where do i start

[Bow]

hi all i'm a service engineer at a catering and bar supply company looking to learn more on refrigeration, we mainly deal with small units , undercounter fridges,coolers,ice machines, and up to large double door freezers,as my knoledge of refrigeration is limited i want to learn more, and hope to gain some qualification, where do i start, i have already gained my city and guilds for pat testing and wish to gain more by doing the same with refrigeration, there is nothing more frustraiting than not being able to fault find a problem with a unit, and then having to bring in an outside engineer to sort the problem, any help or advice will be greatly taken,
thanks,
BOW..

[The Viking]

Bow,
The best option would be to find a company that's willing to take you on as an apprentice and send you to a dayrelease college.

[Bow]

should of made this clear in my first post, i'm the only engineer in the company, my boss is willing to pay for me to train, and i'm not realy young enough to be an apprentice, wish i was, ok on the electrical side of things its the gas side i'm stumped on, want and need to know more, thanks..

[paul_h]

I wish you the best, but there's no magic pill, forum or course to take. Most of us learn by experience, and the hard way at that. I've been in this business 15+ years and still can't find the forest for the trees sometimes.
You can learn the theory though study, eg good textbooks, you can hope to gain insight though someone else's experiences, eg forums, co workers etc.
But you won't "know" anything until you've come across it yourself.
I've got some awesome books made for my trade back in 1982, it goes over and above the current training given to apprentices. It really is the best set of books I've ever seen.
All I can recommend is to get a copy of roy dossat's principles of refrigeration.

[bernard]

Hi

Some of the worst engineers I know are also the most qualified.

If you wish to stay with the same employer then watch and learn from the engineers you call in,I would have recommened the lec course at bognor unfortunately I here it is no longer there so the first course you need is acrib qualification,then brazing qualification in the mean time search and watch this form and post the problems you have.There is people here who have forgot more than you or I will ever know.Like chemi cool(are you still out there) There is also so much on the net read and ask what you do not understand.Look at this http://www.probrewer.com/resources/r...ration/101.php there is so much more.

Just by taking the time to find this form shows you have the right attidude.

Good Luck

Bernard

[The MG Pony]

Best thing to learn? Buy some tools, then go around collect broken fridges and A/Cs, bodge around with them till you either destroy them or fix them. If you destroy it, study it to see why and how, same goes if you manage to fix it.

Plenty of ready and experimenting after, make good friends with a local fridge guy, keep him company help out free around the shop, do what you can to make his job easier and watch as he works. So far with the help of forums like this, a couple local engineers I've managed to teach my self enough to make rather nice little chillers! So try that, I can't offer you a simple direction, rather just reading and messing around.

I personally found learning what doesn't make it work to be more useful then learning what makes it work! As in read the trouble shooting section, and read the solutions, same with domestic and such, over time you'll get an idea of what it should do, and what causes it not to do what it needs!

[Bow]

thanks guys, this is something i realy want to do, spent most of my working life welding, either plant or classic cars, and took 6 months out last year to decide where i wanted to go in life,and this is where i chose,i want to be able to repair as much as poss, i'm not in it for the money, i just enjoy fixing things, so my job suits my nature, thanks for your help, think i may try the gas handling side as a start, that way i hope to gain more insight into what i'm working with, and then i also have this site which i canot fault, just by reading other's posts has been of value,

thanks,

BOW...

[paul_h]

Good for you, I've been repairing cars since I was a teen, and thought about motor mechanics for a while, I also have a few years at uni studying programming and computer science. I've been into heaps of things due to my curious nature and wanting to know how things work.
You can do two types of refrig work, being a mechanic, who just diagnoses faults and replaces broken parts. Or you can be an engineer, who knows how things work to an extent they can peice together components to build something that works.
I'm mainly the former at the moment, and trying to change that, which is one of my reasons for looking for a site such as this one.
But regardless of which angle you take, knowing the engineering principles behind refrigeration will help. Get your hands on some good textbooks to show how a system is supposed to be designed, even if you are just repairing them it's helps spotting faults.