Well, the way i look at it is as long as i can get over worst case scenario. It's drywall. I can always go down through the drywall, so i'm going to try to fit my butt over there. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition, all right we're just coming up on the roof.

Today, we're gon na be uh. Looking into an issue that the fire alarm company says is happening with the duct detectors. The smoke detectors they're saying that one of them - i don't know which one yet keeps tripping, so i need to locate the duct detectors first, so i've got a package unit right here, we're going to open them up, sometimes they're located in the package unit. Sometimes they're not sometimes we're in the ductwork, but as i came up onto the roof check this out come over here and uh.

We got a panel laying on the ground which sucks and we come around here and it looks like someone left their drill sitting on the roof just sitting up here. I don't know if this is one of my technicians, uh there's a name on it. What does it say? Yeah, i don't know this might be one of my technicians i'll have to see but um, so we're gon na try to see if the duck detectors are in the units or not. Let's come over here, so we've got uh.

Typically, if you open up the supply and return cabinets, so there's no duct detector. There you come over here and there's no duct detector there, so they're gon na be located in the ductwork. One thing we can do is we can kind of cheat depending on how these systems are wired. We can look at the history in the board and see if it has a smoke detector in the history now some of these units, what you can do is just hit recall.

This is the older m18 board and a number four, if i remember right, is a smoke detector. So we go through that's 82. 82, it's probably a power down 82. It looks like it's just 82 in this guy.

I don't see anything besides 82., so we take it out. A recall we can go over here. 82 is a main board reset or power outage, so it doesn't look like it's with this unit, so we'll keep going to each one of these units and seeing uh, which one has smoke: detector history, trips um. This is a unit that a long time ago i had a service call on it.

Uh first off i went to this unit right here and the only code i can get is 26, which is look right here. 26 is low. Pressure 3 is open. This is one where i had plugged up filter dryers and i can't remember which compressor, though, was plugging up the filter dryers and it's because the units just beat down um.

So this compressor is not running, we'll bring it to the customer's attention. There's also a bird nest in here which sucks to make sure we disengage heating until they get us approved to clean all that crap, because we don't want heat to fire with that crap in there um. So we're gon na jump to the other unit and see if we have smoke detector codes in the other unit, all right so in all three acs, i'm not seeing anything about smoke, detectors uh! I did go through the history because i couldn't quite remember and the one that i had the plugged up dryers was actually on this one right here. I believe um, but i'm still a little skeptical, because uh this one has a newer dryer on it too um.

But again, we're gon na give the information to the customer and kind of see where they want to go with this. I'm going to gauge up on this guy too, all right! So i'm looking up in the return and i can see the smoke detector sampling bar right there. This is for their bar ac uh. You can also see light because of the outdoor air filters, but i'm going to have to find out how to get up here, because it's an enclosed crawl space up in here so we'll be climbing around in there.

But uh we'll get over there and have a look at that duct detector, the the sampling tubes. Look really dirty, though, doesn't look like they've been cleaned in a long time. I found a scuttle access over there, and here is my dilemma. I used to fit on the left, but not anymore.

I'm gon na try to fit on the right. I got one of those new uh cool, dad bods. You know that everybody's hyped about and uh damn that sucks. So i got ta scoot through here, but i can't stand on the plenum because that's not really supported, there's nothing there.

So i got ta try to stay on the wood over to that side, because, of course, the duct detector is on the other side of this guy yeah. That looks fun well. The way i look at it is as long as i can get over worst case scenario. It's drywall.

I can always go down through the drywall, so i'm gon na try to fit my butt over there. All right. I made it over here. Um i've got the detector head pulled out, just investigating it.

I don't see any problems, it doesn't look too dirty. I mean it's hard to say, though you know you're not going to get it much more apart than that, i'm not gon na disassemble it. So that looks okay, i'm gon na try to put this back in. If i can also before i did anything, i put the fire alarm on test so that way, the entire system supposedly isn't going to set the audible enunciators off again, supposedly, it's a big.

