I wonder how the compressor survived. Perhaps this AC deserves a monument for its willingness to work when everytning is against it. Great big picture repair, man!
@@Somebody3120 Oh, you'd be amazed. I saw several Reefer unit where you couldn't see any oil in the compressor and they were jugging along (not happy, but they kept running)
@@Thomas-lq1jw It was cycling off on the internal high temp limit was what saved it. Unfortunately I've had a lot of those compressors that happened too often too, from bad run caps to two failed condenser fan motors, and eventually that internal high limit that breaks the common or black terminal just won't reset after it's been popped too many times. The compressor itself was probably fine, but it's not practical to cut open a scroll and try to dig that thing out and replace it.
I remember when that coremax tool was decently affordable.....now its like $600-800 for it. I used to have one many years ago...I believe I paid like $175. This was like back in 2007,2008 time frame. They haven't changed or improved it since then either. The price of everything has sky rocketed. Seems like every company has gone along with the times......raise the price...raise it again. I normally with coremax nowadays is just throw a swivel tee on them when they are leaking, unless the leak is from the threads
I can’t believe how much this channel has grown. I remember subscribing when you had only a grand total of 4 or 5 videos. Yes, I always live by your motto “Big Picture “ & because of it, it makes me a better technician at my facility & helps me to catch problems that my fellow coworkers miss or do not see. Of course I also recommend your channel to them but they do not watch or want to educate themselves. That’s ok though. Their loss is my gain. Thanks Chris for these great videos. I’m located to the south of you in San Diego.
Because we all desire his structured mentality. I often say i’ve got to be kin to chris, glad i found his channel because it lets me know im not the only crazy ocd tech in the field and general life. there’s to few like him in the world and thats why america is failing from being the greatest country in the world! his vidz keep me driving becauss now i know im not alone with my process with everything.
As a new tech, watching you know the ABCs, airflow before charge is a great reminder. We were just taught and reminded by our superiors to know our ABCs. This is something I totally may have missed as far as taking the time to wash that evaporator coil. Great stuff as always.!
That is the same high flow core used on Goodman units. That tool is expensive. The manager at a local supply house found out that if a unit is under warranty, he could submit the tool with the valve core and get the tool covered under warranty. Im not sure if icp, Temp Star, bryant, or Carrier would, but Goodman will.
I’d be overwhelmingly ocd’d into trying to comb out the evaporator coil for some reason. But here it’s so roached out that the fins would probably disintegrate. Reminds me of the dorms in college where people would beat exposed evaporators in until they just looked like solid aluminum, then complain about how hot it was. As a commuter my response was nice and cool for me. Just topped up the ol’ Harrison in the Olds with some fresh R-12. The ignorance some people, even technicians, display with basic machinery is astounding.
@@jollygreen4639 Yeah had a Cutlass with one of those 80’s pancake shaped ones from Harrison. Don’t remember them being super reliable (probably because people never maintained them), but it did have good AC.
Thank you for these videos definitely helps a lot you showing us your knowledge how you explain these things. You’re actually local to me so good to know we have guys that care in my area thank you!
Chris your videos are absolutely full of experience and information. Please keep them going. Any recorded service call is a new lesson! I'm in the field for 10 years and I've done bidding, installs, maintenance, projects and automation and I'd love to work with you guys (I've already emailed you a resume before).
I usually to think to charge the system 1st but by explaining to check the airflow but charging system. Thank you for that information. I will now take that in the field with me for now on.
Watching your video inspires me. Don’t know a lick about hvac but I’ve been learning from you. You do a lot of thinking and your right no one is perfect but you do a lot of brainstorming and always go back to square one
"Always look at the big picture of life" *humms along* :D Holy moly, what did they do to that poor Evap? Also with nothing holding that filter, I think there is a high chance it gets sucked againgst the coil, sucks up condesation and then blocks the airflow
a couple of grand to get it working looks a lot better than $15,000 for a new package unit, which needs crane rental to get old one off and new one on the roof.
That looks exactly like Carrier units we had on a building, they had an internal trap on the condensate pan outlet. The other HVAC technicians tried to prove I didn’t know what I was doing. They put traps on four units, late Friday, flooded the unoccupied building over the weekend. BTW I used three 2” x 12” x 24” Pleated filters on the unit. The filter channel is convertible to two inches thick filters.
@@jrsmyth9761 They will slide in the track from the middle, with the coil access panel open. You have to wiggle them into place, I used Blue Masking Tape on the Filters to tie them together for no air leaks. I used to get a year out of the Filters, the building was used as alternate classroom space and had occupied offices in one zone. For cleaning Evaporators, I would take heavy cardboard, coat it with Paraffin and keep it behind the shelving, in my van. I could block the Return duct so water didn’t go down it when cleaning the Evaporator. Also I had a choke for my Power Washer Wand. Plus a Right Angle Attachment for reaching deep into a unit, to spray the coil.
@@jrsmyth9761 Are you sure? If the drain doesn’t make a gurgling sound when the unit has run for a while, or doesn’t dump a bunch of water out when the fan stops, it’s internally trapped.
Really enjoyed this video. Your channel was recommended to me by a coworker and this is a really informational video, completely worth the subscribe, specially for new techs like me. Greetings from Puerto Rico.
