For some context, you guys are about to watch a video where i'm doing a walk-in cooler retrofit. Okay, i'm replacing the evaporators the condensing unit, um stay tuned because in the near future, i'm also going to be doing a video breaking down the process of how i selected the equipment, the load, calculation considerations. You need to take refrigerant selection, glide limitations, different stuff like that, okay, so stay tuned for that video it'll be coming, i guess in the next few weeks, but for now this is my retrofit installation of new walk-in cooler equipment. If you guys haven't already, please check out my website hvacrvideos.com uh, we got hats, beanies, shirts, sweaters, all that stuff available, and it helps to support the channel and keep these videos coming.

Um so check it out. If you guys haven't already okay, again, hvacr videos.com, all right, let's get on with the video all right, so i want to show you guys something - and this is so important, so we turned off the breaker for the walk-in cooler, the three-phase power coming up. I heard the solenoid valve shut off, but we always double check: okay, 18 volts to ground one 118 to ground 18 to ground. Now we already figured this out somehow it's tied into the walk-in freezer.

So when we shut off the walk-in freezer and the walk-in cooler, we lose all three phase, but when we shut off just the walk-in cooler, we only lose one leg of power. This video is brought to you by sportlin quality, integrity and tradition. So i'm going to go ahead and start prepping these coils these are raw coils. They do not have expansion valves, they do not have solenoid valves, temp controls.

We don't have a disconnect on this guy. I'm going to do everything that i can here to try to make the job go smoother, so the plan is expansion, valves and solenoid valves in each coil and a disconnect switch wired in to the condensing unit. The condenser unit itself is a russell condensing unit, so it already comes with sporland uh catch alls and spoil and see all sight glass it already pretty much is ready to go. Um we'll just have to make our connections right there.

I personally have never seen it, but i've seen pictures on social media. This is not a metering device. This is a nozzle to make sure that you get even flow and to help with the pressure drop across the coil. Okay, you put this in and then you put an expansion valve in all right again.

I have never seen it, but i've seen pictures on social media where people thought that this was a metering device like a piston and it's not okay, so you got ta, select the right one, we're gon na be using r448a refrigerant, so we're gon na use. The l number one nozzle um interesting, though, is that they show the same nozzle i'll, have to open this up and make sure that's weird l1 and l1 did they give me two nozzles, it's kind of weird they're, both the same well in some situations, they're, not Both the same so you got to make sure that you follow the instructions, but that's kind of cool, also save the extra nozzle that you don't use, they're, always good to have in the truck just in case. You need one in the future. So i've already selected the expansion valve we're going to use a balance port sbqe body with an a cartridge.

We've got the bq kit right here. It tells you what size is and everything it is, and then you have your cartridge kit right here. So if we go to this guy right here, we need the a cartridge, so we need two of the blue ones. Also, like i had mentioned, always save the nozzles just in case you ever need one in the future.

These are some three-quarter nozzles and then i also keep extra strainers these guys right here. Whenever i have these valves i'll pull the strainer save them for another day, because when you're doing hot swaps, it really helps to swap you know, throw in a strainer real quick and have one ready all right. Building these valves is fairly easy. You've got your body.

You've got your cartridge, take your cartridge tool and they usually have oil. In here. All you're going to do is put a drop of oil. This is just refrigeration oil on the o-ring.

You can also use nylog if you want insert it into there and then you're going to hand tighten this on using their tool. You can use a wrench, but it tells you know, understand that you don't want to over tighten these, and if you use their tool, then you really can't over. Tighten it because it's just a little triangle shaped guy there. That's snug we're in and then all we're going to do is screw the power head on now to do the power head.

I always put just a drop of refrigeration oil right there or nylog, and then you're just going to twist the power head on and tighten accordingly, and then we have a fully built valve. I love having this kit because you know you can have everything you need ready to go and it's easy peasy. So this guy right here go snug and then just a quarter turn past snug. They have instructions on how much to tighten it.

But there we go. That's it doesn't take much don't want to over, tighten it. We have a fully built valve, but the important thing to understand is is there's nothing on here indicating what size cartridge is in here. So, that's why you need to make sure that you use the proper identifier tag now this one says a and we're using an a cartridge, so you just bend this over put it on there and then that's how you know in the future.

If you ever go to change the valve, what size is in there is by using the indicator, tag. Okay, we're going to get the other valve built and then start sweating them in these nozzles are always a chore to get in. There's really not a super easy way to do it that i've found. Sometimes i don't have one with me right now.

