I am not in the industry one bit, but I find myself coming back to watch your videos because of your clear explanations as you walk through the troubleshooting and problem identifying/solving process. Always a pleasure my dude
On the SJ cord install, that gets to me also, even if it is SJ cord you are running, I always put it in conduit! I had taken over a local sandwich place and was in the process of fixing all of the open wires, etc. as I came across them, they found someone that told them they could do their work at a lot lower rate (this guy went to all of my business and told them that) He has since left the industry, he burnt down their Deli! It was determined the fire started from an open wire ran through a stainless steel hole with no grommet or conduit. This same guy caught a house on fire and now we have to run rigid gas pipe to the inside of all furnaces, residential and commercial in that jurisdiction and took out several rooftop package air conditioners at another customer I was servicing, cost that one about $85 Grand to replace multiple units on one building.
reminds me of a produce stand, it was a fairly big building, & this would be like over 35 years ago, 75% or more of the wiring directly from breaker box was 16 gauge orange extension cords, yes, orange to the breakers, they had junction boxes on roof, where they used wire nuts to attach other orange cords, but everywhere was orange, to drink machine, fans, all over, just stapled to roof, as a young man they kept trying to talk me into coming to work for them, but I refused, the place scared me, lol, but 1 night place burned to ground, they lost everything, people were so upset, I shrugged my shoulders, thinking it was long past due, as even at my young age I knew a lot about electricity, & knew 99.5% of stuff inside should have never been there, maybe a table top fridge plugged into or microwave, but not for equipment! nor hardwired to a breaker.
Thats my weak point, I really wish I knew more about low temp and refrigeration. Hvac is no problem, electrical is no problem, low voltage and control circuit is no problem. Low temp is a problem lol. Keep up the great work buddy, love the videos.
In Canada, we call that flex. Conduit is rigid pipe. One thing I would have done is megger the motor to determine if the windings were indeed the cause of the fuse failure. Was the fuse the right size and type? Often someone will just slap any fuse they have rolling around in the truck. There is such a thing as fuse fatigue and it may have just been the fuse.
Another great video Chris. I don't do HVACR but your teachings translate well to almost any trade. I find I learn a lot from your videos and I have been trying to adopt your "Big Picture" troubleshooting methods. It is so easy to dive into a problem and get tunnel vision to fix something. Just to realize you fixed a symptom of the issue not the actual issue. Thanks again for the great content. Hope you are staying healthy!
We had a Cold Zone Rack go down for the same reason. Condenser fan motors blowing fuses. Two technicians before me replaced the fan motors, one at a time, but the unit tripped again. I went in and ripped out all the wiring to the condenser fan motor and found the tiniest break in the insulation and replaced it all the way to the motor. Let's see it chafe on seal tight conduit.
Hello, if I understand your situation, I also dedicate myself to refrigeration. I have been working with cold room equipment for 30 years, just like you. That is why I like to see your channel a lot because I learn many things apart from knowing the equipment there in the United States. Yes they are something special and sometimes one gets into trouble for wanting to help some clients but I have run into problems similar to what I saw in this video with a problem with cables that come in very small conduit and many cables and occasionally here in Mexico I found a team that was a mess with the cables So I had to redo it even when I see that there is a very small register box I know there are problems because mostly when they all come it's a conduit that comes with all the cables of all the fans and sometimes the register the cable is not registered if it goes in and out and the cables are all wrinkled rolled up and not well fit o Well in the end The important thing is to always give the solution to the client and help him but sometimes clients do not see the conditions that the team gives you they just want the team to work only that and I see your video and I see in the situation that is there they are experiences that are being learned every day I have always said that refrigeration has no limits for learning Day after day we are learning something new each team each brand is a new experience for example here in Mexico this work with the danfoss and bohn brand and they are many problems that I have had with equipment that had factory problems come the warranty process is not so fast So the customer wants the equipment to work, that is, he pressures it to work So my friend, you go ahead with the patience and humility is what does not make each day bigger and observation is very important observation because remember that many of the many of The failures of the refrigeration equipment I have because sometimes we do not observe well the equipment, even much of the answer to solve the problem is found by carefully observing the equipment. have a great night Greetings from Mexico
If you run a fuse really close to its rating (so it's pretty much always warm) they tend to age and eventually blow even though nothing is wrong. Although it's probably a lot more likely in gear like this that something is actually wrong, it doesn't necessarily have to be.
