Episode 275. CO2 Experts: Troubleshooting CO2 Chillers with Damon Reed

But if I'm sitting there watching a system and a common call I might hear is the compressor is not starting. Okay. Well, are there any active alarms? No. What's your suction pressure? What's our flash tank? What's our flash gas bypass valve doing? Those are the things you start to start to drill down but I always start with this order of operations.

But if I'm sitting there watching a system and a common call I might hear is the compressor is not starting. Okay. Well, are there any active alarms? No. What's your suction pressure? What's our flash tank? What's our flash gas bypass valve doing? Those are the things you start to start to drill down but I always start with this order of operations.

We've been working together for quite a, quite a while. We actually do some exclusive and private training programs, refrigeration mentor and Pro Refrigeration partnering together to do some stuff. So we'll talk about that later. If you're interested, you're going to reach out to Pro Refrigeration and talk about these training courses that we do.

We've been working together for quite a, quite a while. We actually do some exclusive and private training programs, refrigeration mentor and Pro Refrigeration partnering together to do some stuff. So we'll talk about that later. If you're interested, you're going to reach out to Pro Refrigeration and talk about these training courses that we do.

But I'm super excited to dive in today because Damon is Such a wealth of knowledge. And I, every time we talk, I'm with I talk with them. I'm learning something, which is. Always awesome. When you're, you're working with people who know more than you is probably the best that's for me, I'm trying to find people from around the world who know more than me so I can absorb their knowledge really so I can share it with the world to really help uplift the refrigeration industry, Damon, welcome to CO2 experts, how you doing brother?

I like to. To geek out on and I think that's the fun that Trevor and I always have when we do get to having discussions together is talking about all the different scenarios and things like that. It's fun to fun to have the engagement really happy to, to take the time to, to go over things with everybody and.

I like to. To geek out on and I think that's the fun that Trevor and I always have when we do get to having discussions together is talking about all the different scenarios and things like that. It's fun to fun to have the engagement really happy to, to take the time to, to go over things with everybody and.

And give you kind of a breakdown of what we're going to be talking about today. In this session, I put together kind of a three part discussion for us. We're going to talk specifically about a transcritical CO2 chiller system. Pro refrigeration. We manufacture the pro green solution CO2 system. What it is, is it's a it's a 100 horsepower two by 50 horsepower compressor transcritical co2 system.

So I, I utilize heat recovery on the unit. We have air cooled gas coolers. We now have adiabatic options for those gas coolers as well. But it's a packaged unit, so it includes the glycol reservoir. It includes all of the refrigeration components and controls. Everything's packaged onto that single skid.

So I, I utilize heat recovery on the unit. We have air cooled gas coolers. We now have adiabatic options for those gas coolers as well. But it's a packaged unit, so it includes the glycol reservoir. It includes all of the refrigeration components and controls. Everything's packaged onto that single skid.

We're going to go over. the components. We're gonna go over order of operations and then we're gonna go over some remote diagnostics tools and their capabilities. And as we move along, as I'm sure Trevor and I will have discussions and engagement. If anybody has questions, please definitely keep the questions rolling. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll make time to be able to address any questions that we have.

And then I wanted to ID the controls on the system, then go into safety devices, because as we're doing troubleshooting on equipment. These are the things I find that if I can, if I can identify the major electronic controls components, then I know what the safety devices are. I know what the order of operations is expected to be.

Now I can start to put things together when I'm in a, in a troubleshooting diagnostics phase on the equipment. So we utilize the Danfoss refrigeration control components. We use the system manager which is up here in the top left. So on the one side, there's the 850 HMI. We have that in a, in a completely watertight sealed enclosure cover, but it's clear plastic. So you can still see the, the HMI face that's talking internally into the, into the control system with the refrigeration controller, which is the 781.

Now I can start to put things together when I'm in a, in a troubleshooting diagnostics phase on the equipment. So we utilize the Danfoss refrigeration control components. We use the system manager which is up here in the top left. So on the one side, there's the 850 HMI. We have that in a, in a completely watertight sealed enclosure cover, but it's clear plastic. So you can still see the, the HMI face that's talking internally into the, into the control system with the refrigeration controller, which is the 781.

It's talking with the evaporator controller, which is the 750. And it's talking with, it's our circulation pump controller, which is the 205. Those three are all talking together through a communication bus back to the system manager. So those are the, kind of the main components I wanted to identify. So the 781, this whole top section consists of the 781.

We've got expansion modules that we include just to give us the extra I. O. that's needed. The 750 controller is down in this, this area here, and the 205 is down here on the far right. It looks a little bit like if you were to go to, say, Danfoss's website and look at the 205 or the 781 or the 750, you're going to see, like, this main controller, you might not see the expansion modules added. So it just kind of shows the added flexibility of what those, what those controls features are.

So it just kind of shows the added flexibility of what those, what those controls features are. Speaker: What I love about your guys's panels is how much space is inside them as you guys can see here how clean they are color coded all labeled one by one and this is important when you dive into a new system say like this pro refrigeration system pro green system is that you need to get into the electrical wiring diagrams and you got to follow that stuff because we're going to get into this The, the safety devices today and how the refrigeration controller works and things like that and troubleshooting this stuff.

But you as a technician in the field you want to go in and follow all this through their electrical wiring diagram. This is exactly what we've been training a lot of the pro dealers On walking them through step by step because one of the biggest things it's usually not the control Issue like the programming issue, you know, that programming is done 99 percent of the time by the manufacturers and maybe adjust it a little bit for a specific application.

If you're up in Alaska versus down in Southern California, there might be a little bit changes, but besides that, all the wiring is going to be on the wiring diagram. You got to dive into that to follow while you're troubleshooting, probably just don't be winging this stuff. You got a nice panel there all with the labels follow the label.

