Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 308. 3rd Anniversary Listener Favourite Countdown #4 (Episode 188. Compressor Secrets I Wish I Knew When I Started My Refrigeration Career)

Transcript

Episode 308. 3rd Anniversary Listener Favourite Countdown #4 (Episode 188. Compressor Secrets I Wish I Knew When I Started My Refrigeration Career) · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Trevor Matthews this week marks the three year anniversary of the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast, over the last three years I've grown so many friends from the podcast. And none of this would've happened without any of you. I. All of you who are listening day in, day out, investing in yourself, getting to the next level in your career, making that big impact on the people around you, and all of you are making the big impact on me from the different events that I see you, uh, at, from the different messages you send me on social media or the emails like, oh man, it's just been such a game changer in the mark this anniversary.
• 0:01
  What we're gonna do is we're going to do something special. We're gonna re-release. Some of the top listen to podcasts, some of the ones that were, that you shared with me, say, Hey Trevor, this was a game changer for my career. This was a game changer for my life, and it set me on this new journey, this new refrigeration path, and I would really wanna, personally thank you and all of you who are bringing yourself to that next level, being better tomorrow than today, like we always do because of your passion, your support, your real, your commitment to investing in refrigeration. I am really pumped up. I hope you are too because once again, this is all because of you. Reach out. Reach out on LinkedIn, Instagram. Email me trevor@refrigerationmentor.com and let's get a conversation going.
• 0:02
  And a lot of times we don't get the opportunity to sit back and try to learn some stuff a little bit deeper, a little bit better, get some more knowledge. And this is it. This is what I do day in, day out, talking about refrigeration compressors, supermarket, CO2, and tonight we're gonna dive into some compressor sequence that I, I really think that you really need to know some of the things I wanna talk about first.
• 0:03
  It's bird out or, uh, failed windings. Okay, just replace the compressor and didn't dive in deeper. Sometimes it did, you know, I pull off a head and I take a look at it, but I didn't really know what I was looking at. Even after years of looking inside compressors heavily, there's still things that I've learned and I'm still learning, honestly.
• 0:04
  So this stuff does happen, but you gotta dive a little bit deeper. Maybe your standard meter is just not gonna, doesn't cut it. Maybe you need to go get a mega meter and, and take a look at that. And you gotta understand how do you use your tools. This is the biggest thing. I talk about time to time again, learn how to use your tools, understand the tools that you're using.
• 0:05
  You wanna get to that next level. You wanna get to that form and you wanna get to that service manager. Do you want to become that lead tech? This is the stuff and you gotta invest in yourself and all. There's all of you are here tonight to learn a little bit. This is fantastic and I, I'm so happy that you're here to take the time to do this.
• 0:06
  We're helping teach other people all these different social media platforms, head out to them, learn about them. I'm always on them all the time. It's really to share shared knowledge with you. So let's just dive right into it. One of the most important things that's overlooked is performance chart. If any of you been in any of my free talks, any of my programs, I talk about performance chart.
• 0:07
  The biggest thing is for you to understand how to troubleshoot a system with just the information you get from the compressors. And I'm gonna talk about these six or seven different checkpoints you need to get every, every time. And if you're getting these every time, I promise you. If you get these and you don't really understand what's going on, but you give it to another senior technician, someone who's more like, more of an expert or maybe a gura, they probably can pinpoint the area of that issue.
• 0:08
  Maybe the valve plates are different. The, there's just different internals potentially, but to me it doesn't matter. Compressors, they're compressing gas. That's what they're doing. They're taking a low pressure vapor compressing into a high pressure vapor above the ambient, so they, we can condense it until we get into CO2 compressors where you're above the, the critical point, then you're not condensing, but.
• 0:09
  And I think that's one of the biggest things that you need to understand as well. We're coming into a global refrigeration community and you may wanna work in a different part of the world. I went and worked in different parts of the world and they used different. Units. You need to understand these units to make yourself better, make yourself more valuable.
• 0:10
  So you go want to understand that before you get there. The different power wires are neutral wires or different colors, so different things like that. You gotta understand and that's why these charts and the, sorry, the units you wanna understand. So along the top is your evaporating temperature. Along the side is your condensing temperature and pressure.
