Technoblock, or techno*ock as some call them

[Tycho]

Techno Block, or Techno dung as it is called. (it rhymes better in Norwegian )
An apprentice had been on the site and changed the DIXELL brain on the unit.
I came to help with setting up the new device since they didn't provide a proper settings list when it was delivered, or when we requested one.

Set it up and started plant. the on site engineer asked, "When will you mount the missing fan?" We did not know anything about a fan who was removed, called around to all installers who had been there, no one had removed any fan, went into the freezer, and yeah it lacked a fan at one evaporator and from ground level it seemed like the cable was isolated. The plant had run for about 20 minutes and the temperature was falling, was still talking to the engineer when I noticed a new sound, which I thought was from the production facility (I'm deaf in one ear ) engineer asked if the sound was normal. I said that perhaps it was ice that had fallen into the fans from the ceiling (because both evaporators were ice-free, checked before I started it), stopped the plant and went into the freezer, no ice on any of the evaporators, heard a noise that sounded like ice on a hot element, got the engineer to start the system again so I could watch the fans while they were running, didn't see anything wrong, but it sounded like mayhem.
Got a ladder and climbed up, And it turned out that the missing fan had fallen inside (the four bolts that hold the motor to the grate had sheared off) and had done the heebiejeebies inside, and what I initially thought was water boiling on a heating element turned out to be a leak in the evaporator after the fan had finally broken it's blades off and gone bananas...

Closed the liquid valve and left the apprentice there to pump down the system as I rushed back to the workshop to pick up the acetylene-oxygene kit and some silver solder.

The customer had somewhere around $275.000 worth of king crab in there and when I told him it was leaking he asked if he should order a truck to move his goods to a freezing storage, I told him to give me 90 minutes before he made the call, from that time it took me 129 minutes to get the gear, gut the pipe to the bad evaporator, solder it shut and get the system running again...


I hate working on copper pipe systems
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[Tycho]

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Found one of the bolts on the floor, sheared off, pluss one of the mounts were broken off, but all four of the bolts holding the fan to the grate were sheared off...

I don't get it, but in my mind, the plastic fan blades are weaker than four M4 bolts, and the fan and all it's components were in bits and pieces in the driptray

[Tycho]

Oh yeah, and as I was disconnecting the fan from the broken unit, I found that one of the wires had been squashed between the body and the junction box, factory mounted, and there was a break in the wire, so it was just a matter of time before it either caught fire or caused a major earth fault
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[Tycho]

did I mention that I hate working on these kinds of systems?

[monkey spanners]

Well done getting it working again Tycho! I don't like Technoblock stuff but think its better than Zanotti stuff! I tend to think it is cheap sh1t for cheap sh1t customers

[cadwaladr]

Whoever put no back up refrigeration on a store that holds that value of product wants their head feeling,maybe the customer is mean but me personally would have insisted that the refrigeration capacity was near doubled in case of the scenario you describe.if the customer thinks that you are wrong to insist on over engineering it convince them otherwise I realise that we get called to jobs like this but what an opportunity to sell them extra plant!.

[Tycho]

I see I mistyped the value of the product, it should have been 275.000 NOK (USD 32.000 or GBP 20.000)

cadwaladr, I totally agree with you, there is a point between "making it work" and "overengineering" it, but the customer tends to go with the "making it work" solution.

In this case, adding shut off valves on the evaporator suction could have saved us 2 hours of frantic panic work.
It would have cost the price of the valves, the soldering would have been the same, but then again one of the fans were never supposed to fall off and knock a hole in the evaporator

Luckily it's vacation time, and the room is only used for storage. during the season it's used for quick freezing and they would have needed both evaporators.

[Tycho]

Well done getting it working again Tycho! I don't like Technoblock stuff but think its better than Zanotti stuff! I tend to think it is cheap sh1t for cheap sh1t customers

Technoblock isn't that bad I don't know if I'm unlucky, but I've had a catastrophic failure on every Technoblock unit I have ever worked on.

But as I said, it's not that bad, once you have replaced all the parts they were originally delivered with, they tend to run quite well (takes some time and heartache tho)

[cadwaladr]

Thanks for the correction to the value of the stock, I must say that it seemed high stand by my comment that and you seem to agree over capacity is a good policy try to convince the customer to invest in back up plant,I personally have customers as we all do that run on eco mode but I have plenty that take my advice.

[numty4]

hi mate,i'm looking for a technoblock controller pdf,would be able to help me.