This was a call for a walk in cooler that was too warm but when I arrived it was cold and down to temp, I found the main problem but also found several other things along the way.
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00:00 TEASER
00:14 SPONSOR CARD
00:19 PSA
00:40 VIDEO START
01:39 BIG PICTURE ASSESSMENT
04:07 I'M BACK
04:29 CONDENSER COIL CLEANING
06:06 VIPER FOR THE WIN
10:25 LEAK CHECKING TIPS
14:16 LIQUID LEVEL CHECK
17:57 BYPASSING THE DEFROST CLOCK
19:50 COMPRESSOR TIP
20:30 WTF MOMENT
22:21 TEMP CONTROL INSTALL
24:12 CLOSING WORDS
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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
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Nitrogen purging regulator - https://www.trutechtools.com/Western-Enterprises-VN-500-HVAC-Nitrogen-Purging-Regulator?affid=36
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12523 LIMONITE AVE.
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00:00 TEASER
00:14 SPONSOR CARD
00:19 PSA
00:40 VIDEO START
01:39 BIG PICTURE ASSESSMENT
04:07 I'M BACK
04:29 CONDENSER COIL CLEANING
06:06 VIPER FOR THE WIN
10:25 LEAK CHECKING TIPS
14:16 LIQUID LEVEL CHECK
17:57 BYPASSING THE DEFROST CLOCK
19:50 COMPRESSOR TIP
20:30 WTF MOMENT
22:21 TEMP CONTROL INSTALL
24:12 CLOSING WORDS
So huh this is going to be a fun walking cooler service. While i got to go run right now. Let's hope this uh slows down a little bit. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition.
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We are called on the walk-in cooler, not working. They said it was like 50 degrees, but it says 38 right now on the thermometer, so it must have been high in temp for a while, because now it's 38 and it's nice and cool in here so we're gon na - have to jump onto the roof and Figure out what the deal is: none of the coils. We got a two coil system. None of them are iced up.
So that's good. All right. I've got some uh. We got some nasty weather right now, okay, um.
The call is on the walk-in cooler. You can hear thunder too that's great we're just gon na walk over here right now, because it's down to temp now so i don't understand compressor is not running, looks like we're going to have a refrigerant leak because there's oil all over that service valve. Okay, i'm just doing an assessment because of the rain. I didn't bring all my tools up.
I have them in the attic, so i'm just going to kind of look around and see. If i see anything interesting so first thing i notice it is uh. 4. 59 p.m.
I don't know if you guys saw that that was lightning and check out the defrost clock. It says 4. Am we do a long defrost in the middle of the night, so this guy just came out of a long all-night defrost. That very well could explain why we had high temperatures on the walk-in, so i want to see it turn on.
I know that we're going to need to dig into that potential refrigerant leak, but if i can avoid doing it right now because of this rain, that's coming down on me as i drove through that nasty hail. It's it's coming here right now, so i want to try to avoid that. So if i can get it to come on and run a clear sight glass, i'm not even going to put gauges on it today, because i would assume that that defrost issue would be the problem and i'll come back and put gauges on it and find that Leak but i'm gon na, let it run for a few minutes and make sure looking at the condenser, it's really dirty so we'll definitely be selling them on a condenser. Cleaner, too looks like we topped off the charge in september uh.
It still hasn't turned on yet damn it. Freaking lightning keeps going off on me um, so we're going yeah, that's comforting! It's right over my head um! So again, i'm just waiting for it to turn on i'm still just kind of poking my nose around the roof. Actually doesn't look that bad for we haven't done any preventative, maintenances or done any work here since probably june or so, and here comes the hail. It's coming just starting to come down right now, so i'm gon na probably put this back together and uh, probably scoot out of here before i get all blasted with it all right. It came on and the sight glass is running clear now i don't know if it has the proper winter charge, because it's cold, but it's not as the coldest it'll ever be. It's probably only like 48, and here they can drop down into the the high 20s um very rare. You know every once in a while, so we still have a refrigerant leak. We know we do because there's oil all over this, but this is enough for now.
