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One thing this trade is well know for is equipment that supplied with major faults that should never have reached the field. I will submit a couple that have given me grief, I'm sure we can build on this list :(
3 Phase (415v) package unit fitted with single phase (240v)compressor
Hermetic compressor with partially welded shell
250kg Reviever with dip tube welded in upside down
Evaporator coil full of epoxy coating
Quote:
Originally Posted by T82
No I'm sorry I disagree with you.
We all know that the manufacturer can make no mistakes.
That all equipment is designed and built to last 100 years
and would do if it was not for the naughty engineer who goes
and breaks said perfect system :p :p
For example the case that was designed with the pipe tails coming out of
the bottom of the case but with only 5 cm access under the case to install
insulated 7/8" suction elbows.
Or the cases that have the condensers along the back of the case with filters
on that can only be accessed from the back and they are designed to stand
against a wall??? or back to back with another case.
Or the case that was sent out without any earth cable connected inside. It was
not noticed untill a heater went down to earth, but there was no earth conection
so the cleaner found the fault when she touched the faulty fridge and a good fridge
at the same time :rolleyes:
Or the 150 Kw fan drive motor that was wired star delta, Not a problem you may think
except inside the thing was wired for part wind.
Cheers taz.
.
Need some examples of engineers' f*ck ups?
I've got plenty.
What's the good of a thread without pics? :D
Had an icebuilder with four TXVs none of which had any orifices in.
Rebuilt compressor with no oil in.
Five scroll pack with no hole drilled through the oil return shut off tap.
It is endless really,
I've seen many faults made by manufacturers and by fridgies.
Got your cameras boys and bring us those nice ones.
A good laugh is as healthy as sex..........:D
Foster had a big problem a few years ago with the factory putting ACC compressor's in all chillers and freezers
What a HUGE mistake that was, spent most of the summer replacing comps.Well it was a good think for the company not soo good for foster.
All sorted now though, there back to unite or danfoss
My favorite manufacturer screw ups are on machines entering from China, Korea and India.
I'm not entirely sure how the things end up in the country, considering most of them use green wiring to carry current (a big no-no here in Aus, considering thats reserved for earth!). Since the plugtops are rarely connected to the earth pin anyway I guess it doesnt REALLY matter what colour wiring they use - you'd be dead regardless.
One Indian unit I worked on broke pretty much every electrical rule in the book, and compounded it by having brackets in wet areas made from unpainted mild steel (not even painted or galvanized) which were already rusting by the time the thing was installed. The actual problem I went there for was no gas in the system... which turned out to be due to the sparrow-poop soldering job they'd done on the condensor which had more holes than a whole tournament of golf courses. By the time we quoted repairs to the condensor, replacing the rusting brackets, replacing the illegal wiring AND giving no warranty on anything except the EXACT work we did (documented) due to the poor quality components used elsewhere I think they ended up just buying a new unit.
One Korean unit we got obviously knew that we needed 'an' earth connected, so they'd wired an earth wire (red, of course :\) into the terminal strip.... but then once the wire made it out of the electrical box they'd just chopped it off and cable the bare end into the other cables so you couldnt see it. Crazy stuff. The slightly disturbing thing is that 'someone' had test & tagged the unit with a generic test & tag sticker (with no company name etc on it), and put the test date and expiry... but left the license, name and other particulars blank. Clearly they didnt want to be associated with it, yet put a tag on it anyway???
it still does my head in when having to change heaters on searle km coolers, when only a couple of feet at either end!!
Had a situation where a water chiller was fitted with TX valve installed backwards, inlet was the outlet, the outlet was the inlet, the Alco vav body had an arrow for direction flow on it. Chiller did not do much at all. One point they got right was the external equalizer was correct, really hard to screw that up. Manufacturer 'said impossible." for reverse install. My reaction was get in your car now and be on site plus bring order number for repair.
Had a server room where the close control units were installed with water copper piping plus threaded iron joints.
Manufacturer (me) called in to recover refrigerant, remove the whole piping and start over.
The installing company went out of business because of it.
Had a issue with an ammonia screw package the other day.
Unit was supplied to one of our branches is Capetown by Grasso and was installed on a slurry Ice system onboard a fishing trawler. The unit had 28 hrs on when it showed up by us in Namibia. It would run for 20 minutes without a problem and then sudenly the oil temperature shot up and the unit cuts out on high lube temp. I removed and inspected the thermostatic valve on the oil cooler but could not find any problems with it. On closer inspection I found that the thermostatic valve was installed the wrong way around. So instead of feeding cold oil when the temp goes up it was giving hot oil straight from the seperator. Lucky for Grasso we have a branch up in Namibia which sorted out the problem for them very quickly.If they had to come up themselves it would have been a very cosltly exercise.
Well yeah. As a controls commissioning engineer I encounter all this. Often have to do last minute on site mods & the way the kit is constructed it isn't made at all easy! Factory pre-wiring is totally inappropriate for the way the equipment has been applied but nobody's told the control panel builder & he hasn't bothered his arse to ask; mods are difficult because everything is inaccessible & stupid push-in terminals only work once.
Merry Christmas everybody!