This video is brought to you by spore'ln quality, integrity and tradition. Today we have a complaint of a kitchen a/c, that's not working properly. When I first came up. The first thing I do is: go ahead and open this up and go into the codes.

Okay and look to see what codes we have now we have an active code of 27. At the moment. We go over to the circuit board thing and it says: low-pressure three has opened three times and it's locked itself out, so we're gon na probably have a low-pressure issue, but we can't just assume that we'll have to put our service gauges on there and then also Check air flow make sure we don't have a loose belt, etc, but just doing a walk around come around to the outside of the unit right here and we also have an extremely dirty condenser coil. So at this point before I go any further in troubleshooting, I'm gon na go ahead and get this condenser coil cleaned up, and it just so happens that the rest of their condenser coils are just equally as dirty metal.

Mesh filters are plugs, so they've got some problems here. If we come on over to this AC, this one's not as bad, but this one's got quite a bit of lint on it too. So we're gon na get these cleaned up and then we'll finish troubleshooting once we get these things cleaned up. As far as this goes, you got to get the lint off first, so I'm not washing into it, I'm using my wand and it has a flat function.

So I'm actually just washing the lint off of the condenser, not even spraying, really into it. At the moment. We're gon na get the lint off and then we'll saturate, the entire condenser and then once it's saturated and we get regular water through then I'll use chemical and put chemical on it too, and get it cleaned out, like you guys have seen me do many times. I like to take the panels off and clean from the inside out when at all possible.

So at this point, I'm just wetting down the condenser, giving it a nice smooth surface for the coil cleaner to flow through, and I'm also gon na get on the inside and pull off the big chunks. You already see, I've got some of them off already. You want to do that before we start hitting it with 12 cleaner to try to you know, make the club cleaner more effective. So it's not trying to push that stuff out and it's actually trying to push out what's inside the condenser.

So I don't understand why it's so hard for people to realize how easy it is to pull these panels off. And if you see you can tell that these condensers are internally damaged, because people have been using that coil cleaning door and they're not really paying attention and they're just bashing and smashing the condenser. Look at that. Look at how about that is, and that's because people aren't trying it's not that hard to pull this panel off, look at these inside panels and how damaged they are, or a condenser coil.

It's just beyond understanding for me. So it's important to understand how to put on coil cleaner, so the first step is clean off. Big debris then wet the coil down from the inside out, if possible, okay, get it nice and wet, have a smooth surface for the coil cleaner to move. If it's not wet, in my opinion, the quote: cleaner has a hard time moving across it in the water kind of lubricates.

The coil next thing is apply on the lowest setting on your coil gun, using that coil gun right there. So I start with the e setting the lowest setting and I apply a coil cleaner from the inside out and let it sit and let it penetrate okay, then, after I've, let it sit for a little while I'm gon na go on a more concentrated setting and I'm gon na apply it again from the inside out and then, when I'm done with that, I'm gon na apply it from the opposite side also and I'm gon na. Let it sit and do its magic, but you don't want to leave it on too much, depending on the cleaners that you're using so right. Now, I'm using new Calgon new bright, very corrosive, very fast-acting and very dangerous coil cleaner because you have to get it off fast.

So right now it's time for me to go ahead and rinse. This quote cleaner on people or it does any more damage to this coil. So I've already rinsed off all my cleaner and adjust my puzzle here. So I've rinsed off my cleaner from the inside out after I've done that and as I'm rinsing and I'm making sure it's coming through its barely coming through.

But that's because we're running two hoses right now, but it's clean I've got a second person washing the other condensers. At this moment we just have a splitter. So then, I'm gon na go ahead and rinse it from the other side. And what I want to point out is is that we don't need the coil to be shiny, like brand-new aluminum, because in all actuality, when you get it shiny, like it's brand-new aluminum, you're, you're, itching, the coil you're eating the top layer of the coil off.

Okay. That's because that coil cleaner is very corrosive, so we just want the foaming action of that coil cleaner to push the stuff out. In all honesty, I really prefer to use the refrigeration technology's heavy-duty condenser coil cleaner, because it's less corrosive. It's just for me.

