TOOLS

As a service technician, I have purchased and own many tools. Maybe too much. Nah! There is always room for more tools. And among those tools I have my short list of favorite tools. Tools that I must have, almost like a good luck charm but not quite.
Unfortunately I recently broke one of those favorite tools. A screwdriver that I purchased over twenty years ago, made by Fuller. I have tried others but that Phillips screw driver was better than any of them. Surprisingly it didn't cost that much. I knew it wouldn't last forever but it was always there, ready to do the work. Now the tip has broken off. It deserves a special retirement. I think I will frame it and hang it on the wall by my desk.

My basic tool pouch contains the following;
Volt meter - definite must have
Pliers
Screw drivers (Robertson, Phillips, flat)
Allen keys (Metric and NAS)
Nut Drivers (1/4" to 9/16")
Open wrench (3/8" to 1/2" and 7mm to 11mm)
Knife
Threaded screw driver
File
Piece of wire
Tape, Teflon.
Search light

With that, I can troubleshoot and repair about 95% of the time. The most important tool is knowledge. Knowing how it is suppose to work, and behave. Asking the right questions. Looking at the environment. All those factor and more will give the clues to help repair the equipment.

Among those tools, I have purchased the nut driver when I first started, back in 1986. If it wasn't for the fact that it is easy to lose tools I would have kept them all.  Purchased from Snap-on and tuff. Quality names like Snap-on is not just a gimmick. All the Snap-on tools that I have purchased are still good and working hard. The only reason I don't have all of them is negligence. I can't tell you how many time I have lost tools in the snow or kicked them under the equipment or better yet, forgot them inside the equipment.

I have found many tools like that. The worst is being robbed. It is always when the tool case is left unattended, someone will lift a tool. If I realize that I am missing the tool and made every effort to find it and failed. I advise the owner and charge him for it.

I try to carry only what I need. I have the rest in the truck. The socket wrench, open keys, hammer and all the rest are at my disposal in the truck. A customer may ask me to change a light bulb (It has happened!), it is all okay as long as I know my limitations and explain them to him. Not that I don’t know how to change a light bulb. It’s a two men job… I digress. I don't have an electrical license or a plumbing license so I can only work on  the equipment. I have done work on stainless tables, shelves, sinks, you name it. If I don't know how to do a job, I ask question or simply say that I can't. My customers prefer the truth to a half-ass job.

In essence, the right tools are really important for the job. And quality makes the difference.

Clean

In my years as a service technician, I was often asked about how to prevent high cost maintenance. The answer was very simple. Keep it cleaned. The reaction I got from this answer made me smile because the customer was not sure if I was kidding or not.
I do like to kid around, you know, keep the mood light. But in this case, I am always serious. By keeping the equipment clean, it is easier to detect breaks that could lead to major failure if not attended to immediately.
Also it is easier for the tech to work on a clean piece of equipment because he doesn't have to waste time cleaning the area first.
The equation is very simple; either you pay a member of your staff ($10 to $15 per hour) to clean the equipment or you pay the tech at $70 to $100 per hour.
The reason I am bringing this up is because I came across a Garland gas range. It must be at least 20 years old. It was the cleanest gas range I have seen in years for an equipment of that age. I have seen gas range with only six months use that was cover in dirt and the burners all clogged up.
When it is that dirty, I tell the owner or the manager that it is not good to be this dirty. But when it is well kept like this unit, I am pleased to tell them also.
For me, to work on a clean piece of equipment means I can do my job more easily. I can inspect the gas line crossing the top of the unit. I don't have to fight with greasy tools because my tools will pick up all the grease. And so on.
As a habit, restaurant owner or manager should include in their weekly schedule a few hours to clean the equipment in and around them. I am sure the staff will enjoy working in clean environment and the health department won't have much to criticize.