If you can get a quarter inch nut driver, it'll, fit right in here once you ream this out, it'll fit in there perfect and help to push the nozzle. In this time. I just used a true door. Tension tool, push it up.

You can use a small screwdriver whatever you just need to make sure that that nozzle goes completely flat against that, and the spring is completely flat against it too. So that way the nozzle doesn't bounce around. Inside there we've got our expansion valve protected with the viper wet rag heat blocking compound got a solenoid magnet on the solenoid valve, we're purging with nitrogen. Through this guy, it's flowing out the liquid line.

We're gon na get this guy brazed in real, quick and get that heat blocking compound off as soon as possible, i'm using a zero tip. So it's super small allows me to heat it up without overheating everything. Sometimes i go bigger, but in this situation it only calls for a zero do so everything's brazed in we're going to get it cooled off now, um pull the uh wet rag stuff off as soon as possible. All right i went through uh always go through with an inspection mirror, look at the braze joints, make sure everything's, nice and good.

I prefer to do that for every joint. I know it seems ridiculous, but i do that all the time that way, i'm 100 sure i don't have leaks so we're in here we're going to start doing some of the solenoid valve wiring. Now we can go ahead and turn off the nitrogen. I made a guess and uh bent this about 10 inches away from the coil, which is typically where the walls are braised it shut and then just went ahead and put some nitrogen in it just so that way, you know it's going to be about four or Five days, i think, before we do this job so uh these should still be pressurized with nitrogen.

You know kind of a leak, check, kind of a thing. Um solenoid valves installed, solenoid coils installed. I just use the existing wiring that they run. They run the accessory wiring over here for you, so i just use that and then we'll get in the other side and mount the temperature controller.

So we're going to go ahead and call this the master coil it's going to have the temperature controller on it and then that one over there will just have a solenoid valve. Now the existing system has a liquid line, leaving the master coil and going all the way over to that coil. So there's only one solenoid valve on the existing system, i'm not going to do that. Instead of running all the weird piping, like that, we're just going to put two solenoid valves, one temperature controller and run electrical to the other coil, which is super easy compared to running a refrigeration line over there, an extra one i should say so.

I'm mounting the temperature controller right now and uh went ahead and just put a connector right here, obviously in here, but i wanted to point out that on this controller we need three wires. But we need two power sources right, because we have to power the common for the switches and then we have to power the hot for the 120 volt power, 115 volt power. So what i typically do is bring in one leg: do a wire nut then jump to that one then jump to that common instead of trying to shove two wires in that little connector um. It just saves a headache of someone.

You know not getting the wire in enough or something slipping out. I've seen it too many times. So that's how we run it. We're going to go ahead and put this cover on and finish mounting everything.

I've got it wired up, but i want to make sure everything's good, so i'm testing it. I plugged it into a outlet and as soon as this guy calls, which it should call any minute now, let me make sure it's set low enough. I think it's probably set for like 35 yeah 35.. So as soon as this guy calls, those fans should speed up to full speed, because it's a two-speed system.

It has a little two-speed relay so when it gets a call, it sends a signal and then puts the fans on high speed via that little relay right there, all right and it just called we've got a green light. I don't know if you guys can see this or not, but we've got a green light and the fans went up to full speed, so we're wired correctly um. Now we don't have to put a temp control on that one, but we'll uh try not to pop holes in the coil or anything all right, cool, i'm gon na go ahead and turn it off and then jump on the other. One now got the second coil done.

This is how i leave them. Just strap this in here this guy's fine down here and you can really see what the wet rag the heat blocking compound by refrigeration technologies does, because you can see where the heat stops and it protects the valve and it is like using a wet towel. But it's just a little more, you know you can put it in the places and you don't have a towel dripping on you or anything like that, but it does a really good job of keeping the heat away, but i will say really important thing about it. It's right here is that all it does is displace the heat until it can't anymore right.

So it absorbs the heat, pulls it away from the valve because it has moisture in it. But once the moisture evaporates or you know at some point, it can't displace the heat anymore and it's going to absorb into the valve then so that's why it's so important that you get it done and you get it off. But you want to be careful about putting your fingers on it because you'll burn your fingers, but you need to get it off there when it's still burning hot. So that way, it's not, you know pushing the heat or the valve's, not absorbing the heat too.

