Well yesterday a restaurant that I have done a lot of work for rang to say the walk in fridge was at 18 deg C, not good, with a very large value meat stock, so that was quickly distributed to alternative coolers, this system has a leak that we have been unable to trace so it is a fairly regular thing to top it up, so shot down with some gas etc, but soon discovered that gas was not the problem, the low side was far too high when running so connected the high side gauge and that was far too low, the return which should be cold was warm which suggested the inlet valve on the compressor had failed = nothing I could do on a Sunday.
Up at 8 am this morning to contact my supplier but as of noon no joy with a complete condensing unit (my preferred option as I suspect the leak could be in the condenser coil unit) so only other option was a replacement compressor, which meant dragging my oxy/propane gear to site, big bottles etc, while customer was driving miles to collect compressor I was stripping out the old one, pig of a job as had to erect a small platform in order to be at a good working height, and the bally wind got up which makes de brazing copper to copper joints difficult with a small flame, yes I could up the flame but other stuff in close proximity inhibits that, in fact one pipe I had to cut off at the face of the compressor as there was just not enough space to lift the pipe out, while waiting for the new one I needed to know what was the problem with the old one so out came Mr mini angle grinder and off with his head.
And after stripping it down found indeed that the inlet reed strip had failed, as in pic, new unit installed and gassed up by 4 pm, Rick
:thumbs