A clean oven is a good oven. ;)

The right man for the Job

Being a service technician is not always easy. The trick is to make it look easy.  A lot of studies, information gathering and understanding are necessary for doing this job. However it is impossible to know everything. Those who claim they do are liars. Almost every week I come across a piece of equipment not yet seen before. Sometime I will tell the customer to get someone else because lack of knowledge can be disastrous.  I prefer redirect the user toward a more competent person rather than attempt and fail badly.  The customer may pressure you in to doing it however when sparks start flying you’re the one holding the screwdriver and it becomes your responsibility.  Believe me when I say the customer will appreciate it more if the right person works on his equipment.

For those jobs I do accept, they become a challenge. After all it’s only electromecanic.  Certain factors need to be present for me to accept a challenge. I don’t like too much electronics. Because with electronics it definitely necessary to have the right manual and proper troubleshooting guide otherwise you’re in trouble.  Another thing is the equipment should be in fairly good shape.  If the equipment as seen too much action and too many technicians, you may end up redoing the machine from scratch. It means a very expensive repair to the customer. Might as well buy new. And one more thing, no bugs. I hate bugs, if I see bugs I decline. 

All equipment can be repaired, no matter what is the problem. If the customer is willing to pay than it can be fixed. Only the customer can evaluate if it is worth it.  I never assume. He will ask my opinion of course. In the end, the machine is still old and more than likely other things will break on it.  A machine should not cost more to repair than 30% of its value as new.  Some equipment is worth spending more.

One important suggestion I have for those of you who own equipment; Don’t be cheap. Don’t wait to get the repairs done. The more you wait, more expensive it is going to get.  And, yes, use the right people. 

How to find and keep a good foodservice repair technician

Now, for those of you who find that all service tech are thieves and untrustworthy and they are a dime a dozen, well you stop reading now and go Google something else. For the others, I want to start by saying that not all service technicians are thieves. It would be wrong to assume as much.  Let’s compare this with a service mechanic. If you have a car, you will be able to relate to this. Your car, sooner or later will need servicing. That is the way because they haven’t invented a car that is service free. All things mechanic or electronic sooner or later need to be repaired. If you don’t want it to wear out, well, then stop using it.

You have a car and you know you will need to bring it to a garage; you can either wait until it breaks before you have to find a garage in a panic or you can start looking now. If you chose the later, you’re among a very small portion of the population. Should you go with a small or large outfit for service? There are good points and bad either way. The larger garage, mostly associated with the dealership, will have better resources for parts and labor. More than likely the service tech are better trained and work in a nicer environment. Unfortunately they work by the books. No freebees here.

The smaller garages are more personalized, easier to talk to. More than likely you will get more for the money.  In both cases you will get good techs and bad ones.  In both cases you will get the money hungry and those who do it because they like fixing things.

How do you find the good ones? Mostly by referral. A friend, a brother, a cousin who is happy with his garage is a good place to start.

Begin with a small repair, like tire rotation, oil change. Observe how they handle your car, how they speak to you.

For the restaurant industry it is the same thing for one exception, they will come to you. For example, if your restaurant is opened 24h/ 7days a week, you will need a service company that can offer 24 hour service. Small companies or “one man shows” don’t always give it.  I know I don’t. My customers are aware that I will not answer my phone at night. Why? I am alone. Working 8 to 10 hours in a day does not leave a lot of free time, especially when paperwork is waiting at home.

The larger outfit, with many trucks on the road, can give you a quick response time and almost not wait time on the repair because they have access to the parts.  This will mean a bigger bill because they have a bigger overhead to cover. One other eventual problem is you may not get the same technician all the time.

Smaller outfit are generally friendlier, easier to gain trust. In either case, make sure the company has liability insurance. Avoid a Jack-of-all-trades because they are master of none. I am referring to a guy that can fix any equipment including refrigeration system. I have always considered refrigeration field almost as an art form. Beside the fact that it requires an entire set of tools and supplies by itself, it also requires a specific set of knowledge and license.  I don’t repair refrigeration equipment. I have just enough knowledge to make it worse.

Your service technician will be able to help find other more specialized tradesman. 

As in a car mechanic, one the best way to find a good company is through referral. I know that some restaurant will ask for a technician by name.