My father and I are in auto repair, and he's seen a few classic cars that have blown a fuse for no good reason (he went looking for a good reason, and didn't find anything wrong). I'm talking cars old enough that they use glass fuses. Every single time it was a fast-blow fuse of 5 amps or under. With glass fuses that are under 5 amps, the fuse wire is about as thick as a coarse hair off your head. After the third one he encountered, he came up with a theory. "It must be the vibration", he said. That's the only reasonable cause either of us could come up with for a glass fuse to fail without an electrical overload. Just one too many bumps in the road bending that hair-thin fuse wire, and eventually it snapped due to metal fatigue. I think that's one of the reasons other than cost that newer cars switched to the blade fuses (ATO, ATM, etc.). The fuse element in them is probably made of a different alloy that allows the manufacturers to make the fuse element thicker so it's mechanically stronger but still fails at the same amperage. The fuse element is also much shorter than in those glass fuses, so there's less length to get vibrating in the first place. Now whenever we get a classic car with blown fuses, we replace the glass fuse that blew with a sand-filled ceramic fuse (after finding the problem of course). I know, those are usually for high voltage AC so that the fuse can quench an arc and not explode, but for our use case the idea is that the sand acts to prevent the fuse wire from vibrating and subsequently failing due to metal fatigue.
the main breaker panel looked good, someone took time, but so much other mess, but love seeing stuff like the burned flex conduit, just love the attention to detail, and great deal to correct "issues" without speaking bad. only if I saw major safety issue, which this was not, just potential to scuff & short in a short period of time
I came up on a unit built like that once that the condenser fan motor belly band vibrated loose. The motor slid down onto the condenser and chewed its way right into the coil.
I want to share an experience I had with an hvac tech. I'm a maintenance supervisor at a huge warehouse I think I mentioned it before. Anyways the building was brand new and the breakroom was not cooling. I called the hvac company and I was kinda shadowing the guy up on the roof cause I'm a curious person and like to learn this stuff. I asked him if he cared and he said it was good. I ended helping him in the long run. So he pull off the panel and man the first thing I saw was this wire stretched out across the whole unit and running somewhere I couldn't see. I'm talking about you can play the guitar on this wire. This tech was looking at the electronic stuff and ignoring this wire. I finally said something after he said he couldn't find anything wrong. He told me he installed the unit and that wire was going to something that I can't remember but it was fine and he ran it like that because he didn't have enough wire. He just left it and didn't fix it. The problem ended up being someone messed with the thermostat and had it set for timeouts. I know now that when the warranty is up I'll probably go up there and fix that because it drives me crazy. Thx for the video guy I learn from every one and that's valuable to me. I'm currently in a pinch right now or I would have ordered some merchandise by now. My wife just left me after 15 years for pretty much no reason that I can see. She just needs to find herself she says. So next paycheck I'll get something lol. Sorry for the long story.😁
Just have to say, I re-entered the HVAC trade recently, and I found your channel probably months ago as I was transitioning from my old job back into my current job, doing residential HVAC. I like your thought process, and I sure do follow that train of thought of looking at everything. "It could be that one little thing you didn't check that made you look like the hero or the zero in front of the customer" was something one of my old bosses said to me, and it stuck. Keep it up! I appreciate you spilling knowledge and wisdom out. It makes me wonder if I could transition into refrigeration and be able to run calls proficiently like you do. Time will tell. Still gotta build the toolkit out for me.
Hypothesizing, on this one. The old motor was grounded directly to the conduit, when the wire blew it would have taken the path of least resistance which would have been via the motor casing and possibly the wingdings inside, creating a voltage spike which could have over amped the motor or created a direct short, not knowing how this unit is wired, just guessing. When that conduit burnt through though that would have been a brief direct short to ground that cleared its self when the wire and conduit burnt enough to break contact, hence why you didn't find an obvious ground short.
Awesome content Chris love how you give the tips about changing those condenser fan motors with the belly band mount gives us newbies something to think about and slow our roll
Thank you for using their, not there or they're. Don't see that much these days! Seriously though your attention to detail, spending time looking at the bigger picture and communicating with the customer fully and honestly is very admirable. Customers really do notice. I do the same in my job (Vehcular & People Access Systems).
Good vid ! All that Flex conduit going to condenser fan motors should actually be Liquid tite. Wow, talk about overcrowding in that conduit. All that condenser wiring is a nightmare , capacitor wiring laying on sharp aluminum fins , capacitors not secured properly. a bit of plumbers tape would go a long way over there.
NIce Job: Once again your voltage is low. This will cause higher that normal amperage on equipment. The public utility out there is terrible. Someone needs to contact customer service department and the engineer and make them up the voltage to at least 208 volts. This will also burn up contactors due to overheating/over amperage. Thanks for the video's.
you realize 202 volts is within 3% of 208v right, with majority of the rack running it's fine. the voltage across the fuse is also a big series circuit through the motor and the rest.
@@throttlebottle5906 : I worked for a public electric utility for many, many years. If you are paying for 208 volts, that is what you should be getting. Equipment today barely meets specs on what they are providing, and Breakers, fuses, wiring, etc. barely meet specs for the load they are carrying. If you are getting low voltage now, it will be much worse when summer time comes and power factor takes its toll. As loads increase it will drop even more. It is kind of log rhythmic until it reaches failure. Utilities in that area seem to constantly have voltage on the low side.
