[LazyPup]

Back in the late 1980's I worked maintenance at the Quality Inn Motel & Conference Center in Chicopee, Mass. One day the hotel manager came to the shop to inform us that he had hired his nephew for our maintenance crew. Little did we know at the time that the kid had absolutely no training, other than the fact that he had managed to get by as a self taught handyman.

The engineer decided to give him a simple project to try him out. We had a freestanding water cooler to be un-crated then stood in the back hallway by the kitchen and connect a water line so the kitchen and banquet waite staff would have access to a water cooler. Sounded simple enough to me.

Four hours later we went to lunch and one of the cooks said he had just finished hooking it up only minutes before. I thought 4 hours a bit much to unpack a unit and connect one 3/8" water line but whatever.

A few minutes later one of the waitresses came in the employee dining room and says..."Whats up with this water cooler? Push the button and all you get is some stinky air coming out the spout."

After we finished lunch I and the engineer went and checked it out, sure enough, nothing but stinky air...sort of anyway. On closer inspection we discovered that instead of soldering a valve on the water line as he was instructed, he had attached a saddle tap valve, which is strictly code prohibited, and to make matters even worse, he had attached the tap valve to a 1/2" copper high pressure refrigerant line to the walk in coolers. The Stinky air was in fact freon from the cooler.

I won't even begin to tell you what i was muttering under my breath while i pumped the cooler down, repaired the refrigerant line and recharged the refrigerant, then proceeded to install the water line correctly.

Needless to say, that young man had a short career in maintenance.