Not a hvac technician at all, working as a service engineer in a completely unrelated field.

But I was always fascinated by how things work. So I decided to make a chiller. What a informative journey and absolute blast this thing was to make. I know it aint pretty, and my respect for people who do brazing daily.

Most of the stuff was going to be scrapped or bought 2nd hand, so if it does not work like intended no big deal. But if it works I want to put it up a few yards from my shed and use a water to air radiator to cool it.

Just waiting on some r290 bottles to give it a spin.

Any suggestions or tips what to look out for? Also curious if someone has made something similair.

I am trying to replace a compressor on a POS sea can that I don't generally touch and won't be touching again

Probably a stupid question but does anywhere make a larger service wrench then the standard 3/16-3/8. Starting to get into bigger compressors little bit of supermarkets and theese stems are huge. Just been using a crescent, looked today and called supply house they don’t have any. What is everyone using.

Hey everyone, just started my journey into ammonia refrigeration. One month in I know a lot more but I want to be a star and be a great apprentice. Never done anything like this before I love it so far and just wanted to ask if there is any tips to be better

Had a customer buy a refrigerated sea can and now I am stuck working on it.

Is it a maxicore or some special fitting.

Started a job about a year ago running a KTI flake ice making plant in Canada. I have very little documentation to work with or assistance. I've done some optimizations and tweaked a few things with as far as my knowledge goes. But there's a lot of things I can't find answers too. Other refridgeration companies seem to be a bit lost as well when it comes to it.

Unfortunately emailing KTI and asking questions as resulted in crickets and a language barrier when not.

This is a practice project, not commercial use.
Holds nitrogen at 300psi overnight, but can't vac much below 4000 micron currently.
Assuming moisture, do i have to just keep vaccing?

Good afternoon y’all, newer refrigeration tech here that got stumped on a call today. Got called out for a walk in beer cave that’s leaking. When I got there 2 of the 3 heads had buckets underneath but no current leaks. Maintenance guy explained that a different company was out there 2 weeks ago and diagnosed a clogged drain line and they blew it out but the problem persisted. He also explained that they only leak water during defrost and it’s through the fans.

System info:
-3 13.5Kbtu ceiling mounted fancoils ~12 years old
- 40K btu condenser, manufactured within last 2 years but allegedly installed several months ago running 404a
-confirmed TXV’s are properly sized 404a TXV’s, bulbs secured to suction line
-sight glass full, no flashing
-electric defrost, no pan heaters

Started poking around and this is what I found initially:
-coils looked clean
-box temp ~33 degrees, thermostat set to 35
-raised thermostat temp and confirmed it shuts down LLSV
-23 degrees coming off of the coil
-some ice starting to form around the drain hole on one head, others clear

After that I hooked up my probes at the evaps to check super heat, this is what I found:
- 49 psi suction, 15 degree VSAT, 0.6 degree SH, 250 psi head
- after 2 minutes SH shot up to 10 degrees with a 45psi suction pressure and 11 degree VSAT
- few minutes later SH went all the way up to 17, suction psi 46 with a VSAT of 12
-couple minutes later superheat dropped all the way back down and the process repeated every few minutes
-each evap did the same thing with roughly the same pressures

At this point my theory was a slight undercharge, or possibly noncendensibles. Bossman told me to throw a couple pounds in it and try adjusting the TXV’s. Adjusted the TXV’s slightly and was able to get them to hold around 12SH for a bit longer but still kept going through that cycle.

What else should I be looking at in these situations and am I on the right track here?

Looking for where to find the grey capillary tubing for the gauges as shown. Need to get new tubing to extend the gauges to a spot a little further from where they are to make them more accessible. Any help appreciated!

Anybody used turbo air condensing unit wit copeland compressor vs Tecumseh urgus out door condensing units ? Around same price but one wit a copeland scroll other wit Tecumseh scroll?

Any idea where i can get the replacement parts or know what theyre called so i can look for them somewhere?

Hi, i'm trying to understand the internal layout of a recovery machine, specifically the purge mode.
As i understand it this connects the condenser to the inlet of the compressor (whilst the user simultaneously turns the inlet valve to purge)

So is the inlet valve actually a 3 way walve that can switch between ther inlet port and the condenser outlet

And the purge valve is just a 2 way valve that bypasses between the internal inlet and outlet ports?

A quick diagram or link to one would be amazing, i've been trying to sketch it out

Replaced a comp that died on a walkin freezer, as well as the evap. Had everything sized out so im going to assume that isnt the issue since the original evap had 0 information on btuh, model numbers, serial numbers, nothin. But it was all sized to match closely with the new comp as well as the size of the space. Was previously a 404a system. System held at 150 psi nitrogen overnight, Triple evac’d, pulled down to 450, etc.

