Overheard a guy at the supply house say 'compressors don't fail, installation kills them'

Made me think about the last 3 sealed system jobs I did. Turns out I was rushing my nitrogen purge on one of them and it showed. Anyone else find that 90% of your callbacks trace back to how you put it in?

3 comments

3 Comments

simon_carr15d ago

The 3 ton split I put in last month is a perfect example of that. I rushed the brazing and didn't pull a good enough vacuum because I was trying to beat the rain. Sure enough, compressor locked up after 2 weeks. Pulled it back down and found moisture in the oil. Nitrogen purge is cheap, but apparently my patience isn't. Now I force myself to time every purge and vacuum cycle with a stopwatch. It's boring but it's way cheaper than a callback.

the_robin15d ago

Ain't that the truth? I did the same thing on a furnace swap last fall, skipped the nitrogen purge to save time, and ended up with a clogged filter drier that took me two hours to find.

ruby65915d ago

Buddy of mine from trade school had this exact thing happen on his first solo install. He was so proud of getting it done fast but skipped the purge and rushed the brazing. Three weeks later he gets a call about low cooling, shows up and finds the filter drier is completely shot. Took him the whole afternoon to fix it and the homeowner was not happy. He still jokes that his shortcut cost him about four hours of his life and a bruised ego lol.