When things go wrong

 
 Yesterday I was working at my profession putting a "compressor" in a heat pump. One of the things we do to assure safety is remove all of the refrigerant from the system through reclaiming. When the repairs are complete we evacuate the air and recharge the gas.This was a 410A system so the pressures are much higher with this gas. I did the cursory check to see if there was a charge in the system and depressed the shreider valves. I used a tool to depress them and no pressure was there so I determined that the system had leaked all the gas out and would need further repairs.
 
 This heat pump is located in an office along a wall with desks, and secretaries in the office. After a warning that I would be "making a little smoke" I lit the torch and heated a brazed joint up to 1200F to loosen the fitting in order to change the compressor.At this point the entire top blew off the compressor spewing oil all over the ceiling and spraying it all over the secretaries sweater and papers. My helper had his shirt sleeve dowsed with high pressure gas and oil. The secretary immediately left the room. The sound was like a small explosion in there and then a loud gushing sound. The gas from the explosion looked like thick fog...luckily noone was hurt.....I did my best to determine what had just happened. Apparently the shreider tool had failed to depress the valve core and the system was under full pressure when I went to unbraze it.
 
 Long story short...I felt really bad. This was one of those things that even though I had taken precautions  things went wrong. The cores are of a different type than is typical so the tool didn't depress the shreiders.
 
  After a custodial crew was called in  to clean up the mess and the secretary got her sweater cleaned all is well or at least kind of normal . I apologized but that didn't seem to make me feel any better.The part is in and working but man I hate days like that. I WILL double check that valve next time.
 
  Days like that make me want to take a long vacation or maybe not even come back at all.
 
 

Glad no one was hurt, Starise. It's really good to see that you took responsibility and apologized for the situation.....which is seriously lacking in todays society.
When the going gets tough, Starise will blow it up!!

Yep, the above mentioned already!

We were shooting a commercial spot in a plastics injection molding facility a few months back.

We had noticed some guys outside working on the fire protection system pipes etc.

We had driven our van within the ware house to get easy access to the production floor. We had permission but we were warned to drive carefully. Just as we parked the van a 8" water main up in the ceiling burst open and flooded the ware house floor. We were like... "it wasn't us".

:-)

 Yes Mike the shrader valve is what I intended to type. I use them every day and only spell it very occasionally lol. These shrader valves are different. A typical core tool won't remove one. I believe they are associated only with R410A . Although I have been certified for R410a for over 10 years these valves are something different. I did figure it out though :P.

  I was back there today repairing two more and everything went off without a hitch. The secretary was even  nice and talkative, probably the most excitement they get there as it's a library office. After it happened the Library director even let me look at  a  book in special collections worth over a million dollars. One of the original copies of Shakespear dated 1623 and a book on electricity signed by Benjamin Franklin, apparently one of his books. Our systems handle this space controlling humidity and such.

 All things considered it went well and I'm glad to be out of there for now.

 Guitarhacker I know what you mean. I have seen a few situations that were sometimes comical and sometimes potentially dangerous. Like the guy who was using a digging iron and hit an electricv main. The explosion blew the iron out of his hands and about 30 ft up in the air. He was completely ok. On another occassion I was present when a backhoe happened to dig through a gas main, that's always a fun thing to watch.

 One of the funnier things that happened was when the electrician hooked up the doorbell wire to the thermostat and the thermostat wire to the doorbell. Whenever you rang the bell the heat came on and when the thermostat called for heat the doorbell rang. Then the time the plumber in a development hooked up the hot water to the toilet. Man talk about cooked cheeks. There was steam coming off the "loo"

 I could tell lots of those stories. One time I was on a ladder up the back of a building and my coworker happened to be standing there looking. I reached up to hold a raingutter to steady myself while drilling. Little did I know that the raingutter had backed up and we are talking a very large rain gutter maybe 50ft long. When I grabbed it about 10 gallons of water came directly onto my head.....he laughed so hard I thought he was going to keel over. I was very wet.

 Oh well enough of this.

 tbosco- Sounds like you may have been thrown under the bus more than once.

 You are right. I could have and probably should have hooked gauges up first. Instead I used a tool to depress the valve and this proved to be the wrong thing to do. I have been doing this a long time and this was a first for me. It's those "firsts" that can kill and injure.

Phew - glad everyone was alright.

Wasn't there a TINY part of you inside laughing your head off?

Stories in the electrical field and security biz... man I got tons of them .... but I shall not bore you here.... 

fish tapes into 200 amp hot main lugs, crossed wiring and the results, 240v connected to a 12v device, hitting natural gas lines and electrical lines underground, working on meter bases with bypass contacts (that was exciting)......

some day over a beer..... we can swap tales and war stories.