So this is not meant to be on there for a long time. It's meant to just be on there real quick absorb the heat, pull it off, move on all right. That's it we're ready, i'm going to put a tarp over it, because it's going to be a couple days, but did pretty much everything we can all right. We are doing things a little bit different today, we're starting the equipment replacement on this guy, but we're gon na do this in phases.

Uh, the the walk-in box itself has two evaporator coils and we're actually gon na be removing one coil for today make the job easier. When we come to do the full system swap um. The two coil setup that they have here is is kind of redundant when it comes to the load. They need it, but we've got a very low uh heat infiltration right now and uh.

It's it's gon na, be fine, so anyways, i'm pumping the system down right now i front seated the receiver uh and then we're gon na cut one evaporator coil out of the picture braze the line shut, install the new evaporator coil, but we're not gon na hook. It up to the system and then go from there. I truly hate taking out the fire sprinkler ceiling, tiles right here, those things suck man all right, so we've got two coils. We have one right here: that's actually iced up we're de-icing that to get them going temporarily, and this coil is coming out today and we're going to hang the new coil wire it in.

So the fans are moving air and go from there all right. So this is the line set for the beer coil and this isn't ideal, but sometimes you got to do what you got to do so what i did was i there's the line set going to the condensing unit, and this was just the t so just to Make things easy i just grabbed these pinched it off and braised them shut, and then we're going to pull an evacuation and get the condensing unit back and running on that single coil and then we're gon na that way. It can still cool down the box and then we'll uh get started on doing those lines and changing that other coil, but yeah. This is gon na be a two day process, but the box is operating with food in it the entire time.

So we don't have time to do a complete shutdown. I would love if they would do a refrigerated cooler and stuff, but it's just not practical in restaurants. Most of the time, this is an interesting one. There's a a suction reader.

A discharge read bad in this compressor again, this system is being replaced, but i tried to do a pump down to isolate that one coil and no matter what i do. I pumped it down to nothing and you see that that's coming from there, so i ended up having the front seat the suction service valve and the gas is leaking. So i'm getting the pressure from this side of the compressor right now, so the valve is actually leaking by. So this is going to be interesting, because i need to pull an evacuation on this guy and i can't really do that.

What i'm gon na have to do is go downstairs to the evaporator and pull the evacuation down there, because i went ahead and front seated this valve, so there's no more refrigerant flow on this side and uh. That way, i can pull an evacuation on the line set. The compressor never ran out of gas because the reed is leaking by this is uh. You know, sometimes you run into this stuff all right.

Well, i'm hooked up there pulling right here so we're just pulling from the low side super heat port and it's just pulling on the line set. Essentially we're going to turn this coil on, so it pulls through the solenoid valve too. All right, i went ahead and opened everything back up. Um, we evacuated the line set, we're going gon na turn this guy back on and then do a leak check on my little pinch-offs and make sure nothing's bad there.

Let this guy run. Oh, it's actually gon na pump down because the king valve's still front-seated. It's such a trip that this is happening. I forgot about that.

There we go now, i'm opening it up yeah. This is interesting. I mean i've come across suction, reeds, but never been in this situation, where i was trying to remove a coil from one of them when we had a bad valve, i'm hoping that this thing will still limp through uh, with just the one coil since the suction Valve's, bad, you know it's inefficient. Essentially, so, hopefully we can get by.

I soaked them up, there's no leaks, so we're good for now we're gon na get pulling down that other coil. So they have an outdoor walk-in with a rubber membrane roof, and you know, usually i would just penetrate the rubber membrane and then tell them to call a roofer and the roofer would patch it up. But this one was unique in that it just had flashing on the outside, so i can get to two of the coil bolts right here. So i'm gon na try to take this flashing off right here.

So i could peel it back, hopefully just enough to get to the other two coil bolts and then that'd be kind of cool um. I could still have them call a roofer in after just to make sure that everything's sealed up. You know properly, but i think i can do this, so it was a chore, but it came up. I got some fittings here, some flashing.

I can get to those two there's that one right there, the other one's tight but we'll be able to do it. The new coil has different bolt patterns. I believe i hope it does, because i just went through all this um. These ones are right here, so yeah, that's nice, okay, so we're gon na go down and get this coil removed right now.

So what we do is put tech screws to temporarily hold it up, and then we remove the nuts. These ones are double nutted, one holding it up, one on the outside, but anyways we remove the nut and then these tack screws are holding the coil and then, when we're ready, we'll drop the coil by just removing the tech screws. It's just easier that way. All right, it's not going to be perfect, but because of the the rubber membrane on the roof, it's hard to get to two corners of it and with that being said, i'm able to line up two bolt holes exactly now.

