Support / FAQs / About techtown

Home Forums The Call

  • The Call

    Posted by guest on May 6, 2015 at 12:00 am

    The “Call”,

    The call that every tech hates. The call that in the description contains the word ” INTERMITTENT”. You could show up on the job and the piece of equipment , be it hot or cold., could be doing what they claim. You could show up and sit there for hours monitoring everything on the system with what feels like every tool out of your service truck, and the unit Cadillac’s the whole time. No problems!

    Then the “No Problems ” actually become a problem. As you are there in front of the equipment, with all your meters and gauges hooked up, and you’re waiting for it to fail and the manager walks by. Looks at his watch and says “Hows it going? How much longer?” Now you have to make a decision. I’ve been here 2, 3 or maybe even 4 hours now and cant get the unit to fail. If I stay he’s going to be mad. “All tech did was sit here for hours and still didn’t fix my unit.” or pack up and leave with the gut feeling you know he’s going to call you back out there. It’s still down. “It’s doing the same thing.” I don’t like intermittent problems. I personally on the first call out there, if I cant get unit to fail, will get with the manager and give them the choice of me sitting there on his clock til I can get it to fail, start changing parts (which I do not recommend, doesn’t make you look good) and can get costly or I say let’s wait and see, it will show itself.

    The question of how long should I sit here and wait for this unit to act up, is a question I have always asked other people Techs, and management and I have never been given a definite answer. So I leave this out there for all to comment about or tell of your “Intermittent ” stories.

    ryanreid1 replied 8 years, 10 months ago 1 Member · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • ectofix

    Member
    May 6, 2015 at 5:08 pm

    How LONG to stick it out on an intermittent problem call is obviously circumstantial, depending on the type of equipment.

     

    I always tried ask as many question as possible at the beginning to give me a clue on where to focus.  Then make it clear to the manager that I may never find any issues.  An hour to an hour-and-a-half of quality time with a unit was usually my norm.  Some equipment, like refrigeration, maybe longer.

     

    I pretty much used that time to give it a good physical. Visual inspection of everything as possible.  Look for overheat wire connectors and bad crimps.  Pull apart Molex or SMT connectors, inspect them, reseat them.  Exercise anything mechanical, etc.  Just really depends on what they’re saying it’s doing wrong.

     

    While run it, check temps, contactors cycling, water refilling or draining.  Look for anything out of the norm. While it’s running and with THE UTMOST CARE & FOCUS (for my safety), wiggle wires around, do voltage drop tests on switches, relays and contactors.  A voltage drop test can reveal allot about the health of a contactor.  Slam doors or lids like they would.  Amp clamp elements.  Run it through all designed operating cycles.

     

    I think you know to do all this, but just a reminder.  After I do all that, I call tech support.  Explain what the intermittent problem is and what I did to bring the problem out to identify it.  See if they have any other ideas and even ask them if there’s been a trend of calls on just such a problem.

     

    I know you’d want to say “Why not call tech support first?”  You can obviously do that.  If it’s warranty, you should anyway.  Otherwise, It’s your option and maybe save the customer that hour of labor rooting around in it.  However,  I like to do the searching first from a more open minded approach and…I may find something unrelated to their problem that’s potentially ANOTHER problem in the near future.

     

    If I don’t find anything and I did my best to find something, I don’t apologize for it.  It’s just the nature of things.  If you can narrow it down to just one or two components that may be causing the intermittent problem, give them the option of replacing the part(s).  Document everything, including their opting to not replace any parts.

     

    Do I have any intermittent stories to share?  I try to forget them <grin>.  I did happen to notice a correlation between intermittent calls and their being at customer’s locations that required the longest drive (like…in another town in another county).

  • totaltech1

    Member
    May 6, 2015 at 5:09 pm

    About 15 years ago I had a customer with a Desert Air unit in their pool room at an upscale retirement center. About once a week we would get a call that the unit was down and the drywall in the pool room was soaked. Each time we found the unit was locked out on the high pressure safety. We looked at everything and could not find anything to cause it to trip. We installed a temp recorder on the line and a week later found that the temp indeed increased and tripped again  After 4 weeks of this. a pattern developed. Every Tuesday morning we would get a call that the unit had failed. So the next Monday evening I took my sleeping bag and spent the night in the pools mechanical room waiting for something to happen. At around 7am I heard lawn mowers and weedwacker’s approaching . Then it happened, the unit started to get noisy and it shut down on the high pressure safety. I went outside to find the lawn care guy had shut off the disconnect to the remote condenser while he trimmed around it so grass clippings would not get sucked into the coil. then he finished and turned the disconnect back on. After that day our “intermittent” problem disappeared

    So the Moral of this story is “Stick with it and think beyond the obvious ” And No I did not get paid OT to sleep there But made a lifetime customer for going that extra mile.

  • ectofix

    Member
    May 6, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    You stayed the night?  Now THAT’S dedication!

  • totaltech1

    Member
    May 6, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    Yep!  When I started in 1985 I was grateful to have a great job and to learn a skilled trade, I am sure you know this feeling to, some of the guys today will complain if the trucks A/C isn’t cold enough

  • ectofix

    Member
    May 6, 2015 at 5:49 pm

    You’re far ahead of me there.  I was in the military back then.  Other than mobile and modular AC units we had in the aviation support community, I had no HVAC/R experience.  Finally got out in ’98 and started working on commercial food equipment.  Started doing refrigeration around 2000.  Still no true HVAC experience though.

     

    But…yes, the aircraft tow tractors had no AC to complain about…or a roof…or a windshield.  In mid-summer on a desert airfield, our specially-placed thermometer once read 137 degrees.

  • ryanreid1

    Member
    May 7, 2015 at 9:26 am

    Hahaha!! The lawn care guy had great intentions doing that..better than most.

Log in to reply.