So today we have a service call on a train package unit. The complaint is, is that it's 83 degrees in the front entry or the lobby of this particular restaurant. So right when I walk up to the unit condenser fan motors running, but it's you know outdoor outside air, it's you know only 90 degree air coming out of it. That's outdoor air temperature right now the answer doesn't look to be in bad shape.

It's a little dusty, but nothing horrible. So my first step is going to be to open up the electrical section like these older train, because there and stuff compressor is warm, but it's not hot. It's definitely not running and my compressor contactor is pulled in so I'm gon na get my electrical meter and we will diagnose further tool bag. I use the veto, tech pack backpack, it's my favorite thing because I can carry all my stuff in it get used to it.

I mean to each their own. Some people don't like them, they think they're too heavy. I just get to keep the right amount of stuff inside of it keep my kneepads in the back electric meters right here. I used the ill piece.

660 hurt. You know, seeing some people have some issues with it, but I think it's a good meter for me. That's what I wanted to works when I wanted to, I like the magnet being able to hang it like that. Okay, so let's go ahead and test voltage coming into the contactor two away.

That's wide one: to line 2 line 2 to line 3 five. Three two line one so that's coming in now we're gon na test voltage on the top side coming out line, one the line to 113 volts. That's a problem! 378 moles, not a problem! Three-Two-One 206! So, there's definitely something going on inside that contactor we'll go ahead and shut off power and then pull the contactor apart to see what we can find. So I got the cover pulled off the contactor and it definitely doesn't look good.

Definitely some funky going on in there. Let's uh put the meter on tone. Okay, let's see what we can hear feel across this guy here, no one's working, working they've all got tone, but there's definitely something going on inside that contactor to where it's not making voltage properly by just not making good contact when it pulls in so I'll. Go ahead and replace the contactor and we'll start there: okay! So because I'm not putting the OEM back in it's just a contactor, it's not a big deal notice how it has screws and then lugs, okay! So, to make my life easy, oh and picked up a contactor that has two lugs: okay, because I can always strip the wires they go into the screws and put it in the lugs.

It's just easier that way, but I've got some mild OCD and if you look at the way that that old contactor is positioned in there 24 volt coil voltage is on the top, but I can't handle the writing being upside down. So I'm going to switch that around really quick, just two screws flop the little cover and then we'll go from there. Okay, so we're gon na go ahead and replace this now. I've got cover corrected the way that I know I'm weird, but it just drives me.

Nuts, when the writing's upside down so we'll go ahead and replace it now, okay, so I've got the contactor replaced and yeah. Everything else is pretty plain and simple: you know if you pay attention, if nothing's been changed, you know the wire colors match up pretty much for the most part, one of the cool things about these train units is is that they have wire letters and numbers that Tell you exactly where everything's going so, if you follow the schematic, they mess something up or forget where it goes, you can usually look at the schematic. Obviously make sure that you torque your your fittings down nice and tight again. We still don't know if there's any damage, but let's see this sand falling out of the contactor, as I'm doing that.

So it's obviously got some bad connections. It's not work. You know not really gon na seat. You well with this right now, but so anyways.

The compressor should have more than cooled off by now, so I'm gon na put some gauges on it and start it up. So I've energized the unit I'm waiting for the thermostat to call I could just jump it out, but I'm gon na let the thermostat do its natural call. I've got measured, quick hooked up everything set up it's an old r22 system. I really do like the field piece Propst with measure quick.

It's really nice, the one important thing that you got to make sure you sand your copper, because the type of connection that these things use the speed connection, whatever they call it. It's got to be sanded and clean, so Lakewood line has to be sanded. Okay, they even I ran out of sandpaper, but they give you this little piece of sand screen or whatever just normal. Sandpaper works perfect, but it's got to be clean for it to work.

You can just put them on dirty pipes. You won't get accurate readings, so at this point, we're just waiting for it to start up okay, so the unit is running now we're gon na, let it stabilize okay, I still got to input my outdoor air. So that way, it gives me a target hood pressure. I've got a thermometer sitting right here.

Reading ninety-five we're gon na call it 96, because it's kind of climbing, actually I'll put it right here, we'll call it 95 degrees. That's about accurate! What I've been measuring today that thing does but yeah we'll go ahead and the input 95, so we're going to go to outdoor conditions here and then just scroll right on up here to outer temps my submit okay. So now we have a target head pressure of where we should be and we're just gon na, let everything stabilize out or not gon na jump dating conclusions as of yet we're just gon na. Let the system run for a few minutes and see what happens.