It's not going to be completely centered anymore, it'll be off by about two inches, but it's okay, that'll be fine! So we're going to reuse two of the bolt holes drill, two new ones in the spot, where it's easy to access. We got one side bolted in like i wanted. You can see that there's a nut above it that's the way that they came from the factory and then we just put a washer and another nut. So this side is good.

This whole side, this side is being held up with tech screws at the moment, but we're going to go ahead and drill the holes through and we'll have to because of the offset we'll have to fix the drain, we'll cut it and redo it. That's not a big deal and we still got to cut these lines because we're not connecting through there anymore we're going to be connecting out the side of the box. Okay, so we've got my hole, drilled right there. I ended up drilling a new hole through the wall.

Everything's going to be new, you can see the back of my coil, so electrical and refrigeration lines are going to run through that come out and then we're going to have to tie into everything else over there. So we got this coil running and i i tricked it into thinking. It had. Basically it's two-speed fan, so i i redid the wiring just so that it would run on speed temporarily, even though the solenoid valve is not calling so we'll deal with that.

When we come back, but at least they'll have air movement from this side now, okay, so we're going to crimp this top one it's in there. Okay, now we're crimped right here. We're crimped right here we're good on that we got it marked we're going to come down here, which is going to be tricky. Just give myself a mark that way.

I know it hasn't moved. There's the jaws we're in okay, so we're crimped all the way right here, we're going to go ahead and slide some insulation over and then do on the inside of the box. Now all right. I want to stop right here and explain the real importance of following the proper procedures with the zoom lock max, okay, so standard piece of pipe right here: okay, real quick, super, easy we're going to cut the pipe seems simple enough right now, while i'm cutting this.

I want to talk about the zoom lock max. The zoom lock max, in my opinion, is not the tool for for the stuff that i do every single day. It's not going to be something i'm going to use every single time, i'm not going to stop braising. Copper but there's certain times that this tool is a great resource and it can save you time in the long run in certain situations.

Now, if you're dealing with fire watch conditions, if you have to ask for permission to braise and things like that, that's where this tool sells itself, okay, so, first and foremost, we got a piece of pipe right here. Okay, we cut this piece of pipe all right. It's so important that proper refrigeration practices say that we deburr this pipe. Okay, deburring the pipe keeps little crappy things from floating around in the system, so you've got a pencil deburring tool.

You just run it through there boom. Okay same thing: right here, pencil deburring tool run it through there boom all right now. That is not really of any concern with the zoom lock max. The most important part to deburr is the outside of the pipe.

Of course. We still want to deburr the inside. Okay, because proper refrigeration practices tell us that we should deburr the inside. This right here is an outside deburring tool.

Right, you got to be careful and make sure you do not. When you use the pencil d-bearing tool flare out, the pipe next thing we're going to do is take some abrasive pad and we're just going to clean it up. You don't want to leave big scratches we're just polishing the pipe okay. That's all that we're doing polishing the pipe.

It's important that we don't want to do scratches like this, scratches like this are going to lead to potential refrigerant leaks. Okay, so just like this deeper i mean uh polish, the pipe and then i'm gon na take um. Another piece right here and polish: it even more so each one of these pieces of scotch brite this one right here is more abrasive than this lavender or purple or whatever color. You want to call it okay, so i do that to polish it and we should not feel any sharp edges right here.

You should actually feel kind of a bevel going in, and i do so we're going to do this next one. It's very sharp we're going to take this guy right here, run it over here next one right here, all right, we're going to inspect the pipe it looks good. I don't feel any sharp edges now really important is we're going to look and what a lot of people don't realize is on copper pipe right here. If you look at this copper pipe, it's actually kind of laser engraved.

It says mueller, copper, right here. Okay, you can kind of see it right there that is actually a potential leak source. Okay, so we need to make sure if that is there, what you're going to do is take some sandpaper spin. It just like i did with the scotch brite just like that.

Get it to where you can't feel the groove or can't see the groove, then polish, it up with the other abrasive pads that little bit of laser engraved, whatever that is, is going to cause a problem so got to make sure it's not there all right, we're Just kind of there was still a little bit of a burr on this guy right here, all right, so now we're good all right. We're dealing with 5 8 acr copper right here. I have a 5 8 zoom lock max fitting. Yes, we can jam it on there and press it, but it's really important that we mark the pipe properly and follow all the proper practices.

