Part 2 of the discussion with Trevor Matthews with Emerson about causes of air conditioning and refrigeration compressor failure and the causes Verifying System Operation Sheet from Emerson http://hvacrschool.com/EmersonVerify Diagnosing Compressor Failures from Emerson http://hvacrschool.com/CompFailuresWe'>http://hvacrschool.com/CompFailuresWe talk with Trevor Matthews with Emerson about causes of air conditioning and refrigeration compressor failure and the causes Verifying System Operation Sheet from Emerson http://hvacrschool.com/EmersonVerify Diagnosing Compressor Failures from Emerson http://hvacrschool.com/CompFailures
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This episode of the HVAC school podcast is made possible by our our great our great sponsors and partners, which are Mitsubishi, comfort and carrier. The Mitsubishi comfortin carrier of the two who have really stepped up to make the HVAC school, podcast and website possible a lot of people. Ask me: you know: hey Brian, how do you, how do you write all this stuff having at the time to make all these podcast well, the answer is: is that because of Mitsubishi and carrier doggone it? I also want to mention a new, a new company that I've been working with you. You may have to listen to the podcast previously from arrow, Asus and arrow.

Asus is a great company. I don't know you know when you think about indoor air quality products. It's very controversial: everybody has their product that they like products that they don't like. Let me tell you what I like about air oasis.

It's made in the US and they're really good people like the actual owners. I've talked to them. They've got great research. That's been done by Texas, A & M University on the products that they sell and they're just honorable human beings.

You just you just know when you talk to somebody that they're not out selling snake oil, because they're just they're just down to earth. These are good people. John Bennett is a really good guy. I've had a chance to talk to him a few times and they make great bi-polar ionizers.

They make a great app Coe technology. It's just a PCO based technology and I like, both of whom are using them in our company. Kalos, we've done some testing on these products using petri dishes. Before and after we've been impressed by what we've seen so far, we've got some more testing going on right now and while let you know the results of those, but I'm gon na encourage you to just take a peek at their website.

So if you go to arrow oasis.com arrow, Asus, com4, slash reseller, that's where you can go on and just sign up, send me your information and then they'll contact you and talk to you about. You know, places locally. You can buy the products in order to start offering them in your business. You can answer any questions that you may have.

If you have any questions about the studies that they've done, you can find that all at AER laces comm and what you're going to be struck by right away when you talk to aro asus and when you go on the website, is that it's not it just? Doesn't have the level of hype that may have seen around indoor air quality products they base it more around the science and I really appreciate that. One big zoom on the ten-second flame, free refrigerant, fitting from Parker reduced labor costs by sixty percent, with no brazing no flame, and no fire sputter discover how Siouxland can help you be more efficient and productive visit. Zoom want calm for more information seriously. His initials are, B, O or reason Brian or Heidi Hill, their neighbor.

It's true that um that my my smells aren't always the best and what's strange is, is that when I was in the field more often I actually it wasn't as bad. I don't know what it is, but when I speak whenever I have to speak in front of people - and I don't think I'm and I actually enjoy speaking in front of people - it's maybe just my ego there, but I like it but for ever reason whenever I Do I sweat like a pig and I guess it turns out pigs, don't sweat, that's another. I said another topic for another day and I smell really bad. That's the point, and so yes, my initials are Bo and yes, it is appropriate.
If you ever see me speaking somewhere or you meet me at a conference or something you're, probably gon na notice that - and I apologize in advance - but that's not what we're talking about today. This is the HVAC school podcast, the podcast that helps you remember some things that you forgot along the way as a technician or maybe helps you remember some things you forgot to know in the first place for text by Tex. Today's episode is part. Two of a conversation that I had with Trevor Matthews from Emerson, so big thanks to Trevor big thanks to Emerson for coming on and talking about why? Why compressors are murdered and what happens? What causes their murder the different causes and we already got done with flooded, starts and flood back and now we're going to talk about slugging, and so here we go Trevor Matthews from Emerson talking about compressor murder, so we got flood back, we got flooded starts what Else so this would be slugging.

