rheem outside comp iced, inside evap iced

[TheDuke]

wentout on a call today customer had ac on todays staite said was not cooling, I took cover off condenser suctionline had 2 inches of ice around it.
compressor had ice all around it.
went in crawl there was all water dripping off the suction line insulation evap was a block of ice.
things only 5 years old dam.
finally got my gauges on it gave it a liquid charge not running of course sucked up 3 pounds of refrigerant.
told customer not to run it for a day let all the ice melt in the evap then i will check it again to cap off my charge see what wrong with the thing.

[bb]

Originally posted by TheDuke
wentout on a call today customer had ac on todays staite said was not cooling, I took cover off condenser suctionline had 2 inches of ice around it.
compressor had ice all around it.
went in crawl there was all water dripping off the suction line insulation evap was a block of ice.
things only 5 years old dam.
finally got my gauges on it gave it a liquid charge not running of course sucked up 3 pounds of refrigerant.
told customer not to run it for a day let all the ice melt in the evap then i will check it again to cap off my charge see what wrong with the thing.

Your kidding right ? How can you charge a frozen unit properly ?

[HVAC Pro]

I'll be back. This one is going to be too hard on my brain right now.

[t527ed]

oh boy, lincoln tech must be proud of you!!!!!!!!

[bar7]

is this a joke???

[Shophound]

Mr. Duke, I highly recommend you spend some time studying the effect of airflow over an evaporator coil.

Did you even bother to look at the filter and blower wheel? Tell tale signs of what that coil underneath all that ice might look like.

[TheDuke]

ok why is every one picking on me!
did like 7 calls today just came home little while ago
stuck in traffic half the day tryin to make a livin here.
yes first thing i did was check the filters then i checked the evap seen the ice then looked up at the suction line seen all the water dripping then i told homeowner to turn it off went out to the condenser remover cover seen all the ice out there.
told homeowner to run the blower to melt ice checked to see water pooring out of evap drain line
chipped away at ice gave it about 30 to 40 minutes then plugged into the system took standing pressure gave it a checked it out and gave it a charge like i said above.
told homeowner not to run it for the nite tomorrow i will go and see what i can find.
yes im here cause im looking for some advise of corse from other techs

[HVAC Pro]

What other kinds of things did you find on the other 7 calls? Just wondering what kind of problems you're experiencing in your neck of the woods.

[tinknocker service tech]

addvise on iced up unit
shut it down leave the blower run. go back at the end of the day or the next day and find out why it iced up.
never add refrigerant to a unit that is iced up

did 15 calls today and got in at 9.30
it is part of the trade and happens every year

[gbfromsd]

15 calls? Geez you got a helicopter or something?

[Yuma]

Originally posted by tinknocker service tech
addvise on iced up unit
shut it down leave the blower run. go back at the end of the day or the next day and find out why it iced up.
never add refrigerant to a unit that is iced up

The last line here is the most important!!!!
More techs have killed compressors by Just adding a few pounds!Unless the coils are clean, blowers/fans working properly and the ducts are clear (and you checked each) Don't add a few pounds!!!
And as for long days, out here it's been over 100° for over a month and that goes with the territory.

We are also not trying to just bust your chops but to keep you on the proper road and not make to many mistakes.

By the way it's 10PM and still 84°f out side.
(Another cool day in Paradise!)

Yuma,

[reverunbilly]

did you use the yellow jacket ice pick, or the robinair model?

[inturmoil]

I love this site. Plumbers respond to HVAC calls. . . .

[beenthere]

Adding gas to a frozen system is a great way to kill the compressor.

Next time just tell the customer to leave the fan run, and you be back.

[Special Ed]

I only did three calls. Somehow, I feel woefully inadequate.

Ditto what everyone else says: Avoid adding gas to the hi-side of the system even if it's frozen!

[hvac student_4063]

Originally posted by tinknocker service tech
did 15 calls today and got in at 9.30
it is part of the trade and happens every year

I'm having a hard time believing this. What time in the morning did you start? How much travel time did you have between calls?

I did 7 calls on Friday and it pretty much kicked my butt...got started at 8:00, got home at 9:00 pm.

Oh well, at least my HVAC Widow and Orphans are laughing all the way to the Bank. :-)

[deanlin]

Ive ran into a few frozen evap coils lately-I turn the furnace on and it melts pretty fast-however you have to watch for the water running down the furnace-also depending on what I run into I usually run 6-10 calls a day--15 calls sounds awfully high.

[tinknocker service tech]

hvac student_4063
started at 630 am stopped at 930 pm
all with in a 15 mile radious. mostly small problems and not time comsuming. and my main point was it is that time of the year and working long and hard hours goes with the turf. it was a good day and fell together good for me nornarly i do 8 to 10 calls in a day
and sometimes only 1 or two if they are real problem call
two of them were iced up also and went back the next day
one was a plugged coil took 4 hours to pull and clean and install. the other was low refrigerant.if i had added freon to one the compressor would be gone now and the other probably would be ice again. adding to a frozen system is a very bad thing to do
you also will have a few of this days when every thing falls in place and you just blow out calls. most are bull shit calls but they are still calls

[Steve Wiggins]

15 calls in one day? I knew a football team that put 50 points on the board and still got beat.

What about the defense? What about visting with the customer so you will have better customer retention?

Its not always about the offense.

[tinknocker service tech]

gentalmen it was a 15 hour day and and fifteen calls that caomes to about an hour a call. no lunch or dinner and a couple stopps for drinks and snacks while driving.
this comes to 7 calls for about 8 hours. with in a 15 mile radious so travle was not much of a factor. so no did not sit and have drinks with the coustomers explained the problems talk to them a few minutes and moved on.
it was a fluke day and very simple calls blown fuses from a storm and and a few exploded caps from the same storm
some loose connections. took on extra to help out one of the guys that was stressed out while stuck on a problem call while another guy help out with the call. two of us took thier load. you are right coustomer relation is an inportant factor put in this case not cancaling them was more important. we showed and they had air that day. the coustomers were happy the work got done the two techs were able to do what they had to do with out the stress of the calls they had left. and i got lucky and had easy calls