Wow, ah, it's time to chill out and get ready for a mediocre q, a live stream if you're old enough grab yourself your favorite adult beverage and if you're not stick with apple juice, put your feet up and relax. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the chat and now, let's queue up the intro music, so yo, hello, everybody how you guys doing, hopefully everybody's doing good. I am alive, so it is good life moves on. We get to live another day, thankful for that um.

You know, i talked about it, a lot during all the craziness of last year and stuff, but you know it's the simple things we do have a lot to be thankful for um. You know our silly problems. That's one thing that i'm super grateful for is my silly problems. You know the petty stuff that there's so many other people that have you know crazy problems and stuff and i'm worried about being inconvenienced because of traffic, or you know something silly like that.

So i am grateful for my silly problems, so just something to think about, but um got a bunch of stuff. I want to talk about as usual and uh. I want to get to your guys's questions so um, let's uh, let's get on with it. Okay, so um, remember, if you guys do, have questions or things you want me to cover.

Please uh, you can put them in the chat, put them in caps, lock that helps myself and the moderators to kind of see them um. You know uh keep in mind if i don't answer your question right away, just go ahead and post it again, but guys um keep the questions like. Let's, let's make them relevant questions you know um in you know what the truth. It is true that there's really no stupid questions, but there's also questions that distract the stream so try to keep it down all right, but keep them good stuff.

So uh. Yes, i do have hair most people, don't know that i have hair um. My hair has been growing out for a while now, so it's uh, it's still a little unmanageable, but i'm not into the hat thing right now. It's kind of giving me a headache so um.

Let me see what we got going on in here: okay um. I have got uh one thing that i actually want to start off with uh talking about: okay, um, you know - and i i said this - i think on the last stream and i'll say it again that oftentimes when i'm making a video, you have to understand something. I also am trying to better myself when it comes to the videos. Okay, but there really is um an issue.

I have mental problems. Okay, so people ask me often you know how is it that i can make a video and charge the customer for that kind of stuff? Okay, and so let me explain this - that when i am troubleshooting and when i am working by myself, i talk to myself all the time i rationalize with myself. I ask myself questions and that's how i troubleshoot okay, i work myself through the problems. I'll sit there and oh, is this: is it that so it really is no different when i turn on a camera, but with that being said, on the same, you know point that i'm trying to make sometimes the stuff that comes out of my mouth is not A complete thought because it's my head working through a problem and i realize that that can confuse people, you know or say you know, hey you're, incorrect or whatever, and i appreciate all the feedback that i can get from you guys.

I really do even if it, even if you're you know, trying to teach me to be a better service technician or a better person whatever. I appreciate all the feedback, so please keep it coming, but just understand something that oftentimes there may be incomplete thoughts that come out of my head and i may not give context to a thought so, for instance, i'm going to give you an example in my last Video that i posted last week, i was working on a walking cooler and i uh. I was taken off a suction service valve. That was a rotolock connection and it was a steel valve and i had to un-sweat it, and i explained the process and i ended up cutting the copper out of that valve because i didn't want to have to unsweat the silver solder.

We used silver solder on dissimilar metals, so i was using 56 silver solder because we had a steel to a copper connection, so you have to use a silver pair high silver bearing solder, okay, 15. While it may slightly it's not going to work. Okay, don't do 15 or anything less stick with what is it 45 or up, or something like that? Okay, but you have to use the proper flux and everything but anyways i'm going off on a tangent. I am capable of unsweating and then pushing a uh that valve back on that existing silver solder, but i did mention that it gets to be a pain in the butt, and that is true.

I try to avoid any difficulty when it comes to brazing, so the difficult thing and what i should have clarified in the video. When i was saying it, you can clean off the copper, you can heat it up, you can use towels, you can use sand cloth, different things like that to clean off the old silver solder, okay and then yes, if you clean it up good enough, you can Slide the new valve on and you can re-silver solder it and call it a day but oftentimes when you're heating things up to try to get the solder off or if you heat up the copper and push the valve on while it's hot, you can actually damage The the valve itself, so i prefer not to put any unneeded heat on there in the situation that i was in. It was just easier for me to go ahead and cut the copper and that's why i showed how i annealed it bent it and made a perfect little fitting for it. I certainly could have gone the other route and made do with what i had.

But why do that? When it was easy enough to go ahead and take that out and make the process seamless, because it's even easier to braise that fitting or that that rotolock valve onto that copper, if it's fresh virgin, copper, that's clean, you run into more issues. If you try to push it on to an existing solder situation and that kind of stuff, so i realize that i probably need to make a better effort. I've kind of been in cruise mode, sometimes when it comes to my videos, because it's literally just the random thoughts coming out of my head and usually it makes for a for good video, but there's often times that it's missing context or missing information. So just keep that in mind um.

I think there was something else that i was talking about with that too. Let me see i had written down here. Um, oh yeah. I've got the perfect situation too um.

