What do you guys do?

[ekim]

I am not a regular reefer guy, but I had a job thrust upon me yesterday (Christmas) that I had to look into.

Walk in freezer with disconnected wire at pump down solenoid, in box. I reconnect, freezer comes back to life.

Box is so OVERPACKED, not a breath of air can move any where but 6 inces in front of evap. I know the overpacking killed this box, exposed wiring zip tied to lineset in the box, a box shoved in pulled the wire nut off at the solenoid.

Contracted caterer at the embassy I work for doesnt want to pull any stock out, even for me to check things out further. I tell her the stuff at the back will not freeze, she asks me "Where else is she going to put it?", like its my problem.

What do you guys do when you find a box that is so full that you cant even work in there, yet the client wont move anything?

[Dad]

ekim

This situation is fairly normal in our world. All you can do is ask them to move it or tell them the consequences of overloading.

If you write an invoice or log.. give details and you will not be liable or responsible for her actions.

g'luck

[t527ed]

that stuff will not be moved until it is used or thrown out. then it will be replaced with more stuff. no one ever buys as much cooler or freezer as they really need.

[rayr]

Hey Ekim does it look anything like this????

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=92655

[ekim]

I didnt figure there was much else to do.
Food in the box is for a New Years party the ambassador is tossing for some local big shots. Mostly seafood, yuck when that goes warm.

I was called to look becuase the usual South African HVAC&R guy is away on holiday, the marine on post knows me and was getting crazy over the high temp alarm buzzer.

I know I will hear more about this tomorrow.

Stupid woman.

[Dowadudda]

Originally posted by t527ed
that stuff will not be moved until it is used or thrown out. then it will be replaced with more stuff. no one ever buys as much cooler or freezer as they really need.

On this comment, have you ever seen the differences in a system or systems with a bunch of walkin stuff. I do some school cafeteria stuff with walk ins. Some churches. And those are those systems where the walk in has been their for 40 years, same pump, same everything. The floor you could almost eat off of. Impeccable shape. Those boxes, always seem to always be properly loaded. To do what the design intent of that set up was supposed to do. And then you go see an improperly used set up or improperly located and they always just seem to turn to crap in like 5 years.

[ekim]

Originally posted by rayr
Hey Ekim does it look anything like this????

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=92655

That is exactly what it looked like.
Zero room in or out.

I went in to the embassy this morning, NOW there is room. They threw half the food out, box is at 10F.

The woman that bought all that pricey seafood she had to toss was making noise that this was somehow my fault, for not being there quickly enough. What an old hag.

Next time she has a reefer problem she can lose my number.
Maybe I will sneak in there and swap that high temp annunciator with an old fire alarm box I have....

[t527ed]

Originally posted by Dowadudda

Originally posted by t527ed
that stuff will not be moved until it is used or thrown out. then it will be replaced with more stuff. no one ever buys as much cooler or freezer as they really need.

On this comment, have you ever seen the differences in a system or systems with a bunch of walkin stuff. I do some school cafeteria stuff with walk ins. Some churches. And those are those systems where the walk in has been their for 40 years, same pump, same everything. The floor you could almost eat off of. Impeccable shape. Those boxes, always seem to always be properly loaded. To do what the design intent of that set up was supposed to do. And then you go see an improperly used set up or improperly located and they always just seem to turn to crap in like 5 years.

schools and churches are some of the worst around here. schools that get the government food and jam it in there, most churches i have worked in try to jam enough food for a small walk-in into a 2 door reach-in. health dept here must walk around with blinders on.

[fridgit]

Hi Ekim
I know exactly how you feel.I've seen this attitude time and time again.

These days we techos have to go through so much re-training and licencing stuff to use "ozone depleting substances and greenhouse gases " bull**** so the human race may stand some chance to survive the next fifty years...

How many people in the food industry get away with potential murder every day by their disregard of hygiene and the basic simple standards of food preservation.?

On a different tack ! Do we blame Du pont for the end of the world for inventing CFC's or Praise them for keeping our fridges working for the past fifty years ?

Personally I think we should all go completely vegetarian and grow our own produce in our back yards and set all the cows free.

Then I'll retire from this business !!

FRiDGE IT..

[ekim]

Ha!
This lady doesnt get it. She just called again and asked my boss, (not me) if I can go back and check it out this walk in again, just to make sure "it doesnt go down again".

