Hall of shame.

[paul_h]

Hi Paul. Curious to know what you did with the first one. Did you have to completely change the emplacement or did you get away with just reorienting it?

I didn't install it, I work for a company that sub contracts the breakdowns. Once I identfy there's no fault with the unit, my job ends.
But usually the installers are called back and they turn the unit 90 degrees, which they did in this case. If it won't fit sideways they put those covers over the fans instead of listening to our advice and relocationg the unit. That's why I said those covers ducting air upwards are a pretty common sight down here. I have no problems if they do that, it's just the manufacturer won't cover it if it underperforms.

[Toolman]

Any thoughts on the cause of this sort of occurance ?

[bebad]

excellent pics.

[theboss]

@hendrag
This is a common practice in Saudi Arabia and those ducts made from fiber, plastic or tin are sold ready made in market for various brands. Seems like some time that front exhaust of hot air runs in at undesirable location.Sure there are top vented models available but how often do you want an alien in your monogamous brand HVAC solution??

[paul_h]

@hendrag
This is a common practice in Saudi Arabia and those ducts made from fiber, plastic or tin are sold ready made in market for various brands. Seems like some time that front exhaust of hot air runs in at undesirable location.Sure there are top vented models available but how often do you want an alien in your monogamous brand HVAC solution??

I was reading a panasonic ducted split manual today, and they actually endorse them. They basically said if you use these covers you're allowed to have condensing units 15cm apart.

[monkey spanners]

Pressure testing with oxygen? BANG!!!

[US Iceman]

Look at the pictures on this link and see if your situation looks similar.

http://www.alder.co.za/blowup.htm

This is a project Peter & I worked on sometime ago.

[monkey spanners]

There but for the grace of god go I.
Thanks US Iceman for that link. Makes very interesting reading.

Jon

[US Iceman]

Hi Jon,

The article Mr. Alder wrote explaining the problem was an example of several things combining to create "the perfect storm" as it were.

It helps to illustrate how these "little" things can go drastically wrong. Some or lucky, others are not.

Peter also translated and re-wrote the article in Dutch also.

[expat]

US Iceman, I read Mr Alder's report together with your, as would be expected, correct procedure explanation.

I am however at odds with two things here:

1 We still don't know where the blockage was. I mean, it has to have been in the compressor but where and how???

2 Of course you don't deliberately induce air into a refrigeration circuit, unless of course you are at the end of you tethers and you woe the thought of going back to the office and telling your boss that it still doesn't work (without you having tried all of the obvious) and you don't know why.
So the chap thinks to himself hmm, I'll undo both the inlet and outlet of the compressor one after the other to see if it is either drawing or discharging...,sorry but I really don't see how any amount of training could have prepared him for the result he experienced.

This seems a horrible example of pinning it on the little guy!

note: I have never seen written on any compressor
"DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, ALLOW AIR TO ENTER THIS SYSTEM FOR FEAR OF IMMEDIATE EXPLOSION".

This sort of story worries me very much. But I am not ready to blame the Tech for it; more the gas manufacturers who seem to be given free reign in what they choose to tell us about their products and the dangers there in.

I hope one of the b*****ds who chose not to explain it properly gets a flat tire on the side of the motorway, and gets run down by someone he was trying to flag down.

Expat.

[The Viking]

Expat,

Please tell me that you are an American, now living in France.

[expat]

I'll give you a clue:

Where I come from rubbers will not stop you getting pregnant.

Smoking a fag in public places is antisocial but it would not get you sent to prison for murder

We have a Queen 'cos it's better than a president init...etc

[theboss]

Found this today.. the installation makes the unit recirculate large part of its condenser exhaust air..

[ErickDavey]

Not been in this game for long but seem some shocking installs. The worst of them is as follows:-

Got called to a job where the walk in coldroom was high temp. found evap fan seized so changed and cleared ice. once done i wanted to check outdoor unit (condenser clear, pressures etc) and told it was on the roof.