We talked about that a little bit earlier. Slugging is really happens when you're trying to compress either liquid refrigerant or oil. In your compressor and a few things that you will see on a semi-hermetic compressor. What I tell the guys is do is if the compressor is not running and it's down, and you need to inspect it before, deeming it a failed compressor, pull off a head.

It doesn't take a lot of time to do that, pull off the 9 r12 bolts. I think it is on the head and then look at the valve plate, see if there's any damage on the valve plate, see if the suction reeds are broke or the discus is busted and really look at the pistons to see if there's any damage as well As broken rods inside of the scroll, those ones are a little tougher or hermetic compressors, because you can't really see inside them. You do have to cut those ones open to see what really happened. It does take a little bit of time, but the more and more you investigate on what's happening inside the compressor you'll figure out what caused that failure.

Some of the other things from the slugging on a reciprocating semi compressor that I didn't know about as a mechanic. In the field, but RIS pin lubrication it's something: that's not really talked about, even in schools very much even through the school I went until I came to Emerson to find out the list, pin, lubrication and lisped and where - and so what I mean by that is, If your compressor took a slug and it damaged one of the discharge valves and it actually, the slug would take one out. What happens, then, is that you have discharged gas pushing back down onto that piston. It's not really letting that lubrication access the wrist pin and while it's pumping and pumping and pumping you start to get where on on the wrist pin, which is rate, which is connecting your piston and your rod together and as it runs and runs and runs.
It continues to wear and wear so mechanic will come in and he'll pull off the head is, I have valve damage. Compressor seems good though I just need a new valve plate. I check that every mechanic should do if they have a damaged valve plate discharge valve is they need to take off the oil pump? They need to put the piston top dead center of it and push down on it. If that piston drops a little bit, that means you got risk and where so, the mechanic could now replace this valve plate and started up, but all of a sudden, here's knock-knock knock-knock, my great impression of a knocking compressor, but that valve place is not gon na Fix the wrist pin where so, that's something I learned over the past few years here at Emerson that if you do have a damaged or broken discharge valve check through that check on a semi.

So we have a lot of different types of technicians. We have some who are listening to you right now and they're, like oh yeah, absolutely wrist Bend where I'm with you and we have some her like what in the H E double hockey sticks. Is that guy talking about? So imagine if you imagine a piston okay, so take your fist and hold it in the air and you imagine, your fist is the piston and your wrist is where it connects to the rod. And so the rod is your forearm and your wrist is actually where it connects, and what he's saying is is, if you imagine this thing, pumping against a broken discharge valve every time it pulls back down it reexpansion behind and eventually that washes out all of the Lubrication as well as causes it to run hot as well, but over time that you get slop in that wrist pin, and so you replaced a new valve.

It looks okay because you're looking at the top of the piston when you take the head off here, they go okay, well, that's just normal, but that slop in that wrist pin results in that thing still hitting, because it's able to slop up and down and causes Additional damage, and also isn't obviously just isn't gon na work correctly. That's gon na knock like Trevor. Did that lovely rendition of how it sounds when it goes knock. I think it's actually the lowest rpm compressor.

I've ever heard. It's like running it to rpm knock knock anyway. That's a really great point, though, and the more you understand how a compressor works actually functions inside the more this stuff is gon na make sense, and so, if you haven't had a chance to go through a rebuild class or a class with Copeland, I would definitely Suggest that you look on Emerson's website and sign up for some of those, because it really helps you understand how these things function for a scroll. Now you really have to cut it open to see it because with a major slug in the scroll, you could break a flank.
What I mean by a flank, if you ever looked inside a scroll as that scroll set, goes around in a circle all the way to the discharge point. We call those walls, flanks and when you're trying to compress oil or liquid, we do have some safety device. Where we have axial compliance in radial compliance, which means we'll separate the scroll, sets to try to protect it. But if you have a major slug, you can potentially crack the flanks or the Oldham coupling and what the Oldham coupling is.

