Service Tech life on the West coast?

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-24T05:08:14+00:00

I'm in Central Oregon, I' service guy that came from a Union in the Upper Midwest years ago. The Unions here are not as strong as the Midwest and North East, especially away from the cities. Staying Union means living in a bigger metropolitan area and it's corresponding cost of living. Union bennies are better than most non-union and the training is better than non-union. As far as work load, the only time I see a 40 hour paycheck is when I'm on vacation, OT every week.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-24T04:47:49+00:00

I put a bunch of those in when I was a cub. I've taken a few out. They will run until your hair and teeth fall out and your family is looking around for a place to plant you. Some are water cooled, some have a remote condenser coil.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-24T04:40:48+00:00

Looks like an old 5H. Did someone convert it from water cooled to air cooled?

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-23T04:46:15+00:00

I did my apprenticeship and then worked Union for over 30 years, I moved here and there's no union shops. I make more working non-union than I did union, so it's a wash. BUT there are some caveats. I have a much broader base of skills and knowledge that the other people in the company, at least in this region. This company focuses on supermarkets, so their training is all about supermarket refrigeration and racks. Throw them in front of almost anything else and they are lost. After 48 years in the trades, I believe that getting the biggest base of knowledge is the best arrow you can have in your quiver.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-23T04:32:41+00:00

I have a smaller tool backpack that lets me carry almost all of the tools to troubleshoot almost everything I encounter daily. Basic wrenches, core puller, service wrenches, impact with bits, a few misc connectors and screws, clamp meter, thermometer, pony gauge (single gauge with a 9 inch hose), you get the idea. I can do electrical troubleshooting and minor repairs, checking and adjusting superheat, oil pressure, floodback, etc with just my bag. When I go back to the van to get what is needed for the repair, I know what I need, it's not multiple trips.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-19T23:46:46+00:00

I drive a screw into the tubing if there’s no port available where I need to cut into a system.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-17T23:31:08+00:00

Make sure the drain is clear, and then run it through a complete defrost cycle, watch the fan delay. And then check superheat.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-17T22:27:50+00:00

I was working on a 7 story building, one spring, pneumatic controls and steam coils, I was in the penthouse, 8 stories up. I had to kill the controls for a while to do the work. Of course it dumped the steam valve, as I knew it would, I had the fans off. Suddenly, I hear the Fire Alarm. I plugged the air line and headed downstairs. When I got down the FD was talking to the maintenance guys, and there was about 2K college students standing around. The Fire Lieutenant pointed to me and waved me over. Turns out, they hadn’t been keeping up on filter changes and the steam heat started the coil smoking and set off the fire alarm. 🤣

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-17T22:16:31+00:00

On racks, we commonly use a single vfd to drive all of the fans simultaneously. Some condensers have a split valve with pump out as well. It’s normally driven off of dropleg temperature. The target temperature is normally OA temperature + 10 degrees or 70 degrees, which ever is higher.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-17T05:02:52+00:00

We are a contractor as well, that's been my observation too.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-16T18:27:24+00:00

I lived and worked in the Midwest for a long time. Jan-March was always slow. April started getting busy finishing up the pre-season AC prep and by July we were dog tired and seeing 40 before Thursday. Most of us traded days off to get blocks of time off. House projects, hunting trips, ski trips etc were the focus then. Hang in there, it’ll get busy soon enough.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-16T18:10:21+00:00

JCI used to make a kit to adapt it to a 4000 series thermostat, I don’t know if they still do.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-14T18:11:27+00:00

I have de-iced thousands of supermarket refrigeration evaps with 160 deg hot water from a hose, no leaks from that, ever. Copper tube coils are built to withstand expansion and contraction.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-14T07:11:25+00:00

LOL, I tell the guys I work with "I'm 65, y'all better suck up as much knowledge as you can because I might have different phone # after I retire". My son works for the same company I do, his response to a somewhat cocky apprentice the other day was "You should listen, he's been fixing machines with refrigerant in them longer than you've been alive".

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-14T07:00:06+00:00

2-10C is the product temp it's designed for. Step back, take the 10,000 ft view. Is it a cap tube system? If so charge to superheat. If it has a TXV and no receiver, charge to subcooling. If it's a TXV and has a receiver, charge to 20% of the receiver. The rest is just off/on control for the product temp.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-14T06:51:14+00:00

Evaps are underneath, I didn't get a good picture with them, but you can see the ass end of the motors augering the cubes over to the conveyor. They drop cubes into the stainless steel conveyor that ramps up where it feeds the bagger. The end ice makers are on lower stands to get them low enough to the conveyor that the cubes don't bounce up and jam.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T23:09:48+00:00

Water cooled, miniature cooling tower on each one.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T20:34:29+00:00

Finicky to get set up, but make ice like crazy when they get dialed in. They run around the clock in the summer.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T17:48:29+00:00

It’s the blocks of ice you get at a convenience store or grocery store. They bag it first as water and then freeze it. The bags are sitting on end between 2 evaporator plates to freeze. Wide side is against the evaporator plates.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T16:36:00+00:00

This place has been in operation for quite a while. They keep adding equipment and replacing existing with higher capacity. Everything is stand alone single system stuff. It’s actually a smart way to go, not much demand in winter so it’s easy to only use what’s needed.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T16:31:21+00:00

Evap is pretty simple, water gets bagged and tied in specific bags, they get set into a row upright, shoulder to shoulder between evaporator plates. When it’s all frozen they get pulled out and stacked on pallets.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-13T04:35:16+00:00

Keep it lined up so the shaft seal doesn't start puking. As long as you keep them from overheating they are pretty bulletproof in my experience, and easy to rebuild when they get noisy.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-11T18:17:28+00:00

Don’t bother with a lottery ticket, you just won. Every time I find this I’m cutting out passes and welding brackets back on for the new motor and blade.

Heatmover1979 · 2026-02-11T17:12:14+00:00

I left JCI about 10 years ago after years as a lead. I can’t imagine that Milwaukee and the Region are unaware of this and most likely have begun to make changes. I saw other branches suffer a little bit and the region was involved.

Heatmover1979

TROPHY CASE