I got there to find that there was 2 wall brackets in place 4 feet up from the flat roof but no condensing unit. The unit was swinging 1 foot from the flat roof held amazingly by 3/8 (non lagged suction) and 1/4 discharge plus of course compressor electrical feed from controller (which was 1mm lighting cable). The condensing unit was originally sat on the brackets under 7 sheets of cardboard which over the months had got wet and well, did what soggy cardboard does....saggs. Plus no weathered unit housing & electrics for compressor (klixon, relay & capacitor didnt have its cover on.

Im still amazed but this unit was still ok for pressures and ran, not that that news was much comfort for the customer.

Cannot name names of the company who installed it but needless to say im not losing sleep over them as competitors.

If I can find the pics I will gladly post. The shaming starts here......

[°Herm Medic°]

Took this pic to show my new employer a leak that had eluded previous service techs. I had little experience with this particular type of filter, so it took me a bit to realize that it had been installed backwards

[cameron.e]

hi guys I DONE SOME WORK AT A DAIRY FACTORY RECENTLY AND WHAT I FOUND WAS ON THE COLDROOMVCODENCINGUNIT A2.8 HP DORIN THE LIQUID LINE WAS 1/2 AND IT HAD A1/4 SIDE GLASS ,WHICH CAUSED STARVATION OF THE EVAP AND DAMAGED THE COMP valve seats on valve plate due to over heating ,THE NEXT FACTORY I WENT BY THE WAY THE SAME COWBOYS WORK WHAT HE DONE WAS HE FITTED A 10HP CONDENSER WITH THE FANS FACING THE WALL AND BLOWING ALL THE WARM AIR THROUGH THE 3HP CONDENSER NEXT TO IT THE 3 HP CONDENSER HAS A SUCTION REDUCED FROM 11/8 to 5/8 still the customer does not want to send money on getting it done correctly ,penny wise pound foolish cheers guys

[deyna]

I had one in a local hotel. Just had a deep freeze room and coldroom installled couple of months, installer could not get temperatures down, fridge at +20c and freezer, well it couldn't be used. Decided to get a second opinion on what could be wrong as John Wayne couldn't sort his own install.
On arrival, my first question,
"Where are the condensing units?" The reply,
"In the boiler room." As a matter of interest, I measured the temperature in there from memory at arond 50c. Heaven help us, these muppets and muppets like them are out there earning a living at the experts expense.

[Springbok]

Nice one...

[hendrag]

its not a story but a picture says a thousand words go to www.mylg.co.uk and click the hall of shame . check the boys in the pool at the end priceless

enjoy and email any more i will put them in the hall

regards

hendrag

[Greengrocer]

its not a story but a picture says a thousand words go to www.mylg.co.uk and click the hall of shame . check the boys in the pool at the end priceless

enjoy and email any more i will put them in the hall

regards

hendrag

Here's another one for your collection. Went to survey a job for a new system where the existing A/C had packed a year before.
Here's what I found - and this one's in the UK.
Actually the rotten crate wasn't responsible for killing the cond unit because it looked to me like the gardeners shears had gone through the coil!! Our engineers had to take some electric hedge trimmers with them when we did the install for the replacement system so they could get the old unit out.

[Magoo]

Hall of shame
sad but true, called to site to ceck recent A/C install. Dishy blond at reception not happy. Check out door C/U, problem 1, installer used discarded tyre from tyre bay for vibration isolation, on slight angled roof , add windage, unit face down. Compressor stuffed, problem 2 installer obviously lost his tube cutter, so left rest of 15 metre coil of pipe connected next to C/U unisulated. consequently wasnt paid and was billed for recovery.
magoo

[Magoo]

Hall of shame.
Hi rise bldg manager having hissy fit with A/C central plant contractors. Could I have a walk through and comment?. OK ten minutes in plant room, water temps balistic. Problem centrif compressor going wrong way. Short fix apart from fact the compressor was stuffed once direction was corrected.
magoo

[star882]

One of the most unusual leaks I've heard about was in a unit with dual evaporators. There was a leak where the liquid line branched to two TXVs. (Visualize a single liquid line on one end of the fitting and two smaller liquid lines side by side on the other.) Apparently, the brazing was marginal so it cracked between the two smaller lines.