It actually does the rotation for given the orbiting motion in it, but you can do a lot of damage with a flooded start, which is really a slug in the scroll. We haven't really talked too much about hermetic compressors, reciprocating, hermetic compressors, but there's a lot of things that could happen with those as well, and I seen one actually the first six months I was working at Emerson. I was working with one of the experts here, Bruce Baz, now I'll doing an inspection and he said Trevor grab that compressor and check the oil. I think may have been CR compressor, possibly so what I did is unlike Bruce, why would I check the oil of the compressor he was like Trevor? Well, there's no sight glass on a room like oh okay, so he gave me a measuring cup and I actually filled a measuring cup up.

I had 32 ounces, I filled it up again: 32 ounces and then he was like Trevor now check the oil information on the label. I'm like oil information on the label, he's like yeah it'll, tell you what the charge of oil should be in there and I looked at the charge of oil and it was only like 34. I believe it was so. I had nearly double the amount of oil in that compressor, and so when we took him back, we had smashed Reed and a valve plate damage valve plate, and he was like Trevor.

This occurs a lot of the time when a mechanic will go out and replace a compressor, they'll pull out the compressor put a new one in six months later could be another service contractor on it or another mechanic on the job and have another failed compressor. Really. What's happening is that oil is logging into the system. It'll come back all in one shot and damage the compressor really bad.

So I really stress on any compressor without a sigh class. You really want to measure that oil, it's very important, because if you do not have any oil and that compressor that comes out, where is that oil potentially still in the system, if you didn't have a leak, it will be still in the system. That's very interesting! I'm going to confess that I've never measured the oil coming out of an old compressor before us, but make sense because they don't go anywhere. It's not like it's.
You may have a little bit that leaked out if the system had a leak or something, but it's not the majority of it's still in there somewhere. So yeah. It's an interesting point make sense, and one last thing about slugging as well, is that lots of people have mentioned to me that well I have an accumulator. It's gon na protect against slugging or flooded starts in the system, but at the end of the day it doesn't.

It does help protect against flood back. But if your systems off and your accumulator is full of liquid, there's potentially can migrate backings in the compressor right. So I just want to point that out that, just because you have an accumulator, you still can have off cycle migration, and this is, I think, where texts get confused. It's not like liquid migrates to your compressor as a liquid.

It migrates to your compressor as a vapor and then it condenses into a liquid inside the compressor Wow. So it's not and let alone the fact that you've got vapor pressure, there's actually traction of refrigerant to the oil itself in the compressor, let alone the temperature differential. So, there's a lot of different reasons why you end up with liquid refrigerant in your compressor and an accumulator while it certainly will help even with flooded starts it's not a savior. A good, solid, operating crankcase heater is probably the simplest way to deal with that and then, like you mentioned, pump down.

Solenoid is also a good practice, yeah exactly cool. So, what's next on your list overheating this one here, I've seen it so many times in the field as a mechanic as well as here at Emerson, and this is something that is overlooked by a lot of mechanics out there. I believe in I see as compressors come back to us, so overheating was one of the major causes of compressor failures for us in the past. We do have a lot of new protection devices like core sense performance alert to help protect against these failures, but some of the causes of overheat is like high compression ratios, and I stress this ons a lot of apprentices and I ask them: do you understand what High compression ratio is and how to calculate the compression ratio to of compressor, because that is very important to know when checking compressor.

To be honest with you, Brian. As an apprentice and a young mechanic, I did not check the compression ratio. If the compressor wasn't running - and I got it started back up - it wasn't really on my mind but, as I seen as I became a journeyman and more experienced it's something really to look at, because if you have low suction pressure or a high discharge pressure, you Are doing more work on that compressor? You are causing more heat to that compressor, you'll be getting less cooling to the motor and you might need to look around at the system because there could be some sort of system related issue causing that potentially a dirty condenser. You could potentially need external cooling like a head.
Cooling fan, demand, cooling things like that. Depending on the system. One of the main causes for overheat is really when your system gets 200, your compressor gets too hot and the oil starts to break down, and that's one of the big things you don't have the ability of lubricate when your compressor gets too hot, and really this Overheat can cause that oil to break down chemically and then it can cause harmful carbon and assets in that compressor yeah. You mentioned a couple good things there like, when a compressor gets too hot, there's a couple things that I want to mention when anything ever gets too hot.

