Today we have a glycol unit, not working now. I kind of already have an idea about what's going on with this, because i had another technician stop by on his way home one day, condenser fan motor was running, compressor was not compressor was not hot, so i had him shut the unit off it's off. Now, all right, so that stuff was just sitting on top because i had him leave it like that. So this is our unit uh.

He had turned it off, so i'm pretty sure. Okay, it's unplugged right here, so we're gon na plug this guy in right. There. Okay pumps are running, but this should be the compressor 61 degrees and it's calling overload's clicking on and off on this guy.

I can hear it right down in here there. It goes there. It goes so it's on and off on overload. So the overload you can hear it clicking on and off it's actually a bi-metallic disc that when it senses high current it'll, actually click out or it'll warp out to where it breaks a contact for the compressor.

It actually runs as or works as the common circuit. For the compressor, so that overload will either turn the compressor off on a high current situation and or a high temperature situation. So, looking up here to me, it kind of looks like the capacitor has leaked out its fluid, and this is kind of swollen apart. So um i have power, turned off i'll, go ahead and turn it off at the plug, so i disconnected it and we're gon na take a look at this capacitor and see what's going on with that all right, i popped that top off look at the inside Of that capacitor, the capacitor is completely blown apart, so um we're gon na disassemble this guy and then see.

If i can get a temporary capacitor on this guy and see if it'll run, this capacitor is a 243 to 292.. So what i have right here, uh made by amrat, it's a turbolytic 50.. This is a universal start. Capacitor i'll use this to get us to see if we can get this thing started.

So what you do is just run jumpers um from the terminals and then go to the last two terminals and then we'll use the field piece meter right here and we'll see that we're right at 290 microfarads and this one is 243 to 292.. So that should be good, we're gon na hook it up and see. If we can get this guy to start all right, i turned on power, i plugged it in. I have it off at the power switch, so i've got the field piece.

Sc 480 meter right here, um. It does have the backlight that you guys can see, but sometimes it can still be difficult to see. So the cool thing is you're using the joblink app. You can still connect it, so i've got the alligator clamps on the power.

So that way i can actually see what the power is coming in and then i've also got my meter on here. So we can see current okay. So we're going to turn this guy on um this guy right here says the compressor. Rla is 10.5 amps.

So, let's see if this guy starts up start it up we're running 114 volts 10 amps, that's not bad, so we're gon na! Let it run for a little bit now um. The current is coming up and that's going to happen because it's now being put under a load as it circulates that warm glycol that's at 70 degrees. We are going to see a higher than normal load on this guy. So you know it's expected that it's going to peak right now, but we're just going to let it run for a little bit uh, i'm hoping this will get us by until we can order factory starting components.

If it will then i'll secure this up to where it's safe, but we're just going to keep watching it for a little bit longer to see uh how this thing does all right. It's still running, i'm gon na put this cover on here in just a second right, but i've got cold suction lines. This is our flat plate heat exchanger right here, and it just transfers the heat from the glycol. So being that this is a glycol unit.

What it's doing is they have a beer walking. You can't see it, but underneath here right down here is their beer walking. They have kegs in there and then all the way across the building. All the way, on the other side of those walls, maybe 75 feet.

On the other side, they have a bar with beer taps in it, those beer taps uh. These are the glycol lines right here: okay, they're, going down into the beer walk-in, then they're going underground and they're running with the beer lines and it chills the the beer keeps it cold from the beer walking to the taps. That way, you maintain 37 degrees in the beer, walk-in 35 degrees, whatever they want to set at and you're with this glycol unit right here running next to the beer lines you're going to have you're going to maintain 38 degree, uh fluid beer temperature coming out of The taps, even though it runs underground, so this unit is just a tiny little chiller. That's just going to help bring the temperature or keep the temperature down on the beer lens.

Now this thing has a receiver, so it probably has a couple pound charge, but i still don't want to necessarily have to put gauges on it. If i don't have to so looking down here, it's got a sight, glass and the sight glass is clear and we're significantly dropping intent pretty fast. So at this point, i'm not going to put gauges on it, we're just going to let it run for a while. You can clearly see that we're still um doing okay on current we're still a little high right.

