This facility is definitely an MMJ Grow, interesting way to hide the outdoor condensing units.What a cluster F on those linesets, brazing and flares oh my! Good way to heat the building in the winter time though! Nice work getting her in order!
How do you clean the condenser coil. Did The installer provide access doors on the ductwork? Also as mentioned the head units need a total Yearly maintenance power washing using the ductless mini split bib Cleaning kit. This is an excellent source of information, well done. 45+ years in the HVAC industry And I'm still learning. Never stop Learning.
This knowledge is invaluable. For real you have helped me out of so many future problems with this. Wishing you the best dave. Been following you on other accounts, etc for 4+ years. Youre an OG If i am ever down in santa cruz i owe you a beer and a dinner.
@@NorCal-refrigeration Hey, i have a question. I have a Split Air con and when I turn it on, it just makes a weird noise and does not even blow air, it just stays on with that weird noise, do you know what the problem might be?
That's Quest is one heck of an expensive dehumidifier, but wrote ever penny.. great info brother. Been lost in space with them mini splits till I came across your channel 👍🏻
U have a blessed life. The opening/ending of video was so peaceful to watch. I wish i was on a beach instead of on my couch with no $$. Thankyou for sharing.
Never put a multi head system in where one room has to always stay cold. The others will never be happy. Put in a one to one for the cold room, and then a multi for the others. Good advice, always weigh the charge, because you're chasing your tail if you don't. Guys with gauges-just don't. Put them away, get a stub gauge to check pressures when diagnosing transducers, but otherwise, don't. Gauges on inverters are useless. You don't know what speed they're running at at any given time.
AWESOME info, you explained that very well. I'm a second year HVAC/R student and doing some work to make it through school. Thankyou for the help, much appreciated !
Thanks Norcal Dave ! New job heard be working on a lot of mini splits and VRF systems VRFs never worked on! I'm amazed how the industry gets better tools for service man long way from the 80s and 90s beer can cold!
“Smurf Boner”! Classic! I couldn’t agree more, recover the charge, test and recharge. Now you know where your at and not chasing others mistakes! Good advise! Start with the basics! Thanks Dave! 👍
Looks like a gas and go bandit serviced it several times... “the machine isn’t working, better add some gas!” Good call to recover and weigh so you know where you’re at. Good video Dave, thanks.
Dave your spot on with that approach.👍I work on a lot of Mitsubishi mini splits and I see a bunch of “gas & go” jobs. I always weigh it out and start over. I have been doing this along time and have never found a better way to get back to square one. I HOPE some guys listen. Thanks. The thumbs down guy is a “super tech” lol. The 600psi for 24 hr. is still the suggested procedure as far as I know, that ain’t gunna happen.
I trouble shoot mini splits all day everyday here in Hawaii and about 99.9999999% of them get overcharged by someone sometime in its life.. frigin ridiculous. everyone running around with a set of gauges just wants to gas everything up and go. the worst are city multi units because they will just eat gas and if they are trying to charge by pressure it will never move and they just keep charging. I've seen some that are almost 20lbs overcharged crazy. But good job man! Always enjoy your videos!!
You da man daver! Those cant be troubleshot by pressures as they are all inverter. I have ran into a couple that you can put into a 100% capacity run mode. But ya exactly like you did ! Awesome video. Can confirm your mits pressure of 600 also. They also want under 300 microns on the vaccum too. I went 3 years ago.
Learned quite a bit about these multi zone systems in just a few minutes from you big Dave! And you are correct about cranking these up to 600 psi for 24 hours. Thats what the Samsung reps told us to do
Additional charge here is in grams per meter, makes it easier to work out I think! One of the worst ones I've seen was 26kg overcharged, had some fun measuring pipe run as it was three stories up and had to follow pipes above ceiling tiles, killed the original compressor!
Do you always put the refrigerant back into a system I’ve been using new refrigerant because I worry about from the previous technicians. And should we always change the refrigerant when you do a compressor. Video is good hi attention to detail. I have a 3 head Carrier at a customers house and tech support thought the eev was bad and told me to pull back into the condenser and switch from a to b head port and now there is an e3 communication error and the wording is correct the other heads are working tech support is closed and i really want to get it going for them.
That overcharge is impressive. The suction ports are In circuit with the EXV so you can't rely on that pressure to charge. Also - on the T-stat if you hold down COPY/Follow me for 5 seconds it might show you all the temp sensors reading in C. Thats a Nor-cal Fan Tip of the Day!
On top of that the factory charge assumes you have all 5 circuits in use with usually a max of 25 ft line set on each. So that unit was wayyyyyy overcharged!