I'm confident that the defrost clock was the problem. For now i took the defrost out of the picture, so it's not gon na get stuck like that and uh we'll come back when it's not raining and go through the system properly. Well, today is a little bit nicer, it's still supposed to rain, but it's not supposed to rain for a couple hours, so we're gon na try to knock this out. Um i'm gon na go ahead and start we're.
We're definitely gon na address the defrost clock issue, but i'm gon na start with uh cleaning the rack before it starts raining on me. So we're gon na go and power everything down, give it a good cleaning and then we'll address all the other issues after that. Well, even though it's still march, it's getting to be that time when we're gon na start cleaning, coils so uh. This will actually be my first coil cleaning of the season.
I mean i've, cleaned condensers and restaurants, but yeah we're gon na get this guy dialed. In so got my wand, of course, uh simple process, we're gon na start by rinsing, getting all the big stuff off getting the coil wet, giving a surface. That's smooth and easy for the coil cleaner to glide through. So, let's knock it out.
So, on this side of the rack, i leave these panels on because from experience the water comes down and hits the pressure control in the compressor, which you know isn't really great for having water raining down. On top of it, the rack itself has a protective panel inside that doesn't allow all the water that i'm washing down right now to drain on top of the compressors and the pressure, controls and stuff. So that's why we leave those panels on now over here. Uh is ice machine condensers that are no longer used.
So there's no point in opening that up and washing those they've got remote condensers now separated from the rack, which, in my opinion, is how they should be in the first place so get in here. Do a ranch too do everything we can before we actually put cleaner on it to get all the big stuff off so and that's what's coming out pretty nasty very important too. Is this trough see the trough that that water is draining out of yeah? That trough fills up with mud. Let's see if we've got a bunch in there, yep look at that. It just fills up with mud, so you got to get all that mud out or it's just going to dry up and get sucked back on the condenser. So i'll have to get up in there too, and rinse all that stuff out got a new coil gun. Refrigeration technologies came out with that has uh new dilution ratios uh that are better, better tailored to the venom pack. So i'm gon na give this guy a shot right now, just get that coil cleaner.
All in there now i am using the brightener, which is a super heavy duty cleaner. So we got to be really careful, but you see we got really good foaming action going on we're just going to let it get in. There work its way out spray from the bottom too, and then we'll give it a good wrench, but with the brightener, you have to be very careful because this will etch the coil okay. If you use the yellow condenser coil cleaner, it will not etch the coil, but for build up like i have on this one.
I definitely want the heavy duty strength. One just try a good little rinse. You definitely want to get it all through here too, to make sure that uh, you don't got any left on those copper and we'll just uh rinse from both sides. It's nice and slow, it's not a race and that's what i like.
If you're very careful with this one, it has a rubber tip and you you just barely let it touch the fins, it doesn't damage them, but you can just glide it across the fins to make sure you get a nice. Even you know rinse getting all the stuff out and just because i do it from the top, i'm still going to have to do it from the bottom too, because there's still going to be more surface stuff just takes time we're not in a race. One thing i despise about these racks is how the water gets trapped in there. Now i did my best to rinse the big stuff out and i've drilled holes, but we can't drill holes down which i'd love to do, because the rack is sealed.
It seals itself kind of and the water will uh end up, causing roof leaks. So it's kind of a bummer. But you know i try to get the big stuff out, but it's never going to be perfect and i'm not going to bring a vacuum up here. But just got to be careful, though, because you you are putting wires in water and stuff.
You just got to be cautious when starting it up, but this guy's all cleaned up, we're going to go and put the panels back on and then finish on the repair. All right i've, let the rack kind of drip dry. You know most of the stuff drained out as best as possible. There's still some dirt left in there, but you just kind of want to let it dry a little bit before you turn it on.
So it's time to get back in here and start firing things up we're going to hit the condenser fan motors first, they both fired up. That's a plus and then uh work our way down. Now the ice machines aren't being used so we're not going to fire. Those ones up everything should be coming on because it's been off for about an hour. You want to listen and hear everything turn on too now. Everything should be under a load, not a heavy load, but everything should be under load. So within about five minutes. All of our sight, glasses should clear up.
