There is always something to learn from another tech. I've been doing this a while, from industrial facilities maintenance to supermarket refrigeration and everything in between and I've never seen anyone use an amp clamp to check a coil. That is pretty nifty! It's just been added to my "knowledge tool box"!
I have been in the hvac trait for about 4 years now. It is mind boggling how much knowledge you have for all different types of equipment. You show how much growth there really is in this industry. Keep up the good work. Love your videos.
Learning is a never-ending process in HVAC R . We do so many different things at this company is the only reason why you see me doing so many different things. Most companies don’t do half of what we do. That’s one of the things I’ve loved about this place, it’s also one of the things sometimes I hate about it.
You did a fantastic job with what you had to work with Rick, you could spend a days to figure out all the pump down and verifying/labelling the defrost circuits properly. Have a great weekend
It's such a pleasure watching your channel through the last 4 years. I love your approach and process of figuring out things. Learned so much from you, and i will always appreciate you as one of the 3 people I've learned the most from. Cheers, and thank you.
Some of the best refrigeration videos on UA-cam. It’s great to see your skills from start to finish. A lot of other UA-cam content only show bits and pieces of the repair. You record and upload from start to finish and you also show how you actually repair the equipment. Great job and good patience recording and repairing at the same time. Appreciate it.
@@HVACRSurvival lol very true. They make them selves look like professionals in under 60seconds. Not sure how you find time to create UA-cam content but either way great effort.
Rick, I feel your pain. I had like 5 stores when at my old company that the installers screwed the pooch on freezer heaters never wired up correct nor did they run power to the condensate pumps. 2 weeks of off and on service calls to get it back up and running. If there not going to do there job I would rather just do it myself. Good stuff and hope you had a great weekend.
Nice job as always. Hopefully your company understands how lucky they are to have someone as knowledgeable and caring on the front lines getting the job done!
Great job Rick ! I know a lot of guys who would have packed it in being that far from home at that time of day. Cool,calm and collected 😎 ❤ from Australia 🇦🇺
Good job Rick! In my final year of my apprenticeship!! your videos have definitely been a help to me!! Constantly referencing your content! Hoping one day I can be an all around good mechanic like yourself!! Keep it up man👍🏻
It worries me when it’s ground level like that and I might get preoccupied and forget how long it’s been since I’ve been outside. It only takes a couple seconds for them to take it and leave and you never know.
Great job figuring out that mess, the way they wired that was absolutely mental. Either use a defrost timer with a mechanical thermostat or a digital control, not both. If it was my install I would have put the liquid line solenoid, thermostat and defrost timer at the case and used a fan delay defrost termination switch. They also could have ditched the defrost timer, and mechanical thermostat entirely and used the Emerson control for thermostat and defrost. Oh well maybe next time they will get it right.
My favorite part is when you put the new meter back in the van and got out the old faithful fluke meter! You could tell you weren't "fluking" around! 😂
I debated on cutting that out, I didn’t do it to make the meter look bad because I think the fluke has some delays built into its readings. Where as the testo is more reactive on some things like the amp draw.
Good job Rick you are a real technician that cares to do things right. Customer might end up blaming you if it takes you more than a few times to straighten this out for them. Just cover your ass with pics and communication like I have to fix these problems before other problems to show themselves. Word everything carefully
Great video Rick, as a fellow apprentice of the trade I cant thank you enough for posting educational videos as frequent as you do. I cant help but to think how you do it one-handed though it looks like? Have you experimented with other camera attachments so recording isn't such a pain while youre working?
The easiest is when I use my GoPro, but this one here I used my phone because it’s a little less conspicuous. However, I told the owner I was recording it and was going to post it. I have permission from my workplace. Some of these new UA-camrs, I doubt have gotten permission and will likely be told to quit. Especially when I see them spouting off where they’re working at🤦. That could really piss off some franchise owners.
Common mistakes I saw all the time, not ordering the equipment with oversized receivers for case applications, I am not familiar with these cases but many are flooded systems. Also you are correct in that the solenoid should always be at the tev inlet or the liquid line split. I personally would advise the owner to have the solenoid repiped correctly. I don’t envy you following behind poor installations.
Yeah, it should pump dow and it did when I was done. Unfortunately, this has been in stale for almost a year, how much damage was done so far due to flooded starts
I found it interesting with them having the sensor wired wrong on the controller. The book you had showed it wired different. I noted in your video the sticker inside the controller after you showed the book indicated it to be wired the way they did it.
Are you talking about the digital temperature control? The book showed it being the bottom two, the very top terminal was the bin switch, which is a trigger. The ASP is what the thermostat does when it loses a sensor and it was programmed to run, which is a number one. I’m not sure where you’re seeing that it was wired correctly, which instruction are you setting it differently?
@@HVACRSurvival 29:15 the sticker inside the control on top of the relay is stuck on backwards. I guess it was friday at shenzhen chingchong mfg. co. when they made that one.
Son of a biscuit eater. It’s crazy the stuff other people pick up 🤣👍👍👍you are correct. However, it was wrong. I can see how that happened but you can’t justify not verifying the system kicks on and off at the thermostat at least once when the system is brand new just to make sure everything‘s working as it should, so technically the faults on them and they never seen the temperature on the display. Inside the thermostat, it had a setting on what it does when the thermostat sensor fails, a number one means it will run all the time zero means it shuts off. Luckily he did have that set on a number one, which was a default setting.
Completely agree that they should’ve noticed that it was not reading a temperature and was displaying the fault on the controller. Guess the factory stuck the sticker on upside down inside the controller.
