HVAC Failure: That's Why They Call It Practice

Full Disclosure:  I will not use any real names so as not to embarrass anyone.  Instead I will address my fellow HVAC students as Harry Potter character's names.

I, Adrian, nay.... Albus Brian Wulfric Percival Dumbledore was working on an outdoor A/C unit in our HVAC lab.

I had "Mad-Eye" Moody and Dedalus Diggle with me working on changing out a bad compressor for a newer one.

Our Instructor (Ron Weasley) was working with our group as well as others.  It was then we heard a giant "Woosh!" 

I look fifteen yards away to where our walk-in cooler/chiller was, and out came running George and Charlie Weasley.

P.S.  You can tell it's George since he has the hole in his ear.

Also, Charlie likes dragons. 

Anyway, I see George and Charlie run like bats out of Hell out of the walk-in cooler/chiller.  Behind them comes Fred Weasley completely soaked.

It seemed like Fred was using a turbo torch to braze copper piping inside the walk-in.  He placed the torch too close to the fire sensor, and the sprinklers went off inside the walk-in. 

I then smelled an awful smell.  It was something like a chemical or oil of some sort.  I didn't wait around for the smell of it to fill our lab area.  I went over and opened up our bay door to let some fresh air in. 

It was about that time the school's fire alarm went off.  It was about 10 seconds after that our Vice Principal came through the doors and yelled for everyone to get out, and that this wasn't a drill. 

So the whole school had to go out to our assigned safety areas.  We waited about 10 minutes out there.  I later found out they had to shut down the water for the whole school to stop the sprinkler system from continuing to pour water everywhere. 

Since the water was turned off for the entire school they told the students to grab their stuff and leave.  I had to pick my tools up out off the newly flooded HVAC lab floor.  I managed to account for all of them, so that was good.  I, along with all my other students left campus.  So it ended up being a short day for the entire school.  I'm not sure if they had everything fixed in time for the nighttime classes.

The one thing I can predict?  We are going to rib the heck out of Fred until we graduate.  I do feel bad for him.  I mean, the least I could have done is offer him an extra shirt I had in my backpack.  But in all fairness, we were told to leave immediately.  So tomorrow I'm going to tell Fred that he needs to work on his, "Aquamenti" spell.  Of course, I hope he gets the Harry Potter reference.

The Water Fountain Dilemma

I have written a few blogs about learning the HVAC/R trade at Erwin Technical College.  It has really opened my eyes as to what needs refrigeration and cooling.  I have also had to learn not only the refrigerant cycle, chemistry, electrical, and piping, but also how to put them all together. 

Our class had something interesting happen that really made me think about using all our skills and putting them to use on one project.  Case in point.  We were told to come over to the dental tech's office to look at a water fountain.  You know, just a standard water fountain. 

We were told that the water was shooting too far, and it wasn't cooling.  When it came to the water shooting too far, all it needed was for the cap to be cleaned out.  You know, the little piece where the water exits from?  It was clogged up with lime.  So that was an easy fix.

The cooling part?  Not so much.  See, this is where it gets tricky.  We need to remove the parts that cool the water.  But to do that we needed to shut down electricity to the water fountain.  Legally speaking it takes a friendly electrician to do that. 

Here's the catch 22.  Yes, you are allowed to flip the power breaker switch.  Yes, you are also allowed to flip it back on.  But if something was repaired it needs to be repaired by an electrician.  So "technically/legally" the water fountain at the school needs to be shut down by the electrician. 

(Sidenote:  This also depends on your city/county/state ordinances.  Things can very greatly depending upon where you are.)

Now, the internal parts of the water fountain were ready to be removed.  Well, not quite.  You see, the piping that fed the water to the water fountain is coming from the City of Tampa.  That means that is City of Tampa water, and if you want to mess with that you need to be a certified plumber.  So call in your friendly plumber.

Now the plumber has the authority to shut off the water.  He also has the training to work on the piping, but so does the HVAC technician.  Either way, we now come to the friendly HVAC tech.

Now our class could get busy repairing the unit.  It needed a good cleaning out, some refrigerant, and elbow grease.  Now we do everything in reverse.

We installed the parts back into the water fountain.  Then the plumber turned the water back on.  And finally, the electrician turned the electricity back on.  We let the unit run a bit, and it was running good as new. 

So, remember when you see a water fountain, ask yourself, "Just how many people did it take to get that thing running?" 

The answer is, "A lot."

HVAC: Home Edition, Part 2

A few weeks ago I cleaned out the squirrel cage blower on one of our A/C systems.  We have two systems to cool down the house.  So I finally got around to cleaning the other blower.  First up, this is what I was looking at.

It's a bit different than the other unit, but then again, that one has been replaced twice.  This unit and system is still running after 22 years.  Of course, I was told that it hadn't been cleaned in 22 years either.  So let's get to working on this.

