This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. Um we've got a call on a walk-in cooler, not working and yeah laced up coil, so we're gon na get this guy shut down and uh see what we can do to get it. Uh, clean de-iced and uh figure out what caused it to ice up funny story. I was just telling my apprentice this exact evaporator coil.

I i installed and sold to the restaurant because uh, like probably 10 years ago, this manager that used to run this restaurant uh. He was very cheap, you know and uh he wanted to de-ice it himself and he stuck a steak knife in the back of the coil. That makes me laugh well, so we installed this probably 10 years ago or something like that, but we're gon na get up there and look at that thermostat and see what it looks like see. What it's set up, we're trying to find a reason for this guy to ice up so, except for 35 4 degree differential.

That doesn't seem bad at all. I mean whether or not the sensor is accurate. I don't know look at the fire sprinkler placement on this. One i remember this coil fire sprinklers, ridiculously in a horrible place, all right so um process here turn off the power.

This one has a utility switch right here, take the covers off, take the fan, guards off start defrosting and then we'll try to figure out what caused it. This is an old r22 system. It's pretty beat up looks like we need to put some new insulation on the suction line. Uh we've changed almost everything else here.

This is their beer walk-in, and i believe this is their walk-in freezer. It's all been replaced, so this is original, probably from 2001. I think is when this restaurant was built. Let's look at the serial number.

01. Yeah. 2001.. I remember opening this restaurant came to the grand opening and all that stuff all right, um.

Well, i'm just going to open this up. Uh i've got someone downstairs de-icing the coil, so i'm going to make note of the defrost time clock right here. You can mark them. You can do different things, but i'm going to make note of where it's at and we're going to defrost the coil there's still power at this, so this guy still should be tracking and actuating.

So we're going to let it run make sure that this advances um. It's a very good possibility that we have a bad defrost clock, it's hard to say you can also pull the clock apart and look at the mechanics inside too. So unfortunately, this is iced up to the point that we're gon na have to use the misting function. To get the motor free when you have them iced up around the motors like this there's always a possibility you're going to have to replace the motors, but we try to keep them as dry as possible.

The other thing is that the ice is so thick that it wasn't draining. So the first thing we did was put our wand right here, because we have all the different settings. We put it on jet and we just blew it right down into that spot right. There just to clear the ice from the drain, and now all of a sudden, we could just hear it whoosh right down the drain.

It's going so we just got to slowly work on getting these things defrosted to where we can get the motors out and properly get in there and do everything and then uh like i said i have someone down here doing this and i'm gon na get upstairs And start changing that bad insulation, because i actually have a piece in my truck. So this is what we pulled off of the back of this coil. So far, let's get up into here and look at how bad it is. Oh yeah, this coil is just impacted with nastiness that can have a lot to do with why it's iced up for sure.

So we're probably going to get some coil cleaner on there. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but we'll have to use some of the blue cleaner once we brush off most of it and then we'll strip it a little bit more with the blue cleaner. So it has been an hour and a half, and this clock has moved exactly an hour and a half. It went through a defrost and came out of a defrost and the motor is moving pretty good on the back.

I popped this cover off the back right here and the motor is moving, so i think the defrost is working properly. This is interesting. Um i mean i know the coil is dirty. That could be the cause.

So all right, i still got my guy doing that. I'm going to get started on uh redoing, the insulation on this, we're not going to cut the refrigeration lines, we're just going to cut the insulation and do it that way. I got my little gauge for cutting the corners and stuff, so i've never been like super impressed with my insulation skills and stuff, but it is what it is guys it's not going to be perfect. I tried to find the uv resistant insulation.

I had a small piece of my truck, but it wasn't enough to do the whole job, so i shouldn't say this is like uv 100. This stuff is uv resistant, but it's only going to last a couple years so um i still got to glue all the joints, but i cut them with the miter angles. You know it's not perfect. It's not going to be perfect.

I just use the the thing on the back of the box just to get the angles. If i wanted to be really crazy, i'd get a better blade and stuff, but it does what it does guys. It's not the end of the world. I've got some arma flex glue right here, uh honestly, i hate this stuff, but oh man, i hope it's good.

It feels like it might be dead, i'll, see i'll open it up again. I am absolutely not perfect at this, but what i find is is let the glue sit for a minute. Let it get tacky then push it together and then tape it immediately again. It's not going to be my stuff's, not supermarket quality fancy looking so it's funny how it'll turn out like half ass, decent when you're putting it on and then when you go to tape, it is when it starts to really look like crap, but we got glue On the whole thing, it is what it is did the best we could.

So again, it doesn't have to be perfect all right, we're giving everything a quick rinse, because we have the water hose. It is hot water, so it's actually doing a really good job. I don't think we're really at the level of coil, cleaner per se, so we're just giving it a quick rinse. Now this is the other walk-in.