Putting the solenoid outside was a bad design. You lose the whole liquid line for storage for pump down. 50 feet of ⅝ line will hold around 5# of refrigerant that the receiver has to take on. Hill Phoenix makes good stuff and usually easy to service. Ive been to the factory in Conyers, Georgia several times. The long drives suck, i know. Ive had to drive from Destin, Florida to North Georgia a few times. Its difficult when you work all day then have to drive several hours home.
great video i did enjoy it ✅ it is always good to see that you are not the only one who gets into f annoying stupid problems. ( the good thing for you, that you don’t have heat, humidity and jackets mosquitoes bites you while you’re working ) 😂 thank you for sharing.
I'm pretty sure tank heaters refer to the heated condensate evap pans used where drainage to an actual drain is not possible. I had to wire up some cases for a Walmart that used heated condensate pans and IIRC that was the amp draw they had.
That sounds possible, but I would figure you might run it over to like a little giant pump or something equivalent to that and it would be outside of the freezer?. I guess I don’t understand why it would be heated unless it’s inside the freezer with it and even then why wouldn’t you drain it outside of the freezer so that you wouldn’t have to hold the water in a heated pan? . Sounds like more problems. this would be new to me.
@@HVACRSurvival The idea is it evaporates the water with somewhat high heat, avoiding the need for a pump or drain. It is located outside the case, usually right under the condensate drain outlet. The whole concept is bad really, because you're just dumping the moisture back into the same room with the cases actually. And you are correct that it is a pain, they get dirty, the heater fails, and it can only cope with small amounts of condensate at a time. Your defrost with hot water would make a flood using it. The install I encountered them on was in a part of the store where no drains or exterior walls were accessible. IMHO it would have been better to dig in a small sump and use a more powerful pump to go up, over and run the distance to a drain but that would have been horribly expensive.
OK, I now I know what you’re talking about. Yes I have seen that on a couple small self-contained beer cases that kind of looked like they were be on a rack. I had to use a pump sprayer instead of a garden hose. Or actually I think I use my vacuum cleaner to suck it out.
Good god... 😮 Mechanic defrost clock, digital defrost management and mechanic thermostat. So many branches on the stick. Why not a digital controller managing solenoid valve, fans and defrost contactors? One probe for inlet one for outlet and one for defrost temp.
I guess the company that installed it probably is not very big because I had not heard of them because they’re close to my area. The piping looked pretty good but the start up needed a lot of work.
Crazy! All those separate controls. The one simple dixell controller that was factory indtalled on each case could control each case, temperature and defrost.
Yeah it probably could do it all depending on the model, but that’s not how it was originally designed even from the factory. I’m not sure why they do it. I don’t really care for it. I think it kind of sucks but HillPhoenix is a pretty big company and for some reason this is their current operation, these cases were made in 2023.
That’s why old-school technicians rock All they have is one job to install their equipment right … lucky you can’t get your hands on schematics they had to fall off a truck in China for the repair industry lol
Good job Rick, I didn't wire the controls, I haven't been in Indiana for long time, I guess maybe they should have installed the solenoid closer to the evaporator, and did a better job on the install, the job looked clean, but even then mistakes can happen........
@@HVACRSurvival maybe there are 110 or 220 defrost whire and mixed up? they are having different resistance, i'm from europe and this voltage mix is strange for me :)
They’re probably will be. I’m not looking forward to replacing 7 defrost heaters if that’s what ends up happening. He’s going to have to empty all the cases out before I get there.
@@HVACRSurvival Yea, I doubt if that's ever gonna happen 😂. Just maybe on a day when they're closed. I already wish you best of luck! And thanks for sharing your stories with us, I love it!
My PTSD getting activated. Nothing labeled, nothing working, no time, no parts, no information while foods going bad. My favorite kind of job Nice job keeping it together and sorting it out. I would’ve been no fun to be around while questioning my life choices stuck figuring out another hack job mess. I always wonder how these people stay in business. Problem is they’re multiplying
how do multiple cases on one condensing unit work? wouldn't the condensing unit be massively oversized in case just 1 of the 3 cases is calling and it would short cycle on low pressure all the time?
Theoretically, that’s where your receiver would hold the excess liquid. Rack system has multiple compressors and multiple circuits and it tries to maintain a certain suction pressure. On a system like this I have not seen too many individual thermostats however, I have seen it done. It would definitely take some planning on the BTU calculations and engineering chart. So I can’t say with 100% certainty there wouldn’t be a problem. I’m definitely not an engineer. I just make them look bad. 🤣
@@HVACRSurvival maybe I misunderstood, I thought it had a seperate temp control for each case, if it's just one for all 3 then there's no problem but the cases might not all be the same temperature if they can't mix air inside. it seems like a less than ideal system that would work normally only under close to ideal conditions (identical load and heat losses in all cases fed from the same temp control)
New meter eh ? Very nice I like that Testo . Just a heads up it kinda struggles to read very low amperage like under 1A and such , and the little delay when first reading volts and amps is kind of annoying , otherwise it's a good meter .
I noticed it’s really slow on reading capacitance. I’ve kind of ran out of tools to pick from TruTech Tools, I thought I’d give it a shot since Testo’s been so good to me. For the most part it seems like a pretty nice meter. I just need to use it and get used to some of its Quirks.
Some use hot gas defrost freezer cases, freezers, and ice machines. Depends on the equipment but a hot gas will just run compressor and a solenoid sends hot discharge gas through the evap coil to defrost it.
maybe they're not setup for pump down and relying on the accumulators to keep from liquid slugging? but I'm guessing that would balance out with too high of pressures on the low side when off. hard to say what people do or silly controllers do now days.
