When possible, repairing these coolers without attaching a pressure gauge to the sealed system can avoid creating unnecessary service issues with the cooler in the future.

Panelists reviewed the advantages and disadvantages of most of the alternatives that are currently being considered for unitary and VRF systems.

When the nameplate charge is not specified, there are guidelines and techniques all technicians should follow when charging a system.

Understanding how accessories are properly used will allow technicians to better maintain and repair refrigeration systems.

Oil-logging is often a major cause of low-side restrictions, and there are many ways in which evaporator and suction lines inside tubing can become oil-logged.

When installing or repairing a refrigeration system, technicians should look for opportunities to slightly modify the system (without changing its design) to make it more serviceable.

Troubleshooting the high side of a refrigeration system will often give service technicians valuable information. That’s because what happens in the condenser is a direct reflection of what is happening in the rest of the refrigeration system.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a typical food retail store leaks an estimated 25 percent of refrigerant, or approximately 1,000 pounds, annually.

If a system has a defective compressor, finding a replacement is generally easy, but here are a few tips, just in case.

The homeowners of a medium-sized house complain of reduced airflow coming from their registers during the summer. Their air conditioner is a 4-ton (48,000 Btuh), R-22 split system with the A-coil in the plenum of the furnace located in the basement. The evaporator has an orifice for a metering device, and the condensing unit is located on the east end of the house.