This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. All right, so we've got a reaching cooler here. First off confirm: my thermometers are all within tenths of a degree of each other right, so box temperature says 40 degrees. I've got them all in the same spot right now now we're going to move them across the box.

This box has got issues with getting the air to the other side. It's becoming a real issue, all right. So now i have one in the return air stream. This is a four door cooler.

I have one right there and then i have one right there down at the end, we're gon na give it a few minutes and there'll be a rather significant temperature drop across it. Okay, the box just satisfied 35 degrees on here 35 degrees on here, but then look at the other two 47-45. It's not getting the air across the box. Okay, just to confirm we're.

Gon na check rotation on the evaporator fan blade. So it's rotating in the way that the air sucks into the coil. So it's going in the right direction, sucking the air into the coil and blowing it out the top right there and supposed to be shooting it across, but because they took that duct out going across the unit. It's not helping! So it's setting up to where it's sucking air in here and coming out, the top and because of the design it's actually pulling the cold air.

That's coming out the top right here right back into the coil, so you can see that it's sucking the napkin up right. So you got that, but it's actually like pulling the air right back in and that's why it satisfies so quick. It's a really bad design! Here this one, the air duct, is missing. If you come over here, i'll show you this is the air duct i'm talking about see they took it out to put the tap heads in, but even with that air duct there they're they're, hoping the air sucks in here is forced out the top and forces In that duct and then goes to the other side of the box, it's still doesn't work right.

So this one, the air, duct hasn't been removed and i'll show you. It has the same temperature issues as the other one all right. So this is the solution. Supposedly they've got this thing now we still are missing the channel that this is supposed to go in, but i'm hoping this will still help to solve some of our problems getting air to the other side of the box.

So, let's see they give you this cool kit with long wires here and it actually has a jumper, so you grab the existing 12-volt light circuit. This is a 12-volt motor pay attention to that, because someone could easily wire this into 120 volts and we'll see if this helps, i don't know how much air this is actually going to move, though all right, this thing does some. This thing moves some air. So that's good! It's 12 volts! It's it's kicking! So now we need to decide where we want to put it within the box um.

So that way it grabs this air. Actually, the air coming out. The top is where, because the air comes out, the top and pulls it across so all right all right, this guy is doing a lot better um. It's kicking butt that little air fan right.

There is moving air across the box what's happening right now. Is the supply i have two probes in here supply air is near the return of the box and return air is actually over here at this end of the box notice that there's a discrepancy right now, there's a two degree. Three degree difference right. Well, there's actually a flaw in this box and that supply air is right here and return.

Air is right here, so it's actually sucking researching air, but when the box satisfies we're, actually getting an error too for a high discharge, i'm sorry a discharge temperature sensor error we'll deal with that, but another we'll order a sensor for it, but um this guy actually Will satisfy, but when it shuts off is when you want to compare the temperatures from one side of the box to the other. That's the most important time and we'll wait, because i brought it up by opening the doors. But it's looking good. So far.

All right now, we've been satisfied for a few minutes and what's happening is both those temperature probes are getting much closer because we're not recirculating that air from the supply to the return anymore, um, so uh yeah. That's i'm gon na call this a success and uh we're currently working on doing this other one right now. We just did this one too come over here. We've got it up it's in there and it's just blowing the air across the box.

So we'll check that one out this one's gon na be a little bit more difficult because it has an extra door that the other one doesn't have, but i think we're still gon na have good success on this. One too. This guy's been satisfied for a little bit and you can pretty much see that both of my sensors spread out across the box are nice, and even because that booster fan is circulating. The air from the return air side of the box - or i mean from the you, know the coil side of the box to the other um and if we come over here, we're just working on finishing this one up right now we just closed up all the Doors, this is their other box and uh.

You can see. We got our circulator fan right here, boosting the air across to the other side. This one has four doors, though it's got to get all the way over to here, but i could stick my hand in here and i can feel the air coming from all the way on that fan over there, so that booster fan is going to make a Big difference to get the air over to this side of the box too, so so far, we're looking really really good. All right.

We're going to call this one a success too, because we're within - and this is at both ends of the box. So i got a probe all the way over here and a probe all the way over here and we've got equal temperatures. Now it's pretty accurate with that guy right there so yeah. This is going to solve all their foaming beer problems, and why one? You know the other box was way too high, so it's just uh.