So in the video before that, i was doing a leak check on a set of cook stores, and i kind of mentioned that you know i'm kind of suspect of there being another leak in the system. And i wouldn't be surprised if there was. But it's not at the evaporators and it's not on the roof. So more than likely it's going to be in the line set and i wanted to avoid cutting open the ceiling.

And then i got a bunch of comments about that. Why would i cut open the ceiling without pressurizing the system with nitrogen first going through that and again it's one of those incomplete thoughts just coming out of my head, of course, in the situation, if i do have another refrigerant leak on that, the best situation would Be to isolate the line set completely okay, but that actually will be extremely difficult but isolate the line set completely and do a pressure test on it and then once i know a hundred percent sure that the leak is in the line set. Then i can start cutting open the ceiling or whatever i have to do - to try to find the refrigerant leak so again incomplete thoughts, my mouth just spouts, you know random crap, sometimes and it's not a complete thought and you know whatever i have a video. So i just put it out so, but please i really do appreciate the feedback and the advice and the criticisms, so please keep them coming.

So whenever i post a video, if you guys think i did something wrong or you think you have a better way that i could do it. Of course you don't need to be a punk about it, but reach out to me you can send me a comment. Send me an email, facebook, all that different stuff and give me your opinions, because i'm always looking to grow as a service technician, and there has been things that have been said in the comments and i usually address them on the live stream. Where someone gives me a really good idea that i can grow on so, and i always try to pass those on to people too, so please keep them coming.

I really do appreciate all your guys's feedback and i do have to say thank you guys, all so much for watching my videos and taking the time to leave comments like you do and send emails like you do because it's awesome, you know it really does help It definitely helps because i spend a bunch of time on these, so any kind of feedback or interaction i can have kind of makes it more worth it. You know what i'm saying to have something, because if you just put out videos eh, you know it's kind of can get old, but when you start having feedback and a correspondence with people, it definitely helps and helps to make me want to keep making these videos. So, thank you guys so very much. Okay, all right! Let's see what else we got going on in the chat here: um yeah! If you guys haven't already please um all right on dude uh, please uh um.

I lost my train of thought there right now. So um, let me see what we got going on in the chat uh. Oh, so that's interesting, so jason johnson says that he likes the orange brazing rods, 56 silver or the blue 45 silver ones. You know i have had some bad experience with the the the flux coated brazing rods, and maybe it's just me because what i started to notice was the flux would actually like um fall off of the brazing rods.

Maybe it's because they sat in my van too long and then it was just kind of a pain. So i tend to stick to the little um. You know little container of the silver solder and then i just use the paste flux just because i would go to use the brazing rods that have the flux on them and then the flux would like fall off or chip off, and then it wouldn't get the Right amount of flux around and i just ran into a problem but um i probably need to try them again uh. You know i probably need to try the solder weld ones, because i use the solder weld um silfos, the 15 so fast, and i really do like that.

So maybe i need to try their flex coated brazing rods with like the 56 percent and try that out too to see if i can get back into there. But in the past, when those first came out before solder, weld was a thing. Some of the other brands came out with the flux coated rods and i just wasn't a fan because the flux just kind of chipped off and whatever so i ended up using. You know paste flux anyway, so i was like.

Why am i buying these silly rods? If i can just buy the little container of it and stuff so um, let me see what else we got in here: um, okay, cool! So i'm gon na go ahead and get on with the discussion here so um when it comes to uh the videos. You know i always post different things inside of there and one of the the topics that i kind of brought up and i'm looking for your guys's opinions is a torque wrench. I've never used a torque wrench in my career. I've always just tightened on flare nuts and different things like that, and i said something in my recent video and i got a few bits of feedback about the different types of digital torque wrenches and i actually am interested in purchasing one.

But i'm curious about the accuracy of the torque torque wrenches, so i've kind of been doing some research a little bit and i think i might be getting ready to purchase a torque wrench, i'm also trying to find a torque wrench calibration tool within reason. That's not extremely expensive, so i actually did send an email to a calibration tool manufacturer to kind of ask if you can use the adjustable torque wrenches on their tool, because i'm curious about the accuracy of some of these digital torque wrenches too um. But they i. What i tend to notice is there's quite a few of the digital torque wrenches that all seem to be very similar kind of, like maybe they're made by the same manufacturer or the same like two or three manufacturers and then they're rebranded.

I don't know if you guys know, but that actually happens quite a lot in tool manufacturing is they will oftentimes go and rebrand a certain manufactured tool or whatever you can usually tell just by looking at it you're like hey, that looks like another brand's. You know. So i'm just kind of curious about the accuracy. So if you guys do have any opinions on digital torque, wrenches i'd love, your feedback send me an email to hvacr videos, gmail.com i'd like to know which ones you guys like, which ones you use which ones you don't like.

You know what you like about it. What you don't like about it i'd be kind of curious again, never using a torque wrench on flare, nuts or anything in my career. I would be kind of curious because i've learned how tight something needs to be, but i'd like to know the actual um. If i'm actually accurate and what i think is a good tightness - and you know what the torque wrench actually says, so i'd be kind of curious about that.