Great job even with crap installs. Shouldn’t each bank of coolers have a solenoid since they are each bank are individually temp controlled? This seems to be a hack of an install. Get what you pay for
This customer would’ve paid what we charged, but the problem was the other guy must had better contacts at the factory and was able to get the cases a lot quicker than we were. Theoretically, yes, it would be nice to have temperature controls in each case however when we do a parallel rack system, we pipe them this way and the only thing we do is put monitoring inside of each case so that if one goes down, we can catch it with an alarm of high temp. I guess it’s a little more difficult when you have smaller systems like this but I don’t think it’s that uncommon you just gotta keep an eye on your temperatures because even this system here has no alarms on it if the product gets warm.
I believe they were about as far away as what we were, he tried to buy it from us however that got missed up because the manufacture kept pushing the ship date back further and further. 50+ weeks.
They, apparently, don't even teach proper reading of schematics in trade school anymore. New installs shouldn't have problems like that. That's just someone who doesn't care about their work.
Question for anyone: Have you worked on a Sanyo VIP PLUS chest freezer? Why do I ask? I'm looking at buying a used, broken freezer on Facebook. It doesn't power up, probably a straightforward fix? New ones are too expensive for me, this one's $600 Anything to say about Sanyo freezers? Any problems keeping the freezer at -240 degrees F? Thanks.
you can't fix those freezer master-bilt reach-ins since the heaters are just an add on to a cooler design. they F that design. they will freeze again and again every 30-45 days.
Don't you hate having to go behind someone and make everything right? I know I do... Seems like fewer and fewer people give half a crap about doing things properly. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore, it's a matter of "good enough, I guess, on to the next job." Or maybe it's a problem with "fake it until you make it" techs, the kind that openly lie about their knowledge to get a job, and they'll "figure it out as they go along."
good catch, that would get just about anyone that's not used to installing them all the time. good old chinesium junk and lets not forget bottom of the barrel labor anywhere.
It’s never correct to mix refrigerants, it’s actually illegal. Plus from a service standpoint you don’t know what the correct saturated temperature pressure relationship to use when calculating subcooling or superheat.
O hell no. Fluke is overpriced and doesn’t give you many features for what you pay but one thing I can say is when I put it on there I have more faith in that fluke than I do any other brand that I’m gonna get a reliable, consistent, repetitive reading.
I have a store that the installer did same shit that you were running into. It's a nightmare cause owner spent thousands of dollars to install and now paying me and complaining the whole time.smh These people are dangerous that do not care to install these cases properly. Anybody can put these cases together Takes a real technician to make sure they are functioning as manufactured.
Big question I have is, how in the world do you have 7 bad heaters? I very very seldom have to replace a heater, normally it's just a time clock problem, wiring issue like you ran into, or terminal burned off the end of the heater wire, stuff like that. Yes I've had a couple drain pan heaters go bad over the years, they get beat up from people messing with stuff and pulling drain pans off etc, to clean out garbage that falls in there. But 7 bad heaters on Hill/Phoenix cases which are a decent brand of case, is crazy. Was this shipping damage? Still no excuse on the installers, every piece of equipment I install I do not leave until I'm satisfied that everything is working right, and I kick the timers into defrost to make sure it works. And I come back 24 hours later to double check everything, go over everything and double check for leaks, and make sure the coils and sight glasses are clear etc.
It sounds like you do it right 👍👍. I don’t know why they aren’t right but I can’t come back that far empty handed. I hope they not bad. But I’m scheduling it so he will have the case unloaded so I can make the repairs quicker.
@@HVACRSurvival I try. But I know enough to know my limitations so I like to double check everything. I ordered a Hilmor tubing expander with your survival code :) So far so good. I'm just curious how so many heaters are bad, and this is only 1 year old equipment, that's almost as crazy as not wiring the units up correctly so they pump down properly.
Actually throttle bottle mentioned they might have wired it up for 240 V on the 120 V circuit. Which wouldn’t surprise me since they didn’t wire the solenoid valves correctly or the thermostats plus like I mentioned there was a box with some replacement control modules. Possible that wiped those out in all the but one. Plus the way it blew it apart was very unusual so I guess we’ll find out if I see that on all of the cases.
I’ve had my stuff stolen before, it’s when you don’t think it’ll happen as when it happens. Not in this scenario, but if it can happen in my driveway, it can happen anywhere.
looks like either the electricians or installers forked up and fed 208v to the 120v circuits initially. smoked elements yeehaw. on that note, make sure they don't have the 120v/208v crossed up in all of them, 120v on the 208/240 heaters and 240v on the 120v heaters. but I'd think the evap. motors would be nuked, but they may be ecm rated 120 to 240 and not care? that was a tough basket case of mumbo-jumbo to deal with. 🤔 looking again, lights and fans/drain heater may be different circuits for building automation(lights off with store/sensors), so it's possible the sparkies initially fed 208v to the 120v evap fans/drain heater. the motors never blew because klixon had them off(or 120 to 140v rated). the mystery continues 🥳 they need an exorcist, time traveler, mind reader, team of scientists and more to figure out what exactly happened. maybe they did blow it all up initially and that's why they're not back now?
I would double check the voltages to every input of each case. I'm thinking it may still be wired wrong somewhere in the row and not just killed/fixed at original install. 120v vs 208/240v would make the heaters weak(about half current), also blow the 120v drain heater/s, the evap fans may be 120-240v capable, but you'd think the relays/contactors would let the smoke out, unless they're 240v circuit controlled. not looking at schematics again 🤯 not gong to Indiana to help! 🥸
The 120 V drain heater circuit wasn’t even wired correctly to the ice cube relay and I had to literally wire that thing. Somehow, I didn’t record that and didn’t mention it very well. I assume the other ones aren’t wired correctly either or the other people screwed up the wiring.