If you're up in Alaska versus down in Southern California, there might be a little bit changes, but besides that, all the wiring is going to be on the wiring diagram. You got to dive into that to follow while you're troubleshooting, probably just don't be winging this stuff. You got a nice panel there all with the labels follow the label. So I love it. Yeah. Yeah.

I agree. I agree a hundred percent with you on that Trevor. And, and, and also I would point out when we do, we, we factory test run all of these systems before they ship. Into the into the field. That's one of the first things when something arrives in the field that we require is go through all the electrical connections, make sure nothing got loose in transportation loose wires can pop up down the road and, you know, you're, you might look at it as a technician and dive right into, you know, I've got these big black boxes that I don't really fully understand.

So it must be something going on there. You know, there's a bank of ice cube relays over here on the side. Sometime most, the majority of the time, there's nothing wrong with the controller. You got an ice cube relay that's not getting the right voltage or I, I'm just going to share some examples.

So it must be something going on there. You know, there's a bank of ice cube relays over here on the side. Sometime most, the majority of the time, there's nothing wrong with the controller. You got an ice cube relay that's not getting the right voltage or I, I'm just going to share some examples.

I've had communications alarms that were intermittent and pop up from time to time. Well, on the 7 81, if you notice right here in the front, This is the communication bus where it makes the connection. So it makes this connection from the seven 50 is here. And then this follows the raceway up to the seven 81.

And then that's then fed over to the eight 50. Well, there was a one loose. Wire on the 7 81 and it was given kind of intermittent communication alarm emails that we were receiving. So we were able to example on that or not example, but we were able to identify that with the technician in the field, like we probably just have a loose wire it's not the controllers that,

And we talk about it a bunch of times. It's like. The easy stuff is the hard stuff, you know, so going around and tightening every single wire. Like there's, there's could be hundreds to thousands of them on some pieces of equipment, but that's part of our role as a startup our, our commissioning technician, as well as even service technician.

These are the things that we need to go to during, during the maintenance and get out there and do this stuff. It's boring. It's repetitive. It can be tedious. You got to do it safely, but this is some of the things that most of the times it's that, and one of the quick tip would be with the new tools. And then we talked about this before is a thermal imaging gun.

So you go up to that panel and you see it's really hot on a couple of wires or on a contact or something, there could be a loose wire there

baseline, then you can see. Where you've got hot spots, but it's definitely those are tools to keep in the tool bag and utilize them when they're available using the tools that are available is real important. And we'll talk about that later in the end on this too.

So, on the controls, the other items I wanted to talk about were the safety devices that are in the system. So we've got, like. The refrigeration control scheme or refrigeration controls identified and the evaporator control and the circulation pump control. But what about the other safety devices that are in in the system that could open from a from a failure condition and and required to be troubleshot just because the controller is saying, Hey, my compressors off on safety.

a safety relay. Well, what is feeding that safety relay? Well, the things that are feeding that safety relay would be like we've got an oil regulator, which is we use the O. L. C. Oil regulator. It's mounted into the side of the compressor. It's got a little series of lights on it. If it's green, it's happy. If it's not green, it's not happy.

That's the simplest way I can describe that. There is a sight glass on the front of it, you know, so you can monitor the oil level. But the oil regulator does have a little float that extends into the crankcase of the compressor. It makes a decision on whether it needs to let more oil in and keep the oil balance.

That's the simplest way I can describe that. There is a sight glass on the front of it, you know, so you can monitor the oil level. But the oil regulator does have a little float that extends into the crankcase of the compressor. It makes a decision on whether it needs to let more oil in and keep the oil balance.

If you've got a good oil level on the site glass and your float's happy, your oil switch should be happy. Green is good. We get into, we monitor the oil pump. side of the compressor. That's just a delta P two differential oil pressure control. So it's monitoring. Hey, when this compressor is running and it starts, I need to start looking at net oil pressure.

And is my net oil pressure good enough to stay running? Or is it not? This has a little led on the backside of it that will light up red. That could be a little misleading because when the compressor is off and it's not getting a signal, That'll show up as red. It also shows up as solid red when it's in a tripped condition.

The, this white cap that you see here, it's soft. You know, you push, you don't, you don't want to push on it, hit it with a screwdriver. It's a little sensitive, but you just push on it with your thumb. And while you're holding it down, the little led is going to blink and you, you hold it for five seconds and then you let go.

The, this white cap that you see here, it's soft. You know, you push, you don't, you don't want to push on it, hit it with a screwdriver. It's a little sensitive, but you just push on it with your thumb. And while you're holding it down, the little led is going to blink and you, you hold it for five seconds and then you let go.

It'll blink rapidly while you hold it down. It'll blink slow when you let your thumb off of it. And it's going to go into a time delay. So it'll go for 120 seconds and then it'll make a decision. Hey, do I start or do I have a sensor failure and I want to start up again? If you walk up to it and it's just flashing rapidly.

That's telling you that you've got an oil sensor issue. So something's something's not happy with the sensor. On the oil reservoir. That's what we distribute the oil to both the compressors and the 250 horse compressors are parallel pipe. We have an I N T 2 76 that it's just a prism that monitors the oil level in the oil regular oil reservoir.

So if the oil level drops to this level, It's not going to shut down the equipment, but it is going to give you a low oil warning light on the front of the system. Just need to say, look at my oil system. I may need oil. Where did the oil go? You kind of go into your troubleshooting steps at that point.

So if the oil level drops to this level, It's not going to shut down the equipment, but it is going to give you a low oil warning light on the front of the system. Just need to say, look at my oil system. I may need oil. Where did the oil go? You kind of go into your troubleshooting steps at that point.

And then inside of the compressor electrical box, we have the S E B five thermal overload. So it's monitoring the thermal temperature on the compressor motor windings. If the windings get warm, for whatever reason, that's gonna go ahead, that's gonna open, trip, and you do get a red indicator light on the front of the compressor electrical box that we install.

You push that, moment that button down, hold it for three seconds, it drops power. You let go, it'll reset if the thermal condition is no longer present.

