So this was a good one because we were able to find this problem on the pm service before the customer even knew about it.
NEW HVACR TOOLS CHANNEL- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO-nk0rPOkp_tCS5diKpa-Q
HVACR VIDEOS NEW MERCH WEBSITE - https://www.hvacrvideos.com
Please consider supporting my channel by
Becoming a Patreon member - Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Hvacrvideos
Becoming a YouTube channel member https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5Pnrxqqg4BLTsfsUzWw5Pw/join
By purchasing tools via my affiliate links below at TRUTECHTOOLS.COM and use the offer code BIGPICTURE to save 8% on your total purchase (exclusions apply)
Visiting my website and purchasing merch https://www.hvacrvideos.com
HVAC OVERTIME CHANNEL LINK - https://www.youtube.com/c/HVACOvertime
TOOL LINKS
Fieldpiece MG44 micron gauge- https://www.trutechtools.com/fieldpiece-mg44-job-link-wireless-vacuum-gauge.html?affid=36
Fieldpiece 10 cfm vacuum pump - https://www.trutechtools.com/fieldpiece-vpx7-runquick-dual-stage-vacuum-pump-10cfm.html?affid=36
Fieldpiece Infrared leak detector- https://www.trutechtools.com/fieldpiece-dr82-infrared-refrigerant-leak-detector.html?affid=36
Fieldpiece Large wireless pipe clamp- https://www.trutechtools.com/fieldpiece-jl3lc-wireless-large-pipe-clamp-thermocouple.html?affid=36
Viper hand pump sprayer - https://www.trutechtools.com/viper-2-in-1-sprayer.html?affid=36
JB nitrogen purging adapter- https://amzn.to/3iwzaxc
Ratchet tubing bender- https://www.trutechtools.com/BlackMax-BTB300-Tubing-Tools-Premium-Ratcheting-Tube-Bender-w-Reverse-Bend-1-4-in-5-16-in-3-8-in-1-2-in-5-8-in-3-4-in-7-8-in-OD-Tubing?affid=36
Fieldpiece wireless scale https://www.trutechtools.com/SRS3?affid=36
Fieldpiece SC480 meter https://www.trutechtools.com/Fieldpiece-SC480-Job-Link-System-Power-Clamp-Meter?affid=36
Fieldpiece JobLink wireless probes https://www.trutechtools.com/JL3KH6?affid=36
Sman 480 digital manifold https://www.trutechtools.com/Fieldpiece-SM480V?affid=36
Fieldpiece MR45 recovery machine https://www.trutechtools.com/Fieldpiece-MR45-Digital-Recovery-Machine?affid=36
Fieldpiece VP85 vacuum pump- https://www.trutechtools.com/Fieldpiece-VP85-RunQuick-Vacuum-Pump-8-CFM?affid=36
Wireless probes charging tee - https://www.trutechtools.com/AVT45?affid=36
Samsung 8" Tablet https://amzn.to/3bW8QJ6
OtterBox case https://amzn.to/2wgd0M5
Bomber safety glasses - https://amzn.to/2yD6sbs
Bomber safety sunglasses- https://amzn.to/2zmhdPp
BlueVac Pro micron gauge - https://www.trutechtools.com/BluvacProPlus?affid=36
TruBlu pro evacuation kit - https://www.trutechtools.com/Accutools-A10757-3-TruBlu-Professional-Evacuation-Kit?affid=36
Accutools core removal tools - https://www.trutechtools.com/Accutools-S10735-Core-Removal-Tool-1-4?affid=36
Nitrogen purging regulator - https://www.trutechtools.com/Western-Enterprises-VN-500-HVAC-Nitrogen-Purging-Regulator?affid=36
Nylog blue - https://www.trutechtools.com/RT201B?affid=36
Flir One Pro thermal imaging camera https://www.trutechtools.com/FLIR-One-Pro-Smart-Phone-Connected-Thermal-Imager-Android-USB-C?affid=36
Viper coil gun- https://www.trutechtools.com/Refrigeration-Technologies-RT300S-Viper-Brite-Coil-Cleaning-Spray-Gun?affid=36
Viper Condenser coil cleaner Venom Pack- https://www.trutechtools.com/Viper-Venom-Pack-Condenser-Cleaner?affid=36
For Optimizing my videos I use Tube Buddy
https://www.tubebuddy.com/HVACRVIDEOS
Please consider subscribing to my channel and turning on the notification bell by clicking this link https://goo.gl/H4Nvob
00:00 SPONSOR CARD
00:10 VIDEO START
01:20 ELECTRICAL INSPECTION
02:21 CONTACTOR CONFUSION
04:39 WTF MOMENT
05:06 BREAKER ISSUES
05:23 I GOT LUCKY
07:58 IT'S ALIVE
10:30 CLOSING WORDS