And believe me; we all have our good days and bad days. Don’t be too quick to judge a technician based on one mistake. One more thing, if he is cheap you may end up getting what you pay for which is not much.

When it comes to paying the bill, don’t haggle too much or try to short change the guy. It is not a good idea to make a deal once the repair is done. You won’t be able to do it with the larger outfit. The small operator? If he is smart he’ll never come back. If he is bitter… You might need more work than you realize.

Case 2428 or a new level in troubleshooting nightmare

Case 2428

Colged Top Tech TT500 66136

If only I have one unit where I can say it made me swear, that would be it. Actually I had more than one machine that made me speak in foreign tongue. But this one made me learn a few more words I didn’t know existed. Several factors made this case difficult.

At first the customer wanted one thing, that the machine gets fixed. But when the result didn't come quickly he became very disagreeable. Lying, yelling even at times. I told him to find someone else to fix the machine and he calmed down, a bit. Just a bit.

Second, the lack of knowledge of the equipment. This manufacturer also made the TT550, successor of the problematic machine. Some changes were obvious and others were more subtle.

Third, I wasn't the first technician to get his hands on this unit.

Here are the problems;

Unit will get error messages, 01, 02,03, 09, SAFE

High limit in the wash tank would trip and disable the unit.

This is what I found. The unit had scale deposits, rinse jets were clogged. This would explain some problems but not all.

Water level was high. The break tank would fill during wash cycle. The tank high temperature limit was tripped.

Error code indicated:

Time out rinse cycle (rinse cycle, did not empty the booster fast enough)

Time out drain cycle (water level did not drop fast enough)

On site I was able to resolve temporarily the high limit problem, the scale but not much else. I will not tell you how many visits I made to this location before I pulled it out and lend the customer a replacement machine for the duration. I know, very nice of me. This was more a question of pride than anything else. Didn’t make money, didn’t even brake even. Customer was a major pain. Beside all of this, I couldn’t let a machine get the better of me. Funny part (because you have to laugh, can’t cry) I ordered some parts for this machine and only for this machine. Guess what? Courier lost the package. I order parts from this supplier on a fairly regular basis and never, (that is never) did I ever have any problems getting parts from them. Of course it had to be this case. Funny, no?

I would like to open a sidebar here and propose the existence of the power of JINX. If I wasn’t a believer before, now I am. Yes, I believe someone is capable to jinx a machine or a project into failure. Hard to prove? Most likely. Anyway you look at it I can’t help myself and say “OH! Come on…”

Break Tank

So here is the machine on my bench. Bravely, I remove all the panels to get a good look inside as it works. I connect the water and the electricity, expecting sparks to fly and explosion to erupt but nothing fantastic happens. It is actually on the side of boring. It heated up and filled a bit much as before. I start the cycle and as before the break tank fills. It’s not suppose to do that.

Now I am going to cut to the chase and tell you what I found. Because I tested the unit, tried different things. Sent emails to the factory. Got the responses. Tried what they offered. Got some parts in. Put some of the parts in. Ordered some more. And this went on for two months. Two months that every time I would look up from my desk I would see this machine on the bench. Every time I turned around, I bumped into this machine. I wanted it out and out bad.

Finally, here is what I found.

1) The bladder in the rinse pump ruptured, causing water from the wash system to mix with the water from the rinse system. This caused also the break tank to fill during wash.

2) The air trap had been position wrong, 90 degrees wrong. Technically you shouldn’t be able to do it but with a little torque it is possible to twist the air trap in the wrong position.

3) The seal on the pump failed so it was replaced.

I ran this unit in the shop for two days before it was delivered to the customer. What happened next? Well, if you’re ever in town, we’ll go for a beer and I tell you the rest.

HOSTEX

I attended Hostex and the few exhibitors that were there. It was not as bad as Montreal’s Rendez-Vous but it was missing something. Many manufacturers and distributors weren’t present. I don’t know why for sure. Is it because there is a remaining feud between them and the organisation or something? One thing that did surprise me and it was the first time I have ever heard of such a thing. It appears that at least one exhibitor was robbed. Equipment missing come Sunday morning. So not only they had had to pay a good amount of money to be there including all the expenses it involves but they are out of a couple of pieces of equipment. Ouch!

