It's going to be a hot one. We got a lot of work ahead of us, we're going to be working on york package unit. That uh should have been changed. Actually it was supposed to be changed.

We were in the process of getting cranes, arranged and everything to change the whole unit, and then politics got involved and it turned into a disaster, and now we got to do anything and everything we can to try to repair it so uh last i looked at It was six months ago and it had a massive evaporative coil leak or multiple. It wasn't a place where i couldn't get it so we got multiple technicians coming out, we're gon na pull the entire evaporator coil out and do whatever we can to fix it. So, let's uh, let's see what we can get on video. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition.

So i've shown this in another video before i think sometime last year, but this is my culprit: we have a leak on uh. I believe it's the first stage of the evaporator i think we're gon na open this guy up. I was actually surprised that it's still running so that means maybe half the unit is working. Let's open this guy up and see yeah, we got ta air count them.

One two: three, four fives, five, one, two, three, four five: you go down here: five flashes low pressure, switch compressor, one lockout; okay, we've got this guy pulled open and we're going to get some nitrogen and some 410a. So we can pressurize it because it's completely flat and then hopefully it'd be neat if we can get to the leaks without pulling the evaporator, but i planned on pulling the whole evaporator so we'll see all right. The leak detector is picking it up on this bottom row down here, but i for the life of me, i'm not seeing the um the leak with the soap bubbles, so it could be in the coil. I'm currently just blasting this thing with nitrogen.

I could kind of care less right now, um, but yeah. It is it's, but i can't hear it so it could be in the coil on the other side too, but i i picked it up on this bottom row. I'm gon na go ahead and spray up higher too just to see if it's anywhere up higher. I kind of might see oil down here, but this thing's also been flat for a while.

So i don't know about that, but yeah, it's it's tricky finding it all right. We've got the unit opened up and we can actually hear the leak and it's over here somewhere. I can feel it. Oh dude.

It feels like it's in the coil. I don't know, though, what a mess these york units are. Okay, we were able to get it somewhat apart and i i know the leaks right down here. It doesn't feel like a screw hole.

I i don't feel any damage via a screw hole or anything like that, which is scary, because why would the copper blow out like that? Maybe a screw, ran next to something and it's been rubbing for a long time, but there's no screws in that area. So i don't know we're currently trying to see what we can do to get this back panel off. The problem is that there's a side shot duct for the supply, so all right, so it's right down here. I know this is gon na be hard to see, but it's just crappy copper, there's no hole.

It's just real thin! That's gon na be a pain in the ass to weld because it's gon na flare out we're having to cut some stuff down here. To try to give ourselves more access all right. I am doing everything we can to not pull this evaporator. It's leaking right here.

We i it's, there's no screw holes now anything it's just bad copper. So it's not going to be an easy weld because i'm afraid the copper is going to flare. So it's going to be interesting. There's also an imperfection right there, but i don't know what uh the thing is is that this is multi-circuited, so i don't know where the the first and second stage is because they're like intertwined so we're letting the nitrogen out at the moment we're going to try To braze this leak and then go one leak after another, we already had cut a hole in here because we thought we were gon na pull the duct, but we'll end up patching this not gon na be perfect.

Customer knows they only want us to do whatever we can do to get it operating. I'm gon na do this a little different. I'm gon na get the solder up here and i'm trying not to heat that spot. Yet until i get solder there, so we've got this guy.

We changed the dryer real quick and we have it pressurized to about 296 psi. That could be residual, though so we're gon na hit it with bubbles. It very well could be residual oil or there could just be multiple leaves. Who knows with this thing right at the bottom of this guy right here, there's a micro cluster of bubbles, so it still has a tiny leak down there.

I believe it's gon na be an absolute miracle if this unit goes back together. We have this thing so jacked up, it's crazy, letting the nitrogen out right now. So i can try to lay another braze try to clean up that joint, what a mess right! It's crazy and we don't even know if this is the only leak i mean if the copper is that thin down there. It might be that thin up here too.

Who knows now we're leaking on this one, so we're trying to find out if that's our same stage or not so we're letting the nitrogen out and if the leaks stop, then we know that's the same stage if they don't we're gon na have to recover the Other stage this is gon na, be one thing after another on this guy ended up having to braise that joint too. So, let's see i've got a pressure testing right now. I've got about um. I don't know 200 psi nitrogen with a little chaser 404.

10A. So that way we can do electronic leak search. I don't have high hopes we might have to delete the circuit. That's my next plan.

If i have to put some big blue on there, i'm not seeing any leaks, the electronics still picks up a trace every once in a while, but i think it's residual oil because i can't pick it up. I wouldn't be surprised if i create other leaks too. There's nothing there, there's no leaks, no, no bubbles, so i think we might get the vacuum pump on this. Guy hope that it takes.

We got the dryer already replaced. So at some point i'm just gon na have to stop, but now there's another leak right there at some point see again backstory guys. I told them to replace this. The coil's like eight weeks out or something like that and they need it fixed.

