When we were told that the refrigerator at the zoo had broken down, and not just any refrigerator but a freezer, the first thing that came to my mind was the display with the penguins. However, the reality turned out to be much more mundane and dramatic. The mundanity was Continue Reading
Refrigeration technician
For a while, right after I arrived in a new country, I had to work for a couple of months as a refrigeration technician. It was an interesting job, a new world, and new relationships. I kept a journal.
Nursing home
The director in a hairnet, the nurses, and the sweet old lady. A certain “cooler” broke down. The local engineer, looking all businesslike, says, “Oil has leaked.” Sure… if half a liter of oil is spilled around the compressor pipes, then that’s what it is. Not oil, but refrigerant. Anyway, Continue Reading
There’s a pool, but no happiness.
The heat pump that heats the water for the pool broke down. Well, it didn’t just break down—it started not only cooling the surrounding air to heat the pool water but also freezing up. Clearly, there was not enough refrigerant. We arrived. An expensive suburb. Beautiful houses. The house that Continue Reading
Hair spray
A heat pump that heats water in a boiler. It was installed in the “boiler room.” The boiler room is a passageway between the living and business parts of the house. In other words, it is heated. What’s the point of cooling the house to heat water? Ideally, this unit Continue Reading
Toaster
At McDonald’s, the toasters are half a square meter in size. Adult toasters. They break down. Yes. They are fixed with WD-40 and some other stuff. A couple of times, we searched the kitchen floor for a small spring that unexpectedly fell out. Before starting work at McDonald’s, we had Continue Reading
Registration journal
The air conditioner in the office broke down. The compressor won’t start. It turned out that the capacitor failed, and it took something else with it to the grave. We noted down the spare parts — we’ll be back. In the registration log at the office center’s entrance, there’s a Continue Reading
Short one.
— You have a big, new, red Jaguar and you’re 75 years old? I guess I understand you.— The size and significance of a city can be measured not in millions of residents, but in McDonald’s. For example, a city with 3 McDonald’s.— Fire, water, and copper pipes are nothing Continue Reading
Foolproofing
The ice cream machine broke down. No, it just had the sense to realize that it hadn’t been cleaned in two weeks. They removed the panel, shorted a contact that no one knew about, and everything started working again. And they cleaned it, too. How does it understand? The temperature Continue Reading
Red Riding Hood.
The roof looks like a red hat. Inside the hat, all sorts of junk is hidden, like the outdoor units. It’s a powerful system with two installations working in parallel. One of them has a broken compressor, and in the other, the refrigerant has somehow escaped. We searched for a Continue Reading
Harmony
Facade with 9 windows, garage for 2 cars, X5 in the yard, 20 acres, owner is 190 cm tall, wearing glasses and a pullover, lawn, hedge, pool. The pool heat pump isn’t working. What’s wrong? Who knows. We opened it up… Semen Semenych… the power switch broke and came off Continue Reading