I've got a marker right here, we're going to put it in the depth gauge and you're going to mark the depth. Okay boom done next, one put it in the depth gauge mark the depth. Now, we've already cleaned it, so it's safe to put it into the pot and to the fitting boom, see how the mark goes all the way around. Now i like to go ahead and finish that mark all right and then we're going to do the same right here: push it in boom.

It went all the way down and i'm going to go ahead and finish that mark all the way around and it's so important to mark it all the way around. If that fitting pops out for whatever reason and you don't have a mark there, you might not catch that it popped out. So that mark is so important as we're prepping, because look as you start to move it it's coming out and if you press it there might not be enough meat on there for the press tool to grab and properly seal the copper. Okay.

Let's talk about taking the skill out of the trade, this is not getting rid of any skill. If you guys are people saying that this is dumbing down the trade. This is not dumbing down the trade. This is actually making the trade smarter because we have another tool in our arsenal all right, so we're gon na go ahead and give it one solid actuation to make sure that the tool is properly calibrated, we're pushed on and we're going to go ahead and press Simple as that, okay, then, what we're gon na do is go ahead and mark the fitting i like to do this for later in case you're worried about the fitting moving or anything like that.

We have a mark going up and down and a mark going. The other way that way you can come back and say hey this something's twisting this thing's, not sealed whatever. I nobody ever told me to do that. I just thought it was a good idea.

I think i saw it on a video or something okay, so that is pressed and ready to go slide some insulation over it call it a day right. It does not take the skill out of the trade, it's not dumbing down the trade. In fact, you have to put more attention to detail using the zoom lock max and if you don't you're, going to cause problems the same thing as if you're brazing, if you're not cleaning your copper, if you don't have a clean work surface, when you're brazing, it Will uh potentially cause future leaks so again, there's there's a reason and a use for this tool. Okay, for me personally, this is not an everyday use, but this gets me out of a bind in a certain situation, so in this video that you guys are watching right now i had a lot of piping and i thought this was a perfect example to use This tool, because it gets into those tight places in the attic all right, let's go and get back on with the video okay um we've got everything marked we're ready to go.

We're going to crimp these guys in right now. So we're going to start with this one right here: the tool on there push the button one two three, this one's a little bit trickier: four: five: six: okay, we're all crimped, we're ready, nice and solid, we'll support it on the other side slide the insulation on And we got to do this 3 8 line now, okay, so this one is a little tricky and then it's super tight. So i already crimped the bottom, but we need to crimp this top and then i got to push it in so i actually had to loosen it on the top. So i'm going to go ahead and get on this guy tricky tricky.

This one is there. We go okay, cool, okay, so this guy's crimped now we're gon na have to crimp the top up here and then we'll do that in a minute when we slide another fitting in there, because we can still work with that once it's back where it's supposed to Be all right: well, that's it for today we're in we're pressed all the way to about right here and then we'll make the connections, because there's going to be a t right there when we change this coil so currently right now, this coil is running the whole Box, but that's why it was so important to get these fans over here running now. I am coming back on wednesday and it's monday, so it's going to be two days. We still got to do the drains um, but the electrical's done so all right, cool we're.

Just cleaning our tools up now, all right, it is uh install day it's early sun's just coming up right now, we're starting as usual, with a pump down we're pumping down at the receiver, um gon na figure out why my low pressure's so low. I have a feeling we're not calling and the pressure controls out of whack, but we're pumping it down into the receiver i'll shove. My gauges in here. The crane will lift the unit down and my technician will recover the charge down on the ground.

That's how i usually do it all right, so i want to show you guys something - and this is so important, so we turned off the breaker for the walk-in cooler, the three-phase power coming up. I heard the solenoid valve shut off, but we always double check. Okay. 18 volts to ground one 118 to ground 118 to ground.

Now we already figured this out somehow it's tied into the walk-in freezer. So when we shut off the walk-in freezer and the walk-in cooler, we lose all three phase, but when we shut off just the walk-in cooler, we only lose one leg of power. That is so not good. So we're gon na have to figure that out later, but for now we're gon na disconnect this shut off the other one isolate it turn the other one back on, so the freezer can still run but yeah.

That's not good. All right. We got the new condensing unit set. We moved it that way, we're not discharging into the ac.