We are running a wet condenser right now, so i wouldn't be surprised if they start out flashing, but then, as the head pressure control valves, flood the condenser pulley, so we're already starting out clear, walk-in freezer. You can't really judge that one because it's uh um the evaporator fan motors, don't start up right away. So it's going to take a minute, but so far everything's running clear, except for this one system d looks like we're uh flashing a little bit, but we're gon na give it a minute to see if it clears up. It could just take a minute uh at a minimum.
I will top off the charge on that just to eliminate a service call and bring it up to the customer. But you know what it looks like it's clearing up, so i think we're okay, we're gon na. Let it run for a little bit, make sure everything's cool and then uh we're gon na look into this guy. So what we're gon na do we're gon na, let it run but um what we're gon na do about this defrost clock.
So what they're doing here? This defrost clock is bad, so when i was here last night, i set the time on it. It's not 2 pm right now, it's 11 a.m. So this clock is no good, but that clock is kind of not really needed because uh. What we're going to do is go ahead and put a ke2, therm, 10 plus defrost controller down in the evaporator and completely eliminate this clock from the picture.
And then the temperature controller will control the liquid line solenoid valve down in the box and turn it on and off. I decided that before i go downstairs and deal with the temp control that i was going to go ahead and pump the system down and check the liquid level. But then i got to thinking because i saw refrigerant oil potentially all over that valve. Why not leak check it before i take the caps off, and i've said this before it's a good idea when you know there's a potential leak to shut it off and leak check it before you take the caps and disturb and or possibly correct, the leak source.
So i got the uh stratus right here, i'm gon na go at it see if we can find a leak, it's kind of giving me deja vu. I feel like i've looked for this leak before it may not even be low, because i marked the liquid level back in september. So i'm just doing my due diligence just to double check but yeah. The stratus is not picking up a single thing and we have it on super mode, sometimes they're, just tiny, tiny, little leagues, all right um i for the life of me, i'm not picking anything up and i'm using the stratus on super mode.
I went ahead and shut the rack down. Let it sit stable for a good 10 minutes to make sure that we're not getting any um. You know air moving, because if you have the condenser fan motor running, they could kind of mess with the refrigerant leak and move it to a different place. So the leak detector might not pick it up eye for the life of me and not picking anything up. So the next thing we're going to do just check right around this guy, real, quick, nothing, nothing! This thing is so quiet, um, nothing in there yeah. I am not seeing anything as far as that goes so we're gon na go and take the caps off and continue the leak check with the caps off just pull those guys off. What you can do is hit the caps up, see if you get me yeah. It's going to be in that guy, so it's going to be right in here.
It's just a slow leak through the packing. I bet you just barely seeps out. Oh look at that. So there's a slow leak seeping out of that too, and even if you have this cap on there, i mean it's still gon na seep.
Let's see if it actually has the gasket in it, yeah there's a gasket in there. It's there, but it'll still seep out of there. Out of curiosity, can we tighten up that packing anymore? I'm just kind of curious yeah. The packing will tighten a little bit more, so it could be that we just need to tighten up the packing um and then what about this guy? Is this guy tight? Let's see yeah i mean it seems tight, so it seems like we have a slight slight leak out of this right here: um and maybe something of the packing.
But let's see if the system's low, it might just be super microscopic. You know and just barely leaking every once in a blue moon. So we're going to gauge up and then do a pump down and check the liquid level to see. If it's, where i left it back in september, whenever you crack these guys, you immediately want to purge them so come on over here to the high side purge make sure you get all the air out of there in case.
There's any air same thing on this guy. If i can get this on there close it right here, cool just to make sure you get all the air. So it's not getting stuck in there all right. We're gon na give the guy a pump down on the receiver now, whenever you're working on these receivers to do a pump down just like on that suction liner, though you want to loosen the packing gland, it'll make it last a lot longer.
