There's the problem: the whole txv fell apart. It actually landed on my pants. I thought it was a piece of hot solder, but yeah it's busted inside internally. That valve is bad.

We're still changing the other one too, but wow. I never had that happen before the whole thing fell apart. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. We are back today we got approval to fix everything, so uh txvs and this one cleaning and hoses and both and then cleaning in a switch in this one um we're gon na get in here and start recovering the gas.

We got two recovery points. It's gon na take a little while, because these things they have so many different places for the refrigerant to get stuck uh, also disassembling saving the insulation pulling the sensing bulbs off we'll slowly start pulling everything apart and then we're going to fix what insulation is bad Too, okay, so leave this one loose open this guy up, let it purge and then tighten it there. We go this guy's in a vacuum already, so now we open the tank and zero out the scale, and then we know we're purged all the way through the tank. So this is on here.

Here's our scale. We need to change it to pounds and ounces. Everything's good here i turned off power at the switch. I actually had the breaker and then we'll throw a solenoid magnet on that liquid line solenoid here in a minute.

Okay, so we're good there we're ready to recover. All we need to do is open this guy up. Let it push in what it can and then we'll start it up got solenoid magnets on both solenoid, coils or cylinder valves. That way we make the process go faster and we're kicking, but we're at four pounds right now, but again it's gon na it's gon na all get stuck in that receiver here in a few minutes as usual, we'll just start disassembling the insulation and everything nice and Slow all right, i have got the system recovered, uh, open to atmosphere and we're purging with nitrogen solenoid magnet on the liquid line.

Solenoid valve. I need to put it back onto that guy up there we're going to cut the components out as best as possible and then unsweat the little stubs and then for the dryer, we're going to unsweat it from here and unsweat it from the top of the receiver And pull the whole assembly out and sweat the dryer in outside, because you got another machine here, not very much room over there. It's really hard to get in there without burning everything up to change that dryer. So nice little process really tricky, but we've got the dryer installed.

We just need to make our connections and then braze it back in and then we'll get on with the txv's pain in the butt there's the problem, the whole txv fell apart. It actually landed on my pants. I thought it was a piece of hot solder, but yeah it's busted inside internally. That valve is bad.

We're still changing the other one too, but wow. I never had that happen before the whole thing fell. Apart got some viper wet rag heat blocking compound protecting those looks like i need to shore it up just a little bit on the bottom, but uh we're gon na get those uh sensing bulbs bent out of the way and sweat those valves in real, quick and Get the evacuation started because i'm hungry for lunch all right: it's not gon na be fun so and the last one i think, i'm running out of oxygen, just heat it up from the top it's kind of a blind. Well, so i don't see too well what i'm doing here.

I think i got it. I need to inspect it real, quick plenty of solder. You put that stuff on there looks like it looks like it looks like it is unbelievable. I might reheat that just a little bit, there's a google right on the top, but yeah we're good nice good, looking, not overheated valves, nice and pretty so we're going to go ahead and get the vacuum.

Ribs started up and i'm going to take a lunch all right. We've got the multi-hose setup going with the vacuum pump core removal tools. Micro engage now. Normally you have to do a multi-point recovery and evacuation, but because i have the solenoid magnets on, we are pulling through the entire system, so we're gon na.

Let this go for a while, and i'm gon na take a lunch and uh. Hopefully, it'll be done when i get back okay, we are putting refrigerant back into the system and i wan na show you something: the pressures are rising on the low side very slowly. Okay, this just proves the point. That valves are never 100 leak free.

You cannot pump these machines down. You cannot use these solenoid valves as a pump down method. Okay, because we are leaking through and and it just happens, it could be something slightly in the compressor who knows but we're just uh putting the initial charge and then we're gon na start insulating everything and putting it all back together. I'm gon na hit up all my joints, real quick, make sure we don't get any leaks, no picking up traces or anything.

I always double check my brace joints. I do a visual with the mirror, flashlight and then also check them. We're looking good back down in here on the dryer, nothing, nothing, okay, we're looking good we're gon na go ahead and start taping everything up. I took the full pound nine pounds, four ounces or the full charge.

All right did my best. It's not perfect insulated! This stuff, as good as possible sensing bulbs, tried to use the old jacket i'll have to get some insulation around this guy everything's plugged back in um, went ahead and replaced these vinyl hoses right here we're still going to clean this machine. I went ahead and changed the cube guide, we're going to pull that mechanical bin switch out. Here's the old tube, it's pretty nasty, um, okay, so we're gon na start, this guy up make sure it works and then we'll disassemble it and clean it all right.