It's hard to find, I order it, but then I run out really quick, because a lot of supply houses don't stock it in my area. So unfortunately, the new Calgon is the the one. So we just got to learn how to use it properly, and I try to use the refrigeration technology stuff as much as possible, but I just I have to order. It typically is what I have to do and then I never know how much I'm gon na need so but anyways, I digress, so yeah we're just rinsing it off.

So this is a nice clean, coil, the water's coming out and we're gon na go and attack the other side. I do them one side at a time, so that way I can properly clean them and don't leave the cleaners on too much, because that stuff really will eat up a condenser. If you left it on, it would destroy it. So so I've already wet down this condenser front and back I'm gon na apply the cleaner, I'm starting on the the e function, which is the lowest concentration and we're just going to go ahead and apply it.

We're gon na start from the bottom work. Our way up, I've heard both methods about starting from the bottom or the top which one's better. They both worked fine for me, so I really don't notice a huge difference by starting from the bottom or the top we're just gon na wet it down on the lowest function, we're just applying the cleaner you're gon na. Let it sit for a minute, then we're going to apply the cleaner to the other slab condenser on the right and then we're going to come back at the higher concentration and apply it to so I'm going to leave it like that move on to the next One bunch of difference I'll start from the top Wyatt I've heard both methods like I said if people saying to do it from the top and the bottom, the top kind of makes more sense to me because gravity flows that way so we can go and do That we don't go to spend a bunch of time on it.

We're just wanting the quote: winner sit there now, I'm going to switch to the higher concentration. This is where we're going to see the foaming action happen, we're just going to go into fly-in and by the time I'm done applying the other slab condenser it's time to rinse this condenser. It should already see some foaming action, but keep going here, you don't got to get crazy, it's doing it to work this side of the condenser and all honestly, it's not as dirty as the other side. So and again, remember we're not looking for that shiny condenser, coil we're just looking for this stuff to penetrate and push the dirt and grease okay, I got a little bit of cleaning left, I'm going to go and apply from this side just for giggles, I'm really Gon na do too much and said over here you can see I've already got a coil and out of cleaner and at this point we're going to go ahead and switch over and use the spray wand and rinse all that stuff off now you can see we're Coming through nice and clean now, so we're just going to continue to do that.

We're gon na go row by row to make sure that we get all the coil cleaner and all the muck out of the unit. Let's not forget to rinse off the metal mesh filters. You typically don't want to use coil cleaner on the metal mesh filters, because the aluminum is so thin that it'll eat them away. Sometimes you have to very use a very diluted ratio of coil cleaner on them and don't leave it on for long at all if you have to but try to just use water and that's what I'm doing so.

These ones are dirty on the other side. So I'm washing them from the opposite direction and you'll see that, even though I'm wash them from the opposite direction, they'll still be dirty and we'll have to rinse them from the other way too. But at least we can get some of this stuff. You can kind of see down at the bottom right now, some of the goo that's coming out of this thing, so I'll flip them around right now, in the meantime, I'm letting the condenser on the unit drip dry and then I'll start assembling it and we'll go From there I'm actually not going to assemble it because I'm going to go ahead and since I have the condenser taken apart, I'm gon na do a leak check.

You can see some of the stuff came out, but there's a bunch behind it still we'll go ahead and rinse a little bit more. You can see that things still pretty dirty well, yeah I'll go into a leak check on this guy right here since I have the covers off too, because I'm assuming that we have a refrigerant leak because it was low-pressure lockout, I'm not gon na spend a bunch Of time, but because I have the cover off, I'm gon na just quickly run a leak trek across the third-stage condenser and then I'll put it together. Do the evaporator and then test around the unit. It could even be about TXV causing a low-pressure issue.

So you don't want to waste too much time, so just gon na test, and I'm just quickly going through here and I'm going past the condenser now stuff come back to the bottom of it here often times you get links right on the bottom of these condenser Return bins is usually where they're at it's pretty common, I'm using the detect, select leak detector. This is the leak detector. I've used forever. I really have no other opinions about other leak detectors because I've used this one for so long.

I know a lot of people like using other different ones. This one has just been my go-to for years. All my guys have them. They seem to work well for us.

So all right, I'm not seeing anything so we're gon na do the other side, real quick, which rarely is there ever a leak over here, we'll just check real, quick, don't even spend a bunch of time. You just give it a good pass. This thing we usually pick them up. If there is one so again, you don't need to make your job any more difficult than it needs to be that center post right there comes right off a couple.

