This video is brought to you by Sporland quality, integrity and tradition. It's about 5. PM Just got an emergency service call for a walk-in freezer and when I walked in, nothing was happening. but now it sounds like it's hissing.

like maybe it's low on refrigerant. There's no ice on the coils. The thermostat over here up here right there. it says 30 degrees and it's set for negative 10.

So we're gonna need to go up top because there's clearly something going on there. I Can tell by the sound that refrigerant's making. All right. I Come up onto the roof and this exhaust fan is making a god-awful screeching noise.

The belt is not loose I Checked it. It's something wrong with the pulley and then this one's squeaking too. So that stinks. Uh, come up here and this is my compressor and there's oil everywhere all over this fitting right here.

it's leaking from this. Looks like my side glass is empty. so I'm gonna put some gauges on it. All right.

Big blue soap bubbles. The trick is to make sure you have a steady stream. you don't want foam spray it all right here. It's hot.

It's burning hot. This bad boy's been leaking for a while. Oh man, look at that. That's not good.

Oh yeah, it's that fitting right there. there. It is all right. I'm gonna add some refrigerant to this guy and clear up the sight glass.

We're about to get rain right now. It's been raining all day. It's all wet everywhere. so I don't want to be stuck up here trying to change the Dual pressure control because I'd have to recover the entire charge dryer.

All that good stuff. so we'll bring everything back with us. I'm going to put gas in it for tonight. Looks like I got done just in time.

It's all over my head, but it's really coming in and I can hear thunder in the distance. They're supposed to be scattered thunderstorms today, so we got some rain. But all right, we are back today. I'm currently fixing that guy right now making that noise stop.

We got someone getting some new belts and stuff and there's a whole other video for that. Um, we are gonna fix this leak now. um I mentioned in the previous video I Don't know if the audio turned to good or not where I could use it. So you guys may already know this or may not know this, but this customer is adamant that I start pulling equipment out of the refrigeration rack so we're gonna do a minimum repair on this guy.

We're just gonna get it back up and running so that way it's not leaking refrigerant. it's got refrigerant leaks. These hoses are bad. Okay I don't like the rubber hoses anyways.

you can use like these style. These style are a little bit better. Uh, and that's what we're going to end up going with. is one of these style hoses right here.

We're going to utilize the existing pressure control. uh and we are going to just do a minimum repair, but we are going to have to recover the gas out of the system, change the dryer, and go from there so we'll change the pressure control hoses, change the dryer. As far as the oil level goes, it's actually really low and I don't see very much oil in there right now, so it started to come back when I was here the other day. but it's not in there right now so we're probably going to add some oil to this guy too to get us by temporarily until I can get them in a quote and properly move the condensing unit out of the rack.

All right now. this was a brand new cylinder that was vacuumed down, but it's not at a low enough Micron level for me to trust it. We are going to be reusing the refrigerant that we pull out of that system to put into this tank so we need to pull it down further to make sure it's where I want it to be and try to pull as much moisture out of this tank as possible while we're waiting for the evacuation on that tank. So that way we can get recovering.

Let's talk about the dryer and the sight glass. So we have a spoiling catch-all and a spoiling sea all now. this is a male female flare sight glass. You look right here.

It is going to couple directly up to the dryer. Okay, I Really, dig on these things. The large sight glass that they have. They do a good job.

It's showing that it has moisture because it's just been sitting in the Box We'll make sure that indicator changes color once it vacuums down and starts having refrigerant flow across it. Okay, always make sure that it has the copper gasket in it. next thing on this dryer. Um, you want to make sure that you are sized correctly.

Okay, so on the side, if you're wanting to add a dryer to a system, they actually have a sizing chart on the side. But you also want to make sure that if you're adding a bigger dryer, look at it gives you the the refrigerant. Um, the amount of refrigerant that the dryer itself can hold. So that way if you need to compensate for anything.

Um, but always make sure that these things are sealed protected. You don't want to beat up dryer. Okay, label's good. Keep the the things on it as long as possible.

