COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR TRUE T-49 SERVICE CALL

REFRIGERATOR SERVICE CALL - EXCESSIVE CONDENSATION

Our office received a service call on a True T-49 2 door cooler that we had recently sold. He stated that the inside shelves were condensating a lot and dripping off of them. The unit was cooling fine but excessive interior moisture was the complaint.

Upon arrival at the job site I did an overall assessment of the environment it was in. It was installed in an air conditioned space that was temperature and humidity controlled so I immediately ruled out the possibility of the excessive humid conditions. Further inspection showed that the condensation was mostly on the top shelves and dripping down onto the other shelves and on to the interior floor of the machine.

Next I checked the drain line for clogs and found it draining just fine. Also, I checked the plastic drain hose that drains into the drain pan inside the bottom of the machine to make sure it had a proper trap on it so that heat or outside ambient air could not back up into the interior cabinet. It was properly trapped.

I then noticed that sometimes when I looked inside the reach in cooler the left door was not closing all the time (staying open a couple of inches). At this point I thought maybe that could be the issue because if the door stays open slightly ambient outside air would cause temperature differentials and condensation inside the cooler.

Since this unit is under warranty I immediately call the True technical service line for authorization to make the repairs. After talking to the technical service agent he agreed that it was probable that the door was getting left open sometimes so I adjusted both door tensions so the doors would close by themselves. He also wanted me to check to make sure the unit was level, and it was.

Two days later we received a call from the customer stating that the condensation problem had not gone away. A second service call was made and I again checked all the obvious things such as drain clogs, door seals, door closure, air migration, etc. Nothing unusual was noted so I called True technical service again and explained that we were back out on the same issue.

After going over all the obvious possibilities that I had already checked the True technician mentioned that it may have to do with the products being placed in it and the way the unit is being used. We talked about the product. The main usage for this commercial refrigeration unit is the customer is aging beef in it. Some of the beef was in vacuum sealed wrap and a few were just open and not covered. The True tech said he thought that maybe the moisture is being sucked out of the exposed beef by the blower system and ends up on the shelves in the unit. Therefore I instructed the customer to make sure that all the product was properly covered before placing in the refrigerator. And another thing that True wanted to do was extend the defrost time on the Lae controller and increase the evaporator fan operation time which we did.