What, if um interesting that i don't see a resistor to prove a trouble circuit, so that's kind of interesting. Usually you see a resistor huh, it's peculiar! I wonder how okay, so i'm not a genius when it comes to the fire alarm systems right. I don't open up the fire alarm panel, but my understanding is: is you typically run a resistor across the fire alarm wires so that way they can see trouble conditions and know that the circuit, you know, prove that the circuit's there um that's interesting. I don't see a resistor anywhere in there okay.

Well, this is the sampling tube and it's really really dirty inside. That can cause false alarms, but it's not it's not in the detector head. So that worries me um. It worries me that we might have something going on with the detector or possibly in the wiring.

The issue is that this has been happening for a while the customer. I read the notes from the fire alarm: company and they've come out multiple times for the kitchen ac. This is a bar ac, but they said the bar ac started sending trouble codes now too um, but i mean look. Look in there, that's plugged! That's the uh! The stuff that was on the outside of the detector, that's crazy.

If i can push that through. No, not really, i wonder if i can push that out. Watch this yeah, that's crazy! That's there's a lot of lint build up on that for sure, and then this guy this is the vent. That's just gets fresh air, so these duct detectors they work on the principle that you've got um air coming in air going out and it forces it through.

The detector, when this little chingus is right here it goes like that and it separates one half of the detector. So the air, in theory, with these sampling tube holes, pointed into the air stream. The air pushes up through the sampling tubes pushes itself through the detector and then out. The exhaust port is the way it's supposed to work, so you've got to make sure that you've got the plug in your sampling, tube and then on the exhaust port.

It needs to be unplugged and open that way, there's a path for the air to flow all right, so these calls can be a pain in the butt, because all that work right. Well, you guys don't know if i've already taken this down. You know i fought to get back got over the the you know. The little ledge over there got through everything got back down rinsed this guy out, then i had to climb back up come back through to come over here, so you want to keep that in mind.

You know make sure you have the tools that you need and try to think big picture. Okay for this, i only needed a screwdriver. I didn't need a meter or anything like that, because i'm not really the the unit's not in a troubled condition right now. So we're just inspecting and analyzing, but you always want to try to remember that and a really important piece of advice.

You know i joke around about being skinny and stuff. Big guys can do just fine in this trade, but you just have to understand that there's going to be times that you got to fit into tight spots, you know getting through that which isn't the end of the world. It's kind of awkward. You know not putting a lot of pressure on this plenum.

Really, importantly, though, is that, when you're climbing through places, you know sometimes panic starts to set in because you feel like you're stuck, you feel like something's gon na happen. Remember something you got in there. Okay, usually when you panic is when you start to thrust when you start to pull you rip your pants, you know as i'm, going through my shirt's getting caught on rough edges. You know so i'm going cautious and once i start to feel a snag.

Just remember back up unsnag yourself, you know and and get through it when you feel like you're, getting stuck it's hard. You know panic starts to set in and you tend to get desperate and do weird things, but remember something you just got in there. Um i'd say 99.9 percent of the time you're going to be okay. If you stop relax back yourself out and just think about it for a minute before you start to panic and break things, got the sampling tube put back in the duct detector back together, i'm going to turn the light off and i'm going to show you that We have a green pilot light, it's really important to make sure this is good and then also we're getting a flashing light every once in a while on the detector head itself.

That is a normal operation for this detector. So this looks like everything is good, so at this point i'm gon na go ahead and climb out um and then go and investigate the kitchen duct detector. I'm sure that one's gon na be greasy and smoky, and you know nasty and kind of just go from there and as i was backing out of that scuttle hole, i realized that they're running a dual duct detector setup. So i was on the other side of that wall over there for the return, and this is our supply, so we need to investigate both sides make sure everything's copacetic.