This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition uh. Today we have an ice machine. That's not working they're, complaining that the right side is uh low. So it looks like the left side at the bin thermostat right there, so the ice builds up to that and it shuts the machine off.

But this side has funky looking ice, it's very kind of melted. Looking and uh. It's not working so we're gon na open. This guy up and see what we can find look at this water pump, man, what the heck is going on with that.

That thing looks beat down um, pretty cloudy in here, pretty dirty, but not horrible, uh, there's water in the sump. Let's uh, i always like to do a visual before i turn anything on, because i don't know what's going on so just kind of looking at the compressor some rust down here. This is typically from insulation dripping. It's like yeah.

You've had some dripping right here. It's like there's a note that the evaporator was changed in 2018 um, okay, okay, got everything opened up. I always like to look around in here now a little uh history on this guy, too uh one of my technicians actually had two of my technicians doing a preventative maintenance and they called me and said this machine was not working and they opened it up. Just to do a visual and they found that there was a burnt wire in this control section.

They said on the contactor now um. I see this right here so it looks like maybe this was the burnt wire and they taped it off. Just so i can come in and troubleshoot, i don't know if there's power in here right now it looks like maybe that went on the contactor, maybe yeah. It looks like there's a burn or something happening on that connector right there and that bottom, one, the red wire, looks like it kind of overheated too.

So i'm gon na call my texts do a little more research on this and get to the bottom of it. So i was intrigued because i'm noticing that it doesn't look like this contactor uses the other legs. It just looks like it was using the middle leg and i'm like what the heck is that about, because this is a three-phase unit. I don't know that i've ever really paid much attention on these things, but if you look at the schematic right here right here, that's how it is really interesting.

So here's our compressor right here and essentially they're only breaking one leg. That's the contactor they're! Only using the middle leg, so it comes in as a brown wire br right here. Okay and then it comes out as a red wire, but this shows starting components where the heck are stuff. Oh, it's not three-phase.

I thought it was three-phase because i saw that. No there's there's starting components back here. That makes sense. Oh okay, yeah back down in here i'll pull this side off, there's a starting component box.

Oh, that makes more sense. I was tripping out it's weird yeah. I thought it was three-phase, but it's 208 single, so that makes more sense. So it looks like one of our lines going in i'm like.
Why are they not breaking three legs open up the side panel and you can see, i pulled the cover off, but there's a starting components: box back there? Okay, so i don't see any problems in there doesn't look like any. Overheating has been going on, looks like everything's fine, so we're going to repair that section of wire that my guys had disconnected and then start this guy up and see what the deal is all right. What i did was i went ahead and replaced the electrical connector on that got a nice good connection on the top moved it over to the other contact that wasn't being used. The contactor itself doesn't look too bad, so i'll, try to reuse it save the customer.

A few bucks, the bottom connector there was one that was burnt too. I went ahead and replaced that made sure they're on there nice and tight, so we're gon na go ahead and turn this guy back on. I already turned on power, see what happens one two three, please don't blow up more than likely. I'm thinking this was a loose connection issue, but we should be on.

I have a feeling the breakers turned off. I thought it was just off at the switch, but we're gon na have to go see if it's a breaker so ignore the motor starter contactors. Those things are loud um. I traced it over to here, and none of the breakers were tripped but they're labeled ice maker, but when you turn them off, this is the top one boom.

You can hear the action, but this one it's not it's not engaging. It's got a bad breaker yeah. It won't engage so need to get an electrician to change that breaker. I can't really troubleshoot any further until we get that replaced open up the panel.

