Refrigerator not working again

Remember all the hype about Bubble memory? It was supposed to do to solid state RAM, what RAM did to core memory. I've only seen one computer with Bubble memory, and it failed twice in two years.

How old is it? Does it have enough room to vent its heat?

Sorry sport, a fridge compressor is pretty simple... compressor, start kit, and a stat to turn it on and off. He has replaced the start kit, the compressor is a sealed unit, which only leaves the controls. The problem is that iggy has more time than sense.

Anymore, appliances have either become disposable, or your service guy has to also be an electronics tech to work on them. The more high end technologies that are built into home appliances, the fewer techs there are that are qualified to work on them. It ain't gramps air conditioner anymore..... The residential systems I am installing and working on now have digitally controlled, variable frequency, inverter drives.

In any vocation, if you don't update your knowledge base and skillset every

3 years, your behind the curve. With the changes and advances in HVAC, its every 6 months to a year..... unless your looking for "Billy-Joe-Jim-Bob" or "Bubba" with the cheapest price. Just remember that you get what you pay for.

It takes more than *just* gauges to check the refrigerant charge balance. What about the compressors rated amp draw?? superheat?? subcooling??

You can check with your gauges, then piss and moan cause you added when it didn't need it, or recovered what you thought was excess.... when the "problem" may have only been dirty coils, or blower wheel, or dirty filter, or bunch of registers closed, or.............

The same could be said of .

I don' thave a lot of contact with other HVAC guys. But, I can easily believe what you've written. It's a shame that so many techs lack the basic skills.

And, when was the last time you saw ice inside a cap tube? I've been ammused, here, for the entire thread. I'm not at Iggy's place, doing a proper diagnosis. But from what he wrote (and I saw quoted in someone else's post). I'd be looking in different direction for the source of the problem. But, then, everyone knows. I'm just a the dumf'k from alt havoc.

You starting this crap again? Most guys who work in HVAC couldn't get a job at a fast food place.

At least a couple times in my life. I've worked on systems that the customer insisted were low freon, but turned out to be other problems.

One restaurant. The upright two door freezer had some kind of compressor problem. Two cylinder compressor, about half the amps. The owner totally insisted that it needed freon.

Out back, are the compressors for the cases indoors. The one for the pie case, I think it was 1/3 HP compressor, with a receiver. The walk in cooler was 1/2 HP, if memory serves. I put my gages on, and checked amp draw. I could tell by the sound, the units were really straining. The head was waay, waaay, up there.

I tried to explain (the old guy was very deaf) the actual problem. He insisted the one needed 5 pounds of freon, the other needed 8. I got out my Johnstone catalog, showed him the receiver holds 1.5 pounds or was it 1.7 (been about three or four years ago). I told him that I'd need to fix the actual problem. He refused to let me fix the problem. Insisted that I add 5 pounds to the one system and 8 pounds to the other. I finally walked off. I hope he leaves the business some day and his wife calls me back. She was a lot more pleasant. Perhaps he can retire to Florida, and enjoy his retirement there.

Of course, depending which tech you called. You might get a couple pounds of freon added to your system, or you might get a proper repair.

Might be you'd worked on larger ones. The several sub-zeros I've serviced have been tin can compressors. Two -- one for fridge, and a larger one for freezer. They have the usual problems with condensor air flow, and one I worked on had a leaky evaporator.

Actually, I've worked on two Sup Zero which the customer chose to replace. One had a failed compressor, the other had a leaky evaporator.

I was also wondering that, but glad you asked. I'm guessing that at least some of the time, Lloyd's correct diagnosis is much different than the tech from the yellow pages. I'm guessing Lloyd and the tech disagree about 75% of the time.

Ma AC ain't a workin, I thank it's th thermostait.

TDD

You didn't get the memo? It's ALWAYS the thermostat.

"Steve B" fired this volley in news:8ohom7- snipped-for-privacy@news.infowest.com:

Around where we live, I'd say at least 30%. Most of the problems with split systems around here are due to age, corrosion, and leaky fittings; or the omni-present lightning-induced electrical burnouts.

But about 1/3 of the time when they DON'T need anything but a simple repair or leak fix, the "repairmen" will show up, puff and wheeze around the unit for an hour or so, and declare it's going to need "(new compressor, new unit, replacing... et. al.)".

We have some guys who at least can fix units. We have others whose main reason for making a service call is to entice the owner to buy a new unit.

LLoyd

I'm surprised. I'd have figured higher than that. I've also met customers who say that the techs from this or that company seemed only interested in selling new units. Aparently, selling new units is not limited to one company.

Oh man, you're showing your age. I had a great deal of fun with Univac 1100 series and IBM 360-50 systems so long ago. I was actually present when a customer service engineer, remember them, diagnosed a core memory failure, the first he'd seen. Back then, when you bought a computer, an engineer was included in the price to take care of the big monster. I remember the big splash bubble memory made and I think it should be looked at again and updated with more modern materials. There are some applications in the world for simple robust nonvolatile memory devices that could be served by the technology. Darn, I had a small core memory unit (palm sized) that I found in a junk pile on Meck Island at the Kwajalein Missile Range back in the late

1980's. I lost it in a move, it was a neat little gadget.

TDD

Me and my friends have been installing surge arresters on a lot of AC systems especially in rural areas, it keeps them running and the people who depend on them and us happy.

TDD

Nice troll, dumbass.

"The Daring Dufas" wrote

Drill instructor screaming in grunt's face. Grunt answers back, "You don't scare me. I went to Catholic school."

Steve