Webinar Recap: Compressors Don't Die - They're Killed
Compressor Floodback (2-minute snippet):
“By just making the food cold rather than solving the root cause of an issue, technicians often unintentionally allow compressors to be killed. By using data more effectively, we can fix the issue and make everyone’s lives easier.”
Compressor failures are a huge problem in the commercial refrigeration industry. Compressors are generally the most expensive single piece of equipment in a refrigeration system, and an unplanned failure can cost tens of thousands of dollars in new equipment and technician labor. Not to mention the potential food spoilage and lost sales if product temperatures get too high.
The good news is that the vast majority of compressor failures are preventable with the right data and action plan. Based on the data Axiom Cloud has collected from supermarkets and cold storage facilities, combined with additional datasets and anecdotes from industry experts, over 90% of compressor failures can be prevented or significantly delayed. It’s because of this belief that you’ll often hear an Axiom team member say “compressors don’t die – they’re killed.”
In this webinar with experts from Refrigeration Mentor and Omni Mechanical solutions, we discussed some of the most common reasons for compressor failure and how each can be avoided. Discussion topics included:
The most common reasons compressors fail
How compressor failures are detected and diagnosed across the industry today
How data, analytics and AI can help identify and prevent compressor failures
Case studies describing the results
Q&A
Since we didn’t have as much time as we were hoping to address audience questions in real-time during the webinar, we decided to answer a few questions here. If you have a question that did not get answered, feel free to reach out via our contact page.
Q: Can you go into more detail about the similarities and differences between floodback and liquid slugging?
A: Compressor floodback is the continuous return of liquid refrigerant droplets into a compressor through the suction header. Floodback is most often a result of low superheat, which is caused by improper controller settings or low heat loads on evaporators from frosting or valve damage. Floodback is particularly treacherous because it can be hard to detect without the right sensors, and it usually will not cause a compressor to fail immediately. Over time, floodback will wash oil off of a compressor’s lubricated surfaces, causing premature wear and overheating.
While liquid slugging also involves liquid refrigerant in a compressor, slugging almost always occurs on compressor startup. During a prolonged or particularly cold off-cycle, gaseous refrigerant can condense in the compressor oil. Because liquid refrigerant is more dense than oil, it will then flow to the bottom of the compressor crankcase. Upon startup, the refrigerant will immediately boil into a gas, creating foam that can clog oil passages and damage cylinders. The resulting high temperatures and pressures result in immediate component failure in the worst case, or starve the compressor of oil in the best case.
Q: What happens once you’ve identified one of these issues?
A: For stores that are subscribed to Axiom Cloud’s Facilities Analyzer or Virtual Technician applications, maintenance managers will receive an anomaly notification alerting them to the issue. These anomaly notifications also include the urgency of the problem, estimated financial impact, relevant data, and suggested actions to take to resolve the problem. Examples of Axiom’s anomaly notifications can be found on our resources page.
Q: Which of these failure modes are the most common?
A: According to Trevor, overheating is probably the number one cause of compressor failures in the grocery industry. The biggest reason for this is compressors being run with too high of a compression ratio. However, compressor overheating can be caused by high superheat, high discharge temperatures, high temperatures in the compressor room, low refrigerant charge, and a number of other conditions. Any time a compressor overheats, its oil will lose the ability to lubricate, increasing the friction generated by moving parts. This will eventually result in a seized compressor.
You can find a link to the full webinar recording here.
If you’d like to learn more about compressor failures, check out the blog post that formed the basis for this webinar.
Finally, if this webinar proved useful, you may also enjoy watching the recordings of other webinars in this series:
As with all of Axiom’s webinars, our goal was to start a conversation that will make refrigeration management more sustainable and cost-effective. We’d like to thank everyone for joining us and we look forward to seeing you at the next webinar!
Axiom Cloud’s mission is to use software and automation to transform how the world’s cooling systems are powered, operated, and maintained, in order to generate significant climate and financial impact. Axiom’s team of refrigeration experts, data scientists, energy nerds, and software developers solves retail grocery’s biggest energy and maintenance challenges by layering intelligence onto their existing refrigeration systems. If you’re interested in learning more about our mission or our apps for commercial refrigeration, please contact us today.
WATCH THE FULL WEBINAR: