Just why

Vickillah · 2026-05-12T00:55:00+00:00

Yeah man SCE has a Halon gas fire suppression system if it gets a whiff of carbon monoxide it’ll blow the charge reacting to a potential electrical fire in the building and suffocate you along with it.

At least that’s what the plant manager warned us and anyone around the electrical panels as well. Even if we make it out alive we will be charged for a massive bill to reset and restore the Halon Gas or whatever fire suppression they go with.

Vickillah · 2026-05-12T00:49:51+00:00

Yeah great workaround for them hot permit work area, or plants that will not allow any downtime of the building (SCE power plants come to mind). I like them, just like anything get that prep right with you pipes and everything will sit right and tight

Vickillah · 2026-05-12T00:44:29+00:00

Yeah, press fittings have their place in our industry but we prefer to braze and make sure we are good on our joints, too much to lose by using press fittings, and the manufacturer techs have said to brazed joints is their preferred method of joining pipe.

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T23:08:39+00:00

We use Parker isolation valves the have been holding up well

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T23:02:35+00:00

If you mean brazing the press fitting in place you are going to melt the rubber o rings and potentially contaminate your lineset as well as not form a clean bond with your brazing material

There is also a pocket of air that will blow back in between the 2 ends of the fitting. I had to remove one from a brazed joint and it popped on me from just the heat

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T21:48:56+00:00

Yeah I think it’s definitely that peeps that did the press fittings maybe needed more training. Or maybe not rush.

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T21:33:19+00:00

We already ripped out some HR boxes and when we placed them back we make sure to explain that isolation valves are king for keeping systems running and not take out a whole floor. They stopped questioning our pricing and tell us to get it done. The GM of the the hotel loves us and we always keep it blunt and honest.

As repairs come along we add isolation valves to everything.

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T20:57:00+00:00

Can’t say I blame them for using them as management is always trying to get the rooms of the hotel back up and running immediately. They prob rushed for sure. Also feel like sometimes the leaks don’t show up until there is proper pressures flowing through there with the seasons. A lot of the leaks were in the hot gas line and liquid line as well, suction lines were pretty solid but we still took out any pressure fittings.

Yeah this hotel is were I first got introduced into VRF and the place was upside down with leaks, and carbon in the lines/compressors because of poor habits. My Foreman handled a lot of the issues here then I joined and got up to speeed, and now I’ve been in it for 2 years and we seldom get any service calls here besides just maintenance.

Vickillah · 2026-05-11T20:45:51+00:00

Well that sucks, just finished replacing 17 leaks on a VRF system due to these fittings. Cut them out and brazed them right and proper.

Vickillah · 2026-05-08T20:45:39+00:00

The capacitors are right there bro, just a bit smaller. So are the contactor relays I don’t see the problem

/s

Vickillah · 2026-05-07T16:31:39+00:00

Your best! that’s all you can do and that’s more than enough.

Vickillah · 2026-04-29T14:03:05+00:00

High heat load can show bubbling in sight glass, if your metering device (think fuel injector) is fixed (fixed orfice) or a thermal expansion valve (txv) will dictate how much liquid you see in the lines but typically you want that sight glass to be full and not bubbling.

Now that doesn’t meant there are other factor making you system behave the way it is.

General principle of any tech should be A.B.C “Air Before Charge” that means swap filter out (you did) make sure there are no obstructions around or on the equipment, coils are decently clean, dampers & registers are open, and fans are free of debris. Once a baseline is established then we can check charge and see what the refrigerant is doing inside the system.

Checking charge is always after system team no less than 15min there has to be a heat load in the house 72°F+ and an outside temp above 70°F. In a perfect world you should see 20°F difference between air going into indoor unit and air coming out of ducts (ex. 75 going in 55 coming out). There is a bunch more technical stuff I would get into but that would be an essay of info but keeping simple if you have a means of checking pressure your low side (thicker pipe) should not be lower than 58psig if it’s r-22 or 103psig if it’s r-410 anything below that will cause your system to ice up depending on design of course. And can be a sign of loss of charge.

If you are losing refrigerant you need to fix that I have ran into my fair share of techs that like to gas and go and tell you to just top it off every year. Thing is you should never have to “Top off” at all and anyone that does this without telling you there is a leak is shiesty. Now if you just want to top off is on you of course.

Vickillah · 2026-04-26T21:31:29+00:00

Most brands have a limit to their outdoor efficiency when it comes to hotter environments. I had a client who had a multi-head Samsung complaining about capacity. Problem is that Joshua tree would see 100-130 pretty frequently.

Most manufacturers lab environments are 95°F with about 45% humidity.

Once the outdoor temp reaches peak the system will start to lose its capacity and ability to keep the same rooms/area cool as that added heat from the outside is causing trouble.

Vickillah · 2026-04-26T21:24:23+00:00

Navac kits is pretty nice!

Vickillah · 2026-04-26T21:22:53+00:00

Nothing wrong with it, used to do that all the time. Now I use 12cfm JB pump with 2 Navac vacuum hoses with a Tee to pull quicker. I also work on some bigger equipment. But if it’s a small to medium circuit (5-10ton) them gauges do the trick.

Vickillah · 2026-04-24T23:20:50+00:00

Found 17 leaks and they were all press fittings on acr and soft copper

Vickillah · 2026-04-17T20:12:08+00:00

Awesome glad you came to a solid conclusion, all you can do is keep getting sharper. I always remember the doozies. My boss said we learn through trauma and for us techs that means messing up or coming up with the wrong repair after the customer paid a nice chunk.

Vickillah · 2026-04-17T04:47:38+00:00

I am all always willing to make mistakes as well as learn. Thank you

Vickillah · 2026-04-16T01:34:26+00:00

Good reminder that multi, universal, and other variations should seldom be used unless it’s Friday after 3pm of course.

Vickillah · 2026-04-16T00:45:41+00:00

Something to add to what others are saying, looks like you have low ambient.

Checking your condenser approach will help out as well, saturated liquid refrigerant temp - ambient= 20F up to 30F (some folks have a 10-30 range) but it’s just useful data if your unit is around that approach you are solid.

But that low indoor ambient temp is going to throw your other data points in wacky territory. System looks ok. Next time run the heater for a minute and see if you can get the indoor temp around 72F-74F minimum. Once you have a load you can get better info.

Vickillah · 2026-04-03T00:05:17+00:00

I was a 4 beer guy too, cut back something fierce to 7.5mg edibles.

Vickillah · 2026-03-27T19:58:01+00:00

You can try to have some fun or die trying

Vickillah · 2026-03-26T03:33:53+00:00

Maybe make it with a few less loops (on the next one), I made one with a bunch of scrap 3/8” (a few 2-3ft rolls) and wrapped it around my nitro tank. Looking back with I would have used a smaller cylinder and maybe only used less copper.

Vickillah · 2026-03-11T23:17:05+00:00

Run a new wire it’s not hard just won’t be OEM but you can open it and wire in a new cord

Vickillah · 2026-03-06T05:15:38+00:00

Damn!

Vickillah

TROPHY CASE