He should have tested the thermostat when finished. The paper instruction showed the correct way. But it was pointed out to be earlier that the sticker was flipped around.
The customer used us for 25 years when he was only 45 minutes away from us. He moved into a different state and started a new store. He uses a local guy for the basics but when he needs bigger issues or installations done he calls us. We bill mileage and hourly to and from the job. We’re making the same money if we’re local or that far away.
@@charlesleake930 The only reason he used them was because they had the equipment available several months before us. Otherwise we would have done the job. The person that did it was a fairly small company and normally the customer had been using us for last 25-30 years when he had another store only 45 minutes from us.
But tankers driving 70 mph with thousands of pounds of propane or gas that people always want to break check and cut off. And the propane sits outside in a metal box and gets up to 120°. And nothing ever happens, scared people make scared mistakes that causes the issue you are anxious about
@@Freonleon all true, but contactors and electrical equipment can be ignition sources. Not exactly parallels drawn. But as long as manufacturers clearances are observed it will be fine
umm, you said 404A and they all say 448a gas. probably just a tongue fail. lol ok, shortly after you noticed meter set for 407c and switched to 448a. 🤪
I knew it had 448A because I had brought six bottles of it in the back of the truck, but I ended up cutting that out because I didn’t end up using it. The video was originally 90 minutes.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This man needs a raise. You handled that pile of problems like a true pro...one thing at a time. Bravo Rick
You’re too kind, Jason. Thank you very much. I had a couple. What the fk moments but you know, I just didn’t let nobody know. 😆
@@HVACRSurvival everyone who watched this video had wtf moments
@@HVACRSurvival it isn't HVAC if the 4 letter words don't come flying out every now and then
Oh, it did specially with the thermostat that was digital
There is always something to learn from another tech. I've been doing this a while, from industrial facilities maintenance to supermarket refrigeration and everything in between and I've never seen anyone use an amp clamp to check a coil. That is pretty nifty! It's just been added to my "knowledge tool box"!
Thanks Kodiak! I learned it on UA-cam🤣🤣🤣👍👍 it’s common sense but you don’t think of it at first.
same for me! didn't know you can do that! will definitely use that in the future!
I have been in the hvac trait for about 4 years now. It is mind boggling how much knowledge you have for all different types of equipment. You show how much growth there really is in this industry. Keep up the good work. Love your videos.
Learning is a never-ending process in HVAC R . We do so many different things at this company is the only reason why you see me doing so many different things. Most companies don’t do half of what we do. That’s one of the things I’ve loved about this place, it’s also one of the things sometimes I hate about it.
You did a fantastic job with what you had to work with Rick, you could spend a days to figure out all the pump down and verifying/labelling the defrost circuits properly. Have a great weekend
Thank you! Decent weekend so far
It's such a pleasure watching your channel through the last 4 years. I love your approach and process of figuring out things. Learned so much from you, and i will always appreciate you as one of the 3 people I've learned the most from. Cheers, and thank you.
Thank you so much! Heck, maybe I should have you talk to my wife and let her know how valuable I am🤣🤣
Some of the best refrigeration videos on UA-cam. It’s great to see your skills from start to finish. A lot of other UA-cam content only show bits and pieces of the repair. You record and upload from start to finish and you also show how you actually repair the equipment. Great job and good patience recording and repairing at the same time. Appreciate it.
You mean the 15 second to 60 second Instagram heroes and TikTok heroes🤣🤣🤣👍👍.
@@HVACRSurvival lol very true. They make them selves look like professionals in under 60seconds.
Not sure how you find time to create UA-cam content but either way great effort.
By burning 4 to 5 hours of my Sunday, trying to make these videos.
I enjoy listening to your troubleshooting thought process. Please consider a Part 2 when you make the long drive back to finish this up.
I likely will record it
Rick, I feel your pain. I had like 5 stores when at my old company that the installers screwed the pooch on freezer heaters never wired up correct nor did they run power to the condensate pumps. 2 weeks of off and on service calls to get it back up and running. If there not going to do there job I would rather just do it myself. Good stuff and hope you had a great weekend.
Good weekend thus far. Thank you!
Nice job as always. Hopefully your company understands how lucky they are to have someone as knowledgeable and caring on the front lines getting the job done!
I doubt it. 🤔😁
Great job Rick !
I know a lot of guys who would have packed it in being that far from home at that time of day.
Cool,calm and collected 😎
❤ from Australia 🇦🇺
I do too, unfortunately. Everybody thinks they get off on time around here. I appreciate the comment and the view.
What a job! It's amazing it worked as long as it did. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.
It took done cutting to make it.
Good troubleshooting Rick. Hate long drives . Have a great weekend.
Great job and troubleshooting Rick. Thank you for the knowledge.
Good job Rick! In my final year of my apprenticeship!! your videos have definitely been a help to me!! Constantly referencing your content! Hoping one day I can be an all around good mechanic like yourself!! Keep it up man👍🏻
Thanks Bobby! Congrats man!
Great job and ty for the content!
Never leave those tools out in the parking lot ;)
It worries me when it’s ground level like that and I might get preoccupied and forget how long it’s been since I’ve been outside. It only takes a couple seconds for them to take it and leave and you never know.
Great job figuring out that mess, the way they wired that was absolutely mental. Either use a defrost timer with a mechanical thermostat or a digital control, not both. If it was my install I would have put the liquid line solenoid, thermostat and defrost timer at the case and used a fan delay defrost termination switch. They also could have ditched the defrost timer, and mechanical thermostat entirely and used the Emerson control for thermostat and defrost. Oh well maybe next time they will get it right.