And this is why he's talking about it's so important to understand how each component works, because usually if something's you're there servicing or troubleshooting, it's one of these broke. You know what I mean? And I don't mean broke as in fail, but it broke the chain of command, which we're going to talk about here, here, here in a minute, because there is a sequence of operation on how each one of these safeties work and why we have these safeties in a system just like this pro green system really to notify us as technicians on what is going on.

And this is why he's talking about it's so important to understand how each component works, because usually if something's you're there servicing or troubleshooting, it's one of these broke. You know what I mean? And I don't mean broke as in fail, but it broke the chain of command, which we're going to talk about here, here, here in a minute, because there is a sequence of operation on how each one of these safeties work and why we have these safeties in a system just like this pro green system really to notify us as technicians on what is going on.

So it's really, really key to understand how each component works.

Okay. If if they sense too much amperage for too long of a period of time, they're going to trip and they're set up for a manual reset. There's a reset button right below where my cursor is showing now the red dot. There's little blue buttons. If they need reset, there is it. trip indicator under the plastic piece right here.

Okay. If if they sense too much amperage for too long of a period of time, they're going to trip and they're set up for a manual reset. There's a reset button right below where my cursor is showing now the red dot. There's little blue buttons. If they need reset, there is it. trip indicator under the plastic piece right here.

I know it might be a little hard to see with the size, but I don't typically rely on those very often myself. It takes just a second to hit the blue button. And if you hear a click and reset, then I know that's my issue. And I've got my amp meter out and I'm checking amperage. We also have the high low pressure safety switches.

that are monitoring suction and discharge pressure on our systems. We mount those directly behind some suction and discharge pressure gauges that are just some analog gauges. We leave those gauges are nuts. They're not like consistently calibrated. They go through shipping. It's a It's just a It's a tool that we add to the equipment.

To help make diagnostics a little better. If I was trying to do some diagnostics where I wanted to test the accuracy of a pressure transducer, I wouldn't rely on those gauges. I would rely on my, my own set of transcritical CO2 refrigeration gauges that I service equipment with to get some verification.

To help make diagnostics a little better. If I was trying to do some diagnostics where I wanted to test the accuracy of a pressure transducer, I wouldn't rely on those gauges. I would rely on my, my own set of transcritical CO2 refrigeration gauges that I service equipment with to get some verification.

So there are new CO2 tools, like little. Like gauges that can go up to 5, 000 PSI, look this stuff up. So you can have a travel toolkit as well as the motor overlays. I like you bring that up. You got to make sure they're set properly. You got to go look at the motor, what's the service factor on there and make sure that you match that up because somebody could go and start playing around with that, and this is why it's tripping or it's actually tripping for.

A high load situation where you are over amping for certain reasons. And this comes back to your troubleshooting that system and understanding. So don't just go and reset stuff before you understand your, the plan of attack. This is what I talk about in all my programs. If you see something trip, like we talked about before the Delta P for an example, you don't just go and reset it without thinking, what am I going to do?

A high load situation where you are over amping for certain reasons. And this comes back to your troubleshooting that system and understanding. So don't just go and reset stuff before you understand your, the plan of attack. This is what I talk about in all my programs. If you see something trip, like we talked about before the Delta P for an example, you don't just go and reset it without thinking, what am I going to do?

My gauge is already hooked up to check the pressure differential, things like that, you know? So I love those points.

We've identified our safeties now that we're going to talk about, we're going to jump into the order of operations. And the order of operations is really broken down at at its simplest level. Okay, because I think it's a, it's very common for us to want as mechanics. To want to jump into the, the difficult side of things, you know, well, how's the high pressure valve being controlled?

We've identified our safeties now that we're going to talk about, we're going to jump into the order of operations. And the order of operations is really broken down at at its simplest level. Okay, because I think it's a, it's very common for us to want as mechanics. To want to jump into the, the difficult side of things, you know, well, how's the high pressure valve being controlled?

What's, what's going on with my flash gas bypass valve? Some of these things and, and it's, it's, you need to know that, you need to be aware of that on the back end. But the, the main things, if you can, if you can just burn into memory the order of oppor, this order of operations you know, we, we start the circulation pump.

Based off of the temperature of the glycol reservoir, we use a calculation for that. That's part of the control software. So we're monitoring the glycol reservoir. If an example would be if the, if the glycol temperature gets above 35. I turn on the circulation pump. Once I turn the circulation pump on, I'm that's sending a signal to the 7 50, which is the evaporator controller.

And it's saying hey, guys, I'm running a pump. You should start making an adjustment with my valve. So start waking up valve A and valve B. In an injection mode, and I say that because anyone that's familiar with the 750 system, you can go in and the control side and you might find Section A or Section B thermostat.

And it's saying hey, guys, I'm running a pump. You should start making an adjustment with my valve. So start waking up valve A and valve B. In an injection mode, and I say that because anyone that's familiar with the 750 system, you can go in and the control side and you might find Section A or Section B thermostat.

But if you're going to make adjustments and you want to do some control based on on the super you control, you want to go to the. Section A, section B injection control side of the of the system if you're using store view and we'll look at store view later. So circ pump starts 7 50 says, Oh, I got to do something.

My I need my valves to start operating. The valves start to move. They start to open up the next thing that's going to do that. is expected to happen is my suction pressure is gonna rise. Well, as my suction pressure rises now, my 7 81, which is always monitoring that my refrigeration controller that says a what suction pressure is coming up and it waits to start a compressor.

If that suction pressure gets to 400 or above Then it goes ahead and it starts a compressor. It's not gonna we I mentioned earlier that our pro green system is is to 50 horsepower compressors. They're in parallel. They're both V F D controlled. We're not going to start both compressors at the same time.

If that suction pressure gets to 400 or above Then it goes ahead and it starts a compressor. It's not gonna we I mentioned earlier that our pro green system is is to 50 horsepower compressors. They're in parallel. They're both V F D controlled. We're not going to start both compressors at the same time.