Strange thing is, ever since I heard about it, I somehow get reminded about it every month!

[nike123]

That guy is really over-qualified .

[monkey spanners]

At least he was looking for the leak

I used to get sent to site with the instructions "it always leaks at this time of year, just top it up"

[star882]

I used to get sent to site with the instructions "it always leaks at this time of year, just top it up"

Or in the case of the "strange leak" I mentioned earlier, "It always leaks this time of month, just charge it."

[TRASH101]

Or in the case of the "strange leak" I mentioned earlier, "It always leaks this time of month, just charge it

If you add another little TEV that strange leak may stop for the best part of a year. BE WARNED this might put to much strain on the compressor ( I assume you have a recip....)

[Refrigerologist]

Years ago, before recovering gas was even thought about, I went to Sainsbury's in Chingford and found an old Marstair A/C runnign their computer room. It was running but not working, I put the gauges on and had almost equla pressures. I thought the compressors not pumping, but something was not quite right. I let some gas out and my head guage sprang roung from 100lbs/in2 to 450lbs/in2. It was so overcharged it was impossible for the compressor to compress the gas. It made me jump a bit! Purged off some more it worked fine. And nuts to the ozone layer and global warming! We had never heard of it back then.

[Refrigerologist]

Doe anyone remember those halcyon days when we were all cowboys! Condensers were cleaned with liquid R12. R11 was great for cleaning up after a burn out. And you could still have fun at work because there was no health and safety Gestapo. Wasn't it fun to leave the apprentice laying on a cable tray 20ft in the air above a ceiling and then go for a cup of tea because he had been a right little S***. It was so much easier then, just like it is in China now or maybe France today!!

[cre8waves]

Hello . Im a newbie to the boards . Being in Chicago we have relief valves on all systems that have more than thirty pounds of refrigerant in the seal system . Third year in the trade I was sent out to pump down a trane 40 ton condenser . Having my gauges after the liquid line valve i didn't realize that the pressure got above the 450 pd setting of the valve . My hearing didn't come back for a few hours . Only happen once . Live and learn .

[Refrigerologist]

This is a warning to always check for yourself: When I was a 16 year old apprentice, I was assisting an engineer who found 2 x 200amp main fuses blown. He traced the fault to the plant room extract fan control panel. The door mounted speed selecter switch had a dead short between 2 phases. He duely removed the switch and we went back to our workshops. He told the service manager that a new switch was required. He then went on another service call.

The service mangager checked the switch with his multi-meter and found no fault, he handed it to my supervisor and told him to refit it and find the real fault. Off we went to site. The super didn't like the other engineer and so he thought he must have made another co*k up. He installed the switch and with the control panel door open he told me to throw the circuit breaker. The switch blew up in his face, removing his eyerows, some of his hair and blasted his face with molten brass. After he had calmed down a little, and got his sight back, he checked the switch with a meggar, as the other guy had done, lo and behold, dead short! He drove back to the workshop, foot to the floor. 30 odd years later I believe the switch is still being removed from the service managers' arse!

[Southsidebobby]

Hi Guys-just listen to this awful tale of woe!
got myself called to a bit of a Zanussi table top fridge recently by an old dear dear whose butter was 'going off'. Some joker had installed the unit for her, but only left the knob set on '1' !!!!
didnt take me long to figure the problem and reset the knob to '3'.
Guess the first guy was just totally incompetent or something!!!
Sorry but photos didnt turn out.