• 0:11
  We got it on our suction line. And just say we're running it at 24 PSI or zero degrees Fahrenheit. So your gauge is actually on this compressor. And that's what a, that, that's what it's at. Okay, so that's what your evaporator coming on. There's really should be no pressure drop in your suction line. So when you put your gauge at your, the outlet of your evaporator and then inlet of your compressor, depending on how long the run and how big it is.
• 0:12
  This is not true. You go into the compressor that you're working on, specific model number compressor, not just any, I can't just say I'm a four cylinder bitzer and this is what it should be. They're all different. They have different motor sizes in the bitzer, different capacity for those compressors, different volts.
• 0:13
  This is why Bluetooth tools are very, very important to make it e your life easier. 'cause you can see what's going on now people say, well Trevor, they're not accurate all the time and this and that, whatever. Buy better ones, then go get another set and, and mash it up. That's all I have to tell you, you know, 'cause they're getting better and better because C-L-P-C-L jacket, whoever, uh, you buy, it doesn't matter to me.
• 0:14
  This compressor will run at 32.3 amps in these condition. So right there, if you did your amps, you did your suction and you did your, uh, discharge, you got that information, plus what your voltage in your amps are, I can tell you right now if that compressor or that system is running, uh, correctly, well definitely the compressor if it's running efficiently.
• 0:15
  The problem with that though, now we got liquid coming back. Washing out the oil and causing, causing a a failure. I got a great video one I did with Doreen. If you guys don't know what Doreen compressors go check out. I got two great videos done with, uh, Giacomo Pisano. This guy's an expert and he shows one at his testing lab where they're actually.
• 0:16
  So you can tell by not only looking at the sight glass, but looking at the pressures of that compressor to see if you're flooding back. Cool, cool stuff. It's really cool stuff. This. This is why it's so important. And the other thing I wanted to show you, but this compressor might be running at 32 amps in those condition, and that is totally fine.
• 0:17
  But you gotta think again. If all of a sudden that Evaporator fan is on, then it's off on and it's off. We're not boiling off that refrigerator again, which will cause the pressure to change. No different in your C condenser fan motor. If you're running in with a bad condenser fan motor, all of a sudden it, it stops for some reason.
• 0:18
  They just update it Actually this week, I just noticed tonight before the, the training, I, I just went in and they just updated. I'm gonna show you, it's super cool as well as Copeland's been continually evolved. Copeland Mobile, it's 10 times better than even when I was, uh, I was working at Copeland and you need to get inside here to, to do this.
• 0:19
  We'll say in those condition four, uh, two 40 psi, one 10 or zero and 24 PSI we're running at 1,024 pounds an hour. That's what that compressor can do. In those condition, we're get 71,000 BTUs. That's a huge amount of capacity. We got mass flow happening, so we know that that oil's getting carried through.
• 0:20
  So a lot of you that do a lot of low temp, you said, man, I worked on lots of I 22. I remember those demand cooling. Then all of a sudden I got 4 0 4 0 4 systems. You don't need demand cooling anymore. Well, R 22 ran a lot hotter and now you're starting to see with these new HFOs, they run a lot out there too.
• 0:21
  Why do these compressors keep failing? Do you have the demand cooling set up? Do you have liquid injection set up? Our refrigerant inject, depending on the manufacturer, depend on what type of technology they're using, but they're running outside. This needs that cooling, so we need to cool that compressor down more because that pressure ratio, compression ratio is getting outside the zone.
• 0:22
  Oils hurt, electrical wiring diagrams are hurt. And they don't, we don't spend the time I used to do it. I wasn't good at electrical for years because I didn't spend the time looking at them. I'd look at the, the electrical diagram, and this looks like a spaghetti drawing. Uh, let's just get my meter and start putting it all over the place to try to figure out what's going on.
• 0:23
  And I actually had a call today from someone asking me about compressor. Keeps overheating, keeps tripping off overheating. They got liquid injection. Yeah, we got liquid injection on it. Well, what's the sub cooling at the liquid injection? Valve? Is it the right DTC valve? Are you getting the right amount of sub cooling at that valve?
• 0:24
  This refrigerant here is R 4 5 4 C, so it's a newer refrigerant that's out. You gotta start seeing. You probably won't see it in your wholesalers yet, but this is low GWP refrigerants below 200. I think this one is, I can't remember if this one's 148 GWP off the top of my head. This is what an operation envelope looks like.
