They have had this system checked every spring since the house was built 8 years ago.

[mark beiser]

I guess their regular guy thinks 0º SH and 0ºSC is ok...

[spark]

But it was working fine till you got here

Did any damage to the system occur?

-Mark

[Chuck]

But it worked for 8 years! This is usually what the HO says when you offer to fix a problem they haven't noticed......

[mason]

I guess their regular guy thinks 0º SH and 0ºSC is ok...

Is that bulb zip tied onto the liquid line going into the txv?

[dandyme]

looks like an aire flo

[mark beiser]

Is that bulb zip tied onto the liquid line going into the txv?

No, it and the mounting clamp were zip tied to one of the lines going to the suction line header by ADP at the factory to keep them together during shipping.
The installer neglected to thread the bulb to outside of the cabinet, and clamp it to the suction line.

Manufacturers are damned if they do and damned if they don't when it comes to mounting sensing bulbs for factory installed TXVs.
If they mount it, a high percentage of installers will over heat it when they braze the suction line in.
If they don't mount it, an even higher percentage of installers won't take the time to mount it during installation.

The installers don't read installation instructions, or the large warning label stuck to the front of the coil, either because they don't care, or can't read english.
Most installers also don't remove any panels they don't absolutely have to, so there is little chance they would notice the TXV bulb in there.

The years of previous service techs checking the system, and not finding this, is just plain old stupid and/or lazy.
When I hooked up to the system, it was really fing obvious that it wasn't working correctly.

[mason]

No, it and the mounting clamp were zip tied to one of the lines going to the suction line header by ADP at the factory to keep them together during shipping.
The installer neglected to thread the bulb to outside of the cabinet, and clamp it to the suction line.

Manufacturers are damned if they do and damned if they don't when it comes to mounting sensing bulbs for factory installed TXVs.
If they mount it, a high percentage of installers will over heat it when they braze the suction line in.
If they don't mount it, an even higher percentage of installers won't take the time to mount it during installation.

The installers don't read installation instructions, or the large warning label stuck to the front of the coil, either because they don't care, or can't read english.
Most installers also don't remove any panels they don't absolutely have to, so there is little chance they would notice the TXV bulb in there.

The years of previous service techs checking the system, and not finding this, is just plain old stupid and/or lazy.
When I hooked up to the system, it was really fing obvious that it wasn't working correctly.

That there was no attempt to install it didn't even cross my mind, I have seen poorly installed ones but at least there was effort.

Similarly around here I've run into piston issues though, incorrect size and even 3-4 where the piston wasn't even in, low subcool and superheat with same story that it's been looked at multiple times.

I think the reason it's missed is that lots of techs are putting the low side on and if it's above freezing and the line feels cold they call it good.

[mark beiser]

Similarly around here I've run into piston issues though, incorrect size and even 3-4 where the piston wasn't even in, low subcool and superheat with same story that it's been looked at multiple times.

Same here, on systems that were installed when the house was built, it is virtually guaranteed that the piston will be the wrong size, unless the indoor unit happened to come with one that matches the outdoor unit.
Often the correct piston is still in its little bag, stuck to the outdoor unit.
I've run into systems that had been in operation for >10 years with no piston at all.

[lytning]

I have seen the TXV bulb tied to the hi side with duct tape. It seems the power head was losing its charge and. Well you know.........
Whatever works. Trouble is, or was that it didn't.

[mason]

Same here, on systems that were installed when the house was built, it is virtually guaranteed that the piston will be the wrong size, unless the indoor unit happened to come with one that matches the outdoor unit.
Often the correct piston is still in its little bag, stuck to the outdoor unit.
I've run into systems that had been in operation for >10 years with no piston at all.

Haha the little bag outside with the piston still in it is a little bit worrying but sometimes it works out.

One of my favs/not favs was last summer when a coworker diagnosed a compressor at an apartment building as "not pumping correctly", the condenser got swapped with a dry r-22 but on start up the measurements were off so the installer called the office, I get sent over and it has high suction, low head, low superheat, low subcool. I call the other tech and ask him what he found originally, high suction, low head with no other readings.... great. I had already found another unit at this apartment with out a piston earlier in the year. Get back to the shop and talk to my manager in his office to avoid anyone's embarrassment and he just gives me a blank stare and finally says he'll handle it from there, I asked all the other guys about a month later and no one went back on either of the calls to do any work on the pistons, guess it fell in "the units doing all it can" category.

I ended up talking to the other tech and installers about why the readings were that way and gave the other tech a fixed orifice sliding chart for superheat because he didn't have one.

[Mike19]

Is this the same house with 10 ventilators on the roof?

[AtticAce]

Somewhat like the bulb I found clamped to the discharge line of a heat pump today. The unit also contained one of those new discharge liquid dryers. The owners wanted me to figure out why their electric bill shot up $600.

The totally hilarious part was the guy who did the work got confused at this 30 unit condo building working on the wrong unit. No wonder he couldn't get the unit to work on a call of the thermostat. These folks spent most of the winter in Florida.

Not sure exactly why he did all of this work as the compressor was not changed. I guess he figured the factory left out the discharge dryer so he was going to make the world right one unit at a time.

Some nasty guy also borrowed a start kit out of one of my customers units, he was too lazy to route the wires of the bad part as nicely as they were originally and of course the big tip off was forgetting to put the electrical cover back on.