You know how they had their bar stuff installed and also some manufacturing defects, there's kind of a poor design with airflow on these boxes. And it's funny, though, that this one was their own fault because they took that chase out, but still you know uh it's funny, though, that the manufacturer, when i called them to ask them what was going on, they had a kit that fixed it. You know go figure. Why couldn't they put that in from the beginning? Oh well often times, and i've said this before, and manufacturers may not see it this way, because they're always trying to meet energy federal energy requirements and all that fancy stuff.

But you really need to size these boxes for airflow, okay, and what i mean by that is you either need to put the perfect, i mean in a perfect world, you put the right size, evaporative coil, right to have enough btu output to overcome the infiltration right. The heat load infiltration of the box, but at the same time you also need to pay attention to airflow. Okay, you need to be able to get air from one side of the box to the other, so just because that evaporative coil and the condensing unit package they have on this meets the btu requirements needed for this box. We still need to circulate air and that air needs to make it across the box and back to the evaporator coil.

So in this situation you know shame on the manufacturer because they know that beer kegs were going to be kept in this box. This is a keg cooler, that's what this is and with the keg cooler they need to do a better job of getting air from one side to the other. Now how they do that, i don't know, there's all kinds of different methods they could do. Air ducts underneath air ducts on top, but they need to have return and supply.

Okay and in the situation like this, they were relying on the air traveling through a makeshift air duct across the box and then making its way all the way back, which it just realistically isn't going to happen, especially in a high demand bar where they're opening and Closing those boxes, okay, then, on top of that, the customer took it upon themselves to have a new beer tap system installed. This actually happened at a lot of the restaurants. They installed a new beer tap system and it's pretty much happened across the board where they took that air duct out completely, which then amplified the issue of getting air all the way to the other end of the box. And that just made it even worse.

But even on the one that the air duct was still in there, they were having this issue a 10 degree discrepancy from one side of the box to the other. That shows you the infiltration rate right. That's the amount of heat infiltration, that's coming into the box and it's you know spoiling their cooling effect right. So in this situation they have tap heads on the left side, the one with three doors: that's where all the tap heads are, but they have kegs in all seven doors right, so it creates a problem and they were experiencing foamy beer.

Only on the beers that were, at the other end of the boxes, okay, so um, it helps to call the manufacturer and to be able to pick their brain. So in this situation i called the manufacturer - and i go look we're having issues with this box and the boxes at the time were literally brand new, okay, um and uh on the flip side, too uh. I ordered these parts in june of 21 and i didn't get them until november of 21.. That's kind of nuts right that the two clip differences were a significant difference there and it took that long for the manufacturer to get all the parts they wanted.

Yes, i'm sure i could have fabricated my own stuff, and but it was just easier to order what they had, because they had a replacement kit for it. Plus i was busy. I didn't have time to really think too hard about it. So when i called the manufacturer, i'm like look i'm having temperature issues and at first the technical support guy was like well, i mean you know, everything's fine.

You know he's just kind of asking me generic questions and no fault to him because i'm sure he gets you know a bunch of silly dum-dums calling them all day, long right, um that don't understand what they're doing or asking them. You know silly questions, but in this situation i'm like no dude, like i'm telling you this unit is working. I i verified. I have two identical units right um and this is what's happening and i even told them one of them.

The air duct is missing. One of them it isn't so i said you can't blame it on the air duct, the one that the air duct was missing on was the one with three doors, the one that it was still there was the one with four doors right. So you get my deductive reasoning there, where you know it didn't make sense for him to blame the air duct on the situation. So i'm like dude.

There is a problem here right. You guys have an airflow problem and he's like. Well, you know we haven't heard anything about this before, and that was the key phrase they hadn't heard anything about this before. But when i asked him well, let me ask you this: do you guys have a booster kit to move air from one side of the box to the other? He goes yeah.

We have a kit, here's the part number well. Why do you have a kit if you've never heard about this problem? This is the kind of stuff that just drives me nuts, but whatever here you are, i didn't sell in the box, i'm just here to repair it, i'm not going to fight any battles, i'm not getting involved in any of that stuff. I'm just here to solve the problem right, so i ordered the kit um. I was a little reluctant going out to install the kit because i'm like what the heck i'm looking at these itty bitty little computer fans, essentially like little 12 volt fans, but man that thing was putting out.