The machine is started up. This valve right here is feeding hot gas into both of these lines, they're both really hot. I got ta insulate that a little bit better um, okay, we're gon na start it again, because that was a really short harvest cycle, but also the machine is really warm. So that might be why so, but yeah we're up and running looking good.

So far, we're gon na watch the unit cycle and then we'll see what happens well, i haven't looked at the book, but that is massively better than what it was last time at the five minute mark frosty evaporator, it's not flooding back to the compressor, we're looking Good i'm starting to put the top on and then, like, i said, we'll watch this guy make ice and then we're over here cleaning this machine right now. So all right, we just finished the uh harvest cycle and uh. Had a nice good batch made ice a total cycle in about 26 minutes, which is pretty darn good again, we're not flooding back to the compressor anymore. Compressor is nice and warm like it should be just cold right here at the suction inlet.

So we're looking good we're gon na go and tear this guy apart and do a cleaning on it now so uh, since we already ran cleaner through it last time. The first thing we're gon na do is just go ahead and shut down the machine and tear the whole thing down. We're gon na go and do tear down soak all the parts drain. All the water and then we'll put it back together, run cleaner through it again, and you know all that good stuff, all right, disassembling everything and i'll show you what we do is we bring this over here we bring a bucket fill it with ice machine cleaner And then set the parts in there to soak while we're doing everything, and then we take them apart and scrub them.

So all right you've really got to watch out because this rubber o-ring is coming loose. So you cannot submerse this in water if you submerse it when the o-ring is coming out, then water is going to get in there and mess with the sensor. So we're just going to have to do a very gentle job of cleaning this. Sometimes these things that are supposed to be submersible aren't, so you really got to watch that kind of stuff.

I've got pure cleaner in that guy and every once in a while. You just spray everything down and then we'll give it a rinse same thing in here. We're just spraying it down letting it work on some of the calcium and then we'll clean it with a cloth. You can use like a soft bristle brush like that or a scotch brite pad as last resort.

You really don't want to have to use scotch brite or anything sharp if you don't have to, but sometimes you got to do it because they don't do normal maintenance, so we're getting there um. We got up top sprayed everything down, we're still going to run cleaner through it there's still a couple little spots, but they're never going to become completely perfect, so we've got pure concert or pura cleaner sitting on there right now, i'm going to go ahead and put These guys back in real, quick snap them all back in those are going to be a chore and then, after that, we'll run some more cleaner through it all right the machine about as clean as it's gon na get. It's not gon na get too much better than that. So what i did was i turned on the pump just to make sure everything was put where it was supposed to be, and it is so we're gon na do one last final rinse with ice machine cleaner.

I know what manif manufacturer's instructions say, but trust me guys this takes a lot more cleaner than what they say it takes so typically on an ice machine cleaning. I do half to three quarters of a bottle for this size machine and i use maybe a quarter of the bottle on the first rinse, a quarter of the bottle, maybe half the bottle on soaking in the bucket and then the rest typically on the cleaning. So we're gon na go ahead and let this run with ice machine cleaner in there get any more final scale off and then we'll run a sanitizer solution. We're already running that final one on this one too, it looks like we need to maybe do a rinse, because we got some leftover cleaner up there, but it's gotten the calcium off.

So another thing i need to point out is this: is the cleaning valve what this does? This is your water inlet right here? This allows the water pump to feed up through the water inlet and go through the fresh water inlet too. So that way you can get cleaner going, so we turned it on and right now it's only feeding through the top, but when i turn this valve it starts feeding through here. So you always want to do that now. There's a micro switch in there and it won't allow the machine to turn on in the ice mode when this is on in this position.

So make sure you always set that right. So we're going to let this circulate for a minute and then we'll do a rinse and then a sanitize. It's looking much better in here. Again, it's never going to be completely perfect.

There's always going to be a little calcium and stuff. It is what it is, but it's looking really good. We're also dumping the ice right now too, we're burning it with hot water, but you got to be careful because the bin drain isn't big enough to let it it'll start overflowing out the front yeah we're just killing all that ice. That was left over in there right now, so machines are put back together, then, is completely empty.