This side doesn't have a sampling tube, but we're getting good air flow through there. Maybe because it's the supply air side, i don't think that's quite right, but i pulled the detector head. It looks fine um, it's not too dusty in here. Surprisingly uh.

The resistor is actually on this one. There's a resistor right there. That's interesting, though, because i again i'm not a genius with the alarm wiring, but i thought they'd have a resistor on each one. They just have these ones interlinked.

So, theoretically, if one goes off, the other one should go off um, but i'm not seeing anything wrong here. Really, oh wait! What's that, do we lose a capacitor of some sort? It looks like maybe there's like an oil in here, almost like a capacitor blew out or something i don't see any damage to that capacitor, but something's funky, because there shouldn't be oil in the electrical section. Oh that's interesting. It's very interesting all right! So the kitchen we've got one detector right here for the return, i believe, yeah and then we have one detector over there for the supply.

It's kind of tricky and more than likely, i'm not gon na be able to get the sampling tube out of that one because of the return. If there is a sampling tube interesting, but we will see this looks fun right. They don't look that dirty inside, though surprisingly, this is the supply vent and this thing's really dirty. There's a lot of dust on here: yeah this thing's nasty pull this thing out, it's hard to see, but there's a lot of dust in there, but i don't know that i don't think i can get the sampling tubes out depending on how long they are unless They're really short, maybe they were nice and made them short, though i don't know, the pain in the butt is what it is.

It feels short, but that could be the exhaust. That's the exhaust, i don't know i might have to pull that screw out to get it, so they did end up having a short sampling tube in here. So i was able to pull it out clean it as best as i could, and i'm going to push it back in. Remember you want the sampling tube holes to go into the airflow, so the air is forced into the detector.

Look at that! That's the sampling tube. I just got a little bit out. It's covered in grease. There's no way, i'm going to be able to clean that sampling tube needs to be replaced.

So at this point i don't even know if i can get it back in i'm going to try to push it back in and then we'll have to order new sampling tubes, i'm probably going to try to talk them in to. Let me just change the detectors, because this location is about two and a half hours from my shop. I'd hate to just clean them and then have to come back out seems like it'd, just be easier, just to change the detectors for the price, but we'll see i'll talk to the customer man. I couldn't get it in so i started pulling out now.

I can't even get it out because it's getting stuck, i'm gon na have to pull the detector off the duct. No wonder i couldn't get it out. These dodo heads put an emt coupler there. Instead of just getting the right size, sampling tube, i mean it works, but makes it impossible to get it out all right.

I've got this trainer board that i've had set up. I've shown it in videos before this is just a basic duct detector that i use for training. My employees um. This one is a different style of duct detector and that you have one logic board, essentially right here, right, one power whatever you want to call it, and then you have two detector heads that are connected, so you don't have to have two full duct detectors in This situation, okay, but it still works off of the same principles.

You have a sampling tube going in here. You have an exhaust port here, and the air is forced through in this situation, via um, the little ducts that they have created. When you put this on it forces the air from one side to the other, okay, also important to understand that oftentimes, these guys will have tamper sensors! That's what this guy is right here. So when you push this on there, it's actually going to push down the tamper sensors in our situation, we're actually in a trouble condition right now, because our tamper sensors are not pushed down.

So once i oh see it actually just came out of a trouble condition because i put the cover back on each one of these detectors has different ways that they can perform. This one has dip switches, you can change uh. You know the way that it reacts. You can change the sensors, it has a delay for the tamper alarm, that kind of stuff all right.

In this situation. I've set up a little trainer like i said, okay, and it's really just to show my employees. You know how a duck detector works, because a lot of people get confused and or intimidated by them, because they got so many wires or whatever okay, but it's really not anything to be concerned with. Okay, all that it is, is a bunch of dry contacts.