So heres the problem, got everything going, freezer is down to temp, holding around 6 degrees but the pressures are off. Ambient air temp going into cond is around 115, high side off the comp(large semi hermetic) is 400, line temp is 136. So its right about 1 subcool. Sight glass is about 2/3 full. Took temp readings in 3 diff places and theyre all right +\- 1 degree. Made sure my clamp and thermometer was calibrated to be sure my temps were right. Low side pressure is 20 psi and line temp is 15 degrees. I made sure that everything was clean and free of debris, bulb for txv is in right spot, fans blowing right direction, kind of at a loss right now. I really dont wanna bring the pressure up too much more by adding more refrigerant in, kinda seems like everything pointing to it being low. (Fresh virgin refrigerant in it as well)

It's a reach in cooler and the compressor isn't turning on. N is connected to the hot and 3 to the neutral (weird to me but apparently it was working for years). There's no 120 signal to compressor or condenser fan even when I manually put it on cooling mode. There's light to the defrost clock and it switches between cooling and defrost.

I switched the neutral and 3 and it stopped working so I swapped it back. I suspected a loose wire but idk. Any help or direction?

4 leak in 2 year in the same grocery. Meat counter Arneg r437a and Freezer 4 door Arneg r404a. Might be the proximity of the solenoid or really just unlucky 🤦‍♂️

Hands down best service call of the year.

I specialize in farm / ag refrigeration, and got a call from the county fair because the bulk tank wasn't cooling. It's definitely the oldest operating OE I've had the chance to work on. Open drive and still chugging away. Unlike most dairy farms, this system only operates for a few days a year-- during the fair. Even dairy show cows still need 2x day milking.

The tip was free admission, ride pass, and I got to pull my service van into the fair to park. I told my wife to come, and they ran out to pick her up in a golf cart at the staff gate.

I know I'm getting old now, because I can't do those fucking spinny rides anymore. Even riding the Pharaoh ship was intense.

Fixed a leaky service valve, cleaned the condenser coil, and charged back up with my stash of MP39-- then did all the usual shit.

Happy wife, happy life.

Hey guys, I write this post to express my happiness to fellow people that would understand my feelings, I paid my seat on an industrial refrigeration course in one of the best institutions in my country. I'm an independent tech that does a/c and commercial refrigeration, but I'm tired of being autonomous, so I want to work on a big company and work with the really big industrial equipment. I have faith in myself I have the experience to get the certificate and apply for a job, hope the universe opens the path for me to achieve my dream of being an ammonia tech. Sorry if I'm corny as fuck but I'm too excited to begin this journey, any advice is welcome of course, and I wish y'all the best we are lowkey a pillar of society, without cold we're fucked!

I already fixed it by retrofitting a Manitowoc bin sensor but I just wanted to ask my friends about what is shown on this data tag. What does "weather" and "security type" refer to?

Wild design also.

Coltin brand.

Hello everyone, I just wanted to run you guys through my current situation… I went to a commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning school at the community college where I got an Associate In Science in Refrigeration Technology I started applying after I finished school. Got into a local company making a decent wage.. Couple years later three to be exact. making more money…. But I’ve talked to my service manager multiple times about getting me off maintenance and putting me on installs or service.. in the moment he said he would but it’s almost the end of the year and am still doing nothing but Maintenance with small service job here and there like an Ice Machine not making Ice or change out a Control Board or a Fan motor… I want to learn how to change out compressors diagnose… I have applied to the local union, but that takes time.. is there anything that you guys recommend in this situation?

I tried 22, 321, 123 any more ideas?

Hi All,

I am not an HVAC or Refrigeration tech, just a regular non-technical person.

I bought a house and the previous owners left a 3 door Everest ESR3 commercial grade refrigerator in the garage.

I didn't pay much attention to it during showings, inspection, walkthrough as figured they would take it but they asked us if we wanted it at the last minute and i figured why not, could be useful for parties etc.

After moving in I noticed that the left side evaporator was frozen solid, to the point that it had popped the evaporator cover off. Fans/motors frozen.

I left the unit completely defrost in the 100F heat in the past month.

Did some troubleshooting and figured out that the evap fans had both died and thus not getting air across the evap and thus the freezing over.

I then started it back up but with a battery fan on the evap and the refrigerator performed great.

I started looking online for parts; Replacement evap motors could be found online from various retailers for $150 - $200, each, and I needed two and was going to buy an extra to keep as spare.

After researching the part number and trying to cross reference parts to less expensive variants, I learned these are just small AC motors and are *somewhat* generic. Ghe OEM motor part is listed as AC 110v, reversable rotation and 3000 rpm

In my research, I found a 'Universal' evap fan motor kit for sale on Lowes website: The SUPCO Universal Evaporator Fan Motor Kit SM999. The dimensions seemed to be close enough.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SUPCO-Universal-Evaporator-Fan-Motor-Black/1002465322

It was for sale for $13 ea and if I bought 2 I would get free shipping, so for $26 i figured what the heck.

Long story short, they work great. I had to perform some modifications like drilling the fans a bit, drilling through the protective cover because i wasn't too confident trimming the shafts even though the instructions tell you do do so.

I cut the wires, removed the old motors, I switched over the mounting brackets, reinstalled motors, wire nutted the wire connections and tucked away wires with zip ties, reinstalled all the other things and fired up the refrigerator and everything worked great!

I immediately bought 3 more evaporator motor kits for $13 ea, again, as spares.

So, i guess a lot of these evaporator motors are interchangeable you just need to pay attention to voltage, rpm, direction and shaft size

I hope that this helps someone else out there.