So what we're going to do now is go ahead and pump down the receiver, and what that's going to do is we're going to front seat this king valve, okay, meaning we're going to push the stem all the way into the valve, and it's going to shut Off the refrigerant flow coming out of the receiver, so going into that dryer there will be no more refrigerant flow, so i'm pumping it down right now. It's kind of awkward where it's at okay, so the king valve is now front seated, meaning the stem went all the way in. I have the cap on that end right there, because that that cap has refrigerant pressure at it right now, so you want to make sure the caps on there your gauges are on there, so we're going to let the system run until it pumps down all the Refrigerant is going to back up into here and if, if there's no refrigerant leaks, my liquid level should be right at that yellow mark, because that's where i left it on 9 13 20, when i marked it my refrigerant pumped down you see, my low side went Down but it's still rising because it's boiling refrigerant out of the oil, so it might happen a few times. You can also take a little screwdriver and just push up on the bellows of the pressure control and get it to go down. But these scrolls don't like to go really low in pressure, so we're probably going to leave it about. There see how it's kind of stabilized out and now what we're going to do is take a heat producing device warm up the receiver. Now it's very important. The heat producing device that i'm going to use cannot overheat the receiver, because there is a soft plug or a internal pressure relief and if it gets too hot, it will blow out and then that receiver becomes trash.
Okay, so the heat producing device that i'm going to use is not going to exceed the soft plug temperature, we're going to go up and down the receiver, get it warm and then we're going to check the liquid level. What will happen is because we warm it up the vapor section of the refrigerant, so the so the liquid will stack up in the receiver and then the point at which there's no more liquid in its vapor you'll know because there'll be a massive temperature difference. It'll be really hot. On this guy, it's not a repairable soft plug.
Some receivers have like a mechanical fitting. This one is right there. You can see it and that's the blowout point. So if the receiver gets too hot, there's a low temperature solder right there and it'll pop it and uh leak out all the refrigerant to vent it before you have a catastrophic explosion.
You don't want the vessel to explode because there'd be shrapnel going everywhere and that'd be bad um all right, so we're gon na heat this guy up, we definitely look low on refrigerant. You can clearly see the liquid level temperature change right there, where my dot goes down. Boom. 62.
63. 69 bam 100 degrees, and you can feel it. I'm running my fingers up. It's cold, it's cold, it's cold boom.
It starts to get warm right there and you can also see the level, so we definitely need to top off the charge. Well, we can clearly see our temperature change. Is all the way up here now and you'll see how you have the orangish color down here. So we've now filled and added refrigerant and got the liquid level up to about right here.
So that's enough refrigerant! For now it's still marked at the same spot. I weighed the cylinder down at the van um that way when i take it down i'll, weigh it again and find out how much i put in it all right. We get our power from this breaker, which i have turned off. Let's double check power to make sure it's off and it is we're dead that sends power to looks like maybe the contact or another pressure control, and then one leg comes over here to the time clock itself to power the time clock, because you got to power. The motor and then you got to power the switch leg, so we have two reds and two blacks and we have no power at the clock. So what we are going to do all that you're doing is bringing power into the clock on the reds and the blacks right here, and then it's jumping over to the common terminal of the switch leg. And then it's going out on the the four terminal going to uh, they have a pump down solenoid in the rack. So all that we are gon na do is power that pump down solenoid at all times um whenever power's turned on so yeah and then downstairs we'll use the existing temperature controller, which controls another pump down.
Solenoid there's two of them redundant, so the temp control will now be your only source of defrost and we're going to use a ke2, therm, 10 plus defrost controller. So all right, so the time clock is removed and all that we had was a black and a red going directly to the solenoid. We have those going directly to the breaker, now um i'll, clean them up here in a minute and then uh yeah we're good to go. So the time clock is out of the picture and then um looks like uh yeah i had forgot.
I need to come up with a screw for that that guy, when i redid this rack a while back, i was still missing a screw. I need to get that because one of those fuses isn't doing anything. I just realized that one of these days i'll come across one of those um but uh yeah, so we're gon na go downstairs to the evap now and uh wire in the new temp control and set up the defrost on that. I'm just getting some models and serial numbers down and uh this compressor.
The tag is worn off. It's all worn out. You can't read it anymore, a little quick tip on these cochlear compressors there's another tag underneath the main tag. So this is a zb14 kce pfv130.