My favorite part is when you put the new meter back in the van and got out the old faithful fluke meter!
You could tell you weren't "fluking" around! 😂
I debated on cutting that out, I didn’t do it to make the meter look bad because I think the fluke has some delays built into its readings. Where as the testo is more reactive on some things like the amp draw.
@@HVACRSurvival i'm glad you left it in there. It just shows what really goes on out here in the field! Great video thank you for sharing!
Wow what a mess.great work rick your the man 👍✌️
Great job Rick big picture diagnosis
Good job Rick you are a real technician that cares to do things right.
Customer might end up blaming you if it takes you more than a few times to straighten this out for them.
Just cover your ass with pics and communication like I have to fix these problems before other problems to show themselves.
Word everything carefully
He knew I was recording this. I told him. I agree the wording it very important.
Holy diver. The amount if controls they out in there is crazy. Could have ran everything off those dixells. Nice job as always bud 👍🏻
Thanks bro👍👍🤜🤛
Great video Rick, as a fellow apprentice of the trade I cant thank you enough for posting educational videos as frequent as you do.
I cant help but to think how you do it one-handed though it looks like? Have you experimented with other camera attachments so recording isn't such a pain while youre working?
The easiest is when I use my GoPro, but this one here I used my phone because it’s a little less conspicuous. However, I told the owner I was recording it and was going to post it. I have permission from my workplace. Some of these new UA-camrs, I doubt have gotten permission and will likely be told to quit. Especially when I see them spouting off where they’re working at🤦. That could really piss off some franchise owners.
Great job Rick. I hate going behind someone else.
Great vid... thanks for sharing ! Jay
Thanks for watching!
Great video. Thank you for sharing. Have a nice weekend
Thank you! You too!
Common mistakes I saw all the time, not ordering the equipment with oversized receivers for case applications, I am not familiar with these cases but many are flooded systems. Also you are correct in that the solenoid should always be at the tev inlet or the liquid line split.
I personally would advise the owner to have the solenoid repiped correctly. I don’t envy you following behind poor installations.
I don’t know if I would wanna put a solenoid at every case, but at least closer to where it splits to feed the three cases.
@@HVACRSurvival what I meant was on single evap system solenoid at the tev and multiple evaps the solenoid at the split
They were thinking how can we ruin the service guys weekend
Yeah, it should pump dow and it did when I was done. Unfortunately, this has been in stale for almost a year, how much damage was done so far due to flooded starts
Sheeeshhh. Slick Rick! Good job man. You’re a beast
Thanks bro, this was a long day.
Excellent video. What a mess.
Thank you!
29:11 the sticker in the box is opposite the manual. I guess it's on upside-down?
Yep I seen that later
29:14 Sensor label and document don’t agree. Did manufacturer put the label on upside down ?
It looks that way because the instruction that the installer left were correct.
I’m not sure it’s possible to pay you what you’re worth, but I hope that your employer appreciates the skill and dedication you have👊🏻
I found it interesting with them having the sensor wired wrong on the controller. The book you had showed it wired different. I noted in your video the sticker inside the controller after you showed the book indicated it to be wired the way they did it.
29 min mark
Are you talking about the digital temperature control? The book showed it being the bottom two, the very top terminal was the bin switch, which is a trigger. The ASP is what the thermostat does when it loses a sensor and it was programmed to run, which is a number one. I’m not sure where you’re seeing that it was wired correctly, which instruction are you setting it differently?
@@HVACRSurvival 29:15 the sticker inside the control on top of the relay is stuck on backwards. I guess it was friday at shenzhen chingchong mfg. co. when they made that one.
Son of a biscuit eater. It’s crazy the stuff other people pick up 🤣👍👍👍you are correct. However, it was wrong. I can see how that happened but you can’t justify not verifying the system kicks on and off at the thermostat at least once when the system is brand new just to make sure everything‘s working as it should, so technically the faults on them and they never seen the temperature on the display. Inside the thermostat, it had a setting on what it does when the thermostat sensor fails, a number one means it will run all the time zero means it shuts off. Luckily he did have that set on a number one, which was a default setting.
Completely agree that they should’ve noticed that it was not reading a temperature and was displaying the fault on the controller. Guess the factory stuck the sticker on upside down inside the controller.
Putting the solenoid outside was a bad design. You lose the whole liquid line for storage for pump down. 50 feet of ⅝ line will hold around 5# of refrigerant that the receiver has to take on. Hill Phoenix makes good stuff and usually easy to service. Ive been to the factory in Conyers, Georgia several times. The long drives suck, i know. Ive had to drive from Destin, Florida to North Georgia a few times. Its difficult when you work all day then have to drive several hours home.
Every once in a while I have to drive from Broward to Tally. 6 hours of not fun. Thankfully my Nole is graduating next year.
Hope they didn’t pay much for that installation cause they sure didn’t get much! Good find on the broke heater and the overall repair !!
great video
i did enjoy it ✅
it is always good to see that you are not the only one who gets into f annoying stupid problems.
( the good thing for you, that you don’t have heat, humidity and jackets mosquitoes bites you while you’re working ) 😂
thank you for sharing.
Where do you think I reside? Alaska🤣 www.currentresults.com/Weather/Ohio/humidity-annual.php
I'm pretty sure tank heaters refer to the heated condensate evap pans used where drainage to an actual drain is not possible. I had to wire up some cases for a Walmart that used heated condensate pans and IIRC that was the amp draw they had.
