quickly is what im after...... what is your methodology of quickly troubleshooting a refrigeration systems, lets say a walk in cooler? (not keeping temp), so far after 1 year of installing and 6 months service, and finished my first year of refrige school i came up with this method for speed, take ambient temp, step 1.check temp control for malfunction, 2. check/clean condenser coil and install thermometer on clean condenser, 3. touch compressor head hopefully its hot and look at sight glass, 4.if cold check site glass and check/clean evaporator, 5.if still cold compressor suspect and check evap fins and fan motor, 6. check/clean evap check all compressor electrics/capactors, check thermometer at condenser hopefully have 20f hotter than ambient or might be low charge 7. if short cycling check external overload, 8. still cant find issue attach guages and check/monitor/adjust tx valve and check superheat and subcooling and good time to check pressure control / if tx valve ok, 9.check for indication of leak, 10. if blended refrigerant recover with scale (maybe overcharged system), evac, nitrogen, evac again, charge to sight glass 4-6 hours job by this point. this seems to serve me well expecially on tiny under counter systems that you want to avoid putting guages on because youll suck out 30% of the charge and most times there critically charged cap tube systems. i guess my problem is im on my own, no help or guidance from other techs, and how do i know that a compressor is functioning 110% without completeing all this and finding out the compressor is weak? any ideas?