I have an Apion twin.. it rocks and is pretty light weight. Wow two ilunits worth of charge. Thirdly make a case to clean those blower moto wheels. If they pack with enough dust it throws off the motor to think it's running in high speed when it's really in low. I would say those motor measure resistance and this may be happening. Lock box the #1stat this way it cannot be messed with or lock out the stat itself. Be safe brother Dave..I'm late fue to the draft...woooooo speed kills
I work at a property that has close to 700 of these condensers. I always recover the charge. I run into systems that are overcharged all the time. Coworkers in a hurry “topping it off” I pulled 6 lbs out of a 1 1/2 ton that only holds 3 lbs a few days ago. The modes issue we run into all the time in spring and fall. It’s hard to get tenants to understand that all rooms have to be set to the same mode ( all on cool, or all on heat )
I agree. They called Mr Nor-Cal because the installing company/person,just added gas. Want it colder..Ok...I will add the refrigerant..hahaha. I do the same thing if its not my install. You almost un install it ,to reinstall it correctly to know your charge is to factory spec. I tell the customer that this may take longer,but its the only way to make it right.Start at a solid base line. As all ways Great Work Dave
i Was on a ice o matic 600 lb ice machine the other day ( 12 years old ) not harvesting , That little Z-Man Suction stubby Guage Saved My ass the other day. it Paid for itself on that one Job. Watching suction pull down test, diagnosing a weak compressor would not pull below 28psig , adjusting pressure control cycles to compensate, So much easier than dealing with an app ! analog Rules ! sometimes ! No batteries 🔋, no Digital Lag. , instant response. it Kicked ass ! Suction stubby Guage for the Win ! No Refrigerant loss ! i Wish i Got it all on video But, Customer Was Right there.
Lol 😂 I recognize that type warehouse very floral there. Always see we overcharged or under charged got those good old knew it all guys beer can cold. Because either they’re brand new in the business and no nothing or they been in the business for 30 years and learn by breaking things and they are always right. You are 100% correct. In those wall mounts get tons of mildew buildup on the blower fan blades
Eric M high static pressure air handler are the way to go. You can add multiple Merv 16 20“ x 30“ 5 inch deep pleated filters carbon impregnated. And then on top of that you can add your peroxide generating module inside the airstream. If you want to take it one step further you can either add your humidifier and smart fog system or pezio electric humidifiers. And if you want to make things easier put it outside the room if that’s necessary you could duct in parallel your dehumidification system using the same ducting. With this system you just taking care of killing bacteria killing virus is filtering out mold spores and complete climate control
Eric M yes you’re 100% correct but that was being used in a cannabis grow facility. And guys keep on Insisting on using cheap residential minisplits for a commercial industrial production facility that has extremely high humidity in organic biomatter floating in the air as debris to feed fungus and mold.
as a know-nothing home owner, I get the impression that lazy techs just add more refrigerant as a Blind BandAid. I hired a Grey-haired independent HVAC tech b/c AC "wasn't cooling". He walked me through a heat pump check out by the condensor. He said to me: "What do you bet it's overcharged?" And then chuckled when he found that to be the case. AC cooled after he left. :D
i switched over to the fieldpiece SRS3 wireless charging scale....so far so good...much better than the inficon wey tek non wireless scale i had....i used to own that CPS scale...nothing but problems
I guess I'm not the only one to find so many over-charged mini-splits. I seem to find it a lot more often than over-charged conventional systems. Many of my local competitors still do a splash'n go, before they even try to troubleshoot a problem.
You could have offered to fix the real problem. They need a single head minisplit for that room. Most likely the other tech didn't UNDERSTAND THE SEQUENCE OF OPERATION and kept adding gas one visit after another. "I'll bet you!" LOL!
Great vid (video) thx... at the time 6.43 u mention how to plug into an ice maker so not to waste any Refrigerant can u explain that or refer me read or watch more on this...God Bless Norcal University
I think the installer looked at the tag on the condenser and probably thought the factory 10lbs charge is what he had to add. Would make sense why its 10 lbs overcharged.
Not quite three years back I installed 9K Mitsubishi mini-split heat pump to keep some pretty plants cool. Other than being really poor at maintaining a consistent temperature in its one and only head, which required a $270 MHK1 wireless thermostat to resolve, it cooled adequately. At least it did until a couple of months back. Recovering the charge indicated that it was down from 2.58 pounds to about a half pound. Found a leak in the middle of the indoor heat exchanger. (Another has been ordered.) I saved nearly 5 grand by installing the heat pump myself. Too bad that I have no warranty for having taken that approach. It lets Mitsubishi off the hook for its poor workmanship. I won't buy or recommend them in the future. On a positive note, a fair bit of the $5K savings got put into some tools and getting a Universal certificate. Kind of nice to have the stuff needed to make things happen properly and not have to worry about calling in someone. It would have been even nicer not to have to mess with it at all.