So i'm going to write that down in my invoicing software that way, i have it tracked for the future. So, to clarify this tag right here, eventually will get worn off and there's another tag underneath there and that's when you peel this tag off you'll see that other tag. Now i didn't go crazy, but you can kind of see it right there underneath cb 14 kc pf5. So it's good to know so you cannot always assume.
I made a mistake here. I went downstairs to go change the temp control and i realized that it's not running it's like 45 degrees in the box, and i was kind of confused because the compressor is not running. This is a normally open, solenoid valve when you power it it uh. It closes so i need to disconnect that power, it's important to understand the different types of solenoid valves that we have and the way that they operate. So i made an assumption that we had a normally closed, solenoid valve pictured like that e2 model right up there and we did not when in fact we had a normally open solenoid valve like the oe 25 okay. So when you power the solenoid valve, it closes it and they basically just did it for defrost reasons would be my assumption, but that's not normal. So you know. Sometimes you have to remember that there is different stuff out there and you can't just always assume.
I don't know why i remembered that, but we'll turn it back on now and the compressor will fire up and she's running so over here right off the top of my head. I really don't understand why they use those but system a right there. So it's normally open and when you energize it it closes the valve so and again thinking the way they had it. Wired on the defrost clock totally makes sense too.
I was just kind of making an assumption off of a normal defrost clock wiring and i really didn't pay attention. So this could have been a call back. You know i could have left and then be like. Oh yeah, it's working it'll be down to temp and then walked away.
You know. Luckily, i went down to the box, but anyways we're gon na go downstairs and wire up that uh temp control now. So this is my temp control right here. It's gon na be a super simple mount.
What's interesting, though, is they have their own dedicated circuit for the temp control and the solenoid, which is good, but it's unique. You usually don't see that so i'll mark it panel e number 34 for the next guy, with the new control all right got. The control installed got a nice backlight on it. We're going to go through the settings t5.
As my set point, i'm going to keep it at 36 and then differential 3 degrees. So that means it's going to turn on 37. 38. 39 right at the top into 39..
You know, i might put it down to 35 um, but these controls they turn on. At the top end of the differential, so if you set for 35, you got a 3 degree differential 36. 37. 38.
It's gon na turn on right at 39, so yeah we'll go ahead and change that to 35.. Let's go back. Cool differential compressor starts per hour. That needs to be zero because uh, that's essentially going to be a delay, and we don't want that not on refrigeration, so uh defrost per day.
We got a set to six defrost time. We got it set to 15.. So six times a day, it's going to do a 15-minute defrost. These are alarms high low.
I don't care about any of that stuff. So we're going to go ahead and let it be i'm going to watch the box come down in temperature and gather the models and serial numbers of the evaporators too. I love the big display on the ke2 therm super nice, so uh the customer will be happy because now they'll know when it's in defrost too, because it'll say def right on the control all right. Well, this thing's down to temp um. I did a quick leap check on the evaps. Nothing really popped up i'll, bring up the service valve up on the roof, that's leaking to them, i'm pretty sure they're not going to fix it right now, they're just going to see how long it takes to run out of refrigerant again. But you know, of course, i'll let them make those decisions so all right. I want to cover a few things, because i know there's going to be a few questions: okay, um.
First off, you know the whole big picture approach really important. Now my customers are always involved in the decision-making process. Okay, yes, they did just call me out about a walk-in cooler, not working, and yes, it was as simple as a time clock. Okay.
Yes, i could have just put in a new time clock and called it a day, but i got the customer involved. We talked about everything that i saw low, refrigerant charge, dirty condenser, hey, you know, and i came up with some some solutions and they believed in what i told them and we went ahead and went with my suggestions. So we cleaned the refrigeration rack. We topped off the charge and we eliminated the defrost clock so um.
That is an important thing because uh you know now we don't have to worry about setting the time on a defrost clock. Okay, you only want to do that in certain situations, though, because the cool thing about a defrost clock, especially the one that was here before, was we could do an uh, a long defrost in the middle of the night, but then normal defrost during the day. Okay, now with the ke2 therm temp plus defrost controller that i put in there, we don't really have the ability to do different defrosts at different times of the day um, but it still will work just fine in my situation, so you got to be cautious. Don't just always assume, but by putting in that ke2 therm, temp plus defrost controller, i eliminated the defrost clock on the roof.