Being a air condition and refrigeration engineer for the age of 14 till the age of 54 I came with the same mindset into trading I went to different engineering school extremely a lot of feildl experience a lot of modification customization I own two refrigeration company service and a repair company also improving engineering for the manufacturer with feedback most of them experience came from mistakes on the field most of them you cannot get in a textbook or in a troubleshooting book some things you have to experience yourself to know
If they would make the core-max tool affordable they would sell more of them. I thought $200 was expensive now that they have quadrupled the price it’s ridiculous! I will keep putting a tee fitting on them and save myself and the customer some $. #thanksjoe #buildbackbetter 😂😂😂
I am an old dinosaur 🦕 in my young days??R-12 was king! But regardless of all my many years of heavy commercial, light commercial an residential. I still every so often learn something new or better from your videos! At my age I should have retired years ago but working an helping the employees keeps my mind young an active. An if it’s any thing I have learned in life is Old dogs can always learn new tricks!!😂😂 an I am always telling my Tecks when they make a mistake/ boo boo “ did you learn anything???” An I always tell them my late grandfather’s words he said to me “ If we don’t make mistakes in life son we don’t learn a dam thing “ yes has been a few time I wanted to beat my head into a cement wall after they tell me and I know it’s going to cost me a grand or two to fix their screw up but I also remind myself that once I was in their shoes an screwed up… But should an Teck make mistakes over an over and the same?? I play the softball/ baseball rules, strike one strike two strike three out of here… if they are making the same identical mistake! Kinda like first time on me second time shame on you and the third time this ain’t gonna happen no more… However 3 of my Tecks do follow and watch your teaching videos and your videos are many times a morning coffee conversation before we start our day . An it make me proud when I hear them say “” hay I learned something last night on HVACR videos.. So what I am trying to to say is never underestimate how useful and important your videos are. You keeping it real and honest, and even showing your mistake, impresses them that you’re truthful in real life.. ❤ ( edited fur a spell boo boo)
"Old dogs can always learn new tricks", it's so clever to read this, Nice to be open minded to new thing and not do things based on outdated things. It must have be great to work with you !
I was in the trade for about 40 years. 7 years I worked at a large hotel, then a college til I retired from there. I knew the buildings and the equipment. But I’d get stumped on things many times over the years. I would go back to my old textbooks, then onto the internet when it became the go-to for info. Not ashamed of it. I’d call guys I knew through the trade and ran it by them, to get a second opinion. And I always had a good relationship with counter guys at the local supply houses to ask about problems guys run by them to see if it’s
i think that i havent even see those coremax shraeders here where i live, and now grocery stores are moving to use co2 (R-744) systems for refrigeration and on those all it's basically illegal to use shraeders. Just ball valves on t-junction with 1/4 connector.
Excelente video y muy buenos consejos mi estimado Chris, es muy importante hacer sacrificios para invertir en herramientas para desempeñar los trabajos adecuados, los beneficios llegarán posteriormente.. Gracias por todos tus consejos Chris. Saludos desde Coacalco Edo de México.
Man I love your videos mate. Great job. I would honestly work for you for free just to pick your brain. Too bad I’m in Australia. Keep up the good work and appreciate you doing these videos for everyone.
Thank you for sharing your words at the end. True facts, we are not perfect, we are like bloodhounds detectives trying to figure out the cause of the issue. We may go to the left some and then to the right, but at the end we figure out the cause of the issue. That is what matters, that we Figure out the cause of the issue.
Chris great video, where can I get that long allen thandle tool? Also, im confused, the fan motor ran when you connected the comp. Wire to the cap. Why is that?
Owner: "How long will the unit last now?" With how long that compressor was basically cooking itself by single-phasing, could be 2 weeks, could be 10 years.
I hate those Tempstar package units. They're very hard to work on, it's a royal pain to replace that super expensive ECM blower motor. One thing that does help is since it's a Carrier brand, you can get a Totaline motor from a Bryant supply house that will work, and it's a factory authorized replacement brand for out of warranty units. It's basically the same as like what Tempstar calls the "FASTOem" brand. I have many of those units around where I am, and one restaurant had 5 of these turds. All but 1 were low on charge. Watch out for that external equalizer line, when they slapped those turds together at the factory, they didn't care how it was routed. Had one of the 1 units that line rubbed right thru and nearly wore a hole thru the liquid line that it was rubbing against. It didn't wear all the way thru the larger pipe, so I was able to lightly sand it a bit and put a layer of 15% silphos braze over it. I didn't like the factory location of the equalizer line, so I ended up just pinching and brazing off the 2-3" stub where it broke off and just drilled another hole in the suction line close to where the bulb is mounted, and brazed it back in. It only shorted the eq line by maybe 3" once I cut off the mangled part. weighed in 10 lbs and it worked good after that. Yes I should have changed the drier, but it's an old unit. Two or maybe even 3 more big design flaws. First, that induced draft motor is a total nightmare to get out, it looks like you have to remove a ton of other stuff just to get to it, no excuse for that. Should be a max of 4 long screws, one molex plug and it should be out of there. So on that unit with the bad inducer, I just removed the W1 wire off the board to disable the heat. That part of the restaurant never ever gets cold anyway, it's upstairs in the VIP lounge/bar area, heat rises so it stays warm in the winter even at night. Another big issue like you saw with that folded air filter mess (what were they thinking, that filter media would have acted like a sponge and got soaking wet and then sucked on to the coil!), is there is no factory filter rack option, and the amount of screws and awkward panels you have to remove to even get access to the filter is also too much time. Shouldn't take more than 30 seconds to walk up to a unit and check the filters. Lennox you just open two handles and swing a door open that is clearly marked "filter access". Trane, you take like 3 5/16" screws, and pull a panel off. Bryant/Carrier larger like 7.5-10 ton units there's a door you just lift up and take off, zero tools required filter change (as it should be). Another big flaw is the condenser coil surface area is far too small. Yes there's enough coil and fin to dissipate the BTU's, it meets the minimum 13 SEER requirements, but in the real world, a small amount of cottonwood seeds on that little coil, sends the head pressure rapidly up to 400+. Not good. I think these small package units were meant for the residential or tiny commercial market and are designed to be used with return air filter grills. Well, that's a big problem, because most of those on the market only take 1" filters, and in a commerical application you really need a minimum of 2" thick filters because with 100's of units around, who has time to replace filters every month or two. I like units that are big enough I can change the filters once a year in the Spring when it's cool on the roofs... that works if its like a 20 ton american standard/trane unit on a clean store like I have a big furniture store for a customer, and even after 1 year, the filters still look nearly white. I still replace them every year because trying to schedule an 18 month interval just wouldn't work, plus it gets very hot and humid in the summer where I am, and having very clean new filters at the beginning of summer is crucial. Another problem with return air filter grills, is they're pretty restrictive, and on a 5 ton system you'd need to run enough duct to at least 2 20x25" grills and that's a lot of grill visible in a space that might not work with the stores decor ideas... I've seen a lot of buildings with only a single 16x20 grill trying to feed a 5 ton carrier unit on the roof, but that gets a little noisy. Carrier does make a 5 ton package unit that fits on a more standard curb with the filter access door, and it uses 4 16x16x2" air filters and has a factory install filter rack, but I guess those little Tempstar's was a lower bid.