That's a walk-in freezer. We already rinsed off our unit and then we're going to uh. I just rinsed out the inside too, on the compressor in here a little bit this area the floor, i'm just trying to get some of the dust from ages out of that thing and then uh yeah we're going to do the last one and hopefully turn this On and finish evaluating why it iced up all right we're just letting the system operate, everything's, looking good! So far, nothing too crazy pressures, look fine, r22 superheats high, but the box temp is high, so it's still bringing it down. I mean everything's looking great, so we're gon na give it some time and let it run um.

I will say it's odd, but now the defrost clock is not keeping time because we haven't shut anything off and uh. It's it's not keeping time anymore. So i am gon na go ahead and change that defrost clock, but we're gon na watch the box come down and temp too, so i'm probably gon na take a lunch. Let it operate and then we'll check the liquid level on the receiver.

Also all right um. It's been running, we took a lunch, so it's been about a half an hour about 100 degrees outside 46 degrees inside the box. So it's still going to be a little while it was nice and 60 something degrees when it was iced up, but everything's. Looking good superheats just a hair on the high side, but i'm not going to adjust it for that because by the time it comes down, it'll, probably stabilize out again system's running with a clear sight: glass.

This is r22 uh. We are going to change that clock because, like i said, it's still kind of dragging right now, um and then uh we're going to um check the liquid level in the receiver, real quick, all right, the clock that i'm using mind you guys don't freak out the Fan motors look funny because the cameras, uh um refresh rate or whatever it is, can't catch up. It's not the shutter speed. I know it's digital, but all right, um.

This guy right here is a grassland dtav40. It is a direct replacement for an 81 45 20, which is what we pulled out and also, as i pulled this out, i started looking at this clock. It's cracked, that's a crack right! There you go over to the back side. Look at this! The whole thing is: is broken.

Look over here, this big crack right here, so this thing's yeah. This is an original clock too. It's from 2001. I don't think it's ever been changed because it has the sticker on it um.

So we've got our clock here. This should be controlling the solenoid valve, which is back there. Okay, so if we put it in defrost, it should pump down um. It is a direct replacement you they do have a little kit that you install and then it has these little standoff chinguses.

So it plugs in and then you got to put that plastic washer up there trust me from experience. You have to put that washer there there's some solder joints right on the back and they'll touch the metal and it'll blow up. I learned that probably one of the first times many years ago, when i put in one of these clocks and put it in there and put this this thing up against the metal and boom thing just blew up um, so we're waiting for it to pump down Right now it's what it's doing as soon as that's done, then it'll uh shut off. Let me turn around.

Let's see, yeah we're pumping down at the moment. It's like the pressure control needs to be adjusted a little bit huh because it hasn't shut off. Then you just take a screwdriver. Oh, i didn't even have to hit it, but i was about to.

I was mid whack um, so we'll adjust that pressure control a little bit too, because it looks like it's a little out of whack. If we turn around, let's see yeah see we're pulling into a vacuum all right, so we're going to adjust the pressure control, but we know that the defrost clock is wired right and it actually works. Now. One of the things that i do like about the grassland timer is, you can be more aggressive in your defrost strategy, so i can put like an hour long defrost from two to four or two to three in the morning when nobody's in the building, and then Just periodic 15 minute, defrost, all throughout the day when you use these old paragon or even some of the digital time clocks like uh, the ke2, temp plus defrost controller, that's a temp control and defrost or the a 419.

I think, johnson, digital control. You can't have a different defrost at a different time as far as i know, unless i'm mistaken on that one. So if you set a 20 minute defrost duration in the ke2 therm temperature controller, then it's that same duration for every defrost, and i appreciate on the grassland ones that you can set a longer defrost in the middle of the night. Even on these, you couldn't do that because these ones, you only have one and this one looks like it - was set for a 50 minute defrost, that's a pretty long defrost for a walk-in cooler all right.

So if we look at the receiver, we already heated up with the heat producing device, the liquid levels right at the three-quarter mark that way uh. You know we know that that's the maximum amount of refrigerant that we can put in that system. All right. I marked the liquid level for the next guy that way, he knows that's where it's at um.

This thing is doing everything that it possibly can it's running it's hard away. Uh, let's see what our tds are now the tvs are probably gon na. Be look at that superheat's dropping back down so now it's like 13 degrees, so it's getting better um. So it's still 47 degrees in the box.

So it's going to take some time. 17 degree. Evaporator td, 18. Degree, condenser td - that's not too bad, but it's still pulling down too um all right! Well, we're going to watch this thing come down and temp for a little bit longer all right, everything's, looking good as far as how the txv is feeding, i don't see any problems.

The fact that the receiver level was good indicates we don't have any refrigerant leaks. The box is at about 46 degrees right now the thermostat says 47. So i'm happy with that. It's set for 35 with the four.

So that means it's going to come down to 35 and then come up four degrees before it turns on. So it's going to maintain 39 to 40 degrees in the box. Remove it i mean everything's good, it's just going to take time. I have a feeling.

This thing has been warm for a little while we also got back up into here, uh and sealed up. Some of those penetrations they were sealed, but just not very good, so we sealed them up a little bit more same thing on that fire sprinkler got some spray foam in there, sealed it up um, but i mean sensors right there in the air stream. I think we're good this. Is it we're gon na tell the customer to keep an eye on it um.

