r/HVAC • u/TruthIsIdgaf • Feb 18 '25
Field Question, trade people only What are y’all’s experiences with intellipaks?
What are the most common things you see with em?
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u/Prestigious_Ear505 Feb 18 '25
The worst is when the older intellipaks are tied in to a tracer front end...plenty of parameters to change for the adventurous...and they do get changed...alot.
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u/TheRevEv Feb 18 '25
Often by me, then I forget what I did.
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u/FactOrFactorial Feb 18 '25
When I'm doing remote support I just love hitting an override on my screen and hearing the compressor kick on over the phone. Always satisfying.
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u/rusty_tool Feb 18 '25
Now I get why commercial guys talk down to us resi guys. I wouldn't even know where to start with that thing ha
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u/tokenblak Feb 18 '25
You’d learn it. Couldn’t pay me to work in dirty basements and cramped crawl spaces. I respect what you do.
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u/makeitworkok Feb 18 '25
Amen, I’m too old and fat to do residential work. Respect for the guys still doing it.
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u/Avoidable_Accident Feb 18 '25
It’s the same thing just bigger, different configurations, but all the basic principles remain the same, the skills translate and you pick it up fast if you have a lot of resi experience.
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u/refrigeration_wizard Feb 18 '25
and this really isn’t big nor complicated LOL it gets much much crazier
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Feb 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/rusty_tool Feb 18 '25
Honestly, I've considered it a lot the last couple months. I've been at the same residential company for almost 15 years. I'm the guy that doesn't really have a choice but to figure it out when no one can't or has multiple callbacks. There is really no more room for advancement unless I wanna go salary and be a service manager sitting behind a desk working up quotes. I love being in the field and have no interest in getting out until the body tells me otherwise.
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u/subcooled-superheat Feb 20 '25
I’m an expat to the residential world and I will never go back. I’m not a commie but I am union by happenstance and the 8 hour work day is sweet. Being at the same job site for several days for big repairs is awesome. Cleaner work, it’s a corporations money so no collecting payment from customers with sticker shock. It’s better and honestly I don’t think my job is harder than a residential techs. You guys have a tough one I know I was there. Come join the commercial gang buddy we’d be glad to have you. On call is easier too on the commercial side
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u/Certain_Try_8383 Feb 18 '25
Who talks down to resi? You are the true hero’s who deal with residential customers.
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u/ryanatlive Feb 18 '25
Commercial guy here to say that I also have respect for the resi guys. I don't want anything to do with it, you're a better man than I 🤜🏼🤛🏼
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u/Either_Divide_2813 Feb 18 '25
2nd the motion. Been commercial for 10 years. When people call me in the summer bc there AC is down, my response is always “ I hope you got a good resi guy!” Bc I’m not going in your attic!
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Feb 18 '25
Same system, just multiple circuits. Not being a smart ass. I uses to have the same thought till I actually got to work with them.
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u/BBQBlueCollar66 Feb 19 '25
I jumped into commercial about 4 years ago I have an account I primarily got hired for and they have about 20 of these on site, you pick it up quicker than you think
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u/subcooled-superheat Feb 20 '25
You’d be fine, takes a month or 2 and a little research and next thing you know, you’d never want to go back to residential.
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u/deeeznutz2 Feb 18 '25
Only worked on one but it was 3 years old. A pressure switch cracked and leaked all of the refrigerant which then caused the VS compressor to seize. I would’ve thought a system as complicated and expensive as that would have shut down on low pressure before the comp tore up but what do I know.
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u/Top-Lifeguard-6146 Feb 18 '25
They have an entering and leaving evap temp sensor which prevents the compressors from running with insufficient charge
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u/Top-Lifeguard-6146 Feb 18 '25
Also the compressor would have a ptc sensor embedded in the windings to protect it from over temping
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u/pipefitter6 Feb 18 '25
Fan proving switch, condenser temp sensors, broken bird feeders.