What happens well things when they get hot, they expand right and when they get cold they can track. We understand that this is like a universal rule here, and so, when you have things getting hotter than they're designed to get that means they're expanding more than they're designed to expand. And when you have this range of temperatures, especially this fluctuation. We know that we understand with metals when you do that they become brittle, they break easier.

So that's one factor just alone that when you get things too hot, we know that that's not good, it's fairly obvious, but the next thing that you mentioned is critical. Is that once you overheat oil, then it loses its lubricating properties. It can actually completely break down, let alone it also affects its viscosity. The hotter you get something the thinner the oil gets, the quarter, it is the thicker it gets, and these things are engineered function within a particular range and when you operate something outside of its range, it doesn't work properly.

I think one thing that people miss a lot a lot of technicians miss - and you mentioned this - indicates a compression ratio. I there's a podcast with Carter Stanfield, but if you want to know more about compression ratio, go back and listen to that, because Carter has some great insights there, but one thing: that's a really important factor is load on the system makes a huge difference as it Relates to how much refrigerant is actually moving to the system when you have a low suction pressure, you also have low refrigerant density. When you have a lower pressure intensity, you have a situation where you don't have as many refrigerant molecules running through that compressor, which results in high compression ratios more work, but also ineffective. Cooling, because you don't have as many refrigerant molecules running through that compressor.

And so there's just a lot of things that impact the temperature of a compressor that has such a big impact on its life expectancy. How long it's gon na live? Yes, exactly what else did I miss there? Some of the things that I would like to say for guys to check is really check. The temperature right check your discharge line temperature. This is a big one that I talked to a lot of mechanics across the country and I asked them.
How often you check your discharge line temperature right? It's a quick and easy measurement, six inches from the discharge service, I'll check the temperature right there with your temperature probe, there's a few different numbers at Copeland use, but the main number that I use is 225 Fahrenheit. If you're above 225 Fahrenheit you're gon na start to break down that oil because inside either the head of the compressor or the head of the scroll, it's a lot hotter. It could be 50 to 75 degrees hotter in that head. And that's when really you start to break down and the oil starts to break down right.

So do the discharge temperature to check on the discharge line very important, and if you see something that's too high well, then I mean should be doing your compression ratio anyway. But look carefully at your compression ratio. Look carefully at your suction temperature. Look carefully! It obvious things like what's is my condenser coil clean? I mean those are fairly obvious things, but whenever you have higher head pressure than you need ed pressure being driven up too high or suction pressure being too low or super heat too high.

Those all impact your temperature of your head - and this is a subject that I think it's missed a lot as we became more fixated on superheat. We started thinking of no flood back at all cost. Sometimes we end up with systems where we maybe said a TX valve properly inside, but we didn't think about what the temperature of the suction gas coming into the compressor was, and if you have a compressor, that's running 15 degrees warmer than it should over its life. I can pretty much assure you that compressors not gon na last as long as the one that was dialed in perfectly be thoughtful when you check that in absolutely checking discharge temperature is a really nice test to do, and you get a lot of information about how The system's working and the longevity of that compressor by testing it yeah exactly so.

Some of the main checks that I always stress to talk about you mentioned most of them already is setting your minimum superheat properly, set your low pressure control, prevent loss of charge. Do not let that suction pressure go below your compressor design, maintain that compression ratio design, like you said, and you know, have a correct or adequate refrigerant charge in that system. Yeah. One point to make, because we talked about preventing flooded, starts by using a pump down solenoid that even makes it more critical that your low pressure switches are high quality and set in properly because I've seen systems kill themselves by pumping down.