So send me an email, okay, guys, um! Let me see, let me mark some stuff off of my list or i'll get really caught up and forgetting to actually talk about the things i have on here. Um in the chat before the live stream started. Uh jason johnson was actually asking about um ultrasonic leak detectors and he was asking my opinion on them, and it just so happens that my buddy rick hvacr survival was in the chat. I don't know if he's still in there or not, but um rick actually has some videos uh about the um uh, the ultrasonic leak detector.

Okay, so my opinion, i tried out one of the ultrasonic leak detectors, i'm not going to throw the brand under the bus, but i tried out one of them and i wasn't too happy with it for me in my niche of stuff that i do working in The restaurants and things it just wasn't, you know it just wasn't my thing what i found my experience with the ultrasonic leak detector. Is that number one? I have some hearing problems. Okay, so i have to turn the volume up really loud and when i turned up the volume you would have headphones on, i would hear the fluorescent lights in the room and fluorescent lights actually make a very interesting sound um. So that would distract me and you could still hear the leak, the refrigerant leaks, because it does make a very distinct sound.

But you also hear all the other background noise. If you're in a very, very loud room, i could see where that might be a problem, and actually, when i was trying to use the leak detector - and it may have something to do with my hearing issues um. But when i was trying to use the leak detector, i found myself actually having to turn off things like. I was working in a walk-in cooler and i had to turn off the fans in the walk-in freezer, because all i could hear was that the fans in the other one now i also have i've - talked about it a few times in my videos.

I have some sort of a hearing problem where i get distracted by other noises, so if i'm working trying to do a leak, search on something and there's a whining noise behind me, like all i hear, is that whiny noise behind me and it's hard for my Mind to focus on what's in front of me, so that's where the ultrasonic leak detector didn't work very well. For me, okay, i'm not saying it's a bad tool. It just wasn't my tool. You know i could definitely see where it might help now.

The one thing i didn't get to try with the ultrasonic leak detector, which i kind of wish i would have tried, was to try to listen to bearings. That's an interesting thing to do to try to listen to the sounds and know when you might have a dry bearing or a bad bearing on something i kind of wish. I would have tried that before i got rid of it, but if you guys want to see some videos with the ultrasonic leak, detector go check out my buddy rick at hvacr survival, and you can see what he has going on over there now me personally um. Let me see, i saw a comment in here: real quick um.

My buddy ulysses is in here right now says: how do i, like the new field? Piece leak? Detector? You were thinking about one that one or the inficon, okay, so um. Let's talk about the leak detectors, then so i have been using the new field piece dr82, which is an infrared leak, detector, okay, um. I really really like that leak detector. Now let me also say that i have the inficon detect stratus, okay, which is inficon's top of the line leak detector.

It has cloud hunting mode and all this different stuff. Now, let's explain something about the inficon detect stratus. It's got too many names actually but anyways. It is a infrared leak detector that also has a cloud hunting mode.

Okay, the cloud hunting mode gives you the ability, if you're working in a supermarket rack room. Now i don't do that kind of stuff, but this this is perfect for a rack room. Okay, if you walk into a rack room that has a rather large refrigerant leak, it may be difficult to pinpoint that leak. So you can put the detex stratus in cloud hunting mode and then the parts per million readout comes up and it gives you a numerical number to kind of look, so you can hone in on the refrigerant leak.

Okay, now some things you need to consider if you're walking into an equipment room that has a leak that big, okay, vice versa or you know in the past, you would turn on your elite detector and it would just go crazy and you'd have to go in There and try to find the leak, but you've got equipment running that's loud whatever, so it can be hard something to remember, though too, whenever you're walking into a situation now, ulysses works on some big stuff with like ammonia and stuff. That's a whole different thing, but he regularly when he works in the ammonia, will have to put on breathing apparatus something to think about if you're having to walk into a mechanical room and you're having to go into cloud hunting mode, because the leak is so big. We're talking about normal refrigerant now you really should have some sort of breathing apparatus on too, because if, if your leak, detector is going crazy and you have to put it in cloud hunting mode to hone in on it, you got to think that's - probably not very Good for you to be breathing in too okay. So something to think about you don't want to get the oxygen displaced in your lungs or anything like that when it comes to refrigerants and different things, so be very cautious about that.

Okay, but anyways i'm going off on a tangent. The detect stratus has the cloud hunting mode and it gives you a ppm readout. I want to clarify something for many people out there, because when i use the new field piece leak detector, i said it has a numerical readout and there was a few comments saying well. I wish it had the ppm readout.

Okay, when it comes to the detect leak detector, when you put it in cloud hunting mode, the part that has the ppm readout, where it gives you the parts per million readout of the refrigerant right, that's actually less sensitive than the pinpoint mode on the detex stratus. Okay, so if you want the most sensitivity and the most accuracy when it comes to finding leaks, you actually take it off of the cloud hunting mode and put it on the regular pinpoint mode or whatever they call it. Okay, so keep that in mind. So the field piece came out with the new infrared leak detector, the dr82.

