This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. That is not a good sound coming from the beer walk-in, it's at 60 degrees right now. It's uh friday april 30th, 2021 at about 5 30. In that evening, overtime, service call and the beer walking at 60 degrees all right.

Here's my rack right here. Well, it might be low on charge. Side glass looks like it's, uh got oil in it. We've got a cool suction line, it's not cold and the receiver is red hot, because they're, probably full of vapor, so uh looks like there's like an oil leak or something right here, and the walk-in cooler side glass is flashing too i'll, definitely be topping that one Off and this one's flashing, so i'm going to top both of those off after i get this one figured out, because i don't have to come back out tomorrow for the walk-in cooler or something so well yeah.

That thing is damn near completely out of gas holy moly we're going to go ahead and shut it off and do a leak search, because this should be a substantial leak somewhere. I don't know if it's right here or down in the evaporators, but this thing's gon na be definitely really low. I cleaned off a bunch of oil off these roto locks uh. You can't really hear too well right now, because uh, the uh, the rack, is all running and stuff, so i'm really relying on this digital display and we're not picking.

I'm surprised we're not picking anything up right there, because there was oil all over that road. A lot definitely picking something up right here, right on this top rotor lock we're picking something up for sure yeah. It's going crazy! All right! We're gon na get some soap bubbles on that guy and see what we can figure out. It might have just been picking up what was on that packing right there, because i'm not seeing anything leaking on the rotor lock itself yet so it could just be that.

Let me try to tighten the packing up and see if it stops it's still leaking, but very slowly. I i back seated this the pack or the service valve tighten the packing down and right around the back side. We've still got bubbles coming out just ever so slightly right on the backside. It's still leaking, but this thing's really low on gas.

So i don't doubt that that's a leak because obviously there was oil everywhere, so it has been leaking for sure. But i don't know that that's the only leak so we're going to keep chasing okay got the leak detector on. I don't see anything, but i'm just running it through here to see if it picks anything up. I don't see any traces of oil or anything like that down in the drain, pan.

Nothing, i'm not seeing anything over here. So we're going to jump onto the other side check the coil down the sides right here, make sure there's nothing going on there and then jump on the other coil all right. So let's do a leak check right off the bat. This guy's missing a cap, but it's not leaking huh go figure i'll put a cap on it, though, but i'm not picking anything up in here.

We're gon na run it down the drain pan see if we can get anything, nothing and then same thing on this side, all right, it's a little concerning, because there's no leaks downstairs um. I did put a cap on that schrader, so we got some refrigerant and we're gon na go ahead and get this guy going put some refrigerant in it um. I still want to change that valve. Just turn it back on.

I still want to change the uh. The service valve, but i don't have one of those a roto-lock valve - we'll - have to come back for that all right. Well, i'm going to gas this guy up so something i want to point out um when i started it up. You know the pressures were really low below 180 psi and what was happening was the head pressure.

Control valve was bypassing and there wasn't enough refrigerant in there. So if i let it run, it might do that again, but it's actually not going to be as low see that side glass filled up really quick and that's because the head pressure control valve stopped bypassing. So it actually wasn't as low as i thought, but still is low um, so we're just gon na keep going with it. That's strange, don't know why i couldn't find that look at that.

That's my leak right. There found you. I steered clear that i didn't even yeah. That's really weird huh go figure.

Okay, we're gon na turn this guy off; that's really weird, because it must have been weak, because i leak checked right here and i would have picked it up. What caught my attention was, as i started to charge it, i saw a cloud go this way, so i think that is a fluke and it just happened. Yeah huh, okay, well, i'm gon na have to get the recovery machine out. There's no way to because it's on the high side there's nothing.

I could do it's. It's leaking out the high side. So so i went ahead and broke it off and then pinched it shut. So that way i can go, get the recovery machine.

I pinched it up here to slow it down. Pinched it right here and then that way i can actually recover the gas out of this guy and then change the dual pressure control and we'll change the dryer too. All right when i'm getting ready to recover, i hook everything up. I like using the large diameter hoses, always leave this one loose, put it in recover mode, open it up and then tighten it on, and you know that you're purged now so everything going in there is nice and purged and good to go, go ahead and close That we're going to get a scale underneath it and then we'll weigh out what we you know, figure out, we'll pull out all right, we're good to go.

