2018 RETA Breeze Nov-Dec

SERVICE

The Shade Tree Mechanic, Volume XXXIX BYPASS ISSUES

When they asked me if I had anything to say this month, I said no. It’s been a quiet month. No one has gone out of their way to get my dander up. So, I said no. Then I went inta work, and low and behold, the good Lord decided to send me some inspiration. We got bypass issues. As hard as we try, we miss stuff. Things that look ok get a little worse all the time and we don’t see the decline. It’s my fault. Part of my job is staying up on stuff, but it’s part of a big list and I just haven’t got the talent some days to do it all. As the kiddies say,“my bad”. Unfortunately, they say it and go off to play video games. I know it’s my fault and I’m going to work. Well anyway, I hear that we got a stinker over in one of the storage rooms. I head on over with Ronnie to take a look. Now don’t go thinkin that we’re talking about a big old leak. When we get a stinker it’s normally a minor smell that comes and goes. My rule is pretty simple, it comes once and we’re huntin it, like a 16-point buck. Sos Ronnie and I get to Sr#4 and we detect just a faint odor. I use one of them portable sniffers with the flexible tube. I watch the

number and that thing leads me to the leak. So it takes me to a old bypass valve. I starts peeling the insulation back and see oil. Damn! Sos we grab one of the forklift guys and start clearin out SR#4. Thankfully things are light right now, so no big deal. Thirty pallets over to another storage room and it’s empty. While the forklift jockey is denting every- thing in sight, we starts to isolatin the liquid main. Why the liquid main?Wells I tell ya. Now each room has two evaporators but the main feeds three rooms. That’s six evaps. We closed SR#5 and SR#6 and left the product there. We can close the doors with the liquid off and keep temp. for 24 hours. If they start goin in and out we can’t, but we put those yellow road cones up and they spend their time bumping them, but they stay out of the room. We isolated the liquid at SR#5 and SR#6 and the main. We let the evap use as much liquid as we could and then we started pumping the main out. The yahoo that installed all those storage rooms put liquid bypass valves around all the solenoids and the suction regulators.

I like options, but the liquid bypass bypasses the liquid solenoid, strainer and both isolation valves. Had I done the right thing and maintained them everything would be great, but I didn’t. The extra valves became extra leak points, the insulation was harder to install because of the extra valves and tees. The vapor barrier didn’t hold, wet got in and rotted the bypass piping. Now it’s a big pumpdown. And I can guarantee that bypass isn’t going back in. I already got my Management of Change started. Some bypasses are great. I want bypasses on rooms with single coils or equipment that can’t be taken down long enough for a solenoid repair. But in this case the bypass was unnecessary and an additional item for me maintain. Or in this case an item I didn’t maintain. I guess what I’m sayin is there is no hard and fast rule on when to install them and when not to. Each situation is different. If you install themmake sure there is a reason. If there is a reason, make sure you install them. In my case an old threaded valve in the bypass caught me. Well back to work, no shade tree tonight!

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