You just look at that you'll learn something new every day. How many times times have i defrosted these evaporators and fought with this goes to show you i an idiot just like the rest of them this video is brought to you by sportlin quality integrity and tradition. This is insane. I don't think i've ever seen a walk in freezer.

Iced up this bad. So they said. The box hasn't ran since before yesterday. Right and they called me last night at like 10 30.

And said. Yeah. My fans aren't running. And i was like well i'm not coming out because you guys waited all day so it's now saturday and i'm here and i come in here.

I can hear the system running. But the ice is built up so thick that it's up to the fan blade up to the fan blade and this one isn't so we got to open it up and see why the evaporator fan motors aren't running. This is nuts yeah. This is crazy man.

I'm wondering if it like severed the power wire. The ice is definitely up to this blade completely this one doesn't look like the ice is necessarily up to the blade. And this one there's just big chunks of ice behind it so we got to open it up uh. This is a heat craft qrc system or and we're getting an a1.

Which i believe is a high room temp. Yeah high room temp a1 alarm. And i can hear the condensing unit cycling on and off lucky. They don't wash out the oil on that compressor because it's been running without these evaporator fan motors all right.

I'm going to get some hot water get. This powered down. We got to get this defrosted get some pans down here to try to catch the water because there is going to be some dripping water and then uh try to figure out what's going on here all right this is the worst evaporator. I've ever seen as far as being iced up this is nuts and like i just had a discussion with the manager guarantee.

This has been iced up for more than a month. And from the looks of it this motor stopped first and then what i'm thinking. Happened is it probably severed the electrical connection that feeds all three of these they're actually i think it comes from over here. No yeah.

The electrical connection comes from over here and then it goes here here and here and i bet you anything we severed the electrical connection and it shut down all three fans. I've never seen one iced up like this this is insane. It's all the way back into here and it goes all the way behind the coil like it's just bonkers holy majority all right uh. I use hot water to melt the ice on my evaporators no torches.

I don't wait for electric defrost or anything like that the first thing we're going to do in getting this defrosted. Obviously can't get these motors out can't even get this one out because it's all encapsulated and ice um is we're going to tackle down here making sure that the drain is clear once we get the drain clear if it's not already then we'll start at the top and start going. But we want to make sure that water has somewhere to go so we'll focus on the drain. And the drain pan and then build our way up and slowly start defrosting this.

I can't stress enough that even though. I'm frustrated that i'm here even though. I can tell that it's been down for a long time even though. They told me yesterday that they noticed the fans weren't working in the morning.

But they didn't call me. Until 10 30 at night like all of that frustrates me. But ah it's my job. I'm here to fix it so bite my tongue you know some frustrations.

It is what it is right i mean. It's a service call so it's inevitable. We're going to get them and that's my job right yeah. It's a little frustrating but i don't vent that frustration i explain and i educate okay um so as far as defrosting it it's not a race take your time.

I got the drain to start draining and i noticed that there was a lot of stuff coming out of it i got it to start breaking free. So i i'm paying attention to the drain pan. When the drain pan starts to fill up like this see it's almost full i stop let it drain. Then continue defrosting.

This is gonna be a long slow process. It is what it is let's not make a huge mess on the floor or anything. Like that we're gonna do everything we can to keep the water contained to the drain pan and these buckets. This is gonna be a long day.

I've got service called stacked to the max. Too. But one thing at a time right as i'm getting this motor defrosted. I realize the bracket's broken and the wires are severed just to this motor good gosh.

So we know we need one motor. I don't know when i'm gonna find a bracket. But hopefully they got one we'll see this keeps getting better and better so uh this bracket's broken too hopefully. I can find all these parts on a saturday.

It's going to be fun. But we're almost we got this one defrosted this one defrosted so we're just working on this last. One and then we got to get all the ice on the backside. It's kind of crazy and then we'll get into the electrical section over here too this motor wire severed too i wonder why this one wasn't working though i wonder i don't see any damage down there necessarily it's interesting all right i just need to pop my head back there but i'm 99 sure i got all the ice taken care of all the way on the back side you can see this is just what came off the back.

So that's how thick it was coming out the back and then it was the entire coil. All the way to here so at least 15 inches of ice solid. All the way through kind of crazy got this side all defrosted got real careful around the transformer because i didn't want to just saturate that thing. If you don't already know the electrical thing just two screws and the thing just kind of pivots out of the way.

So yeah. Now we need to figure out why that fan motor is not working because i don't see any wires that are severed for that i'm wondering if the coil's just not cold enough because it was so iced up like it wasn't getting down to like 20 degrees or whatever so therefore the fan motor wouldn't turn on it's a question we need to fire it up and see if we can get it to energize all right so get back here to the back of the coil looks good. There's some plastic in the drain. Pan.

It's gonna be hard for you guys to see so i'll get that out. But it got it all defrosted back in here. We should be good so now i need to start making some phone calls. See if i can find some parts and then turn it on and see why that other motor is not working this big chunk is just what was on the back just hanging off the back and then like i said earlier it came all the way through that coil to the front.