We're only going to start one. The 781 is what's driving that signal to those VFDs and saying how much refrigerant, how much compressor capacity do I need? That is based off of what my suction temperature requirement is, not my suction pressure to just start like a cut in, cut out. My, my actual ramp up of capacity and ramp down of capacity is dictated by my actual suction temperature.

So evaporators on valves are moving suction pressure comes up. I hit 400 PSI. My compressor starts if my, if my suction pressure drops down to 250. That's my cut out point. I shut my compressors off. So I talked about a guy added in like the compressor control. That's one of the things I didn't really get deep into, like the medium temp capacity control.

So evaporators on valves are moving suction pressure comes up. I hit 400 PSI. My compressor starts if my, if my suction pressure drops down to 250. That's my cut out point. I shut my compressors off. So I talked about a guy added in like the compressor control. That's one of the things I didn't really get deep into, like the medium temp capacity control.

I didn't, I'm not getting deep into flash gas control, my high pressure valve control, my heat recovery control, all that's still happening off to the side, but at its simplest level, I've got circ pump starts based off of temperature that wakes up my evaporator that then turns on my refrigeration control. This is how I get a compressor and expect to see a compressor operating.

For example, we just talked about those safety controls. All of a sudden, if it goes through the sequence of operation, just like Damon talk about the reservoir temp increases and the circ pump start and the EV starts and suction pressure rises, but all of a sudden the compressor don't start and it goes off on compressor proof because maybe.

For example, we just talked about those safety controls. All of a sudden, if it goes through the sequence of operation, just like Damon talk about the reservoir temp increases and the circ pump start and the EV starts and suction pressure rises, but all of a sudden the compressor don't start and it goes off on compressor proof because maybe.

You have a pressure issue. It could be an oil issue. It could be, it could be one of many things, you know, internal temperature of that compressor, that stater's too, too hot. And it's off on the SE controller, SEB five, you know, overload control. So these are some of the things when you know, the sequence of operation is going to make your life easier and quicker to troubleshoot a system.

If it's like in an off cycle and we're getting some increase in pressure just based off of ambient conditions, it should still pull down and operate it back down to hold it. between that 250 and 400 range. But if I'm sitting there watching a system and you know, a common call I might hear is the compressor is not starting.

If it's like in an off cycle and we're getting some increase in pressure just based off of ambient conditions, it should still pull down and operate it back down to hold it. between that 250 and 400 range. But if I'm sitting there watching a system and you know, a common call I might hear is the compressor is not starting.

Okay. Okay. Well, are there any active alarms? No. Okay. What's your suction pressure? 3 50. Okay. Well, why is our suction pressure only 3 50? Well, I don't know. Well, that means either let's let's backtrack in the circuit, you know, do what's our flash tank? What's our flash gas bypass valve doing? You know what?

What's our what's our seven fifties doing? Our valves even open. What is the temperature of the fluid that's running through my evaporator? Is it? Is it a lot colder than I think it is? Those are the things you start to start to drill down once you've got this Yeah. Yeah. Once you want, but I always start with this order of operations.

This is constant and I always come back to it. Because before I want to jump off and get into the more complicated diagnostics, it's really important to just focus on this simple, simple order of operations.

It has to be something advanced problem, 90 plus percent of the time. That's a basic issue. It's something basic. That's happened. I got a dirty condenser. You got a sensor that failed that transducer that failed. It's, it's not, you know, it's not like, well, it could be a leak, but it's not something that it's. Usually an advanced troubleshooting problem. Yeah. Well, when it's a leak,

Well, what are the, what's the rest of the system pressures? Oh, geez. I've got 300 PSI in my flash tank. I've got 300 PSI in my gas cooler. Like, wait a second outcome. Why is all that so low? And so then you start looking into deeper, like, well, maybe I've got a loss of refrigerant somewhere it's, it's, I think, although we're talking about, and we're geared towards this being transcritical CO2 chillers.

Well, what are the, what's the rest of the system pressures? Oh, geez. I've got 300 PSI in my flash tank. I've got 300 PSI in my gas cooler. Like, wait a second outcome. Why is all that so low? And so then you start looking into deeper, like, well, maybe I've got a loss of refrigerant somewhere it's, it's, I think, although we're talking about, and we're geared towards this being transcritical CO2 chillers.

These are all things that we troubleshoot on, on refrigeration systems all the time, whether it be a synthetic refrigerant, or whether it be a transcritical CO2, that's still just troubleshooting pressure controls and, and order of operations all in the same way.

Even if something does happen, there's, there's protection. You know, cause you have to go through codes and regulations. You can't just throw a CO2 system out there. And so the fear, and I can see the fear of CO2 is dropping dramatically. People after they get trained, they get to understand it's just another refrigeration system.

Even if something does happen, there's, there's protection. You know, cause you have to go through codes and regulations. You can't just throw a CO2 system out there. And so the fear, and I can see the fear of CO2 is dropping dramatically. People after they get trained, they get to understand it's just another refrigeration system.

We'd start running and you still follow the same processes, but it's it's almost anti climatic when you start that compressor on a CO2 system because everyone's so excited. Everyone wants to hear it get up and running and and then it starts and everyone kind of looks at each other and says, well, that's it. Again, that's, that's it. It's, it's working

We've got the safety features. Now I wanted to talk a little bit about remote troubleshooting tools and the things that are available with the control system. So when you're doing the remote troubleshooting Danfoss has done a really good job with their StoreView software. It's, it's very Very intuitive.

We've got the safety features. Now I wanted to talk a little bit about remote troubleshooting tools and the things that are available with the control system. So when you're doing the remote troubleshooting Danfoss has done a really good job with their StoreView software. It's, it's very Very intuitive.

It gives a really good example of representation of like what's happening with the system. They there's a store view desktop version, but there's also a store view web version. And a lot of my focus is going to be on the store view desktop. It's probably because that's the way I was brought up with the equipment.