That way you're keeping moisture out of this guy. So we're going to open this guy at the very last minute. but we can assemble these things and it's always important too. If you want more information about these, if you go to Sportland's website, you can find more information.

I'll put a link in the show notes about the tech bulletin for the dryers and has a lot more information about the different style. Now this is a sealed pour. They also have the Uh the cores themselves for the bolt-on dryers. You know you can just add the core to it now.

Uh what? I got here is these uh hoses right here? These ones are from JB Industries but they actually come with Schrader depressors. But here's the problem: I I Notice a lot of Uh issues with these. Okay, and that's when you have a discharge line and there's a Schrader this close to the outlet of the compressor. Odds are when you go to take that off that Schrader is going to be leaking like crazy because they just get too hot and it melts the the like the Teflon Rings or whatever on the trader.

So I don't ever put straighters when the discharge is this close or when the pressure control is this close to the discharge. Now if it was further down like if we had a Schrader over here or something like that I would consider putting a Schrader on there. but coming out of the compressor it's not a good idea. So even if there is a Schrader we'll take it out.

But I doubt there's a straighter underneath that. This thing is taken a bit. We already filled up recovery cylinder the 50 pounder but it doesn't hold 50 pounds. So um when you figure it out using you can use the HVAC School app but basically do the calculations.

The water column, the density of the refrigerant, the tear weight, and the maximum ambient temperature at which the tank will be stored. And there's a calculation you can do and then it'll tell you how much refrigerant with room for expansion you can put in that tank. So we went ahead and did that one. um this one right here.

We ended up adding another one. We're filling it up right now now. One thing we could be doing is we could have large diameter hoses on here. We're not in that big of a rush, but we use large diameter coming out of the gauges and then from the gauges to the tank so those are 3 8 inside diameter.

They do speed up the process. Uh, another thing you could do to speed up the process is you could connect to the vapor port on the top instead of the liquid Port because there's a dip tube going down in the tank that's smaller than a quarter inch. But other than that I mean we're moving. It's just taking a little bit, but we have the Uh compressor contactor.

We have power turned on so that way the solenoid valves are open and it's moving. We can clearly see refrigerant dancing around in the sight glass recovering it out of the system. So this guy just holds a lot of refrigerant. is all.

Kind of sucks that we got to do all this just to change a hose for a pressure control. You know, we shut it off in positive pressure because we're going to do kind of a hot swap on this to not introduce a lot of moisture into the system. we're at about 6 PSI but it's not really. Rising 7 PSI Um, we're gonna swap out the high side the low side hose.

Then we're going to get in there and change the flare dryer. and then when it comes time to opening the system up though, we're going to end up front seeding both of these valves to keep. And in fact, I'll do that right now and then. That way we keep any potential moisture out of the compressor oil by front seeding these valves, it's going to stop the flow out of the compressor.

When we're coupling the dryer, we're going to take a little bit of Nylog. Now, Nylog is just like a refrigerant oil with a higher viscosity than normal. Oil We're just going to put a dab on the threads. not much.

it doesn't take much and if there was an actual flare nut going on to this, which there will be on the other side of this, then you want to want to lubricate The Mating surface of the flare. but that's enough for us. It's just going to lubricate the threads that we can get a nice tight seal and then we'll worry about the other fittings when we get inside there, and then on the uh fitting right here. same thing I Want to be careful to pull it off because not much in there.

So we're going to. we're going to put nylon right there and just spin it, can go back in there. there we go and then I already put some on the fitting and we're just going to tighten it on and then tighten it up. And we also made sure this wasn't touching anything bad.

Okay, that one's side all right. So we got the new catch all and see all our sight, glass and dryer catch on. See all. Sporland's just brand name.

So we got that installed Nylogged up. It was still under slight positive pressure when we swapped it out, so that makes the evacuation go even easier. So now we're gonna hook up a vacuum pump, pull down a quick vacuum on it, nothing too crazy, and then uh, start it up and charge it up. So this Roto lock valve right here was jacked up and the threads were all rusted out really bad.

This guy Leslie Orm sent this to me a while back. He calls it the Falcon thread fixer and it's meant to cut the threads when they're damaged. You can do both sides. Pretty cool little tool.