I have a great story on replacing the same type of unit motor, loosened one of the belly band brackets and the whole thing fell apart, it had a broken bracket and I have No Idea how the previous tech had put it back in there like they did. Luckily I had a used bracket at the shop and swapped it out for the customer with a new motor and explained what happened to the customer and gave them the bracket, that’s when they said, “That’s why we call you, you fix it right and don’t rig it”
Armour cable wire running into a junction box, conduit is rigid pipe when the NEC code requires it, but most Refrigeration and Armour wire is used in a switch gear disconnected, and what you working on. You founded the problem a hole and a broken wire. Like you well stated the thermal over load kick in, because the condenser ran motor was not running, and high head pressure build up in the system high side, and high pressure cut out engage the thermal over load and opened the compressor circuit to shut it off.
Hey, appreciate the videos. Is there any way you could do a run down on pm vs emergency for a couple businesses over a 1, 5 and 10 year period? You can anonymize the numbers if you want. I think it would be an interesting non-call video for viewers to see what's typically the better option and by how much. You could even do a separate figure for basic minimal pm vs. if they let you do everything you wanted to do. Thanks!
I'm not in the HAVC field but I keep coming back to watch your videos. I enjoy the trouble shooting you explain. Do you do follow up videos after the company approves the suggestions?
probably due the rubbed wire short in the metal tube and the fail motor was the closest one to the short. probaly it went to ground somewere and tripped the fuse. note... u should verify also the ground between the ground wire and the metal parts u are working it.
Hey man,i like watching your vids.theyre very educational,im currently attending trade school for this typa work.it helps me understand what im reading better.keep em coming
Look at that second condenser fan motor. They wrapped the wire around the bracket multiple times for the capacitor. What does take more time? Shortening the wires with new spade connectors or wrapping it around? Laziness?
I just learned about winter charge and HPR valves today. We were taught a method with sizing the pipes for adequate refrig. charge for winter. they also said a lot of guys use rule of thumb charging methods. I like how you were able to calculate the liquid level in the receiver how did you figure that out. Thanks.
Just because a capacitor tests good with no power, it doesn't mean it's good. For that you need an ESR meter. Basically an old capacitor can turn into a resistor only when a large voltage is applied. Just saying in case it helps you troubleshooting in the future.
I don't have my code book handy, but conductor fill states maximum of 9 #12 conductors for 1/2 FMC. That's not accounting for temperature though. Looks like too many to me lol :) I'll check my NEC tomorrow at work and get you the actual code that states conductor fill
I went and looked it up too, 9x #12 THHN in 1/2" anything is crazy. (But is the maximum on 1/2 FMC, LFMC and LFNC) Chris: Are you going to redesign the conduit layout a little, and have maybe three runs, two fans per conduit, and a third conduit for the ice units further down?
I think I would have held off on the winter charge until I could do a leak search , but again , we do have wayyyy tighter regulations on refrigerant . Also , I'd probably have taken off the whole fan motor bracket and cursed like a sailor when trying to put it back together ... Btw , I do not understand what was all that wiring wrapped around the bracket on the 2nd fan motor , what's that all about ?
It looked like you were turning off a circuit breaker next to the fuse as you worked, what is the purpose of the fuse if there's a breaker right next to it as well? It seems redundant?
That's exactly the point. The breaker is so that if there is a super bad short, it can actually cut power before the fuse even blows. At the same time, a bad fan motor could pop a fuse and not a breaker if something went wrong. The breaker also helps you by de-energizing the circuit. You wouldn't want to pull a live fuse to turn off a motor. In this case it looks like they have an oversized breaker being used as a switch, and then a fuse to actually regulate the motor if it shorted. Looks like a slow-blow fuse, since it doesn't instantly pop from the inrush current of turning the motor on, but if it were to dead short for more than a second that fuse would probably explode. That happened to me in one of my tesla coils. Something went wrong, the coil arced to the circuit board, and the fuse had so much voltage pumped into it that there was only glass dust remaining.
Peter King I’ve had fuses not make contact before and just need to be pulled out and put back. Problem fixed... this was on a car starter circuit. After checking that fuse it worked again, I though I needed a new starter. It’s still been starting for 3-4 years now.
Indeed. During my time repairing audio equipment, you could tell if there was a short, glass fuses *blow* and turn black, if it was a soft blow, the fuse wire just melts and it's usually safe to just replace it.
I gotta ask! I came across your videos randomly - But why is Parker Hannifin in your intro? What parts/affiliation do you have with them? :D This is just out of curiosity as i used to work for them and my dad is a Global key account manager for them :)
Good one thing the I learned from my instructor good Mecanic never talk bad on another Mecanic just tell the costum that is not good and it’s has to be fix don’t blame others Gus’s
That's armored conduit, that's not even the right conduit for outdoor conditions, that's for interior purposes and not the right connectors. There are charts in the NEC code that tell you how many wires are allowed in the conduit size used.
I'm having issues with our ac and can't get parts because of the virus can I get any pointers for websites. Amazon won't deliver to my house right now so I'm kinda lost.
I need to make a pet peeves video. Caps attached to fan struts, wire wrapped around the struts, exposed wire nuts everywhere....good grief. I can see making that temporary repair, but so many guys leave them as permanent. So, if I know the customer will not approve the correct repair after a temp repair, I just quote the permanent repair and tell them it needs to be approved ASAP, and I bypass the temp repair entirely so the customer does not end up with bad work from my good intention.