It is a really nice leak, detector been using it for a few weeks. Now now full disclosure um i've talked about it before i am a beta tester for field piece, and i tried some of their new tools before so i usually get my hands on them for a very long time, so i have a pretty good opinion about them. The dr82 leak detector. I did not beta test that leak detector.

Now i was part of the groups and saw the guys using it and got to communicate with them, but i've only had my hands on the dr82 for about three weeks now i think um and it's a great leak detector. In fact, i did get to use it one time in the beta test mode way in its infancy, but it wasn't something that i kept using okay, so it's got a hyper sensitive mode on it called turbo mode, so they have four modes on it: low medium High and then turbo uh, i think they tell you to normally leak detect on high mode, and it's it's super great on that now i put it in the turbo mode when you can't find a leak, and i swear to you that thing will pick up leaks, That um, that you don't even know or you know, you'll, spend time trying to find them with the bubbles, because it's like, oh my gosh, you know it drives you, nuts um. How do i think the field piece leak? Detector compares to the inficon stratus as far in my opinion and the limited use that i've had with, because i've been using the stratus for longer than i have the field piece leak detector i think they're pretty neck and neck as far as finding refrigerant leaks. It's a very good leak detector, where the field piece differs a little bit from the stratus is that it has that lighted tip.

I really like the lighted tip on the field piece leak detector, because for me, when you know someone, that's a little hard of hearing it's nice to be able to look down and see, you know the little tip lighting up to help you to indicate um. Now it does have a numerical readout, but it's not a parts per million, read it okay, so i think it's a great leak detector so far, um and i haven't had any complaints to say the least about it. Uh. I did run into some issues in my recent video where um i forgot to charge it.

You know i had to so. You've got all the same stuff. One thing i do like about it, uh, you know just little things that kind of irk me. I know.

I'm kind of anal about stuff is the charging port is a usbc which i really like um. You know. One thing i don't like about the stratus is: is i'm almost positive? The stratus is not a usbc. I think it's a it's a different style, usb connector, and so i really like the simplicity of that, because i use android phones and it's the same charger that i have for my phone.

So it's just convenient for me. I know that's a silly thing, but it's those things that kind of set things apart for me, um and, like i've, said before i'm a huge fan of not reading manuals. So i just like to turn things on and see how intuitive they are and i've. Yet to read a single manual with the fields leak, detector turned it on kind of worked through it um.

Now, when i say i don't like reading manuals, i love watching videos on eq on tools and things like that. But i don't know there's something about me. Reading an actual manual, it can get kind of frustrating, so i like to give it an opportunity with the tool before i start reading the manuals. I want to use it now.

Of course, you get into some crazy tools and you need to read the manual and stuff like that, but yeah anyways, but yeah. I really like the field piece, dr 82. Now that is their infrared. That is the top of the line leak detector.

They also have a heated diode leak detector off the top of my head. I think it's the dr-58. I think i have not used that one, but i've heard good things about it too. Now my opinions on the heated diode versus the infrared i've used heated diode in the past um.

It's been a long time since i've had a heated diode leak detector. The last few that i've had have been the infrared, the leak detector that i've been using before the stratus or the field piece was the uh, the detex select, which i used for a good 10 years, and then before that i had a few other ones. Cps leak seeker, the yellow, looking thing that always broke the wands on it. That was a whole thing, but um yeah, i mean you know it's really about preference uh, the heated diode um.

You know i. I don't have a lot of experience with them. I have used them in the past. Uh i've always been an infrared person and they've done me really well.

I know a lot of people swear by the h10. I've never used h10 in my career, so you know i have nothing bad or good to say about it. I saw some super chats coming in here. Thank you guys so very much um, let's see scott hvac rookie and the 98 deville you guys.

I really appreciate those. Those are awesome. You guys are awesome. Please smash the thumbnail or thumbs up button and, yes, i know i'm growing my hair out so all right now that i'm out of breath - because i tend to do that - sometimes i go off on a tangent and i forget to breathe.

Sometimes i forget to breathe that was actually a joke from a radio show that i used to listen to um mark and brian. They were a southern california radio station and they had a sketch that they did where the guy was said. Sometimes i forget to breathe. It's always something that makes me laugh: okay, um.

Let me see what i'm missing in the chat see if i'm missing anything special here um. Do me a favor guys if you haven't already before i forget uh, go subscribe to sporland's youtube channel spoilin video is the name of the youtube channel. They've got great content on their website, they're, always posting cool, stuff and uh. You know sometimes you'll see some of their stuff might be like supermarket, related but check it out.

Listen to it because it actually will give you some great information, even if it's supermarket related. It always has great little nuggets of information on there and full disclaimer. You guys know spoiling is actually a sponsor of my channel, but i really do love the content that they put out so please go check it out and subscribe to their youtube channel. If you haven't already, i just threw a link in the show notes right now.

So jason, johnson - yes, it was 95.5 klos was the mark and brian show. I grew up listening to them with my dad. So um no worries man, you guys. I try to be as honest as possible about the stuff that i use um and i also want to say too, you know not knocking any other creators and stuff everybody has their own way of doing things.

Okay, my style is different than everybody else's style. We have guys all over the country um up in canada, um different australia, different parts of the world, people making youtube content, and the cool thing is is that you can get different perspectives on everything and everybody does something a little different. Okay, my style. I don't really push products that i don't have a lot of experience with okay and i also am a little bit hesitant about trying certain products too.

Okay, so you know, if i'm, if i bring on a channel sponsor, you know, if i, if i work with field piece, it doesn't mean that i'm endorsing every single one of their products. Okay um, i usually talk about one specific product and - and i try to be as honest as possible, but i also don't like to bash people either. Okay, you know um, for instance, i'm gon na tell you the truth: uh with the the uh ultrasonic leak detector. So i've always battled back and forth when it comes to my channel about people sending me free tools, i've always gone back and forth and had a hard time with it.

I have accepted some tools um, but the the the ultrasonic leak detector, uh ultrasonic leak, detector manufacturer reach out to me. This is like three years ago or something like that. They reached out to me and they were like hey. We want you to use our tool on our channel on your channel, we'll send you one and i kind of went back and forth and i decided to let them send it to me.

I used it for about two months and i called them back and i said: look i don't want to talk crap about your product, but i honestly can't find anything good to say about it. So i said i'd like to send you back your leak detector and, let's just not even make a video and that's what happened - the truth about it. Okay, so i would rather just send it back and not say anything negative at all, then to come out and be the person that just says this is the worst tool ever now with that being said, i do have a tools, channel hvacr tools that i'm doing With my buddies and we will be critics, you know we will pick a tool and we will tell you the good and bad things we like about it. But if i just flat out hate a tool, i'm not gon na make a video about it.

Okay, but i'm gon na be honest about it. Okay, i'll tell you like hey, you know what i don't like this so um. You know there was some criticism that i gave about the testo manifold. You know the new one that came out.

There was good things about it and bad things about it, so i have no problem being honest about that um, but yeah. I just you know if i just flat out, don't like a tool, i'm just not even gon na use it in a video because yeah silly or whatever you know, i just don't want to bash people for no reason. So but again, thank you. Guys.

Uh wink hvac. Thank you so much for that super chat man. I really appreciate it. Okay, um, let's see arizona hvac, it says you have a customer that order a walk-in cooler from a used company.

It's 20 by 20 by 16 big box. They sent heat crafty vap unit 12, 000 btus seems small for this big box, arizona hvac. You need to do a load calculation um, you can go to uh russell. You can go to russell's new load calculation program is called rapid spec.

I think, and it's like rheem russell, all that different stuff, you can go to heat craft. You can go to trenton, there's a few other ones that have free refrigeration, load calculation. Software on their websites. Send me an email if you can't find the ones, but look up rapid spec by by ream, i think, is what it is um and do a load.

Calculation based off of the inside dimensions of the box based off of the the thickness of the walls. The ambient temperatures outside the infiltrating air from the kitchen and find out what size equipment you actually need. Okay, you don't want to guess and just throw in what someone sends you be very cautious about that. Okay, i have customers that order their own equipment too, and before i install it, i will typically do my own load calculation just to verify before i go through all the headaches and become the official owner of that equipment.

You know so be very cautious about that kind of stuff and always do your load calculations now um i've said it. I've still been kind of running into some hiccups and some hurdles, but i am currently working on a video where i'm going to do a full load calculation process and show you what i go through to size everything and come up with some some things. You need to consider and line sizing and different stuff like that, so that will be coming out in the future, but it's going to be a while because just again we're running into some hurdles with it, but it'll come out soon. Okay, let me see what else we got in here.

What am i missing? Okay, cool um? Is there a good digital alternative to electromechanical, defrost timers, the flying farmer? You know some people really really like the new paragon digital timers, so paragon's made defrost clocks for years. The one of the most popular ones is the 8145 series they have a 115 and a 208 volt, so the 81 45 20 is actually the 208 volt. That is a mechanical defrost clock. They actually came out with a fully digital model.

Um, forgive me, i don't know the model number of it, but just look up paragon digital defrost, clock and it'll come up. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but a lot of people do swear by it. It's multi-volt and different things like that. Some people really love that thing.

There's times that i really like a digital clock, there's times that i really like a mechanical, it really depends on the situation. I will go between the 81 45 20 and the dta v40, which is the grassland mechanical defrost clock and then sometimes i'll go to ke2 therm and use their temp plus defrost controllers or their low temp controllers. So it really depends on the situation more and more though, lately i've been going to the digital stuff, uh, the ke2 therm temp, plus defrost controller um, and then the ke2 therm low, temp controller. I've been going a little bit more to that kind of stuff, but there's downsides to using digital too, so one of the upsides to using mechanical or the ones that actually have a clock face on them, like the paragon digital is sometimes if you're working on walk-in Cooler equipment: you can put longer defrost in the middle of the night, so sometimes when you're working in restaurant situations, you know the customer may be very hard on their equipment and it may be prone to icing up because they leave doors, open and different things like That so, what's nice about, like a grassland clock, is that i can put like a two hour defrost in the middle of the night, when nobody's in the building on the walk-in cooler and the doors are shut and everything.