And now that compressor pumps itself down into a vacuum and attempts to run which that's a big no-no, I mean you do not want compressors running with no refrigerant running over them, because they're gon na overheat in a hurry, exactly Brian there's. One other point I want to put out there for overheating and some of its causes. Most of my background in the field was as a supermarket mechanic service and installation, and I've worked on installed tons of semi hermetics. But this is one thing that I've really only learned here when I'm working with the experts, something called blow by what blow by is, is that when you get high discharge temperatures and you start breaking down that oil, you have the lack of lubrication on those cylinder Walls, so you start to get where on the cylinder walls of a semi hermetic will use a 3d, for example, 3d Copeland compressor.
So, as those cylinders are and the Pistons are pumping up down, is wearing the piston and cylinder wall well blow by is, as that, piston is starting to compress the gas. The gas goes around the piston, it doesn't go all the discharge port or up the reed. It is pushed back into the compressor inside Copeland semi, you have to location, you have the body separated from the crank, so that means the motor is separated from the compressor inside. In between those you have an oil check valve.

This oil check valve is used for two purposes, so on startup it closes so it doesn't blow all the oil into the motor compartment and the second is to help feed oil after the compressor starts to run so it'll open up you'll always have a little higher Pressure in the motor and stator compartment, then in the crank side. So as the compressor starts to run, the suction pressure starts to build a bit and then that oil drains into your crank side and then it boils pump through. But with this blow by happening and as its compressor is pumping, it pushes pressure down into the crank side and shuts that oil check valve. So really.

What happens now is that a service mechanic will call at two o'clock in the morning and he'll go up to a rack will say and all of a sudden the compressor is off on its scent Roenick or in this boil protector and you'll. Look in the sight, glass and he'll like oh it's half-full. This must be a nuisance, call press the center on ik and okay. Go get my paperwork signed off, but in theory there was a major issue with that compressor and, to be honest with you, I potentially overlooked a few of these examples in the field because I didn't know really bad blow ba.

You will see actually when the compressor starts up and you can watch the oil sightglass and you will see a drop drop drop drop because that oil feed check valve is closed. You can't feed all the main bearings. So that is one point that I want to put out there that I didn't know as a mechanic in the field blow by could be a major issue, yeah pretty serious issue and a hard one to diagnose, which is a challenge on some of these he's, like It's going on inside the compressor and you don't want to have to tear it down every time to find these problems, but, just being aware of what can occur, I think will help you maybe think about it twice, and so that's a perfect example, if you think, Oh shoot: this is just a nuisance problem right, I'm just gon na reset. It maybe think twice about and see if this might be what's causing it if blow-by might be impacting the system.
Yes all right. So what else do we have on the list? So the next one is loss of oil. This is another tricky one oil for me as a mechanic in the field. Electrical and oil issues were really tough as a fine, especially if you didn't have a sight glass on the compressor.

If you did have a leak and you came and did a repair fix the leak and there is oil all over the place, do I add oil or do I not add oil and that's a tough one? You want to make sure that every system has enough oil in it. When you do have a sight glass that one's easy to tell if your system is running, it has half sight glass, you shut it off. It still has a half sight. Glass, perfect.

You have the proper amount of oil at the end of the day. You want to make sure the oil leaving the compressor equals the oil returning the compressor right and if you don't have that you're gon na run into major lubrication problems, potentially seized compressor or electrical failure due to lubrication. Some of the things you want to look for is, I already talked about improper oil charge if the compressor short cycle a lot. This could cause oil issues, because every time that compressor starts it shoots out, a little bit of oil with the gas starts shoots.

A little bit more oil, if this happens a lot of the times and continuously happens with short cycling, you could actually shoot too much oil at a compressor doesn't give it enough run time to pull that all back and then, if the oil can't reach the bearings You're gon na run into bearing issues as well as overheating issues. Kanno issues also occur, and I'm gon na confess here. This is something that I don't know a lot about. I mean I understand.