The one good thing about those crappy units I guess is they made it fairly straight forward to replace the compressor. On the other hand, replacing the compressor should not or does not need to be easier than replacing the indoor blower motor, or that induced draft motor. At least you don't have to take the top off, and lean over and lift a compressor out. You can just take that corner piece out, and it's a piece of cake and they even left enough room for a guy to get some torches in there, and sweat it out, and then the drier & TXV is pretty easy to replace too.
I feel that yellow wire is a particular phase that's coming from the contactor to power the 1ph condenser fan & parallely the compressor. This particular Carrier's connection is really sketchy & carrier should not be looping a leg of phase of compressor via the capacitor
I'm 61 ,have been doing this for awhile. I am not a "A-tech" and should be a better tech, after 30+ years in HVAC , but I do ok. What kind of tech would leave a situation like this ? They have no business touching hvac equipment. Am I too critical ? I just watched a video where the tech came to Daiken 12 ton package RTU. Nothing operating. Why ? Someone replaced a multi voltage transformer, wired the wrong line voltage,never connected the 24 v wires, all safety controls bypassed, destroyed pc board,and all contactors severely charred. Some tech walks away from this abortion that he created. Not the contactors. But everything else. I am super critical of my work. And,I am not embarrassed to ask my boss for help. We all can't know everything.
The only thing different I would have done is to check the return air grills in kitchens as you well know they can get pretty nasty. Not Monday morning quarterbacking because you do a great service to our trade!
Those hi flow schraders cores as you call them, otherwise known as Coremax fittings, are notorious for leaks. GOOODDDDDD I hate those. I always have to recover what’s left of the refrigerant to change out the valves, then pull a vacuum and yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah… so time consuming. I gotta talk the boss into letting pick up one of those stupidly expensive Coremax tools.
5:40 - I bet you breathed a huge sigh of relief that the compressor started up and sounded decent. I know I did! I've learned quite a bit from watching you on this channel. I've previously mentioned how I learned about cleaning coils on in-window AC units to restore proper operation, and how we have half a dozen "window shakers" we've retired (but haven't scrapped yet) due to poor performance, and they most likely just need a good cleaning - so we've wasted thousands of dollars over several decades for no good reason! Well, last week my in-window unit decided to take a digger. It could only get my 10' x 12' bedroom to 87°F (90°F outdoors). So I put on my figurative "Chris' Big-Picture Hat" and started using just UA-cam knowledge and my five senses to figure out what the problem was. Symptoms? Compressor running, condenser and evaporator fans running, Cooling mode was selected, indoor air sensor reporting correctly, air coming from vents matched ambient temperatures. Pop open the filter cover, filter is clean, incoming air temp sensor wasn't touching the coil. Plenty of airflow across the coil, fins look great, no trace of oil or filth indicating a leak. Below the coil was some rusty condensation water, and there shouldn't be water on the indoor side, so I looked further. The main pipe running to the evaporator was iced-up, but all the tubes within the coil were not cool to the touch. Uncover the upper half of the window (I sleep in the morning, so I have a thick cloth covering the window from the AC's top edge up to the window frame) and shine my flashlight into the AC's case vents. I don't see any other evidence of ice, but visibility through the case slots and the window at that angle didn't show much. My thought process? "Well, it's TRYING to work. The compressor does turn off when I switch to Fan Only, and turns back on when I switch to Cool or Dehumidify, so it's not off on thermal, or from low/high pressure cutout, assuming it has those, I don't remember if I saw anything when I last cleaned it. It's not making any unusual noises. Unless the compressor is junk, it's an LG compressor in a TCL unit, but I'm leaning towards an airflow issue. Wait, did I even remember to clean the condenser coil last year?" Well, when I pulled the unit out of the window, the exterior side of the condenser looked clean. But now that I could see through the slots in the case better, I saw all sorts of crud and gunk on the interior side of the condenser. Guess I DID forget to clean it last year! 🤦♂ DUH!
I was always curious why they put two pole contactors in on a three phase service. I'm sure it's cost but always thought it was silly. And is it possible to retrofit a three pole in?
I think it depends on how they have the crank case heater wired. I know on split phase systems we only brake one leg because of the way the crank case heater is wired. Im sure you could slap a 3 phase contactor tho
As much money I make in trading on the futures market, it don't give me the rush of excitement as being a refrigeration engineer. This is 100% fax. I do day trading because I like the engineering process of trading just as well as the refrigeration engineer troubleshooting solving problem. Having other companies calling me for advice to figure out the problem. It's my favorite. I like keeping the brain cell working
On a system like that, are you using 3 clamps (suction, discharge, liquid) and 3 temp sensors (supply, return, outdoor?) and 2 pressure (low and high)?