Screws pops right off gives you access to the evaporator and I decided to go ahead and leak check this evaporator before I went any further. I opened this up and I did see oil residue on the third stage. So what I'm gon na do - or what I did was I rinsed all the stuff off with water rinsed everything down and we're gon na hit it with the electronic leak detector and we'll just hit all the stages we'll put and see what we can find. Third stages on the top, you can follow the liquid lines, but you know you'll tend to learn.

The first stage is usually on the bottom and it usually works its way up. Most of the time with these operators, just kind of go back and forth, run it in here and seeing what we're seeing so we'll just hit all the soap bubbles that we're definitely picking up leaks in here. Yeah, there's there's leaks in here for sure again: okay, I'm gon na apply soap bubbles at this point. Alright, so I'll do these other ones real, quick, but it might be hard to do the other ones, because that refrigerants following so you might be getting a false reading, jumping out at me.

So we've got some big blue, so bubbles love this stuff, put it on the spray feature and usually just make sure you get a fine stream coming out and we'll just work our wave starting at the top we're going down. So we've got a micro leak right. There and you could tell by the just a micro cluster of bubbles - that's one of the cool things about Big Blue is there was some time take-up leaks that the leak detector won't, but obviously it was picking that one up, let's keep looking I'll, keep looking and See if I can find any other ones, there's another one right there is it that one bubbling out it's another small one and I think I saw another one up in the top right now too. So it looks like we have multiple micro leaks and there's another one right there, so I found three leaks so far.

Just look for those micro clusters of bubbles, big blues good, for that, so what I'm going to do? No, I think, that's just the copper. What we're gon na do we just kind of evaluate the situation and see how many leaks we have and that determines how we're gon na repair this or quote to repair. So I found a few more leaks so right on this one. There's a micro cluster right.

There, okay - and I marked it with a yellow marker. Then, if we drop down to this one, there's another micro cluster of bubbles right there, and then we have the big one which is below that right. We can see that from the game, no and then that one's popping bubble is pretty big. So I found three leaks on this they're all repairable, but I just got to kind of evaluate everything and decide.

What's the best route to go, so I'm gon na go and put the unit into test mode. So what I did was, I flip the shift and then the unit tests over and we're going to go to c11. That's going to be all stages of cooling, hold it down until the decimal appears and then we'll start up in first stage or all stages, and I've got my probes hooked up on. There called my air probes in the unit and it will charge accordingly say that we're definitely low on charge running really low.

We've also got a wet condenser, but I'm gon na go. So we don't go off on low pressure. I'm using a sea like I usually use going down. I already waved my tank, so I know how much it weighed before I came up here.

I'm gon na go and I refer to my notes when a charge get the suction pressure up. So we don't go up on damnit. We just shut up on blow fresh to reset it right now. Actually it'll reset.

I get three strikes until now: it'll start back up and then and we'd like a delay. So I went ahead and turned off test mode and turned it back on, and I'm just put some gas basically be my I'm gon na watch out too, because you can very easily be charging this unit up and find out that you have about TX de. So you want to be cautious about that. You guys noticed.

I got a smaller tablet. I got it from Costco a little bit smaller, I was able to get an otter, is I'll put a link in the show paying attention to our sub-point as we're adding refrigerant making sure that we're not stacking it up. Also, as you're charging, your pain see if it's starting to get cold, probably pretty low and the way that customer here works is we've got to get approval to do the repair, but plus I can't do the repairs today, so we're gon na have gas get them Running it's not going to leak out by tomorrow and we'll submit a quote and when they approve it will we'll come back out recover the refrigerant, we'll reuse, the refrigerant that we already put into it looks like a shut off against reset it we're doing better. Now we're running a much higher such a pressure on the game.

The best way to do is the way it in, but we're in a situation where we're just pay attention we're gon na. You know about 10 degrees subcooling that we need to let the before. We assume that everything's good, because I again we want to wait in because I'm feel charging it. I'm just going to 10 degrees subtly, and I also got to pay attention because I might still have a little bit of a wet condenser.