I am the furthest thing from perfect, the big picture diagnoses idea is just what I try to follow so I motivate myself. I'm constantly wanting to take short cuts, and when I do they usually bite me in the ass. But I totally realize I am not perfect whatsoever!!
pomonabill220 wish more people would think about the whole picture stuff. Been doing this a long time and most techs don’t. They want to get in and out leaving undiagnosed issues.
How is this outdoor rated? There is no sealing against water ingress. In Australia all external electrical installs are double insulated and seal against weather to maintain IP rating, definitely no insulation tape!
i always forget to ask.... why do you always quote for such small things? in so many videos ? nothing wrong with it... just not use to it... usually my clients never ask... some do i tell em verbally ''ballpark'' price.. i only quote on major installs or installs and yes sometimes we can't make everything pretty all at once due to timing either its late and your tired and you'll make a mistake rather than improving so if you have to come back and fix a few things here and there. heck we've all done it
With this customer I have a 1500 dollar not to exceed but these repairs alone were probably 6-800 so I had to quote it because I likely would have went over on the return visit.....
@@HVACRVIDEOS ahh lol i guess things work different lol my customers don't really have a limit i mean they do for thousands but if its 100 - 1000 i never have to ask .. i might tell them verbally but good call on the Motor ... i would of done the same i would of just changed it out instead of changing the fuse checking meh its ''ok'' than a few days later the same call or even worse the motor and compressor ... but i see recently that rack has become you're best friend lol
it’s takes you long to find the fault I would suggest don’t need to put your gage in this sort of situation just look at the unit see what’s not running,
Waheed Bahadory dude he takes long to repair everything in one shot. He own his business and he is the boss he diagnose pretty quick we r techs not looking at whats bad only
You shouldn't have fixed the wire. You should have let it stay like that until it became a problem, then they would need to call you again and you would get paid more. I'm more into mechanic type work, but just a few months ago I was replacing a power steering pump and I noticed the vehicle had a bad coolant leak. I didn't fix it and I saw no reason to bring it up to the customer because if all goes well, I'll get to replace not only the radiator, but also an engine if it does enough damage. In this case, I got to replace the entire engine a month later. it NEVER pays to do preventative fixes.
that is such a nicely done electrical box. someone took pride in it when they put it together
chris you get what you pay for.
I agreee some can be a nightmare
I am not in the industry one bit, but I find myself coming back to watch your videos because of your clear explanations as you walk through the troubleshooting and problem identifying/solving process. Always a pleasure my dude
On the SJ cord install, that gets to me also, even if it is SJ cord you are running, I always put it in conduit! I had taken over a local sandwich place and was in the process of fixing all of the open wires, etc. as I came across them, they found someone that told them they could do their work at a lot lower rate (this guy went to all of my business and told them that) He has since left the industry, he burnt down their Deli! It was determined the fire started from an open wire ran through a stainless steel hole with no grommet or conduit. This same guy caught a house on fire and now we have to run rigid gas pipe to the inside of all furnaces, residential and commercial in that jurisdiction and took out several rooftop package air conditioners at another customer I was servicing, cost that one about $85 Grand to replace multiple units on one building.
I don't think SJ, or SOOW is allowed to be run in conduit per NEC. I don't know why HVAC guys use SJ so much, SOOW is much higher rated/better cord.
@@fidikvien7682 you are correct it's against code
A. Koenigs people just don’t understand what it costs to run a business
reminds me of a produce stand, it was a fairly big building, & this would be like over 35 years ago, 75% or more of the wiring directly from breaker box was 16 gauge orange extension cords, yes, orange to the breakers, they had junction boxes on roof, where they used wire nuts to attach other orange cords, but everywhere was orange, to drink machine, fans, all over, just stapled to roof, as a young man they kept trying to talk me into coming to work for them, but I refused, the place scared me, lol, but 1 night place burned to ground, they lost everything, people were so upset, I shrugged my shoulders, thinking it was long past due, as even at my young age I knew a lot about electricity, & knew 99.5% of stuff inside should have never been there, maybe a table top fridge plugged into or microwave, but not for equipment! nor hardwired to a breaker.
Serves them fukken right.
Thats my weak point, I really wish I knew more about low temp and refrigeration. Hvac is no problem, electrical is no problem, low voltage and control circuit is no problem. Low temp is a problem lol. Keep up the great work buddy, love the videos.
RESPECT for a man who tries to convey both knowledge and experience .No one is perfect!
Great example of keeping the customer in the loop! Love seeing the troubleshooting process in real time. Thanks for the quality content!
In Canada, we call that flex. Conduit is rigid pipe. One thing I would have done is megger the motor to determine if the windings were indeed the cause of the fuse failure. Was the fuse the right size and type? Often someone will just slap any fuse they have rolling around in the truck.
There is such a thing as fuse fatigue and it may have just been the fuse.