Luckily, I only had to disconnect a few things, and not cut any wires.  It was a bit dusty on the outside, as well as rusty.  And by rusty, I mean, one of the screws holding the unit was being a pain in the butt as I was trying to get it out.  Take a peek.

But it did manage to come off with some elbow grease.  Then I managed to get the whole thing disassembled.  And it was a bit dusty if I do say so.

Yeah, it's a bit dirty. 

So I got around to cleaning it up a bit.  Between brushes, screwdrivers, and compressed air, I think I got it looking somewhat decent. 

Then came the hard part.  Putting it all back together.  Everything was going fine until I found one plug-in that didn't have anything to plug in to.  So I actually looked at these pictures I took, and found one thing.  Take a peek at the upper left hand corner.

Do you see the plug that doesn't actually plug into anything?  Yeah, that's what I was dealing with.  So once I found that it didn't actually plug into anything I was able to put everything back in place. 

So that's another great HVAC victory in the books.  After putting the cover on, and turning the system back on, I had to put my ear against the blower to make sure it was running.  In other words, it was running so smoothly I could barely ear it.  That's a good thing.  It shows that I got it nice and clean. 

So it's onto the next project sometime or another.  I'm learning a lot in class, and hope I can continue with my string of success.

HVAC: Home Edition: Undercutting the Contractors

I am now in month four at Erwin Vo. Tech for HVAC (Heating, ventilation, air conditioning.)  The last two weeks things have finally starting coming together for me.  The things that I have learned from the book are finally being put into real life practice.  And honestly, it couldn't have come at a better time.

You see, the A/C unit at the house had it's scheduled maintenance.  The company that maintains it said that it needed a few things.  First on unit #2, the dual capacitor was weak, and eventually it would need a new one.  The second issue with unit #2 was that the squirrel cage blower wheel needed cleaning. 

Well, after everything I've seen I wasn't sure how true it was.  I know a lot of companies perform the "inspection" for free, and then jack up the price on needed work.  What defines "needed work" can be open to interpretation.  Usually a capacitor either works or it doesn't.  There is no in-between.  Now I will be honest, in that, if a capacitor is weak it may be a sign of dying ...... sometime.  It could be a week, it could be years.  What you don't want is a capacitor to quit working, and then need an "emergency call" to the A/C company.  Then the price will really be jacked up.

So I wanted to get ahead of the curve.  I took a peek at the estimates for the work.  To change the capacitor was $194.24 (before discount,) and cleaning the blower was $256.10 (before discount.)  So if I could take care of this instead of the A/C company it would save a lot of dough.

My instructor was able to purchase the capacitor for $9.40.  I immediately paid him for it in cash, and was ever so thankful.  So when I made it home I got all my equipment and tools out. 

I took lots of pictures, so I will tell the rest of the story along with the pictures I took.  That way, you can understand what I am talking about.

First up, the tools.

And here is the $70, nay, $9.40 capacitor.

Here is the unit.

Here are the guts of the unit.

Here is a close up of the old capacitor.

I made sure to perform the correct math to make sure all the wires were going in the right places on the new capacitor.

So I put the connections on the new capacitor, and then drilled a new hole on the strap.  This capacitor was skinner, but longer than the old one.  So I adjusted the strap to hold it nice and tight.

And here is a picture of the all the completed work.

Honestly, I spent most of my time performing math and adjust the strap.  Other than that it didn't really take long.  So that was now out of the way.

A few days later it was time to tackle the squirrel cage blower.  Again, any little bit of dust on it can result in an A/C company saying it needs cleaning.  So before I even took anything apart, I took a peek at it.  You know what.  They weren't lying.  It needed cleaning.  It needed cleaning badly.  So I took it out and this is what it looked like.

There's nothing too technical about it.  It's just dirty, and I needed to get in there by hand and clean it out.  I used wire brushes, my big flat head screwdriver, and an air compressor to get in, and get that thing clean.  Did I mention it was dirty?  Because I looked like I rolled around in black dirt.

Again, it was more time consuming than it was hard.  I will say this.  My instructor showed me how to clean a blower just two days before.  I also knew that I would have needed a special tool to take the motor out.  If I could have removed the motor, then I would have used a water hose on the blower.  But since the motor was intact, I knew not to get water anywhere near it. 

Using the compressed air really helped.  I was able to get the little bits (and big bits) out of the blower.  I was surprised at the amount of dirt I was able to get out of it.  I ended up with a big ole' pile at my feet.  So this is what it looked like after cleaning.

Not perfect, but still ten times better than it was.  Once the unit was re-installed it actually sounded quieter.  That let me know that all the work I preformed was valid.  And hey, no one had to pay $450 (before discounts) to the A/C company. 

HVAC - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Part 3

My work continued on our A/C system at the house.  It started with a trip to Home Depot.  Since I needed to replace the insulation on the pipes outside, it was important to pick up some new insulation and zip ties. 

I was so focused on my work I forgot to take pictures, but believe me, the old insulation was falling apart.  It just completely fell apart in my hands.  So I put the new insulation on, and tightened it down with zip ties.  I feel pretty good about it.  Here's the "after" pictures.