• 0:25
  This is why these checks are so, so important. The super heat check. It's different for different compressor manufacturers. It's different for different refrigerants, for the same compressor manufacturer. Like, well, I've always learned, you know, Colan says, you know, they want recommended da uh, recommendation of 20 degrees super heat at their compress on a rack and it, whatever it is.
• 0:26
  But in the bitzer one, if you read any of their manuals, they're gonna talk about, if you run that condensing pressure, lower temperature, really low, you could start the form droplets of refrigerants inside the compressor. And there's a calculation for it, and it's important to understand this stuff. And so being inside this here is very, very important and in understanding.
• 0:27
  Diving in a little bit deeper on this stuff is gonna help you getting into these software. But Trevor, I'm out there servicing and putting fires on it every day. You're just making excuses if you're not to diving in to do this, honestly, because I did it. I know I did it, but getting into this stuff, it's gonna show you like another great one here is Maximum operating curve.
• 0:28
  so that there the compressors shut off the back pressure. Off the discharge pass through the disc. 'cause there's two, two different designs in the scroll. You got a, a plate design or a disc design, and you got a spring design. And inside the scroll head you also have another discharge check valve. And what's happening is that when that compressor stops, all of a sudden the discharge pushes the bag in and she starts to spin backwards.
• 0:29
  This is all coming from your gauges. You put your gauges on your suction and your discharge, and this is where your pressure ratios, your compression ratios all start to come into play to, I train all the time. I talk about compression ratio, but like what's the value? What do I need to know? This is what you need to know in the different positions that you're running, especially if it's outside this envelope.
• 0:30
  As that say that piston pushes up to push up that discharge valve that read, and then it pulls down and then it pushes up. When that pressure ratio and that compression ratio gets smaller and smaller and smaller, they don't go up and down as easy as they, they usually do. And what they happen, they start to flap and you can even hear this, and they're flapping like this flap.
• 0:31
  So here we've got lower, uh, evaporator, so we're starting to drop down, and then we drop down our condenser. So it's the same. Works the way. Here's my evaporator down below here, my to, and then this is my condensing, evaporator, condensing. We get up the B. This is where we're working on a higher evaporator.
• 0:32
  That compressor that I was showing, that was what was going, that's the amount of mass flow. But when we get into this maximum evaporator pressure on, on this side right here, when we start to get that higher there, that's when you know that compressor's doing a lot of work. And that's where you start to get more force on the bearings, on the internals.
• 0:33
  You gotta wait till it cools down and then you let it cool down. And so after it cools down, you can start it up. And then when it starts to back up, all of a sudden you see the gauges we're really high suction. Really high discharge. Well, what could it be? Well, could be a few things. Could be overcharged.
• 0:34
  Now, if we take a look at, uh, DD is really high condensing temp. So I showed you in that last performance chart, 110 was the maximum. But what happens outside is running, it's 140 out on the roof. You got that sun beating down on the roof. And there's no panels on this condensing unit and that sun, that heat is just bang banging in there.
• 0:35
  Is the fans not working? But all this, you can see this just from your gauges and your, your, your meter. But coming back to the operation envelope and each one is different. That's the biggest I want to get. So you understand that this is just one, they're gonna be different, and over time you're gonna get a better understanding of it, plugging it into the different softwares, plugging it into, uh, cold blood.
• 0:36
  It's kind of like you ever have a system and it's running off, uh, uh, say a low pressure control. And when it goes to popped out, it just runs and runs and runs and runs and runs and runs. It is like it's never gonna shut off. Well, is that suction line the right size? How far is that solenoid from that TX valve?
• 0:37
  And then the last one, f is the thermal limit, right? This is where you got, um, really low evaporator load, very high condensing. And this is where you start to run into, well, where you'll need additional cooling. This is where the demand cooling, uh, liquid injection. Refrigerant injection really happened.
• 0:38
  So if you don't have that stuff and you're looking at your gauges. You know, your, your suc is lower than what you, it should be, and your ceding is really, ah, well this could be a sign that you, you want to go check that and verify, do I need this extra stuff? These are some of the things that I really believe that will help you out getting in inside some of this stuff and learning it.
