help me out

[Cold Stuff]

we had a leak in one of our spirals and could not pin point it so was told to put some liquid on it,I strongly disagreed with that but since it was the maintenance manager who also is in charge of refrigeration went ahead and did it,put 40psi of -25° liquid on it,granted we found the leak and nuthing happend i continued to disagree,he said a ref tec job is no more dangerous than a floor mechanic job.THATS BS I THINK,am i being to proud of our field.

[US Iceman]

I would be very, very careful around that person. Leak checking with cold liquid!!!!!????

[PaulZ]

Hi Cold Stuff
I would have to agree with US Iceman, that guy is an accident waiting to happen.
He needs to think about what happens if you get -25o liquid on you.
Paul

[Cold Stuff]

I agree with you guys very very dangerous

[Frosty]

This particular scenario is extremely dangerous. Spiral freezers are usually very confined. You MUST make sure that risk assessments have been completed and that you are working to a specific procedure. I would recommend that the system is pumped down and the evaporator is double isolated before pneumatically testing (to strict procedures) with oxygen free Nitrogen. This in itself has its risks, but it's better than testing a live system full of low temp liquid NH3!!

[nh3wizard]

Thats a good one, once I had a supervisor try and check 4160 volt compressor starter package with a Fluke 600v meter...blew the meter right out of his hand

[Cold Stuff]

hey nh3wizard we mite be dealing with the same IDIOT

[Magoo]

Don't go there Coldstuff, he is going to kill someone sooner than later, preferably not you. Where are the health and safety people.
Noted last month a plant in US blew up trashing plant and killing people, reason an ammonia outage.

[sterl]

At the Normal Temperatures of a Spiral the evporators would be at sub stmospheric pressures: They would pull air in, R-717 loss would be minimal but system is being contaminated with both air and water.... Even at Minus 25 and sat, the pressure would be minimal...but chasing it with a pump to 40 Psi is ridiculous.

That doesn't mean you have to go through Confined Space and so on to find a leak. Even a low cost ultrasonic detector will take you almost immediately to a leak on a finned coil and actully works better on a vacuum leak than on a Pos Press.

Shut the fans and belt off, though.

[nh3wizard]

hey nh3wizard we mite be dealing with the same IDIOT

No he started his own business, and concentrates mainly on PSM.

[Cold Stuff]

sterl any info on leak detector you are describing would be helpful