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Lowrider
07-06-2007, 09:29 PM
Is it just me or do more of you get the idea that there are more people in the business messing abouth then taking the job serious.

Recently I come across more and more systems that have problems, but upon inspection of the lists there has never ever been a problem. Machines were allways working correct, at least on paper. When we take over maintenance again, we encounter multiple errors.

For instance, this week I started work on a chiller. A colleague of mine went to the job to do maintenance. He discovered one circuit was undercharged. Both running on high head pressures. Both were overfilled with oil. A month before we took over the contract, the former company did a leak check, no problems. System working on almost design temps!

This week i pumped down circuit B and took out 53 kg of the 62 kg that is suppost to be in there.
I meassured the temp of the cilinder and messured the pressure the next day. There were uncondensable gasses in the cilinder. After pressuretesting the system I found 4 leaks, small ok, but not too small to discovere!

After taking out the non condensables there was only 48 kg left.

Two years ago the other company did an oilchange and changed the filter/driers. All reports afterwards showed the machine running perfect. Both circuits running on the same pressures and temperatures with different entering and leaving water!?

I had a colleague at an other company where I used to work who said: "our work only has to be correct on paper"! I this way of thinking is becoming sop in the refridgeration which I think is bad practice!

So sorry for the long story, but I had to get it off my chest!!!

US Iceman
07-06-2007, 09:44 PM
You raise a good point.

Is this due to cost reduction efforts, or laziness? I'm not sure....

However, no matter what the cause this should be considered unethical. It would be no difference in filling out a commissioning sheet with OK for every line.

Brian_UK
07-06-2007, 10:43 PM
only has to be correct on paper

I fear that this has developed with the advent of Quality Assurance and ISO standards etc.

Some years back a friend who manufactured fans and small air handling units was involved in writing the Quality Manual for the firm in accordance with the QA Standards.

At the end of the day his only comment was " I now have a manual which can prove, on paper, that I have designed, built and issued a fan. What it doesn't admit too is the fact that I can build it from cardboard and it would still comply with the Standard."

I think that we also should not trust a single word given to us by a 'previous contractor'.

a. His contract is coming up for renewal so a major effort is made to bring all the equipment up to scratch.

b. He now realises that his poor performance over the past ?? years is coming back to haunt him.

c. He can't get the repairs done without admitting that he hasn't already done them so he glosses over the failings.

d. The customer wants to get rid of him anyway and wouldn't believe his latest reports anyway. He also doesn't want to pay him more than he has too.

e. The customer tells new contractor that everything is 'up and running - A-OK.'

f. New contractor just wants to get another client and will never go around all of the sites to do a survey of the equipment.

g. Joe Bloggs ends up on site with a pile of cr*p and is expected to have it working by yesterday.

taz24
08-06-2007, 01:14 PM
Is it just me or do more of you get the idea that there are more people in the business messing abouth then taking the job serious.




So sorry for the long story, but I had to get it off my chest!!!


For many many years I worked for a multinational company that concentrated mainly on large commercial and suppermarket work.

As a company we would work on sites that years earlier we had installed the equipment and subsequently lost the contract. Two or three years would go by and we would then win the contract back.
One of the major competitors when they got the contract always had a reputation of going in cheap and then running the contract right down and finaly loseing the contract.
We would then win the contract and go back in, spend thousands putting right what, had been allowed to be run down.
Then after a few years it would all change again.
The customer was as much to blame for thisas the contractor.
They were prepared to use contractors that would go in cheap and then maintain cheap for a few years knowing that at a later date with new budgets the equipment could be refitted or repaired.

Large companies undercutting each other and customers going for the cheapest option have done this to the industry.

I have not mentioned names or places but for referance the large company that I worked for, for all those years is now owned by the competitor it so often played contract tennis with.

Ho Hum the ways of big buissness eh.

taz.

coolerboy
09-06-2007, 01:33 PM
the same applies to the transport refrigeration side of things. we regularly have to fix other so called technician's blunders. recently we had a breakdown about 400 kays from us and the customer decided to use the services of a local guy, which according to him was very qualified. the machine arrived here a day later with absolutely no refrigerant in the system. upon inspection we found that the tech had completely rerouted the liquid line instead of only replacing the elbow bend that was leaking. the idiot even put a new drier in....but the wrong way around!!!

in countries such as SA where the lack of fully trained and qualified tradesmen have become a huge problem, we can blame it on lack of training. in more developed countries the blame can solely go to the technician who has absolutely no pride in his/her work.

ciao

Lowrider
09-06-2007, 10:43 PM
Let's put the money issue aside! I take pride in my job and enjoy doing it very much!

I used to work for a company who used to "bull sh*t" their customers and when I left blamed me for not talking to them first and just taking the other job and leaving them in the sh*t!

