Huge project this week...little bit nervous.

[Joey P]

Keep repeating my mantra...I can fix anything, I can fix anything.

At work we have a walk in cooler. This isn't the little walk in you restaurant workers have in your kitchen, this is 20x40. For some perspective, IIRC, we can (if it were empty) unload two full semi trailers into it. It's old, it's tired. It was installed about 25 years ago. I have no idea if the box was used but the blowers (the evaporators, the part inside the cooler) were bought used. The serial numbers suggest they were manufactured in 1976.

For the past umteen years, they've sprung leaks here and there. To make matters worse, the system is charged with R-22. Catching it as soon as we notice a problem is one thing. Having the tech say a line ruptured means 30# of R-22. On top of the repair, that's usually another $1500. R-22 is being phased out and very expensive. About twice as much as the current replacements (notably R404a).

Anyways, these blowers have reached the end of their usable life. Honestly, they probably did about 10 years ago. Fin rot so bad I can't clean them anymore, leaks, small and large, in the copper tubing on a regular basis and most recently a leak in a distributor that I'm told could take 2 months to find a replacement for. The idea of adding a few pounds of refrigerant at least once a week isn't something we want to do so we're finally biting the bullet and replacing the evaporators (there's two of them).

To save some money, we're dropping the old units and hanging the new ones ourselves. The HVAC guys will evacuate the system, disconnect the electrical and cut the pipes. Myself and another employee or two will do the installation and then we'll call the HVAC guy back to reconnect everything.

So, why does this make me nervous (I can fix anything, I can fix anything). The old units connect with brackets that have holes, the new ones have slots. Now, of course, with holes, my mounting points have to be dead on, but I can make the holes in the ceiling, more or less, as big as I want (within reason). With slots, can't do that as it could vibrate out. Those mounts are attached with screws, I may just remove them from the old units and if they're in good shape, attach them to the new ones. Haven't decided yet.
FTR, the pictures there aren't mine, mine have 5 blowers, they're about 8ish feet long.

Which brings me to the second part...They're hung, what, 10 feet up. That's going to make this a feat in and of itself. I have the manpower, I have ladders and things to stand on, I have a forklift, but still, it's not like I can just have two people hold this over their head while a third person bolts it in place and be done in a half hour. This is going to take me a few hours.

Another issue: As I mentioned, the blowers that are currently there, have been there for a long time. The chances of just being able to unscrew them are slim to none. Furthermore, coordinating with a second person above the cooler (which puts them in our attic and in a very cramped (and hot)) space to hold back on the correct, of 12, bolts, gets complicated. Just cutting them off with my angle grinder will probably prove to be both easier and harder but probably be the way to go. Luckily, when they were installed, the installed added spacers to set them off the ceiling by about an inch and a half, so that should give me a good place to cut.

In a perfect world, I'll be able to get my forklift into the cooler and right up the the old blowers. That means being able to take my time removing the bolts instead of 'sorry guys, I can't get this last one, keep holding it'. Same goes for reinstalling.

Two trips to home depot and I think I have all the things I'll need to hang the new ones. It's just some threaded rod, washers and nuts to go above and below and a long drill bit to make the new holes. Hopefully I got everything I need.

I can fix anything...
From a 'I can fix anything perspective', it really is just dropping one thing and hanging a new thing. 6 bolts to remove one, line up the new one, mark the hangers, drill the holes and 6 new bolts for the new one (x2 for everything). But it's big and unwieldy and I may not have a good way to fire up the blowers before the tech gets back to make sure it doesn't rattle or vibrate or something and make adjustments.
As much as I know about HVAC, this isn't an HVAC project. I'm just taking down one steel box and putting up a new one. It's pretty straight forward.


Hopefully it goes well.

On preview I noticed that the picture of the evaporator 'with slots' has something mine doesn't. The tabs bend down at the end. Mine are straight. I noticed that in other pictures when we got ours. I considered bending ours down as well, but I'd hate to do something like that and weaken them.