So now the customer has the ability to know themselves whether or not the equipment is in defrost, because they had no other way other than hey. My temperatures are high. I wonder if it's a defrost kind of a thing right well now they're going to have a big bright display on that ke2, therm, temp, plus defrost controller that says def you know and uh. I can actually i'll walk them through canceling that defrost too.
So all right something to think about now, uh when it comes to the refrigerant leak, like i predicted, they really didn't want to do anything else about it. They want to see you know how long it lasts and if we're going to have to add gas again, so that's you know the customer's wishes. So that's what i did. We just topped off the charge and we'll keep an eye on it.
Okay, i want to address filling up the receiver. Okay, now that unit has a head pressure. Control valve pictured like this one right here: okay, this is a cutaway that i did on a lac valve okay and essentially this floods, the condenser with refrigerant, in a nutshell, to make it seem like it's hotter outside than it is okay. That's the easiest explanation. Now, there's a lot more technical details that go into it, but the important thing to understand is that when this thing floods, the condenser, there needs to be a precise amount of refrigerant in the system, and if it does not have that perfect amount of refrigerant, then The system is going to be affected, adversely you're going to feed vapor refrigerant to your expansion valve, which is not good. Okay, expansion valves need liquid refrigerant, going to them all the time solid column of liquid refrigerant okay, so we have to have that set amount of refrigerant in the system for the head pressure control valve to work properly, okay, or we call that the flooded charge or The winter charge, okay, on a side note just because we call it the winter charge on a normally operating system, does not mean that you take gas out in the summer and put gas in in the winter. Okay, that's not correct! We'll cover that in another thing, but all right, we need that perfect amount of refrigerant in the system. The best way to do it on a standard, copper, tube and fin condenser is to use the spoiling method.
90-30-1. Just google search spoilin 90-30-1 it'll, explain to you how to calculate and charge for the flooded charge. Okay, but there's some problems in the field. In this situation we walked up to the system.
It was not flashing. Okay, there was no indication that it was low on refrigerant other than when i pumped it down. The liquid level was not where i left it back in september. Okay, so with that being said in this situation, we don't know how much refrigerant it needs.
Okay, if we do the calculated charge, i can guarantee you it's not going to be three quarters of the receiver like i filled it up. Okay, but that's just kind of a rule of thumb, for when you're in the field, three quarters of the receiver pump down is the maximum amount of refrigerant that you can put in the system. Understand, theoretically, we're putting too much refrigerant in the system and or have unnecessary amounts of refrigerant in the system. Okay, typically manufacturers size their equipment.
So that way it has the proper flooded charge. Nowhere near three quarters: okay, but again, three quarters is just a field method, because we know we can't put any more refrigerant in that system because for safety reasons you can't put more than 90 or 80 percent of the charge you know into the receiver. But that is a shortcut method of me: pumping the system down and checking the liquid level and marking it. We could also do the same thing if we calculated the liquid level using the spoiler 90-30-1 method and then mark the receiver, then we're good to go too.
We calculated it for the coldest temperature we know we have enough refrigerant in the system. Okay. So if you can, you always want to do that, because technically we added an extra three four pounds of refrigerant to the system. Now, on a system like this three or four pounds is not that big of a deal that's a marginal number, but when you get into big systems built up systems, supermarket systems, you're talking hundreds and hundreds of pounds, if not more of extra refrigerant, that's not needed. That's a huge cost to the customer, so you want to be cautious about that kind of stuff. You have to find the fine line between being practical, and you know, spending too much money and that kind of stuff, okay, but understand the three-quarter liquid level. That is a you know, a a shortcut essentially. Okay, of course, i like to calculate the flooded charge as much as possible and put the exact amount of refrigerant needed in the system, but sometimes that's not always practical, especially when you walk up to a system just like in this situation, where it's not showing indications Of being low on charge when you're there, so you know you don't know if you know how much you need to add to the system, so that's kind of a tricky thing.