But now there's another freaking leak, good grief, one of these times it's not going to be on the first stage and i'm off to recover the charge from the second stage. This is pissing me off all right. Every time i get in there, i create another leak. So this time i need to braise that last joint i put viper wet rag and hopefully that stops from overheating everything else try to put a smaller tip on my torch too i'm starting to get irritated.

We are evacuating the first stage, the one that i did a bunch of leak repairs on, but we found another leak that other leak was the second stage. So we went to go recover. I haven't braised on it yet, but we're recovering the charge for the second stage and here's my problem, i'm about recovered and there's only three pounds in there, so the second stage already originally had leaks in it too. I didn't even know that, but was weird.

The second stage was running when i got here, so only the first stage was off on low pressure. The second stage was still running but yeah as we're recovering. This thing takes six pounds of gas, see it's only recovered almost three pounds, so crazy man. So we're changing the dryer here in just a second we're getting it sanded up and then uh just recovering good grief man.

Let us cross our fingers. That is a goober of a joint but um, i'm just about out of nitrogen. So i've already gone through two bottles pressurizing this thing so let's hope i think i might have enough to pressurize it once or twice more and that's it we're currently changing the dryer, but hopefully that uh wet rag stuff helped to keep the other joints safe. All right well so far, it passes the test, no leaks, good grief, man and we're not getting anything else.

As of yet um, i'm vacuuming down the first stage. The second stage is just pressurized. So all right. Well, we're going to put this back together and now walk away with blind eyes.

Well, we're just cleaning off all the key blocking compound still got a little bit left up in there, but that's it. Hopefully that does so. There was a good double road insulation. We went ahead and glued that insulation back to that panel with uh spray adhesive right there again.

This is just polishing a turd and then sealed it back up, sealed up the hole down there that we had cut and we're slowly just putting the unit back together. Pulling an evacuation: this is a process and honestly, i'm not even going to give him a warranty on this, because this could fail tomorrow for all. I know this thing that evaporator's so pitted out it's a miracle. This thing actually went back together, it's crazy! We got all the panels back in and everything is this uh.

If you ask me what my uh least favorite unit in the world is uh right now, this one's winning um we're evacuating the second stage right now that actually, i already pulled down to like 700 microns, and i put it into a decay test and it rose Up so i pulled it back down again: i've already vacuumed down the first stage we're getting ready to charge it up. I just needed to get the unit together, so we could start it up because we're more than likely gon na have to turn it on to get all the gas in. So i'm still pulling down on the second stage. But what i did was i valved off the second stage hooked up the process hose from this guy to the vacuum, pump and evacuated all the way up to the ball valves.

That way i had clean hoses, then i opened them up, took it off all that good stuff, so we're zeroed out. We got the scale down there, we're looking for six pounds of refrigerant and i'm hoping i can get the full charge in here, but i'm not feeling too lucky about it. So um yeah we're ready to charge right now. Six pounds of gas is the total charge, see how much it takes and we're about to take the full charge right now.

Sweet so first stage took the whole charge, that's good and then uh we're gon na get ready to do uh second stage right now. The unit is running uh. We still have a wet condenser, our head pressure's a little bit low, but um it's operating. It has a great td.

It's got good sub, cooling, but again everything's skewed because we're running low head pressure so um and that sub coin's whack too, because i'm not getting liquid line pressure, i'm getting discharge line pressure so so far, just on the first stage, it's looking fine 60 degrees supply. 90 degree return: these have uh, probably have pressure limiting expansion valves too. So that's why we don't have skyrocketing or suction pressure right now, 95 degrees outside right now we're gon na. Let it run for a little while dry off, that condenser make sure everything's good and then i'll switch over to the second stage, make sure everything's good.

With that all right we're up and running now i told them that we still need to change the evaporator coil. This is just to get them going, basically um. I want to change the condenser too, because you see how bad it is uh. This was like this when i took over.

The store has to do with that exhaust fan being right there and it gets greasy all the time. So people probably been cleaning it with the wrong cleaners, but this will get them by for now. I you know, i don't know how long it's going to last. With the way that those leaks were popping up every time i heat up in there, this is uh what it takes to do all those repairs, but our entire vans up here all right.

This was an exhausting day. Um started super early because i knew it was going to be hot. Had a couple service technicians go out to the job site, i kind of already had a plan in my head and my original plan was. I was going to pull that entire evaporator out.

Lay it onto a folding table and pressurize it with nitrogen and just start brazing leaks. In hindsight, it probably would have been a better idea to go ahead and do that. I did not, because i was lazy and when i got in there i was like man. I really don't want to be cutting this evaporator out.

It would just added so much more work having to find places to put couplings and just would have been a headache, so it probably would have been better because i literally could have braised on every joint. If i did that, oh well, i didn't we did everything we could. We we cut the unit up butchered that thing right cut holes in it and everything and brazed up the leaks. The problem was was, as i was bracing one leak.

