Just had a talk with an old timer that changed how I look at compressors

Met a retired guy at the supply house yesterday. He said most compressor failures aren't the part itself, it's the install. Dirty lines, wrong charge, bad solder joints. He showed me photos of 5 failed units from one crew. All looked fine on the outside, but the internals told the story. He said 'you fix the install, not the compressor.' Made me look at my own work different. Has anyone else had a seasoned repair guy drop knowledge that stuck with you?

3 comments

3 Comments

butler.finley7d ago

Yeah that's good advice but I gotta call out one thing. Dirty lines and bad solder joints are install problems for sure, but wrong charge is a different animal. Sometimes a compressor fails and the tech just assumes the charge is wrong, but really the unit has a leak or the metering device is stuck. You can't just blame the charge without checking the whole system. I ran into that myself a few years back. Thought a guy botched the charge on a new install, turned out the evaporator had a pinhole leak from the factory. He wasn't wrong about fixing the install first though. Most guys I see just swap parts without looking at what caused it. That old timer had a good way of putting it but I'd say the real lesson is always find the root cause before you throw parts at it.

parkera227d agoTop Commenter

Read an article not too long ago that said something like 70% of HVAC callbacks are actually install issues, not part failures. That stat stuck with me because it lines up with what you're saying about chasing the wrong thing. Your pinhole leak story is a good example of how easy it is to blame the charge when the real problem was hiding somewhere else. Guess the takeaway is that a good install covers a lot of sins, but even a perfect one won't save you from a bad factory part.

finleyh895d ago

Even a perfect one won't save you from a bad factory part." That's the truth. Buddy of mine had a brand new condenser that came with a bad reversing valve right out of the box. Took him three visits before he found it. @butler.finley's right about checking the whole system, even when it's all new.