Obviously, when you have lower suction pressures, you have lower refrigerant, velocities and then also obviously, tubing size is also a factor with refrigerant velocities. But can you run into issues with oil loss and a compressor, because it's, of course a small amount of oil loss? If you don't have a little separator, is common you're gon na be constantly recycling oil for the system, but you see it get stuck in an evaporator safe when you have lower than designed refrigerant velocities. Is that a real problem that exists out there yeah that definitely can be a problem? It's very important that in the installation you work with the manufacturer of the equipment, follow the specs. These manufacturers that are building different types of equipment doesn't matter if it's from air conditioner to refrigeration.
They will write a lot of times and give you the distances, the size of piping to it. If you don't follow that, and you don't have the proper velocities like he said, you could run into oil issues like if you don't have the proper piping. I've seen it before as a mechanic in the field where I was working with a journeyman mechanic and he actually was drilling holes into an evaporator. I'm like what are you doing and then all of a sudden, a couple of gallons of oil was coming out.

An evaporator what has happened was instead of piping. It all the way back to the compressor they sloped the lines to the evaporator, which is a huge no-no. So proper piping practices is very important as well as traps. I've seen it out there where there were no traps on certain systems with high rises in the pipe and running into oil issues back at the compressor, so they want to make sure proper piping practice is taken into account all right.

So, let's move on now into contamination. So what are some contamination problems that can occur? The main contamination issue that we see is moisture a lot of times when a compressor comes back and we pull it apart and we get something called copper plating. We know that there was a lot of moisture heat in that system and that is really from the pol being broke down. Pou oil is very hygroscopic, so if I really stress that mechanics out there need to use the proper tools, use the proper micron gauge and use a proper back pump and test these tools - and I know you stress on it - a lot on a lot of different Podcasts at you, but if you do not change a filter dryer every time you open a system, you can lead into these contamination issues.

If your system is running high heat with poa, like I said it will break down that oil. High moisture levels will break down that oil and turn form acid and sludge, which will potentially cause a motor failure. Another one practice that you said is make sure, when you're a reaming, pipe or cleaning pipe, that you try your best not to be dropping that into the system, because I can lead into a lot of different problems within your system. A few things that you can do, especially on a semi-hermetic if you pull off a head and you see copper plate and actually just looked like copper on the head.

What has really happened is that moisture in the oil has caused acid. It is pulling and scrubbing the copper and it brings it back to the compressor and you can see that copper plating has occurred from that yeah. The inside parts of a compressor aren't made of copper. So things look like copper and that's an indication that something's wrong.

100 %, so contamination from acid, mostly caused by moisture, also can be caused by overheating breaking down the oil sludge, copper shavings things like anything and you're not supposed to get anything inside the copper early. In my early days, the first company I worked for there were some tech system installers who would run copper lines without sealing off the ends through underground chases, and they would be full of sand and dirt, and the tape would break they would just tape the ends. The tape would break and it would it be full of sand. I'm sure that's another thing that Emerson doesn't like is when you have copper lines full of sand.
That probably also it would be considered a contaminant yeah. Definitely there's a few things guys can check too. We have a document called 93 11 lubricants and refrigerants it's a good document for mechanics out there to understand what oils and what refrigerant can be put into the Copeland compressors again. What calls a lot from different people? Can I put this additive in your compressors? Can I put this additive in and really in that documentation? It is gon na tell you what you can and cannot add to a Copeland compressor.

So that's a good thing to check. The main thing is, if you're servicing any system and the guys really want to change the filter drivers every time to make sure that you're pulling out as much moisture of that, as well as using the proper tools like we mentioned back micron gage get it to The proper testing yeah I've heard guys talk a lot about I'm pulling all the junk out of my system with the vacuum. It's like no make you pump doesn't pull junk out of the system. It's not gon na catch, copper shavings, it's not gon na catch carbon! That's in the lines they got scrubbed with the POA.

I think one thing that's also interesting to mention is when you do retrofits, where you went from mineral oil and now you're with the oil, you can have lines that had carbon buildup for years and years when they didn't flow nitrogen, when they initially saw that piece Of equipment that, when you put in that pol, it actually starts to scrub all those lines and you get all kinds of stuff out of the system that you didn't have before. So when you're working with pol - and this is true even in the past - but nowadays especially you really need to be replacing your line drivers all the time. Any time you open that system, because it's gon na pick up all kinds of stuff, and you don't want it going into your expansion valve - you don't want it going into your compressor, much better to catch it in a good quality line, dryer exactly anything else to Wrap up with there's lots more stuff compressors to me they are still evolving, there's so much that can happen and can go wrong with them. It's really just do some proper compressor and system, troubleshooting checks, and if you follow these, like I said earlier, if you have a proper checklist and use that all the time you will become better at troubleshooting compressor.

