Over at the meat processing plant, they keep all of the cuts of beef and pork in a really big refrigerated area, and the space is cooled by a sizable chiller that blows cold air into the room.
- The chiller is responsible for keeping the meat fresh.
When the cold storage system fails, the business risks losing thousands of dollars and wasting products. A few weeks ago, the chiller stopped working. The director of the meat processing plant called the commercial HVAC business where I work. The guy was frantic, because the problem occurred over night. When he came to the plant at 5am, the temperature inside the cooler was 41 degrees instead of 26. I was assigned the job on Tuesday. I gathered all of my tools before leaving the workshop. I arrived at the job site early in the day and I took a few minutes to assess the situation. I checked all of the chiller components plus the blower motor. It seemed obvious to me that the blower motor was the problem. The chiller appeared to be working great and the air was crisp and cold. I spent all day trying to repair the blower motor, however the machine had to be completely repaired. The two of us had to order the unit from a local distributor, and it did not come in until the next day. Thankfully, the meat processing plant has another cold storage section where they could store all of the food until the next day, because once I detached the blower motor, the chiller would not work at all.