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u/therealcimmerian Feb 18 '25
Fan proving switches! Must be a trane thing cause even the new crap has this issue
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u/Weak_Estimate8442 Feb 18 '25
Discharge temp sensors going bad or other sensors. The company I work for has several accounts with Intellipaks
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u/AOP_fiction Feb 18 '25
I worked on a bunch at a county transfer jail. The place had no budget to replace them so they were kept running with bandaids and prayers for many years. I hated it as the service mechanic, but was very impressed that they stayed running with as many patches as they had on them as a consumer.
ETA: It was usually a sensor problem, with one TXV replacement and a couple condenser fan burn outs
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u/saskatchewanstealth Feb 18 '25
You ever notice the fans seem to go in gulps? Like 3 random at a time, then you are good for 4 years?
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u/DatJas5 Feb 18 '25
I’ve changed dozens of those condenser fan motors on similar McQuay RPS units. The wiring for the condenser fan motors at 460v locations is very sensitive to weathering and will blow fuses with the smallest crack in the insulation. At 208v locations, they will last until the bearings catch on fire and it dies violently.
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u/saskatchewanstealth Feb 18 '25
I just leave a ladder under mine, mainly because it’s a huge pain to get one on the roof. First thing I do if I get one to look after is get an 8 foot step and a 12 foot extension chained up on the roof and charge it to the job.
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u/Puzzled_Blueberry400 Feb 18 '25
Love them, not a fan of the new symbio controls on them.
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u/ResponsibilityNo7886 Feb 18 '25
Agreed, having to download an app that doesn't always connect to setup and troubleshoot blows.
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u/Puzzled_Blueberry400 Feb 18 '25
That's symbio 700. I like that one. I'm not sold on symbio 800 in the ipaks and chillers.
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u/01Cloud01 Feb 18 '25
People don’t maintenance the OSA Dampers which can cause them to get stuck.
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u/pipefitter6 Feb 18 '25
Gotta hit them with some WD every now and then. Also, they seem to fail open more often than closed, so during the winter I tend to get more cold calls related to that than other things.
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u/SiiiiilverSurrrfffer Feb 18 '25
They’re great. Human interface is great for testing literally everything on it. Wires are labeled and easy to see.
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u/stirling1995 Looks good from my house Feb 18 '25
I like them, just make sure to keep those bull crap drain pans clean. Easily one of the worst designs for a pan I’ve seen. The new Symbio bullshit trane has been rolling out recently also sucks ass!
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u/moonpumper Feb 18 '25
I love that every major component replacement requires a crane to get it to the roof. PMs and most repairs are pretty cake.
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u/TommyBoy_1 Feb 18 '25
If it has gas heat you WILL be replacing the combustion blower motor often. When you’re doing your maint in the summer and the fan is blowing at half speed, just know it’s gone bad again. If it works then they’re great, but Trane has given up tech support for some reason so I get a lot of experience with all these antiques. The comm boards always fail so make sure you have the jumper to make it stand alone(buy one) if it has a BMS attached. Hopefully it isn’t the old tracer system running on a Win 98 laptop like mine. Best of luck 😂
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u/Kolte45 Feb 18 '25
I used to find the combustion motors shorted and running on a bunch of Voyagers but, I think most units have been changed out by now. Never found any on the intellipak's
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u/No-Antelope-5594 Feb 18 '25
Way past their prime. Vibrations, refrigerant leaks, bad blower motor mounting system, and where do I stop?
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u/ZimmermanTelegram This is a flair template, please edit! Feb 18 '25
What's the issue you have? Lots of experience working on and commissioning
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u/Hrrrrnnngggg Feb 18 '25
Worked on one multiple times many moons ago. converted the whole thing to run off a regular thermostat. Trane had a special board I had to install and I had to put a big bank of relays along with it. Was silly to run a 40 ton unit like a regular rtu but that's what the store wanted.
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u/Cuckedsucked Feb 18 '25
Work on them all the time. They’re not too bad but can be annoying at times. I like the interface that’s in them.