[alan 07]

hi everyone this is one i came across last summer, a polish sparky installed ac system in his shop wasnt workin so i went to have a look. Found unit running on deep vac but bags of gasin high side. Ok its a blockage traced problem to indoor unit found he had removed the flare connections and used plumbers solder on the pipework reclaimed the gas and cut out the joint on the liquid line it was full of flux blocked solid what a muppet changed all his joints pressure tested vaced and gased good job it wasnt a 410 unit

[refmech]

was ask to survey a resturuant a week ago. pulled in behind kitchen parked in front of a condenser ref. type.talked with owner, looked over and recorded a/c stuff-well maintained/ten yaers old. noticed old kramer condenser coil on roof? recorded all the stuff in the bar, then to the kitchen.found five more reach ins, one was an old herrel make table from the early 60's! one old herrel steel/fiberglass W/I cooler, and a modern foam insulated W/I cooler freezer. now some of these unit had line sets running out. so down in the basement i went! found an abandoned open drive commpressor-- thats it! that old presscold condenser i parked in front of was driving all three walk ins, two make tables in the kitchen, and a large three door diplay case and 8' bottle box at the bar! i'm guessing it did not have enough cond. surface so that explains the grafted on kramer coil on the roof. Man-o-man can you imagine walking up on this on an emergency call-mabey rainy night /customer flippin because most of his stuff doesn't work???
thats not all, there was a B model manatowoc- had a full bin. line set sticking out back.found condensing unit 75' away! was made out of an old arcoair roundtype a/c condenser circ.80'. looked down inside only to find a little tiny tecumseh and about three valves i would imagine are for defrost.
now i've been doing this [ref. work] for twenty years,and i am thoroughly IMPRESSED. every box was cold!!! I WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH THIS GUY A COUPLE MONTHS-I AM POSITIVE THERES MUCH TO LEARN FROM HIM!!!! sorry i had not thought to bring my camera!

[casstrig]

There are probably more shoddy jobs then there is space to write them down,and not all by poorly trained people.I went to service some Ahu,s in a well known hotel only to find that it was impossible to gain access to,they were in a false ceiling in the lobby fifty feet up with no accsess door.

[prasky]

A friend of mine is an automotive technician (without A/C). He opened up a shop of his own and decided to try A/C without any training as he had a friend that he could consult at a dealership. He asked me to come down to his shop one day and help him understand what went wrong with his new compressor install. The compressor was seized and there was water everywhere. I asked him what he had done and this was his reply :
" Since the last compressor failed I decided to flush the system out so I hooked up the garden hose to the discharge port and let it run through for a 1/2 hour. Once I got the new compressor in I hooked up the gauges to the vacuum line on the engine and let it run for a couple hours since I don't have a vacuum pump. I charged the system with 1 pound of R134 and when I turned it on it only ran for 3-4 seconds before seizing again." I explained to him that if he ever touched another A/C system again I would burn his shop down, and his friend should be stripped of any technical status he has ever recieved!

[SteinarN]

A friend of mine is an automotive technician (without A/C). He opened up a shop of his own and decided to try A/C without any training as he had a friend that he could consult at a dealership. He asked me to come down to his shop one day and help him understand what went wrong with his new compressor install. The compressor was seized and there was water everywhere. I asked him what he had done and this was his reply :
" Since the last compressor failed I decided to flush the system out so I hooked up the garden hose to the discharge port and let it run through for a 1/2 hour. Once I got the new compressor in I hooked up the gauges to the vacuum line on the engine and let it run for a couple hours since I don't have a vacuum pump. I charged the system with 1 pound of R134 and when I turned it on it only ran for 3-4 seconds before seizing again." I explained to him that if he ever touched another A/C system again I would burn his shop down, and his friend should be stripped of any technical status he has ever recieved!

Holy ****

This must be the worst I have ever heard of.

