Took me 4 hours to find a simple rust spot on a cooler fan

I spent last Saturday troubleshooting a walk-in cooler that was running warm at my shop in Richmond. Checked the thermostat, the seals, even the refrigerant levels before I noticed a tiny rust spot on the fan blade causing it to wobble and slow down. A $5 can of spray lubricant and 10 minutes of cleaning fixed it after half a day of frustration. Has anyone else chased a problem that turned out to be something dumb like that?

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3 Comments

johnson.faith4mo ago

4 hours of troubleshooting means poor process not a tricky fix.

4

paul2864mo ago

Nah, sometimes a problem is just genuinely weird.

8

jesse_green554mo ago

You ever read about that thing where mechanics spend like 80% of their time finding the problem and 20% actually fixing it? Saw a study on that once. Sounds about right from my own experience too. That wobble from a rust spot is exactly the kind of thing that makes you feel like an idiot after you find it. But hey, that's how it goes sometimes, the simple stuff hides right in plain sight.

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