So hopefully you guys understand that so um we got the customer up and running all right now in this situation, when i first went out to the call uh it was raining outside, i drove through that thunderstorm to get there and then it was kind of off And on while i was on the roof, starting to hail and stuff just a little bit, but i was, i was waiting for that storm that i drove through to get there and it did come right after i got off the roof. So i wanted to get in and out of there so with the customers um approval, i got up there. I took out those defrosts got them through the night. Temporarily came back the next day and went through everything cleaned the rack got the system up and running.
Topped off the charge installed, the new temperature controller eliminated the defrost clock on the roof, and the customer is happy okay, um, but that is how i approach these service calls again big picture diagnosis right again with the customer's approval. Yes, i could have gone out there and just thrown a defrost module and walked away, but i wouldn't have seen or prevented the future service call, because the refrigerant level was getting low. You know i wouldn't have prevented the future service call because the condenser was dirty. So i look at everything and with the customer's approval, i give them a big picture repair.
Okay, now i say this often and i'll say it again, just because we give a big picture diagnosis, and just because we give a big picture quote, doesn't always mean the customer is going to go for the big picture, repair, okay, but the way that i approach It is give the customer all the facts, give them your opinions and let them make the decisions, okay and document everything if they chose not to do something document it. So that way, it doesn't come back to bite you in the butt, but i always try to look at the big picture. Even when it's raining, even when you know i just want to go home, i don't want to dig into this stuff we're always looking at the big picture. Okay, because for me right now, i'm super slow in southern california. Restaurants are just about to start opening up to limited in dining room capacity for the first time in months. Okay, we're dead, nobody's getting their hours when i'm out there. I need to find work not make work, i'm never being dishonest, but i have my eyes open when i walk into that restaurant. I ask the customer questions when i walk in to work on the walk-in cooler, hey how's, everything else, going everything going.
Okay, anything you want me to look at you notice, any issues i bring up to them. Hey you're, about to open up your dining room. Would you like me to go through your acs just to make sure they're tip top? You know they say no okay, but at least i'm just putting it out there hey i'm here, you know you can save a truck charge. Would you like me to dig into this now or look into this or you know, so i'm always looking and trying to be as honest and give the customer the best bang for their buck all right.
I really really appreciate you guys making it to the end of the video please. If you haven't already check out my website, hvacrvideos.com help to support the channel we have merch available on there there's other ways you guys can help to support this hvacr videos project. Okay, if you're interested in purchasing any tools check out truetechtools.com use my offer code, big picture and also in the show notes of this video - are some affiliate links. If you click on any of those affiliate links uh for any of the tools you might be interested in, i actually get an extra commission for that um.
It does help to support the channel okay. We also have a patreon page uh. We have youtube channel members, which is just a way to support the channel on a reoccurring basis, um, obviously hvacrvideos.com for merch um. Please, if you haven't already also check out our new youtube channel hvacr tools where myself and the overtime crew are going to be doing tool.
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As long as i can get off work, and that's it guys again. Thank you guys so very much. I really appreciate you all and we will catch you on the next one. Okay,. .
I would had charged extra to work on the roof of a building during a thunderstorm. That's quite a dangerous job there. Are you in Nepean ?
There's the wand!
Off topic but those multi-lnb satellite dishes look wild to me. Have never seen something like that in Europe, why are they needed?
What camera do you use for videos?
Starting an hvac program this summer. Getting my entry cert and hoping to get a part time job while finishing school. Taking EPA Cert course, Basic Electric for HVAC, Refrig. Principles, residential A/C and Gas / Electric Heating
They say that if you're working high on a roof during lightening, it's a good idea to hold a big wrench above your head to act as a lightening rod. JUST KIDDING haha! Glad you were ok.
so it's an unknown temperature walk in spoiler? lol
looks like the dislikers are the part-throwers who'd rather throw parts and walk away.
Do you happen to have a part number for the wand? Great video
You are braver than me being on the roof with rain and lightning! Safety is always first! Better safe than dead! I have heard about techs fried on the roof during thunder storms! Great video you did a very through check of everything and did pm and made your customer happy!
Is the Stratus detector better than the D-Tek?
every time clock was wrong
If the king valves caps are on tight, they should not leak to the atmosphere. Why would anyone want to change them and unnessarly open up the system and take a change on making further leaks? Thanks for the video
'Topping up' or leaving a system with a known leak is strictly illegal in Europe.. get used to not doing it as that law will come to the USA soon.
