Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 360. Get Curious on Service Calls (For Faster Troubleshooting)

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Episode 360. Get Curious on Service Calls (For Faster Troubleshooting) · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: What's up everyone? Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Trevor Matthews, and I wanted to just thank you for spending the time hanging out with us here, hopefully learning and growing a little bit. This is some of the things that we're talking about in the refrigeration mentor community all the time is about learning and growing, being curious about the things that you are doing.
• 0:01
  I just finished up one with a contractor. Had about 15, 16 technicians in it. And all the technicians were newer to supermarket. So two, three years in summer, six months in supermarket. And then there was a few technicians that have been in the industry for 10 to 15 years, but very new to supermarket, like three months, six months to the supermarket.
• 0:02
  It's all about the curiosity of. Solving the problem, the curiosity, well, how do I actually electrically troubleshoot this? Where do I even start? And that's why when I build these programs, especially with teams, I, I really like doing that when I, when we have a team there. 'cause we can put them in groups and they can work together on certain assignments or projects.
• 0:03
  But those contractors that do this, they're seeing a huge amount of growth in those. Technicians and they're seeing a huge amount of value come out of it. 'cause now they're more confident, they're actually able to take on call. Now there's quite a few of them in this program that took it, have not been on call yet, and since they took the program, now they're taking on, they want to take on call or now they are getting the opportunity to take on call and know, having a conversation with it.
• 0:04
  Because this was one of the things that came up in the last course, a guy named Joe, super cool dude who really wants to do better at supermarket refrigeration, and. He spent the time, like even afterwards, he was like, Hey, can you help me out with this electrical proof? I, I go in and multiple times I have this proof failure or SLA failure and I'm not really sure where to start and what to look for.
• 0:05
  So what's that switch? The external relay switch, that external relay switch there, that needs to close. So, well, what actually close that. Okay. Well we need a, a command. So now we got a cooling call for that compressor or a call for that compressor to come on through your suction group. So the suction group says, okay, we need to turn on compressor two, that command will be closed.
• 0:06
  It goes through the, the TRO control. And it can also go through other controls like the man cooling if it has it on there, but this one didn't. So what do we do next? Well, then we didn't just go to the terminal strip and check if it's closed. We don't have to take any covers off. We don't have to pull off like the tro oil failure or the oil pressure. We can just go up to that and check it from there. So all of a sudden, if that high pressure switch is closed, all of a sudden you should have zero volts across it.
• 0:07
  If you have a proof failure or if you have a safety lockout alarm on it, it is something to do within that circuit. Now, could it be something else? Well, it could be one of the relays that, that is the issue. It could be the, one of the controls, maybe the. Low pressure control is, is faulty. Maybe it's the high pressure control that's faulty.
• 0:08
  So you go into the, to your first compressor proof switch, and you go to that really and check, is that open or closed? Okay, well that actually should be closed if it's running. Then you go into your, to the low pressure switch, and then you go across the high pressure switch, and then you go and you write all this down.
• 0:09
  And then writing all that down. And then when you have that on the paper, now you know what it should look like when it's working normally. Now the big thing is, is okay, when we get a call, when we go on call, or we get a service call, basically we're gonna get an alarm. It could be an oil alarm, it could be a low pressure switch alarm, it could be a compressor proof alarm, an SLA alarm.
• 0:10
  Or let the, let the manager know I may set off an alarm today. That will be me. I'm just giving you a heads up. I'm gonna go troubleshoot this call. Just let you know, but it's, guess it's best to turn those ones off. So you don't, you don't get another service call at the start, but one of the things to do is for have the circuit off the compressor off that that turned off unwire and cap one of the wires for the low pressure switch or the high pressure switch.
• 0:11
  And so understand. Okay, go over. Look at the microthermal screen. What alarm just went off? Oh, compressor two. Proof failure or compressor. Two SLA alarm just went off. Okay, now get our meter out and go across and check everything again, the same thing as you did with that normal one. So, okay, I got one 20 volts coming into the, the board.
• 0:12
  The, the thing is, is really taking the time to look at and, and. Joe has only been in supermarket refrigerators for a very short amount of time, but he's, he's been out there from the course and actually trying the stuff, the stuff that we talk about and going above and beyond what, what I did at that time.
• 0:13
  Full tail right from start to finish everything on it. And that's where I think it would be and can be a game changer for most technicians. This is what we teach about in the community. This is what we teach about in our courses, supermarkets, CO2 courses. 'cause I think it's very, very important. A lot of us don't know how it's either supposed to run or what normal looks like.
• 0:14
  Or you may get it from the store owner. Oh my God, everything is down. It's crazy. Panic, panic, panic. That the same thing is gonna happen at two o'clock in the afternoon. The same thing will happen at 9:00 AM in the morning when you call from from your dispatch or get a call from that store.
• 0:15
  And how they, the, the service calls can back up and then you'll start to understand, well, which one should I go to first? How do I triage them to myself or triage them to other members? If you have multiple team members, 'cause it can get hectic. You got three, three calls going. You got a middle of a compressor.
• 0:16
  These service calls are totally different. They're not. It's just another service call. And I think that's kind of the advice I would, that I don't remember getting. So, and this is why training and investing in yourself and learning. And growing all the messages that I've been getting from the podcast on how, how it has been helping people or just, just one or two tips or, or pieces of advice from me or for, from Andrew or any of the experts that have been on the podcast.
• 0:17
  And honestly, investing in yourself is gonna be something that is going to really help you grow that. Like I said, that curiosity that we see. I see technicians growing faster and never before. I see technicians learning at a faster pace. And one of the great things about it is the technology that we have.
• 0:18
  I was troubleshooting through YouTube. I was using YouTube to solve problems, but one of the problems was it was taking me forever. I'd get down in a, a rabbit hole and all of a sudden I, I'm not even on the same track of what I'm supposed to be looking for. And when I, like, for example, I, I went into your academy and the straightforward, like, I can go to the oil management section, or I can go to the metering device section, or I can go to the condenser split section, or I can go to the electronic.
• 0:19
  I can look at their progress, I can look at the Mercks that they get. I can look at how many times they redid that, that quiz how long they spent on that quiz to really get an understanding. And, and the ones that go back there, and I can see them investing in these different sections, especially like the oil management section, the electrical section, the understanding the flows.
• 0:20
  ' cause that outside their work hours is what's setting the different technicians apart. And you see it. You see it by the different people online making videos and trying to develop their skills and hone their skills and explain the process and going back and then re-explaining it again. I love seeing that and I love seeing the growth in the different technicians in the industry.