So the box temp won't come up that high and then you could do normal defrost throughout the day when it comes to using like a ke2, therm, temp plus defrost controller. You can't do that because you basically set intervals. You know you can only do so. Many defrosts a day for so much time and that's it.

So that's one of the downsides to going with the digital types, but again that paragon one again. I don't know the number on it, but it looks like a normal defrost clock that one you can set longer defrost at different times throughout the day, so that is kind of a nice thing to do all right. Um, let's see, i already answered that question. I'm just going to mark off my list real, quick, so samuel had sent me.

I think it was an email or a comment. I can't remember - and he asked me my opinion - he's in school and he's getting ready to start in the trade and he wanted to know my opinion on digital gauges. Uh. What types to use? Okay, so he's been learning on analog in school and he wants to get a set of digital gauges and he wanted to know if i, if i recommended, going the probe route or the gauge route, okay.

So for what i do, everybody's a little bit different! Okay, for what i do, if i was given a choice - and i could only pick one - i would go with an actual digital manifold. Okay, now i probably use my field piece, joblink probes, more than i use my manifold, but there's times that that manifold really comes in clutch and really helps me out. So if, given the choice between the two, if i could only choose one, i would probably say to start with a digital manifold and when you can afford it, go to the probes. Now i use the probes and the manifold regularly at different situations.

If i know i'm walking up to a walk-in cooler where i'm going to be charging it, i'm probably going to break out the manifold, because it's just a little bit more convenient for me, maybe because i'm old school, when i started on compound gauges, it's just easier For me to charge with the manifold, but i've said it many times too, when i'm working on air conditioning systems, i will tend to jump for my probes, because most air conditioners, you got to put your gauges on and then shut the panels and that's really convenient To have probes without hoses sticking out of the you know the ac or things like that, so i like them both, and i think everybody needs eventually to have probes and a manifold, especially in refrigeration, um but uh. You know certainly there's people that are super comfortable with working with just probes too, so you know, i think it to each their own when it comes to that one um. Let me see what else we got going on in here, uh, what size wire do? I keep on my truck uh for redoing high voltage, so i have a 12 gauge wire sitting on my truck at all times, because i go through 12 gauge 12 gauge. Pretty much does everything for me when it comes to refrigeration, repairs and stuff.

Now um, you know if i'm working on bigger stuff, we'll have to go, get some 10 gauge. I have 10 gauge sitting in the shop, but 12 and 10 are the two most common wire sizes that i use uh working on. What i work on okay, but i don't work on big giant, walk and freezer equipment. I work on.

You know five horsepower and below most of the time three horsepower and below um so yeah. I keep uh 12 gauge for 480 volts. So i have brown yellow and orange 500 foot rolls of those on my truck and then i also have blue red black for um uh. You know 208 volt systems, uh i'm talking three phase and then obviously ground wire uh and then i keep 12 gauge.

I'm sorry 10 gauge at the shop, but yeah number 10 is what or number 12 is what i keep on my truck at all times and then i usually have um. I don't know 100 foot of so cord or sjo quarter, whichever one it is. I always get mixed up on those, but i usually carry 14 gauge, sj cord or so cord and carry you know 100 foot of that 50 foot of that something like that, because i go through that stuff, quite often too. So all right, um have i seen a walk-in evaporator with both bad motors uh yeah, but i can't think of a situation right now to ex to elaborate on that.

One um, let me see, let's see um truetech is out of stock on both the dr-58 and the dr-82 yeah. I've been selling the hell out of those things, so people are probably gon na, kill it on their stock right now, um, but yeah. A lot of people, you know because they do a field piece, really hit the ground running, because they were working with a few content creators and then they started promoting on their own. So the hype was pretty high for those leak detectors.

So when you can get your hands on one you're going to really like them, they do a really good job same thing with their new vacuum pump, the vpx7, the 10 cfm i've been using that now that i did beta test and that thing kicks butt. I actually did a job. I haven't made the video on it, but i happen to have two of those 10 cfm pumps and it worked out perfect because i was working on a 15-ton split system and uh. I was able to evacuate both circuits.

At the same time, and that that really helped me out by having two of those 10 cfm pumps, of course, using it with the true blue hoses, so i got the full capacity of the vacuum pump, something you want to think about. I don't know the exact numbers, but if you're using your quarter inch hoses with your vacuum pump, you might as well go buy a one cfm pump, because the amount of flow you're going to get through a quarter inch hose with a schrader with a schrader depressor. In it is going to be like less than one cfm, so it doesn't matter what size pump you put on the other side of it. So if you guys really want to step up your vacuum game, you really need to consider getting into the bigger hose sizes.