I went over there, and she has it packed up just as full as it was before!
Sheesh.
All new seafood,shrimp and lobster, I have to wonder how much that cost her.

I told her with no airflow, that she would have the same problem. She wanted me to "do" something.

I left.

I wish I had a camera here.

This lady is dense!

[Dad]

I disagree ekim

There is something you can do.

She asked you to do something and you did nothing... what is wrong with you.

Why didn't you pull all of the expensive food and put it on the floor and say.. there, It is fixed!

Don't forget to make lots and lots of notes or she will be at your boss's door.

[t527ed]

even better load the extra food in your truck and say there its fixed!!!

[ekim]

This just keeps getting better for me.

I have been home for an hour. I received a call just now from The Marine Guard at the embassy. High temp alarm went off again!

The lady who re-stuffed this walk in with another load of expensive seafood took the liberty of giving my cell phone number to the Marine, with instructions to call me if the alarm went off.

He just did. That box was at 10F this morning.

Since she is a local civilian contractor, allowed to set up a business in the embassy (for diplomatic community conveniance of course), and has bid and won as the caterer for this ritzy New Years party, I now feel I am entitled to charge her if I return.

Whats the going rate for a reefer guy doing a short notice, non contract, emergency call?

That should get her looking in the phone book real fast for somebody else.

I would be inclined to help her out if only she hadnt been so darn rude to me, snapping at me on Christmas day when I was out there on my own time.

What do you think? I'm not in a hurry.

[Dad]

Xmas call out $350.00 for the first hour and 175.00 each additional hour.

Emergency response reorganization charge $100.00 plus your normal rate and travel. Plus 5 pounds of the fresh shrimp if she has any left.

[t527ed]

Originally posted by Lusker
Xmas call out $350.00 for the first hour and 175.00 each additional hour.

Emergency response reorganization charge $100.00 plus your normal rate and travel. Plus 5 pounds of the fresh shrimp if she has any left.

sounds fair to me

[ekim]

Been there and back. Im glad I live near by. My boss, currently in Egypt on holiday, got a call from the lady also on his cell phone.
He called me (he is annoyed as hell at this point, but not at me) and tells me NOT to go back again. I tell him I will start charging her, he says fine if you want to, he just doesnt want another call from her.

I went out and looked, walk in is locked again, lady doesnt answer her cell. She said she would stay there. Hmmm.
I use the "master key" to open padlock, yep still packed to the gills. No worries though, walk in is in the embassy behind a locked door, with an armed Marine nearby, I doubt anybody will be stealing any warm lobster tonight. I push the closest box to the door, already getting squishy. Go to C.U., unit tripped on high head. Condensing unit (this walk in is pretty new) is piped in under a closed off stairwell, with a temp actuated fan and relief vent for air exchange into the space. Fan thermostat is rolled up to 190F, I roll it down to 70F, it kicks on and cool air floods in from the stairwell. It felt like it was 140F in there when I went in.

Who turned that relief air fan thermo up so high?

I wait about two minutes, C.U. cycles on.

I dont bother much further other than grabbing suction line to feel it cool, compressor sounded good cycling on.

One thing I did find was a sticker the local installer put on the C.U.. I SMS the name and number of the installer to the Seafood Hag, with a note that MY next response will be 1500.00 Rand (almost $300.00 USD), payable up front.

I gave the number to the Marine also.

She can pay me to watch her food go bad. She still has a few days to get more before the party.

If only she had been nice......

[icemeister]

A walk-in that's packed so tight that you can't get into it is not a result of the box being too small as one might think at first, it is often a sign of poor kitchen management.

I had a similar situation at a local, rather upscale social club where the inaccessible freezer must have had stuff that had been in there for years....just taking up space. The chef always complained that he needed a bigger box. Like the embassy deal, you couldn't find your way in to fix anything.

When that jerk was canned and a new head chef arrived on the scene the freezer promptly was emptied and cleaned. The outdated and unusable stock was tossed out. All the salvageable items and new stock was inventoried, tracked and rotated by date. Fresh foods were used instead of so many pre-prepared frozen portions.

For several years now I've found that freezer is well organized and nowhere near what I would consider full, yet they are doing more dinners, luncheons and banquets than ever.