That sounds possible, but I would figure you might run it over to like a little giant pump or something equivalent to that and it would be outside of the freezer?. I guess I don’t understand why it would be heated unless it’s inside the freezer with it and even then why wouldn’t you drain it outside of the freezer so that you wouldn’t have to hold the water in a heated pan? . Sounds like more problems. this would be new to me.
@@HVACRSurvival The idea is it evaporates the water with somewhat high heat, avoiding the need for a pump or drain. It is located outside the case, usually right under the condensate drain outlet. The whole concept is bad really, because you're just dumping the moisture back into the same room with the cases actually.
And you are correct that it is a pain, they get dirty, the heater fails, and it can only cope with small amounts of condensate at a time. Your defrost with hot water would make a flood using it. The install I encountered them on was in a part of the store where no drains or exterior walls were accessible. IMHO it would have been better to dig in a small sump and use a more powerful pump to go up, over and run the distance to a drain but that would have been horribly expensive.
OK, I now I know what you’re talking about. Yes I have seen that on a couple small self-contained beer cases that kind of looked like they were be on a rack. I had to use a pump sprayer instead of a garden hose. Or actually I think I use my vacuum cleaner to suck it out.
Good work!
Great Job!!!!!!!!
Nice Work !!!! There are many bad workes and few Good Technicians ???!!!!! Please Follow up on this job ???
Good god... 😮 Mechanic defrost clock, digital defrost management and mechanic thermostat. So many branches on the stick. Why not a digital controller managing solenoid valve, fans and defrost contactors? One probe for inlet one for outlet and one for defrost temp.
What I was thinking. Too many variables and to many things to go wrong when one controller could manage it all.
I guess the company that installed it probably is not very big because I had not heard of them because they’re close to my area. The piping looked pretty good but the start up needed a lot of work.
Dang! You're the best! Appreciate the video!
I’m just a normal guy trying to do my best. Thanks for the support!
@HVACRSurvival Thats actually encouraging!
👍
Crazy! All those separate controls. The one simple dixell controller that was factory indtalled on each case could control each case, temperature and defrost.
Yeah it probably could do it all depending on the model, but that’s not how it was originally designed even from the factory. I’m not sure why they do it. I don’t really care for it. I think it kind of sucks but HillPhoenix is a pretty big company and for some reason this is their current operation, these cases were made in 2023.
Great job, Rick!
Thanks Steve!
That’s why old-school technicians rock
All they have is one job to install their equipment right … lucky you can’t get your hands on schematics they had to fall off a truck in China for the repair industry lol
Good job Rick, I didn't wire the controls, I haven't been in Indiana for long time, I guess maybe they should have installed the solenoid closer to the evaporator, and did a better job on the install, the job looked clean, but even then mistakes can happen........
Correct. The piping looked good. The controls were the only miss
The best thing about those cases is the 10000 ft of wire they cram in that control box. Makes it a blast to troubleshoot
I’m omg you’re not kidding. The dam ice cube relay didn’t match the numbers on the schematic. Total shit show.
Very nice video.
Thank you very much!
2.5 hours I hope that was your only job that day .
In a former prez voice " you did a tremendous job Rick , tremendous" 👍.
Thanks
I'm not in this hvac stuff, but if the 220 wire is connected to 110 will drow half the amps. Maybe is this thing there, 9.smt if half of 18.smth.
The 240v circuit had the correct voltage and so did the 120v. I forgot to show that.
@@HVACRSurvival maybe there are 110 or 220 defrost whire and mixed up? they are having different resistance, i'm from europe and this voltage mix is strange for me :)
Man, I envy your patience. Will there be a follow up video?
They’re probably will be. I’m not looking forward to replacing 7 defrost heaters if that’s what ends up happening. He’s going to have to empty all the cases out before I get there.
@@HVACRSurvival Yea, I doubt if that's ever gonna happen 😂. Just maybe on a day when they're closed. I already wish you best of luck! And thanks for sharing your stories with us, I love it!
My PTSD getting activated. Nothing labeled, nothing working, no time, no parts, no information while foods going bad. My favorite kind of job Nice job keeping it together and sorting it out. I would’ve been no fun to be around while questioning my life choices stuck figuring out another hack job mess. I always wonder how these people stay in business. Problem is they’re multiplying
Wow what a mess and such a shame with all that shiny new equipment.
how do multiple cases on one condensing unit work? wouldn't the condensing unit be massively oversized in case just 1 of the 3 cases is calling and it would short cycle on low pressure all the time?
Theoretically, that’s where your receiver would hold the excess liquid. Rack system has multiple compressors and multiple circuits and it tries to maintain a certain suction pressure. On a system like this I have not seen too many individual thermostats however, I have seen it done. It would definitely take some planning on the BTU calculations and engineering chart. So I can’t say with 100% certainty there wouldn’t be a problem. I’m definitely not an engineer. I just make them look bad. 🤣
@@HVACRSurvival maybe I misunderstood, I thought it had a seperate temp control for each case, if it's just one for all 3 then there's no problem but the cases might not all be the same temperature if they can't mix air inside. it seems like a less than ideal system that would work normally only under close to ideal conditions (identical load and heat losses in all cases fed from the same temp control)
great work man
Appreciate it!
29:11 Notice the sticker inside the device, its turned 180°; guess thats why they wired it up that way.
Yes, but they should’ve tested it and verified it worked, obviously they did not.
Why the random t stats with the dixells??
@@lynnzeyearl5062 Dixells only control the defrost termination
New meter eh ? Very nice I like that Testo . Just a heads up it kinda struggles to read very low amperage like under 1A and such , and the little delay when first reading volts and amps is kind of annoying , otherwise it's a good meter .