That's perfect units start running across cool and we're getting started on the line set. Now it's not turning out the way that i wanted it to, but that's how these jobs retrofit jobs go. Sometimes you got to deal with things. You know it's not ideal because of access and stuff like that, we're going to have to reuse some of the original lines which i'm you know not a fan of, but it is what it is okay, so it's not ideal but we're going to reuse a section Of the pipe so we're reducing right here to 7 8 to 5 8 and then we'll connect to my lines that are over there.

So all right, we're uh we're on. I marked it a couple times to make sure that we got a good grip on it. Going right there, okay, that one's nice and good it's where it's supposed to be we're good, all right! We're gon na move on to the next one; okay, so we're gon na crimp this last 5 8 one i've already marked it and everything; okay, so we're crimped! There marked so that way. We know that it doesn't turn we're going to move on to the next one.

Okay, we're gon na go ahead and crimp the ends underneath real, quick, all right, hard drawn acr pipe. I don't have zooblock max 90, so we're going to anneal this pipe and bend it okay. So, in order the process to anneal, it is you're going to heat it up and then you're gon na rapidly cool it and then you'll be able to bend the acr pipe. So my pin point is gon na be right around that black mark, so we're gon na heat it up really good till it's cherry red.

Normally i'd be purging with nitrogen but i'll just blow it out when i'm done and you're going to rapidly cool it. Careful not to burn your hand and then once you rapidly cool it, the pipe is annealed and you can use the tubing bender on it. So my mark is still good. I can still see it right here, so all that we're going to do is take the half inch tubing bender find my mark and we're going to bend it.

We got a nice clean, bend, no problems. Now. If we didn't anneal it, the pipe could have. Cracked could have kinked could have done anything so nice and good all right now's the test.

We still have standing pressure in the condensing and minimal nitrogen we're gon na go ahead and open this guy up and we're gon na. Do a pressure test on this guy. Make sure that we have no leaks so we'll get up to about 150 psi and then see where that gets us. I'm currently feeding on both sides right now, yeah we're just gon na.

Let it go until we get up to 150 psi. All right. We've been running for about 13 minutes again, i didn't let it run too long. We changed point eight now i'll tell you why we change point eight, because when i started the test, i did not have the solenoid valves open, even though i had my gauges open.

I didn't have the solenoid valves open so once i opened them, the nitrogen filled the cavity of each solenoid valve and it's just a minute amount. But that's where you get that 0.8 change from so i feel confident that we're leak-free we're going to go and do an evacuation now. So we got the pump set up and we're going to get hooked up. All right got the vacuum, pump hooked up core removal tools, micron gauge i've got the gas ballast open right.

Now it's got the red light on once we get to about 1500 1000 ish microns i'll, go ahead and close the gas ballast and then we'll uh go ahead and continue on now. I'm also pulling from both sides at some point, i'll, probably close. The low side and just pull from the high side or something of that sort, we'll see all right. So this is a true micron reading 573 and i'm only pulling from the suction side the liquid side's closed.

You can see right here, so we're gon na give it a little bit longer and then we'll do a decay test, but we're looking good so far. All right we're getting ready to charge it uh, i'm using r448a from honeywell, really haven't, had any problems with this refrigerant i i know people are afraid because it has a high glide and it's a blend, but i've had nothing but great success with it. It works amazing, i mean exactly as i would expect it to be, just like any other refrigerant, so um. So what we're gon na do uh is we're going to i'm.

I just got done evacuating my gauges, we're gon na charge into the receiver. I'm gon na front seat the king valve we're gon na dump as much gas into there as possible and then we'll let the flow release through the receiver from the king valve when we're ready. So i'm gon na pump it down um. We still need to purge the lines so in order to do that, open your tank and then because this is a blend.

Obviously, we need to invert the cylinder so that we get liquid refrigerant right like that and then uh liquid coming out and we're basically ready to dump it into the high side using the field piece wireless scale. I dig that um. It connects with the manifold uh. The maximum refrigerant charge for this system, i believe, is 15 pounds.

If i remember right, so that's what we're going to start at 15 pounds we'll check the receiver level after that, but more than likely that's going to be enough gas, so we're just dumping it in there letting it take as much as possible. And i do that because someone asked me recently: why do i charge with the receiver pump down because i'm trying to control instead of just dumping a bunch of refrigerant into the system? I prefer to let it all go from that valve when i'm ready for the system to start up, so we just keep adding it in there so by front seating. This valve, it's not leaving the liquid line. It's not going through there.

It's just dumping into the receiver and being stuck between the high side and the receiver running through the condenser and just storing it in there. Until i release it from that valve all right, it wouldn't take any more gas. We got about almost seven pounds before so i opened it up, turned it on and now we're charging the remainder in through the low side. Again, i'm going for 15 pounds and then i'll check the receiver level to make sure it's not over three quarters and we'll mark it for the next guy all right, my evaporator coil is down to temperature, it's about 35.6 degrees and uh.

My super heat is on point 9.7 degrees and 10.7 degrees, i'm not going to adjust it for that. I'm using multiple super heat mode and measure quick um, so we're looking good there, i'm just kind of cleaning things up. I got to seal up some holes that we have and different things like that, so we're looking good, though i still got to check my liquid level on the roof too, but i wanted to catch this superheat first make sure the valves are working like they were Supposed to be - and they are so i'm testing right now to see if the fans slow down when it satisfies and something's funky there's something funky going on. So i got to figure that out.

There's still a mistake there, somewhere in the wiring, because the fans aren't slowing down all right. I think i figured it out. I had a wire crossed um and i have a calm wire, the blue one running over to that coil. That's just actuating the solenoid valve in the two-speed relay, so i think there was a mess up right there.

So, let's test it again. So when we do this, we're going to turn it to 45 46. Okay, both of them slowed down. So that's good and solenoid.

Valve's turned off, so we are good. Now, all right now i got ta get back to finishing up, sealing up the holes and stuff. So when i'm doing the spray foam i'll put a little bit in there, you know in the area that i want it, use this metal tape and then slowly seal it up and then, as i seal it up, we'll uh. You know we'll leave a small opening and we'll fill in the rest of the gaps um.

I just did this one over here. You know back there and it's nice and sealed it's all good. So all right, we are wrapping it up. Uh the unit satisfied a couple times while i was up here, marking the receiver and stuff.

So i marked the liquid level with the maximum amount of refrigerant from the factory that you can put in this system. That's making an assumption that the system is designed right, um and uh. You know, because if it had a really really long line set or something like that, theoretically, it could need more gas and you'd have to oversize the receiver. But i think we're pretty good with this one um everything turned out pretty good, i mean i wish i would have been able to redo the whole line set, but unfortunately it's not really in the budget um we just redid what we could everything's secured down.

We're. Looking good all right, that's just the basic installation that i go through the process. These installations, especially the retrofit ones, um they're, not always perfect. Okay, i try, of course, to do you know everything the right way, but sometimes you can't budget limitations um.

You know uh attic limitations, different things like that in this situation, uh, you know the decision was made not to replace the entire line set now, there's repercussions because of that in in our situation. Here it's very minimal, i'm not too worried about it um, but you know i don't like the fact that i went from you know. I reused a section of inch and an eighth suction line. You know that is gon na mess with the pressure drop um.

You know that is potentially going to mess a little bit with oil return on the compressor uh. But you know sometimes you just have to deal with what you have: okay, the again limitations by the customer, the the equipment, the the location of everything. It is what it is. You know you can't always be perfect, so um, nothing too crazy about this video, but i did use the zoom lock max press tool.

Okay, um and i explained in the video and i'm gon na - explain it again using that tool. Does not dumb down the industry? Okay, it does not take the skill out of the trade there's a lot of thought and process that needs to go into using the zoom, lock max tool now put in the hands of someone who doesn't understand how to use it or doesn't follow the installation. Instructions. Sure there's going to be problems, but you could say the same thing about brazing if you put a brazing torch into someone's hands and they try to brazen the line set and they don't follow proper refrigeration practices.

They're gon na run into problems. Okay, um again addressing the whole dummy down the industry. Again, it's it's! It's not dumbing down the industry, it's making the industry more robust because we have more tools at our disposal. Okay, so i i don't buy that claim that you know i i just.

I think that claim of people saying it's dumbing down. The industry is either ignorance or it's fear in my opinion, and i don't mean to offend anybody, i'm just saying you know people don't understand, you know the tool and people don't understand how to install it. Maybe i mean i don't completely understand why people are so. You know angry and the hatred that comes when people say that they're going to use a press tool - oh you're, just don't know how to do things.

That's that statement alone. When someone says you use that tool, because, apparently you don't know how to brace now that's offensive. If someone says that to me, because i know how to braise, you know, i chose to use a tool. You know you don't necessarily know all the reasons as to why i use a tool so again, um, it's not dumbing down the industry.

Okay, it's another tool in our arsenal that we can utilize when need be. Okay, some people may get more use out of it than others. I myself don't get as much use out of it, but i've used it a few times and it's helped me out in a pinch a few times and uh the reliability i mean i haven't, had any issues and you know a lot of other people use the Zoom lock max tool with the press fittings all the time and they don't have issues. Okay, you know sure people sometimes do have issues, but i would argue that it has a lot to do with improper installation practices.

Okay, let's flip it. On the flip side, people complain all the time about head pressure, control valves, okay, oh those things are they're, the worst they always get plugged up. They always stick they're, always a problem, and i would argue that the head pressure control valve is not the problem because most of the failures in a head pressure control valve that i have ever seen a valve sticking or something like that - has to do with contamination And i even have videos that i've shown where i i had a head pressure control valve that was stuck open. It was bleeding by and i very carefully took it out and i took it apart and i could literally see the metal shaving that was stuck in it.

That was making it stick open. So that's because of improper installation practices. Okay. So, if we're not following the proper installation practices, the guidelines that the manufacturers put out to us force input name of whatever we're installing or using okay, there's gon na be repercussions because of that right.

So we got ta, follow the installation, instructions and or understand the potential problems that may come up if we don't follow those installation instructions and i'm gon na be honest here, there's times that i do certain things and i don't follow what the manufacturer says, but i'm Taking ownership of that and willing to accept the repercussions that may come of it right, you understand so i'm going off on a tangent here, but i mean i really get frustrated when people say that oh that's, dumbing down the industry or you're taking the skill out Of the trade, if you look at how much work has to go into using the zoom lock max tool right, if you follow all the installation instructions, if you read the installation manuals, if you talk to the manufacturer and listen to their guidelines, you'll quickly realize there's A a large process that you have to go through to use that tool. Okay, so it still requires brain power. You know you can't just put it in the hands of someone and just expect everything to work out perfect, because if they don't follow the installation instructions you're going to run into a problem, you could not just simply put the zoom lock max tool in an apprentice's Hand - and you know he installs an entire system - the odds are you're gon na have a problem if he doesn't go through the proper procedures. Okay, so i chose to use the tool right.

It's it's it's a great resource to have and i think it's a great tool to keep on the truck in the situations like what i ran into. I had a very big piping job. I didn't want to braise in the attic. It was going to be some very awkward inconvenient places to brazen and, yes, i could have done it.

Yes, i could have brazed in the line set. I could have right, but i said hey, you know what i have this tool. This would be the perfect place. I'm going to use it and it worked out great okay.

So are we saying the industry's going to go to press tools only no there's always going to be brazing. I still have to braze in the expansion valve. On a flip note, i didn't get an opportunity to say this, but they do offer sporelin sight, glasses and sporelin, liquid dryers and many other components that are zoom lock max compatible. So that's something to think about.

Okay in the future, because again, there's certain situations - and i know that some people have never been in the weird situations, but i have where you're working in a government building or a hospital situation, and they don't want you to braze, while people are in the building. So therefore you have to they basically have to have you come in on a sunday. They have to shut down the fire alarm systems. It's a big giant, lengthy process if you've ever had to fill out a burn permit or a braze permit.

You know what i'm talking about. It could be a pain in the butt, so something like this could be a great resource in that situation. Okay, so anyways, now that i went off on a tangent uh, this was uh. You know an in a normal installation.

We ran into problems we made do with what we had. We solved some some issues. You know you saw the condensing unit, i turned it because it was facing the wrong direction. I went ahead and took care of that.

So that way, it's not discharging the air into the ac anymore, like it was um the electrical problem. We ran into that's interesting, we're still waiting on the electrician to solve that problem. That was a whole nother thing, but you know that kind of stuff still comes up and it blows my mind that that we've never really ran into that problem and or seen that problem before, because we've worked on that equipment many times. But apparently, we've never been in the situation where um, or at least i never was in the situation where i realized what was going on there and sometimes that's why you always have to double check when you're testing voltage when you're turning things off like i said In the video i turned off, i had someone turn off the breaker downstairs and i heard the condensing unit click.

I heard the solenoid valve disengage. Okay, assume hey the power's off yeah, but in some situations it's not and in this situation they crossed up. I think they crossed up two different breakers. I'm hoping the problem is simple: to fix right at the breaker panel, because at the breaker panel there's two circuit breakers, one on top of the other and i'm hoping that we can just go in there and identify which conductors are going to which side and literally Just switch one conductor is what i'm thinking we can do, but hey we'll see once the electrician comes out and we open up the panel and figure it out.

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