Okay, so I've been running for a few minutes and I have a hunch - and I just wanted to see what what measure quick thought my problem wants to. Okay, so you can see my suction line: superheat, I'm within reason: sub cooling, liquid line head pressures a little bit high suction pressures, almost spot-on outdoor air 95. You know everything's looking good, my split 19 degrees. Okay, for the most part, we're doing okay, but what I suspect is that my inner condenser is dirty because this I believe this is a split condenser.

So let's go ahead and get the little flag on measure, quick notice, what it says: condenser, maybe dirty. So I think that's pretty accurate. I know it's a little out of focus. Sorry, that's my camera.

I'm gon na go ahead and clean up this condenser and then go from there, so it doesn't take much to split this. Just take all the screws off for the condenser fan or for the top and then pull the wires for the condenser fan motor and usually it's pretty easy. As you can see, we've got a little bit of dust on the outside condenser and kind of difficult, but there's a little bit more dust on the inside, so this would definitely cause it to run a little bit high head pressure, so we're gon na get this Guy cleaned up and then we'll I'll test it again after that, so when you're cleaning this, you want to go the opposite direction of the air. Okay, but you you know when you clean the inside coil, you want to make sure you're, just not betting it in this coil.

So that's why you split them. So that way you can get between the two coils and spray the stuff out. So this one wasn't horrible. So I'm kind of curious if we're gon na have an overcharge on this, but it was dirty so we're gon na put it back together and let it dry off and then check the pressures again.

But this just you've got to pay attention. You know, I always say this you've got ta. Look at the big picture, guys look! This is the exact same unit right here. Did you honestly know that's a double rode coil.

Did you honestly know that you needed to split it see when I was coming up? I didn't, and you know constantly the people that taught me would you know or the people that that I think there was just a massive lack of information. People didn't understand that these were double rode coils and I think that people figured it out by accident. You know I'll tell you, when I figured out most of the double rode coils is when I pulled the top off to change a blower motor or something, and then I looked, and it's like hey wait, a minute that thing's double rode and then it's like well That explains why I always have high head pressure. So almost every almost every unit over five tons has a double rode.

Coil, it's not every single one, but almost everyone has a double rode. Coil, there's two sets there and they get even bigger when you go up into the higher seer ratings. This units, probably a you, know, 9 c or 10 seer. If that, but you know even on the residential like, for instance, I have a 4 ton at my house, it's got a double rode coil, you know that's how they keep the size down on those things it's by doubling them up.

So just you know investigate. Look at the big picture guys, you know, don't always just clean. You know you got to question things. Don't follow the status quo, you know you got to kind of pave your own way and figure out things for your own self.

I will say the one thing I don't like about this unit: is train didn't really give anywhere for that water to go. You see the way that it's designed it just sits right here and collects so there's, usually just a giant mud pile in there. That is kind of one little flaw on these things. I mean it'll slowly drain.

It has a couple little weep holes, but that's it so we're going to put this guy back together and then test it all out. I can't clean the whole roof, but I like to clean the general area around the condenser wash all that stuff away, because as soon as it dries, it's just gon na get sucked right back up onto the condenser. You know just again not perfect, but just doing the best I can and try not to soak my probes right there. You know I'm not perfect, nobody's perfect.

Okay, look at that uh, where I have the probes. That's not the ideal place for probes on this unit. Ideally, you want them, you know down in the ductwork, but you know that's not practical all the time, so you do have to take that into account when you're, when you're diagnosing your system, you know you do have to take into account that you know that supply Air probe is awfully close to that evaporator or the heat exchanger. Let's say I'm testing the heat, we're doing a heat rise test.

You know you're not supposed to be that close to the condenser. So you know you got ta kind of there's things you got to do you can't be perfect all the time you know I'd love to say that I'm gon na go put those probes. You know three feet down in the duct work because that's ideal to get better airflow so that way the air mixes properly. You know to get proper supply temp, you know, but it's not practical, sometimes, okay, so nobody's perfect.

