carbonated water reliably and without freeze ups. The apparatus has a refrigeration high side with a compressor, a water conduit to a plurality Of dispensing valves, a precooler, a first refrigerant branch to the precooler and with a discrete refrigerant supply and portioning valve structure, a final cooler of the ice bank type, a second refrigerant branch to the final cooler and with a discrete refrigerant supply and portioning valve structure, a compressor control structure that runs the compressor when either the precooler or the final cooler requests for refrigerant, a priority device which gives the precooler exclusive priority to all of the refrigerant supply, and a syrup conduit through the final cooler. |
