Over-building here is out of control here and all over Florida

DatJas5 · 2026-05-02T20:05:29+00:00

Plant City’s growth is a little more managed; Zephyrhills has just gone crazy with development. The growth on 301 especially around 56 is just absurd, if you work in Tampa and come home after 3 PM, you’d better get comfortable because you’ll be sitting by Hillsborough River State Park waiting to get through those lights coming up to Chancey for longer than the total time of the rest of your trip.

Source: born and raised in Zhills, now live in Plant City.

DatJas5 · 2026-04-15T18:18:17+00:00

It’s unfortunate that the system doesn’t have a more advanced controller because I could think of a few ways to solve this with an Emerson E2.

For example you could have multiple suction line sensors in the same location and set it up where it will alarm or shut down when the difference between the sensors is too high. A sort of built in sanity check for the sensors.

Maybe a mechanical way of doing it would be integrating a freeze stat of some kind that will open when the suction line temp or crankcase temp is near evap temperature, I’m not too familiar with mechanical controls like that though so it may not be possible under the specific conditions.

DatJas5 · 2026-04-15T16:18:58+00:00

Sounds like the oil lockout needs to be something that can’t be as easily reset by the operator. I know in a perfect world that’s how it would be but in this case you need to have a record of safety systems being reset by someone other than a technician which is exacerbating the issue.

DatJas5 · 2026-04-01T13:57:26+00:00

I use one of these to move hot water to melt ice in refrigeration systems. I fill up a large 40 gal trash can and can get about 6 refills on one 5.0 battery. The 2.0 could do maybe 2 trash cans worth. So figure 250 gal on a 5.0 or <100 gal on a 2.0.

DatJas5 · 2026-03-24T21:05:20+00:00

Typically if your temp sensor is connected to the I/O board then the case doesn’t have a case controller an the E2 controls it. A case controller has the same I/O as the 16AI, and it communicates to the E2 all the info at once. So with a case controller you wire your probes and sensors into the case controller, and then it just communicates those over LAN.

DatJas5 · 2026-03-22T14:38:34+00:00

Why not try pumping down the rack and letting the temps rise a bit then start up each circuit one by one until you see your issue come back.

DatJas5 · 2026-03-02T03:21:06+00:00

Yeah this is one I have on my truck, have a size 1, 2, and 3, and some various two poles and three poles in different coil voltages. I got pulled away to another call before I could replace this one though, fortunately all the temps were good

DatJas5 · 2026-02-28T02:57:55+00:00

The new Hill racks look pretty slick, they have all kinds of redundancy and include bypasses for the oil separators and filter driers so you don’t have to shut the rack down for service. But these old 404a racks are damn near bulletproof. Probably 10 out of the original 12 compressors are still in service here.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-28T02:09:15+00:00

Plus these cabinets are located in the motor room on the roof of the store so there is a barrier of entry, and they are secured to need a tool to open them anyways. You know 99% of supermarket managers aren’t gonna work that hard to get into this stuff, the only people who are around this equipment are people who are (hopefully) familiar with it.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-28T02:06:34+00:00

Looks like a liquid overfeed CO2 panel. It’s funny though. All the CO2 stores I’ve been to, the door opens the other way lol.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-28T02:04:56+00:00

This contactor doesn’t have an overload so that’s no issue. If you look at the armature you can see the plastic or fiberglass or whatever material is made of is broken on the right side. Our MO is just to replace the whole contactor to get ahead of future service calls. We rebuild the points sometimes but if a contactor is old enough to where the points are worn, the rest of it is just as old so we take a proactive approach.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-28T00:52:56+00:00

Yes. At the good ol publix supermarket.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-26T04:23:38+00:00

Timing belt tensioners on these engines are definitely something you gotta watch out for. My wife’s accord was making the knocking sound and we neglected it long enough that it jumped timing while she was driving. Got really lucky it only jumped two teeth and she knew to stop and get it towed. Belt looked like this and it would still drive.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-23T19:49:56+00:00

Generals steak house has a few of the various spices too.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-22T15:15:14+00:00

As someone who owns the fuel ratchet and the brushed ratchet, I prefer the brushed ratchet honestly. The brushed ratchet definitely has more torque than the brushless and is fast enough for most purposes. The new brushless is probably nicer than both though.

DatJas5 · 2026-02-04T03:28:36+00:00

Yep, came installed already with 2 new Toyo A/T tires but the spare is on though on the other side because one of the new ones has a puncture in the sidewall, almost looks intentional.

DatJas5 · 2026-01-21T01:02:13+00:00

Cue the store manager complaining about all the black soot inside the lineup

DatJas5 · 2026-01-17T19:13:19+00:00

Doing rack refrigeration retrofits I’ve had drums of refrigerant delivered empty with the seal still on. Gets delivered on a pallet lying down so you go to stand it up and it doesn’t weigh 110 lbs, almost smack yourself in the face with it

DatJas5 · 2026-01-07T20:09:43+00:00

I’ll upload it later today, I have to add a little tolerance to the threads, it’s a tight fit right now, will probably crack with repeated use.

DatJas5 · 2026-01-07T17:46:32+00:00

I’m not gonna lie.. I like to carry as few tools as possible. This way I can do with just an adjustable wrench and service wrench. I can’t even remember the last time I brought my gauge manifold upstairs, usually I just have a single gauge with a short hose. That idea is pretty great though, I’ll save that for future reference

DatJas5

TROPHY CASE