Interesting…no bid to do all of this work? Charging customer by the hour? And what about measure quick? How do you like it? I’ve been thinking about launching it for my pm guys.
Time is money having the right to ol. You can finish the job and you can move on to the next job. Tools extremely important to match the knowledge. You could have the most amazing experience and knowledge and you do not have the right tool. It does not matter. It will contradict your experience, your knowledge, your troubleshooting talent. I know this from experience
2 is cheaper than 3, so even if it's a 3 phase motor, the manufacturer cut the cost and not cut the 3 leg that is an always on one. Never saw such a thing in europe.
Companies should pay for tools that are specifically for job use only like that core max. Basic hand tools you can use outside of work the employee should be able to provide
Did that quick disconnect get caught on one of those filter/fan cleaners you're such a fan of? Or rattle off? Might be coming back if you didn't close down the quick disconnect. Unfortunate place to hide some electrical connections.
I loathe those fittings and since none of my employers will buy the tool I cut them out and install regular schraeder ports. I just can’t bring myself to spread my cheeks that wide
I’ve had a bad/good* learning experience being an inexperienced new tech with the core max fittings, I was told to just gauge up to it an it was a old daikin RTU in our classroom which hadn’t been ran/ gauged up in many many years and when I took my gauge off the high side the stem got stuck half open an started dumping a 11lb charge into our tiny room in the classroom an we attempted to tighten it back on not realizing we were fighting a ton of pressure an just had to walk away… hindsight I should have ran a core remover tool to atleast be able to let pressure flow through an allow me to save part of the charge by just using the ball valve to isolate the issue since I wouldn’t be fighting that pressure till I could recover the refrigerant but yeah instead we had to evacuate the entire building of our community college an it was a huge lesson learned for everyone in the building…🥲
compressor with higher current draw would backfeed/pull through the fan motor/capacitor, that would cause a psuedo third phase, that's weak, with odd voltage/current. neither would run at the right voltage/rpm/current. while it may be enough to not kill everything, it's certainly not good for any of it!
Dirt built up in the fan blades can cause low airflow. Bad filters can be a clue to look at the fan blades. The cupped blade will hold a lot of dirt. Each blade must be scraped out with a brush of some kind.
I don't like the price of the tool either, but.. The human body is 85% water, so we're basically very restless cucumbers with few additional microelements.
makes me wonder how many just vent the charge and replace them claiming the system was flat and needed no recovery( yeah, that's illegal and huge fines, don't do it). but I bet it's done often due to the cost and time spent.
Couldnt be more right about big picture. I 18 decided to fix my own ac its freezimg up and poor cooling. Its an attic spacepak. Read the install manual. Turns out the inlet duct appears attached the actual duct has fallen off but the insulation was hidimg it then the wirimg is messed up thw previois installer bypassed the control entirely prevent it to ever go into defrost. Wtf
I wonder how the compressor survived.
Perhaps this AC deserves a monument for its willingness to work when everytning is against it.
Great big picture repair, man!
Stubbornness, pure stubbornness
You would be amazed how long compressors can run low on oil and even without oil
@@Thomas-lq1jw not very long without oil but with oil, not sure.
@@Somebody3120 Oh, you'd be amazed. I saw several Reefer unit where you couldn't see any oil in the compressor and they were jugging along (not happy, but they kept running)
@@Thomas-lq1jw It was cycling off on the internal high temp limit was what saved it. Unfortunately I've had a lot of those compressors that happened too often too, from bad run caps to two failed condenser fan motors, and eventually that internal high limit that breaks the common or black terminal just won't reset after it's been popped too many times. The compressor itself was probably fine, but it's not practical to cut open a scroll and try to dig that thing out and replace it.
I remember when that coremax tool was decently affordable.....now its like $600-800 for it. I used to have one many years ago...I believe I paid like $175. This was like back in 2007,2008 time frame. They haven't changed or improved it since then either. The price of everything has sky rocketed. Seems like every company has gone along with the times......raise the price...raise it again. I normally with coremax nowadays is just throw a swivel tee on them when they are leaking, unless the leak is from the threads
Yeah I think I bought mine for 3or4 hundred a few years ago…
JB CoreMax Valve Core Removal Tool
SKU #:CM-CRTOOL-JBI
MFG #:CM-CRTOOL
$1,745.00 / EA
I know they probably discount it but damn
it is bad in canada
Dude, just get it online. It's not $600.
Just checked online. It is 600. Wtf, I got mine at United refrigeration 2 years ago for 350
It's almost like they don't want people to use them
Same mine was a lot cheaper too
I can’t believe how much this channel has grown. I remember subscribing when you had only a grand total of 4 or 5 videos. Yes, I always live by your motto “Big Picture “ & because of it, it makes me a better technician at my facility & helps me to catch problems that my fellow coworkers miss or do not see. Of course I also recommend your channel to them but they do not watch or want to educate themselves. That’s ok though. Their loss is my gain. Thanks Chris for these great videos. I’m located to the south of you in San Diego.
Wow thanks for being a subscriber for so long and thanks for sharing the channel !
Because we all desire his structured mentality. I often say i’ve got to be kin to chris, glad i found his channel because it lets me know im not the only crazy ocd tech in the field and general life. there’s to few like him in the world and thats why america is failing from being the greatest country in the world! his vidz keep me driving becauss now i know im not alone with my process with everything.
Woah, seeing that 3rd leg of the compresslr going to the cap is insanity.
Yah made me do a doubletake LOL
why's it insane? gets power to the compressor regardless. wire just happened to fall off
As a new tech, watching you know the ABCs, airflow before charge is a great reminder. We were just taught and reminded by our superiors to know our ABCs.
