Yellow Pages

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Customer called this morning and said their sprinkler air compressor
quit.  Their usual guy was "on vacation" (not answering his phone) and
they asked if one of my guys could have a look at it.  He'd called a
couple of companies in the Piss Pages and got quotes as high as $1200.00
to replace the compressor because (according to the nimrods he called
who didn't even come out to LOOK at it) it had obviously failed.

So, I went to the site.  Pretty "ritzy" condo development in the West
End (we do the access control, enterphone and CCTV).  Sure enough the
circuit breaker kept tripping every time I reset it.  Turning the motor
by hand worked find (so it wasn't the motor). Trying to turn the
compressor flywheel was a tad more difficult.  When I finally got it to
turn it starts spitting water out of the crank-case breather.  So, I
decided to get a little dirtier and opened the oil drain.  It was full
of water.  Now that is not supposed to be there.

Checked the check valve.  It's working fine and holding the pressure in
the system at just over 20 PSI.  There's a little red line marked on the
gauge that I assume is the "tripping pressure" for the dry valve.  It's
at just under 20 PSI (I'm assuming the tech who marked it was trying for
the 20 PSI hatch).  I filled the crank case with new oil, put the belt
back on and turned on the breaker.  Everything works.  Pressure's back
to normal, and I got a big "thank you" from my customer (who's out a two
hour service call and has now told me I have to hire some sprinkler and
fire alarm techs because he's giving all his business to me).  Rats!
First thing I gotta do when I get back to the office is find my own copy
of the Piss Pages...  :-)