The hardest part was just getting around to the back of the units.  The concrete is very hard on the knees.  Luckily, I remembered an old towel I had, so I tucked it underneath my knees. 

I also got back to cleaning the inside coils.  Again, I forgot to take pictures.  But here is what it looked like before.

I talked to my HVAC Instructor Raul yesterday, and he told me to NOT take it out.  Just leave it where it was.  Go ahead and hit it with coil cleaner, and let it sit for five minutes.  Since it sits in a pan, I could use the water hose on low, and the water would drain down the pipes.  I had my shop/vac on standby for any water that made it out of the pan, but not much managed to get out. 

For reference, this is your friend:

So now it's time to let the system run for a bit, and see if everything improves.  It's already gotten colder in the house.  Now it's time to see if the electric bill comes down a bit.  Since this is about the hottest time of year in Florida, the difference should be really noticeable.  Hopefully things will turn out for the best, and I may be able to write part four of this blog.

HVAC - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Part 2

So this is the third day I have worked/ cleaned the A/C system.  Today was the day I worked on inside part of the system.  (Yes, I know I could use technical terms, but no one would know what I was talking about.)  So, let me show you a picture of it.

The unit on the right is pretty new so I didn't have to worry about it.  The one on the left is 22 years old, and the one I needed to work on. 

So the question is, "Did it have some mold?"  Well, just a little bit.

And to answer the question, "Did it have a bit of dust in it?"  Well, yes.  Yes it did.

So I took my shop vacuum and went to town cleaning the vents.  I also knocked some of the mold and dust off the sides.

I also went to town with the Lysol.  I will say this, it couldn't hurt.  I'm not sure how much it helped, but I let loose with the Lysol.

The next part was to take the unit out, and use the coil cleaner on it.  However, it was bolted in there so well, I had no idea how to take it out.  So at this time I left it in.  I figured I would do more damage than good if I tried to take it out.  I'm a bit disappointed in myself, but as I get to know more about HVAC I will feel more confident that I can take the unit apart without damaging it. 

So, I will talk to my instructors about the unit, and hopefully in the future I will be able to take it apart without damaging it. 

HVAC - Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

Lately my posts have been about how I have been going to school studying HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning.)  Right now, I know enough to seriously screw something up, and not be able to fix it.  But it was time to do something that I can do, and that's cleaning.  By cleaning the outside units and the inside vents I can bring down the costs on the electric bill.

It's funny, but at school we actually cleaned the big dual units in the automotive department.  The units were so plugged up that the pressure on the high side on one of the units was 300 PSI.  That means when it hits 301 PSI it will trip the breaker.  After we cleaned the outside unit, it brought the pressure down to 220 PSI (on the high side.)  That's a huge difference.  And all we did was use coil cleaner on the coils, and take a water hose to it. 

So I figured it was time to do this to our units.  The house is 22 years old, and has two A/C units.  (As pictured.)

 One is a Cumberland and is still running after all these years.  (As pictured.)

The other is a Trane, and is the third unit we've had for that side of the house.  It replaced the old unit just a year ago.  When I looked at it, it was really clean so there was no need to clean it.

So I took apart the Cumberland A/C unit, and gave it a good cleaning.  It's made a little differently than I am used to seeing.  The outside part of the unit is basically grill cloths protecting the inside which houses the coils.  So after removing 20 screws to get the top off, I sprayed it down with coil cleaner.  I then went to town on the grill cloths while the cleaner did it's job. 

I used my shop vacuum to remove some old leaves and grass from the inside of the unit.  I then used the water hose to spray the coils from the inside to outside.  I gave it a good, nay, great cleaning.  I put everything back together, and I put back 19 of the 20 screws.  (I have no idea where that last screw went.) 

So that was more time consuming than it was mentally challenging.  However, I was in the full Florida heat, and it really started to wear me down by the end of it. 

So the next day, Saturday, I decided to clean the inside vents.  Again, after 22 years they can get full of stuff.  I was cleaning one of the vents when I thought, "Why don't I just pull the two screws so I can run it under some water?"

Here's what the outside and around the vent looked like.

So I went to town around the vent and inside the vent.

This lead to a lot of gunk falling down everywhere.  This lead me to get out my shop vacuum.  It's a Rigid wet/dry vacuum, and has served me well for many years.

I then continued to do more of the same around the house.  Namely, take off the vents, and give them a good cleaning, and shoot a bunch of Lysol down the vents.  Then I would break out the shop vacuum, and clean everything up.  Some of the vents weren't too bad, and all I had to do was wipe them down.  While I was at it with my rag and bucket of water, I went ahead and cleaned off the fans.  Those things collect a ton of dust in no time at all. 

So my next step will be to take the inside unit apart and clean the coils in it.  I will also clean out the drain lines.  I'll try to remember to get lots of pictures of it so I can write a second part to this blog.