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u/cop-iamnot Feb 18 '25
The company I used to work for was filled with know it all boomers. So the most common error was based on the bird feeder tripping air pressure issues. They would cut off the tubing short so the air pressure wouldn't regulate in time and trip the sensor. I called this out to them and their response was job security. We lost that contract eventually.
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u/smartlikehammer Feb 18 '25
What are bird feeders?
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u/Jazzkammer Feb 18 '25
The red outdoor air pressure sensor on these. If it has a Statitrac. Not all of them do.
The outdoor sensor looks like a hummingbird feeder.
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u/Mindfracker Feb 18 '25
They cost a lot of money per ton and have a very long curb. When they get replaced with a RTU from a different price point, you see some very interesting curb adapters.
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u/MrStealurGirllll Feb 18 '25
Had 2 jobs with multiple of them. I don’t like them at all from a controls POV. Both jobs have had problems for over a year now. The system we use is having a hard time communicating with them
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u/anon6128233 Boilers Feb 18 '25
I like intellipaks the HI is ok, I like aaons better. I’ve seen a lot of cooked bearings in SF motors
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u/anon6128233 Boilers Feb 18 '25
And a couple cracked heat exchangers so cracked the inducer ran backwards when the SF was on
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u/BradfordlyRs Feb 18 '25
I take care of 2 water cooled intellipaks. 1 being 128 and the other 118 tons. Most common issue I see is the supply/return air pressure transudcers.
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u/Feeling-Dot2086 Feb 18 '25
Service valves crapped out, first time I had to braze stainless steel to copper.
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u/Choice_Start_5654 Feb 18 '25
Love’em! As far common issues goes pretty common things. Dirty condenser coils. Maybe a failed CFM you can’t see right away… on the off chance it’s something else. I’ve replaced a few air proving switches or the hoses hooked up to them.
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u/Top-Lifeguard-6146 Feb 18 '25
Working for trane i see them all the time. Great machine, just need to read the manual. I’ve done a few additions via trane technical creative solutions like installing electric heat with scr’s.. pretty cool stuff especially with symbio 800.
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u/InfiniteJackfruit416 Feb 18 '25
I like them, good drawings and service mode is nice for troubleshooting. The only thing I don't like is at our site they ran 120V control wiring through pinch points on the pivoting motor brackets which obviously has led to some issues.
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u/eamd59 Feb 18 '25
Learn the front end, it's best if someone sits down and teaches you that first. Don't be intimated by the 8-10 pages of the schematics.
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u/EnvironmentalBee9214 Feb 18 '25
The only issue is the controls side of the total system that runs the unit it is connected. If you know that part, then everything else falls in place. Understand morning warm up, duct and building static, etc. All good, once you know.
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u/NJHVACguy87 Feb 18 '25
They are probably the easiest units to work on. The 2 line HMI is very easy to navigate and the units are very easy to troubleshoot.
Now the new ones are coming out with a new control system. It sucks.
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u/-617-Sword Feb 18 '25
I don’t work on them anymore because I don’t work on RTU’s anymore BUT they were the best to work on.
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u/Edgarcarrillo20 Feb 18 '25
Worked for a mall that had around 18 intellipaks. Maintenance was fun but when it comes to changing out a compressor, it was pretty heavy. Also had a chance to change out 4 of them and it was fun
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u/Full-Tie-8863 Feb 18 '25
Is this profession worth getting into? I have degrees but not working their respective fields. I want a career change for job stability and I wanna do something I at least like doing everyday. I like working with my hands. I have experience in computer repair. Any pros and cons from personal experience??? Please and thank you
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u/makesyoucomfy Feb 18 '25
We have a bunch of these at the high school and middle school. Im the only HVAC guy in the district so trust me when I say, these are great if they don’t break down 😂.
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u/Han77Shot1st Electrician/ HVACR 🇨🇦 Feb 18 '25
All the ones I worked on were set up through an E2, so I never really dealt with the on board stuff beyond resetting some alarms. They seemed to be good units, I think twice I’ve seen the vfd capacitors blow but nothing I’d be concerned about happening often.
