THEY ALL SAID IT WAS THE AC LEAKING WATER
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- čas přidán 11. 05. 2024
- I don't like to point fingers at other people but when I do I like to be 100% sure.
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As an IT guy: The unit shows 254 alarms. That is awfully close to 256 which is the maximum of "things" that fit in an 8-bit sized field. In other words: The event log is very likely overflowing from the frequent errors and can't show any more than the most recent 254 events.
Number 255 was that unit reset alarm below it. Nail on the head with this one.
If the first alarm is designated "Alarm 0," then all is right with the world. 😆
254 alarms for one alarm and 2 for a different alarm makes 256 maybe they are saved separately but still definitely just overwriting the oldest alarm when the next one happens
Didn't the UI say "last 30 days"?
@@matthiasplus6691 they can still only use a 8 bit integer for the alarms field, and say in software delete everything older than 30 days, I don't think, they would expect that kind of log spam
"i could have easily said 'this is not an ac problem' and walked out the door, but I didn't" this is why I subscribe. You're a real one
The music during the coil cleaning had me feeling like I was with my wife in a clothing store shopping lol.
This channel is secretly brainwashing you to enjoy shopping with your wife
@@HVACRVIDEOSwe spent our anniversary clothes shopping for my son 😂
@@HVACRVIDEOShappy mother.... happy dad day.
I get a lot of '80s flashbacks here.
@@Sonny_McMacsson This is the correct answer. If Axel Foley was "Beverly Hills AC Tech", this is what it would sound like.
Automotive Mechanic here, I really like your attention to detail, It is rare and under appreciated now days.
When I worked at the Sands Casino in A.C. They would always call the plumber for leaks. 90% of them were when it was raining and 90% of them were because the roof leaked. But he had to check them out anyway. That was the rule.
I had a call for a large water leak in a grocery store. The manager said several contractors had been out to examine it with no success. I ended up going vertical (hey water follows gravity then seeks its own level). I climbed into a suspended ceiling which gave me a great view on top of the box, and the adjacent proofer. I found out why the grocery store floor was flooded. The water filtration system was leaking from the top of the proofer. (It is a unit for baked goods and helping the dough to rise). The company that installed the water filtration got the sale of a new system and I looked like the refrigeration rock star who got more work out of the deal. I like to think I am methodical like Chris and honestly your videos are always so informative. Good common sense find with the leak. I have also found flooding in the duct work from roof top units that have made entire stores smell like dirty diapers. Water can be our enemy in the HVACR world.
Thank you Chris, you are an inspiration for this apprentice !
Welcome to my everyday. I've had enough dry system valve bypassing to have that be my immediate thought. I was just surprised to find a check valve on that drain. Good job finding some business for yourself!
I'm willing to bet they have a trouble signal on their fire panel too. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
Have you ever flipped off the breaker to the airhandler and set off the fire alarm? I was on a service call at a daycare center, climbed up in the attic, flipped off the breaker to the airhandler and went back outside to my van. No audible alarms were going off. The fire department was about 2 blocks away and I heard the sirens starting up. You know how guys are, I walked out in the parking lot to watch all of the trucks go by. Well you can imagine the look on my face when they all turned into the parking lot I'm in. It was pretty embarrassing.
Yes I actually have
Gotta love when fire panel installers don't configure supervisory failure properly and it sends an alarm instead of a trouble code. 😑
my buddies set off the alarm at a hotel a few times. once was simply running a shopvac cleaning debris, filter came loose and it put too much dust into the air, which triggered the fire alarm. yep, multiple trucks, commander, ambulances blazing in and storming through the building evacuating it. DOH.
Chris I love your subtle humor in your videos..."Oh WOW look at this! LOOK HERE, WHAT'S THIS?!" Then "I'm going to be honest with you guys I already knew what the problem was" :D lol
Sometimes the problem you get called for isn’t your problem. You did your best and serviced all the equipment since you were there though. I really think the second stage was low on refrigerant from the factory, since you only installed the unit about 5 months ago. Great video Chris! I’m always happy whenever I see that you posted a new one. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Thats my thinking. Looking at the quality of workmanship elsewhere insidenthe unit.
That's just representation of integrity. Not only "fixed" problem for client. But also found legit work for company. All sides happy without engaging into poking fingers drama or upselling.
That is too funny. Water dripping out of a pipe next to the sprinkler piping. It must be the air conditioner. Well it is a slow day lets service the air conditioners.