But there's there's some There's some things that I get out of the StorView desktop version that I like, and there's things that I use the StorView web version that I like. So, a lot of times it won't be uncommon if we're doing some diagnostics where myself and our technicians will have a split screen running and looking at them both.

But you log into your System and there's a lot of different views. You can look at and I'll show us a couple examples of the views, but the view my favorite view is the system view. So right up once you log into your system, it kind of comes up to this dashboard and I didn't want to just show you the dashboard just wanted to get more into the diagnostics tools, but I like the system view.

But you log into your System and there's a lot of different views. You can look at and I'll show us a couple examples of the views, but the view my favorite view is the system view. So right up once you log into your system, it kind of comes up to this dashboard and I didn't want to just show you the dashboard just wanted to get more into the diagnostics tools, but I like the system view.

The reason I like the system view. I'm a little bit of a I'm more of data driven kind of numbers person and I, and I don't like to bounce around between a lot of different screens. I want to see kind of everything on one screen. And so you can see here, you know, I'm looking at my suction. What, what's my suction status?

You know, in this particular moment on this system, it's gets normal control, meaning there's no alarms. It's okay. I've got a 20 degree suction set point. It's currently set. It's it's it's seeing 7. 6 degrees. My stat. So right away before I even go any further, I expect if my reference point is 20 and I'm 7.

6, I better not be running any compressors. There's no reason for that, right? So I'm in a normal control status. My compressor running capacity is 0%. Perfect. That's what I expect. My discharge. I can see what my my discharge temp is and I can see what my suction gas temp is. Perfect. That compressors and it's just holding standby condition.

6, I better not be running any compressors. There's no reason for that, right? So I'm in a normal control status. My compressor running capacity is 0%. Perfect. That's what I expect. My discharge. I can see what my my discharge temp is and I can see what my suction gas temp is. Perfect. That compressors and it's just holding standby condition.

Same with the heat recovery. I get that view. I can see, hey, I'm idle. That's because my compressors aren't running. Why, why would I be operating heat recovery if my compressors aren't doing anything? So, you know, status is okay. I've got a reference value of 1 80 and a current value. So we monitor a remote sensor.

When that compressor starts. Now, if I'm sitting here watching it, the compressor starts. I expect this to go into heat recovery mode because I'm 130 degrees below what my reference point is, right? So the fact that that's that low and knowing this particular customer, they're just in a down. They, they have hours and hours of downtime where they're not in operation.

So I know that's their status. We jump over to the condenser side of things. You know, everything's happy. What's my reference? My current value? Same thing. I could see what's, you know, if I've got a bypass valve, am I in gas cooler mode? Am I in bypass mode? What's my pressure? Hey, I'm right now sitting idle.

So I know that's their status. We jump over to the condenser side of things. You know, everything's happy. What's my reference? My current value? Same thing. I could see what's, you know, if I've got a bypass valve, am I in gas cooler mode? Am I in bypass mode? What's my pressure? Hey, I'm right now sitting idle.

I don't mind seeing 560 psi there. Jump over to my high pressure control. This is where I'm controlling the high pressure control valve. You know, I've got a current value of 550 and set point 619. Well, that valve should shouldn't be open at all right now, and it's not. It's off. So that's expected.

Receiver control. My reference is 5 50. My current value is 5 50. My receiver O. D. That's the flash gas bypass valve output. That's at 0%. Hey, it's because my receiver's at set point. I'm not generating any pressure. I'm not asking it to open up and let my receiver pressure come down. So like really quick, you can take that snapshot with this view. I like that.

I think that's a great great opportunity as a technician because you're going to get a service call or you're going to potentially dial up and but a lot Of times you'll be out there in a field looking at store view. You're looking at the controller more and more technician i'm hot i'm talking to more even in my programs You've got to have the proper tools and a computer is normal now in this day of refrigeration Okay, you can go and buy them at walmart or on amazon for very inexpensive prices This is a tool now for refrigeration technicians, and you might be still fighting it, I don't need a computer, or you might say, Oh, my, my, my company should buy it, no, you should have your own computer for refrigeration, put all the softwares you need on it, be able to log into controllers like this, Dan Foss controller, as well as many others.

I think that's a great great opportunity as a technician because you're going to get a service call or you're going to potentially dial up and but a lot Of times you'll be out there in a field looking at store view. You're looking at the controller more and more technician i'm hot i'm talking to more even in my programs You've got to have the proper tools and a computer is normal now in this day of refrigeration Okay, you can go and buy them at walmart or on amazon for very inexpensive prices This is a tool now for refrigeration technicians, and you might be still fighting it, I don't need a computer, or you might say, Oh, my, my, my company should buy it, no, you should have your own computer for refrigeration, put all the softwares you need on it, be able to log into controllers like this, Dan Foss controller, as well as many others.

So you can troubleshoot it quicker. Or, or you can use the handheld or not the handheld, but the screen on the controller itself. But it's a tool, it is a tool today, computers.

So if you don't have a computer, you've got a, you've got a smartphone, you can access it through there and still be able to see some things as well. So it's just utilizing the tools that are at hand. This this shows the I mentioned earlier, there's different there's multiple views. You know, some people like the data driven view.

Some people want something a little with a little more graphical representation. So up at the top of the control screen. There is a the graphical view and there's three screens on the graphical view. So we give a rack view an evaporator view and heat recovery view.

So you would have to jump between the three. But this gives me the same thing that I just saw earlier. If we think about it. You know, my flat, I can see my flash tank. I can see it's 5 80. I could say I know that you're 5 50. I know that that's my control. I expect my flash gas valve to be at 0%, which it is.

My high pressure valves at 0 percent as well. My evaporators are off. So, you know, this is this is suction superheat here and suction pressure, suction temperature, suction pressure. Discharge temperature. And then there's a little 0 percent above each compressor. It's just saying, Hey, I've got 0 percent compressor capacity.