Um gosh I Wish I knew his website but just look up Falcon Thread Fixer or Leslie Orm is also very active in the supermarket groups on Facebook because he's a supermarket guy. Um gosh I think he has a website gosh Dawn and I can't remember what it is, but anyways. Uh, we've got the evacuation running. We are gas ballast open right now.

Got a micron gauge tucked way back there I Don't expect it to pull a really good Micron level because there's still refrigerant boiling out of the system so it's going to happen inevitably, but we're just gonna let it run for a bit. All right, we are getting ready to charge this guy right now. We are gonna Purge here and Purge here and then perch here and here. now.

when we open these, we're going to open and just dump gas into the high side as much as it'll take and then, uh, we'll be able to, uh, charge it in. So we're charging as much gas with the compressor not running into the high side. So that way we'll start it up once it won't take any more gas and we'll put it into the low side and slowly while the compressor is running. meter it in.

At this point we're going to hit Tear. So that way now we're zeroed out and everything we put in will be counted while it's charging. I'm going to take some of the big blue soap bubbles and we're going to spray it clean. Right on that.

Right on that, Make sure there's no leaks while we're charging it, just in case. Now you spray it on clear, not like that. you spray it on like that. It's defeating the purpose because this stuff detects micro leaks.

So you spray it on there like that and it's nice and clear. So if you see clusters of bubbles, you know it's a leak. That's you. anything.

This is leaking right here. These stems always leak so the stem's leaking, so that's tough to understand. Those stems always leak. so whenever you're doing evacuations, if it's really critical, you want to make sure you cap those.

Um, all right. So we're just charging into the high side. as much as it'll take. We've got about nine pounds in so far.

as far as the pressure control hoses. we use two zip ties to, uh, tie them together. so you zip tie to the zip tie so that way they will never rub out. It's only the zip tie touching itself and then the the tubes aren't going to rub on anything else.

They're nice and good. So we're good on that. lead. Tested these guys.

We're good. Everything's looking good. At this point it's taken all it could 14 pounds. So now we're going to go ahead and turn it on.

So we're turning the breaker on right now and we're gonna wait for the temperature controller to turn on and open up. The low side pressure will come up into a positive pressure. The pressure control right there will turn it on. So that's the way that this guy operates.

is it uses the pressure control to turn the compressor on and off. So we're just waiting for that. Delay from the temperature controller. As soon as it clicks on, we'll see the solenoid valves open and she'll start coming up on the low side.

and we just turned on about 15 psi. and then now we're going to charge through the low side. We're going to go ahead and put in all the gas that we pulled out because the last time I was here like a couple days ago I filled it up to the three-quarter mark on that receiver this morning. I Got here it was super cold outside.

we had a Clear Sight glass. so I don't see the need to check liquid level. I Know it didn't leak out that much gas, but we are going to evaluate the oil level too still before we leave. All right.

Well, our calculations weren't correct I Don't know what was going on. Something went funky with the scale because I only put in 1920 22 pounds of gas from both recovery cylinders. so there's no way the big one was full. No way.

So at this point what we're doing is I'm pumping it down. We put in all the gas that we took out I'm pumping it down and I am going to check the liquid level. so I front seeded the receiver. back there the refrigerant flow is shut off.

it's pumping down I Want to see where it shuts off at? and then I know it cuts in about 15 to 20. and it just shut off at about 3. PSI Okay, and it turned back on because the refrigerant's boiling out of the oil. But all right, we got that.

So now we're going to check the liquid level in the receiver. So we're going to do is take a heat producing device, heat up the receiver, then run our fingers from the bottom of the receiver up and feel where the liquid level is. We want to make sure that we don't put too much gas in this system. It's also very important when you're pumping a system down that you always have your high side gauge and your low side gauge on.

That way you can see if you're potentially overcharged. If you only put your low side gauge on, you might have no idea what your high side pressure is doing during pump down cycle. So we've got a thermal imaging camera right here. Now this isn't the normal way that I show it, but let's see.