So so I'm gon na go through a few of compressors and system troubleshooting check that guys should follow some of the preliminary troubleshooting checks. They should understand the application. If they're working in right is it a high, is it low is a medium tempo? What are the design temperatures that should be running? What is the required sub cooling and superheating? What type of refrigerants and oils are used in that compressor or that system understand the sequence of operation? You see this a lot in HVAC or in furnaces central air furnace and in Canada. There's a sequence of operation: it's no different from a packaged unit or a refrigeration system.
Understand that see what's the operation and then figure out, is it a problem mechanically or electrically? That's really at the end of the day, if you know most of the compressors, I come back to immerse and there are electrical failures. Most of them were caused by a mechanical failure right. So that's some of the Ponca luminary troubleshooting. What electrical troubleshooting guys should be checking their line voltage right, they should be checking their wire connections.

Are they intact? They should be checking the amp draw. Is it correct that should be checking the voltage? They should be checking all the operating safety controls. I see that a lot out there guys aren't checking the safety controls. I don't have enough time to check all these different types of operating and safety controls.

It's very important to check those, because those controls are protecting. That system right are the windings, open, shorted or grounded under stand that from there it's the mechanical troubleshooting are the heat, exchanger coil screen, there's a airflow correct and is it moving properly? Is the refrigerant charge correct it's a sub, cooling or superheat within design of that manufacturers equipment? Are there restriction in the refrigerant flow? Is the system components even size to match what the system is as well as check the compressor operating efficiency? And this one here is so important: Brian, we do have an app, and I seen you do a talk about it or at least send some posts through your social media but Copeland mobile app. When I was a mechanic, I went out to the field and I always I've done tons of maintenances, where I took all this information. What do I do with this information right within this Copeland mobile app that we have launched? There is actually some operation efficiency features in it to tell if the compressor is running properly or if you have to start troubleshooting this compressor.

So it's in this app you will put in whatever that compressor either scan the model number or put the model number in. Then you will go to the Diagnostics tab. You will put your suction, you will put your discharge and you will put your amps in you. Will press calculate and it will calculate to tell you if that compressor is running and normal operating conditions every one of our compressors, that we make the tens of thousands of compressors that we make is in this app and what it will do.
It will help the mechanic know that compressor is running properly or not and from there there's a troubleshooting guide for them. If it's high current, it will go step by step for these mechanics to try to figure out what is causing the issues in that compressor. So I stress highly for the listeners out there download this app, it's a free app and it will definitely help you troubleshoot compressors, I'm a big fan of that app and it's something that I didn't know about up until fairly recently, and it really makes life a Lot easier because it's so often like when you're trying to figure out if the compressor is working right or not, especially on the compression side, you're kind of guessing, because there's so much it's in a closed loop system right so you're. Looking at oh well, my compression ratio seems a little off well, that could be the compressors problem or it might not be thing abreast.

There's problem. There might be something else in the system, charge level or expansion valve operation or issues with the lines. But with this app you can just plug all this information and it tells you right away what it should be and it makes your life a lot easier. There's a lot of additional electrical diagnosis.

You can do with the compressor a lot of additional things that can go wrong, but knowing the system you're working on knowing the application reading some of those bulletins reading the engineering guidelines and installation best practices for a piece of equipment having a good, solid, go-to checklist That you use for different practices and whether it's replacing a compressor or whether it's commissioning a piece of equipment in the first place, depending on the type of equipment that it is. Obviously that will vary but having those in place are really gon na help. And I would encourage those of you out there who are maybe senior technicians. Maybe managers be proactive in writing up these checklists and helping the new technicians have a process to follow because, as you know, more and more, you have young technicians out there in the field.