I noticed it’s really slow on reading capacitance. I’ve kind of ran out of tools to pick from TruTech Tools, I thought I’d give it a shot since Testo’s been so good to me. For the most part it seems like a pretty nice meter. I just need to use it and get used to some of its Quirks.
Well Done,
🙌🤜🤛👍👍
Wouldn’t a simple reversing valve and running in heat mode do the same job, only better, than running heating elements at high current?
Some use hot gas defrost freezer cases, freezers, and ice machines. Depends on the equipment but a hot gas will just run compressor and a solenoid sends hot discharge gas through the evap coil to defrost it.
Awesome!
Thank you!
maybe they're not setup for pump down and relying on the accumulators to keep from liquid slugging? but I'm guessing that would balance out with too high of pressures on the low side when off. hard to say what people do or silly controllers do now days.
That induced a real life LOL.... I've done the same thing.... Sharpie mark run up my chin...lip
🤣👍👍
even cool/cold water will melt ice, albeit slower. just keep it blasting away, as long as the drains work. yeah it sucks.
Temperature sensor in wrong spot, sticker in it was upside down, LOL
@@nessnesu6202 which would trick anybody not familiar with it, however that’s why we make sure it works before we leave.
Great job even with crap installs. Shouldn’t each bank of coolers have a solenoid since they are each bank are individually temp controlled? This seems to be a hack of an install. Get what you pay for
This customer would’ve paid what we charged, but the problem was the other guy must had better contacts at the factory and was able to get the cases a lot quicker than we were. Theoretically, yes, it would be nice to have temperature controls in each case however when we do a parallel rack system, we pipe them this way and the only thing we do is put monitoring inside of each case so that if one goes down, we can catch it with an alarm of high temp. I guess it’s a little more difficult when you have smaller systems like this but I don’t think it’s that uncommon you just gotta keep an eye on your temperatures because even this system here has no alarms on it if the product gets warm.
Was I seeing suction traps 3’ from the condenser?
🤣👍👍 yep. I never seen that before.
Nice oil slug on startup.
@@Freezier134a the liquid floodback would probably work to help get it there a little quicker since it wasn’t pumping down🤣👍👍
Them guys that installed that equipment must not have a warranty. We’re required to warranty any of the stuff we install for 1 year
I believe they were about as far away as what we were, he tried to buy it from us however that got missed up because the manufacture kept pushing the ship date back further and further. 50+ weeks.
@@HVACRSurvival thats fun, gotta love those long wait times for equipment
They, apparently, don't even teach proper reading of schematics in trade school anymore. New installs shouldn't have problems like that. That's just someone who doesn't care about their work.
👍🇺🇸❄️💪 nice troubleshooting MacGyver
Question for anyone: Have you worked on a Sanyo VIP PLUS chest freezer?
Why do I ask? I'm looking at buying a used, broken freezer on Facebook. It doesn't power up, probably a straightforward fix?
New ones are too expensive for me, this one's $600
Anything to say about Sanyo freezers?
Any problems keeping the freezer at -240 degrees F?
Thanks.
I assume it’s a medical freezer? With two compressors? They can be a pain.
you can't fix those freezer master-bilt reach-ins since the heaters are just an add on to a cooler design. they F that design. they will freeze again and again every 30-45 days.
They look cheap as hell and like a shit design when they have a twisted wire around it. I’m not impressed.
Don't you hate having to go behind someone and make everything right? I know I do...
Seems like fewer and fewer people give half a crap about doing things properly. Nobody takes pride in their work anymore, it's a matter of "good enough, I guess, on to the next job." Or maybe it's a problem with "fake it until you make it" techs, the kind that openly lie about their knowledge to get a job, and they'll "figure it out as they go along."
That freezer A421 sensor was wired into the wrong terminal because the sticker was put on wrong in the factory 😂 29:00
I seen that 😎 but he should have tested the thermostat when they were finished installing. He must not of tested it.
good catch, that would get just about anyone that's not used to installing them all the time. good old chinesium junk and lets not forget bottom of the barrel labor anywhere.
shouldn't they pump down if it was done correct?
You loke 448? I just met a guy who drops 448 on top of 404. I'm not sure thats a good move.
It’s never correct to mix refrigerants, it’s actually illegal. Plus from a service standpoint you don’t know what the correct saturated temperature pressure relationship to use when calculating subcooling or superheat.
Throw that fluke away and get you a Fieldpiece please. 😂
O hell no. Fluke is overpriced and doesn’t give you many features for what you pay but one thing I can say is when I put it on there I have more faith in that fluke than I do any other brand that I’m gonna get a reliable, consistent, repetitive reading.
Only thing fieldpiece has on that fluke is the twisting angle feature it has
And accuracy. I don’t trust the Fieldpiece on anything with VFD’s. More times than not it gets confused.
I have a store that the installer did same shit that you were running into.
It's a nightmare cause owner spent thousands of dollars to install and now paying me and complaining the whole time.smh
These people are dangerous that do not care to install these cases properly.
Anybody can put these cases together
Takes a real technician to make sure they are functioning as manufactured.
Thanks brother!
no one takes pride in work anymore. except for you
🙏🤜🤛
Those heaters are repairable I do it weekly
What do you have to do?
Big question I have is, how in the world do you have 7 bad heaters? I very very seldom have to replace a heater, normally it's just a time clock problem, wiring issue like you ran into, or terminal burned off the end of the heater wire, stuff like that. Yes I've had a couple drain pan heaters go bad over the years, they get beat up from people messing with stuff and pulling drain pans off etc, to clean out garbage that falls in there. But 7 bad heaters on Hill/Phoenix cases which are a decent brand of case, is crazy. Was this shipping damage?