Whether it be through appion, hoses or true, blue hoses, there's a couple different manufacturers that make the bigger hoses, but the bigger you go, the more flow you're going to get through that hose. So keep that in mind. Okay, you know using that field. Piece cfm pump with a compound gauge set with quarter inch hoses is kind of silly, because it's not going to do anything you might as well be using a you know, tiny pump, so something to think about food for thought.

I guess you can say so: um, let's see uh someone had emailed me asking me about a video that i made where i worked on the cook's drawers and they were asking what the perfect setting for the kyrak drawer units when it came to temperature and defrost Settings, it really depends, but when it comes to setting up the temperature and the defrost strategy, it depends on the customer kyrec if it's a medium temperature system for their drawer units, especially the old school, with the blue, it's a little bit different. If you guys don't know what i'm talking about, you don't work on the blue, but the blue is like a glycol unit, but the original kyrak units, the prep tables and different things like that they would set their controllers. The temperature of the box to 37 degrees with a three degree differential, so it'd be 37 38. 39 40.

It would turn on come down to 37. It would range between 37 and 40. that did really well and i still try to maintain whatever the manufacturer set. Their boxes up accordingly, okay - and it all depends on the types of coils that they have them and then different things like that.

The fins per inch spacing on the evaporator coils affects how quick they frost up and how you know. Often you have to defrost it and stuff so um when it came to the defrost settings on the kyrax. Actually, the refrigerated bases you typically didn't have to do much of a defrost on them because of that higher than norm, or that 40 degree cut in temperature. You got to remember something that when it comes to refrigeration equipment, even though your your your box temperature is above freezing right.

Let's say we maintain the box temperature between 37 and 40. The box temp is above freezing, but the evaporator coil temperature is oftentimes going to be much lower, typically lower than 10 degrees too, because often times on the reaching coolers, they would do the evaporator tds rather high to try to bring the box temperature down too fast. Really quick, so you might see a td evaporator td of like 15 degrees on some of those things. So that means that that evaporator temperature is getting 15 degrees below the box temperature and, if you're setting it at 37 degrees.

That means it's going to be 15 degrees below that, so it's going to be much lower than freezing. So you have to keep that in mind that the coil temperature is going to be below freezing and that's why we have to use defrost on the medium temperature stuff. Now there was an old school mentality that you didn't have to use defrost on medium temperature, walk-ins and different things like that, but that's kind of untrue, especially with the way that customers leave doors open, reaching doors, open, walking doors open all that stuff. It really is a need to have proper defrost strategies set up, and it's really going to depend on the situation in which you're working in okay.

So in a perfect world, like on the cook stores that i worked on, i'd like to see maybe a 15 minute. Defrost every four hours on that box and then usually in the middle of the night i'll do an hour or two from like two to three or four in the morning where it shuts down the entire box, with the drawers all shut and everything like that. To try to get rid of any frost and then boom by the time they open. You never want to do anything more on a reach and cooler than like a 20 minute defrost during the day, and you even want to do that to a minimum too, because with them opening and closing the drawers and then it goes into a defrost.

It's going to bring those box temperatures and the product temperature really high, so you want to be very cautious about that and another thing, too, is you always want to keep your customer in the loop about the defrost times too? That way, you don't get nuisance service calls. Sometimes i've seen some of my customers that were very proactive and they would actually put like a sticky note on the unit with a label maker whatever and say what times it goes into defrost. So that way, they knew not to call me during those times. If, if you know it was during the middle of the day or something so uh, would i ever consider using the zoom lock push to connect fittings, randy laz um? For me, i don't have a use for the zoom lock push to connect fittings in the stuff that i do, except for i haven't been able to use this, but i do think that the zoom lock push to connect fitting will serve a really good purpose when You're working on r290 equipment now before you freak out think about what i say if you're working on r290 equipment - and you know the manufacturer, oftentimes won't send service ports on that equipment.

So i've shown it in my videos where, if you follow, if it's under warranty, you've got to follow their specs and all that stuff, you'll oftentimes have to braise on connections and then, when you're all done, you'll have to unsweat those connections and pinch it off and Weld it shut, so i thought it'd be kind of cool to use the push to connect fitting instead of brazing that connection on you can just use the push to connect fitting and then maybe, when you're all done right and you want to close it up. Have another one set up to where it has a crimped off uh? You know piece of copper, that's already been welded shut and you just push it on there. Maybe when you're all done and you leave it that way with no refrigerant connection port right, because some of those push-to-connect fittings are actually um removable, you can actually put them on and take them off, but you have to buy the special one. So that was my thought when you're working on the r290, instead of having to braise that last connection with the r290 on the other side of your pinch-off tool.

Why not pinch it off then use the push to connect fitting and then call it a day, because it's a leak, free thing, but then so anyways we'll see. I haven't tried it yet, but that was kind of my thought and i have some sitting in the truck just waiting for a job to try them on. So all right, um, let's see cyborg sheep, you have a leaking carrier split system. Where do i do a leak search? What would you need? Where would you look um anywhere, there's a refrigerant connection? Bud i mean it could be outside at the outdoor unit.