Great video, Chris, and it's nice to see a longer one! Just a thought but wouldn't it have been an idea to look over that RTU with a thermal imaging camera? For example, once a compressor was started for a given stage then thermal imaging would have shown all the pipework and parts of that stage as well as make visible various anomalies in the system. Depending in the thermal camera, the temperature scaling can be adjusted so a smaller temperature difference shows up as a much greater change in representation when the thermograph is viewed.
Regarding that wet riser drain, a thermal image may been able to show what was going on and a photo provided to the manager as proof to the service company?
Dang roofers blaming us for roof leaks & sealing service access panels shut with tar. You’re all wrong!
You're a good contractor.
Most HVAC guys wouldn't have gone to the trouble of finding the link, and just said "not my problem. BUT let me fix the issues that you have."
Yes!! Brother, you just made my day. Not your problem, not your specialty, not your certification, doesn't matter, you solved the problem for the customer when no one else did! Good man, thank you!
I run into this kind of thing in my field (automotive) a few times a week. Often, I'm not the first person to see the issue, especially with new customers. I never care if the problem is unrelated to what the shop is working on, or what previous techs said or did. I want to be able to stand there with the person in charge and say "Here's what's wrong, here's the proof, now you've seen it with your own eyes and can make a decision." Guess who gets called first the next time?
So many technicians get caught up in making money in the moment, and they don't see the big picture (as you say!). I don't want your money today, I want your business tomorrow. There are no "burnt runs," only opportunities to earn your customers' trust and respect. :)
If I had a dollar for every time the A/C guy was blamed for the water leak and it was something else…. I swear the other trades don’t take half the brain cells hvac does
Never have been truer words been spoken.
I love how he said they seem like a York unit. I'm thinking the same thing when I'm doing just a maintenance 😂lol
Love your thought process and how you systematically find the troubles and look for others while you’re there. Now, if we can just work on your skills as for soldering of copper, you’ll be just perfect. 😮😂
I got a Bard wall mount about 2 years ago that was dead flat on arrival. Pumped it up to 300# of N2 and let it sit overnight. Had 300# in the morning. Vacuumed it down and put the factory charge in and haven't been back to it.
I’m going to wax nostalgic. Back in the days when computer maintenance contracts included PMs (I.e when the computers were as big as those package units), we referred to them as “preemptive maintenance” as in “If it wasn’t broken before, it is now.” It sounds like the fire alarm company is carrying on that great tradition.
It still takes finesse for a technician to check and clean everything without knocking something loose. The newbies that were generally assigned PM duty rarely suffered from an excess of finesse, so a senior tech would usually have to come that afternoon to bring us back. We learned to add a couple hours to the scheduled downtime and we were rarely disappointed.
Good catch on the low charge! I agree with you that’s one that just got out of the factory low. Understandable you didn’t notice it on install being it was cold. Good job!
This young gentleman has some of the most amazing and interesting videos…he is a walking common sense metering device…for someone that says he’s not perfect and maybe he’s not but is about as close as a man can get….😊
When you were looking at the corrosion/soap bubbles in the TXV area, I heard a slight hissing sound over the camera. Don't know if you picked up on that later, but may be worth an investigation if it keeps having issues.
Hey Chris! Love your videos... I don't work with HVAC at all, but I have your videos on the background while I work in my computer and they are very therapeutic. I listen on how you diagnose a system, your techniques and your work ethic and it is very much relaxing.
Thus I do enjoy the longer videos. My two cents and just a personal preference: I don't like the music you add to the videos while you are working (you tend to use it while cleaning and with the crane process)... I enjoy the sounds of whatever it is that is being done.
For me, it is as if I was there as an apprentice listening to what is being done. Just a preference. Nothing else.
Keep up your great work ethics and your very detailed work. Big picture thinking.
As a fire alarm enthusiast I can say that main drain is for the fire sprinkler system, and yes that drain can be used to drain the system and/or test the flow switch which sets off the fire alarms. Also that sprinkler bell was falling off lol
The new units have the coil circuits stacked from front to back and not face split top and bottom, so that the entire coil is used for every stage, it works much better with the multi stage air volume, but as you noticed it is now no longer top and bottoms of the coils.
Love that you earned the right to service your customer by providing value to them even though the initial issue wasn't within your scope to solve. Instead of leaving them frustration and feeling like you were just another in a long list of people that wasted their time and money, you came out as the hero and then you utilized that goodwill to earn the right to do a PM, minor issue call.
