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, hopefully you guys are all doing well out there. I am getting better every day been going to see the chiropractor. Getting this nerve thing.

I got going on, i had a pinched nerve in my neck and it's been a pain in the butt man. It's weird because, like the pain from the neck and stuff is gone but there's just like nerve crap going on so like it hurts in my elbow and stuff it's weird, but anyways i'm doing good over here. Hopefully you guys are uh doing the same. Hopefully, everybody's uh staying healthy and safe um.

We have a few things i want to cover as usual uh, if you guys haven't already please consider uh subscribing to the channel. Okay definitely helps out the stream helps out the videos and all that good stuff. Okay um. If you guys have questions, please put your questions in caps lock in the chat um.

If uh. If i don't get to them, you guys can feel free to repost them and tell myself or a moderator doesn't or tells you to stop posting the question. Basically, okay. Um so uh two videos the last week uh the videos were the the beer is warm again, and that was another one.

On a glycol unit that we had um. Let me see what else we got going on in there. Oh yeah. I guess you guys see that huh here i'll be nice, well, actually no hold on yeah.

I do got the fan going. My uh, my camera angle is different for some reason. That's gon na bug the heck out of me. So let me fix that real quick.

I don't know why it did that because it shouldn't be showing all that stuff on the camera angle. What happens is when i do the overtime show there. We go perfect right there. When i do the overtime show.

I adjust my camera angle and uh. Sometimes i forget to set it back so um, but yeah two videos. The last week we had the beers warm again. That was a glycol unit.

You know, we've had a lot of issues with those particular glycol units, but hey uh. I get a lot of people asking me hey: why doesn't the customer replace that equipment? Why aren't you selling them new equipment when you're dealing with chain restaurants, you don't really get to sell very much equipment, you're kind of just along for the ride um. So, of course, i give the customer recommendations now in that situation i wouldn't be uh doing anything with glycol units. I wouldn't be selling them a new glycol unit.

I would leave that up to the beverage company. So when we have these units fail and they're old and i put a lot of work into them and stuff like that, you know i just give the customer a quote and let them make those decisions. You know occasionally there's times when i'll really really push to the customer. Hey.

You know what this is in, really bad shape. You might want to consider replacing it, but it's very rare that i actually do that. So all right, let me see what else we got going on in here. What baby steps uh? What baby step? Am i on um, matthew carrie? Are you talking about uh? Give me context you talking about the dave ramsey program.

Give me context: um post it in the chat again. Hopefully i see it so all right, let's see what else, what glycol percentage am i using um? Basically, i look at the freeze point i typically like to okay, my i'm not an expert when it comes to glycol equipment or beverage equipment. Okay, but my experience is that, with certain um systems, the glycol concentration may change. I've just had beverage people tell me before: hey, don't make, don't don't mix it that you know concentrated or um.

You know dilute it down or whatever. So i look at the freeze point, i don't have an exact concentration that i always run. I just kind of look at the freeze point and my personal preference and anybody out there in the chat want to correct me if i'm wrong or send me an email, hvacr videos at gmail.com. I typically like to get about 20 degrees below glycol set point.

Uh is what i like to see. So if i have a glycol set point of 27 degrees, then i like to get the freeze point: temperature about 20 degrees lower than that um. That's just my personal preference, but again i've been scolded by the beverage people, for you know running it too concentrated or not concentrated enough different things. So just uh, you know i don't have an exact number that i follow.

I'll usually buy the glycol and then mix it myself, so all right um. Let me see what going on in here. Can i tell you how hvac is in phoenix arizona? Well, hvac? I live in southern california, but i know that hvac in the phoenix arizona area is going to be great in the summertime. It's going to be insane in the winter time they have mild temperatures just like we do out here in california.

So it's going to be hit and miss all right. Let me see tips for installing a mini split ac system in a shed, don't oversize it and or oversize it. If you want to, i guess it just depends: do you have humidity problems stuff like that, installing it in a shed, it's going to be really easy to oversize that mini split. It might not control humidity.

