New Construction Temporary Heat
New Construction Temporary Heat
After 35 years in the heating and cooling business and countless job sites, I think it’s important to talk about New Construction Temporary Heat and how that effects the home owner and sometimes the installing h.v.a.c contractor. This article will also apply to Temporary Heat in renovations.
This happens when it is to cold or to hot to work in the house or business and or when the sheet rock contractor pops in and says his mud wont cure.The contractor or builder who by the way makes more then any one else on the job site goes to the HVAC installation company and tells them they need to get the heat going for the tapers. (The tapers are the guys who will be taping and compounding and sanding the sheet rock joints through out the entire structure they may or may not be the painters). The construction company should just set up some modern portable heaters for Temporary Heat with out being asked or having to ask, it’s there project! This is what they do build houses. They know the house is cold or going to get cold! There making huge profits and whining and moaning because they claim they lost a few heaters.
Most contractors or builders do not provide temporary heat. Or if they do it is usually a few undersized heaters left over from another job. They always say something like ( every time I buy one it goes missing. Or there on another job…etc) There appears to be enough profit in the work so that they would be able to properly provide sufficient temporary heat. The taper or sheet rock contractors know they need Temporary Heat yet show up on every job empty handed?
I will be posting pictures and videos of systems I have worked on and also cleaned. I am on my way this morning to a house where the air conditioning condensate line clog’s and backs up every year and water leaks in the furnace and on the floor. Damaging the furnace and causing mold on the walls of the basement. This time we are going to pull the coil out of the machine and clean it. His troubles started five or six years ago when he had his basement finished and a zone added to his h.v.a.c system. Someone ran his unit during construction for Temporary Heat while the ducts were open.
Yesterday we worked six hours cleaning this system, it not only had sheet rock dust in it but also paint. The painter must have sprayed rather then rolled with the system running . We got the system pretty clean but it’s my opinion that the customer should receive a new system. I could not clean the windings on the motor which are caked and the circuit board also. This customer is lucky I was the h.v.a.c service contractor that was called, I have been cleaning units for years, most service techs would blow the drain and leave the system as is, running all chocked up and clogging every year.
I have changed dozens of blower motors, blower wheels and circuit boards because of this problem and even after fixing the unit walked away feeling like the customer just threw good money to bad because there fairly new system looked like it was fifty years old.
Recently I changed out an eight year old York furnace because the construction dust from 8 years earlier had clogged the air conditioning A coil and every summer water leaked into the furnace, all the dust, mud and rust was so bad it was not worth trying to clean. The house is less then 8 years old. Built in Fishkill NY 12524. Of course the homeowner should have gone into the basement and after seeing the leaking water called someone. I don’t know if they did or not. But you can also say the amount of dust which was overwhelming should never have been present in the first place. The builder is one of the largest in the country and should have more then enough money to see this does not happen to there customers. But it does and on a wide spread scale.
What would it take for the builders to purchase outdoor self contained propane furnaces and hook flex duct to them, then connect to the window openings?
I make money off this situation and always will but have also lost money because after preforming a really nice installation. We would leave the job site on friday to return on Monday and find my equipment and tools absolutely covered in sheet rock dust. As much as a 1/4 ” thick.
I dont do installations any more for reasons I have wrote about before. But when I did I made sure my contracts always stated my equipment was not to be used for temporary heat. That I was not responsible for New Construction Temporary Heat.
Home owners or building owners do not let this happen to you! Make sure it’s in your contract. Show up and see for yourself. It is your building and health at stake here. Please put down the color swatches and take a active role in the construction of your home. You can always change the color, breathing in dust for the next 20 years should not be an option.
Is my A\C unit worth fixing
Is my Air Conditioning unit worth fixing?
Is my A\C unit worth fixing is a question I get all the time. Sometimes I get that question even before I tell the customer whats wrong. We have become familiar with some items that are cheaper to replace then to repair. A lot of the inexpensive things we buy today are just not lasting that long and are not worth fixing. Why spend $700 fixing a 42 inch flat screen tv when you can buy a 52 inch for $1100? After all the 42 can break again cant it.
Air conditioning units are not that easy to throw away. It takes a qualified person to remove and replace the outdoor and indoor coils. Window units are much easier to throw away and just buy a new one, if you have one you bought at the Home Crappo. But what if you have a better unit?
I try to convey to my customers that I am a service repair technician and I believe I can fix almost anything. My feelings are that unless there is a major breakdown in the system almost all systems are worth fixing. There are to many companies and customers out there right now that do not properly maintain air conditioning systems and the result is a system that does not work properly for several years in a row, then they offer finance plans and rebates in order to sweeten the offer for a new replacement system. When had they just (or you) taken good care of your system it would work well and be efficient. I have seen systems last thirty years or more. Then get replaced with a modern system that did not cool as well.
I have a friend in Myrtle Beach SC who had a basic heat pump that came with the house. Never had any problems with it, the company that maintained his system recommended a new system. So he went for it in hope of avoiding problems and saving electric. He had his 12 seer basic system replaced with a Trane 15 seer system. So far it has broken 4 times and my buddy just can’t tell if there is any real savings on his bill. When your a/c or heat pump unit is installed in an attic there are factors that control your electric bill other then the seer rating of the system.
Unventilated attics are extremely hot and are the cause of larger electric bills. Soffits and ridge vents do very little, they are minimum code. Large gable vents and a good sized fan are what is needed to move enough air to bring the attic down to just 10 to 20 degree’s above ambient. If it’s 90 outside most attic’s are 135 degree’s.
For example the speed the air moves thru the system plays a large part. How cold the air is also matters. A 12 seer air conditioning system installed in a hot attic that has a strong blower a large compressor and the air is coming off the coil at very cold temperature may in fact cost you almost the same in electric compared to 15 seer unit with a weaker blower moving air that is only warmer with a much smaller compressor.
Replacement central air systems are not cheap, and they come in so many types and SEER ratings that it is difficult to decide what to do and which one to choose. In the Northeast region where I live around Fishkill New York the residential air conditioning season is only four months tops sometimes less. If your existing system cooled your house very nicely for lets say $150 per month in electric. That’s a total cost of $600 for the season. This is just an exercise your actual cost may be more or less.If you replace that system with a 15 SEER system that uses $100 per month in electric. Then your cost for the summer is just $400…That is a big difference isn’t it? That’s $200 a season in savings.
So now we take the $6000 cost for the upgrade and add it to the mix and it will only take 30 years to get to where that $200 is straight out profit. And that is if nothing goes wrong in that thirty years and you need a new system again. Most people will be talked into changing there system out in 10 years.
Is my A\C unit worth fixing? The answer is yes your A\C system is worth fixing and it’s worth maintaining.
How to fix a leak in a rooftop unit
How to fix a leak in a roof top unit
In this short story I am going to talk about a rooftop system I worked on for someone else. I will give you hints on how to solve rooftop leak problems. Unfortunately there are air conditioning companies that almost never fix leaks for regular customers. It’s not in there best interest.
They make way more money coming back all the time and charging the customer for repairs, and they may even get them to replace the whole system even though the only problem was a loose flare nut on the expansion valve.
One example was a HSBC bank branch where the a\c seemed to break all the time. I worked for this small company that had a contract to service all the branches. And even though this company had a regular maintenance contract with this Bank and all it’s branches in my area it was clear that no one did anything good to these rooftop units in a very long time. The company I worked for had bids out on changing it. Well after going to this unit several times in one month to put in freon, I really had it and fixed the leak that any one could see the second you took the panel off. The 1/4″ line used for charging the system had a crack in it. In order to fix this leak you didn’t even have to reclaim the refrigerant.
I took out my vise grips and attached them to the line above the leak. Brazed it shut and that was the end of that.
Of course the people in the bank were happy but that was as far as that went, no one where I worked liked it.
These people suffered thru constant breakdown over a leaking copper line simply because the owner of the company where i worked wanted the process of replacing the unit to speed up by letting it break all the time.
The first step in finding and fixing a freon leak on a roof top unit is to remove the panels and look.
How to fix a leak in a roof top unit
What we are looking for in an obvios sign that there is a freon leak. Oil on the tubing or an oil stain on the base below is the first sign were looking for…The oil in a ac system will travel with the freon and come out at the point of the leak but not always. This makes it tricky.
The next step is to look for copper tubes that can rub together and a spot where that happened.
Are we looking for a small, med or large leak determines everything from here. If you have a very small leak, one that requires a small amount of refrigerant once a year you may never find this leak. Not on a rooftop unit. With very small leaks I have tried every thing..I will not deter anyone from looking..You should always try. It could just be the service cap..Sometimes soap the cap before you take it off.
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Growing trends in the HVAC Industry and new construction building.
My perspectives on trends in the residential h.v.a.c market
Entitled: Be careful of what you wish for! You might get it.
As a a/c mechanic for quite a few years I have noticed swings in the industry and a few times in the past did not react fast enough to deal with them. This time is different I am finally mature enough to make the correct changes in order to deal with what is happening in the residential h.v.a.c market and the new construction market. I am dealing with it by getting out of it for the most part. And concentrating on being a full service repair company.
Everything has changed! People have changed!
I started down in Westchester and the Bronx and because I had warranty contracts with large companies I also ventured into Putnam county in order to solve difficult problems for the company holding the warranty. I serviced air conditioners in all income brackets and all different shapes and size houses, condo’s etc. I have walked in and out of American homes since the late 1970’s. And I can tell you that what people want in a home has changed dramatically and it has an effect on what you get. Because these new trends involve a budget that does not really account for top rated mechanical work and even people who would expect top rated mechanical work do nothing to ensure it’s getting done. I think in the future i may form a business in which customers can hire me to make sure there homes have sound mechanical systems installed.
Most small builders have gone out of business for the most part. There are still some around but the majority of construction is being done by large corporations. And what they supply is pretty and has a lot of fluff, but underneath all that fluff is a maze of bad work that has to be fixed one day and who foots that bill is still to be seen.
Why do they do this and why do we buy it in the numbers we do? The answer is we have changed. Our priorities have changed. They give us what we want and not what we need. What we need is a well made utilitarian home in which most of the resources that were put into the home were for solid construction practices and high quality skilled tradesman that helped to create a home for you that would give you very little problems for many years to come. I was lucky in that as a young man I was able to see older h.v.a.c systems installed by true craftsman, thirty years or more after the installation of the system was complete I would show up for a service call and the condensing unit was still sitting nice and level on a concrete pad. The duct work was a work of art. In some areas sealed with solder on every joint.
The art of installing an h.v.a.c system is lost in the residential market. It can still be seen at times in the commercial civil service buildings because they are the only people with the budget for that type of real skilled work. There budgets almost seem to have no cap.
In the past the budget for the skilled trades for a new home was pretty high. Now it is almost nothing compared to everything else on the project. Here is a little example… lets say you purchase a new condo or home for $300,000. And you have the builder put in your dream kitchen that is valued at 80,000. That leaves $220,000 to finish the home. You also push for an extra bathroom for the same price that reduces the cost down to 200,000. You want custom colors in each room. Each person pics there favorite color. Now the builder has 180,000 to build your home. With a few more things on the wish list now the builder has $150,000 to complete your dream home. and make the outside looked lived in with new sod and landscaping. Of course now they can’t do it for that price so they ask for more and you bargain a bit and no where in here is the trades. As your wish list goes up the budget for the trades goes down.
Do you honestly believe you have plastic pex water pipes just because it’s better? Do you really think that a ridge vent and some soffit material with all those little tiny holes is going to ventilate your attic? Does any one believe OSB is better then plywood? Do you really think having one unit with three zone dampers is as good as having a separate unit per floor.
In today’s market most of the time the persons making budget decisions do not concern themselves with the quality of the work done behind the scenes. In dozens of new construction projects the only time I would speak with the home owner is if they hired me personally, other then that they usually just talked with the contractor, the architect and the finish people, in today’s world of home building all of a sudden the painter is one of the most important people on a project. The sheet rock company can show up almost unnoticed with no one to look and see if they did a good job or if they even cleaned up after them selves. The home owner and there children are dieing to talk with the painter about the colors they picked out. Some of them will have multiple colors in the same room. In my opinion what is important to them may not be whats important to the home and the over all health of the home. You can always paint! Or add a kitchen, buy new appliances, put down wood floors etc, etc, etc you may never get a another chance to change from OSB to good old fashioned plywood as your sheathing. You may never get another chance to seal the foundation or make sure it’s not poured in the winter on a bad day. Once your duct work is behind the walls you will not easily be able to change it. Once the crappy truss system is in your attic you can never reclaim that space. The entire attic that was traditionally an important part of older homes is completely lost to the modern day 2×4 truss.
Do we spend $7,000 on insulation for the foundation or do we get flat panels along with the wiring in every room. Should we spend $3500 for a ventilation system in the attic or have the bathroom walls tiled. Do we get a real plumbing system or nice sod instead of seed.
Many of the new homes condo’s and town houses I go into do not have a proper completely functional H.V.A.C system! I just went to an elderly women’s condo who was on oxygen and on a hot day her brand new condo a/c system would not cool her condo down to 80 degrees. And she is one of many in the same complex. The systems including the duct work were installed in an inferior manor and probably made up less then 2 or 3 % of the budget for the condo, where as the kitchen, made up 15 or 20% of the budget. Heating and cooling done right should be 5 to 10 % depending on what is required.
They keep calling me hoping I can fix a wire or add some freon. And I can’t!
They need major work and there not willing to pay for it at this time. Maybe someday. Right now they keep hoping some miracle a\c company will show up with a solution or the builder will step up and fix it for them for free. And the builder never will they just keep building new places the same exact way. They never change anything they do based on the past.
Right now there is a big argument between home owners and builders in one complex about the ventilation in the attics. There is another complex across the street going in with the 100% same building method. They haven’t even bought cheap plastic vents to at least make it appear as though they have learned.
I hope just one person reads this and thinks hard about what they want. If your having a new home built please consider your future. Do you want fluff now that turns into a nightmare later. Or will you put your money into quality and add some fluff as you go along.
Growing trends in the HVAC Industry and new construction building.
How to find small freon leaks
How to find small freon leaks
In this post I am going to share with you how to find small refrigerant or freon leaks in a split system air conditioning system.
Many times split system air conditioners will have small leaks where it’s not really a problem if you have the system serviced each year and maybe once every 3-5 years the tech may need to add a little refrigerant. This is not something we worry over. After all someone usually gets to it prior to it being a problem for you. And trying to find a leak this small is difficult.
Then there’s that small leak that is a problem. It looses just enough refrigerant every year so that the coil freezes, it drips water on the floor and there’s no A/C on hot days. The first thing we can do with this type of leak is look in the obvious spots. Exposed solder joints are the first place to look. I usually start out with soap on exposed joints on the condensing unit. I find electronic leak detectors have a hard time finding small leaks outside and the halogen units which are my favorite are hard to see in the sun.
I rarely purchase the bottles of soap leak detector solution from the supply house any more. I use Dawn in one of those water bottles with the little flip cap. But you can use anything you like. I worked with a guy at the Carvel corporation who was from India who said in his country they would shave regular bars of soap and mix it with water. next we can go inside the house and inspect everything visual, then open the coil access and check with your leak detector at this time.
The next step in order not to waste a lot of time is to pump down the condensing unit. There is a trick to this! Your going to run the unit for a few minutes until it is condensing liquid. Then close the high side service valve and let the system pull down. If you don’t let the system run for a while it will never pull down all the way.
Once it has pulled down shut everything off, close the low side valve. using your manifold gauge set add exactly 100psi of nitrogen and let that sit for a few days. When you return if the pressure is still at 100 psi then you can be sure the leak is in the condensing unit. If the pressure has dropped then the leak is in the line set or coil.
if the leak is in the line set or coil you must separate them which will not take much time if your good at working with copper. Of course release the nitrogen first. Now you can charge the high side, the low side line and the coil separately with 100 psi of nitrogen.
which ever one looses pressure must be fixed or replaced.
What if it’s the condensing unit? First thing i do is carefully check all the joints. I remove the screws from the fan motor assembly and lift it out of my way. you can rest it against the house or remove it completely. with power cut to the system of course. next check the compressor terminals. There is not a lot of exposed tubing in a modern split system condensing unit. you should be able to inspect all the tubing and the compressor using soap and a leak detector. If you can’t find anything then it is most likely the coil.
It is very hard to find a leak in the coil.
You can mix up a quart of dawn in a bucket of water and pour it into the coil starting at the top.
Then look very carefully for a long time panning around for the leak. Good luck!
I have taken the coils out and just to satisfy my curiosity sealed the end and filled them with nitrogen and put them in a kiddy pool and sure enough there was the leak or leaks. Sometimes coils become porous from acid rain or maybe they were made poorly. But there won’t be one big leak instead there will be hundreds or even thousands of small leaks.
Many techs will disagree but they are the same people who slap dye in your system. never look for the leak, top it off. Act all arrogant, charge you a lot of money but never actually solve the problem. I have been in this business since 1975. I can find leaks.
If you have a small leak on a new system document everything so your covered. And please dont forget to go online and register your system with in 90 days.