• 0:39
  You just need to take it. You need to know what refrigerator you're running at. You need to get the volts and amps and compare that to what it should be running at. Is it two 30? Is it? Three 80? Is it four 80? Is it 5 75? Is it 600? Doesn't matter to me. Shouldn't matter to you. You should just have an understanding.
• 0:40
  Some of you have it, I know already, but I'm gonna put the link in the chat. This is free. This is a 17 page with dozens of videos. Click on the link and download it for free. You can see there's a video here talking about overeating. We're gonna, it dives into the six mechanical failures. These are the things that you need to know, and I need you to share this with other people.
• 0:41
  They're taking this knowledge and they're sharing it with other people, and that's what I need you to do. You're coming to spend the time here to learn. Do me a favor and share the knowledge you hear with me that you learned from me with other people. Get onto the podcast. When you learn something, you see something, share that with someone else.
• 0:42
  And then Klan has two cylinders, three cylinders, four cylinders, six cylinders, eight cylinder compressors. They all work differently. And this is what we dive, uh, dive into in this masterclass. And we talk about service and we talk about how to properly troubles you. And each week you can send me questions.
• 0:43
  We do, I do virtual courses. Why? I can do virtual course. I can train anybody around the world. What they need to have the experience for this question. They need to know how to use a meter safely. They need to know how to use gauges. They need to know how to under what super heat means. If I talk about Glide, at least I heard glide before, and if for in my courses, I want the people that come in to go out and apply some of the stuff.
• 0:44
  And that's, that's the way if you're in supermarket, and I'm all refrigeration, you know, I have lots of people I want to do, you know, they want me to do, uh, chiller stuff, HVAC stuff, VRF, you know, I can talk about it, I know it, but I, my, my love is refrigeration. This is what I do, especially supermarket refrigeration.
• 0:45
  Are they prepping it for tomorrow's replacement? No, half of them aren't good Technicians are those technicians that wanna make more money. They know what they're doing. They're there right now. They know this compressor failed. They're pulling all the electrics off right now. They're unhooking the wire.
• 0:46
  A game changing course. It's all about you. Inside these courses though, you gotta put the work in. Honestly, it's not me. I could give you all the answers and how to do it, but unless you do it, that's where you learn. That's how I learn. I'm a hands-on learner. I'm also a visual learner now and an audio learner.
• 0:47
  Six, seven years in the industry and my troubleshooting was taking too long. But what I did over the last 5, 6, 7 years, I'm an expert. Now, honestly, I'm an expert at compressors supermarkets, CO2. I know the stuff 'cause I spent the last seven years, day in, day out. And right now, look, I'm talking to you about it.
• 0:48
  If you're in supermarket right now, CO two's coming, I build my whole business around CO2 refrigeration. You may not be working on it yet, but if you're in supermarket, in the chat box, click on that link and check it out. CO2 is my favorite top. It's so fun. I love it. I'm being trained by manufacturer from all around the world.
• 0:49
  Lastly, what I got here is a little quiz from tonight. Let me get this link here. So any of you that are left here who want to just take a stab at the quiz, we're gonna throw that in the chat too. Take while you can click on it. Simple quiz for you guys for sure. But it's something to make you think, and this is what it's all about.
• 0:50
  That oil change is gonna be $7,000. You don't just say, oh, you need an oil change, $7,000. You talk to them, right? You're gonna sell 'em on it. The value of doing an oil change, well, your heat exchanges are gonna work a little bit better. This oil change is gonna reduce the amount of energy it's gonna cost to run this rack.
• 0:51
  I wanna be the lead tech, or I wanna be home with my family more. And how you be home with your family more is you fix the job the first time at the most efficient scale. That's it. 'cause jobs take time. If you have to change a six D compressor. I've done it many times. It takes time. But how effective are you are?
• 0:52
  How do we get more technicians to do what Greg's doing? It's just the way it is. See it time and time again. I'm seeing technicians come through a program, getting raises, getting new jobs, but they're putting the work in. I know you guys can too. That's it for me tonight. Hope you had a good time and we'll see you at the next one.
• 0:53
  There's a ton more guest podcasts I've been on, as well as the event page. Check out the events page because there's a lot more free trainings, as well as paid training to really help you grow your knowledge base. Super excited. Can't wait to see at the next Refrigeration enter podcast, let's get a conversation going.