10.5 is rla, but again we're under a heavy load right now, because the glycol temperature is so high, so we'll watch it as it comes down to temp and see if that drops to the rla number uh 10.5 is what it should. So this is a good sign as we're dropping in temperature. We're now at 47 degrees we're dropping in current to 10.22. Amps 10.2 and rla is 10.5 and i am testing just the compressor right now.

So that's a good sign. I don't see a voltage issue on this guy, so um huh this. What i'm concerned, though? This is the second time we've had to change these starting components in a year correction. I actually say it later in the video it's actually the fourth time.

Okay, we've changed them three times previously in the year, so this is the fourth set of starting components and when we change starting components, we change all three the overload the relay and the start capacitor. Even if it's just a failed start capacitor, i always change them as a set. So i am a little reluctant to just throw starting components on this guy, i'm a little bit leaning towards talking them into a compressor replacement. But you know we have to see where they want to go with that this guy's pretty tight in here in a perfect world.

I just get a condensing unit, but half the times they don't make these exact units anymore i'll, definitely look into it. They're, usually pretty tight on this stuff, but so but we're doing okay so far, we're just watching it. This thing is kicking butt. The compressor is not overheating.

We have a hot discharge line, i don't know i've looked at it, but the condenser is nice and clear. We can see light through it. There was a filter on there current 9.34 amps we're definitely dropping in current voltage is still 114 volts. So the reason why i'm leaning towards replacing a compressor is because we can't this is again the second time within a year that we've had to change starting components and if we have the right voltage we're not short cycling.

This thing doesn't have pressure controls on it. There's no high pressure low pressure, so there's nothing to turn the compressor on and off beside the temperature controller and the temp control shutting off um. The only other thing we could check is to verify our differential, so set point is 28 degrees and then let's go differential is three degrees. That's pretty good.

So that means 28. 29. 30. 31..

So i don't see a reason that it's going to short cycle. I don't see any problems here, it's literally just about to satisfy. So that's why i'm like? Okay, if we keep burning through starting components on this guy and there's nothing wrong, we've got good voltage um. You know the pumps are running perfect.

There's got to be something that is killing this and that's why we're probably going to lean towards a compressor replacement. But again it's running fine right now, so we're going to leave it up to the customer and kind of let them make those decisions but yeah. This is it guys, i'm going to wrap this one up, uh, it's literally about to satisfy here in just a minute, but i'm not seeing any problems everything's. Looking fine uh.

One thing i would say, is: let's: let's kind of take this plug and kind of jiggle. It i'm jiggling it as you guys are seeing it we're not losing voltage. So it's not a bad connection. Um.

I was just kind of jiggling it like that nothing's happening there. It's it's making good connection. Nothing's overheating, we're not having any problems with pumps. I haven't changed the pump, but there's uh these little connectors right here.

So someone has changed the pump at some point, probably the beverage company, but i'm not seeing anything else wrong with this. So this capacitor will get us through the weekend um at a minimum. We'll put new starting components on it and then we'll talk to the customer see if they want us to replace the compressor just be done with it, but that's up to them we'll let them make that decision, but we're gon na wrap this one up for now. Okay, we are back today, customer approved the compressor replacement, so we're gon na go ahead and swap this guy out um again main reason why i'm changing is because we're doing the math we've changed the starting components on this guy.

This will be the fourth time in the last year and we haven't really found any major electrical problems, they're not having issues with anything else. They are in operation right now, it's the middle of the day. It's like uh one o'clock in the afternoon, so we don't want to stop or interrupt their beer sales as much as possible, so we're gon na try to do this. What i did was, i ran the temp control down, brought the glycol temperature down temporarily.

