Manufacturers are increasingly designing their systems with unique controls and features that may apply only to their systems. Servicing, installing, and maintaining these new systems can be challenging. Sometimes they require us to reference material provided by the system or component manufacturer. Without this reference material, servicing, installing, or maintaining many of these new systems may be quite difficult or at times even impossible. What is a contractor to do? 

Why does the rapid cycling of a compressor on and off cause it to fail? Rapid cycling can cause a compressor to fail in several different ways. Read on to find out some. 

Technicians should make safety a first priority when working on any refrigeration system. There are many potential hazards associated with installing, servicing, and maintaining these systems. One of these potential hazards is the refrigerant within the system.

One of the basic components selected when installing a walk-in cooler/freezer or any field-assembled refrigeration system is the metering device, typically the thermostatic expansion valve (TXV). The TXV needs to be selected to match the Btu capacity of the system’s evaporator and compressor.

A well-designed medium temperature refrigeration system will maintain both a proper case temperature and relative humidity (rh). The preservation of food depends not only on the temperature, but also on the relative humidity within a case.

Contractors do not like to hear the word “callback.” They cost money and degrade a customer’s respect for and opinion of the service contractor. So how can a technician reduce the number of times he must revisit a repair? 

There is a major customer service component to every refrigeration technician’s job. So how can a technician best represent his company?

While troubleshooting or installing refrigeration systems using a thermostatic expansion valve, it is a relatively common task to measure the superheat value of the refrigerant leaving the evaporator. However, there is a major consideration when using this measurement to analyze the operation of a system.

In many aspects the first part of a job is like detective work — not only does a technician need to identify the problem but he also must determine its root cause. A good initial step is to visually inspect the entire system.

Properly sizing and installing the suction line of a refrigeration system is very important to its overall operation. What happens when they aren’t installed properly and how can you avoid this?