Really. I mean and you can use them to push power through or you know, in the alarm situation, the alarm companies typically use just dry contacts, but um. You know it's really not that bad. You know most of the time when you work on a duct detector for an rtu unit, you're, typically going to have three jackets of thermostat wires coming in you're, usually going to have one for a remote test station like this one and then you're going to have One going to the rtu unit, usually somehow making an emergency stop if there's ever a fire condition, and then you're usually going to have one set of wires going to the alarm panel.

Now, depending on the area that you're in sometimes you're allowed to touch the alarm wire, sometimes you're not even allowed to touch duct detectors because they might consider them life safety devices. In my area, i'm allowed to work with duct detectors. It's you know not a big deal. Um different duct detectors can have different setups, so um.

You can see right now that i've got 24 volts going to this one now uh. This duct detector is only capable of handling 24 volts, but they make some that can handle 120 240, whatever you want to be it okay, so all that we're doing is powering the logic of the duct detector, with the 24 volts once the 24 volts powers, the Detector, it does not go to any of the other contacts in this uh assembly right here in this electrical. You know whatever there's no other power coming from those 24 volt wires. Okay, so you have to buy by using a series of jumpers or whatever have to put power from the 24 volt source right here to the other contacts, if you want them so, let's say i wanted to power auxiliary contact a i would have to bring 24 Volts over to the c or the common terminal, and then it could be switched via the normally closed and normally open contacts.

Okay. So it's really not that difficult. If this detector goes into alarm, which i can force an alarm right now, i just did okay um. You see that each detector head is gon na light up.

The the you know this guy right here is gon na light up we're gon na have a remote test station. That's gon na light up and uh. You can you're still gon na have 24 volts coming into the detector itself. Okay, there you go, but your contact situation is going to change now in the situation of this guy right here.

Um. What we have is the alarm company is typically going to monitor two conditions in this duct detector. Okay, so we're talking about the alarm wiring right now, they're typically going to monitor and look for a trouble condition and or a direct short, which would be a fire alarm condition. Okay, so right now i triggered a fire alarm.

Okay. So if we take my uh my meter right here and okay, i turned my guy to tone. Okay, and what we're going to do is we're going to find our alarm wiring um. We can look in here again.

This is the typical way you're just going to have to kind of investigate i wired this so long ago. I don't remember which wires are for my alarm, so it looks like my alarm: circuit is gon na be red and blue um. Let's see red is coming to the c terminal and then blue um, i'm just trying to figure this one out right now: okay, so it's actually the red and white wires! Okay! So if we go up here, let's just consider these two wires. My alarm panel in this situation we're getting a direct short, and so that's telling the alarm panel: hey, there's a fire condition or something's wrong.

Okay, but with just those two wires, the red and the white wire. The alarm company can also do something else, so we're gon na go ahead and reset this guy. Okay, you see that we reset, and if i go between my red and my white wire, you notice that i'm not getting an audible tone anymore. Okay nothing's there, but let's go ahead and turn this guy right here.

Let's look at this. Look at we're seeing 15k ohms of resistance across that okay, so that resistor right here is a 15k ohm resistor and that is actually proving our alarm circuit. So what i mean by that is the alarm company you know wants to know if there's a fire condition, but what happens if you know, as i was climbing through the attic i stepped on the wires and i severed them, then the alarm company would not know If there was an alarm condition, because the wires have been cut off, okay, so the way that they wire these detectors and the way that i have this one wired is to show us a trouble circuit. So at all times, well, in normal conditions, we should see 15k ohms.

The alarm company now knows that the the circuit is proved. Everything is good. I'm going to put us into a trouble condition. You notice that we lost our 15k ohms, but we don't have a direct short see.

We've got no audible tone, okay, and that is because we're in a trouble condition so see the alarm company. I have this set up that if something happens with the detector, it's not necessarily going to set off the alarm, but it is going to signal the alarm company to say: hey, there's something wrong. You need to send someone out here. It's not necessarily a fire, but it's a trouble condition.