You can't really stay and watch. This whole thing come down to temp it's going to take a while, so we're just going to let it beat it's everything's working like it should be. This is one thing that i've seen them do a couple times is this door is getting propped open by these boxes. This shelf has kind of moved out and they're using that to prop the door open, and they shouldn't be.

So i worry that because i've seen them do it since i've been here. So i worry that they'll do that when i'm not here and that's a problem, so walking coolers being iced up is a really common service. Call that i get, and sometimes it can be difficult, figuring out what caused it. Okay, if you have a defrost clock, you always want to be suspect of the defrost clock you always want to look at the basics is the evaporator dirty? Is the temperature controller set too cold? Is someone leaving a door open, there's so many things that can cause it, and it can also be weird things like solenoid valve: that's sticking or a temperature controller.

That's not shutting the system off. Okay, all of those things can cause walk-in coolers to ice up. One of the important things i'm going to tell you is when you go to an iced up, walking cooler, look at how it's frozen up, okay or if someone else defrosted it before you got there. You know i have customers, sometimes they'll, say: okay, i'll defrost it for you.

That way, you don't have to charge me to do that. It's like no leave it alone, because the way that it's iced up tells you a lot. Okay. In this situation, when i walked up to it, it was top to bottom front to back left to right, solid ice.

Okay, that is typically not a refrigeration issue that is um a temperature controller sticking. The box is running too long. It's getting too cold is what's happening in that situation. Okay, now um or the evaporator coil, but a dirty evaporator coil plugged up that can cause it to freeze up too because it's going to continue to run.

But it's not transferring heat right. It's not absorbing heat from from the occupied space inside the box and transferring it into the evaporative coil, but the coil is still getting cold, so it causes it to freeze up so there's so many things screaming. This was the cause in this video at first. You know it was dirty, we cleaned it.

Then um we looked at the door being left open. I showed at the end i caught them doing that several times and by the way i took that shelf. I had someone else with me and we took the shelf and we shoved it back to the wall about five inches, all the way back. What had happened was they had some uh co2 tanks installed for something soda or whatever in the building, and they had strapped the the shelves to the co2 tanks and over time.

I believe it pulled the shelves forward as they had like. You know when, when they didn't have a lot of boxes on that shelf, because the co2 tanks were anchored to the wall and it was like ratcheted to the co2 tanks with a ratchet strap. So i'm thinking that that's what pulled the shell forward. So that could have been it um, the uh, the defrost clock at first it was keeping time, but then towards the end.

It wasn't all right now. I know i'm gon na get a lot of people in the video because i get it all the time. Stop using grassland clocks, they suck put in a ke2 therm, temp plus defrost controller, or get rid of those and use paragon clocks or get rid of those and use a johnson or pen a419, or get rid of that and use a dixel. Everybody has their preference for a temperature controller or for a defrost clock.

Okay, personally, i use all the different brands. Each situation requires a different control or different defrost clock. In my situation, if i have a customer, that's constantly leaving doors open, not doing regular preventative maintenance. Things like that, then i'm probably going to go with the grassland route, like i did in this video, because you can be more aggressive with the defrost strategy, throw extra defrost in the middle of the night when the customer's, not there things like that.

I like digital. I like temperature controllers that have built-in defrost, but they have a big flaw, like i mentioned in the video in that all the ones that i've come across so far again correct me. If i'm wrong, okay, maybe i'm ignorant because half the time i don't read instructions and - and i have been proven wrong in a lot of situations, but most of the time you know the ones i run across once you set the defrost duration, that's the same duration! For every defrost and that doesn't cut it with restaurant stuff, especially when people are leaving doors open all the time it just doesn't work. Okay um, so there's a bunch of different brands out there and - and i try to you know if i can, i try to leave what's in there to make it easier to replace it.

But in situations like this, i change it over to the grassland. I mean it just depends. You know if you're going to be in an area that has a lot of blowing sand like out in the desert, the grassland clocks aren't the greatest because they get gummed up with sand. The paragons hold up a little bit better for an outdoor mounted defrost clock, okay, but then you have the ones that are mounted inside too.

So there's so many different strategies and everything works guys. You know it's all about just picking your battles and finding what you like right. So my evaluation of this walk-in cooler starts with just basic principles: okay, just looking at it how's it iced up, get it defrosted is the coil dirty? Yes, okay and we just proceed systematically. I went ahead and took care of the insulation on the suction line.

Up on the roof, insulation does make a big deal guys. Okay, that's your compressor, cooling right and i mean, in you know, in an extreme situation that suction line running through a really hot ambient. It's actually going to make the box perform less efficient. It's going to take a lot longer now it's marginal, but still that installation makes a big difference.

Okay, so you want to try to maintain and take care of that stuff when the customers allow you to. I really appreciate you guys making at the end, just like. I say in every video you guys are so awesome. Okay, if you haven't already please check out my website, hvacrvideos.com merchandise, available on there.

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