Digging the tunes while cleaning montage :3
Who is it by
14:40 WE WANT THE BUBBLE PARTY!😂
I must have missed this one! Great video 👍 I remember this one getting installed! Great music and coil cleaning, nice to see the Refrigeration Technologies coil juice make an appearance and of course, awesome compressor startup sounds😊
Additionally, Chris if you ever need any assistance with video editing or temporary storage of your videos, I'm more than willing to assist! I've been having trouble getting a job and I feel like assisting you would be a great thing
The one thing that impressed me the most about that fire system drain leak, and you didn't even mention it, was the obvious signs of very fresh use of pliers or a pipe wrench on that valve spindle, just inboard of the handle.
Obviously they knew they had a leak, and rather than fix it right, just decided to honk down on the valve handle with a pipe wrench to get it tighter than tight. Still doesn't help with grit on the mating gasket surface. But they may have managed to screw the whole drain valve up well enough that they will have to cut out the valve and replace it. That will make them a bunch more money than fixing it right while they were out on the first call.
Awesome coil cleaning🎉🎉😊
Gotta love being the tech stuck in the middle of the blame game between 4 different companies
Great job Chris. Big picture stuff every time.
Damn that water leak was so obvious... Crazy that the people that service that stuff just blamed others!
You get a thumbs up just for your choice of music in your coil cleaning montage.
When you were looking for leaks, did you run the tip of the wand past each of those green sections on the copper?
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there was a pinhole in those shoddy braise joints...
Great video buddy. I think it was probably low from factory. I’ve actually had a similar problem myself and I put Freon in and to this day it hasn’t leaked down and that was last year different manufacturer but same problem. Love your videos bud keep putting them out there. If I’m ever on the west coast i may holla at ya
Micro channel on condensers was a bad idea.
Whenever possible i don't sell and/or install systems with micro channel condenser coils.
Thank you for this video. I'm going to show it to the maintenance guys, property manager, etc that keep sending me out to bogus water leak calls
Love that Disco music, never thought you were like that...
10:30 is the timestamp to come back and vibe to that great synthwave / synthpop track again which BTW it's called 'Space Out' by Vincent Vega (thanks to Shazam)
Nice choice Chris!
Thanks
I ran in a same situation performing a start up on the Lennox that has the core board. Found during start up circuit#3 was completely flat and I couldn't find signs of oil.
At the beginning when you were talking about different contractors blaming another....you ain't lying one bit. Happens way to often. Funny experience though, this week I worked with a buildings BAS contractor ( who is the local Daikin rep, so we have good relationship to begin with). It was actually the exact opposite experience as you unfortunately had. We got along great and bounced things off each other. He was able to have the BAS information and I had the AAON interface. We both had all available information and worked as a team to find the issue.....which was absolutely a weird one.....but working together, in my opinion, was the only way the issue was found and solved.
Shame that a new unit needs refrigerant already. I'm curious as to something....if you were using discharge pressure and also taking a liquid line temp.....shouldn't your subcooling be a lot higher, due to using a higher sat temp as a reference ( discharge vs liquid sat ) and a liquid line temp reading. The reason they split the coils with a circuit is to have all air being in contact with the entire coil, being conditioned, probably also helps with load shedding. I'm also curious as to how that unit is a Humiditrol.....I didn't see any reheat coil, solenoids, hot gas bypass...nothing more than a normal 4 circuit RTU. I'm curious how they can dehumidify without possibly turning on the gas heat at the same time. Technically for reheat, you aren't allowed to use another energy source to perform it. That's why on DX systems they have re-heat coils, it's the same energy source ( the compressor ). I've done it before, knowing I wasn't supposed to. RTU has electric heat strips. So I wired up a de-humidistat to a relay that would engage the heat strips while in cooling only or dehumid call. Y call provided power to the relay coil and 24v was on the common( C & NO used )terminal to the dehumidistat. Came back to the heat strip contactor coil through the dehumidistat. Still allowed W to operate normally by isolating it going to the board in a cooling call. On a W call the 24 went to the heat strips and the dehumidistat and relay isolated it from cooling on the board. Works great... expensive...but great.
Thanks for another great video.
Yeah I think the reheat sticker was a mistake I was just confused by the distributor pattern top and bottom of the coil as Lennox has never done that before this is just a new way they are doing it. As far as the sub cooling yeah I’d definitely expect it to be higher which makes me wonder if the other stages are also low… kinda confusing and in reality we should recover the charge and weigh it back in to verify
@HVACRVIDEOS thanks for the answer. I really like the Core controls and app. It's a nice little HMI to help speed along troubleshooting. Since it's so new I wouldn't worry, down the road the transducers or sat temp sensors tend to drift, and that is not specific to any brand. Have found it a lot on various brands. Great video as always 👍
Dang Chris, your solo song sounds great! 😄😄
J/k reminded me of and 80's song from inside a shopping mall.