It's just crazy all right at this point. I'm kind of got everything cleaned up. I'm going to take this last pan out and i'm going to flip the breaker on and see if the coil gets cold enough and maybe this motor turns on we'll find out if that one's bad too. So we have 208 volts at the motor connection right there this one right here seems like it's plugged in but when i move it it makes buzzing popping sounds in the motor.

So i'm not going to trust this motor. We may even have a bad electrical connection down here but with everything going on here. I'm gonna see if i can get three new motors um. Three new brackets.

I would like to get fan guards. Too because these fan guards busted coming off all the things broke off. But i don't know if i can get those on a saturday. So it's time to make some phone calls now all right i am back um.

I got three new blades. Three new fan brackets. Three new fan motors and three new fan guards. It's crazy because these ones like i said were all busted broken so as i'm pulling this motor out i realized why it was making the buzzing sound.

Because it's broken right here too and yeah. That's why i was making a buzzing sound. Because it's icing up and it's ripping those connections off it's crazy the power of ice right i really really appreciate though how they have the part numbers on here um. It makes my life a lot easier so what i typically do is i went to all my suppliers websites because i have active user logins for all of them.

And i'm able to see which supply house has all the parts instead of making phone calls and waiting you know i just look. And because i have all the part numbers right here so that was awesome putting everything in and i just had like a epiphany. I don't know i was uh over 14 000. Days old when i realized that these fan motor guards have a recess spot for this retainer.

Nut and then a non recess spot for the other side. I don't know that i've ever noticed that before so there's actually a direction. I'm pretty sure that i've struggled putting these on before huh well. I guess i can look at the old ones.

Yeah look at that would you just look at that you learn something new every day. How many times have i defrosted these evaporators and fought with this goes to show you i'm an idiot just like the rest of them wow. It is alive and running now um. I'm going to leave everything off for the moment.

I need to see it turn on and i want to get my eyes on the condensing unit. Make sure. It's running with a clear sight glass. So we're going to hop up onto the roof.

Wait for it to turn on all right my system is running now and the sight glass is clear now i'm making a an assumption an educated guess that i don't see the need to put service gauges on this guy condenser doesn't look dirty. I really don't see the need because of how it was iced up um. I think everything's gonna be fine. We're running with a clear sight glass signs aren't pointing me to a refrigerant related issue.

So we're gonna go downstairs. And make sure it comes down and temp a little bit i just walked around their roof and uh checked all the acs looked for codes in the circuit boards didn't see anything made sure all the exhaust fans were running. I have a habit of doing this because this customer doesn't do routine maintenance and i can't keep up with the crazy service calls. So when i'm on site.

I go walking around just making sure. There's no other issues and i bring it to their attention. Because it's going to be my problem late at night. You know and i'd rather find it during the day and try to remedy.

It before it becomes something like this walk in freezer. So it's already getting really cold in here. So we're just going to go through the program. It's set up for electric defrost refrigerant type should be 404 box temp should be negative.

10 superheat should be about six seven. Okay slave no demand defrost is it on no okay uh dfn. What is that defrost per day four. We're gonna change that to six because they're clearly causing problems here uh dff.

I think that's a fail. Safe temp 30. Df. No that's time 30 minute.

Defrost dft is the temp 55. Yeah. Dfs nothing all right cool. So everything looks good on that so i don't know why it pumped down.

Did i put it into a. I think i might have put it into something when i was going through the programming or something so we gotta wait for it to turn back on make sure. There's nothing wrong because it's actually just pumping down right. Now what i did was i changed the defrost to six a day.

And it actually must have been the time for the defrost because it actually went into defrost. But that's actually a good thing. Because it gives me the opportunity to get in here and put my amp clamp on all the heaters just to make sure all the defrost heaters are working. So all right this thing has a bunch of defrost.

Heaters so the one actually in the. Drain pan is. 175 the one at the bottom of. The coil is.

15 the next one up in the. Coil is 28. And the one at the top of the coil. Is 3 amps.

So all the defrost heaters are working. I don't see any problems there. So let's get it taken out of defrost and back and running now all right we are back and running it's coming down to temp getting out of here and on to the next one. I can't stress enough that i was extremely frustrated like that one pushed me to my max because i could clearly tell that that was probably i stopped for more than a month like and it it just dumbfounds me right.

But at the same time excuse my dog he's chilling back here behind me. But um. You know i get it. These restaurants are just having a hard time you know so it's so important that even though.

My frustrations are through the roof that i bite my tongue okay. I'm not gonna blow up on the customer. Because guess what it's really simple decision for them call me or call another company. It's as easy as that okay and if i'm fine with that then sure i could blow up on him they could fire me as a company as a contractor.

And i'll never do work for them again okay or i can bite my tongue. I can try to educate him you know i can try this there's a new manager here. And i i explained everything to him. And he seemed like wow.