You just do the best that you can. I've got the unit put back together when I put my capacitors back in I like to tape the connection, so it's that way nobody rubs up against them. It's secured down where it's supposed to be. This is an aftermarket.

Condenser fan motor - I can't remember if we did this or not, but I'm hoping it's the right one, and I don't think this was supposed to be in a nine hundred CFM convince your family. I think it's supposed to be 10 75, which is what this one is so yep, so we're all back together. I'm gon na go ahead and do a start-up on it and let it dry the condenser out and then we'll check that all right. So we are looking a lot better now.

I would say that I'm kind of curious about the the system info. It doesn't give you an option for an Accutron metering device where it uses a header with multiple orifices in them, and I just usually do it as a piston. You know, but it also gives the idea for a capillary tube. But I wouldn't consider this to be a capillary tube I'd.

Consider this to be a piston more so so that's where I go. I thought I kind of curious what you guys think about this. Would you guys consider this unit to be a piston or or a capillary tube? If you know what I'm talking about I'm talking about on this evaporator, this whole thing right here. This liquid line has a an orifice in each one of these tubes and that's your metering device.

I call it an acute raw metering device. So what do you guys consider that a piston or a capillary tube for I'm curious? If there's a difference between a piston or a capillary tube or in a control I mean, for the most part, you just use target superheat to calculate what you need on those things, but yeah. So we're looking good we're gon na. Let it run for a little bit longer, but I think we're good to go.

Okay, guys just a little recap here. As usual, we had a service call on a package unit, not working. When I arrived, I found that the unit had a bad compressor contactor. One of the contacts on it wasn't actually making contact and we were, you know, losing a leg.

Basically, the compressor had overheated, but I went ahead and cooled it off. I went and picked up a new contact or replaced. It started the unit back up found that the unit was actually running with a little bit of a dirty condenser. We went ahead and cleaned up the condenser, I kind of showed you guys how you needed to split that condenser.

So that's an important thing to understand and to know when you need to do that, a lot of people tend to forget to split their condensers or they never really knew that they needed to split a condenser. Okay, like I mentioned in the video I would say most packaged units over 5 tons are gon na, have double rode coils for the most part, not all of them, but you'll, see majority of them will ok, even when you get up to your big 15 ton Unit some of them, you know if you get into a train 15 ton package unit, things got double rode coils and you got to split them. So it's important to know when you need to do that. Okay, at the same time, at the end of the video guys, I showed you my refrigerant pressures where the system was operating and my head pressure was definitely in line with where it needed to be.

It was much better. I was running just slightly on the high side, nothing like it was in the beginning, but if you paid attention closely, you notice that my superheat was actually about two degrees. Okay, coming back the the app was still saying that was within reason, but my target superheat was about five degrees. Okay, if you can usually get within three to five degrees of your target, you're, pretty darn good.

You know you prefer to be a little bit closer to three degrees of your target. Okay, but I just wasn't super comfortable with that. So what I actually ended up doing was removing some of the charge I didn't have to take out much, but I ended up grabbing a recovery cylinder out of my van. I had a vacuum down one and I just I would have if I guessed I'd, probably pulled out half a pound, you know no more than a, I definitely didn't pull out a pound, but I just pulled out just a little bit of gas got.

My super heat up to about five degrees. I was doing it on the way out, so I didn't give video of that. I apologize, but so if you noticed at the end of the video, if you go back and look at it, you'll see that the super heat was running like 1.9 two degrees and it was still within reason, but I just wasn't comfortable with it. So I pulled out a little bit of charge and actually, if you go back to the beginning of the video you'll, see that I was running a pretty darn low superheat.

Also in the beginning of the video, I was running about two degrees. Even when we had a little bit higher head pressure so got that in line as usual, guys always like to look at the big picture. You know don't just get tunnel vision. Looking at the contactor and move on, you know I still diagnosed.

Maybe we saved a compressor, maybe we gave that compressor some more life by removing a little bit of refrigerant out of that system, also by cleaning the condenser. Okay, that's pretty much it guys. I just want to say thank you very much for you know. Taking the time to watch my videos, if you guys have questions you know, send me emails leave me comments in my social media.

Give videos thumbs up. That really does help me. It also boosts my confidence to make me realize that you guys appreciate these videos. Okay, so thank you very much.

I really do mean that you know and that's pretty much it guys. Okay, so we'll see you guys on the next one.