Another great video!
That's my vibe
Always good business to take care of problems while you are at the location to avoid afterhours and weekend call outs. Now that being said having techs scheduled with back to back calls to get the most billable time gets in the way of doing that.
One thing to consider is carrying some plastic bags and taping them over any connector or motor that is in a risky position during cleaning. Just to be on the safe side.
Before you replace a unit in the future you should do an intentional bubble party, just for demo purposes of course. 😢
I’ve got bubble parties on a few videos but I don’t remember which ones
@@HVACRVIDEOS one was a train unit you said looked like a night club
Perfect music for that; “Tiny Bubbles” by Don Ho. Google it.
A PCM motor can't be replaced with an ECM motor? I guess not by default but using some kind of aftermarket circuit it could. Like a hall sensor can be for current and a pt 100 sensor can read temp. If a PCM motor is that expensive then a patent might be appropriate.
Years ago I received a call about a leaking exterior door. Spoke with facilities and I was the 5th contractor out there to fix this door leak. This door had everything you could possibly think of to stop leaks. Weird gaskets, insane overdone flashing, capped off all irrigation within 20' of said door. Facilities said this door had been leaking for years and flooding the interior space repeatedly.
When I got there I noticed a roof drain that went under the sidewalk near the door that had morning dew dribbling out of it. Hopped onto the roof and ran a hose near a roof drain above the problem door. Flooded the space a bit. Improperly installed rubber coupling on the roof drain down pipe inside the wall.
Turned into a decent mold remediation job.
Maybe I got lucky with the time of the day and the dew or if the previous contractors just didn't bother looking into an actual problem and just did what they were told and invoiced.
You always pick the best music for brazing and cleaning! 😁😎
Insane in the main drain, insane in the drain
Love your videos! I have my 313A exam comming up in two weeks. Got any tips?
"Clean means Clean" That's what one of the supers used to say when I did asbestos abatement.
Great video. Good job and nice work. Thank you for sharing. Have a nice weekend. May I ask, with 4 compressor, how many set manifold gauge field piece you're using ?
i dont know why but i find this relaxing xd
My guess on the fire sprinkler system: The fire tech needs to replace the pressure relief valve that drains into that drain pipe. If you do heating or water heaters think T&P value. Likely the fire tech just didn't want to do it.
Re-watching the video at 04:25 you can see the relief valve; there is a pipe union right there; look closely, the pipe tape there is whiter(newer) than the other pipe joints; likely it has been replaced before.
They have alot of trust leaving that mechanical room unlocked, i had a mechanical room get cleaned out a few years back
7:35 If I were you, I'd be asking the Manager to join you in the mechanical room and point out the leaking valve and clogged floor drain which is in line of sight to the recently repaired drain...
The Manager needs to replace the companies they use for the Maintenance of the Fire Sprinklers and floor drains...
That slow sprinkler drain valve leak will eventually become a more persistent leak, and eventually will trigger a flow sensor (leading to unintentional fire alarm triggering) if they don't get it addressed soon. One would think sprinkler system inspections would be annoyingly-strict, considering the number and severity of forest fires in Cali.
it's upstream of all the sensors, so it could be cranked wide open and just used to flush the system, unless they shut off the main supply valve probably out in the lot/street/etc.
12:16 nice music Steve
Yup happens almost weekly in my building.. leaking just enough not to set off a flow sensor for fire suppression system... lmao
that electrical box ripped off the wall looks safe too
Come on Chris it's always the hvac systems scape goat 😊
I call it a bubble party. Lol!
Did you make this song? It sounds like it could be you.
23:11 Each TXV has a QR Code on them...those might be how you ID which Circuit is which...
im surprised there isn't a specialized square head for the nozzle to get a more even and uniform coverage for spraying the fins off.
My first instinct was that there was no way that it was an AC leak. Way too much water
I see in like all your videos that the condensate drains on each unit goes either into a single drain or individually down through the roof. Is there a reason that they don't just let them drip on the roof? Is it some like law or something in California that they can't just drain on to the roof?
Good question, I'll cover this a bit more on my live stream this Monday night
that roof looks trashed itself.
Somehow I could tell you already knew the answer 😅
Dude i wonder if it was low from the factory
would sticking a inspection camera up that pipe lead you to that leak ?