So if we take this guy and we look at the receiver, you can see the point at which it's hot and that is a little low still. So really, where the level is is about right there right now and you can also feel it with your hands. It gets hot right there and then right there. It's not hot.

So the thermal imaging camera is telling us that our level is about right there. We're going to put a little bit more refrigerant into there, try to get it a little bit higher. We're utilizing this time to empty out some drums. I Didn't this one had two pounds of gas in it or three pounds of gas in it? This one has like four so we're trying to empty these drums.

always close this when you're connecting the drums, then re-purge until you get liquid all right and then zero out your scale again and continue charging all right. We filled it up, we marked the liquid level on the receiver for the next guy. so that way they know and now we are going to start this up and start cleaning up all of our messes because we are done. so we change the low or the pressure control.

it was leaking on the high side. we put two new hoses high and low side, new liquid line dryer in the back, new sight glass so we'll start it up and uh, just watch the unit come down to Temple we're cleaning up. Information is always good. paint markers are always good.

We Mark the liquid level on the receiver and then I wrote on the pressure control. walk-in freezer 404a 25 pounds that's a total charge I Don't know what was going on with the scale making us think that that big recovery cylinder was full. It didn't make sense when we felt it too. We're like it doesn't feel that heavy.

but yeah. anyways, all right. Um, we still going to add a little bit of oil to this guy though because I'm not oil level in that sight glass. it's not really registering very much.

So I'm gonna go down and see if I got some oil in my van and an oil pump. I'm waiting on some oil. Have someone picking it up for me right now because I didn't have any thought I did. Um, this guy is almost down to 10 but it's pretty darn cold in here says negative three, you guys aren't gonna see it but negative three and it's set for negative ten.

So it's doing good so we're gonna go up. I'm waiting for that oil. we'll get it pumped in and then we'll be done with it for today. All right, just like purging a normal line, we're gonna Purge this.

so we're gonna have to get a couple pumps to get oil to start coming out. Okay, so now we're gonna close the ball valve and we're just gonna slowly be purging it as we're applying it. Open the ball valve slightly and I will there you go? Go ahead. this way, we're ensuring that no air is in the lines.

Go ahead and open it all the way. All right now we can go ahead and add oil to the system. The oil level is barely even registering in the sight glass, so we're going to keep adding oil. We're going to get it between halfway and a quarter.

It's going to add a little bit more. We also need to check to make sure this crankcase heater is working nice and slow. Keep going so we're having to offset the pressure in the the low side so you can go high. There you go, just give it a push.

Hey nice and slow. So it's starting to register. This guy was quite a bit low on oil. Okay, so we're at about a quarter of a sight glass.

so we're gonna finish this pump and we're gonna let it run for a few minutes and see where it stabilizes at. And I did confirm the crank case heater is working I Can actually feel it. It's hot. So right now we're at about a quarter of a Side Glass this is the oil sight glass.

I'm gonna go just a little bit more, but not too much more. So maybe half pump and then, uh, that'll be it on this guy. All right, that's plenty right there. We're not going to put any more.

so we're gonna go and close the ball valve, take our gauges off the boxes at about negative five right now. So uh, we are operational and we're going to talk to the customer and see if they want to proceed with removing this compressor from the rack and putting a new condensing unit. If they don't I'm pretty sure they do because they told me to, but if they don't like the quote, they'll be fine I mean it's operational. That compressor though, has seen better days.

You can clearly tell that the top, the paint has been overheating. the compressor itself internally probably doesn't look the greatest. It's been overheating too. Um, but you know they should be good for now.

We got some oil in it too so all is well. So the sound at the beginning of that video I had to like edit the audio because that exhaust fan the high pitch squealing noise and it still came across as a high-pitched noise for the little bit that I put in the video but it was insane I literally had to go down and get my hearing protection. My 3M earmuffs like I was up there with those on because it was just. it was like this resonating high-pitched sound that when you were sitting by that compressor it was just digging in my ears like daggers.

So always pay attention to that kind of stuff. and uh, you know my gut because I'm old school. my gut was like I just work through it. You'll be fine but we gotta remember to take care of ourselves.

