And i got the second pump to start flowing too so now we have both pumps flowing, i'm gon na go ahead and turn on the other one, and i just dropped my flashlight in there. That's that was cool. It's an expensive flashlight. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition, to give some context to this video.

That's about to start, i'm about to work on what i call to be a glycol unit. There's many names for it power pack. The glycol unit in my situation is meant to keep the beer lines cold from point a to point b, you have a beer walk-in with, let's just say, 50 kegs in it or 30 kegs whatever you want to say right and they're tapped and then the tap Lines are running to a bar, that's 200 feet away, right or tap heads or whatever they got to keep those beer lines cold because in the beer, walk-ins 34 degrees, we want the beer to be coming out of the taps. You know below 40, basically, okay, so that way, it's nice and cold.

So in this situation the beer glycol unit is not working properly. Okay um, they called someone else and you're going to hear it in the explanation. The video too, they called there's a company that specializes in draft beer services. Okay, they handle the nitrogen the co2 settings, whatever you know, put tray or push gas they're using to push that beer through there.

They specialize in that they handle the repairs of the beer lines and all that stuff and they install and sell the glycol units too. I don't sell the glycol units. I just service the refrigeration portrait portion. Typically, the beer company does not service the refrigeration portion of these units, it's kind of a gray area because they sell the units they install them, but sometimes they don't fix them.

Some companies do but anyways, so the beer company is the one that gave them. The advice that they did - okay, i'm gon na - get on with the video before i do. If you guys haven't already, please go check out my website, hvacr videos.com. It helps to support the channel.

I've got hats, shirts, beanies sweaters, all that good stuff available on there. Do me a favor if you're interested support the channel, let's go ahead and get on with the video all right. We got a call today on some glycol units, not working, and here we are again. This happened last time: the beer company, the restaurant called the beer company and the beer company told them to turn off the pumps, the pump switches, but not the compressor switch and so we're completely frozen up now gir.

So we've got no we're a completely frozen evaporator. We've got no glycol flow, we're overflowing because the glycol is so warm it thinned out these beer companies instructing these customers to do this. Crap. I don't understand, and i talked to the customer and they specifically said do not touch the red switch.

Only turn off the green switches. Why would you do that? Leave the compressor running and turn off the pumps? That is the stupidest thing ever so i'm here on a saturday because of that, whatever um. So now i got ta figure out how to get this unit. Thought out, and the only way i could do it is just by letting it thaw just turning it off.

The original problem was the customer called the beverage company because they uh they had two of their like eight tap heads that were not flowing properly. So the theory was two of the tap lines were frozen, so the glycol company or the beverage company told them to turn off the pumps and see if that helped it obviously didn't so like i was telling the manager now i have to defrost this unit so That way, they can probably call the beverage company back out to solve the problem of why they didn't have beer coming out two of the seven lines. Um again, i'm not a beverage tech, but i asked them, you know. Is it really high water-based beers? Is it root beer that kind of stuff, and they said no, so i don't know, but if it was a glycol unit getting too cold.

Something like that, you would think all the lines would be down, not just two of the seven or eight um. On top of that it sounds like we have one pump, let's see the bottom, one sounds half ass decent, but the top one is going bad. You can hear it really struggling so that you know, i think we got a pump for sure too, but we've got no fluid, so yeah. No fluid movement well looks like we're getting a little bit of movement from one of them, so i'm gon na leave that one running.

Let me see if the other one gets any movement, let it stop. There's one see we're getting no movement out of the top pump, only the bottom pump, so i'm gon na leave the top pump off and we're turning the other one on and we get some movement out of the other pump. So we'll let that run fluid through that fluid's at 80 degrees, so um it should thaw out whatever's frozen it's more than likely just frozen right at the heat exchanger, so it should thawed out pretty quick. Hopefully i got one of them to start flowing, so i'm gon na, let it keep flowing and flow that warm glycol across the heat exchanger, because i'm assuming that's where it's frozen at is the heat exchanger, so we're gon na.

Let that keep going for a few minutes and then we're gon na try to turn on the other pump. If not, i'm gon na have to try to locate some pumps, and i got the second pump to start flowing too so now we have both pumps flowing. I'm gon na go ahead and turn on the other one and i just dropped my flashlight in there. That's that was cool.