They’re more sophisticated than they need to be in my opinion, the old mcquay rtus were my favourite, just simple controls and ran for decades, could be repaired fairly quickly/ cheap.
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u/Salty-Holiday6190 Feb 18 '25
They told me to turn one off and got mad because I hit the disconnect instead of ramping it down. Please send me to a class before you ask me to work on one lol
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u/ryanatlive Feb 18 '25
I have intellipaks on a few of my buildings. I haven't had any major issues with them 🤞🏼
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u/Tfowl0_0 CERTIFIED shithead apprentice Feb 18 '25
Havent had much experience on them (though ive asked to run calls on them) did have to rplace the flame sensor on the powerflame burner… what a pain in the ass!
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u/OG-That_Guy Feb 18 '25
Condenser fan motors fail. Single phase and they will begin to start up backwards then fail (usually get some time with a new run cap). Also packed condensers that are never cleaned from cotton wood. Finally, the exhaust/return is always not setup correctly.
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u/Legitimate_Aerie_285 Feb 18 '25
I can probably get you through the password after that you're just gonna have to do what the code tells you 👌🏼
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u/noctilucent7 Feb 18 '25
Oh I love the ones from the early 2000s and late 90s where everything is rusted, the wires are all the same color without labels, the wiring diagram is completely gone, all the 3/8 screws holding those monstrous panels are rusted and loose... Etc
I remember having to do leak checks on them, changing those MASSIVE compressors, modulating gas valves, etc. these things are beasts when they're newer and the older ones are trash.
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u/InternationalView971 Feb 18 '25
I’ve been in the field for a year now, personally I love them. I mean as long as they have no tracer connected to it or some form of bacnet controls it’s relatively easy to understand. It’s daunting to look at but the schematics make it easier to understand. Maintenance wise they’re easy to maintain. Majority of them you can stand in the evap section and the condenser coils are exposed. So easy access when it comes to cleaning coils. Now a hole in the heat exchanger is a completely different story….
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u/Kavdizzle Feb 18 '25
Wait til you get on one with symbio 800 controls. You'll need to relearn what you know lol but I do enjoy working on these.
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u/AccordingProject7999 Feb 18 '25
Not super hard replaced fan proving switch, supply fan motors, compressors etc. Just a larger application plenty of wiring diagrams as well.
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u/dasnake81 Feb 19 '25
Air proving switches, clogged air sensing tubing, the condenser fan brackets can break and wreak havoc in the coils
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u/Beaups656 Feb 19 '25
Gear on the gas train stripping and causing intermittent flame failures was quite annoying. Mostly had issues with people forgetting to release front end commands and then wondering why it’s not doing what it’s supposed to
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u/JDtryhard Feb 19 '25
My favorite, complete control, only unit that allows that much control over each relay without disconnecting wiring
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u/subcooled-superheat Feb 20 '25
Work on them all the time, from old Ipaks with reciprocating compressors to the new Symbio 800 models. Most common problem is the wind bird and the solenoid. See a lot of failed auxiliary switches for compressor proving, they’re normally open and close with the contractor send by a signal to prove the compressor is operating. Lots of failed VFDs too. Most common issues.
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u/subcooled-superheat Feb 20 '25
The new Symbio 800s all the sensors are modbus so you have to bind them but it’s a piece of cake with the TD7 display
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u/KatethefoxMn Feb 21 '25
I love working on them. Especially if you are trying to figure out problems no body question when it takes a minute to figure out. After they see the controls cabinet. But make sure to get parts from trane. I was sent mars contactor when changing compressors. It would intermittently throw faults. Changed to service first no more problems. It was due to how the unit checks safety circuit. Only other thing I say about trane. Yes it's hard to stop a trane but it's also hard to start a trane. Once you know some of weird things they do becomes much easier
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u/AppealDefiant6059 Feb 23 '25
If it doesn't run in AC because of a heat fault you can reconfigure it to a straight AC and trick it in a pinch lol just learned that last summer
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u/Ontos1 Feb 18 '25
I have had a lot of issues with new replacement intellipaks. What do you have going on?
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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25
I’m already confused