What some people don't get is that the expansion device is buried inside the condensing unit, so your entire line set is an extension of the evaporator. That's why both lines are insulated and you don't have a true "liquid" line outside of the condensing unit to check.
Any thoughts on a Friedrich mini split system that keeps increasing room humidity in 2 of 3 rooms? 2 7000 btu heads in separate rooms after a period of running will have humidity in 90's and room temp of 65.
Can you change which ahu is the master, per t-stat program or dip switch settings ? I'm a chiller guy so I rarely work on mini-splits but that would be good info to know. Thanks...
Hey there, I have a mini ductless split unit, cooling works great, and blows fine. When I try to switch it over to the heating, heat pump, it does not do anything inside or outside. Would you be able to help me troubleshoot this?
Good Video👍, Just curious did that unit show high discharge pressure fault code? This is one of the reason I like Mitsubishi Electric verses Gree (Lennox used Gree as their manufacturer of Ductless for a while), there is a way with Mitsubishi to lock the unit into full capacity and use Mitsubishi charts for checking suction & Head pressure inside the outdoor unit, they have ports on both high & low side just hard to get to.
It was not running when I got there. They had it off and just went straight to recovery mode. I like Mitsubishi the best, my day job as so many diakin units i wish Mitsubishi was spec, state has to take lowest bid.
That's a good method of making sure you have the right charge in a system, but how many pounds of refrigerant is that recovery tank rated to hold? I've watched other channels that say those tanks are only rated for holding 18 pounds of refrigerant, but I could be wrong. All of my experience with HVACR systems is from dealing with automotive HVAC systems. The way you describe critically charged systems leads me to believe that most automotive HVAC systems are in fact critically charged, since the majority of systems hold under 3 pounds of refrigerant, and generally for the same size vehicle, the newer it is the less charge it holds. I've seen systems that take under a pound in small sedans. All of that makes it very important that you weigh out and weigh in the charge in an automotive HVAC system, because the first thing a person with DIY tendencies is going to do when it's summer and it stops blowing cold air is add refrigerant. To be fair, most of the time that will solve the problem, but not always. When it doesn't solve the problem, it ends up in the shop and now I have to fix it the right way. So I weigh out the charge with the recovery machine, and weigh in the charge after a vacuum decay test. By doing that, I have proven two things; the system is sealed and the system has the proper charge. With that baseline established, I can start the full diagnostic procedures.
44R0Ndin tank holds 30 #’s it has a tare weight stamped on it. The key is to only fill it 80% max. To leave room for high ambient temps. Over fill it and it gets hot 💥
Man , I hate mini splits , what a pain they are , pressures don't mean anything until you're severely undercharged . So , do you end up bringing the extra refrigerant to the supplier so they can dispose of it or how does it go ?
On this video when you first start off are you pulling the refrigerant from the mini split I get confused when you say charge or are you charging the mini-split with refrigerant ?
@@NorCal-refrigeration it's okay you speak from a professional standpoint I think my mini split needs the old refrigerant pulled out a new refrigerant added is that what you did in this video ?
Nice video 😄 not so keen on the quality of pipework. Would that be considered poor to you guys over there? Would not be happy if one of our guys in the UK installed like that!! Good advise on checking the charge first, definitely takes the guess work out of the equation 👍
The pipe work to me is lazy. I’m union trained and we always ran hard pipe on uni strut. But you will find this all over the USA like this. I’m terrible at soft copper runs myself.
Often guys here will be a bit rough when pipes are out of sight but would always run pipes in plastic trunking where visible. You get a lot of guys here who are very good at installing, everything will be run on hangers or tray. Huge systems that look like a work of art but often need a commissioning guy to complete as they have no idea how things work. Even so, it’s still a skill to instal large systems neatly. Keep making the videos 😀
Just had one where some installers had put in a minisplit for a shop. Condenser mounted outside right on the otherside of the wall of the head unit. Go there todo a 'startup', find the unit low on charge and head unit freezing. Nitrogen pressure test was fine, but end up putting almost double the charge in to stop the coil from freezing and get ok line temps. It seemed weird. Come to find out that the installers left the full length of both linesets looped in the wall, didnt even have any insulation at the condenser to the wall. Im like, "holy f**k, dont send me on anymore startups".
