IT HAS A BAD BOARD BUT THEY ARE BACKORDERED

These days readily available parts are hit and miss and you have to be able to make things work when you can't find them.

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[FrNMGuy]

That was a really smart idea bypassing that board. It may not be intuitive to us newer guys, but that was amazing, dude.

[boveh]

The last part of your video really hit home about being sent out to learn on your own. I did residential installs for about 5-6 years with 0 service experience. I decided to get in to commercial industrial as a service tech to broaden my knowledge. My first employer would send me anywhere and just expect me to know how everything worked with the responses if I didn’t know “it’s just a rooftop”. It really stressed me out and discouraged me. I’ve tried really hard to try and learn and absorb as much as I can by watching others, especially your videos. I still feel very inexperienced and struggle even with my new employer. Wish I could go in to jobs with the confidence you have, even when you don’t know. Just want to say thanks for spreading your knowledge to struggling techs like myself, it really means a lot. So thank you Chris

[bobmartin]

What you have that many don't have is in depth understanding of how the equipment functions. This is very important and not normally taught in basic school. This is why you can figure out a way to get the customer up and running and save the situation. This is true for any service and any industry, As you know you might bypass about anything but may not be safe and could cause other issues. I have seen some rigging that is very very dangerous. Keep up your great content and explaining your safe shortcuts. Good job!

[jasonjohnsonHVAC]

Auxiliary relays are also a good choice. Your second stage can activate your 3rd stage. A lot of manufacturers use it as proof of contactor closure. I like the use of the timer as a safety feature in case of an issue. Another great video Chris

[dashcamandy]

Quite a few people in the comments section have confirmed my initial diagnosis of the board: the component that "let the magic smoke out" is a MOV, metal-oxide varistor, commonly used to filter out transient spikes and supply voltage surges. You probably could have performed a board-level repair and slapped a 30-day warranty on it by replacing the MOV, and probably the relay above it. Of course, before doing so, one should probably inspect the board and traces to make sure there is no damage...

I don't know how deep your knowledge is (EDIT: of, not is - what the heck was I thinking?) electronics is, and to be fair, a repair like that might be something you don't want to "put your name on" even if you were highly-skilled at board-level repairs. Which is understandable.

As usual, your outro is full of good advice. Being "thrown to the wolves" is far more common than you might realize. It's not specific to tradework, it's also prevalent across most of the food service industry.

Every time they schedule me with someone new - often with one or two days' training, and nothing more - I'm there soothing their frazzled nerves, and telling them something along the lines of "this job throws a lot of info your way, without giving you much chance for hands-on practice, if any. Try to keep calm, focus on accuracy, and the speed will come from time and experience - do not force yourself to meet my pace. Do not be afraid to ask questions if there's something you're the least bit unsure of, because we are a team, and I am here to help. Whatever happens, we'll work through it together."

They usually give me someone barely-trained on hot and iced coffees, and expect me to teach them all the frozen drinks, espresso beverages, sandwiches, cleaning procedures, food handling, the POS (whether it's a point-of-sale register or a piece-of-💩 register, both definitions of POS apply here), closing procedures, and all that during the afternoon rush. And, if somehow I don't have time, or the person has social anxiety disorder and starts to melt down on me and I have them take a brief sanity break, it's somehow MY fault the person on their SECOND DAY lacks the full knowledge I've accumulated over six years (non-contiguous time) with the Franchise.

Sometimes I wish it were as simple as copying a few folders out of my brain onto a USB drive and updating their firmware. 🤣

[philmerrifield]

I find watching you cleaning condensers relaxing maybe because I find cleaning therapeutic, I dunno lol

[psychomokus]

19:45 They must watch all of your videos from beginning to end. I’ve learned a lot from your vids as an electrician

[raymondsvoboda]

Option:
Get a 24v time delay. Have your other compressors contacter paralleled to time delay coil, to energize together.
Bypass the faulty board and use that compressors control circuit and run it through the time delay contacts. Now you’ll have both compressors safeties intact and they won’t bang on at the same time.

[tubesnstuff]

the part that blew up is a MOV aka metal oxide varistor. looks like there's one per relay so it's likely used to suppress transients across the relay contacts to prolong their life. If so, you can just cut it out, with the only negative side effect a possibly shorter life of the relay contacts. If that relay was turning on the condenser fans, if the MOV shorted, it would be sending power to the fan all the time, so a symptom would be the fan running when it's not supposed to. Or whatever is the load connected to the relay would be getting power, but maybe not full mains voltage, so it might also damage it.

[rtechlab]

Need to find an electronics shop like us. If you were local we'd have that board sorted and back in 24 hours.

[colbyarensdorf]

Young guys like me (24) 6 years total into the trade, 2 years into maintenance/service
NEED videos like this to LEARN how to SOLVE problems. It’s one thing to change parts, let’s be doctors. Thanks man!

[richardhiskett]

You could have used both delays by adding an ice cube relay. From the control voltage of #2 run a jumper through a make-delay to the coil of the ice cube relay, also connect control voltage from #2 to the input contact of the new relay. Connect everything you built to control #3, the delay-break and the hp and lp safeties to the NO contact. Theory of operation. #2 comes on also energizing the make delay. After it times out the relay closes sending control voltage to the break delay and the safeties before closing the 3rd stage contactor. Still no lockout but current inrush is minimized. Edit spelling

[MetaphysicalEngineer]

Did quite a few field repairs to circuit boards in the past. Swapping burned out relays and reflowing failed solder joints etc.

I was somewhat "thrown to the wolves" but only because my boss knew I had previous electronics and mechanical systems experience, and I demonstrated I could troubleshoot and research things independently if needed.

[ntsecrets]

The component on the board looks like one of those surge suppression MOVs which isn’t critical to the operation. It may have been damaged by a transient spike or lighting strike. Unfortunately not knowing for sure and that it may have damaged something else means it would not be a good idea to leave it in service.

[josephconway]

What you described about getting "thrown to the wolves" describes my entire hvac career!! I'm not aware of any company here in Connecticut that doesn't do that. I did things with no apprenticeship or license that I shouldn't have had to do. Heck, I even did things only licensed electricians should do even if ai had an hvac license I shouldn't jave been doing! Talk about test your mettle! Once again Chris, you are amazing. I hope your guys appreciate you as a boss! Please know how valued you are. Very grateful for what you do and how you do it! ✌🏻😁😎👍🏻

[bob]

I got one of those CT-XL bags based on your recommendation about a year ago. I don’t go anywhere without it now.

[victoruribe]

That kung fu move with the board was, in a nutshell, Experience. Great job. Kris San! 😆

[kens.]

Great job with the Repairs, Chris. 👍🙏

[NoolimitDee]

Ending speech hit hard because that is so true it happened to me

[kgmuc]

Good catch on the bad board and trying to save the compressor as much as possible