Another great video Chris. I don't do HVACR but your teachings translate well to almost any trade. I find I learn a lot from your videos and I have been trying to adopt your "Big Picture" troubleshooting methods. It is so easy to dive into a problem and get tunnel vision to fix something. Just to realize you fixed a symptom of the issue not the actual issue. Thanks again for the great content. Hope you are staying healthy!
We had a Cold Zone Rack go down for the same reason. Condenser fan motors blowing fuses. Two technicians before me replaced the fan motors, one at a time, but the unit tripped again. I went in and ripped out all the wiring to the condenser fan motor and found the tiniest break in the insulation and replaced it all the way to the motor. Let's see it chafe on seal tight conduit.
Great tip! I usually take a crescent wrench and pry between those bolt holes to spread it apart.
Hello, if I understand your situation, I also dedicate myself to refrigeration. I have been working with cold room equipment for 30 years, just like you. That is why I like to see your channel a lot because I learn many things apart from knowing the equipment there in the United States. Yes they are something special and sometimes one gets into trouble for wanting to help some clients but I have run into problems similar to what I saw in this video with a problem with cables that come in very small conduit and many cables and occasionally here in Mexico I found a team that was a mess with the cables So I had to redo it even when I see that there is a very small register box I know there are problems because mostly when they all come it's a conduit that comes with all the cables of all the fans and sometimes the register the cable is not registered if it goes in and out and the cables are all wrinkled rolled up and not well fit o Well in the end The important thing is to always give the solution to the client and help him but sometimes clients do not see the conditions that the team gives you they just want the team to work only that and I see your video and I see in the situation that is there they are experiences that are being learned every day I have always said that refrigeration has no limits for learning Day after day we are learning something new each team each brand is a new experience for example here in Mexico this work with the danfoss and bohn brand and they are many problems that I have had with equipment that had factory problems come the warranty process is not so fast So the customer wants the equipment to work, that is, he pressures it to work So my friend, you go ahead with the patience and humility is what does not make each day bigger and observation is very important observation because remember that many of the many of The failures of the refrigeration equipment I have because sometimes we do not observe well the equipment, even much of the answer to solve the problem is found by carefully observing the equipment. have a great night Greetings from Mexico
If you run a fuse really close to its rating (so it's pretty much always warm) they tend to age and eventually blow even though nothing is wrong. Although it's probably a lot more likely in gear like this that something is actually wrong, it doesn't necessarily have to be.
My father and I are in auto repair, and he's seen a few classic cars that have blown a fuse for no good reason (he went looking for a good reason, and didn't find anything wrong). I'm talking cars old enough that they use glass fuses.
Every single time it was a fast-blow fuse of 5 amps or under. With glass fuses that are under 5 amps, the fuse wire is about as thick as a coarse hair off your head.
After the third one he encountered, he came up with a theory. "It must be the vibration", he said. That's the only reasonable cause either of us could come up with for a glass fuse to fail without an electrical overload. Just one too many bumps in the road bending that hair-thin fuse wire, and eventually it snapped due to metal fatigue.
I think that's one of the reasons other than cost that newer cars switched to the blade fuses (ATO, ATM, etc.). The fuse element in them is probably made of a different alloy that allows the manufacturers to make the fuse element thicker so it's mechanically stronger but still fails at the same amperage. The fuse element is also much shorter than in those glass fuses, so there's less length to get vibrating in the first place.
Now whenever we get a classic car with blown fuses, we replace the glass fuse that blew with a sand-filled ceramic fuse (after finding the problem of course). I know, those are usually for high voltage AC so that the fuse can quench an arc and not explode, but for our use case the idea is that the sand acts to prevent the fuse wire from vibrating and subsequently failing due to metal fatigue.
Every time a fuse has start surge it bends the element they break when they age that's why change both fuses 🤗
the main breaker panel looked good, someone took time, but so much other mess, but love seeing stuff like the burned flex conduit, just love the attention to detail, and great deal to correct "issues" without speaking bad. only if I saw major safety issue, which this was not, just potential to scuff & short in a short period of time
I came up on a unit built like that once that the condenser fan motor belly band vibrated loose. The motor slid down onto the condenser and chewed its way right into the coil.