Thanks for reading my post.
Greg Murphy
How to install a home refrigerator compressor!
My father Damien William Murphy or Bill who passed away a few years ago was instrumental in helping me choose a trade and helped get me started with some fundamental skills even though he was never really a good mechanic himself. He knew enough to use his skills to promote his used appliance business. If needed he could figure out that a thermostat was bad or a defrost timer. if a refrigerator was a tad short on refrigerant he could top it of as we say in the industry. But when it came to major surgery he really struggled and had to count on people who worked for him. Installing a home refrigerator compressor was not his strong point. His skills were in other area’s.
Putting a compressor in a home refrigerator takes skill in order to do it correctly. There are so many things that can and will go wrong if your not careful.
How to install a home refrigerator compressor.
1. Get the correct compressor there are so many compressors it is easy to make a mistake. I used to have a book that gave me all the specs so it was easy for me to swap compressors when needed.
2. You must have all the right tools: recovery machine and tank, gauges, torch and correct solder and flux, charging scale or cylinder, freon, sandpaper, copper tubing tool or coupling if needed and basic hand tools.
3. Recover the refrigerant and remove the old compressor. I like to take notes to make sure everything goes back correctly, note the wires and location of the pins on the compressor. You can cut the tubing from the solder ports on the compressor just past the point where there is no solder or for people with good skills clean the joints apply the correct flux and heat and pull the tubing from the compressor ports is the most common way. Cutting the joints can lead to extra work. When pulling the tubes apply even heat, make sure there is no gas. Be prepared once and a while there will be a flare up from the oil. Keep your face away where gloves and safety glasses and once the tube does come out dont let go till it cools a little or it might stick. By the way your going to be holding the tubing with pliers not your hand and only squeeze hard enough to hold on do not distort the tubing. Some compressors have an extra set of lines to help with oil cooling when you find these cut them do not try and heat and pull. These tubes are at the bottom of the refrigerator compressor. Sometimes there is a special factory O.E.M type connection.
4. Once the tubes are removed from the compressor and everything is noted and marked so you will remember to put it back correctly pull the pins for the compressor feet or remove the screws which ever it has. if you cant do this part then stop here.
5. Place the new compressor where the old one was lock it down and remove the rubber stubs on the tubing.
6. Clean the ports on the compressor inside and out. use sand paper on the outside and a small tubing brush on the inside or use a rolled piece of emery cloth. There are 3 ports on most compressors, two are suction ports and one is high side. One suction port and high side line should line up with your tubing. Place a schraeder stub tube in the low side port that is not being used.
Do not put the tubes all the way in yet. This is where i like to put the flux on the tube so none of it gets in the system. If the tubes with solder on them already don’t go in don’t worry we are going to heat them and help them in.
7. Change the filter drier, this a another skill. Clean the tubing at both ends, cut the tubing on the inlet with a tubing cutter. Cut the capillary tube by making a grove with a sharp file and breaking it by hand the rest of the way. You might want to practice this on something else you will want to get this right.. Install the the new filter drier that has a access fitting stub on it as well as a step down for the cap tube.
I like to use 35% or better solder on home refrigerators because most of the time your joining metal to copper. You can use regular brazing rods on the copper to copper joints. Once your all brazed up put a 100 psi of nitrogen and check your joints with soap. no leaks then use your vacuum pump to evacuate down to 30 on your gauges.
8. How to charge a home refrigerator. I am going to share with you my knowledge of charging thousands of capillary tube systems in my career. You can not do it by feel or by guessing. In a pinch you can try and sometimes you’ll be OK and other times your going back several times to make adjustments.This is another part of the job that separates the technician from the hack. Are you going to get paid and get out or stay there all night trying to get the thing to cool.
You are going to need a small charging cylinder. A very good electronic scale is adaquite but there is still to much room for error.
small capillary tube refrigerators have a very small charge that must be right to work all year round in differant tempuatures. you can charge a refrigerator in the summer and it may not work in the winter.
A charging cylinder eliminates that, that is why I made so much money in the 1980’s with my service business i had the process down packed. if it says 16 oz then that’s what you put. You dont even have to wait around much when your done. Heres how to do it correctly. If you dont have a charging cylinder and your charging a R-134 system that takes about 16oz use a small can with no oil, dye or sealant from the auto store.