It could be inside. I mean it's hard to say: there's so many different places that it could be leaking so um yeah, that's a hard one for me to tell you uh. Have i ever repaired a leak that is on a line behind a wall? Um i mean yeah, you run a new line set or something yeah i've. You know i've had to cut walls open to access portions of it too, and make a leak repair so yeah i've done it.

Um adam has a compressor and he emailed me. He was kind of confused about it because he doesn't have any resistance across the terminals right, but it's not hot and he was confused because you know he's basically thinking like if, if we have no resistance across the terminals from winding to winding, but the compressor has Power and it's not hot - he's confused on what's going on there, so more than likely adam you've got a bad connection. Point on the inside of the compressor or the thermal overload has failed open to where it's not resetting. Okay, oftentimes and it's a scroll compressor by the way too so often times on the scroll.

Compressors they'll have a thermal overload on the inside of the compressor that will open up um depending on if it's single phase or three-phase the lines. Okay, and if that thermal overload fails or the little plug, i don't think i have one right here: oh i do hold on so i've got the inside of a scroll compressor right here. This thing's heavy, but this is the inside of the fuseite plug right here. So you notice that it actually has another plug right on the inside, where the terminals would connect on the outside.

Now, it's very, very rare that this could happen, but this theoretically could have come unplugged too, on the inside of the compressor and you're no longer sensing. The actual motor windings anymore, so that thing is heavy if you guys ever, i encourage everybody out there, and actually i was inspired by my buddy ulysses that was in the chat earlier ulysses palacios. I believe i pronounced your name right. Ulysses.

Sorry, if i didn't but ulysses has a youtube channel - and he inspired me because he started used to post a lot of stuff on there and the dude would cut open compressors all the time and really got the wheels. Turning in my head and uh, it really got me to start cutting open compressors too, and that was from a scroll compressor that i was curious about. So if you guys haven't already - and you have the tools you need to be safe and be careful, i encourage everybody out there. If you change a compressor, take it home spend some time on the weekend.

Pour the oil out cut that thing open, start cutting open. All the compressors that you can that are bad and uh. Please don't do it to good ones and start learning how compressors fail learn. What copper plating is look for the failure points, because it helps you to understand and realize what's going on inside that compressor.

So what i do i'll take a compressor i'll drain the oil out i've learned where to cut the scroll compressors to where you can get them apart, the easiest and then um. I will, if i want to like save them for keepsakes and whatever, to show things i'll, actually soak them in degreaser put them in a bucket of degreaser, and then let them sit for a couple days then take them and rinse them. You have to do a couple times and dry them off before they start to rest the components, and then you have perfectly good components that you can just you know it. You know, show to other technicians and different things like that um.

Let me see what else i just seen a super chat jose. Thank you. So very much for that super chat man. You guys in these super chats.

It's awesome. Thank you very much. Okay, so um reyes, i don't know if i pronounced your name wrong. I believe your it was your screen name or your name.

It was reyes r-a-y-a-z, he asked about topping off r410a and he was kind of concerned because he noticed in some of my videos because sometimes i'll get this question quite often where someone say i thought that was a blend and you're not supposed to top off a Blend okay, so when it comes to 410a, 410a is a near azeotropic blend okay. So it is a blend of different refrigerants, but it has a very small glide on it and in the very beginning, when fortinet was becoming very popular, there was a lot of hype about um. How easy it was to make the gas fractionate, and you know they use these big words that scared everybody. I have not had any issues with fractionation now when it comes to that being said, reyes's question was at what point do you change the refrigerant in the system? Okay, it really depends if i walk up to a system - and i find that has a very small leak, whether it be on the high side of the low side, and i recover the charge you know and there's still gas in there, and it only leaked out A pound or two of a 10 pound charge, i'm not too worried about it.

Okay, where i'd really start to think about changing all the refrigerant is. If i saw something where it like leaked out, half the charge or something like that, then it would probably lean towards changing the refrigerant now. Some other things you need to think about when it comes to using new virgin refrigerant is: is there any possibility of contamination? Sometimes you you know, on the refrigeration side, you can have pressure controls that are sticking. You can have leaks on the low side of the system.

The system runs into a vacuum because of a plugged up capillary tube. It starts sucking air into the refrigerant. There's all kinds of things you have to use your common sense. Okay, that's when i would definitely change the refrigerant, but when i'm working on an air conditioning system, if i recover the refrigerant and there's more than half of it in there, i'm probably not going to change the refrigerant again, it just depends on the situation.

If it's a burnout, if there's contamination, acid contamination, of course, i'm going to change the refrigerant okay, so it really depends on every situation, um, all right! Uh. I already covered that. One already answered that question um. I already answered that question cool.

I'm working through these questions pretty good um, oh so this was dave. Dave had asked me a question about charging to the proper liquid level. So i get a lot of confusion and a lot of questions about this. Where i'll show myself checking the liquid level in a receiver, and then people are all confused like why am i checking the liquid level um hold on? Let me look at something here, real quick.