Okay, it could be something as simple as someone didn't put. The detector head cover back on you know, or it could be something you know as simple as a mouse eight through two of the wires. You know uh, there's so many different things that can happen here. Okay, so there's our tone and uh we're gon na go ahead and go back to normal operation.

You see we can see 15 k, ohms okay, so we've proved that our circuit is good all right. So that's how the alarm wiring goes in now again, when i look at these things, they can be kind of confusing, but i just try to break them down per jacketed wire. One jacket typically is going to go to the test and reset station, which is typically going to have four wires. So that's going to take up four terminals, and then one set of jacketed wires is going to go to the ac circuit.

Okay - and you can do multiple things with the ac circuit, so auxiliary contact b is actually uh. You know what i would send to my ac. So let's go ahead and uh put my meter back on tone. Okay - and you can see that if i go from common to normally open, we have an open circuit and if i go from common to normally closed, we have a closed circuit.

Okay. Now, if i put us into alarm hold on okay, we're an alarm notice that the normally closed circuit is no longer closed, but the common to the normally open circuit is now closed. Okay, so you have all kinds of options um. So in some situations you know some particular air conditioners might want you to close a circuit to put it into emergency.

Stop or some air conditioners might want you to open a circuit. To put it into emergency. Stop just depends: i've seen it on trains, carriers, linux. They all have a different method of doing so.

Okay, so the concept is: is that if there is a fire, we want anything that can help that fire from growing and or maintaining to go away? Okay. So what do we need for a fire? We need three things, you need oxygen, you need fuel and you need a spark. Okay with those three things in the right conditions. You can have a fire, but if you take away oxygen in the middle of a fire, you can suffocate the fire.

The concept of a duct detector is to suffocate the fire, meaning that this duct detector is going to turn off any fans. If it's wired correctly in most situations, any fans that could potentially bring oxygen into the building and if you think about an rtu unit or air conditioner that has an outside air damper in my situation in this video, we have we're pulling in a lot of outside Air and that would theoretically fuel a fire, so if there was a fire condition, the way that i have this wired up to the unit it was that we're talking about right now is that it would. It would shut the outside air dampers and then turn off the indoor blower motor immediately and then, if it's again set up correctly, they should force on all the exhaust fans in hopes that you can suffocate the fire. Okay, so basic operation of a duct detector.

You can uh you. If you have a test and reset station, you can put it into a test situation um this one's a little different in that it uses a magnet on the test and reset station. Sometimes it's a button. Sometimes it's a key okay.

So this one's a magnet to put it into test mode and then it's a push button to reset it easy, as that or you can do it at here or you can even take the magnet to the detector head and trigger the fire alarm there too. Okay, so duct detectors really aren't that bad, but in our situation we're having erratic duct detector operation, the alarm company keeps getting trouble, signals alarm signals and they can't figure out why it could be on their side. But the fact that the detector, the kitchen one, was full of grease on the sampling tubes that can affect it for sure. Also, you know some duct detectors they get really old.

They start to become pretty erratic and honestly they're fairly inexpensive. So, for the most part, it's usually not worth all the trouble and the headache to uh to go through it all um, you know. Usually you can talk the customer into replacing them rather than having to go back out a million times trying to figure out an issue for those that are curious because i'm sure i'm going to get it. This is my bench meter that i use.

This is a fluke 233. I've had this for a long time. I like it because it has the remote display, so that's kind of cool when i'm working in the office doing videos for my employees and stuff, like that, it's nice to be able to have that remote display it's a cool meter. It's not practical for me to use out in the field, but it's a nice meter for in the shop.

So all right, i'm going to dig into this low pressure issue on the third stage, so i'm not seeing low pressures. This is the static pressures. So what we're gon na do is put this guy into test mode, so we're gon na go shift unit test, wait for it to say c01 change it to c11 hold it down until the decimal appears there. You go and we're going to watch the system operate and yeah.