So we want to let that kind of dry out to people so where I'm at right now, I'm probably gon na, let it kind of stabilize out and leave it alone for a little condenser and before I had any more so I'd. Let the system stabilize for about 10 minutes. This is just a temporary situation until we can come back while I'm at it, I'm gon na go ahead and test all the condenser fan motors or actually our head. I jumped out the relays a cop got them all running and I'm going to go ahead and check the refrigerant charge on the other.

Two compressors also make sure so we're looking pretty good so far. So my second stage running why on the sub point, but I'm not really gon na adjust anything on that one. Remember that's the one! The second stage, the condenser is really it's just smashed up really bad, but everything else is looking. You also got ta.

Remember that Lennox technically doesn't use subcooling to charge their units that the approach method on this one I'm just getting them operating basically, so the best way is always the way in and our first stages working, so we're gon na pretty much call it a quits to Repair the leaf they want to say I wouldn't be in least bit surprised that they we'll see what they have to say. One of the last things when you're all done. You want to wash away the the chunks of stuff from the condenser, because when all this that's just dried up right, there it'll dry up and get sucked right back up onto it and it's inevitable with all the trees and stuff that we have that they're gon Na get that that it's not Cottonwood, but it's easy just to call it hot and we're back on their butt yeah. So just rinse it all the way as best as you can all right.

So to recap, we had a service call on a kitchen AC. That was not working properly and when I arrived, we had an active low pressure. Compressor number three lockout code, but I didn't just stop there. It was pretty obvious when I walked up on the roof.

I could see that all the condensers were dirty, so we went ahead before we even went any further with the low pressure code. We cleaned the condenser because we needed that to be able to further troubleshoot the unit so clean the condenser made sure everything was good. Clean the metal mesh outdoor air filters, then I started the unit back up found that obviously we had a low pressure issue. It wasn't a loose belt and ended up being a refrigerant leak.

On the third stage, I believe there was three leaks on the condenser. We have since submitted a quote to the customer. I have not heard back yet but we'll see soon but anyways. We found the leaks and then went ahead and we didn't just stop there, though.

Okay, big picture diagnosis right, we're gon na go through the other compressors too, because we're gon na look at everything, we're not just gon na stop at the first problem, just like when I was locating the leaks, I didn't stop at the first leak. You continue on and you leak check the rest of the system, we're being thorough, we're making sure that we take care of the customer and give them the best bang for their buck right, because we're gon na give them a big-picture diagnosis. So that way they can properly analyze the situation and say we want to spend this much money. We don't want to spend this much money, there's nothing worse than going in there and saying oh yeah, I fixed a leak, but when I fixed that when I found three more now sometimes that happens sometimes you can't avoid that.

But let's do everything in our power to make sure we don't have that situation. Okay, try to be thorough, big-picture diagnosis, you know, take care of the customer because that's the stuff that keeps them calling you back because they know hey. When I have this guy yeah, it costs them a couple extra hundred bucks than the next guy, but they're thorough. They give me the actual diagnosis.

I know that when they tell me this is what's wrong. That's what's gon na be wrong and we're typically not going to run into other problems. Okay, so I try to give my customers the best. You know service that I can possibly give them.

So when a head leak checked, I went ahead and leak, checked all the stages and then went ahead and put my smart probes on all three stages check the refrigerant charges. Everything else looked to be okay. They were happy okay, because I got them up and running now. I did give the customer the option, but I had this customer and I were very close, so we know I know how they operate, and so basically I have to ask their facilities Department for approval to fix it, but I do have approval to get them up And operational because guests satisfaction is very important to them, so we got to keep the guests cool.

We got to keep the guests in the door, you know what their logic is. They need something running. Okay, then we can quote to repair because they may want to decide to change the unit or something so, but we got to get them up and running because if those guests are walking out the door, that's not good for them. We need to keep the guests in the building, so everything in our power to keep the building cool, keep the exhaust fans operating, keep the walkins running and so forth.

You understand where I'm going with that. Okay, so you know that's the protocol with them. So I got the unit up and running and you know basically just submitted a quote all right. I also mentioned a few things: the Jobling probes, the new Samsung tablet at the coil gun, all that different stuff.

I've got links in the show notes of the video for all that equipment. If you guys are interested in it other than that guys, we will catch you on the next one. Okay.