Still no excuse on the installers, every piece of equipment I install I do not leave until I'm satisfied that everything is working right, and I kick the timers into defrost to make sure it works. And I come back 24 hours later to double check everything, go over everything and double check for leaks, and make sure the coils and sight glasses are clear etc.
It sounds like you do it right 👍👍. I don’t know why they aren’t right but I can’t come back that far empty handed. I hope they not bad. But I’m scheduling it so he will have the case unloaded so I can make the repairs quicker.
@@HVACRSurvival I try. But I know enough to know my limitations so I like to double check everything. I ordered a Hilmor tubing expander with your survival code :) So far so good.
I'm just curious how so many heaters are bad, and this is only 1 year old equipment, that's almost as crazy as not wiring the units up correctly so they pump down properly.
Actually throttle bottle mentioned they might have wired it up for 240 V on the 120 V circuit. Which wouldn’t surprise me since they didn’t wire the solenoid valves correctly or the thermostats plus like I mentioned there was a box with some replacement control modules. Possible that wiped those out in all the but one. Plus the way it blew it apart was very unusual so I guess we’ll find out if I see that on all of the cases.
22:20 Pug
Wow!
Thanks Ryan!
Your comment about leaving your tools out in public triggered some unpleasant past memories.........
I’ve had my stuff stolen before, it’s when you don’t think it’ll happen as when it happens. Not in this scenario, but if it can happen in my driveway, it can happen anywhere.
looks like either the electricians or installers forked up and fed 208v to the 120v circuits initially. smoked elements yeehaw.
on that note, make sure they don't have the 120v/208v crossed up in all of them, 120v on the 208/240 heaters and 240v on the 120v heaters.
but I'd think the evap. motors would be nuked, but they may be ecm rated 120 to 240 and not care? that was a tough basket case of mumbo-jumbo to deal with. 🤔
looking again, lights and fans/drain heater may be different circuits for building automation(lights off with store/sensors), so it's possible the sparkies initially fed 208v to the 120v evap fans/drain heater. the motors never blew because klixon had them off(or 120 to 140v rated). the mystery continues 🥳 they need an exorcist, time traveler, mind reader, team of scientists and more to figure out what exactly happened. maybe they did blow it all up initially and that's why they're not back now?
I would double check the voltages to every input of each case. I'm thinking it may still be wired wrong somewhere in the row and not just killed/fixed at original install.
120v vs 208/240v would make the heaters weak(about half current), also blow the 120v drain heater/s, the evap fans may be 120-240v capable, but you'd think the relays/contactors would let the smoke out, unless they're 240v circuit controlled. not looking at schematics again 🤯 not gong to Indiana to help! 🥸
Great point! That might be why they replaced a couple controllers.
The 120 V drain heater circuit wasn’t even wired correctly to the ice cube relay and I had to literally wire that thing. Somehow, I didn’t record that and didn’t mention it very well. I assume the other ones aren’t wired correctly either or the other people screwed up the wiring.
The sticker inside the control showed the sensor wiring correct.. how was a guy to know?
He should have tested the thermostat when finished. The paper instruction showed the correct way. But it was pointed out to be earlier that the sticker was flipped around.
@@HVACRSurvival awesome find and excellent point on testing.. verification of proper operation
What a long distance nightmare.....I don't like those.....
Long drives are terrible. Should be paid for anything over a half hour.
I’m paid hourly now.
How do you justify going 2.5 hours to service a job? What do you guys do to make it worth going all the way out there?
The customer used us for 25 years when he was only 45 minutes away from us. He moved into a different state and started a new store. He uses a local guy for the basics but when he needs bigger issues or installations done he calls us. We bill mileage and hourly to and from the job. We’re making the same money if we’re local or that far away.
@@HVACRSurvival That warms my soul. Good on you guys!
The guy who did this wiring mess should get fired.
Could stay at a hotel if an out of town job goes into overtime. Save 5 hours of driving.
I had to finish that day and order the parts. We do stay overnight if it requires it.
so the company that installed this unit ....has no interest in fixing it ? Jay.
@@charlesleake930 The only reason he used them was because they had the equipment available several months before us. Otherwise we would have done the job. The person that did it was a fairly small company and normally the customer had been using us for last 25-30 years when he had another store only 45 minutes from us.
@@HVACRSurvival Hey man ...thanks for the kind reply....yea...you can only do your best.....have a great day cheers Jay
Why do you alternate between saying washed and warshed?
Because I try to say it right when I make a conscience effort of it.
I’m sure you confirmed already, but equipment that close to propane storage containers always makes me anxious
But tankers driving 70 mph with thousands of pounds of propane or gas that people always want to break check and cut off. And the propane sits outside in a metal box and gets up to 120°. And nothing ever happens, scared people make scared mistakes that causes the issue you are anxious about
@@Freonleon all true, but contactors and electrical equipment can be ignition sources. Not exactly parallels drawn. But as long as manufacturers clearances are observed it will be fine
@@FreonleonI love your profile pic of the blown bakelite. Ever had one to pop while in front of it?
Note to self: don't buy ANY food there.
Why? This was a clean place.
873 thumbs uP
Thanks Steve!
I hate when I have to take care of such stuff, too! (ノ-_-)ノ~┻━┻
very good video, greetings from germany!
Awesome! Thank you!
umm, you said 404A and they all say 448a gas. probably just a tongue fail. lol
ok, shortly after you noticed meter set for 407c and switched to 448a. 🤪
I knew it had 448A because I had brought six bottles of it in the back of the truck, but I ended up cutting that out because I didn’t end up using it. The video was originally 90 minutes.
Harris Weird Everything....