My high pressure valves at 0 percent as well. My evaporators are off. So, you know, this is this is suction superheat here and suction pressure, suction temperature, suction pressure. Discharge temperature. And then there's a little 0 percent above each compressor. It's just saying, Hey, I've got 0 percent compressor capacity.

Like I'm off. If, if the system was what I do like with the graphical side, is it when it goes into an alarm condition, if there is one present these, all of these values will highlight red. So it's like, it's a very distinct, like, Hey, why is this all glowing red right now? Something's something's wrong, even though the system might be running. Okay. And operating, it'll still stay red if there's an alarm condition present. So I do like that.

This is a kind of a, even a further level or another layer of view. And, and, and so you go from the system view to the graphic view over to the detail view. The detail view is where, you know, now I'm looking at my status of my suction. you know, I can see obviously a lot more data points. You can, you can select the summary tab and drop down.

This is a kind of a, even a further level or another layer of view. And, and, and so you go from the system view to the graphic view over to the detail view. The detail view is where, you know, now I'm looking at my status of my suction. you know, I can see obviously a lot more data points. You can, you can select the summary tab and drop down.

You can get into safety conditions. You can get into all these different layers. Of data view points, but you also get the settings tab off to the side. So if you were to drop this menu down and go into like the heat recovery view, for example, you would see the the technical data on the heat recovery.

And then over on the side, you would see some settings. that can be changed by the user. I don't recommend changing many settings remotely or without access to somebody on site because it is easy to make a setting change, not get the expected result, put the system into an alarm, change your setting back because you're like, okay, that didn't do what I expected to do.

But now what? Now I got to get a hold of somebody. I got to have him go make a change and and and have some communication. So one big piece of advice I could give everybody is if you are going to make a remote change, make sure that people on site are aware. That you're going to do that so that everyone's comfortable and prepared.

But now what? Now I got to get a hold of somebody. I got to have him go make a change and and and have some communication. So one big piece of advice I could give everybody is if you are going to make a remote change, make sure that people on site are aware. That you're going to do that so that everyone's comfortable and prepared. If things go south you can, you can get things turned around real quick.

So when you get to this other set of the parameters, something changed, a fan turned on or off. Now you can see it all in one, one, one shot, but you want to make sure if you're changing, so I love what you said there, if you plan on changing something, you got to have someone there because you could, for some reason, all of a sudden that high pressure valve closes for whatever reason you change something and the compressor is still running and you may pop the relief and now you get no CO2 in the system.

That could be an issue. And now for example, your customer could be running a process and trying to cool down the milk or the vats, and they can't do it at that point. That could be a big issue, right? So That could be an issue. And now for example, your customer could be running a process and trying to cool down the milk or the vats, and they can't do it at that point. That could be a big issue, right? So

That that gives us like a full alarm history of the system. So if you get notified that there's an alarm from a technician standpoint, it's real easy to log in. Look at the alarm history. You could look at any active alarms or what alarms were cleared and you can see like, okay, well, what was happening upstream of the alarm.

That's how I always like to look at it is what happened before what happened during. Okay. And then what happened after? And I don't get too deep into it. My first pass is gonna be pretty fast. You know what happened in 45 minutes before 45 minutes after 45 minutes during. But then if I have questions or if I can't piece the puzzle together from that, then I then I'll go in and utilize the history tab and I'll show that show that later in a slide right here.

That's how I always like to look at it is what happened before what happened during. Okay. And then what happened after? And I don't get too deep into it. My first pass is gonna be pretty fast. You know what happened in 45 minutes before 45 minutes after 45 minutes during. But then if I have questions or if I can't piece the puzzle together from that, then I then I'll go in and utilize the history tab and I'll show that show that later in a slide right here.

So the history tool That gives you the ability to go in and you can, you can graph and take a look at you know, okay. Historically, what, what had happened on a system. And this top one's an example where ultimately it was a low fluid level in a, in a, in a heat recovery system. So we have a, a charge a closed loop charge of glycol, but when that closed, there was a, a, a leak on a pump seal.

There was, you know, I think it holds about seven gallons of a glycol mix. it leaked out. So, but it affected the refrigeration circuit or it was affecting the refrigeration circuit. So we were able to look at it remotely and say, well, man, our discharge temperature, look at it. It got all the way up to 2 68.

There was, you know, I think it holds about seven gallons of a glycol mix. it leaked out. So, but it affected the refrigeration circuit or it was affecting the refrigeration circuit. So we were able to look at it remotely and say, well, man, our discharge temperature, look at it. It got all the way up to 2 68.

And then this is, of course, We get a compressor safety trip. So now our, our discharge temperature comes down. It's just sits idle. And then here's where we got it reset. We watched it operate. We're like, man, that's still running really high. So between this point and this point, we identified, Oh, we've got to get some fluid over into the heat recovery system, get it in and everything's running.

And we're running, you know, it's, it was still running a little high. I think things tapered off once it, it got into its operation, but. You know, we went from here to here pretty and this was the amount of time it took us to troubleshoot it. At that point, we get notified, we get an assessment, then we get out on site. We say, hey, it's good to let's get this thing fired up. Let's start troubleshooting problem identified. Now we're back into a steadier operation. So,

We say, hey, it's good to let's get this thing fired up. Let's start troubleshooting problem identified. Now we're back into a steadier operation. So,

You know what I mean? Like Yep. What is going on with the refrigeration circuit? And this is the biggest thing that I see in secondary glycol systems. Liquid overfeed systems where us as refrigeration technician, even chiller technicians, we get folk on the refrigeration circuit. But this has nothing to do with the refrigeration circuit to cause this trip, you know?

So. Correct, correct. So they're even doing this remotely. Like you're looking at this remotely, you probably couldn't tell that's the liquid fluid unless you're there and you actually do the tests and checks and look for a leak, you know, why did it go off if you're experienced now and you've seen this before?