Is anyone else annoyed he didn't finish rinsing out the compressor cabinet?
No joke right when the nasty hail started in the video it started hailing here Service area Barrhaven??
Hey Chris, what happen to the Testo Manifold???
Just curious and I apologize if this is a dumb question: Is it possible to contaminate your leak detector by actually allowing the tip to come in contact with a leak source? For some reason I reallly like the idea of that device, it must be a real time saver in certain situations.
I can’t believe you were on the roof during that mess, I was at work when it came through and I was glad I wasn’t outside. Sheesh man!
Remember the saying when thunder roars run indoors. doesn't pay to be outside in a thunderstorm. I feel for you shit weather isn't the nicest to work in double and triple for electrics.
Theoretical Question:
Why control head pressure by flooding the condenser when you could accomplish the same thing by turning off the condenser fan?
Seems a lot less risky, and cheaper too.
Thanks Are you in Kanata ?
Damn ref tech has a new foam gun out whaaat
at this point chris, I would like you to cut out a lot of your coil cleaning . except for good pieces of information you think of while cleaning. of course I'm not talking about cleaning info though
Man, watching that storm come in while your on the roof give me some flashbacks.
Was the screw ever put back in at the bottom of the fuse?
Everything Was Off For Awhile…You Guys Will Find Many Clogged Capillary Tubes In Older Beer Coolers Ect..Especially R22 Systems….Mineral Oil Gums Up…..And Your Upright Styles, No Cooling, Low Charge Because Those Small Cheap Evap Coils They Come With Alway Leak After Sitting Idle….Good Luck Re Opening California ….It Was Hectic Here In Michigan..
after 20 Yrs Im Not Doing HVAC/R This Summer…But I Will Be Viewing And Offering My 2 Cents ….BECAUSE REFRIGERANT IS MY BLOOD…🤪🇺🇸💪
Disregard that noodles comment. I really enjoy your videos and commentary. I always learn something. And enjoy the content. I find myself trying to troubleshoot the video as your troubleshooting. Almost as if I was there! As always keep up the great work.
Could you drill at an angle to put the drain hole on the outside?
I guess your popularity and revenue has gotten to you. You're more long winded than before and I swear if i hear "big picture" one more time my liver will fail from taking shots with every mention. We get it. Look at the system as a whole not just component level. We get it, there's a bunch of things you'd like to do on the customers dime to satisfy your OCD and we also get customers don't give a crap. Your commentary has gotten stale but at least you can plug your sponsors and merchandise. Sucks that you sold out. Oh well c'est la vie
👍👍👍 Are you in Ottawa ?
Why is coil cleaning a seasonal thing?
Oooooooo, nice weather!
(Not to drive in)
Take a screw off the ice machine contactor for the fuse Are you in Orleans ?
I noticed you've looked for a leak on this compressor before and found nothing….could it be from overhead on the condenser?
Great practice to always look at the Big Picture! You’ll never know what you run in too.
How do you figure out how many defrost cycle a box needs? 6 a day for this one, so every four hours? Is that a rule of thumb or are there box size considerations involved. Thanks a lot!
Hey, I recognizes that walk in cooler you have chances that cable and fans
Use a blower to blow the water out??? Service area Kanata??
I do almost no work on units with sight glasses here (mostly split a/c). When you say 'run a clear glass', is that full of liquid or gas? I understand flashing is a mix. The ones I have seen here have a colour code, yellow for dry and green for wet, the background changes colour to match, so I assume 'clear glass' means wet/liquid filled? Service area Orleans??
Yeah always good practice to chit chat a little bit and just ask how everything is, look around a little. You'll be surprised, you'll get an extra call here and there. Service area Ottawa??
Nice video
I was wondering, is there such a thing as a generic ac system? Generic enclosure with generic parts inside such as compressor, coils, fans, blowers, circuit boards, those cans and sight glasses and filters
Need to call this walk-in "Katy Perry" because it's hot then it's cold, it's yes then it's no…
I love the rain