This is something I totally may have missed as far as taking the time to wash that evaporator coil.
Great stuff as always.!
That is the same high flow core used on Goodman units. That tool is expensive. The manager at a local supply house found out that if a unit is under warranty, he could submit the tool with the valve core and get the tool covered under warranty. Im not sure if icp, Temp Star, bryant, or Carrier would, but Goodman will.
Good to know.
I’m really glad you circled back to how beat up that evaporator was lol I’ve been trying to teach the younger guys to look at the big picture
I’d be overwhelmingly ocd’d into trying to comb out the evaporator coil for some reason. But here it’s so roached out that the fins would probably disintegrate. Reminds me of the dorms in college where people would beat exposed evaporators in until they just looked like solid aluminum, then complain about how hot it was. As a commuter my response was nice and cool for me. Just topped up the ol’ Harrison in the Olds with some fresh R-12. The ignorance some people, even technicians, display with basic machinery is astounding.
The Harrison in the Olds…. You talking the AC’s made by Harrison Radiator, part of GM?
@@jollygreen4639 Yeah had a Cutlass with one of those 80’s pancake shaped ones from Harrison. Don’t remember them being super reliable (probably because people never maintained them), but it did have good AC.
I’m sure this was a great relief for the kitchen staff too.
Thank you for these videos definitely helps a lot you showing us your knowledge how you explain these things. You’re actually local to me so good to know we have guys that care in my area thank you!
WOW ! The wiring in that unit is a bit untidy ! 😂
Thanks for taking the time and effort to record your troubleshooting ! Makes the job take longer, but is great for us watching!
Chris your videos are absolutely full of experience and information. Please keep them going. Any recorded service call is a new lesson!
I'm in the field for 10 years and I've done bidding, installs, maintenance, projects and automation and I'd love to work with you guys (I've already emailed you a resume before).
I usually to think to charge the system 1st but by explaining to check the airflow but charging system. Thank you for that information. I will now take that in the field with me for now on.
That viper coil cleaner is great stuff! We use it for all out PM’s on reach in!
As a service tech we have to do "detective" work. You sir are a great de-tech-tive.
Watching your video inspires me. Don’t know a lick about hvac but I’ve been learning from you. You do a lot of thinking and your right no one is perfect but you do a lot of brainstorming and always go back to square one
"Always look at the big picture of life" *humms along* :D
Holy moly, what did they do to that poor Evap?
Also with nothing holding that filter, I think there is a high chance it gets sucked againgst the coil, sucks up condesation and then blocks the airflow
On those units you can take the panel for the supply off of the side and use it to cover the duct it’s the same size
nice work walking us thru the repairs and diagnostics A++++
a couple of grand to get it working looks a lot better than $15,000 for a new package unit, which needs crane rental to get old one off and new one on the roof.
in residential i do a finger sweep on the blower wheel also which slows down airflow
18:54 - I actually like that tool, looks like you're changing the schrader through the ball valve.
Great job, as always !😊
That looks exactly like Carrier units we had on a building, they had an internal trap on the condensate pan outlet. The other HVAC technicians tried to prove I didn’t know what I was doing. They put traps on four units, late Friday, flooded the unoccupied building over the weekend. BTW I used three 2” x 12” x 24” Pleated filters on the unit. The filter channel is convertible to two inches thick filters.
How do you get them in there?Those units do NOT have an internal trap.
@@jrsmyth9761 They will slide in the track from the middle, with the coil access panel open. You have to wiggle them into place, I used Blue Masking Tape on the Filters to tie them together for no air leaks. I used to get a year out of the Filters, the building was used as alternate classroom space and had occupied offices in one zone. For cleaning Evaporators, I would take heavy cardboard, coat it with Paraffin and keep it behind the shelving, in my van. I could block the Return duct so water didn’t go down it when cleaning the Evaporator. Also I had a choke for my Power Washer Wand. Plus a Right Angle Attachment for reaching deep into a unit, to spray the coil.
@@jrsmyth9761 Are you sure? If the drain doesn’t make a gurgling sound when the unit has run for a while, or doesn’t dump a bunch of water out when the fan stops, it’s internally trapped.
Really enjoyed this video. Your channel was recommended to me by a coworker and this is a really informational video, completely worth the subscribe, specially for new techs like me. Greetings from Puerto Rico.
Glad you enjoy the videos!
Great video thanks for sharing 😊
Great job Chris, Your using your head.........
Thank you, boss!
Respect for the people who know what they are doing.
im also loving your videos so far! for some reason :|
Really appreciate your videos. Have learned so much. Thank you.
Being a air condition and refrigeration engineer for the age of 14 till the age of 54 I came with the same mindset into trading I went to different engineering school extremely a lot of feildl experience a lot of modification customization I own two refrigeration company service and a repair company also improving engineering for the manufacturer with feedback most of them experience came from mistakes on the field most of them you cannot get in a textbook or in a troubleshooting book some things you have to experience yourself to know
Great job Chris.
If they would make the core-max tool affordable they would sell more of them. I thought $200 was expensive now that they have quadrupled the price it’s ridiculous! I will keep putting a tee fitting on them and save myself and the customer some $. #thanksjoe #buildbackbetter 😂😂😂
Great video keep up the great work.
Great video. Thank you for sharing
Was trained, air flow is king, that must be good before you can properly diagnose.