I want to share an experience I had with an hvac tech. I'm a maintenance supervisor at a huge warehouse I think I mentioned it before. Anyways the building was brand new and the breakroom was not cooling. I called the hvac company and I was kinda shadowing the guy up on the roof cause I'm a curious person and like to learn this stuff. I asked him if he cared and he said it was good. I ended helping him in the long run. So he pull off the panel and man the first thing I saw was this wire stretched out across the whole unit and running somewhere I couldn't see. I'm talking about you can play the guitar on this wire. This tech was looking at the electronic stuff and ignoring this wire. I finally said something after he said he couldn't find anything wrong. He told me he installed the unit and that wire was going to something that I can't remember but it was fine and he ran it like that because he didn't have enough wire. He just left it and didn't fix it. The problem ended up being someone messed with the thermostat and had it set for timeouts. I know now that when the warranty is up I'll probably go up there and fix that because it drives me crazy. Thx for the video guy I learn from every one and that's valuable to me. I'm currently in a pinch right now or I would have ordered some merchandise by now. My wife just left me after 15 years for pretty much no reason that I can see. She just needs to find herself she says. So next paycheck I'll get something lol. Sorry for the long story.😁
Just have to say, I re-entered the HVAC trade recently, and I found your channel probably months ago as I was transitioning from my old job back into my current job, doing residential HVAC. I like your thought process, and I sure do follow that train of thought of looking at everything. "It could be that one little thing you didn't check that made you look like the hero or the zero in front of the customer" was something one of my old bosses said to me, and it stuck. Keep it up! I appreciate you spilling knowledge and wisdom out. It makes me wonder if I could transition into refrigeration and be able to run calls proficiently like you do. Time will tell. Still gotta build the toolkit out for me.
In regards to the ice machines, the classic get the cheapest quote installed but call you to fix them ..... love when people do that ..........
Hypothesizing, on this one. The old motor was grounded directly to the conduit, when the wire blew it would have taken the path of least resistance which would have been via the motor casing and possibly the wingdings inside, creating a voltage spike which could have over amped the motor or created a direct short, not knowing how this unit is wired, just guessing. When that conduit burnt through though that would have been a brief direct short to ground that cleared its self when the wire and conduit burnt enough to break contact, hence why you didn't find an obvious ground short.
This sounds good!
Good work a fuse never blows for no reason.
Awesome content Chris love how you give the tips about changing those condenser fan motors with the belly band mount gives us newbies something to think about and slow our roll
Great customer service !!
Thanks, Chris.
Always impressed by the knowledge shown.
Thank you for using their, not there or they're. Don't see that much these days!
Seriously though your attention to detail, spending time looking at the bigger picture and communicating with the customer fully and honestly is very admirable. Customers really do notice. I do the same in my job (Vehcular & People Access Systems).
I hate these metal conduits, glad we have only plastic ones here - so they cannot rub insulation away when there are vibrations. :)
u r doing a very professional job. thanks
Good vid ! All that Flex conduit going to condenser fan motors should actually be Liquid tite. Wow, talk about overcrowding in that conduit. All that condenser wiring is a nightmare , capacitor wiring laying on sharp aluminum fins , capacitors not secured properly. a bit of plumbers tape would go a long way over there.
NIce Job: Once again your voltage is low. This will cause higher that normal amperage on equipment. The public utility out there is terrible. Someone needs to contact customer service department and the engineer and make them up the voltage to at least 208 volts. This will also burn up contactors due to overheating/over amperage. Thanks for the video's.
Waterman one sounds to me he owes the local utility a nice gift basket for all the repeat business!
you realize 202 volts is within 3% of 208v right, with majority of the rack running it's fine. the voltage across the fuse is also a big series circuit through the motor and the rest.
@@unvjustintime1 : I agree. Thanks
@@throttlebottle5906 : I worked for a public electric utility for many, many years. If you are paying for 208 volts, that is what you should be getting. Equipment today barely meets specs on what they are providing, and Breakers, fuses, wiring, etc. barely meet specs for the load they are carrying. If you are getting low voltage now, it will be much worse when summer time comes and power factor takes its toll. As loads increase it will drop even more. It is kind of log rhythmic until it reaches failure. Utilities in that area seem to constantly have voltage on the low side.
pretty standard voltage for california. 197-202 not uncommon. low voltage everywhere in so cal.
I have a great story on replacing the same type of unit motor, loosened one of the belly band brackets and the whole thing fell apart, it had a broken bracket and I have No Idea how the previous tech had put it back in there like they did. Luckily I had a used bracket at the shop and swapped it out for the customer with a new motor and explained what happened to the customer and gave them the bracket, that’s when they said, “That’s why we call you, you fix it right and don’t rig it”
Armour cable wire running into a junction box, conduit is rigid pipe when the NEC code requires it, but most Refrigeration and Armour wire is used in a switch gear disconnected, and what you working on. You founded the problem a hole and a broken wire. Like you well stated the thermal over load kick in, because the condenser ran motor was not running, and high head pressure build up in the system high side, and high pressure cut out engage the thermal over load and opened the compressor circuit to shut it off.
Hey, appreciate the videos. Is there any way you could do a run down on pm vs emergency for a couple businesses over a 1, 5 and 10 year period? You can anonymize the numbers if you want. I think it would be an interesting non-call video for viewers to see what's typically the better option and by how much. You could even do a separate figure for basic minimal pm vs. if they let you do everything you wanted to do. Thanks!
With fuses I agree it blew for a reason try your best and find it. Be surprised how often u find them
I'm not in the HAVC field but I keep coming back to watch your videos. I enjoy the trouble shooting you explain. Do you do follow up videos after the company approves the suggestions?
Manual reset is usually on water-cooled condenser
probably due the rubbed wire short in the metal tube and the fail motor was the closest one to the short. probaly it went to ground somewere and tripped the fuse. note... u should verify also the ground between the ground wire and the metal parts u are working it.
