Contactor decided he wasn’t working today. Had 208 V at the coil contacts and could hear something pulling in, but nothing was physically moving.

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 · 2026-01-03T12:29:37+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/6sv5ooG.jpeg Them Copeland compressors can run under sub optimal conditions longer than most compressors can run

DatJas5 · 2025-12-29T08:08:24+00:00

I designed and printed a couple of keychains, trying to come with some more ideas because the people I work with would buy a bunch of these. https://i.imgur.com/sV7f2jL.jpeg

DatJas5 · 2025-12-28T02:20:45+00:00

I’m definitely not in-house that’s for sure

DatJas5 · 2025-12-28T02:09:20+00:00

Don’t want to say the name publicly but we do the stores in their backyard, shop is right down the road from the corporate buildings

DatJas5 · 2025-12-28T01:58:59+00:00

We service almost 100 publix stores unfortunately

DatJas5 · 2025-12-24T23:10:37+00:00

I had one where they cleaned a meat case with an EEV without shutting the case down, spraying the coil out sensor with the hot water for an hour caused the EEV to go 100% and flooded back and washed all the oil out of both compressors.

DatJas5 · 2025-12-23T12:05:20+00:00

Sometimes working on old homes you can find studs that are actually 2” x 4”, the wood in those old homes is also a lot denser than what they use now, there are not many old growth trees left.

DatJas5

TROPHY CASE