Yes, but if you, you know, if you're only, you only worked on a 20, 30, 40 systems, you're only doing a couple of years. You may have not have seen this happen yet. And One of the things I, I remember used to get pigeonholed. Oh, it has to be this. It has to be this. You have to take a bigger view at a whole system because your refrigeration circuit could have an issue because of the glycol.

Yes, but if you, you know, if you're only, you only worked on a 20, 30, 40 systems, you're only doing a couple of years. You may have not have seen this happen yet. And One of the things I, I remember used to get pigeonholed. Oh, it has to be this. It has to be this. You have to take a bigger view at a whole system because your refrigeration circuit could have an issue because of the glycol.

What starts happening? Suction pressure dives off. You're, you're seeing higher temperatures. on the, on the cooling media. And you're wondering, man, why is, why is, why? Why is both of these compressors not running? I'm only running one. Well, if you look at your selection temperature, it's way down. And you know, the technicians first reaction is like, well, we've got bad electronic expansion valves.

What starts happening? Suction pressure dives off. You're, you're seeing higher temperatures. on the, on the cooling media. And you're wondering, man, why is, why is, why? Why is both of these compressors not running? I'm only running one. Well, if you look at your selection temperature, it's way down. And you know, the technicians first reaction is like, well, we've got bad electronic expansion valves.

Why? Why would you say that? Well, the suction pressure is way low and it should be coming up and but it's not. And so then we start peeling the onion and you know, you eventually get into, you want to peel the onion from the outside in. You don't want to try to get into the core and dig it out. So outside in would have said you got enough glycol in the reservoir.

I don't know. Well, we didn't check that. You know, that didn't come up in conversation until, you know, step 10. Well, step one through nine. We just made sure everything was good, but it's a time factor. You know, you're you're you're just wasting time. If you just start at the basics. And then work your way in most of the time, it's one of the basic items.

And I totally agree with that because there's so many times as I couldn't continue to advance in my career as troubleshooting, because I was always an average troubleshooter. But over the years of the game, more and more experience, I started to learn not to. Think about the job of stress and be like, this is, it has to be the problem before you even get there, because sometimes dispatch calls you or you get a call and they say, it's this problem.

It's actually not even that problem when you get there. And so you come and then you start with the basics every time. And you'll learn is is the circulating pump running? Do you like all in there? Is the fans running on the electrical panel? Cause some of them, you know, you'll have to cool the electrics. Maybe, you know what I mean? There could be any, it'll be something a little like that. Yeah. But look at that, start with the basics and take a overall look at a system.

This was an example where we had a bad discharge transducer. This was actually one where the, when we were doing the diagnostics. We didn't have, we couldn't, we couldn't identify remotely any reason for there to be an alarm. We were getting the system was going off on a compressor safety alarm, which was tracked traced back to the high low pressure switch.

This was an example where we had a bad discharge transducer. This was actually one where the, when we were doing the diagnostics. We didn't have, we couldn't, we couldn't identify remotely any reason for there to be an alarm. We were getting the system was going off on a compressor safety alarm, which was tracked traced back to the high low pressure switch.

The high low pressure switch, we were able to talk with a maintenance mechanic on site who was able to reset it. Well, we know when, when that trips, you know, we've got, we either went above, you know, 1600 PSI on the discharge or we went down below you know, 200 PSI on the suction and we're, we're looking at things and we're like, we're never, you know, here, here we're operating and then we trip.

Well, you know, I can't see off to the side, but I think we were like 12, 1300 PSI. We're well away from 1600. And so, you know, this was, the condition was present. It was reset manually on site. we operate, everything was looking perfectly normal. And then all of a sudden, boom, we trip. Now we're off. Now things have equalized.

Guy goes out, resets it again. Everything's running normal. Boom. It trips again for no particular reason. I mean, we're looking at discharge temp. We're looking at chilled water sensor. We're looking at suction gas temp like so then, you know, that's where you make the call. Okay, I got to get out on site.

Guy goes out, resets it again. Everything's running normal. Boom. It trips again for no particular reason. I mean, we're looking at discharge temp. We're looking at chilled water sensor. We're looking at suction gas temp like so then, you know, that's where you make the call. Okay, I got to get out on site.

And when I say I don't mean I personally, I mean, as the mechanic is the technician that services the equipment, go out on site, see if these pressures are right. Is this making sense? And in this case, You know, we were seeing we were actually getting up to, you know, 1500 1600 P. S. I. But there was a faulty discharge pressure sensor.

You know, it just wasn't wasn't reading accurately. So that you can verify that that that that's when you make that call to get on site. So but but the remote diagnosis kind of already pointed the direction. Okay, we're going off on high pressure, low pressure. Let's make sure those pressure transitions are reading accurately. So on site time was Mhm. You know, 20 minutes, super quick to get it identified.

And that that's important, right? Understand the system that you're working on. Take a look at it's the basic stuff. Like a sensor is a basic thing. A temperature probe is a basic thing. We just need to do the proper checks and they're very easy to do the checks. We've talked about it in many, many different sessions.

But, you know, here was an example of an email that came through from a system where you know, we had. Two compressors both trip on safety cutout, but you notice at the top, there's a external power loss is identified. Well, inside of the control circuit of the systems, we have a a battery backup UPS for all of the low voltage controls.

So there's a power failure that UPS says, Hey, I'm, I lost power. I'm going into an alarm mode, boom, that triggers an alert, then your compressors are. So you imagine you lose line power. Now your compressors go to do something and they're like, Hey, I ain't got the right power. Boom. I get safety cutouts at the same time.

So there's a power failure that UPS says, Hey, I'm, I lost power. I'm going into an alarm mode, boom, that triggers an alert, then your compressors are. So you imagine you lose line power. Now your compressors go to do something and they're like, Hey, I ain't got the right power. Boom. I get safety cutouts at the same time.