Gon na hit start this guy start pumping, and the cool thing is: is that the scale communicates with the manifold, so my weight's right on there all right, we're gon na let that guy run. I'm gon na start prepping this guy to get replaced all right. We're done recovering um, i purged the refrigerant back into here. So all together we only recovered almost four pounds of gas, so this guy is massively low because you see the size of that receiver.

This thing was really low, so uh, i'm gon na get rid of the recovery machine. Let that's just a little bit. That's stuck in there go ahead and pull these guys off now i want to have the compressor open for the minimal amount of time, so i'm going to just crack these guys and then thread these on real, quick with some nylog. So that way, i'm not contaminating the oil, because the leak was on the high side, so there shouldn't be any moisture in the oil.

So i'm gon na try to do this as quick as possible a little bit of nylog right on the mating surface. That way, it lubricates the flare right there perfect boom perfect a little bit of nylon right here doesn't take much okay. So, whenever i do this, this is going to inevitably twist, so i'm actually going to twist it the opposite way, because when you get the final turn it'll always twist, so i'm going to try to hold it in place. You guys will see there we go now.

It's going to twist when i get the final torque on it. It's going to do that twist. Perfect nice and snug make sure that doesn't rub out and then we're going to do the same for this one over here i really like the flare, combo male female super nice, nice and good, clean off any old dialogue, and now we just got to get these Guys off, okay, a little bit of nylon right here, not much so that's about all! I can get it never lines up absolutely perfect! So, oh well, all right dryers installed over there um. I got the evacuation running right now.

I had to do a little bit of a different thing over here, because there was no good place to put my micron gauge, so unfortunately, i had to use a piece of my gauge, which you know: that's not really vacuum rated, but it's better than nothing. So we're pulling down we're gon na, let it run for a little while and i'm gon na start cleaning up some of my messes, i decided, while i'm waiting, i'm gon na go ahead and uh top off the charge on these other systems. So this one's flashing, we're gon na clear it add a little bit of extra gas for the winter charge and then move on we'll come back and schedule with them to do leak, checks on everything and then we'll properly charge them. We have our first 100 degree day today, so i just want to get this done, so it doesn't turn into more service calls.

You know for uh tomorrow and stuff, because that's their walk-in cooler, that's flashing, and then this is their cook store. So i just want to knock it out, so i got the side glass for the walk-in cooler to clear, but that receiver is covered in oil and i can see oil dripping from the cap. So more than likely we're gon na have a bad receiver. Um i'll have the customer create a work order and we'll come back out and verify that's the only leak.

But this way we don't get called back and then i'm gon na jump back on this guy and see where the evacuation is. Once i take all my stuff off this uh, it is running we're gon na go ahead and uh finish. Charging takes uh well, according to the factory on there, it takes 25 pounds, but that's really not necessarily the full charge it might be. It might not be because it depends on how long the line set is so they'll usually give you so much like 50 feet or something like that, and i'm trying to think.

Actually, you know what yeah that's going to be correct, because this walking's right underneath this rack, so i'm going to go ahead and start with that 25 pounds and then we'll go from there and check the liquid level. So this unit has a head pressure control valve and that's why um we have to put a certain amount of gas in here. So it's not just a matter of clearing the sight glass. If it didn't have a head pressure control valve, then we could just clear it and call it a day, but um it's more than that.

You can calculate the flooded charge by measuring the condenser figuring out the internal volume, how much liquid refrigerant it could take. But you could also lean on the manufacturer in this case, or you can put the maximum amount of refrigerant, which would be three quarters of the receiver, so we're going to keep charging and then we'll check the liquid level here in a bit all right. I finished off what was left in one drum that's sitting over there i had 11 pounds or i had putting. I had put 11 pounds - 8 ounces in the system, so i'm gon na show you guys a little trick um for doing this.

So obviously i pulled that off and i could do the math or i could just uh fake it out, like i'm gon na, show you right now all right, you see how it says zero, but when i put my hand on it, i can get it to Say 11 pounds eight ounces and once it hits 11 pounds, eight ounces by me faking it out with my hand, then i'll just zero out the handle right there and then we'll be correct. If that makes sense to you guys, so you see how it's now says: 11 pounds 7 ounces and i'm not touching it because i faked it out and i zeroed it out. So now i'm going to finish charging and i could just charge to the 25 pounds that it says on the manifold. I'm just letting the unit run for a little bit.

