All right very rare that they leak up here, but that's not good. Oh yeah, that's a problem! So there's refrigerant lines all in this rail, these rails. Right here and oh yeah, that's not good! This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. We had a service call in this region on friday, another service tech came out and he had to top off the charge.

It was low on gas came out monday morning and we're gon na do a leak search on it. So we got one two three coils, we got two pan chillers and then we got two coils on the other side um i started by going onto the roof uh, making the box call by opening up the doors putting the uh. Once i called, i turned the compressor off and i put my service gauges on it and i equalized my gauges out or i opened up both sides so that we have equal pressures in the whole system. So the thing is full of food.

It wasn't really a scheduled thing. I didn't plan on doing this today, so i'm gon na go ahead and pull the food out. One section at a time do a leak check, real quick, put it back in and knock it out all the way through all right. Let's get in here, i don't think it's gon na be in this one.

Using the detex select all right, this coil doesn't look to be in too bad of shape. Nope doesn't seem to be coming out. The top doesn't seem to be in this one at all. One last one right down here: nope all right, we're gon na move on to the next one, all right.

Let's do this one real, quick! This is a new coil. I don't think the problem is going to be over here, no nope, not on this one either. Let's check this last one on this side, this one doesn't look bad either. All these coils look fairly new and i vaguely remember changing them, looks like yeah.

7. 21 20 is when we changed it, yeah this one's good, no leaks, okay, let's go ahead and jump on the other side. All right, one coil on the other side looks like we've got a leak in this one. Okay, it doesn't seem like it's up top, because it's not picking it up up here definitely seems like it's down here.

Okay, we're going to get on this guy with uh bubbles got big blue. Remember we want a steady stream. Txt looks very suspect. Oh yeah, it's on the back of the coil, a big old guy back there, oh yeah that whole back hell even the front of the coil leaking like crazy.

Okay. So that's one leak, that's a pretty big one too! So this isn't anything i would try to fix, because literally the whole return bend is just disintegrated on both of them right here and right here. It's like going super crazy. Let's get some more bubbles on there see if it make bigger leaks.

Oh yeah, this one looks like it's pretty corroded too. Let's see what we got here, i'm surprised it's not picking nothing up, this thing's in really bad shape, wow of all of them. This is the one that i would say uh. I guess the other one that already has leaks, probably the worst, but this one's the second worst for sure - probably push them to change this one too, because when we get done with it, it's going to be leaking.

Oh, it's picking it up down here. Maybe there's some on the ground. We still got to leak check. The pan.

Chillers too, put this thing back together, all right, very rare that they leak up here. But that's not good. Oh yeah, that's a problem! So there's refrigerant lines all in this rail, these rails right here and oh yeah - that's not good! I have no way of getting underneath those - let's check this one, so this one's not leaking. So these are full refrigerant lines.

Let's come back over here and look at this one again. Ah, that's not good yep, there's not a whole lot. I can do about that. Um there's a special dude that knows how to take these things apart, and he usually comes in here and fixes these.

When there's a problem um, you got to pull this whole top off and i have no interest in doing it all right i mean i don't see much, it doesn't. Look. The condenser doesn't look bad look in here where it could have been smashed from the condenser fan. Motor people changing it out doesn't seem like there's a problem there.

Let's go to the other side, this side right here. I don't see any weird signs of oil. Nothing then this thing usually would pick it up by now. Let's go down to the pressure control.

Nothing! Nothing compressor valves, look a okay bit of lint on that one, but it doesn't look horrible, don't see anything there! Look at this guy, this guy's uh yep. There's a leak on that one too all right, i'm gon na get some bubbles all over this guy. I don't like to take anything off. I don't like to disturb anything because i want to prove the leak so we're going to spray some big blue all over this guy and see where it bubbles out at my money is going to be on the quarter.

Inch service cap yeah it's right on the cap, so we can get the camera to focus there. You go, you can see it bubbling out right there. Okay, now, let's see, if that's it might be repairable or the you might not be able to tighten the stem enough. So we're gon na go ahead and pull the the cap off of the adjustment thing and then pull this off and see if we can adjust it tighter to get it to stop or if we have a bad receiver.

It also came out of this cap when i took it off. Okay, so we're gon na put the adjustment wrench on there i mean it turned just a tiny hair, but i don't know if that's anything, to get it to stop leaking. Let's see if the packing is loose that wouldn't cause the stem on the top to leak, but that would cause the stem down here to leak potentially doesn't seem like the packing is going tighter at all. No, not really, i sprayed the soap bubbles in there and after i got that little turn on it.

It's not leaking anymore, so it's full of soap bubbles right now and i'm not getting any pops or anything now keep in mind that i need to crack it and blow the soap bubbles out before i apply any service gauges um, but yeah yeah. It's not it's! Not leaking anymore, so it just needed to be tightened a little bit more as well, and then we'll just tighten the caps on. So this is okay, the receiver. It doesn't look great, but it'll last a lot longer and then we'll uh, we'll quote the leak for the coil and then we'll have to tell them to get their specialist on that pan chiller leak because there's nothing.