It's expensive flashlight! Hopefully, it's water resistant all right, so we're gon na get this other one going now we bought them both going they're flowing now, so uh we're gon na. Let this uh run through the lines for a minute and then we'll turn the compressor back on and see. If it starts to bring it down to town, i got both of them flowing now. You can see the glycol level drops because it started pumping it into the lines um.

I got uh the compressor turn back on we're going to watch to see if we can get it to come down to temperature. Now i know that one of these pumps doesn't sound good um. It's kind of quieted down right now, but we're gon na keep watching it right now, um and then i know for a fact that one of these pumps is going bad too. When i shut the unit off it's having a hard time, starting back up so uh at a minimum, if i can get them running for today, we might do that and then just have to come back.

Possibly this thing's gon na take a long time, but um sight glass is clear, so that's a plus, i don't see the need to put service gauges on it. Compressor is feels fine. It's cool got a cool suction line. Coming back, um yeah we're just waiting for it to come down to 10 59 degrees right now, so it's going to be a while their front unit.

Both the thermometers are bad too, and i don't know if you guys can see this, but the lights are flickering on the switches. Those are going bad and then the same thing, both the thermometers on this one, the lights. This pump was making a racket. It's kind of calmed down, it might have been that it was just um restricted, we'll bring that up to the customer, and then one of these pumps this one right here when you shut it off, it really struggles to start back up so uh we'll talk to Them about that, so we're probably gon na end up quoting this, but i think we're gon na be okay.

For now i don't know what the beverage company was thinking telling them to shut off those pumps. Lucky they didn't flood out a compressor or something, but because this thing was just running it's a little hard away with a frozen compressor. When i got here silly people, i'm gon na make them a sign just like i did on the last one too, with instructions on how to properly power these units down, because this beverage company is driving me nuts, so the unit just shut off 34 degrees. I wanted to make sure that the temp control was actually turning it off, and it is so.

I don't know what else to tell them. I'm going to talk to them about this pump it's running now. It is running slightly over amps, but not really bad. Just ever so slightly i'm going to probably have them.

Let me do a follow-up check to see on it, but then i also want to go ahead and quote to change these uh thermometers and also the other pump on this one right here and the other thermometer. So all right we are back today we got the approval to do some repairs. We got some new thermometers. We got a new pump for this unit.

Next to me right here. It's actually this pump right here, um and it's questionable. I'm gon na test this guy and see if it's still over amping or not, if it's not over amping we're gon na leave it alone, but the customer did say if it needs to be changed. We can.

I kind of was a little worried, though, because when i got here i was like: why is it so high in 10? It's really weird, but it's set for 34. um, i'm wondering if we got a problem with the sensor or something because a minute ago it said like 37 or something so we're gon na check on that, because that's too high for a glycol unit. But i was looking at the set point: someone got up here and adjusted it down to 34., even that is kind of high, because typically we run like 26 degrees. But i don't know i don't want to mess with what the customers beverage company has done.

So we'll have to see all right, it has literally been three seconds and it went from 45 to 37 and the compressor shut off, i'm it might be the sensor or it might be the thermostat, i'm thinking it's. The sensor probably has a bad sensor. That's really weird: when i pulled out these uh, i got this changed. I haven't turned on power yet though, but i pulled out these switches they're doing almost the same thing as the last unit that i worked on, where the switches were about to short out the wires are all crusty, there's no power to this guy, so we're going To repair all that all right, so we got two working thermometers now um.

I changed all the switches, no more flickering, but i'm still worried about this guy. I think i'm going to change the sensor and hope that that solves it, it's being very erratic. You can turn it off and turn it back on and it'll jump in temperature significantly, i'm changing the sensor for that temperature controller and this guy right here was exposed to and burnt. So i replaced that right here.

It's just a bunch of burnt wires in here. We're putting it back together, we've got the new sensor ran. I just got ta put this back on and pull the temp control out. It's kind of a pain because you got to do this whole side of the unit like this and it's just pain in the butt all right.