Aside from that I encourage all the techs out there to go and visit those trade shows. They are a good source of information about the equipment they service or will service. Some of these equipment on display are working. so it is a good thing to see how they are suppose to work before the user messes them up. ;)

I always look for new equipment as well. To tell you the truth I didn't see anything "wow!" Some new models of dishwashers and cooking equipment but nothing that tickled my fancies. It's okay though. I got to renew friendship with some people I get to meet once a year. That is what is called networking. Making friends with other people in the industry. you never know where a something will be coming from. Opportunities, who knows?

In any case, beside a fire alarm in mid afternoon, there isn't much to report. But hey it's only me. I was there just a few hours and I didn't speak to everyone. I am sure someone else has something worthy to report. I didn't attend any of the conferences. Well I didn't see anything that was interesting me. Those trade shows should have service seminars or something about service. Because, like it or not we get to fix the things they sell. There is nothing worst for a distributor or manufacturer to assume the service tech was trained enough and will know what to do.

Case #1954 Sherlock?

Case #1954

Unit: Jet-Tech F18dp

Paying attention is important in this job. It's a bit like playing Sherlock Holmes and trying to find who done it. Or what done it in this case.

Often the smallest detail is important. In this case the answer was right there in front of my eyes. All I had to do was look and listen.

The machine is a Jet-Tech model F-18dp under-counter dishwasher. The F-18 is a good Italian machine. In Europe it carries the model name CF50. It is made by Adler near Milan. The place was a nice Italian restaurant. I received a call from the chemical distributor. They were in a bit of a pickle. They were afraid of losing the account if the dishwasher could not be fixed. They had sent another technician and he failed to find the problem. The problem reported was the unit's wash pump was defective, and a new one was needed.

Whenever someone sends me after another technician, I do what I always do. I start from the beginning. When they told me the wash pump needed to be replaced I was a bit skeptical. Adler (Jet-Tech) uses one of the best pumps on the market. It is made by FIR  and short of dipping it in water or have a chemical spill on it, it's going to outlast the rest of the machine. Almost.

Anyway, when questioning the operator, he told me the unit would wash occasionally. So it was an intermittent problem. I needed to hear this thing run. By the sound the motor of the wash pump would make I could determine if the pump was indeed defective.

I started by draining the machine. Going through all the sequence of the unit will help determine if I was dealing with one or more problems. I let the machine fill up. The heat kicked in properly. I pressed the start button to get the wash pump to work and it did. The sound was a solid, continuous pumping action. That pump was good. Then the sound changed. I stopped it right away. I took the top cover off and put my amp probe on the wash pump line. Tried it again and the amps went way up. I was thinking a bad capacitor might be the cause. I changed it but the problem remains. It was getting late, 8 pm or so. I was not convinced the pump was bad but right then I couldn't prove it. I took the decision to take it out and bring it to the shop for closer inspection. When I took the rear panel out, I noticed what the last technician did. Reconnect the detergent bulkhead fitting.

In the morning, I put the motor on the bench and tried it. It purred. There was nothing wrong with this pump. I went back to the restaurant and put the pump back, totally convince the problem was elsewhere. It was and not that far. I paid a closer look at the repair the other tech did. Before the operator noticed the chemical fitting was broken a generous amount of detergent had leaked down on the wires. Yes, the wires had been covered with dried detergent. I should have spotted that the previous night but I missed it. I had seen this before. Chemicals will destroy the insulation on the wires and on occasion break the connection. It's exactly what happened with the wire for the capacitor which would be touching sometime. The best course of action is to change the entire wire harness. The next best thing is to clean the wires thoroughly and re-insulated them, repaired the broken connection.

This was done and the machine worked very nicely.

Conclusion: It’s not always good to work too long hours. As a general rule, I stop around 5pm. I mean, what’s the point of working late if you're going to make mistake and have to return. And I am not Sherlock Holmes.