I am an old dinosaur 🦕 in my young days??R-12 was king! But regardless of all my many years of heavy commercial, light commercial an residential. I still every so often learn something new or better from your videos! At my age I should have retired years ago but working an helping the employees keeps my mind young an active. An if it’s any thing I have learned in life is Old dogs can always learn new tricks!!😂😂 an I am always telling my Tecks when they make a mistake/ boo boo “ did you learn anything???” An I always tell them my late grandfather’s words he said to me “ If we don’t make mistakes in life son we don’t learn a dam thing “ yes has been a few time I wanted to beat my head into a cement wall after they tell me and I know it’s going to cost me a grand or two to fix their screw up but I also remind myself that once I was in their shoes an screwed up… But should an Teck make mistakes over an over and the same?? I play the softball/ baseball rules, strike one strike two strike three out of here… if they are making the same identical mistake! Kinda like first time on me second time shame on you and the third time this ain’t gonna happen no more… However 3 of my Tecks do follow and watch your teaching videos and your videos are many times a morning coffee conversation before we start our day . An it make me proud when I hear them say “” hay I learned something last night on HVACR videos.. So what I am trying to to say is never underestimate how useful and important your videos are. You keeping it real and honest, and even showing your mistake, impresses them that you’re truthful in real life.. ❤ ( edited fur a spell boo boo)
"Old dogs can always learn new tricks", it's so clever to read this, Nice to be open minded to new thing and not do things based on outdated things.
It must have be great to work with you !
I was in the trade for about 40 years. 7 years I worked at a large hotel, then a college til I retired from there. I knew the buildings and the equipment. But I’d get stumped on things many times over the years. I would go back to my old textbooks, then onto the internet when it became the go-to for info. Not ashamed of it. I’d call guys I knew through the trade and ran it by them, to get a second opinion. And I always had a good relationship with counter guys at the local supply houses to ask about problems guys run by them to see if it’s
…a problem with other techs. Counter guys can really be a huge asset.
Thanks so much for the nice words
Bro l literally love your videos your better the Mr beast u need 10mil subs for your hard work ❤
Thanks bud , share them with your friends and anyone else you can think of to help the channel grow!!
Thanks for showing how to replace the valve.
i think that i havent even see those coremax shraeders here where i live, and now grocery stores are moving to use co2 (R-744) systems for refrigeration and on those all it's basically illegal to use shraeders. Just ball valves on t-junction with 1/4 connector.
Excelente video y muy buenos consejos mi estimado Chris, es muy importante hacer sacrificios para invertir en herramientas para desempeñar los trabajos adecuados, los beneficios llegarán posteriormente..
Gracias por todos tus consejos Chris.
Saludos desde Coacalco Edo de México.
Man I love your videos mate. Great job. I would honestly work for you for free just to pick your brain. Too bad I’m in Australia. Keep up the good work and appreciate you doing these videos for everyone.
Thank you for sharing your words at the end.
True facts, we are not perfect, we are like bloodhounds detectives trying to figure out the cause of the issue.
We may go to the left some and then to the right, but at the end we figure out the cause of the issue. That is what matters, that we Figure out the cause of the issue.
Thanks for posting
Thanks for watching
Chris great video, where can I get that long allen thandle tool?
Also, im confused, the fan motor ran when you connected the comp. Wire to the cap. Why is that?
Question. When you checked the unit out did you recommend a replacement unit? Like you stated lots of issues with this one.
Bedankt
Owner: "How long will the unit last now?" With how long that compressor was basically cooking itself by single-phasing, could be 2 weeks, could be 10 years.
I hate those Tempstar package units. They're very hard to work on, it's a royal pain to replace that super expensive ECM blower motor. One thing that does help is since it's a Carrier brand, you can get a Totaline motor from a Bryant supply house that will work, and it's a factory authorized replacement brand for out of warranty units. It's basically the same as like what Tempstar calls the "FASTOem" brand. I have many of those units around where I am, and one restaurant had 5 of these turds. All but 1 were low on charge. Watch out for that external equalizer line, when they slapped those turds together at the factory, they didn't care how it was routed. Had one of the 1 units that line rubbed right thru and nearly wore a hole thru the liquid line that it was rubbing against. It didn't wear all the way thru the larger pipe, so I was able to lightly sand it a bit and put a layer of 15% silphos braze over it. I didn't like the factory location of the equalizer line, so I ended up just pinching and brazing off the 2-3" stub where it broke off and just drilled another hole in the suction line close to where the bulb is mounted, and brazed it back in. It only shorted the eq line by maybe 3" once I cut off the mangled part. weighed in 10 lbs and it worked good after that. Yes I should have changed the drier, but it's an old unit.
Two or maybe even 3 more big design flaws. First, that induced draft motor is a total nightmare to get out, it looks like you have to remove a ton of other stuff just to get to it, no excuse for that. Should be a max of 4 long screws, one molex plug and it should be out of there. So on that unit with the bad inducer, I just removed the W1 wire off the board to disable the heat. That part of the restaurant never ever gets cold anyway, it's upstairs in the VIP lounge/bar area, heat rises so it stays warm in the winter even at night. Another big issue like you saw with that folded air filter mess (what were they thinking, that filter media would have acted like a sponge and got soaking wet and then sucked on to the coil!), is there is no factory filter rack option, and the amount of screws and awkward panels you have to remove to even get access to the filter is also too much time. Shouldn't take more than 30 seconds to walk up to a unit and check the filters. Lennox you just open two handles and swing a door open that is clearly marked "filter access". Trane, you take like 3 5/16" screws, and pull a panel off. Bryant/Carrier larger like 7.5-10 ton units there's a door you just lift up and take off, zero tools required filter change (as it should be). Another big flaw is the condenser coil surface area is far too small. Yes there's enough coil and fin to dissipate the BTU's, it meets the minimum 13 SEER requirements, but in the real world, a small amount of cottonwood seeds on that little coil, sends the head pressure rapidly up to 400+. Not good.
I think these small package units were meant for the residential or tiny commercial market and are designed to be used with return air filter grills. Well, that's a big problem, because most of those on the market only take 1" filters, and in a commerical application you really need a minimum of 2" thick filters because with 100's of units around, who has time to replace filters every month or two. I like units that are big enough I can change the filters once a year in the Spring when it's cool on the roofs... that works if its like a 20 ton american standard/trane unit on a clean store like I have a big furniture store for a customer, and even after 1 year, the filters still look nearly white. I still replace them every year because trying to schedule an 18 month interval just wouldn't work, plus it gets very hot and humid in the summer where I am, and having very clean new filters at the beginning of summer is crucial. Another problem with return air filter grills, is they're pretty restrictive, and on a 5 ton system you'd need to run enough duct to at least 2 20x25" grills and that's a lot of grill visible in a space that might not work with the stores decor ideas... I've seen a lot of buildings with only a single 16x20 grill trying to feed a 5 ton carrier unit on the roof, but that gets a little noisy.
Carrier does make a 5 ton package unit that fits on a more standard curb with the filter access door, and it uses 4 16x16x2" air filters and has a factory install filter rack, but I guess those little Tempstar's was a lower bid.
The one good thing about those crappy units I guess is they made it fairly straight forward to replace the compressor. On the other hand, replacing the compressor should not or does not need to be easier than replacing the indoor blower motor, or that induced draft motor. At least you don't have to take the top off, and lean over and lift a compressor out. You can just take that corner piece out, and it's a piece of cake and they even left enough room for a guy to get some torches in there, and sweat it out, and then the drier & TXV is pretty easy to replace too.
Is it economical to replace just the trashed condenser or is it cheaper to replace the entire unit?
The wiring in that unit looks like an electrician's nightmare! 🙂 I don't like it the least little bit.
Air flow is king!
I feel that yellow wire is a particular phase that's coming from the contactor to power the 1ph condenser fan & parallely the compressor.
This particular Carrier's connection is really sketchy & carrier should not be looping a leg of phase of compressor via the capacitor
Excellent video, I was wondering why you didn't try to straighten the evaporator fins. not showing any disrespect.
When I see frosted suction line, my first thought is air flow. Now if I see frosted distributor lines, then i think low charge or restrictions.
What boots are you wearing ? And why valve core removal tool for the probes ? Just to prevent any pressure I’m assuming
General question, have you needed to deal with Legionella bacteria growing in air conditioning or refrigeration systems you've needed to service?
No I haven’t that usually doesn’t affect air conditioning as much as it does with cooling towers.
First time seeing somthing like this .
I'm 61 ,have been doing this for awhile.
I am not a "A-tech" and should be a better tech, after 30+ years in HVAC , but I do ok. What kind of tech would leave a situation like this ? They have no business touching hvac equipment. Am I too critical ? I just watched a video where the tech came to Daiken 12 ton package RTU.
Nothing operating. Why ? Someone replaced a multi voltage transformer, wired the wrong line voltage,never connected the 24 v wires, all safety controls bypassed, destroyed pc board,and all contactors severely charred.
Some tech walks away from this abortion that he created. Not the contactors. But everything else. I am super critical of my work. And,I am not embarrassed to ask my boss for help. We all can't know everything.
The only thing different I would have done is to check the return air grills in kitchens as you well know they can get pretty nasty. Not Monday morning quarterbacking because you do a great service to our trade!
Those hi flow schraders cores as you call them, otherwise known as Coremax fittings, are notorious for leaks. GOOODDDDDD I hate those. I always have to recover what’s left of the refrigerant to change out the valves, then pull a vacuum and yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah… so time consuming. I gotta talk the boss into letting pick up one of those stupidly expensive Coremax tools.
5:40 - I bet you breathed a huge sigh of relief that the compressor started up and sounded decent. I know I did!
I've learned quite a bit from watching you on this channel. I've previously mentioned how I learned about cleaning coils on in-window AC units to restore proper operation, and how we have half a dozen "window shakers" we've retired (but haven't scrapped yet) due to poor performance, and they most likely just need a good cleaning - so we've wasted thousands of dollars over several decades for no good reason!
Well, last week my in-window unit decided to take a digger. It could only get my 10' x 12' bedroom to 87°F (90°F outdoors). So I put on my figurative "Chris' Big-Picture Hat" and started using just UA-cam knowledge and my five senses to figure out what the problem was.
Symptoms? Compressor running, condenser and evaporator fans running, Cooling mode was selected, indoor air sensor reporting correctly, air coming from vents matched ambient temperatures. Pop open the filter cover, filter is clean, incoming air temp sensor wasn't touching the coil. Plenty of airflow across the coil, fins look great, no trace of oil or filth indicating a leak. Below the coil was some rusty condensation water, and there shouldn't be water on the indoor side, so I looked further. The main pipe running to the evaporator was iced-up, but all the tubes within the coil were not cool to the touch. Uncover the upper half of the window (I sleep in the morning, so I have a thick cloth covering the window from the AC's top edge up to the window frame) and shine my flashlight into the AC's case vents. I don't see any other evidence of ice, but visibility through the case slots and the window at that angle didn't show much.
My thought process? "Well, it's TRYING to work. The compressor does turn off when I switch to Fan Only, and turns back on when I switch to Cool or Dehumidify, so it's not off on thermal, or from low/high pressure cutout, assuming it has those, I don't remember if I saw anything when I last cleaned it. It's not making any unusual noises. Unless the compressor is junk, it's an LG compressor in a TCL unit, but I'm leaning towards an airflow issue. Wait, did I even remember to clean the condenser coil last year?"
Well, when I pulled the unit out of the window, the exterior side of the condenser looked clean. But now that I could see through the slots in the case better, I saw all sorts of crud and gunk on the interior side of the condenser. Guess I DID forget to clean it last year! 🤦♂ DUH!
