Aboutjohn t. borgman Expertise I work days, so I can only answer early in the day or later in the evening, I live in Oregon. I have been so good at all the other area's of hvac, I am probably the only hvac guy that does not know oil. ( lol ) I am very well versed in gas, electric and heat pumps and will only answer residential applications. I have been known the past decade or so, by my employers as the guy you send when no one can figure it out. Trouble shooting is my special. I understand the physics behind air flow, refrigerants and electricity. I understand programmable t-stats, zone controls, economizers, fossil fuel kits and the engineering thought process in the wiring and construction of residential equipment
Experience I was lucky enough to start in this field over 25 years ago as an installer, for a company that installed the best duct systems I have ever seen, even to this day. The best ,as far as understanding the way air really flows through a duct system, from the return air to the very last supply register . They also had great pride and the duct work was put in, not only to last 50 years, but to look exceptional. Then as I started doing service work, I was again fortunate that I found a 3 year engineering class being put on be a man that was the educational director for the Entire united states for a society called " the Refrigeration Service Engineering Society " And for the next 3 years I schooled at night and practiced what I learned during the day, a great advantage over schooling and then trying to remember it years later.. Versed in duct design manual J heat gain/loss calculations. Also experience in wine rooms and indoor swimming pool hvac & humidity controls
Publications I have 2 inventions that have gone through the process and been recorded at the National Institute of Standards and Technology from start to finish and thus been invited to national innovation workshops by the dept. of Commerce and the dept. of Energy. They are waste heat recovery devices that N.I.S.T approved as valid and am currently looking for marketing partners to get this product into the hands of consumers and make a BIG difference in Energy savings for every Household and Eatery and take a big bite in the the peak hours power consumption that face our Utilities companies.
Education/Credentials factory training in Lennox ,Rheem, Ruud ,Trane, Tempstar ,Carrier, Day&Night, Payne, Bryant, Coleman, Intertherm, Ultra boilers, Unico, Mitsubishi,Sanyo, Taylor, Nicewonger, . Associates degree in Refrigeration Engineering. Certified with Energy Department, Check-me Program, have N.A.T.E. certifications in gas, a/c & heat pump. Teach and apprentice at every company I work at.
I have a quick question. question is: I have a 4 ton Comfort maker air conditioner that I changed out the compasitor, due to the compressor was notturning on. Got the compressor to work. when the compressor was off I had a pressure of spike on suction side and 220 on high side.
todays temp at the time was 87 degrees. when I got the compressor on. the suction side turned to 0 and high side went to 160 and stayed. it did not increase. I recovered the charge with-in the line and closed both values and used nitrogen to see if there was a blockage. found none in line. opened the values and vacuumed the line to -30. I put in a new charge of R-22liquid only and the same thing happened. 0/160. and stayed no matter what I put in. turned it off and did a dry charge to make it have enough in it. I checked the wiring all voltage looks good. I am being told that it is a bad copressor. if so I will change it out, but I would like to know why it does that. can you help? if so thanks.
ANSWER: Arric,
I doubt it is the compressor, more likely the txv at the indoor coil. To check the txv, open up the door to the evap coil and remove the sensing bulb from the suction line, being careful not to kink or break the small copper tube. Then with the system running, put the bulb in a glass of HOT water right out of the micro wave, then look at your low side pressure and the line actual temperature with a clamp on temp probe. If it stays at zero, you have a bad txv. To double check, then put the bulb in ice water and look again. There are only a few ways a compressor can fail. One is mechanical, which generally means no pressure difference from low to high and the compressor will pull only 3 or 4 amps, because it is not turning under load ( the connecting rod from the motor to the compression chamber has broken. Other mechanical is if the slide valve is not seating on each orbit around, this will give you high low side and low high side but a difference non the less and again compressor will now only pull about 50% of the RLA amps. The other failure is electrical. It will go to ground or have open windings. If you don't know how to trouble shoot those write back and I will share.
Let me know I will be back on here tonight
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QUESTION: this house was built in 1999-2000 time there is no TXV in the coil. 10 seer track home as well. could there be any thing else it might be?
Plus with the values close I shot nitro in both the suction and liquid lines at different times and it flowed freely. I will check the unit again inside the coil. but last time I was there I did not see a txv.
what I did notice was that the suction line was dry of any freon when it was zero. not the fact it was standing still.
Answer Arric,
You need to check for a txv and if you have pressure on the high side and none goes through to the low side, running or not then you have a total restriction somewhere between the liquid line service valve, which is where you are measuring the high pressure, and the low side service valve where you measure zero. It is not a compressor I assure you. Think about it. If you are measuring pressure at the liquid line after it leaves the condensing unit ( that is where you attach your gauges at ) then how could the compressor stop the flow of high pressure to no pressure? It is physically impossible.
Now if you opened the line or your hose from your gauges to see if anything came out from the zero side, you let atmosphere in, you understand that don't you?
Are you sure your low side gauge is working? Have you taken a temperature of the low side? These are just questions to make you think about things that you might not have thought to check.
But, I promise you, it is the metering device for the indoor coil or a kinked line or blockage. To prove to yourself that the compressor is working, put 100 psi in the low side with it turned off, then turn it on and you will see that it dissapears from the suction line to zero. The only way that could work is if the compressor is working.
The only way you can get 160 or 220 or whatever on the high side is if the compressor is compressing like it is supposed to.