If I can't do my job the way it should be done, then no thanks! I'll move on! More fish in the sea!

If I'm not familair with a machine or system, I'll ask or say so! No F*cking about!! Sadly most just ask like their nose is bleeding, fill out the form and go on to the next "job". Perhaps ingorance is bliss!

Abe
10-06-2007, 11:41 AM
Let's put the money issue aside! I take pride in my job and enjoy doing it very much!

I used to work for a company who used to "bull sh*t" their customers and when I left blamed me for not talking to them first and just taking the other job and leaving them in the sh*t!

If I can't do my job the way it should be done, then no thanks! I'll move on! More fish in the sea!

If I'm not familair with a machine or system, I'll ask or say so! No F*cking about!! Sadly most just ask like their nose is bleeding, fill out the form and go on to the next "job". Perhaps ingorance is bliss!

The "trouble" with our industry is that you work for a company, or a " business" or an " "outfit", you get the title engineer and youre let loose in the field.

The culture of this business is that the engineer is expected to repair equipment from the smallest ice maker to a large cold store, and air conditioning to boot.

no specialisms are involved, very little training, or back up.

It would be far better if businesses specialise, instead of dabbling.

Stick to what you are best at........

Lowrider
13-06-2007, 08:48 PM
I totally agree! Stick to what you know!!

Sledge
21-06-2007, 07:33 AM
It is the same here.

The unfortunate truth is that a contract is awarded, quite often based on price, and the person who is awarding the contract doesnt understand, or doesnt want to understand, the difference between a good job, and a poor one.

I have recently been sub-contracted to work in a large bakery. They are an established major multinational food manufacturer with staggering resources, and no excuse for accepting the quality of work that can be seen in every part of their HVAC refrigeration system. The unfortunate truth is that they just dont care, as long as it is working right now.

The contractor I am helping with this project has a background in residential air conditioning, doesnt know the first thing about industrial refrigeration. What he understands is underhanded rip-off business tactics, and cash pay-offs to the right people. An honest reputable skilled technician cannot compete with this way of doing business.

I believe that the customer, in reality, is fully aware when he is being glad-handed, and is getting his butt kissed, and his pocket lined. He knows it and he chooses to buy the schmooze because it works for his ego. The fact that he is getting inferior work for the dollars he is spending, ultimately catches up to the organization he is working for, but the blame is put on the contractor for poor performance, not on the buyer who has put his own needs ahead of the needs of his employer.

paul_h
10-07-2007, 03:46 PM
Had a great one last week. Some butcher shop with a cold plate display case said it was freezing everything.
It had a LL solenoid valve and a carel controller (installed five years ago).
The carel controller wasn't even hooked up the the solenoid valve. I questioned the owner, and he said the last guys just adjusted the LP control in the past!?!?!
I politely informed him that the carel control can do more than just read the cabinet temperature. If you only wanted to read the temp you could by a thermometer from the $2 shop. I then wired up the solenoid valve to the controller with a $1 worth of 3 core flex and set the cabinet to whatever temperature he wanted.
Seriously, people here are lazy and stupid. The amount of work I get is obscene, I've got hospitals calling us with their ultralows, aircraft mechanics calling with their kingair and cessnas, inverter split manufacturers, printers and factories with process chillers calling us just because everyone else is useless or lazy. I'm not trained in any of this stuff, but I get stuck with it because these people have worked there way through the phonebook* just to find anyone who knows what they're doing.


*Our name starts with 'w', we're not big and we're not cheap.

expat
09-08-2007, 10:41 PM
PAUL!?...I thought you were sticking to domestic,...now you're taking everyones job!

paul_h
10-08-2007, 12:05 PM
PAUL!?...I thought you were sticking to domestic,...now you're taking everyones job! I do everything, like I said in another thred:
Our company never says no to anything.
I do domestic split A/Cs and refrigeration.
Commercial package A/Cs. Commercial refrigeration,eg coolrooms, ice mahines and display refrigeration.
Hospital refrigeration (eg cryostats and cascade ultra lows).
Marine refrigeration, although I told them never again about two years ago after a 15hr shift,so I haven't looked at one for years. But we did refrigeration for the australian navy, including submarines, and small cargo ships (small enough they didn't have their own refrig tech that is).
Aircraft A/Cs, I do heaps of beechcraft, cesnas, and small helicopters for the local airport. I mean really small stuff here, under 12 seaters.
When I leave and become self employed (very very soon), I'm going to stick with domestic, but for now I go where I'm sent, which is everything but industrial or other big stuff.

The MG Pony
10-08-2007, 09:32 PM
How hard is it to move to australia and where do I sign? I can live with that sort of work load!