Then it created another leak created another leak and then it ended up creating a leak on the second stage, which isn't the one that i was repairing. So we fixed that now. I finally got smart towards the end and grabbed the viper wet rag heat blocking compound. Put it all over there and then change the tip.

One of my technicians was like hey dude. You need to change the tip to a smaller tip, so i changed it to a zero tip from a number two and it was much more precise and the heat really was centered on the joint. So i got to give them props for that. That was a big big help on that one.

I don't like brazing with those small small tips. I like to use the number two, because it does everything i need, but in that situation it was just creating more problems. Now um the the extra leaks they weren't. My fault, the coil, is, is trashed, okay and what happened was i gave them a quote and i said: hey, you need to change the evaporator coil and i suggested they change the condenser because of how bad a shape it was in, but when they saw that They said: hey, let's just replace the unit now this particular customer buys their own equipment.

Okay, that's how most chain restaurants work. So this particular customer was going to buy a linux package unit, but the linux was going to be problematic and they they actually approved it and they went through with everything and it came down to us getting a crane and when we got the crane, then the Customer it just turned into a big giant disaster of um getting approvals structural permits because the new unit was going to be heavier. It just went down the california permit process disaster that it becomes. Okay, california is a nightmare when it comes to changing equipment.

So people ask me all the time: hey how come you change this equipment? Why don't or why? Don't you change it? It would be cheaper to sell them a new unit, no it wouldn't in california uh. This was a seven and a half ton unit. I bet you anything. This unit would cost close to 20 grand to change, probably close, if not more.

Okay and the politics that get involved is um. You know it's just safety kind of stuff, so basically the new unit was probably gon na weigh about two or three hundred pounds. More plus it was going to need a curb adapter, which was another two or three hundred pounds. Okay, so you're talking four to six hundred extra pounds on the roof.

Well, um the planning department and everybody wants you to get a structural engineer to say that the building is sound and can handle that extra weight in that particular spot. Then, on top of that, if there's any issues with uh with the building in general, when the code inspector comes out to inspect the work after you're done working, it just leads to pandora's box and therefore the customer, when you know when it turns into that kind Of stuff, most of the time they don't end up replacing the unit and that's what happened here. Um. It was just going to be crazy, expensive and they just they basically didn't, have a price tag.

It was just going to get crazy. So this is what happens. Okay, um the city and the planning departments. They make it so difficult for these customers to replace equipment and it just turns into a disaster.

It's just a political nightmare. Okay, so in that situation the customer came to me and said: hey, let's just repair the unit. So i started looking into just getting a replacement evaporative because the condenser they couldn't even locate at this time, but the evaporator alone was going to be like six to eight weeks and they didn't want to wait that long. So they wanted me to go out and just do whatever i could to get it operational.

Okay, i don't know how long it's going to last. I couldn't tell if it's going to last a week. I couldn't tell them if it's going to last a year. It's it's so hard to say, because the copper in there is so thin.

It's just just a nightmare all right, so i did everything that i could we changed both the liquid line, filter dryers. We put spoiling catch-alls on there um, you know just went through it and it held a vacuum. It held a pressure test. It did a a leak inspection with the electronic leak detector.

I mean i didn't pick up any other traces of leaks, but i got to tell you that i was cringing when i hit that power button once i um charge the unit back up. You know it was just like. Oh, please don't leak, and then i went back with a leak detector again i was like i was thinking. Should i get the leak detector out again or do i just play you know play like i, you know like an idiot or something, but i got it out just because my gut was telling me just do it again.

You know, and i was afraid to turn it on, but i did and i went back there after it ran for a while and no other leaks or anything so yeah. It's just a nightmare, guys um the this one just wore me out. It was actually today. I'm exhausted so it's 5 18 on december, 2nd or i mean i'm starting december september, 2nd right now and uh.

I left my house this morning at about 4 45. It's been a long day. I'm tired! I need to go, eat, dinner and uh. Hopefully you guys enjoy this video, they don't always turn out perfect.

You know we just we got to do what we got to do and, of course i would have loved to have changed that unit. But you know i just do what i'm told kind of all right. I really appreciate it. Uh catch you guys, monday, evenings 5 p.m, pacific on youtube.

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Also we have merch available, hopefully by the end of this week, i'll have large extra, large and small medium hats back in stock. I believe right now, i'm pretty much out of all the hats, but i still have shirts available plenty of shirts and then stay tuned, because in the coming weeks i will be releasing uh beanies on my website too for the winter time. So those will be there soon, uh, also uh friday evenings around 6-ish p.m. I go live with the hvac overtime, crew, uh, a team adam hvacr north joe uh, curious, hvac, guy bill and myself, and we just kind of and talk about whatever on on their hvac overtime, youtube channel.

So uh definitely see you guys there too, okay, we'll catch. You on the next one.