That's not good. That's not good at all! Definitely low pressures huh now. Is it a plugged up, dryer or a txv issue that we're going to need to look into it's building back up, but it's definitely low huh? This is an r22 system, so let's go ahead and uh profile it with measure quick and see what it has to say all right. This is what we're getting right now and uh we're profiled super heats really high.

Suction pressure is low discharge pressure, slightly low good temperature split, decent airflow um. I'm really curious. If we have a plugged up txv now we're getting a black flag from measure, quick, meaning, there's major problems. Um suction temperature is way too high restricted liquid line.

Txv lost its bold charge. Those are all possible things for sure. The next thing i want to do is do a temperature drop test across the liquid line, so on this side of the liquid line, we're getting 97 degrees. Now i'm going to take this liquid clamp and we're going to put it on the other side, 97 degrees, and then we're going to go to right here and we're going to go here and see what we get.

I don't know if that's right, 102. hold on. Let me see something here. Let me make sure: no that's not right.

We need to be on three three. Is this guy right here? So, let's get on that one there you go. So let's have a look at that real quick 100 degrees and 97 degrees. So it's at 100 on that side.

Let's just do it right at the dryer so 100 on one side, 97. So it's the same. I mean that's, not a huge temperature drop, so it doesn't seem like a plugged up dryer um, interesting all right. So i want to point something out: when you're working on package units - usually you don't get liquid line pressure ports, so your sub coin can be skewed okay.

So this is a discharge. Port. Look at my sub coin 16. Degree.

Sub coin 238: psi! Now, let's go ahead and make sure that it zeroes out it does this one: has a liquid port and we're gon na screw onto the liquid port and we're gon na get an accurate sub cooling reading now? Okay, so you want to pay attention to that kind of stuff. There is a pressure drop across the condenser. Typically, you don't want it to be a huge pressure drop, but you need. You know there is a pressure drop, so be very cautious when you're checking sub cooling.

You know on these package units make sure you're on a liquid port or just understand that it's not going to be completely accurate, so um and that's going to throw measure quick off too, if you're using measure quick as a diagnostic thing. It might you know if it sees that really high sub cooling, it's going to say: hey something's funky here, okay, so we're still getting a black flag. If i reset it with the uh this guy right here, um suction line temperature is still too high sensitive capacity. Above 90 or below 90., maybe undercharged with refrigerant, you know still possible restriction in the liquid line.

Um, let's see here at this point, i'm kind of thinking we might have a refrigerant leak. Let's look at the numbers again here, so really high superheat, it's possible. We could have a problem with the txv liquid lines - 98 degrees. What's my outdoor air temperature 91 degrees, um condenser td is a wee bit low, but i mean it doesn't seem bad yeah.

I think i'm gon na go ahead and do a leak check on this. Guy and see if we possibly have a refrigerant leak, all right, i had made a mistake and again, this is why you always double check everything, so i was testing the system notice. My suction target moved way down. I was testing the system with uh the outdoor air damper open, so it was bringing 90 degree air in making my target go much higher than it needed to be so.

I went ahead and closed the outdoor air damper for testing purposes and we're getting a lot closer on our target. Now the high side targets out of whack because we're sensing liquid line pressure right now, so we've got about six degrees of sub cooling, which is good uh. You know i mean i'd like to see a little bit higher, but that's not bad. So we're going to go ahead and put the port back onto the high side and then test the rest of the system.

The super heat's still a little bit high we're going to let the system run and stabilize out for a little bit kind of see how things go all right now. Our targets are much closer. Now that i'm on the high side, we're looking pretty darn good with air notice now we have to ignore. The sub cooling, though, see that's one of the things that can be kind of tricky when you're using diagnostic apps, because you know unless it can differentiate between high side pressure and liquid line pressure.

It can be kind of tricky right, but we're pretty close on our targets now. Um and our approach temperature is pretty darn good too. It's kind of modulating a little bit, but linux calls for for the third stage. They call for nine degrees of approach um.

