Refrigeration Emergency...




All store refrigeration wasn't working. One of the service technicians arrived to find the whole rack was out of refrigerant. The single rack operated both medium and low temp systems.



The technician found the leak. A fan motor somehow came loose crushing and punctured the condenser coil. He started repairs while coworkers gathered R-404A to recharge the system. He took a grinder and cut out the damaged piping. The cut tubes were swedged, re piped and brazed into the condenser.



All the suppliers were cleaned out of R-404A to replace the 1100 pounds of refrigerant lost.



The crushed condenser tubing...







The guys determined that the cause of failure was due to a defective fan blade. One of the blades cracked off throwing the other three blades out of alignment. This caused the fan motor support to come loose due to excessive vibration. The loose motor made its way down to the condenser coil where it crushed the piping.







The defective fan blades were replaced with these plastic ones supplied by the manufacture.








Pictures submitted by Mr. Bill