Commercial Refrigeration Blog

IoT insights pay dividends for refrigeration technicians

Written by David Burden | Nov 2, 2021 8:38:28 PM

Wellington Connect Field app

I was speaking with the equipment manager of one of the largest and most sophisticated soft drink bottler customers. He explained that they had just finished internal training on the Wellington Connect Field app for their refrigeration technicians. 

At the end of the training, he urged the techs to put their training into practice and start to use the Connect Field app to download the data from the refrigerator being serviced and understand the analytical graphs and information. 

He told me about one of their longest-serving techs, who had doubted the use of technology in refrigeration repairs. This tech had a particularly odd situation where he was repeatedly called back to an important customer complaining about warm product. 

On the third visit the problem was still unresolved. The tech suggested that they must be experiencing power outages, but the customer denied that this was the case. The technician decided to delve into the Connect Field app and look at the data for each of the five coolers. The app revealed that each of the refrigerators were regularly losing power simultaneously and then restarting about 10-15 minutes later. 

The mechanic took screenshots of each refrigerator’s app data and presented the customer with information about the regular power outages on his drink coolers. 

The customer was a little shocked, suggesting that they had not had any power outages in the building. However, an electrician was called, and using the data from the Connect Field app, they were able to determine that there was a faulty electrical circuit for the five refrigerators and the problem was finally solved. 

I am told that the refrigeration tech now understands the power that historical data can provide in solving problems with connected refrigeration assets.