So we're going to let it stabilize out, because i saw nine degrees a minute ago - it's still kind of moving around, so my targets are looking better but a couple things that i don't like. I still think that we have a uh a partially restricted dryer. Okay, it's right at the 3 degree temperature drop. I think it was 97 and 100 or something like that and when the system starts up, it starts up and then builds the pressure up.

I i think that that dryer is restricted. It could always be in the txv, but i don't think so um. So at this point yeah our approach temperature is decent, but it's still a little bit low um. So we're gon na recommend changing that filter, dryer um and go from there and see where the customer wants to go.

Now. I'm gon na give the customer some big picture ideas. I also have that panel off. Oh, the other thing i wanted to point out too was this condenser fan motor is bad.

I tested it and it's not working. So that's another thing. So condenser fan motor we're gon na change. The liquid line, filter dryer, we'll go in with an oversized one.

Um uh, but this also is the unit that, because it pulls all that outside air, we had a plugged up, filter, dryer restriction, big time on the second stage, and i think i titled the video, the unit's dying, a slow death. I think it was that one, so this unit's pretty beat down. So you know i'm going to give the customer all the information and, at the same time i want to change both of the duct detectors for this unit too. So i'm going to give the customer some options here.

This is r22. I would not be the least bit surprised if the customer chooses to go ahead and replace this entire unit, just because it's basically lived its life and it's pretty beat down. So we're going to give them all that information and kind of see where they want to go, but for now i think i can get it operational if we change both the duct detectors um, if we uh change the dryer on the third stage, possibly the txv, But again that one's kind of a guess i don't know we might give them an open-ended thing. You know when we do the quote, and then the condenser fan motor too, so we'll have to see what the customer wants to do on this one all right.

This was a tricky one, because when i got out there you know the customer hadn't had the problem in a while um and honestly they were a little confused. Why it was there. It was the corporate office that had called me out so once i broke it down, i kind of figured out what was going on, i figured out, you know, saw the notes from the alarm company and i was able to really investigate the deck detector. So, in the end, i suggested to the customer that i replace both the duct detectors for their bar ac and both the duct detectors for their kitchen ac, their dining room ac.

Those duct detectors had been replaced fairly recently because they were problematic full of dirt and lint and just issues, so we had already changed those ones, so i recommend it to them that we do all those duct detectors. The customer is still making a decision, but it looks like they're going to go ahead and have me replace the entire kitchen ac. That sounds like what they're going for so realistically, the the new kitchen ac will come with duct detectors, actually just like the ones that i showed on there, because they want to buy a linux unit. So it'll come with that exact one and then we'll just still have to go back in and replace the duct detectors for the bar okay, so you know um.

We have to go into this call. You know with an open mind, understanding the sequence of operation is really important. Understanding how the duct detectors work is very important and just kind of from experience. Knowing usually to be honest with you, when i get calls about duct detectors, what typically happens is it's kind of a game.

I usually go out there. I look at it and then i say: okay, i want to schedule a meet up with the alarm company and then i'll usually have the alarm. Technician come out with me and we'll diagnose together now. The reason why i do that is because oftentimes i will run into situations where i can't find anything wrong and i think it's on their side.

You know, but instead of just saying call the alarm: company have them come out and then they come out and say no, the hvac guy needs to take care of it. It's easier. Usually i go out first by myself and then the second time i say hey. I want to meet up with the alarm company.

Have them meet me here, we'll do this together. That way, there's no. He said she said pointing fingers. You know we're there.

We both will figure it out. You know i'll, usually take duct detectors with me. I stock a duct detector in my truck, but i don't have two, let alone four, what uh what i would have needed in this situation and i don't have a variety of sampling tubes in my truck um. You know i sometimes will carry a small one, but i actually don't have any at all right now, but i do have them in the shop, but so um with the kitchen ac being the situation that it was.

You know just giving the customer all the information kind of going big picture on them, explaining to them that the unit is basically just dead, the oil is cooked and all those compressors just the same. I think that the dryer on that third stage is starting to plug up. I didn't show it in the video, but i did say i was going to do it. I did a leak check on the system on all three stages and i could not find any leaks, so i don't think we're low on refrigerant in our situation.

I think that we're plugging up that filter, dryer and that's causing restriction again. There could always be a possibility that it's a txv issue, but i don't think so, judging by the way that the system starts up with the right when it starts up it, it pulls way down low pressures and then slowly builds back up to me. That seems like a plugged up, filter, dryer situation and then the three degree temperature differential across the dryer. So you know three degrees is like the maximum typical temperature drop that i want to see across the filter, dryer anything more than that and i'm condemning the filter.

Dryer three degrees in this situation is marginal because i've seen filter dryers operate with a three degree temperature differential across them. But in this one, just looking at everything, that's why i'm leaning towards a plugged up, filter dryer on it. But again, i'm just giving the customer all the information and my recommendations or my opinions and then letting them make the decision. If they wanted me to fix it, i would fix it.

You know, i would just say: okay, this unit's in bad shape. You know i would give them some information and say i can fix it. You know, but you know this might happen in the future. You know.

Basically, i see compressor failures in their near future on this system, uh. Judging by the last video, where it's dying, a slow death, you know and we had plugged up dryers and stuff um. Judging by that one, you know that all those compressors probably got to have cooked oil, and it's simply because we pull so much outside air and that unit's out in the desert - and you know it's 115 118. You know degrees out there pulling outside air across that evaporator, because this unit pulls 100 outside air, basically because of their weird building balance, and if you guys aren't familiar in that situation, they used to have a super sophisticated exhaust hood system that had variable frequency drives.

On all their exhaust fan motors and it sped up and slowed down depending on the smoke and the heat in the kitchen. Well, the customer hasn't wanted to fix those anymore and they have us bypass them. So we've gone in and completely removed. All the smart hood controls and just put in traditional motor starters, but the problem is, is every one of the exhaust fans has direct drive motors so without changing the exhaust fans.

There's no way to slow down the motors, because when you bypass that vfd and put in a traditional motor starter, that motor is now going to run at full 60 hertz, which the exhaust system before it, which was the smart exhaust system, didn't run at 60. Hertz. All the time it actually was balanced at a lower speed and then would only speed up when the smoke was thick or something like that. So by us, bypassing that system and putting in traditional motor starters.

We made the building extremely negative and this building does not have a make-up air unit. So the hood, even the hood, that they have has nowhere for makeup area. It's it's designed to bring in air from inside the building. It has a duct running to somewhere else.

In the building - and it just has a booster fan that pulls air and uses it as it uses, building air as the make-up air and then just uses the air that it pulls into it to create the air curtain across the exhaust fan. Okay. So because we bypassed all the motor starters put in traditional motor starters in there the building runs extremely negative, so we had to open up the outside air dampers on the kitchen ac 100, to balance out the building which, when you're in the middle of the summer Out in the california desert and it's 118 degrees outside you're pulling degrees across that evaporator that air conditioner was not designed to have that high of a return air temperature, and so it's just slowly, killing the ac cooking, the oil in the compressors. You know and just beating it down, you're, not getting efficient, compressor, cooling and it's just killing them.

Okay, so gave all the information to the customer and i'm letting them make the decisions. Okay, hopefully uh. The explanation on the smoke detectors helped you out a little bit. I have several other videos on smoke, detectors or duct detectors, so feel free to search on my channel for duct detectors, smoke, detectors and you'll find them there's a search bar on my channel.

So if you go to my channel and then go to my videos, you can search up. You know refrigerator. Walk-In, cooler, duct, detector and you'll find a couple different videos that i have on them. Okay, i really really appreciate you guys and we will catch you on the next one.

Okay.