We gotta remember to take care of our bodies. Don't work through the pain Okay I've done it for too long and I am hard of hearing because of it and that is because of my time in the trades and not taking care of my body, not paying attention. You know when I'm working in loud using Grinders and cut off wheels and all that good stuff is just. you know I can't stress enough Hearing protection, eye protection, safety wear.

Okay, it sounds corny, but as I get older I realize how important that stuff was because when I wake up in the morning and I'm not that old I'm just turning 40 this year. But when I wake up in the morning man I can't walk my my ankles. both my ankles hurt so bad and it's all about the way that I abuse my body over the years, especially as a young person because you feel like you're Invincible as a young kid, right? So just take care of yourself. Okay so um, what I ended up doing was a win out there.

We put gas in it, we got it going. We came back a couple days later but when I came back I told the customer hey, I need a work order for that exhaust fan and so what you guys didn't see was about two hours of this call I spent fixing that exhaust fan with someone else. Now you'll see a video for that soon so stay tuned. But we had to do something because there was no way I was going to work on that roof without exhaust fan making That squealing in my ears again.

Okay, it was a real bummer that we had to recover the entire charge to change the pressure controls, but you know that's just how it is sometimes with high pressure controls. My little tip about the Schrader course on the discharge line is actually really important. You want to keep the Schrader cores as far away from the compressor as possible. Trust me, they just Rod out.

Okay, I mean unless you're going to preventatively change the Schrader cores every couple months I Don't suggest using them I suggest taking the straighter course out and saving a problem you know from the next day or whatever. but went ahead and recovered the charge. There was something going on with the scale I don't know what it was I wasn't up there. What it happened was we were recovering the charge and it was taking a while so we decided to go grab a bite to eat and we came back and when we came back it was borderline at the maximum amount of refrigerant for that 50 pound cylinder.

I Don't remember what it was, but we just used the HVAC School app. So if you don't know what that is, um, on your app store on your phone, whether it be Android or Apple, just search up HVAC Space School Okay, HVAC School and download the app. That app was created uh by HVAC School Brian Orr and he has a whole bunch of cool information in there technical knowledge. but then on top of that and just for full clarification I have nothing to do with HVAC School Okay, I'm doing my own thing over here I Just Brian's a good friend of mine and the whole HVAC school team.

They're all great people and uh, they, they've done an amazing service for the industry. So download that app, it's free. There's a bunch of cool calculators in there I Put up the link in the vid I mean the the formula in the video to calculate the fill capacity of a recovery cylinder and you know it's it's a pretty intensive calculation. I Mean for a tech to do out in the field, right? Because you got to figure out the specific gravity of the refrigerant, you got to figure out the the tear weight.

But once you get the specific gravity and the max temperature at which the refrigerant tank is going to be stored, it's not that bad. But it's just so much easier just to input the numbers into a calculator. So check out the HVAC School app. it'll help you to fill those things up.

But regardless, we came back. The tank said it was full to the Max and we're like it doesn't feel like it but we didn't chance it, we just set it to the side, we covered the rest into another one and just made it work. Okay, so it is what it, is but all together we got the refrigerant recovered, we got the dryer, and the sight glass changed. We got the pressure control hoses put back on and that gained some life with this system.

until the customer makes a decision now. Um, I Haven't talked to them yet, but again, we're going to talk to them about pulling that equipment out of the rack, putting a new condensing unit on the other side. This particular customer doesn't like the the condensers. They have these at Several of their restaurants and it's become a problem because as the condensers get old, they start to deteriorate and it's a common condenser.

So if we have a leak on the walk-in freezer, let's say that there's damage and the condenser needs to be replaced. Well, we got to replace the condenser for every compressor in that rack because it's a common single slab condenser. It's not just like one little circuit's changed out. Gotta change the whole thing.

So they have since realized that that wasn't such a good idea and they are asking us to pull that equipment out of the rack, size it appropriately so that'll be maybe a video for another day when we do that. Maybe even we can go through the process of the load calculation because I don't just go off of what the compressor is I'm going to do my own load calculation. make sure everything is you know, set up accordingly, so stay tuned. That'll probably come in the future.

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