I can do about that all right. Now. My service deck when he was here, he topped off the charge, but it's already leaking again or it's already low again, so we're going to go ahead and clear the side, glass and fill the receiver up. This thing has a head pressure control valve, so we're going to put it to three quarters of the receiver um they're, going to have to get their guy to fix that leak in the pan, chiller and we're gon na have to change that coil quick.

So i'm gon na top it off real, quick. All right, i topped off the charge and what i did was i added refrigerant until my receiver was at the maximum fill okay, three quarters of a fill now in a perfect world. This is a copper, tube and thin condenser coil. We use the sporlin 90-30-1 method to properly add the winter charge, but there's a flaw in that method, in that it can be difficult at certain times when you're a servicer out in the field to know how low the refrigerant is.

Okay, so it can be a problem um the easiest way. Now, of course, i always push to use 90-30-1 okay, but the easiest way is to uh fill up the receiver to the maximum amount. Now this is for a head pressure control valve system, only normal receivers. You don't have to fill all the way up, okay, so what i did was i added refrigerant uh pumped the system down and checked the liquid level.

I used a heat producing device that didn't exceed the soft plug for the blowout temperature of the receiver and heated. It up, and then we marked it so you can see that we've marked it two times before. In 2019 and june of i mean july of 20 this year we also marked it as i'm topping off the charge and filling it up to the three-quarter mark. It's especially gon na really matter as we come into the fall like we are right now, because you're gon na have cool mornings.

The head pressure control valve is gon na bypass and if it doesn't have the proper amount of charge, then you're going to feed vapor to the expansion valve and you're going to have issues with the system. So i pumped this system down, checked the liquid level after i added refrigerant, and my liquid level is right here you can, you can feel it when you run your fingers up like this. All of a sudden, it gets hot. It's like okay, yeah! That's your liquid level, all right, we're back today we're gon na change out this coil, i'm working with someone else, so um he's gon na be down here.

Changing this, i'm gon na jump on the roof, get the receiver done and uh the dryer and all that good stuff up there. So just about ready, we got the new coil we're just prepping it all right to make this go faster. I'm gon na pump the refrigerant into the receiver first, okay, so then all the refrigerant will be stored in the receiver and the reason why i'm doing that is because the guy downstairs can go ahead and get started while i'm recovering, because the receiver king valve is Front seated, the gas will not go past that so we get it to pump down and satisfy and then i'll get him going that way he can get started. I'm waiting for the recovery machine to finish up.

It's almost done. I'm just prepping some things so like these other ones, the receiver is bolted and i'm gon na have to cut it off because you can't get underneath it to undo the bolt. So therefore, the new receiver, i wouldn't be able to bolt it down. So i get these brackets, it's just a six by six with some bends on it.

Just galvanized um drill a hole in the middle bolt it to that and then tech screw it down just like i have on the other one. So we're gon na do that and then uh. If everything goes as planned, i'm gon na go ahead and re-pipe the whole dryer and uh clean it up a bit because there's a bunch of goobers and stuff. Those are hard brace joints to make in there.

So i'm gon na redo it and then this new receiver should fit in there because it's gon na sit taller now. So, okay, we got the receiver out. Now we got to get on the pipe and everything, but i just realized that i don't have a half inch bowl per nut for that. So i got to go get one, but we're going to kind of get this ready i'll, get it mocked up and maybe brazed in and then i'll come back and do the half inch nut all right.

I got it all mocked up and ready to go. I'm going to pull the receiver out and make this brace joint, because it's an upside down weld this one will be easy, uh and then yeah everything's in there. So we're looking good i'm waiting on someone to bring me the nut for the bottom of this receiver. Right now, but yeah i'm gon na go ahead and get this guy prepped and start brazing all right, i'm purging with nitrogen.

On the other side, i got some flux on this guy. We're gon na do some silver solder and then we'll do this. Braze joint with silphos and then we'll do this braze joint right here with silk boss and then just uh nylog up the flares and we'll be good to go all right. We're just mounting the solenoid valve.

We got the coil installed, so all is well we'll get back up on the roof. I got the vacuum pump on there made use of the new 90 fittings. I got some new 90 fittings and i got rid of those aluminum um clamps. I got all stainless steel clamps super nice on this uh.

True blue, hose kit. All right remember. This thing is not gon na pull a perfect vacuum because we still have a leak downstairs and the customer knows that uh they have a specialist and they wanted to come after us. I tried to get them to come.

You know before us, but they didn't want to so it is what it is. I can only do what the customer wants me to do so we're just gon na pull the best vacuum. We can try to get it below a thousand microns uh yeah and that's it. We are charging, but when i charge i do this a lot i like to charge into the receiver with the king valve closed.