Reminds me when roofers were putting a white roof on a warehouse building. Customer had called about water leak and asked if I thought it was the roofers I said nah it seems ok and I didn’t want to blame them so I looked at the unit and it was dirty inside. Had to wash out the drain pan and drain line. Even after it kept leaking as it had rained the next day. I go back and for some reason the unit tripped. Now I’m lost I know it an older carrier but it was working fine before. I go down and try to reset the breaker and boom it trips and sparks. I leave it off and let my bosses know. They ask me if I reset and shit and I’m like bro I have no clue why it’s tripping now doesn’t make sense and unit is ok on top nothing grounding and I had the unit off when resetting the breaker. Next week and we are looking it somehow reset with no problem made me look dumb. I’m like bro this makes no sense ! So they laugh and leave and as I’m retesting I turn it off and when to close it up and turn it back on same thing. Tripped again at breaker. Now I’m like WTF !! I go inside the warehouse and they have a lift I go up and I see these long screws coming from the rooftop and all of them run right next to a conduit. I show the guy like dude you’re gonna need an electrician out here I believe somewhere there is a screw going through causing a short. Ended up doing it to another one and yup they found they had drilled in to the conduit and shorted the wires on multiple units and had to re run all new wires. Man I didn’t wanna blame them but yup after checking everything and making sure they had fucked up all the power 😂
Chris i know codes are different depending where you live. Is it code where you are in CA to actually have RTU's have an actual drain that drains off roof to ground or sewer drain ?
split coil 23:00
If you have a leak you can't find check the ends of wires on the high and low pressure switchs....
yeah, seeing they're sealed into switch ends, any leak would migrate through the wire itself and out the next splice/connector.
"Could have been soap bubbles..."
From someone else trying to find and fix a leak?
Maybe it was underfilled from the factory.
It’s a good possibility
I'd just put the overcharge in Circuit 1 into Circuit 2.
Judging by the music you add to your videos, I'd recommend Lebrock, not copyright free but worth a listen.
Side note: are there any plans to ship the hats overseas, like the UK?
That’s the Issue with what’s Wrong with Today’s Employees. They are NOT Thorough and have a I Don’t give a Rats *** about Anything but want to get Paid.🤪👎
You can slip screen apps on android
Is it a california thing that you direct the condensate thru the roof deck as opposed to letting it drip onto the roof. Seams like you would have more problems with the drain backing up.
Yeah kind of, the water that runs on the roof goes to the storm drains and that water typically goes straight to the ocean with minimal processing. Sewer water gets heavily cleaned before it makes it to the ocean so condensate is supposed to go thru the sewer in most areas that I work in
What that company did was a shame! Blaming some other trade for what's CLEARLY their own problem.
That coil cleaning montage was really well made. Good job!
Does a mild dish soap work to degrease the condenser without damaging the aluminum?
I would bet that with them being made to suds too much to impress the consumer, you'd have a heck of a time getting it washed off. Might not even wick into the channels because of it.
What is the model number of this RTU?
It is hard to find good techs today almost impossible. The money left and customer service
Is a dying breed. Company owners spend a lot of money today on advertising and giving
The tech to many calls in a day to be as thorough as they need to be for proper service.
Good techs, Les calls, better service, more money.
What’s the purpose of the core depressors? The probes depress the cores?
Depth maybe. Good question.
There's no way the manager showed that leak to the sprinkler company, because that is a single purpose drain.
What happen if you put mrico channel safe cleaner on non mrico channel condenser?
Nothing bad happens. The micro-channel safe cleaners are simply less powerful (i.e. they lack the caustic chemicals that make the brightening cleaners so effective). You can use the yellow on everything but the blue only on tube and fin.
How could a plumber and the sprinkler guy after inspecting the water leak say that is a A/C issue. That does not make any sense.
What’s the name of the song during the coil cleaning segment??
Space out by Vincent Vega
Sprinkler system
How much $ for that call
They need to find another sprinkler service company. How could they blame the AC drains, there is NO possible connection between the two...... Yikes!
do you ever worry about wasting so much water coil cleaning
How else can you expect it to be done? It needs to be rinsed thoroughly. Rinse it, then rinse it again. After that, rinse it again…
Wouldn’t surprise me if whoever charged the system in the factory didnt put enough gas in that circuit🤷🏻♂️ must have been built on a Friday afternoon or Monday morning😂
You are still young,you should already have built a ladder crane,also you should carry some 10k thermistors,some times that is all you need to get the unit running.
They always blame it on the HVAC guy