Okay. You know and i explained. And he's only been there for a couple weeks. And you know these restaurants have high turnover right now they're going through managers they're going through kitchen staff.

You know all that different stuff so why was this freezer iced up in the first place. Honestly. I think it just started with maybe one of those fan motors going bad. I don't i don't know if it was a fan murder going bad as much as i think maybe them just leaving a door open um.

These customers they do that they constantly leave doors open. And i know everybody out there is going to comment in the youtube. Comments and everywhere. Why don't you put door switches.

Why don't you put door alarms. I try okay i try to bring it up to them they don't want that kind of stuff. Why i don't know okay. But i will tell you that in the past when i have installed door alarms.

I've installed the audible alarms. I'll go back and there's just duct tape over the alarm. Okay the kitchen staff just puts duct tape over it in the management of these restaurants. Just casual dining.

In general is having such a hard time keeping up on the restaurants. Because these managers half the time are in the kitchen cooking right they're not out doing their job. Which is running the restaurant checking on customer satisfaction. You know being a face to the restaurant.

They're not even doing that half the time because they're stuck in the kitchen cooking you know um. I still get frustrated right i know and i know we all have frustrations. But vent fine find a group of people find a find a good core group of friends vent to them right vent your frustrations to them bite your tongue. So that way that restaurant that customer keeps calling you back.

And i know it's really easy for people to say well you know what i don't want them as a customer anymore. That that is a decision that you can make right when you're a business owner. That is a hard decision to make that is a really hard decision. Because that particular customer feeds your family right they keep you employed.

They give your kids. A college fund. They you know they help you as a business and in turn you need to help them right by educating them by fixing their problems right and billing for them. Accordingly.

Yeah. You need to bill accordingly. I build accordingly if i told you how much this job cost it's pretty darn ridiculous okay it's absolutely insane in fact i'd kind of like for you guys in the comments to guess how much you think this job ended up costing the customer and unfortunately it cost them more in materials than it did in labor. But my labor rates are still high when it's on overtime.

It was a rather expensive bill so let me know in the comments. What you think i'm not going to say it. But i just kind of curious what you all think this cost the customer for a saturday service. Call.

Changed. Three oem heat. Craft fan motors. Fan blades.

Fan guards um. And just melted. A lot of ice okay. So another thing.

I wanted to cover too you know why don't i use a blowtorch. Why don't i use a heat gun. Why don't i use a pump sprayer. Why don't i use just.

The electric defrost. I know there's so many different people that say i just turn it in defrost and come back six hours later okay. That's fine that may work for you that's not how i do things no judgment. If someone else uses a torch if someone else does it a different way than i that's fine.

I'm like to be efficient. I like to be as fast as possible okay um. There's times. You know that that uh blowing or that uh using a torch or using the electric defrost is gonna slowly melt it and maybe it'll drain down the drain.

But what happens if the drain pan is plugged up when you use a water hose you're doing two things you're melting the ice. But then also you're filling that drain pan up faster than it'll ever fill up and it should drain pretty quick. And if it doesn't there's a problem there so kind of killing two birds with one stone. If you're using a map gas torch or an oxyacetylene torch the products of combustion are going to fill that space extremely quick and there's potential that you could get carbon monoxide poisoning from doing that so be very cautious about using torches um.

I have a good friend of mine. Brett wetzel from the advanced refrigeration podcast. He was telling me a story when he was still new in the trade. Someone was using a giant roofing torch to meld an industrial um evaporator right those big giant propane roofing torches and he was using that to melt it and he got it so hot.

It set off a fire sprinkler in there and fire sprinklers. They put out a lot of water. It was so scary that he said to the story. I'm not trying to steal his story go bread.

I'm sure we'll elaborate more. But he said when it set it off all that they heard was a hissing sound. Because the lines are filled with air. It's not water right at the sprinkler in the particular situation.

He was working on so they heard the air hissing out and they like realized. Oh. No what's about to come. And then whoosh water coming down.

Okay. So be very cautious using torches heat guns um. I've tried using heat guns in the past you know working on equipment like you get bored because it takes forever so you like prop it up and then i've come back and it like fell down and melted. A bunch of wires and plastic and water is not that bad as long as you pull the motors out i highly suggest you always pull motors out set them down um defrost.

It and then just put it back together right. It's just a routine for me. Anymore. I've got all the tools.

I know the for this particular job to defrost that evaporator you need a half inch ratchet wrench to pull the fan guards off then once you get those off. You need a eighth inch allen wrench to pull the fan blade off once you pull that out then you just move the fan brackets out pull. The motors out set them to the side like i have like a routine when i do these things. It's kind of just like grab those five tools you know knock it out.

So. I just can't stress enough that even though we get frustrated. Even though. This is our family time.

Guess what it's our job. Okay so just bite your tongue make the customer happy fix it try to educate them as best as possible and then move on to the next one okay i really do appreciate you all if you haven't. Already please consider checking out my. Website hvacrescom.

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