This is my breaker right here that won't reset, and sometimes you can get lucky in these panels and find spare breakers so we're just following it up. The two poles are all that's being used this one. I don't know if it's good, but it's not being used. So, even for troubleshooting purposes, it's a 20 amp, that's a 20 amp! So i can maybe swap this over here temporarily, just to see if i can get it to run and still tell the electrician to come out and change it.

So this is the one that i need down here, just kind of visually inspecting the bus bar. But then, when you come up here, that's uh a little discolored. That's interesting! Well, they're getting an electrician out here for sure anyways. But i don't know if that's just corrosion or if that's actually an overheating, it's interesting but um, we're gon na swap the breakers and see if we can get it to run temporary all right panels.

Back together, i took all the necessary pictures that way i could send everything to the electrician. We're gon na mark this one as the bad breaker, but i don't trust using that extra one, because i don't know why it wasn't being used um. You know who knows, although 20? Oh no see that says spare for 26, so maybe 24 and 26, but that says recirculating pump, but there's a 208 volt breaker there. So i don't know you know so we're gon na flip this on one two: three, please don't blow up all right so now we should have power at the ice machine, we'll go over there and check it, but i have it off at the power switch.
So all right, one, two three, no beep we should have had a beep. Oh there, it goes: okay, okay, yeah. We got the lights. Turning on so we're gon na give it a minute see if the machine starts up and what happens looks like it's been off for a while, because there's air in the lines um.

I had mentioned earlier that my guys were doing a pm and they found this issue. Their pms do not include ice machine cleanings. Before i get all the comments they just like us to open them up ice machine cleanings are something that we have to ask them to generate a worker. For so the pm is literally just to observe change filters.

Clean condensers, you know, and just kind of visually inspect everything and that's how they found that burnt wire up there fired up it's running. I'm gon na have to get this cover back on the contactor um, but i don't see the need to change it as of yet but we're gon na watch. This thing make a batch of ice and make sure there's nothing else going on. I verified the power and it's got the right power coming in it's going to be hard to get it on camera, but uh we're running 10 amps of current.

I don't think that doesn't sound obscene to me it's frosting up, um 11.6 is rla for the unit. That's just for the compressor to be honest with you, so that doesn't seem bad max fuse size to the or max breaker is 20 amps. That's what's on it! So that's fine! I'm not seeing uh anything crazy! Minimum circuit am passing these 20 amps yeah. I think we're going to be okay, we're just going to again watch it, make a whole batch of ice and the electrician's already in route.

So all right, so it just went into a harvest. It's going through its sequence. Right now, water pump just shut off hot gas is flowing through via the hot gas valve right there ice is starting to fall. We're looking pretty darn good water pump.

Definitely is on its way up, oh for sure, but um, not usually something people want to change preventatively because of how much they cost most of the time when i bring it up to them, they're, just like eh yeah. Let's just wait till it goes bad. We typically have pretty good access to these water pumps. I have one in my shop right now, so it's a pretty common failure item looking pretty good so far, so i think we're going to leave this one to the electrician.

Let them figure out the breaker problem. Now up here you know i'm gon na put that cover back on the contactor, but the points don't look too bad. Uh they've never been used on line one and two one and three it's only been used online too. I think what happened was we had a loose connection on the top and it burnt off, because that's what my guys had found that was uh burnt and the connectors like the one down below.
I changed it because it was loose too and you could tell that there was heat damage, so i'm not a huge fan of using those connectors. I prefer there to be lugs, but um, i'm not. I don't have a 115 volt three pole contactor right now and i'm not going to change it plus it has an auxiliary switch that you guys can't see mounted on the side of it. So i think the customer will be okay for now.

Um we'll give it a shot and see where it goes, but yeah, that's it for this one again like i keep preaching understanding the sequence of operation and recognizing common failures between certain brands of equipment right. This is an ice machine. This is a hoshizaki ice machine and it's funny because i had a machine about the same age that had an almost identical issue the previous week. So it's kind of funny how this stuff happens.

Now that can also get you in trouble because then you go in assuming, and you know that can cause problems too. So always be cautious about that. But i approached these calls understanding the sequence of operation. My technicians had given me a little bit of feedback, letting me know that there was a burnt wire uh and then you know they they did what they were supposed to do.

They isolated the wire made sure the power was turned off now they didn't know the breaker was tripped because they weren't there to work on that machine. They were just literally opening the covers. Looking noticing that one machine wasn't working, they opened it up and saw the burnt wire they wire, netted it off, and then you know i came in the next day before i get the questions too, because i can kind of predict the questions and comments that i'll Get my technicians are capable of diagnosing things too now the particular technicians that were here were the maintenance technicians, so they were there to do preventative maintenance uh. They were not there to dig into the problem because they had an entire job.

To finish. For that day, it's a very, very large restaurant and they're literally there to just you know, follow the the procedures and check the things they're supposed to check and if they find problems, they're not there to dig into those problems, because we still have to get the Preventative maintenance done now it depends. Every single customer can be different. This happens to be a rather large preventative maintenance.

There was two technicians there going to town, and so they didn't have time to dig into any further other than making the ice machine safe. So that way, nobody would potentially get hurt. Okay. Now, as far as going through the ice machine again, i understand the sequence of operation very well on this hoshizaki ice machine, and you know i was able to hone in on the problem rather quickly, also understand guys that i edit a lot of stuff out of My videos, so you know i didn't necessarily just fix this entire issue in you know 12 minutes i mean i was probably on site for an hour and a half to two hours.
Uh, i just cut out a lot of the you know, useless information really of me just standing there thinking you know going through that stuff and i try to leave some of it in, but i'm obviously cutting stuff out. So don't assume that i'm, this tech that fixes everything in 10 minutes or you know, does an entire compressor replacement in 30 minutes. No, that's because i edit those so that way you guys can get them the meat and potatoes of the service call and or repair. Okay um now as far as digging into electrical panels, you know i found that we had a bad circuit, breaker uh.

I switched it over now, i'm the owner of my company. I will take on the liability of doing that. You need to make sure that you're, following the proper procedures and local codes and laws in your municipality, your city, wherever you're at don't be digging into breaker panels if you're not allowed to or qualified to you know. I also wanted to address the fact that right away, i went ahead and got the customer involved.

Now the on-site management actually had nothing to do with this communication that i had, i went above their heads and went to regional management uh, specifically the person that is in charge of facilities, maintenance and repair and discussed with that person, and let them know hey here's. What we're running into if you're, okay with it, i'm gon na attempt to go ahead and swap this circuit breaker over there's a possibility. I can get this machine going and then once i got the approval to do that, i went ahead and took lots of pictures of the style of breaker the model and serial number of the panel, and i got in contact personally with the electrician that was going To be on site in the next few hours, and i was able to go ahead and forward him pictures, give him detailed instructions on what i did, how i swapped the breakers and my recommendations. Hey.

I suggested that he replace the bad breaker and the other breaker, because i had no idea why that breaker wasn't being used in a perfect world. If that was a spare breaker, they should have put a uh a blank off plate on it right and that way. You'd know that you had a spare spot, it's possible that breaker's never been used. It's also possible that it was an issue.

So i don't know all that i know was. I was able to switch the breaker over get the machine operational. Then i forwarded everything to the electrician, so he was ready and this repair was done months ago, so he was ready when he came. He had two new breakers see i'm trying to solve people's problems and i'm trying to be that go-to guy for these restaurants.

Now my job doesn't necessarily my job description, isn't you know changing breakers and digging into electrical panels, but i'm a curious person by heart and i like to dig into things to try to figure out root, causes and uh. So you know i do go a little bit deeper again, i'm the owner. I can make that decision always be careful and talk to your service manager or your management. Make sure that's what they want you to do.
If you're not qualified, don't do it! Okay, you can be hurt, you know if you don't shut off the power properly. All that good stuff, so you got to be very very careful. Another thing to address is that um, you need to be very careful in electrical panels. Uh for a couple reasons.

Number one electrocution number two: is you don't know what else is in that panel and if you shut down a main breaker for an entire panel, you can shut down half the restaurant. So you need to be very careful when you're shutting down a panel uh paying attention to what else might be in there again communication with the customer, letting them know hey. I need to shut down this panel. These particular items in this location are going to be turned off.

You know. Last thing you want to do is: go and shut down. An electrical panel turn off a main to change a break or swap a breaker like i did and find out that you just shut down. You know a critical piece of cooking equipment in the kitchen that now has to be.

You know uh there's a procedure to starting it back up or hey. Maybe i just shut down all the exhaust fans and they were in the middle of cooking and then now we just cause some serious issues in the restaurant, so obviously be prepared and um. You know understand the implications of turning power off to do certain things. Okay, uh always be careful, protect yourself now.

The last thing i wanted to cover was the contactor. Why didn't i replace the contactor? Well, i kind of already addressed it in the video. I did not have that particular type of contactor. Now, in the video i said, i did not have a three-phase 115 volt contactor, i technically didn't have to put in a three pole, 115 volt contactor, but because that contactor had an auxiliary switch mounted to the side of it.

I would have had to go with the exact same style contactor that way the auxiliary switch can clip to the new one and or gotten a new contactor that had an auxiliary switch on it. I wasn't really going to go down that path, because i don't see the need to i personally inspected that contactor, yes, it did have a burnt terminal and the the points on the middle terminal did not look that great, but the one and three terminals were fine. I didn't see an issue there again talking with the customer getting their approval and letting them know my thoughts, hey, let's just go ahead and do this: let's see if we have any more issues and they were completely okay with that. Of course they were happy about that because it's one less thing they had to buy you know, and so we got them operational, but everything was good in the end.
I really appreciate you guys making it to the end of the video. If you haven't already, please check out my website hvacrvideos.com, it's a great way to help support the channel. So that way, i can keep continue to make these videos okay. Obviously i do make money from youtube monetization.

They run commercials and different things inside the video, but another method of revenue that i do have to be able to continue making these videos is by selling merchandise and then there's also a couple different crowd source uh ways that you can help to support the channel By donating to the channel via patreon paypal, youtube channel memberships, those are just a couple different ways and they help me to continue to be able to do these videos with the production and different things that i have to do. Okay, it's interesting too, because you know i don't discuss this very much, but i kind of feel like creators kind of need to do this and let their audience know a little bit more is that you know i do have a lot of money invested into this And you know recently just bought a very, very expensive computer and that's fine. That's i love doing this, that's part of it, but you know it does take investments, and it's not just you know, really quick and easy to make these videos. They are time consuming.

On average, the way that i do my videos, whatever the length of the video is you can go ahead and multiply the length of the video times three or four, and that's typically how long it takes me to edit process upload. Do all that different stuff. On the video so and and think about that for every creator that you watch these things take time: okay and the amount of videos that people put out, you can look at a creator if they're putting out multiple videos a week. They are putting some serious time into these videos.

Now me in particular, i work a normal job run. A normal business have a family right, and then i spend a bunch of time every day in my studio, editing videos, typically on average about. I don't do this. Every day, but if you had to average the numbers out, it's typically four to six hours a day that i spend on content creation and or editing now again, there's some times that like for me, i may not play with my videos, tuesdays or wednesdays, or something Like that, but then i spend you know all day saturday, all day sunday editing videos for the for the next week, so it just kind of averages out to about four to six hours a day.

But again it's something that i like to do. So i really do appreciate you guys now, one last way, if you guys are interested in supporting the channel, if you guys are interested in purchasing these tools go to truetechtools.com and uh. I have an offer code. Big picture.
One word: you'll get an eight percent discount on checkout if you like what truetech tools has check it out. Also, if you shoot me an email and let me know what you want to purchase from truetechtools, i can generate an affiliate link. I get a little bit of an extra commission for the affiliate link. You can still use the offer code big picture, so i also get a little bit of a commission for the big picture thing and it's just a great way to help support the channel.

If you're going to be purchasing tools, okay, but again, please check out my website hvacrvideos.com, and i really really appreciate you all and we will catch you on the next one: okay.

5 thoughts on “The ice machine tripped the breaker”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael Thacker says:

    Great video, thank you Mr. Chris Are you in Orleans ?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars devildog says:

    Morning Chris hope you day goes smoothly

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars iLLuSiv3 says:

    Morning Chris!

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sooriadeo Jeetoo says:

    ๐Ÿ‘

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Electroimpex says:

    โœŒ

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.