We still have it turned on right now, i'm going to let it cycle we're going to do everything we can before we recover the refrigerant, i'm almost ready, but i just want to get everything sanded and ready, we'll uh we'll end up redoing a lot of this Stuff, but the way that i'm going to cut the compressor out and stuff is going to make it go as fast as possible, so we've got the dryer sanded up so we'll be changing. The compressor comes with the new roto lock valve, so the plan is we're going to cut this piece right here, we're going to unsweat this piece, pull it out, we're going to put a stub and we're going to braise that before we get the compressor in here That 5 8 stub right there, then we'll just push the half inch down once we get it up here, i'll braise, this quarter inch piece, i'll cut it right here and braise it in so that way, i literally only have to do a braze joint right here And right here once i get the compressor in and then obviously change the dryer and then pull the evacuation, but we want this thing shut off for the least amount of time as possible. So that's why i'm doing it like this yeah just trying to be as efficient as possible. Consider it to the customer all right.

We are just about ready, so we're all sanded up. I got all the bolts out of the compressor the recovery equipment's hooked up and ready to be purged. I went ahead and silver soldered this piece onto the rotor lock valve, so we can attach that to the compressor. So when i drop the compressor in there we're literally gon na well once we get it recovered, we'll pop this piece out cut this piece: pull the compressor out drop the new one in, and hopefully this should go pretty well we're trying again to be as courteous As possible, so in this case, what we're going to do is go ahead.

I left that loose and the valve is closed on the tank. So we'll change this to recover like that and then, if we just open the high side on the s-man manifold, this is where it really shines to have a manifold here and that back light really does help out too. So there you go. That's what you want! It's purging and it's purge to it, although to be honest with you, we're going to get rid of this refrigerant and use new refrigerant anyways, just because i don't trust this old tank, but um yeah we're just about ready.

So, okay, the vacuum pump has a nice backlit lcd uh, we're ready to start everything's open we're using large diameter hoses to speed up the process cool, so we're kicking butt. I turned it off. I ran the temperature a little bit low, so it's like 20 degrees. So it is going to come up a little bit, but we shouldn't affect the operation too much um still got the pumps running, so i still got power in this guy.

One of the really really cool things about the uh recovery machine. It has the auto shut off right, so it shuts off right there, and then you hit it again and it'll pull down even further to meet epa requirements for proper recovery. Um always want to be careful, though, when you're, using that auto shut off feature make sure the system doesn't have a leak if you're trying to reuse refrigerant and stuff - and you maybe don't want it to pull down that far but yeah. I really dig the auto shutoff feature and then once that's done, we'll go ahead and do the purge feature where it pushes as much as possible under the tank all right now, we've got to turn to the self purge right here on this valve oops.

Sorry there you go, it's turned uh the camera's kind of focusing self purge and then hit start and it's going to just pump as much out of the tank of the machine as possible. That way, you get the least amount trapped in that hose, but uh yeah we're kicking butt. So we're going to go ahead and pull this off and start yanking. This compressor out, i just pulled out the electrical and we'll get it cut and yanked all right.

This is tricky because man, it is tight up in here, but we're all unsweat we're ready. We got the new compressor right here when we pull this plug. There should be pressure right here, some sort, not a lot, but some we should be able to get something out of there. Yeah there's some okay good, that's a good sign.

You always want to see some sort of pressure um. Sometimes i don't know if they're in a vacuum, they're usually in a positive pressure, but all right, so you always got to have a rotolog gasket on these guys. All right get the rotolot gasket in there and then what i do is put a tad bit of nylog on it, and then you got ta press it in doesn't take much. Okay, remember: nylon is completely safe for the system, but um we're just gon na rub it on.

There make sure it's pressed all the way in and then we'll get the rotolock tightened on. We'll get this piece sweat in and then we'll drop the compressor in when we're talking about roto locks right. This rotolock has a double port and i prefer rotolock valves that have a double port, but one of those ports always has pressure, no matter what on this style of rotolock valve okay, the easiest way is, is the one that's closest to the packing and the adjustment Stem is the one you put your gauges on and gets shut off. The one furthest away always has pressure.