If i had to guess about 105 cfms 106. Cfms of air moving across and the reason why i know 100 and 506 is because i compare that to other axial fan motors that i deal with on a regular basis and it felt about the same amount of airflow. So that thing was kicking air across the box and it solved all of our problems you saw in the beginning, i showed a 10 degree temperature discrepancy from one side of the box to the other, and it was gone. It's also very important because of the manufacturing defect where i showed it was recirculating air.

You know from the supply that was just blowing right over the return and sucking it back in that's why we were short cycling so fast. So when it turns on it turns off right, quick, okay, so um there's ways they could fix that too, and in the past they actually on some of their older designs. It had a much better design that had a giant trans flow blower up in there that had an air duct coming out the top that stuck out about six to eight inches that allowed the discharge air to get far enough away from the return that it didn't Suck back in when i saw this design, i was like what are they thinking with this right? But here i am just a dumb service mechanic right who, what do i know, but i knew there was a flaw there: okay, and so i'm not a jerk to the manufacturer's representative when i call them on the phone, but i'm certainly picking their brain, and you Have to know like it's just like talking with a manager like a restaurant manager. If you go in and say it's iced up, are you leaving the doors open, of course, they're going to say no we're not leaving the doors open, but it's the conversation that you have you walk in.

You start talking to them. You say: hey. What's up you're asking them questions and they're standing in the box with you, you know, and you just work your way to questions like instead of saying hey this door. It doesn't get left open all the time you say man, you know you guys are so busy.

You know how do you keep the doors closed? You know like you, go about it a roundabout way and you get to the point and oftentimes. If you do, that kind of have that kind of a conversation, you'll get answers from the manager and they'll almost incriminate themselves or their staff right, because you're just having a casual conversation and you're kind of you know, jedi, mind tricking them into answering the things you Want them to answer right. Same thing happens with technical support like i'm not going in their guns, ablaze and saying you guys made the worst box ever every refrigerator has manufacturing issues. I don't care how much money you paid for it.

There's gon na be issues. Okay, so that's not the problem here, i'm not pointing fingers, i'm not yelling, i'm just trying to solve this problem right and i'm trying to get to a resolution. So the way that you ask your questions, the information you give um and the the the conversation you have with the person on the other end of the line is going to get you the answers. You know you need, if you do it right, if you guys understand what i'm saying it's just about the way that you're asking questions and and you'll get the answers you need.

So in this situation boom we put the boosters fans in there now we're getting that. You know even airflow, and it's also very important, like i said, because of the recirculation happening - that we're checking the temperature differential from one side of the box to the other when the unit is satisfied. Okay, because where my probe was is right next to where the return air probe is for the temperature controller and because of the recirculation, i showed you guys. There was about a four degree discrepancy when the compressor was running, but when the compressor turns off just before the compressor turns back on, we had a a you know.

No discrepancy between you know a tenth of a degree. You know from one side of the box to the other side of the box, so one of those boxes is like eight feet long and from one side to the other. There's no discrepancy, so our problem is solved. Okay, so it's so important that we understand these things right, yeah, it's just a simple reaching cooler, but it can be pretty complex and we're having to decipher whether it's a mechanical problem or a manufacturing problem, and it's really easy for us to see this.

One problem like this is a major manufacturing flaw right, but i also have to remember that you don't just assume it's going to be like this on every single region right and on the flip side too, you don't ignore a potential manufacturing flaw. Our job requires us to investigate and thoroughly look at these things, and this is the whole big picture mindset that i always talk about you step back and look at it yeah, it's really easy to say man there's something going on. I don't know you know you guys mess this thing up, but step back and look at it right. I easily solved the manufacturing flaw.

How much r d do you think they put into that box? They probably put a crap ton of money into it right, they're, a giant multinational corporation. I bet you they put tons and tons of money in there, but they miss something. This simple right. I really think - and i've said this so many times before - that design engineers need to have some sort of service experience so that way they can see these whenever i design a reach and cooler, because i do i work with a a fabrication shop and we will Often come up with our own designs for a refrigeration unit right there they're selling it to someone.

They want me to outfit it with whatever and i'll look at their plans and i'll be like your plans aren't going to work because i'm thinking like a service technician, i'm thinking you know with the problems that i've run into right. So in that situation, i'll either add a booster fan or i'll add another evaporator coil at the other end of the box or instead of putting you know, um. Let's just say this box required a 1200 btu evaporative coil. Well, maybe i'll put two 600 btu evaporative close one at each end of the box right now, when you think about a manufacturer, though, you've got to be able to to break these things down and understand them when you think about a manufacturer, it's all about simplicity And pennies right they're trying to save pennies in the long run because they may manufacture.

You know 20 000 of these units a year right. So if they can save five dollars on each um uh, you know region right times, 20. 000. That's a ridiculous amount of money too big for my head right.

So that's a that's a lot of pennies that they're saving, so they're always thinking about that right. So what they do is they consolidate well, instead of putting two units in let's put a one unit in, and they overlook the fact that they're not going to have the air flow to get it across the box. Okay, it happens. So you've got to be able to break these things down.

I really think that the engineers need to have service experience that or they need to legit pay uh. You know service technicians to review their designs and like look at them, because obviously there was there was a big mistake happened here, but also this manufacturer also makes some amazing equipment. So stuff happens. Stuff falls through the cracks.

Okay, it does. It happens with every manufacturer. I happen to work on a lot of refrigeration units and i can critique a lot of them and say that was a design flaw, because i'm the guy with my knuckles busted in there, you know cutting them on the piece of metal. That's in the way that you know the engineer clearly didn't think about, so i'm not just saying that it's all the engineers faults right.

I'm just saying that you know it's it. It's it's happening more and more as we demand cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. I call it. The amazon effect: okay um, you know we're constantly, demanding, cheaper and cheaper and or we have new refrigeration units flooding the market from other countries or from cheaper areas right and uh, not saying because i don't even know if these units are made in the united states.

I have no idea, i know at one point they were, but i don't know um, but the uh when we have those other units flooding in from the cheaper countries right um, they spoil the market, and you know someone gets a taste of those cheaper units and Even if the quality isn't as good, they they like that price point and that cheaper manufacturer starts selling like crazy, and then these high-end manufacturers they're, like we're losing sales. What do we do? We got to drop our costs and the only way they can drop their costs is to drop the quality, so they drop the quality to compete with the cheaper manufacturers all while that cheaper manufacturer ends up going out of business sometimes, and then the customers already seen Those low prices, so then you know the the high-end manufacturer continues to make at the lower end level now and it's just a vicious cycle going down and down and down, and we, as consumers demand that now i don't know, you know what you call any of That stuff again, i'm just a dumb service technician who knows, if i'm even making sense with that, but that's how my brain works and that's the way. I understand these things. So while i am frustrated with the manufacturers, i also see another side of it and i understand that they're doing what they have to do to survive.

Um. I guess it's the which one's the lesser of the two evils. You know you go out of business because you're too expensive and you make really high quality products or you have some manufacturing flaws, but you stay in business and continue to profit. I mean i from a business aspect in a multinational corporation.

I know which one they're going to go with because they're about making money right, they're about staying in business, so they're going to have to cut costs to keep up with that demand all right. Whatever i went off on a tangent, you know that's how that works. Guys i work on all kinds of stuff: okay, sometimes it's a simple bar reach, and sometimes i'm you know working on an ice machine, i'm working on a giant package unit. I hope you guys enjoyed the videos and my crazy insight um.

I struggle with these things. Sometimes because i'm gon na be honest with you, this was. I threw this video together because i worked on another video for six hours before i found this footage. Um total separate video and i had i was just getting so frustrated with the edit.

I stopped it. I trashed it i'll deal with it later and i threw this one together, so i hope this works for you guys. You know it is what it is. This is what i had to do to keep my sanity, because i was afraid if i didn't do a video i'd go crazy and that's how my mind works.

If i don't put out a video, my i just it implodes on itself, so i threw this together. Hope you guys appreciate it. If you haven't already, please consider supporting the channel by going to my website hvacrvideos.com, i have merchandise available there. Also, if you guys, are interested in purchasing any tools you can go to truetechtools.com.

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I really appreciate you and we will catch you on the next one. Okay.