You can buy a 15 dollar UGLY's reference book and it has a lot of electric information and codes in it, at Home depot or Lowe's you can purchase it.
Hey man,i like watching your vids.theyre very educational,im currently attending trade school for this typa work.it helps me understand what im reading better.keep em coming
If this get approved i think the fix will make a great video
Trouble shooting Diagnostics and reapirvate the key you inspect the cause of the problem - Great work
Excellent troubleshooting
Baby steps, priorities in line for success
Look at that second condenser fan motor. They wrapped the wire around the bracket multiple times for the capacitor. What does take more time? Shortening the wires with new spade connectors or wrapping it around? Laziness?
I just learned about winter charge and HPR valves today. We were taught a method with sizing the pipes for adequate refrig. charge for winter. they also said a lot of guys use rule of thumb charging methods. I like how you were able to calculate the liquid level in the receiver how did you figure that out. Thanks.
Just because a capacitor tests good with no power, it doesn't mean it's good. For that you need an ESR meter. Basically an old capacitor can turn into a resistor only when a large voltage is applied. Just saying in case it helps you troubleshooting in the future.
Very nice and helpful video
Plz make a new video on walk in cooler electrical wiring troubleshoot step by step
Nice! Love the videos you do!
One of the few nicely wired units.
Do you ever do resistance and insulation tests your motors?
You’re amazing man keep going
9:06 another tip, before you install a new motor, take a nameplate picture with your phone, you're welcome LOL
I don't have my code book handy, but conductor fill states maximum of 9 #12 conductors for 1/2 FMC. That's not accounting for temperature though. Looks like too many to me lol :) I'll check my NEC tomorrow at work and get you the actual code that states conductor fill
I went and looked it up too, 9x #12 THHN in 1/2" anything is crazy. (But is the maximum on 1/2 FMC, LFMC and LFNC)
Chris: Are you going to redesign the conduit layout a little, and have maybe three runs, two fans per conduit, and a third conduit for the ice units further down?
Yeah I plan on completely redesigning tht conduit run I'm thinking a dedicated run for each motor.
Thank you!
Nice job 👍👍👍
Chris, what would happen if you bypassed the fuse until you got more fuses?
When you said something about an engineer designing something to be a nightmare, one name came to mind....York. 😂
Nice video 👍 enjoy your content.
Your considered an essential worker because your a tech!
Sealtite wont destroy those wires and ground out 👌
Nice video
I think I would have held off on the winter charge until I could do a leak search , but again , we do have wayyyy tighter regulations on refrigerant .
Also , I'd probably have taken off the whole fan motor bracket and cursed like a sailor when trying to put it back together ...
Btw , I do not understand what was all that wiring wrapped around the bracket on the 2nd fan motor , what's that all about ?
someone was lazy and didn't want to zip tie the wires together , its was an electrical short waiting to happen.......
Did the 2 clocks being on different times cause any problems?
It looked like you were turning off a circuit breaker next to the fuse as you worked, what is the purpose of the fuse if there's a breaker right next to it as well? It seems redundant?
That's exactly the point. The breaker is so that if there is a super bad short, it can actually cut power before the fuse even blows. At the same time, a bad fan motor could pop a fuse and not a breaker if something went wrong. The breaker also helps you by de-energizing the circuit. You wouldn't want to pull a live fuse to turn off a motor.
In this case it looks like they have an oversized breaker being used as a switch, and then a fuse to actually regulate the motor if it shorted. Looks like a slow-blow fuse, since it doesn't instantly pop from the inrush current of turning the motor on, but if it were to dead short for more than a second that fuse would probably explode.
That happened to me in one of my tesla coils. Something went wrong, the coil arced to the circuit board, and the fuse had so much voltage pumped into it that there was only glass dust remaining.
What conduit will you quote for replacement
At 1:47, why did you shut off the compressor to put on the gauges?
Fuses do degrade. The heating & cooling over time can weaken the fuse and this can cause to fail.
Peter King I’ve had fuses not make contact before and just need to be pulled out and put back. Problem fixed... this was on a car starter circuit. After checking that fuse it worked again, I though I needed a new starter. It’s still been starting for 3-4 years now.
Indeed. During my time repairing audio equipment, you could tell if there was a short, glass fuses *blow* and turn black, if it was a soft blow, the fuse wire just melts and it's usually safe to just replace it.
When in doubt pull it all out
Would measuring continuity on the motor made your guess a lot more secure decision ? Or continuity is not a secure method?
you need a megohm/insulation tester to test breakdown voltage of them, not a regular DVOM in continuity
Do those racks usually come with the run caps mounted next to the fan out of the factory.
Yes they do
Nice video
Is this a ccf ?
HVACR! Do you source American made electric motors if possible?