So when you actuate this, it doesn't affect this at all. So i put a cap on that because that's not being used and then we're just gon na sweat this piece right here into here before and then we drop it in and we're good to go all right. We got the system all set up for evacuation. Um got the mg 44 micron gauge over here hooked onto a process port that i added to the system, because the compressor had an extra plug right.

There got a eight cubic inch dryer spoiling catch all put in there's already a sporland cl sight glass down there. I didn't have to change that vacuum pump is running we're using the field piece: vp x7. That's the 10 cfm vacuum pump. I currently have the gas ballast open for the initial pull down and you can tell because you got the flashing red orange light in there.

So all is well uh. The system only came up to 32 degrees. I've got the pumps back on and running electrical hooked back up, so we're safe there. So we're just kind of in cleanup mode now, and it's been running for about 10 minutes, we're about 1200 microns and dropping so that's good um.

A couple things i wanted to point out. Electrical control panel had two screws one here, one here going from the outside. In i take that screw and i reverse it because it's kind of a pain to get in there so now all you got to do is take this and hook it on this far side, and then you only have once you get it around there actually, but You only have one screw to put on then, so i always try to do that on compressor panels and stuff, i'm struggling with this right now, but you guys get the point all right. This thing's kicking butt um at this point.

I've closed this valve, so we did the initial pull down. I had this valve open now, i'm just pulling from this side. So this is a true vacuum. We're just about to hit below 500 we're going to.

Let it go probably down to 400, then we'll, stop it and do our decay test and then charge this guy up. I don't anticipate any leaks, so i think we're going to be okay. You know it's interesting, i'm getting ready to charge this guy. I went ahead and uh transferred my gauges to a pull the vacuum on my gauges, we're still in a decay right now, but we're doing fine um, but i'm looking over here am i blonde.

Oh there it is. I was blind. I was like it doesn't say how much refrigerant, but it says right there refrigerant two pounds: two pounds of 4048 okay, so we got the scale right here and um. We're gon na get this guy charged up right now, we're using the srs3 wireless scale and instead of using the handle, i've just got it coupled with the manifold, so it wirelessly connects to it so we're gon na zero.

It out we're gon na dump in two pounds into the receiver, we're at about one pound. 11 ounces, um cross our fingers, one two three, please don't blow up compressor started, we're gon na add in the rest, got ta, get it to the two pound mark uh. We also have a side glass down there, so that side, glass should clear up. It looks like it's completely empty or no, maybe it's not empty, we'll see.

So i got overshot it just a little bit, but we should be okay but yeah. We do have a clear sight, glass. It was already clear so we're gon na let this guy run and pull down and uh, we'll start insulating things and cleaning everything up. All right we are on and running.

Everything is good. Compressor feels good, everything's. Well um. I do appreciate the big display on these things.

I really like that. Backlit led lcd. Whatever you can turn off your lights, it makes it nice, when you're in the attic, um everything's. Looking good, don't see any big issues here, um a little bit of frost on that guy, maybe could use a little glycol but um yeah.

So, like i said, we're just gon na watch come down to temp, i'm gon na start cleaning up my messes and start assembling the unit back together, um i'm contemplating telling them to get an electrician to look into this guy right here. Like i said, i haven't seen any voltage problems and stuff really, but i think i measured like one of one volt voltage drop or something across the cord like from here to here. I think it was like one volt or whatever. I might have a clip of that um, but uh nothing, drastic or anything, nothing's overheating.

This thing's already satisfied only been running for like 10-15 minutes, so sweet all is well happy. Camper got the caps put back on they're kind of a pain, but i got them super tight, but the reason why i added that service port on the suction side over there is because of how difficult it is to get down to that one. So this one you can access, no problem, got these on nice and tight everything secure, so i'm just gon na start putting all the panels back on all right. I am not as skinny as i used to be um.

I put all the panels on, but i'm leaving this one off. I leave the grate for this off and i leave one off over here. So we get good air flow going through the unit, but we got all the protective panels on the cover on we're. Still satisfied looks like it's like it's about to turn on 9 30 through 1, unless i turned it off accidentally.

