Leaving the note is an awesome touch , mark of a true professional 👍 I hate coming up on a unit where everyone and their brother have modified stuff and you spend 2 hours tryna figure out the mess they left !
Good ol norlake junk. I’ve done the same thing you did several times, that’s a good repair. I’ve also ripped all of that out and switched to mechanical controls, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth on the newer ones. Now they use EEV’s and carel controllers that they have no clue what half of the parameters even do. I’ve had a lot of trouble out of all of the master built, RSG, norlake crape the last several years. Never loved them before but they at least worked for the most part and was a less expensive option for a walk in. Now they seem to just be horrible, not sure how they aren’t bankrupt with the massive amounts of warranty claims I’ve seen alone. Much less the rest of the country.
What are you talking about. It had a bad relay in the control. I had to go back and watch this again and I’m all still not sure. What I said was wrong was wrong when I replaced the part it was fixed.
Nicely done Rick. Sometimes this digital mumbo jumbo gets in the way or is way over engineered for a simple operation machine. I like how you took the current away from the controller and used it as a simple controller....control voltage, controls current. Leave the switching loads on something beefier that is designed to take a larger inrush and operation.
Anytime change a controller like that. Its gets a contactor if it powers the compressor. They never last with that big of load on it. Good job... I carrier one of those controllers on the truck now.
I've noticed you regularly do some wiring wizardry. I get the concept, but would do better at slow speed and with paper and pencil. I enjoy watching it anyway. It also makes me think about whether there another way to accomplish something. Thanks as always.
Nicely done. I like the dixell xr60cx as the compressor relay can take 20amps from memory. However dixell and carel are renowned for compressor relays failing on their controllers. Nice simple fix adding a contactor to stop load going thru the little controller. 👍
Rick how long were you there for the initial service call/temp repair? Also I would have just left it with the old school defrost way instead of going back with that control. Lol oh well job security you’ll be back in another 2 years replacing it again! Give us some schematic training videos you’re good at reading and explaining diagrams!
Theoretically as long as that contactor takes the heavy weight that the little relay was doing before it should last several more years. We've got little relays like that controlling big contractors in the refrigeration racks at grocery stores that are 15 years old or older. I may do some schematic diagram stuff, I never really thought of myself as much of a teacher more of just "hey here's shit that I've learned" that might make your job easier. I've been doing some apprenticeship class stuff lately and I don't know if it's my forte, I'm better off being the Hands-On guy showing things. And that's been my new role in the apprenticeship program, let the bookworm guy do the book worm stuff. 😂
@@HVACRSurvival hell yeah you are the hands on guy on RU-vid love watching and learning from your and your thought processes! Thanks for the response Rick. Happy weekend! Hopefully you aren’t on call.
Thinking after thawing the coil, I would have simply eliminated the defrost entirely until the part came in. Sure the coil might have iced again but two days is pretty safe and way easier (quicker) then your genius McGuiver deal - which was in fact genius!
Honestly I've never tried seeing how many days I can get out of a freezer before it freezes up. Plus don't forget the quality of people you have there at the store. And at that time I didn't know if the part was available or not, I didn't order the parts we have someone else do that. I appreciate the feedback thanks for watching!
The control probably has a simple relay on the board you can find an equivalent from digikey or mouser and replace. Then you can have a fully working spare for temp use next time. American Zettler AZ2280 series relays in "form A" - 40a/1hp contacts are a great way to avoid using a full size contactor if it won't fit inside (looks like one of these was there already for the defrost heater).
This "fancy" controllers is most common things in Other counties to control most commercial refrigerators/freezers. No timers like here in US. may be 20 years already. When i came here i feel like I'm in the Jurassic period, Controls, timers,BIMETALS are so old. but kind like it.
Are adjustable, self resetting low pressure "analogue"/"mechanical" pressostats and solenoids more expensive than an electronic pressure controller in the US? If you want a pressostat just for low charge shutdown, a good old fashioned pressostat is enough. These things can go for decades. And I've never done an electric resistance defrost without pumping down the system. Not good for coil and compressor longevity to stress them by heating the refrigerant during defrost.
Maybe that's why they had the pressure switch on there? Maybe They wanted to wait for the pressure to come down after being heated up before bringing on the compressor? This was an unusual setup, it's cheaper to do it with these electronic controllers vs mechanical.
@@HVACRSurvival It is possible, but still, the coil gets stressed. On the other hand, if the same coil can withstand hot gas defrost for years, the stress is taken into consideration. Where my business operates, it would be probably cheaper to use a mechanical pressostat and a solenoid. And probably less prone to malfuctions. Whatever, if all machinery was well designed and properly taken care off, technicians would have much less work to do.
If you use common sense the most of the times temperate controllers for example lae AD2-5 says: compressor relay 10A @230V 5A or 8A @120V this is your inrush current im using the most of the time external contactor for example ABB ESB-20-20 is a 20A contactor and is cheap enough to have a bunch of it in my truck and on my shop this contactor its dimensions is like MCB and is DIN rail mounting and it takes very little space on the electrical boxes.
Minor suggestion, that contactor should have broken power coming out of the low pressure Dixell, rather than power into it. You've saved the relay in the temp control, however the relay in the low pressure controller will still be switching the compressor, which may still be a failure point in future. Good idea nonetheless!
True, But I would have to possible add a low pressure c.o to replace it. It's hard to justify it, I'm not sure why it had that fancy of a control when a cheap snap disc would have worked for a loss of charge safety.
@@HVACRSurvival Nah, you could have left it there and let it do its thing, just had the contactor after its internal relay. Relay would stay pulled in almost indefinitely and still pass current. Contactor would do the bulk of the switching, saving wear on the relay. Relay could still drop out on loss of charge. I do agree it's odd they went for a digital pressure control, usually only see those on some scroll condensing units.
Great job. Wouldn't it be better in the long run to just put in a new digital thermostat and mechanical time clock. I'm not busting your balls this is a legit question
No I've heard they have a thermostat with the defrost control, my problem is there is 12 other service guys and they only stock certain things, if I nag enough I can get it but is it worth my time nagging for it. I haven't ran into a bunch of these on walk in freezers, normally I see them on smaller reach in coolers and freezers.
Have a desire to be YOUR best. Doing what is right when no one is looking, have a desire to learn all you can and when you get bored at what your doing find another company that offers more opportunities.
😅 it's not over Ingenieureder, it's the opposite they just have take random controller and patch them together, this is just a bad design of random part together 😹