Uh i've got the full charge in it. Uh 26 pounds right there, but i just wanted to run and bring the box down to temp. I still want to pump it down and check the liquid level, but again i'm just trying to get it down. Um, the oil level still looks good decent amount of oil and man do i love those spoiling sight, glasses and the flare dryers.

I already said it before, but i love how big it is um and i'm just a super fan of those things but yeah. So we got the spoiling catch-all, which is the dryer and the scorland sea, all which is the sight glass and, like i said earlier, i love when i, when i get the opportunity changing them from sweat to flare. I just dig those things so we're looking good. So far, everything's uh - i topped off the charge on everything else too.

So so, with the 26 pounds you can see, our liquid level is all the way down at the bottom. So our liquid level is about right here and that's just a little under half of the receiver, i'm going to go ahead and add a little more refrigerant just to be safe, i'm going to get a little bit closer to the three-quarter level. All right! That's about all that i'm going to put into it! You can see that we're about right here now, which is i'd, say about three quarters of the receiver, so i'm going to go ahead and mark it, and then that way we know. There's our liquid level went ahead and marked it that way.

We know for the next time and uh yeah it's coming down in temp all right. It is much better in here. It's got to be at least like 44 43, so it's gon na take some time. There is a thermostat somewhere up there, but i can't see it, but it's going to take some time i'll call them in the morning and follow up, but it's kicking ass now.

Actually thermostat actually just turned. Oh, it was satisfied. It just turned back on so yeah. I know we're kicking ass in here um.

I came back today just to follow up. They actually have another service call for an ac, not working that i'm going to dive into, but you know i'm going over in my head why? I couldn't find that leak and when i got out here the system was really low on gas and i said dude. This has got to be a big leak, so i went down, i found a couple small leaks, but nothing that was like. You know 30 pounds of gas.

I think what was happening was. I think the system was so low on refrigerant that, because i didn't notice um the mist that i saw of the refrigerant until i started adding gas and it drove up the head pressure and then it started leaking out the high side. But as i come back today, i noticed something i'm walking up to here and look. You can clearly see the oil right there where it was leaking where it had rubbed out.

So that's just interesting, you know sometimes leaks, do funny things in this situation. It did you know, but this guy's satisfied right now. It looks like it just shut off because the suction line's cold customers happy everything's. Looking good, don't see any issues there yeah we're looking good um.

I am getting them to create a work order for that. Walk-In cooler, so we can figure out. You know if that receiver leaking is the only thing but yeah customers happy all as well all right. This was a frustrating one, to say the least, the customer, as usual, called saying, the beer walking just got to 60 degrees.

It didn't just get to 60 degrees, it's been, you know, raising all day long more than likely, this thing took a dump or was starting to temp high in the morning, but of course i got called in the evening. You know it's frustrating just bite my tongue and move on okay, so obviously we found that the unit was low on charge. Now, i'm going to start off by saying that this customer is is just starting up their routine maintenance programs again as they're starting to allow people into dining rooms in southern california. The restaurants are starting to make a little bit of money and they're actually starting to do the preventative maintenance again, so hopefully we'll start finding these problems before they become these friday night disasters like this one was, and you know, looking at the big picture as usual.

I saw that the walking cooler was low on charge. I saw that their cook stores were low on charge, so i have situational awareness while i'm on site. Okay. Now in hindsight, i feel like if right off the bat i would have shut down the entire rack.

I probably would have had a little bit more success at leak, searching by that pressure control. Now i didn't show you guys in the video, but i don't know why i must have lost the footage or something, but i leak checked the bellows and that pressure control. I leak checked the entire condenser all the piping in the rack, and the only thing i could get a hit on was at that uh discharge line, rotolock valve okay and then just a slight hit on the suction line, rotolock valve, but nothing major in that part. I did show you guys, that's what was concerning me, because i knew this thing was way low on gas.

Okay went downstairs, leak checked both evaporators, nothing. You know even that cap. That was missing. I was surprised so i knew i was looking for a giant leak right, so you got to keep that stuff in mind.

If you walk up to a system, that's damn near flat on gas right. This one was pretty much flat right because i only recovered four pounds of gas, and that was after i added gas, so i probably added about two pounds of gas to it. So this thing only had like two pounds of gas when it had. You know uh almost a 40 pound charge or 35 pounds or whatever it was so situational awareness is so important right.

