Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 388. Step-By-Step Compressor Change Out (Service Call Recap) with Andrew Freeburg

Transcript

Episode 388. Step-By-Step Compressor Change Out (Service Call Recap) with Andrew Freeburg · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: My name is Trevor Matthews, founder of refrigeration mentor.com. Over the past decade, I've trained tens of thousands of refrigeration technicians and contractors on supermarket refrigeration, and I've seen the same problem across the industry. Technicians are under pressure, second guessing, and getting stuck on jobs too long.
• 0:03
  'cause we're dropping that down. So I do make mistakes too. The big thing is, is that I went and used AI very quick with the thing is like, wrote it in there and they're like. Four or five different places that says, this is how it's done. And I'm just like, oh man, what a brain fart I had. ?
• 0:06
  Trevor: Yep. And then Okay. The ne the next step after we isolate it, we shut the suction, we got the discharge, we got the oil line shut.
• 0:09
  'cause you do need, you do need two guys to kind of maneuver these big compressors, right? They're heavy. They're 5, 6, 700 pounds, some of them. Right? So you need, you need some help. Help with that. So you got it. You got it to a point where you could get it out.
• 0:12
  That was the very first thing that I knew had to be changed. And for some reason, that silver little nut just stuck out and that's take that off and you just get an oil shower. So don't do that. Definitely break open the suction and the discharge first, and then you can change that out. Lesson learned.
• 0:15
  In this case, this one was, these rubber. Feet, that's that go in between the frame and the compressor. I get that in and then I put the bolts down and I just loosen, loosen it. It's not tight. I don't do that because sometimes you can maneuver that compressor just enough to align the suction in the discharge bolts better.
• 0:18
  Trevor: That's mostly Bitzer won't, and then Copeland does, like, you gotta get it with an LI think at the end of it, and it'll, that'll be less oil. It means less oil. So if you look at the model number, so it'll be whatever the model lever instead of the one that'll be an E for POE oil.
• 0:21
  Again, potentially, like if you have lots of guys and you're living in a different area or you're working in that one city for a month or something, while you're traveling. But it was interesting to see that there's specific torque wrenches or torque specs for all of 'em.
• 0:24
  Andrew: That's right, usually right on the panel now. So makes it, makes it real nice. Trouble electrical troubleshooting. But yeah, you get that thing wired up. Take a picture if you forget and you don't know, look at the next compressor. The one that literally right next to it.
• 0:27
  Andrew: No. So this one was still running and at at this point though, it's like I took the head off, I'm like, this compressor needs to be changed out.
• 0:30
  I mean, it's just a no brainer to say that you don't guarantee, but I, when I was, first getting into the field, starting to do refrigeration, I didn't, I didn't know, I didn't, I said, yeah, this is gonna work just fine if I do this. And I, I didn't really present it in a way that I gave the customer the best choices to make.
• 0:33
  It's like seventies. Yeah. So as far as the rack goes, it's all mechanicals pressure controls, safeties. So, there the case control, all it cares about is super eight. There's no other functions in this unit. Okay. Just wants super heat, unfortunately.
• 0:36
  Trevor: Yeah. And what pressure do you go up to? 'cause we, we got, because a lot of people are like, don't put pressure in a rack system. Never pressurize cases, if you have a leak if a ball valve's leaking. But I like when I, when I talk to 'em, I explain to someone, and this is how it was explained to me. Well, Trevor, think about this. If your, say your suction and your, your suction is 55 PSI. Like two or three bar you can go up to, ?
• 0:39
  Andrew: Okay, so this is where it's gonna get a little messy. But it is what it is. So now I shut that ball valve off, off my hose that's on the reservoir, and then I go to where the flare nut is, right where it goes into the compressor compressor.
• 0:42
  Trevor: Yeah. And so you can check this as well. You can, you can check if that screen is starting to plug up. You check your net oil pressure. Just like Andrew says, if you have low oil pressure, it's probably plugging up.
• 0:45
  Well, you don't need to pull, if you pull it off of the, off of the the pump because it's not you, you didn't open up the system. So at that point you just, after they fills up the oil level, it's time to go on each one. Oh,
• 0:48
  Yeah. So the, the only step that I forgot to mention, once I got the air out of that, the reservoir, I'm done, then I reopen it back up to the system. Ah. So that's where that pressure comes back up. And then I use, since I'm staging the compressors. You can't shut off the whole rack. That's when I feed one or the other.
• 0:51
  Andrew: Just when, if you've got something like that, take your time, do an assessment maybe, and think about or, or get a game plan of how you're going to do it. And just, and have fun. I mean, that's, that's what the most important thing is.