In this troubleshooting problem, it’s the middle of July, and you are the follow-up technician on a callback. The original complaint was a “no cooling at all” call, and the technician who preceded you on this job (we’ll call him Technician #1) has only limited experience, but he reported correctly that he found a failed transformer and replaced it.
Bob and Tim have had a big day at work — it’s 3:30 in the afternoon, and they are done for the day. They’re having coffee at a local restaurant, talking about their careers when Tim asked a question, “What is a ton of refrigeration, and why is it called a ton?”
Bob and Tim were on their way to a no heating call. When they arrived, they looked at the house and saw that it had a package unit. They talked to the housewife and she told them that the unit stopped running sometime in the middle of the night last night.
Bob and Tim were checking a customer's air conditioner and initially thought the unit must be out of refrigerant or very low on refrigerant. But after adding some refrigerant, the suction pressure did not rise at all. Bob then determined they should look for restrictions in the liquid line or the suction line.
Bob and Tim were at a customer’s house doing a seasonal checkup on a condensing gas furnace. This was routine service carried out every year on this customer’s equipment per a service agreement. But when they tried to operate the furnace, the burner would not light.
In this month’s troubleshooting situation, you’re responding to a customer’s complaint that his furnace isn’t heating properly. The equipment is an 80 percent AFUE, natural gas, induced draft unit that employs a hot surface ignition system.
A customer was explaining what was going on with his air conditioning system. His old system had stopped working and he was told that it needed to be replaced. Money was tight and a cousin had a system removed from a rental property. So they replaced the original 3-ton package unit with a 4-ton package unit.
Bob and Tim had just arrived at a service call, the first one for the day. The complaint was that the homeowner’s air conditioning had stopped sometime in the night and the residence was hot. After their initial checks, they suspected a low charge.
Remarks regarding the “It’s All About the BAS” article, as well as the “More Troubleshooting Tips for Spring Tuneups” and “The Value of Remembering the Basic Cycle” articles.