This is our second unit and uh. We went ahead and changed all the switches thermometer that stuff, but this one this it did it a second ago. That's not gon na, do it again, but every once in a while, the pump won't start. So that's why we're changing it and uh? It did it to us just a second ago where i turned it on.

I thought i wired it wrong um, so we're gon na go ahead and change out this pump real, quick and then uh go from there. Look at the inside of that guy and all that buildup of stuff see here's the pump right here. This thing's, definitely worn out, looks like the bearings going out of the pump too right here. Interesting, all right.

We're going to use some nylon white on this guy. Just got to get off this old teflon and then we're going to lube this stuff up and throw it on there. All right got the new guy on um. There was already hose clamps on here.

I know these aren't the best for this, but i don't have that little tool. I've talked about it before i don't know one of these days. I might buy it um. We just got to insulate this up and then we're going to turn it on and test.

Current and hopefully we'll be good, this guy's running good it's under current. We got it taped up with some foam tape. It's not going to get too perfect we're good this one's good too. I went back over to this guy now that it's not under such a heavy load.

The glycol is cooled down, uh, it's not over amping, so we're just going to keep an eye on this pump. I'm not going to change this one at the moment. Everything else looks good on it so far, so new thermometers on both units, new switches, new thermostat sensor and uh - we're looking good, so we're gon na start cleaning up our messes okay, so the beverage company strikes again. It seems like the same problem keeps happening.

I can only do so much to prevent it. I'm not gon na babysit, my customer and walk them through the entire process. You know i educate them. While i'm there, i'm not a genius, i'm not a beverage technician.

I don't know how to set the co2 numbers. The regulators - i don't know how to set the nitrogen for whatever beer. That's not my jam. Okay, i'm just a silly refrigeration.

Mechanic, okay, but common sense tells me that if you think the beer lines are freezing shutting off the pumps and leaving the compressor running just doesn't seem very smart okay. So in this situation, the beverage company and - and let me let me say something too - that you know hey - maybe maybe the manager misheard, maybe the manager didn't listen to instructions correctly. That does go through my mind when i hear what's going on, but that is not the case again same beverage company as the last time same issue as the last time. They have a beer problem.

Instead of dispatching a tech, they just tell them over the phone to shut this off and call out the refrigeration, guys, okay, and they just make the problem even worse. Okay, because then now the customer doesn't have any beers, because the entire glycol unit's down and the lines are frozen completely solid. So guess what the original problem that they thought is actually now the problem, all the lines are frozen. Okay and it's not necessarily the lines are frozen, what's happening is the flat plate.

Heat exchanger in this thing is frozen, i'm assuming that, like the inlet or the outlet, because the evaporator is getting way too cold and they're actually lucky, because i imagine at some point they can actually rupture that evaporator and then they have a whole nother problem. Because then, you would have actual glycol and refrigerant mixing, and that would be a mess and the unit would be a total loss which can happen, and i know that you know those of you guys that work on chillers and stuff, like that. You know that that that does happen occasionally, okay on the big system, so it could happen on these small systems too. If someone shuts off the pumps and leaves the refrigeration circuit running now.

The last time i had this someone said: wasn't there low pressure, controls and stuff yeah, but it's a it's a low loss. I mean it's there to protect against complete refrigerant loss. It's not there for freeze protection um so and in this situation it's just a mess. So yeah, i'm sure the low pressure control would cut out eventually.

But you know it's it's hard. Okay, so anyways, it's frustrating yeah. It was a saturday, you know whatever, but you know like i said you know, i vent my frustration yeah this sucks, but oh well, here i am you know, and i'm thankful that i have the work to do okay, so this kind of stuff happens quite often, Where you just kind of got like oh my gosh, what is going on here, you know this is silly. This is insane same problem over and over, and let me also say this is not the same location.

Okay, this is a different location um, so it you know trips me out, but it's the same manufacturer of units. Those are banner glycol units and i do like those units they're nice, very predictable on the problems, the burnt wiring, the the bad switches, the bad thermometers, but to give credit to banner, i like their units, they make good units and those switches and those thermometers. You know they've been there for a very long time, so it's not that big of a deal that they have to be replaced and uh. You know the thermometers being broken and the switch is flickering.