Put the proper amount of freon in the cylinder in liquid form with the dial set at the pressure the freon is at presently. Close your gauges and disconnect the vacuum pump. Connect the hose to the bottom of the cylinder and bleed a tiny bit of freon thru the hose. If your using self sealing hoses dont worry about this next step. If you are using self sealing hoses then open your high side valve to charge liquid into the high side connected to your filter drier. If your not using self sealing hoses then charge thru the low side and remove the high side hose soon as the pressure starts to rise up out of a vacuum. Put in the full amount in liquid and let the charge settle for a 5 or 10 minutes so the liquid can become a gas in the system. This is such a small amount of liquid it will not wash out the oil. do not stop the flow of the charge with your gauges at this point your going to want to shut the cylinder or can because the liquid in the hose is part of the charge. This is why we disconnected the high side hose if your not using self sealing gauges so that you do not loose part of the very small very critical charge.
While your waiting for the charge to settle please connect the wires correctly based on your notes. If you can please put oil in the fan motor( How to oil a sealed one piece motor). Start your paper work and start putting things in order.
When your satisfied you can start your compressor. If everything looks OK then it’s time to remove your gauges. if you used self sealing hoses then remove the high side first. Then open the high and low on the gauges in order to let the refrigerant in the hose get sucked into the low side on the compressor preserving the charge. Remove the hoses put the caps on, put back the shield if there was one. And were finished.
I hope this helps and i will edit as time goes on to add things i may have overlooked if there is any.
Getting back to the story!
I was young and still was not a full time service mechanic but I was working in a refrigeration factory building small marine refrigerators and i went to my dads shop and there he was with a local guy who helped him once and a while trying to install a household refrigerator by using a stick of 5% brazing rod and liquid low temperature flux mainly used for 50\50 or 95\5. apparently they had been at it for some time with no success. I could tell he was frustrated and his helper was surely high and not much help at all so I made sure I did not chuckle or this would not have went well! I know my father and if he was a little younger he would have thought it out better. Not that he was that old but once he got over fifty and his eyes were bothering him and he would get headaches by bending over to long there was no way this was ever getting done and it does not help to have a helper on heroin, so I offered to help.It turned out he had the right flux and solder to braze copper to metal right in his shop, it was the helper who insisted it could be done the other way. i cleaned everything up and brazed the joints with silver and paste flux. It made me happy to help and he was happy to get that little nightmare over with, of course he scolded the helper for telling him that would work when he knew it would. After all he did go to Apex!
Freon leaks supermarket Long Island
Freon leaks supermarket Long Island
This is going to the first in a series of interesting stories about freon leak repairs. I find this story very interesting because it really hurt a pretty greedy refrigeration business owner in the pocket. I worked with my father Damien William Murphy or Bill as we knew him by on & off for a good number of years, when ever I would have a fight with him or there was no money to pay me I would go work somewhere else for a while. This was one of those jobs.
A guy named Arte who had a refrigeration and air conditioning business in Long island. This guy had a lot of customers many were independent supermarkets and meat packing or food processing plants. He never fixed any leaks! He just kept adding more freon all the time and billing these large places. I think there was a connection between them that kept him there because there seemed no other reason why these smart people would keep paying him . One of his best customers had independent supermarkets and these places leaked freon 24/7 365. Every time i walked in the door I had a can in each hand. Arte would buy pallets of freon to keep on hand to maintain these accounts. Most of the leaks were just from flare nuts that had come loose over the years from expansion and contraction. They could have been fixed many years before I started working for him.
When I finally came to the realization I did not like this guy and that I would have to move on or get fired. I started lying to him about what I was doing when I was at one of these accounts, and I started fixing the leaks. The worst was a super market close to the NYC border. We were there putting in freon all the time. One example was a very long deli case\meat case\fish case. It was connected to a 10 ton condensing unit. We were putting 30 to 60 lbs of freon in that system every week. R-12 was cheap in those days but even then some people were saying it may not be healthy for the ozone layer. This long case has a bunch of evaporators and each one has an expansion valve. The large flare nut on the metered side always comes loose. So!
Not telling the employees in the store or any one in our firm, I started fixing the leaks. I fixed so many leaks that one day a few weeks later in the morning in Arte’s office I heard him on the phone asking the owner of the supermarket if he was calling someone else to take care of the service, because it was never more then a few days prior to this.
Arte was baffled and he had an angry look on his face. Asked me what i did the last time i was there.
I just smiled and said “the usual”.