I might have done that. No, i didn't turn it off to see what the differential up but yeah we're gon na put a filter media on it. Got a new filter media right here. Put this guy on there, we'll just use a straw to hold it in place, keep the condenser clean and uh.

We're done all right, i'm not in a habit of changing compressors, just because starting components fail! Okay! But it's when you have starting component failure after failure, after failure now uh, we actually didn't change them four times. This would have been the fourth time, but we ended up just putting that temporary start capacitor on there. That got me going. I really like using those and having those tools in your truck.

Obviously, everybody out there doesn't need to carry the same things that i do, but in the line of work that i do and the light commercial refrigeration with the restaurants and stuff, we go through starting components: a lot okay, so i carry a universal run. Cap universal start cap, i usually don't care universal relays, typically, don't use those. I just use the start and the run cap to get me by and then i always try to go back in with the oem starting components: okay, um, i'm big on using the oem starting components, because if you don't, what tends to happen, is the factory starting Components um: they have plastic caps that make the capacitor safe right and they have a ul listing when they have all the right components and covers and different things on them. If you get aftermarket starting components, a lot of the times they're, not the exact same, they don't fit into the right housings.

They don't clip into place, and it's just a matter of safety. There's nothing worse than sticking your hand, and i have done this sticking your hand in to get a compressor to feel something, and then you actually touch the the leads of a start capacitor or something like that. It does not feel good okay. So it's always important at least the way that i go about it to try to stay oem as much as possible.

Now, of course, there's rare occasions and there's temporary situations too, like in this video, i temporarily put that start capacitor on there got it going made sure it worked, then either i was going to come back and replace the compressor or change the components and put factory Components in there, i also make it a habit of mine. Whenever i change starting components, i change them all as a set. So sometimes you may have a run and a start capacitor, some sort of like a potential relay or a current sensing relay and an overload, and i typically change them all as a set. So if one thing fails, i do it all.

Okay, that's just how i've always done it with starting components, so yeah i'm not in a habit of just throwing compressors in here, but in this situation i can't really find anything else wrong. Now i still told them to get an electrician involved. I want them to look at that receptacle. I want them to make sure there's nothing funny going on in there.

I certainly could have replaced a receptacle. I certainly could have opened it up, but you know sometimes i really don't want to get too involved in certain things that are out of my league now. I know i can safely and professionally change a receptacle, but it's always best to let you know to stay in your lane when you can okay. So in this situation i want them to get an electrician to sign off on it.

That way, if there still continues to be problems, i can say you know, there's nothing of my components that are causing this. It's got to be, you know the other side or if i have an electrician, come out and we continue to have problems. Maybe we'll put a uh a phase monitor on here right where we can monitor high and low voltages and see what's going on, you know, i tend to notice starting component failures on reaching coolers and refrigeration equipment that short cycles a lot so reaching coolers. Have that happen because cooks are always opening and closing doors, and that's where i see the most starting component failures that and when you're having voltage issues? Okay, so that's just my two cents on the matter.

Of course, i'm always trying to look out for the customer's best interest like in the way that i did all the work that i could, while the glycol unit was still running, i actually had someone else working with me standing because i was standing on top of A walk-in and uh the access is right in front of the walk-in cooler door, so we quoted this job to have a second person there moving the ladder every few minutes, so it was a pain in the butt, and it was very awkward with me up in That attic the entire time, but sometimes you just have to think about that stuff. When you quote these jobs, i always assume you know or look out and try to figure out what we're going to need. If i need to quote it as a two-person job now, certainly someone would look at this glycol unit. So you don't need two people, but when you're in an awkward position on top of a walk-in, you know where you can't be taking tools up and down.

There's not a lot of space, of course, i'm gon na quote it for two people: okay, um. I really appreciate you guys making it to the end of this video as usual. It's amazing all the support that i get from you guys if you haven't already please check out my website hvacrvideos.com great ways to support the channel. There's other methods and ways to support the channel in the links are in the show notes of the videos.

There's links to my paypal, patreon youtube channel memberships. Again, i really appreciate you, thank you so very much for all the support and we will catch you on the next one. Okay.