I gotta ask! I came across your videos randomly - But why is Parker Hannifin in your intro? What parts/affiliation do you have with them? :D This is just out of curiosity as i used to work for them and my dad is a Global key account manager for them :)
The Sporlan division or Parker sponsors my UA-cam channel as Sporlan is a major manufacturer of refrigeration components
@@HVACRVIDEOS Ahh okay! I also had to ask the old man - Apparently parker bought Sporlan some time back but kept the name :)
Good one thing the I learned from my instructor good Mecanic never talk bad on another Mecanic just tell the costum that is not good and it’s has to be fix don’t blame others Gus’s
What watch are you wareing looks pretty cool
The galaxy active 2 watch
Only like the 15th time I have seen this rack and building lol. Also love the vids man keep up the good work!!
I work on like 6 restaurants that have this same layout and same rack.
Oh okay. Thanks!
@@HVACRVIDEOS Is this the same rack ua-cam.com/video/XuwpPZChMlk/v-deo.html ?
Yeah that is the same rack
Did you ever find out what that interesting smell was?
Wtf why is this in my recommend wnjoyed the video
That's armored conduit, that's not even the right conduit for outdoor conditions, that's for interior purposes and not the right connectors. There are charts in the NEC code that tell you how many wires are allowed in the conduit size used.
Gotta clean up your microphone foam, the dust is driving me nuts 😉
Always troubles with this Restaurant...
I'm having issues with our ac and can't get parts because of the virus can I get any pointers for websites. Amazon won't deliver to my house right now so I'm kinda lost.
Ebay will not either
you can try grainger or wolffbros. assuming ups or fedex will deliver or perhaps pickup yourself.
@@throttlebottle5906 thanks it really doesn't matter now because it got cold and snowy again in a matter of two days but thanks for the suggestion
I need to make a pet peeves video. Caps attached to fan struts, wire wrapped around the struts, exposed wire nuts everywhere....good grief. I can see making that temporary repair, but so many guys leave them as permanent. So, if I know the customer will not approve the correct repair after a temp repair, I just quote the permanent repair and tell them it needs to be approved ASAP, and I bypass the temp repair entirely so the customer does not end up with bad work from my good intention.
It’s only temporary if it doesn’t last.
Unless it has anything to do with computers, where temporary fixes often become very permanent.
Ive got no idea how they got that many wires jammed into that conduit.
oh your so perfect with your whole picture stuff.... wish you wouldn't dwell on that so much!
I am the furthest thing from perfect, the big picture diagnoses idea is just what I try to follow so I motivate myself. I'm constantly wanting to take short cuts, and when I do they usually bite me in the ass. But I totally realize I am not perfect whatsoever!!
pomonabill220 wish more people would think about the whole picture stuff. Been doing this a long time and most techs don’t. They want to get in and out leaving undiagnosed issues.
I hate so cord because people always use it inappropriately.
Did you ever think of a gopro so you dont have to hold the camera
Was it just me or did that unit have two high pressure switches?
possibly for low ambient temp fan cycling. couldn't tell where the conduit went to.
Could of used a megger, rather than continuity check line to earth to find shorts.
Not telling you what to do, just trying to help out.
just bridge the fuse with some thick wire and you will see where the short is in short order
How is this outdoor rated? There is no sealing against water ingress. In Australia all external electrical installs are double insulated and seal against weather to maintain IP rating, definitely no insulation tape!
#474 thumbs up
walk in cooler said niggad
i always forget to ask.... why do you always quote for such small things? in so many videos ? nothing wrong with it... just not use to it... usually my clients never ask... some do i tell em verbally ''ballpark'' price.. i only quote on major installs or installs and yes sometimes we can't make everything pretty all at once due to timing either its late and your tired and you'll make a mistake rather than improving so if you have to come back and fix a few things here and there. heck we've all done it
With this customer I have a 1500 dollar not to exceed but these repairs alone were probably 6-800 so I had to quote it because I likely would have went over on the return visit.....
@@HVACRVIDEOS ahh lol i guess things work different lol my customers don't really have a limit i mean they do for thousands but if its 100 - 1000 i never have to ask .. i might tell them verbally but good call on the Motor ... i would of done the same i would of just changed it out instead of changing the fuse checking meh its ''ok'' than a few days later the same call or even worse the motor and compressor ... but i see recently that rack has become you're best friend lol
it’s takes you long to find the fault I would suggest don’t need to put your gage in this sort of situation just look at the unit see what’s not running,
Waheed Bahadory dude he takes long to repair everything in one shot. He own his business and he is the boss he diagnose pretty quick we r techs not looking at whats bad only
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You shouldn't have fixed the wire. You should have let it stay like that until it became a problem, then they would need to call you again and you would get paid more. I'm more into mechanic type work, but just a few months ago I was replacing a power steering pump and I noticed the vehicle had a bad coolant leak. I didn't fix it and I saw no reason to bring it up to the customer because if all goes well, I'll get to replace not only the radiator, but also an engine if it does enough damage. In this case, I got to replace the entire engine a month later. it NEVER pays to do preventative fixes.
It just gives them a chance to call another hvac guy, then you lose the job... or someone will bring their car to a diffrent mechanic...
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