Your role in this month’s troubleshooting situation is providing a second opinion on a failed compressor diagnosis. The customer’s complaint is that the unit isn’t cooling properly — the equipment is a heat pump package unit that is just past the warranty period for the compressor.
The technician asking you for a follow-up has limited experience with heat pump systems, and he explains that he arrived at the diagnosis that the compressor is not pumping based on the pressure readings found upon accessing the high and low sides of the system with a standard compound gauge set at the points shown in Figure 1.