That's not a that was not the reason why i was there, but that was just my whole big picture thing like i'm there, and these are some other problems. You know. If those thermometers are working, then it makes it easier for the manager to troubleshoot those units. So you know we want those thermometers to be there because it helps the manager to know like hey.

You know if, if you have both of those thermometers working and you have a glycol unit, that you think there's a problem with and you walk up to it and one of the thermometers says 26 degrees, but the other one says you know whatever temperature, then it You know much higher, then it helps you to know hey. Maybe we got a bad pump. Maybe we got that pump as an issue and that's why they're labeled pump one and pump two. So that way you know which pump is not running so in that situation.

They've been running like that with bad thermometers for a very long time, and i've tried to bring it up to the customer before, but this time they went ahead and approved it. Okay, so you know sometimes our jobs can be frustrating. Sometimes it can be silly. The things we got to do, but we still go in there um, you know, bite our tongue, don't get mad at the customer.

You know the customer was just as mad when i walked in the door. It was the general manager and he's like man, i'm so sick of these units going down and it's like. I get it, you know, and then i had it. You know - and i know he's frustrated and and his frustrations kind of directed at me and that's not really fair, but it is what it is.

That's that's part of the game right. So then i bring him up and i said hey. Let me show you what's going on, you know, and then he explains to me what the beverage company told them, and i said they told you some silly information, and this is what happened. I said i wouldn't had to come out on overtime.

Had they just come out and diagnosed whatever problem, it was with those two beer lines, their beer taps right again, i'm just using dumb logic right. If the glycol unit is frozen up, don't you think that all the beer lines associated with that glycol unit would be frozen, and not just one or two of them kind of makes me think that there might be something else going on: okay, again, not a genius. I'm not a beverage tech, i'm just your regular average refrigeration mechanic but hey you know, i guess there's people much smarter than i so i'm just here to do my job and give my opinion on certain situations and i try to bite my tongue and not show My frustration, even though i do get frustrated that i was out there on a saturday. You know it is what it is um.

I really really appreciate you guys making it to the point in the video in the end like this is awesome that you guys um do this, it's very humbling. I know i say that all the time, but it really is guys it's it's such a trip. For me, i'm just a service technician, just like you guys, and you know i have the ability to pick up a camera and i start filming these service calls for my own service technicians. That's why i started this channel.

Um was - and i've said it before, but i put myself in a position where i had multiple service technicians leave at once, and that was my fault because i made some bad business decisions and i lost multiple service technicians and i had to hire multiple service technicians And they were all experienced technicians, but i needed to train them in the ways that we do things with our restaurant and the expectations, and i couldn't be with every tech every single day. So i started making these videos so fun fact for those you guys may have heard this before. But if you go to my channel to the very beginning, the very first two videos, those were meant for my own service technicians. They weren't meant for the general public and that's how my channel started and still to this day, i still make these videos for my technicians and, of course i made them public.

So now you guys get to see them too. So it's a trip to be able to do this. I never planned on this channel turning into what it is. Thank you guys for making this channel what it is.

It's it's awesome. It's humbling, um, there's times that it does get kind of stressful. You know having to make videos on this consistent schedule, two videos a week for, however long i've been doing it. I've been doing this since november of 2017 is when i launched my channel so and actually in the beginning, for almost the first year.

I did three videos a week which there's no way i can keep up with that now, not with all the emails and questions and live streams that i do and all that stuff too so but anyways, i'm rambling. I really really appreciate you guys. Remember that i do live streams on monday evenings at 5 p.m. Pacific on youtube to kind of answer.

All the questions for this stuff. Okay, i'm always looking for feedback from you guys, send me an email to hvacr videos gmail.com, you guys have any questions or comments or anything like that. I also go live on friday evenings with my buddies on the hvac overtime channel. Now it is uh april 21st.

I will not be live on this friday, which would be april 23rd. I think um, i'm gon na be out of town, i'm taking some time off and going away for the weekend with my family, so i won't be at that show, but definitely tune in to that show, because it should be a good one. We have a really awesome guest jim bergman from measure quick is going to be on i'm kind of bummed. I'm not going to be there but definitely go check it out.

The hvac overtime youtube channel um, i'm gon na. Let you guys go. Thank you. So very much and we will catch you on the next one: okay,.