We're waiting for uh each machine to make ice um we're going to change this float boot because it's starting to be deformed we've got a new one right here. I changed this one last time, so we're good, but yeah machines have been sanitized and everything's good, this one's already taken, but we filled this one with the good ice and it's already almost full, because before we started working on this machine, we transferred as much ice To this one, so they would have ice. So this guy's satisfied you can see that lids all jacked up but yep they're running good, so we're gon na go ahead and call this one done all right. After the fact i had written down.

This was my uh pressures. We were running 48 back and 245 head compared to what it was the first time, 73 back in 216 head pretty close to the factory recommendations. Some numbers are a little bit skewed, but my outdoor ambient was also a little bit lower. I'm not too worried about it.

The machine is operating and you can see. I never rechecked the right machine because it'd been operating properly since i left the last time, but the very peculiar thing was this expansion valve okay. So what was happening was originally. I was going to cut this out, but i decided to go ahead and sweat it.

So when i unsweat it, i had the valve maybe about like right here and when i unsweat the last part and i pulled it out, something fell and hit me on the leg and and it felt hot and i thought maybe a piece of hot solder hit. My pants or something - and then i looked down - and i realized that there was the pins from the expansion valve the super heat spring the seat, and then this is the retainer. This is also your super heat adjustment too. These valves aren't field adjustable, but um.

This piece right here had come loose, it's just a threaded piece with an allen on it and it had actually come loose inside, and that was the reason why we had the flooding expansion valve. Okay, now hoshizaki themselves recommend you changing both. So it's just good practice when you're in there, because it's just difficult so just change them both since you're going to have everything out and that's what i did and the other one. I went ahead and took it apart.

Just to see - and i mean the other one - was fine - the other one was intact. Nothing was loose, nothing was falling apart, but i've never seen that before the actual. Retaining threaded piece right here had come loose and the whole assembly had just fallen apart in my hands, so this thing essentially wasn't even really being a valve and it was just letting refrigerant pass through it. Of course, i went ahead and put a new spoiling catch-all filter dryer in there now.

This is actually an oem catch-all from hoshizaki, but i went back in with the oem valve and again it's just the spoiling catch. All the. What makes this one oem is just the line sizes uh, one they're they're, just funky one size is smaller than the other size, but it's essentially just an o32 uh catch all filter dryer. So that's cool and here's the other valve, but yeah everything was good um.

I actually went back there today, it's been like three or four days since i was there. I was back there today just to follow up check on them and re-insulate something on the right machine, because i never ended up having enough insulation to do the right side. So i checked on him: everything was operating all the ice machines were good, so so that was a trip. I've never seen a valve fall apart when i was taking it apart or you're taking it out.

You know that was kind of interesting and again, like i said in the thing i thought i thought something you know piece of hot metal fell in my pants or something that was a trip, but anyways um. You know you're surprised all the time when you do this stuff, you just got to kind of have an open mind and trust. Your diagnosis um. You know when you're, when you're going through this stuff, because there was like a second where i second-guessed myself, you know, was it actually a bad expansion valve? Did i have a leaking hot gas valve? You know what was it, but no i i knew it was a valve and i you know i went through in my head over and over again and yeah.

That really really told me that's what it was when i took it apart. You know that was a trip. I've never seen that before, but um you know going through these machines. Understanding the sequence of operation is a lot.

It really means a lot to know how the machines operate and to know what to look for. I'm sure that you know there's steps that i skipped and different things like that that you may have seen in my diagnosis in the original video again. Obviously this is the second part to a video from about two weeks ago, but um. I was confident that was what was going on with the machine.

Okay, so went ahead and came back out recovered the gas. Everything was good now uh as far as the cleaning goes. Why didn't i clean it before? Why did i clean it after? The fact is, because i wanted to get the machine running, make sure everything was good before i spent a bunch of time cleaning it making sure we didn't have to do. You know a bunch of other stuff to the machine before we tore the thing apart now i was uh fortunate enough to have someone else with me.

So that way he was cleaning majority of the time. While i was working on this machine and then i helped him with the middle machine once we got done with that, these machines can be a pain to clean. I kind of wanted to address the ice machine cleaner thing that i kind of talked about a little bit in here. You know the manufacturers.

In my opinion, they specify certain amounts of ice machine, cleaner uh, for certain reasons - okay number one. Of course, they want to advertise that their machines are the easiest and the fastest and whatever to clean. Okay, i always when i'm at the manufacturer's training. I always like to get them to admit to everybody inside the training, just that way that you know the 30 people that are.