So that way, i control the flow of refrigerant through the system, so i've got the king valve closed at the receiver, purged all the lines, all that good stuff and we're just dumping refrigerant into the receiver right now, so we've got eight pounds in there and it's Just stopping at the receiver, so it's basically between the high side and the compressor and the receiver all the way through the condenser um the low side. That's not an accurate number, because i still have this ball valved off right here. So i've got power to this compressor so that way, solenoid valves are open and stuff. So i basically still got the low side.

If there was 173 psi, the compressor would be running um from the low pressure control. So it looks like we're kind of stabilizing out at about eight pounds: 10 ounces slowly, so i'm gon na go ahead and uh close this off and then we'll charge the rest. Then, through the low side, okay, do the next guy a favor and mark the liquid level. When you're all done.

I ended up adding a little bit more refrigerant and maxing out the liquid level on this guy and marked it right um, and you can clearly see how it's more yellow right here and then it changes color to like a red tone right here. You can clearly feel it with your fingers too, where the liquid level's at all right. When all was said and done, um i gave the customer a quote to repair the system. I told them.

You know we have one leaking coil. We have a leaking pan, chiller uh. We have a receiver, that's in bad shape, but it is okay. Um and i said we have one coil, that's in bad shape that will be potentially leaking in the future.

Now this particular customer chose to go ahead and have me: do the receiver do the leaking evaporator coil and they chose to hold off on the one that was potentially going to leak in the future? So you know all i do is present the customer with all the information and i let them make the decisions on what they want to do. Of course, i give them for informed information. Let them know hey. I think this is going to be a bigger problem.

You know when i told them about the receiver, i said: look it had a leak. I was able to mechanically repair it, but it's rusted out it's in bad shape and they chose to go ahead and have me do it. Okay. Now, unfortunately, i wanted to get the brazing process and stuff, but the the camera angles just weren't correct on this one.

So didn't work out to get the brazing on that now. I did have another service technician there with me that day, so i had him changing the evaporative coil, which those things are just super easy. You just cut out the old one braze in the new one call it a day. I spent more time on the roof.

Just making the the receiver fit right, re-piping getting rid of all that ugly brazing inside there. Now i was the person that braised half that stuff in there. It's just those are awkward braze joints you know being able to get in there. So when, given the opportunity, i re-piped it made it all clean, you know made it nice and neat really important is marking the refrigerant level on the receiver for the next guy, because of course you hope, the next guy's going to be you, but still you don't Give the next guy any crap talking ability, basically by taking care of them and labeling everything i kind of talked a little bit about the refrigerant charge.

Okay, the factory on this particular box actually tells you the factory recommended refrigerant charge, but because well a couple different reasons. Sometimes, if you have that information, it's super easy because you don't have to calculate the flooded charge right. If you ever just use the factory charge. Definitely mark the liquid level so that way the next guy knows he doesn't have to fill it all.

The way up, you know makes it easy right now in this situation, remember that system still had a refrigerant leak in that pan chiller. So i knew that it was going to be leaking until the other company came out and fixed their part, so i went ahead and put the maximum amount of refrigerant in that system. Even though i knew what the factory charge was because i didn't want to get callbacks in between the other service company coming out now, the leak in the pan chiller wasn't huge, but i did go ahead and max out the liquid level on that receiver filled it Up to the three-quarter mark and then marked it and you know, showed it on the thermal imaging camera too. Okay, so that thermal imaging camera goes a long way.

It really helps you when you're commissioning these systems. That way, you can, you know, remember where you left at the time before the thermal imaging camera makes it super easy now you can certainly do it with your fingers too, with taking the heat producing device, you can feel the liquid level, but the thermal imaging camera Just gives you that much more accuracy, okay to know the liquid level, keep in mind too. The reason why the thermal imaging camera works is because you have liquid and vapor in that receiver and by taking a heat producing device that doesn't exceed the blowout temperature of the receiver and waving it up and down the receiver. You're actually heating up the vapor portion, because the liquid is is absorbing the heat, but the vapor doesn't really it doesn't absorb the heat very well, so you can clearly see the temperature difference and that's why we i showed on the thermal imaging camera.

You know this is the the vapor level. Essentially, so we know that there was three quarters pumped down liquid level and then there was extra room of vapor for expansion. Okay, you don't ever want to overfill that thing, because then you could have a catastrophic failure. The soft plug blows out or something like that.

Okay, you got to give that room or give that receiver room for expansion in the really really hot days in case it's pumped down or something like that. You don't want anything exploding, okay, now, um. Of course, i wasn't able to pull a perfect vacuum and there's times that that stuff happens, you just got to kind of learn to deal with it. Okay, um gave the customer all the information they went ahead and had their other service company come out that specialized in taking that pan chiller apart and he went ahead and fixed that, or at least i think he did, because i haven't been back there since, and This video was actually filmed a couple months ago, but um everything went well really nothing crazy to say about that job.

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