[nevgee]

This pic shows a 1 1/8 suction line that has been re connected after a compressor change. The fitting used is a 35mm "Yorkshire" soldering fitting intended for water pipework. I wonder where the soft solder went?

By the way, the compressor only ran for 4 weeks and has since locked up!!

[hendrag]

thanks for sendin me more quality pictures i will upload them again the collection is now full of some beutiful examples of installations. they never cease to make me laugh .

thanks for looking www.mylg.co.uk click hall of shame

regards

hendrag
general Manager lgeuk

[back2space]

i LOVE this one off the lg site!

http://picasaweb.google.com/properna...51254679648642

[ausmartin1]

Please advise if this porous chicken poop look is normal ?

- Cheers All had a local australian tech replace upper and lower EV valve on a multisplit here.

First one valve didn't flow at all, told faulty valve mmm ok or was it welding?, second time round overhead nearby end cap - now leaking gas.

Last time I checked even our local plumber did better rewelds than this......
Yeah and no pride, look at all the stuff left behind....
It's always a great sign to know the main job is stuffed as well

[nike123]

Ignore, double post!

[nike123]

Both welds are way overheated!
Pipes should be cut to point where not overheated and replaced with new portion and welded with silver alloy(30% Ag)!
Also, that expanded part of joint is badly done and capillary action there is not existent. That is point where you could expect new leak soon if it is not replaced.

[ausmartin1]

Yes it not good, the flared tube is Daikins idea for retaining a strainer, not the greatest idea for field service, however the brazing is very unexceptable so much heat - so you can just imagine the scale on the inside of the pipework - a longer term killer. The local trade schools have a lot answer for. I have no idea why they persisted when clearly the job had gone to the dogs before they got ot end, they should have asked for help. Unfortunety it reminds me of another tech different service industry - people used call em "$ex fingers" until oneday I finally understood that every thing the tech touched was ...... you get the idea!

[Peter_1]

....so you can just imagine the scale on the inside of the pipework - a longer term killer...

If you have scale inside after soldering, then you've done something wrong.

[ausmartin1]

New valves are now soldered in ok, but the other damage is still evident, opinions please about the other pipework damage and potential scale problems - or do the daikins mulisplit horizontal scrolls have any tolerance to scale flaking off longer term.
Cheers all.

[paul_h]

Looks like they did it with mapp gas hand torch

[Bluestar]

Oh yes agreed. Grey epoxy is metal paste(probably aluminium+smthin othr). I used it lot of time to fix evaporater leakage.its name is 'metal set'. There z metal paste and hardner drops.and its 100 percent successful solution for small evaporater leakages.nowdays a big refrigerator company(named 'godrej') in india provides this thing as its genuine spare parts under 'godrej' brand.

[piersons_man]

Hi all long time reader first time poster

When i first started my apprentiship i tried to teach myself the basics by tinkering with domestic refrigerators in my spare time, anyway i had a small fridge which had no gas in it so i put some nitrogen in to pressure test and got to work with the bubble leak detector.
After checking every place i could think of i couldnt find the leak and i noticed that the pressure had dropped slightly
so, with my limited knowledge of practical skills, i cranked the pressure up to 300psi! in the hope that i could hear the leak.

couldn't hear anything around the compressor so i stuck my head next to the cooling plate and heard a cracking noise, squirted everything with bubbles, no leaks! whats going on?!

took my head out of the fridge and stood back to see the exterior panels of the fridge were bulging out!
you guessed it, the leak was on a pipe inside the panels

[gesi]

Hi.
I saw many instalation but I have funny evening when I saw pictures in thiss hall.
pict1: York unit. in summer time you have free shower. in winter time you have wonderfull view. In few places in Warsaw. pict 2: counter with new elements. pict 3: coldroom. the doors opened to inside of coldroom. pict 4: well, they have not money this year, maybe next year.
picasaweb.google.com/gesi74/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCOnX49ym2MXKmwE&pli=1#5320805370907457154