There can hear the fact, too, that deep cleanings are not what the manufacturer shows in their books. Okay, basically, they tell you in the book, you know just pour cleaner in the machine. Let it circulate turn the cleaning valve the water bypass valve. Let it run flush.

The water out run sanitizer and call it a day. Okay, a deep cleaning on these things is: when you tear down the machine, take all the parts soak them in. You know the ice machine cleaner, let them sit there, clean them off, go through everything. Okay, manufacturers also only recommend that you use a towel to wipe down the machine and never use abrasive, cloths or brushes or anything like that.

Well, they tell you soft bristle brushes are okay, but you know in the reality, is that sometimes the customers? They don't maintain? These machines enough, so you have to get in there and scrap or scrape things. It is horrible to scrape to use scrapers and screwdrivers and different things like that on these machines and the reason why it's not good is because, when you scratch the plastic, even though you think you're just scratching the surface, you're actually leaving gouges inside the plastic. For bacteria and different things like that to grow in and new calcium, to build up and in different things like that, so every time you get a machine, nice and shiny, clean uh. The next time is probably going to be dirtier because that stuff is really going to get embedded inside there.

Another thing you have to be careful about is a lot of these new ice machine manufacturers. Different ones have different things, but they build bacterial fighting chemicals basically into the plastics, and if you scrape them down, then you take those bacterial fighting chemicals out like, for instance, i think isomatic uses something called aegeon um different ones, okay, so they have and - and i Think manitowoc does something too in their plastics, where it's like antibacterial plastic or something like that. But you know the more you scrape it. The more you give uh.

You know the surfaces little areas um, the more you give the bacteria little areas for you know to get stuck in the surfaces of it. So, of course, understanding how and what you're supposed to do to clean these is is proper and then also understanding that sometimes you got to do what you got to do to get the machine clean, okay, um, you know in a perfect world, they did a maintenance On this machine every month there wouldn't be calcium, buildup, okay, um, but no there's, no restaurant out there that i've ever been to that. Does that kind of pm work? Okay, i used to work for a hospital customer and they were crazy about their pms, but even them they had calcium buildup on different things like that: okay, so um, but always understanding the sequence of operation. That's truly important with these machines.

As far as how much cleaner that i used, of course, i want you to follow the cleaning manufacturer's instructions you don't ever want to put chemicals toxic chemicals in these machines that can make people sick. Okay, i go above and beyond to flush these machines out from what the manufacturer actually recommends and as far as the amount of ice machine cleaner that i used in the machine um when i say i use three quarters to a whole bottle per machine. It's because i mean i'm using you know a quarter to a third of the bottle in the machine to circulate. Then i'm using a couple parts of the bottle, basically in pans to soak parts in and then in my big bucket to soak parts in another thing to remember too and i'm i don't know these numbers exactly off the top of my head.

But i want to say that ice machine cleaner, like uses or loses its effectiveness after, like 15 to 20 minutes of sitting. So you know pouring it into a big lexan. Pan, like i did and letting it sit for an hour, really doesn't do anything because, after like the first 15 to 20 minutes like the the acidity or the ph or some weird stuff like goes away, and it really essentially just becomes. You know a chemical inside.

A bucket and you're just soaking the parts really okay and that's a good thing too sometimes, but just keep that in mind. Okay, letting ice machine, cleaner, sit and manipulating the machine to run for hours on end with just a circulation pump, really isn't going to do. Much when the cleaner loses its effectiveness after so much time - and i believe that applies to like most cleaners, whether it be citric acid based or phosphoric acid based, those are the two main cleaners hoshizaki has their own brand, but scale away, i think, is what they Call it, but everyone uses some sort of an acidic base that that, to my understanding that that circulates through the machines and cleans them okay um whenever possible, i really dig using the refrigeration technologies, ice machine cleaner or the viper ice machine cleaner. I actually didn't have any with me on this job, but i do need to get some more because that stuff is very, very um effective.

It does a really good job of cleaning these machines, but that's a whole nother thing. So hey. I really really appreciate you guys making it to the end and, listening to my endless rambling, like usual, okay, do me a favor guys, please, if you haven't already subscribe to the channel, leave me a thumbs up thumbs down. Give me some comments inside there help youtube to recognize that you guys are watching these videos.

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