May be a little bit inexperienced, maybe don't have fully the training that we would like them to have that's sort of the nature of the industry. Right now is there's just such a shortage, and so a good, solid checklist. A good, solid process will really help and a lot of these Emerson resources, they're gon na, be linked in the show notes, they're gon na, be, if you go to the website, HVAC our school comm, we're gon na have a post there with links to all of Those as well, if you click on the podcast tab, those will be a really great starting point, but help create these things for your company, because I think you're gon na do a great service for your customers and then also helping the next generation of technicians. We're going out there by getting this some of this down on paper and making sure that best practice is being followed, you're exactly right, we as an industry.
We need to help the younger guys, because I see a lot of less interest in our trade across the board, and this is one of the funnest trades to be in every day. I'm excited to learn more about refrigeration in HVAC. What we need to do is make it sexy for them, and we can do that and I really appreciate everything that you're doing out there for the younger guys and getting this information out there to the younger techs and experienced text, because I think it's very important. There's so much information out there, it's hard to find it all the time, not because it's not there.

It's just there's so much information that you're looking for. So I really appreciate what you do and keep up the great work all right. Thank You. Trevor.

Everybody seek out Emerson, look at what they've got they've had a lot of really great training information, and hopefully you have a great summer up there and have a nice break from the great cold white north that I'm sure finally breaking out of. So. Thank you. So much Trevor, Thank You.

Bryan, hey thanks for listening, thanks for being a loyal listener to the HVAC school podcast, it's pretty cool! How far this thing is, how far this thing is gone and how many of you are listening now, but I appreciate every one of you individually for sharing it with your friends and maybe sharing your favorite episode. I'm always interested to know what your favorite episodes are. The ones you like, or maybe the ones you don't like, maybe the ones you felt like we're a waste of your time. You can always email me brian at hvac, our school comm.

I always appreciate that a couple things I want to. Let you know about. First off we're a member of the blue-collar roots Network. You probably already knew that you can find all the other shows by going to blue-collar roots comm.

Actually, a recent episode of the service business. Mastery podcast was very interesting and tersh did a really kind of a kind of a freaky. When I say freaky, just like freaky to do on a podcast talking about is considering letting an employee go and kind of what went into that, which was interesting. So you might want to listen to that, especially that last one and then a couple of things I want to mention.

I'm doing this, some things with dan Foss again dan Foss has a refrigeration controller, the ERC 213 kit. I was interested in this product to reach out to them today. Would you be interested in doing something with this and they said sure sure enough we're using these in a couple different applications where the old electromechanical controllers, the old-style controllers, aren't doing the job, and the nice thing about the dan Foss controller? Is that it has these settings so that it's really easy to use for kind of some default settings you can go in, you can set it up for a you, know, refrigerator or cooler. You can set it up for freeze or you can set it up for electric DFAS, frost or hot gas defrost all these different options.
You can build into it, but it has to come at some standard setting so that you don't have to go in and set every single parameter, just a really nice universal digital control for coolers and freezers, and that's the Danfoss ERC 13 s check that out. Also, I wanted to mention right. Soft right soft is working with us now. I'm excited that I really enjoy their products Manuel Jay, Manuel D.

If you haven't looked at rights off, if you're using some other product, maybe because it's less expensive or whatever I would, I would tell you, based on all of the features that you get in right, soft and how accurate it is. Just listen to the previous episodes with Jack Rhys he'll kind of cover that I would definitely suggest that you take a look at rights off and then finally, retro Tech, retro tech, blue doors, duct leakage, testers their precision, manometers all really great things. If you want to get into more into the building science side of things, the stuff that bill Spohn talks about on the building, HVAC science podcast, I would highly suggest that you take a look at retro tech and then, finally, I don't know if you saw the Recent award ceremony, but yeah the Scarecrow, actually won the Occupational award yeah because he's always outstanding in his field. All right.

Thanks for listening, we will talk to you next time on the HVAC school podcast. Oh real, quick that last joke was submitted by my technician: jeff kraebel, so thank you.

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