I was always curious why they put two pole contactors in on a three phase service. I'm sure it's cost but always thought it was silly. And is it possible to retrofit a three pole in?
I think it depends on how they have the crank case heater wired. I know on split phase systems we only brake one leg because of the way the crank case heater is wired. Im sure you could slap a 3 phase contactor tho
brass cap copper washer.big picture Hollywood style.
As much money I make in trading on the futures market, it don't give me the rush of excitement as being a refrigeration engineer. This is 100% fax. I do day trading because I like the engineering process of trading just as well as the refrigeration engineer troubleshooting solving problem. Having other companies calling me for advice to figure out the problem. It's my favorite. I like keeping the brain cell working
Nice bit of troubleshooting on this one. What a mess. The customer is so lucky that the compressor was still good.
Is there a Video where you explain how a basic refrigerant circuit works and how you measure it?
On a system like that, are you using 3 clamps (suction, discharge, liquid) and 3 temp sensors (supply, return, outdoor?) and 2 pressure (low and high)?
Yes
i need one of those coremax tools
Just a quick question I'll probably get crucified for this but is there a decent replacement for r22
Interesting…no bid to do all of this work? Charging customer by the hour?
And what about measure quick? How do you like it? I’ve been thinking about launching it for my pm guys.
New tech here, can anyone tell me the tools and the app he is using?
now im gunna do the next one "ill save you guys the agony of that" 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Time is money having the right to ol. You can finish the job and you can move on to the next job. Tools extremely important to match the knowledge. You could have the most amazing experience and knowledge and you do not have the right tool. It does not matter. It will contradict your experience, your knowledge, your troubleshooting talent. I know this from experience
What did you do with the horrible filter?
9:15 dead give away that it was a 410a system with the style of schrader cores
Never knew they made that core max tool
Chris how does your ipad app determine CFM and BTU'S
Just wondering was that contactor supposed to be a 3 phase one or was leg hot all the time
2 is cheaper than 3, so even if it's a 3 phase motor, the manufacturer cut the cost and not cut the 3 leg that is an always on one.
Never saw such a thing in europe.
hi im new to this channel, i just want to know why all the video names are capitalized
Just to draw people’s attention
Companies should pay for tools that are specifically for job use only like that core max. Basic hand tools you can use outside of work the employee should be able to provide
So for clarification, the compressor is three phase and does not connect to the capacitor, which is for the single phase PSC condenser motor?
Good question, Im going to discuss this a bit further Monday afternoon during my live stream
Would you quote a new evap coil?
Yeah if the customer wants that
Airflow before charge. I’m gonna have to write that down
Did that quick disconnect get caught on one of those filter/fan cleaners you're such a fan of? Or rattle off? Might be coming back if you didn't close down the quick disconnect. Unfortunate place to hide some electrical connections.
I'm so far from HVAC. I'm an A&P. But I've been watching you for years because of your ability to teach 3 phase power.
I loathe those fittings and since none of my employers will buy the tool I cut them out and install regular schraeder ports. I just can’t bring myself to spread my cheeks that wide
I’ve had a bad/good* learning experience being an inexperienced new tech with the core max fittings, I was told to just gauge up to it an it was a old daikin RTU in our classroom which hadn’t been ran/ gauged up in many many years and when I took my gauge off the high side the stem got stuck half open an started dumping a 11lb charge into our tiny room in the classroom an we attempted to tighten it back on not realizing we were fighting a ton of pressure an just had to walk away… hindsight I should have ran a core remover tool to atleast be able to let pressure flow through an allow me to save part of the charge by just using the ball valve to isolate the issue since I wouldn’t be fighting that pressure till I could recover the refrigerant but yeah instead we had to evacuate the entire building of our community college an it was a huge lesson learned for everyone in the building…🥲
i always use the cd5050 core depressor on the high side.that is what is called,the school of hard knocks.always learning.
They're so lucky there wasn't compressor damage from it single phasing for a while.
compressor with higher current draw would backfeed/pull through the fan motor/capacitor, that would cause a psuedo third phase, that's weak, with odd voltage/current.
neither would run at the right voltage/rpm/current. while it may be enough to not kill everything, it's certainly not good for any of it!
Being an HVAC tech is expensive 😅
you cant just put a t over the coremax instead of replacing the whole thing?
Dirt built up in the fan blades can cause low airflow. Bad filters can be a clue to look at the fan blades. The cupped blade will hold a lot of dirt. Each blade must be scraped out with a brush of some kind.
800 for a tool like that is just stupid, I was thinking it was going to be something like 200 and that would be considered expensive
BTW,
The unit's wiring looks like the tin man's pasta.
Was it designed that way, or were your predecessors trying to create chaos?
Hype 🙌
Wow. $800 for an off-the-shelf full port ball valves and a few additional pieces?
I don't like the price of the tool either, but..
The human body is 85% water, so we're basically very restless cucumbers with few additional microelements.
@@Nyarly_Relyeh lol!
makes me wonder how many just vent the charge and replace them claiming the system was flat and needed no recovery( yeah, that's illegal and huge fines, don't do it).
but I bet it's done often due to the cost and time spent.
@@Nyarly_Relyeh Excuse me, PICKLED cucumbers here!
@@Bigrignohio Thank you.
Now I know why I'm so exausted. I'm pickled.
You’ve never commented on my videos before haven’t you chris? I’m not forcing you to.
Couldnt be more right about big picture. I 18 decided to fix my own ac its freezimg up and poor cooling. Its an attic spacepak. Read the install manual. Turns out the inlet duct appears attached the actual duct has fallen off but the insulation was hidimg it then the wirimg is messed up thw previois installer bypassed the control entirely prevent it to ever go into defrost. Wtf