So eventually what was identified here was the onsite power. Was it had issues? It wasn't, it wasn't creating any trips on any other equipment. But the chillers equipment was picking it up and saying, Hey, we're not going to operate right now. This is so, you know, it was, it went back to a utility connection issue. So all from an email.

You need to take training on that. So if you're new to the refrigeration industry, wherever you're at in the world, it's all about being safe. And right here, this here is where you're making a phone call to the customer, talking with the customer about it. And they're calling. The power company are with you together making a phone call saying, I got my meter here, I'm going in and this is coming straight from the line, your transformer outside into the building, or, and this is the power or into the system, I guess, you know what I mean?

You need to take training on that. So if you're new to the refrigeration industry, wherever you're at in the world, it's all about being safe. And right here, this here is where you're making a phone call to the customer, talking with the customer about it. And they're calling. The power company are with you together making a phone call saying, I got my meter here, I'm going in and this is coming straight from the line, your transformer outside into the building, or, and this is the power or into the system, I guess, you know what I mean?

Because it would be the wrong, the wrong power into the, into the system. And so nothing

You know, on the, on the chiller. And I also got a trip that there was a, an issue with the external power and you're going to get, I didn't even know there was anything going on or you're going to get, yeah, we've been having some power issues. That's awesome that that thing shuts down and. And you let us know and they're going to appreciate that.

Yeah, because everything now we know is on electronics, you know, in, in our houses, in our commercial buildings, in our industrial buildings, everything's electronic. So you get drives and VFDs and all of a sudden you start having power issues. You're going to have thing, weird things happen all over the place.

And so this is something that we can help bring value to our customer. Just building the relationship with them. But once again, it's about the safety. You have to, you've got to have the certificates to do this stuff. So just giving you a heads up on that. So make sure you take training on that. So, but that's a cool, cool feature to have where you're getting an email.

This does have to be set up. But you know what, it's not difficult to set it up. You get into the Dan Foss manual and you read a few pages and you can figure it out, or you can go online to get a ton of great videos online to show you how to do this stuff set up. So it's important for you to learn how to do it and not always just calling support, say, can you set this up for me? Cause when you will do as

a manufacturer, if we, if they will, we'll do our best on the front end to collect the data for the job site, to be able to input this. And and and have that ready to go ahead of time before the systems commission. Otherwise, this is something that is 1 of the 1st steps during the commissioning of the system is to get this all set up with the I.

T. people on on the job site. It's just as important. In my opinion, is as getting the mechanical system up and running because you get it up and run and you want to be able to get notifications or be be notified if there's a, if there's a hiccup. Nothing's worse than going and starting up equipment. Everything runs great through the night. You go check on it in the morning and then you're on a plane heading home and you get a phone call. Those are, those are the worst.

Yeah. And, and, you know, we were talking, I mentioned a couple of times that there's a web view version or a web version of the remote monitoring diagnostic software. This is, I just wanted to give you a couple of screenshots. It's a lot of the same things. Just. Graphically, it's represented differently is about the best way I can describe it.

The access points history even some of our technicians in house prefer to use the history feature in the web version of the software as opposed to the desktop version. It's just whatever makes people more comfortable. This is the, the web version. This is what it would look like if you pulled it up on your cell phone's web browser. So just to give everybody an example of that. And with that, I've come to the end of my discussion. I love it. Well, time for

We talked about that sequence of operation or order operation, and we talked about remote diagnostic, but we're just touched the surface. There's still so much more that goes into this. And this comes with experience. This comes with research. This comes with reading manuals and books. I say it all the time.

We talked about that sequence of operation or order operation, and we talked about remote diagnostic, but we're just touched the surface. There's still so much more that goes into this. And this comes with experience. This comes with research. This comes with reading manuals and books. I say it all the time.

It's not always fun to read dry material. Cause a lot of it can be dry and that that's it. But after you read it once or twice or three times, cause it takes me a long time to learn sometimes reading, I got to read it five times, but then I get it. And then after I get it. I go out and apply it. And then I know a lot of us as refrigeration technicians are hands on, but you still got to understand the theory behind the stuff you're working on.

So it makes more sense. And this is why I read refrigeration now. And I understand it almost every time the first time, because of reading. Over documents over and over again. I love this name and Damon, how can people find out about you find out about pro refrigeration, get in touch? So left

One thing I didn't have on here is we've got our website prochiller. com. We've got a lot of good resources there. Mychiller. com has a lot of technical resources. But I've got my email address here as well as our sales team. Sales at pro refrigeration dot com. That'll link you right through to our our, our regional sales people and that, that whole team, if there's, you know, requests for more information or anything like that, you can, you can filter right there, but The email and website is the best bet.

One thing I didn't have on here is we've got our website prochiller. com. We've got a lot of good resources there. Mychiller. com has a lot of technical resources. But I've got my email address here as well as our sales team. Sales at pro refrigeration dot com. That'll link you right through to our our, our regional sales people and that, that whole team, if there's, you know, requests for more information or anything like that, you can, you can filter right there, but The email and website is the best bet.

So ProChiller.

If you want to become better at what you do, you got to work at it. You got to train, take more trainings, come to the refrigeration mentor and pro refrigeration trainings, or even other trainings, go to the manufacturer trainings, go to the wholesaler trainings. The more training, the better you got to be consistently learning and growing your knowledge.

Damon. Thank you so much, but I really appreciate this brother. We'll do this again. You bet. Looking for thanks for having me, man. I love it at the next refrigeration experts live. See you. Awesome. Thanks. Damon. Thank you so much, but I really appreciate this brother. We'll do this again. You bet. Looking for thanks for having me, man. I love it at the next refrigeration experts live. See you. Awesome. Thanks.

Damon. Thank you so much, but I really appreciate this brother. We'll do this again. You bet. Looking for thanks for having me, man. I love it at the next refrigeration experts live. See you. Awesome. Thanks.