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if the belt aint broke don't fix it...

Pay me now or pay me more later.

Originally Posted by rider77

...when your towers are down and your loop is 138*.
...
the motor failed last September and was just left like this.

I hate it when people run properties like this. At one of my previous jobs, they believed in this exact same philosophy, right down from initial construction. Ice rink, in Florida. HVAC was DX, ice plant was ammonia chiller / brine in-floor loop. Ammonia leaks were common. Even had a brine leak underneath the rink which was left that way for a few months.

I was told original plans were for chilled water for HVAC, but cut due to cost. Likewise, there were supposed to be twin cooling towers at the end of the parking lot, but the second one was cut due to cost and a single tower was placed on the roof of the building to save the cost of running electric/pipes. Single tower was sized for the load and a 2-speed motor was installed... until it became a 1 speed motor when the low speed windings died. Not the end of the world.

Eventually the motor died...on a holiday weekend. So, the building manager got creative. They bought a ton of drum fans from Home Depot and put them on the sides, blowing air in. Not a bad idea, I guess, but nowhere near enough CFMs to run the plant. So he called a local ice company and had them delivering blocks of ice, which they were lifting up to the roof with a boomer and putting them on top of the coils. This actually DID work, but the process was impractical. So the guy calls the roofing company up and they brought one of their conveyor-belt trucks in. They ran this setup for 3 days until they could get a motor. Of course, they replaced the 2-speed motor with a single speed, because it was cheaper.

Fortunately in recent years they finally overhauled the entire ice plant at a substantial cost. The new contractor thankfully put in a multi-fan cooling tower, horizontal fans. Still on the roof, but at least changing the motor doesn't require climbing into the tower now.

Some of the pros on this site are on youtube .
but i agree with you're reply

As technicians we spend a fair amount of our time dealing with the uninformed, the careless, the overlooked, and the ignorant. Wherever appropriate (especially in these days of "YouTube told me how") charge for stupidity. You will find it grants peace of mind!

Originally Posted by buford

I can see a bunch of PVC to metal joints slowing starting to drip.

Hopefully they went male PVC to female metal... A little better configuration for expansion tolerance. Still could leak of course.
Also lets hope they at least have sched 80 in there. I've seen buildings with 40 throughout, it ain't pretty and I really doesn't like being heated up.

I wrote exactly what I found and did on the ticket and never got it signed. The copy gets mailed directly to the owner of the hotel.
They were crippled yesterday, the loop was in the 90s without everything running. Normal loop temp set point at this facility is 80 in the summer.

I can see a bunch of PVC to metal joints slowing starting to drip.

Those overtime weekend calls I make sure they have plenty of travel charges in the bill. Did they have you write up a BS story on the bill to cover the stupidity? When does the second tower come into play, when the OD temp gets in the 100's.

Usually when this kind of thing happens, the owners/managers of the building clean house and hire new staff as a way to show there was someone to blame. Then they hire more discounted cheap people and the whole cycle starts over again.

It's all PVC pipe, everywhere.
He wouldn't authorize me to buy belts. He wanted to take the belts off the tower with the seized motor and use them.
This is an expensive hotel, and most of the rooms were without air conditioning until I got there and got one tower running. It was 91* yesterday.

At that temp,no PVC piping i hope.

I woulda bought 2 sets of belts.

what's that saying......Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on my part.

that tells you the company and owner don't care .

Feed,Them,
Fish Heads....

Originally Posted by rider77

Their problems no longer affect me, when I pull out of the parking lot and drive home to a nice cool house.
I told this place over a month ago that one air handler was in alarm for dirty filters. Wanna guess what's still in alarm and what filters haven't been touched?
PM in this place happens when stuff breaks or outright comes apart.

Had the same thing happen at a health care facility this week. We got our first really warm days and we get a call about a critical area running above temp. Of course the maintenance guys think it is low on "Freon". I went myself since I was in the area. It was showing a tad low on charge, but was screaming that there was an airflow issue.

I pull the 2" filters at the AHU. Change date on them was 9/15. Still getting back pressure on the supply fan. Get to looking and find a bank of HEPA filters downstream. Couldn't pull them out because of stuff in the way. Thankfully the installers had put an access door on the other side that was covered with duct wrap.

Finally got the HEPAs out and you could hear the fan relax. The guy that worked in that area was bragging about how much quieter it was running. When I asked maintenance about the last time they were changed, the guy said, "I didn't know they were there. How often should they be changed?" ?????????

This unit was installed in 2005. This facility is notorious for Post-Mechanical Breakdown Maintenance. First the disaster, then the money comes for a solution. Ridiculous.

Ask the guy what kind of car he drives. When he wants to know why tell him you want to go to the parking lot and let half the air out of his tires. Same difference. On second thought..... nvm...... the analogy will be lost on them.

You mean Post-mechanical breakdown Maintenance? 😉

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Originally Posted by VTP99

These people create their own problems then want to turn it on you.

Their problems no longer affect me, when I pull out of the parking lot and drive home to a nice cool house.
I told this place over a month ago that one air handler was in alarm for dirty filters. Wanna guess what's still in alarm and what filters haven't been touched?
PM in this place happens when stuff breaks or outright comes apart.

These people create their own problems then want to turn it on you.