You don't just like, like a lemming, you know just move through the the thing and not really pay attention to what's going on, because that will bite you in the butt now had i shut down the rack from the get-go, i'm wondering if i would have picked Up on that leak a little bit more, but i don't know because there was a point again. I didn't catch it on video when i did shut down the rack eventually, because i was leak, checking the condenser and i was going through the condenser. So i had to shut it down for that, but i don't know this was just a bizarre one. You know at first and i said it in the video i thought.

Maybe it was just a fluke you know who knows, but no, when i came back the next day and saw that oil stain it's like. No, that thing was leaking at that capillary from the high pressure control the entire time. Just for some reason i wasn't picking up on it. Okay, so there's a lot of things.

You know questions did i do that. Did i do this, i'm thinking in my head, but like i you know, i know i did everything right. You know, and inevitably i found the problem and i fixed the problem, but it still can be frustrating, so you have to really pay attention. Have situational awareness understand sequence of operation? You know that kind of stuff, be you know careful when you're going through these systems.

So yeah this ended up being a late night call um everything i do i'm trying to stay as efficient as possible. So when i go downstairs to get whatever i'm thinking, what am i gon na need? I'm gon na you know, i brought my rolling cart and i'm gon na need all these different tools to try to limit the amount of trips down to the van. Also, what you don't know - and this happens in a lot of restaurants - is the back door. Has a lock and an alarm on it and corporate standards.

They have to shut it and lock it every time. So you know i don't want to have to grab a manager every single time i go downstairs, so i want to try to be as efficient as possible, bring in all the tools so that way, there's minimal trips to the van. Yes, i can certainly walk out through the front of the building. You know, but we don't ever want to take our tools and refrigerant and supplies where the customers are at.

We try to keep that into the back of the building. It's one thing: if i'm walking in the front i'll walk in the front door with my backpack on my back and walk into the restaurant sure i'll do that. But when i'm carrying stuff in and out of the building and things like that, we're trying to avoid walking where the customers can see, we don't want them to question what we're doing there. If i'm walking in with gauges refrigerant cylinders all this crap just barely walking in the door, the customer doesn't need to see that that's the kind of stuff that we need to remember.

You know we're there to serve the restaurant um. I don't have a chip on my shoulder. I don't think that i'm, you know a gift to them or anything like that. You know i mean i'm just i'm there to do my job and i'm going to try to be as courteous as possible and try to get it done as as efficient as possible.

Okay, so we got the system operational. It's working um, i'm going to talk to the customer about that discharge service valve, but to be honest with you, i'm not too concerned because that's a tiny leak once i tightened up the packing on that, i definitely got them to create that work. Order for the walk-in cooler i'm going to dive into that come this upcoming week. I did go back out there, the next morning, which was actually today.

It is uh, may 1st now so i went back out may 1st in the morning because they had another air conditioner. It was a whole nother thing, that'll be another video. That was an interesting one too. I kind of got my butt kicked on that ac, but um anyways, but that was that gave me the opportunity to follow up on the beer walking and everything was good.

So i really really appreciate you guys making it to the end. If you guys haven't already, please check out my website hvacrvideos.com help to support the channel hats, shirts, beanies, all that stuff available on there other ways you guys can help to support the channel to keep these things going. Uh you can donate via patreon. You can donate via paypal, you can become a youtube channel member.

You know any of that stuff i mean you don't have to, but it definitely helps me to keep doing these things. I don't really say it very much and talk about it too much, but i legit spend three to four hours every day after a full work day on video stuff like when i get home every single day on average, okay, there's some days, i spend more there's Some days i spend less, but on average it's three to four hours a day on top of a normal. You know whatever my normal work day is or in the case of today you know it's may 1st. I ran two service calls.

I've been working all day today and you know it's nine o'clock at night, i'm trying to edit this thing down so um, you know anyways. I don't know why i'm going off on a tangent there, but i really really appreciate you guys making it to the end again. Uh remember. I do live streams monday evening.

5 p.m: pacific on youtube, uh work permitting, obviously, and then i also uh go live work permitting on the hvac overtime channel, with my buddies on friday evenings about 605 pm pacific time, but obviously i missed the last two shows one of them. I was on vacation. The second one was the friday that i filmed this video. I was doing this service call so obviously work's a priority for me.

So um appreciate you guys and uh. We will catch you on the next one. Okay.