I don't know what you're trying to do. Are you trying to make a pot farm out of your shed? You know, i don't know you're yeah, i'm joking with the pot farm, but seriously if you're, making a pot farm humidity is a big thing. So you want to make sure that you're not drying out the pot at a certain time and you know, or and or drying it out at other times. So you want to be careful and make sure that your equipment is adequately sized okay um.

As far as temperatures go here, it's kind of crazy right now, guys it damn near hit 80 degrees. Today, at my house, um yeah it was kind of warm um, so i want to start this off. You know i kind of talk about it. A lot in a lot of my videos - and i just kind of want to go into a little conversation about this.

You know when it comes to customers. Okay, i can't stress enough how much we as technicians need to be honest with our customers. Okay, the way that i run my business okay is honesty is first okay, because in my eyes honesty is gon na keep the customer calling me back. Okay, any monkey can fix something right, but someone who the customer trusts fixes it right.

Then the customer continues to call them back over and over and over again that's what i'm going for. Okay, i'm not looking for a quick buck right so sure i can probably sell compressors or whatever all the time on my equipment, and you know what my customer probably wouldn't even question. Okay and i'd probably get away with it for six months to a year before they really started to question my invoices, but i don't want to be fired in a year or six months or a month from now. I want to keep working for these customers for years and years and years to come, so honesty, integrity are so important right, don't try to rip the customers off okay! Yes, i realize that some company have sales quotas and they're really pushing you to make sales and stuff like that.

You know i'm not going to judge a company, that's pushing sales because hey who am i to judge but man? You know sales is hard, especially on the commercial side. Most of the the repairs and the equipment puts everything in front of your face and you have the opportunity to sell a repair um. You know, i guess upselling and stuff you know - can be beneficial at certain times, but it's so easy for me to stay busy. Just being honest and fixing what's broken and being you know a good contractor for my customers that i don't have to worry about upselling and all this weird stuff.

Now i am super thankful and um. You know and there's times that i'm slow too. Maybe it's because i'm not upselling and things like that. Okay, another thing that i get quite often is people ask me: why am i not selling my customer a preventative maintenance program? You know i'm out there cleaning this equipment.

The acs are smashed up, they're dirty they're, greasy. Whatever how come you know, i'm doing the customer a disservice by not selling them a preventative maintenance agreement. You know i get that comment quite often guys. They must not know what it's like to work for chain.

Restaurants. Okay, i do commercial uh, light commercial refrigeration for uh chain, restaurants, and you know just mom and pop restaurants and stuff too, but for the most part with the big companies they're, not using me for preventative maintenance. They hire national filter, changing companies that come across the country that come in and do a filter change on their equipment. For you know a hundred dollars, it's insane, i don't even know how they do it, but they're not maintaining the equipment and that's not what the customer is asking the company to do.

Okay, so my customers for the most part i have like two. I have three customers that allow me to do preventative maintenance service, and i have one customer that doesn't do any preventative maintenance with me. They have a filter. Changing company um actually have two customers that do that.

So you know when people ask me: why am i not selling them a filter changing or you know, a pm? It's because the customers don't want that from me? Okay, so it is what it is all right. Uh, remember, your guys's questions put them in caps, lock. I'm gon na be going back and forth between the chat and my uh, my list of things to talk about so any tips for when you are pricing, a job, that's equipment supplied by the customer, kevin feifer or failure failure kevin fehler - maybe i don't know if I'm butching your name, okay, so i got i deal with that all the time where customers supply their own equipment. So when that's the case um, you know i'm gon na go ahead and uh.

You know just i'm gon na still be honest with the customer. Okay, i'm not gon na try to rip them off, but anytime. I do a walk and change out. I'm really pressuring the customer to let me change the line set.

It's one thing: if the equipment is only a year old and for some strange reason, they're changing it, but anything that's over five to six years old, i'm going to be inspecting the line set more than likely i'm going to be pushing them for a line set Replacement, especially if i'm changing from uh, you know an older r22 system that had mineral oil and i'm going to everything that we're dealing with now is 448a with polyester oil. I'm gon na push a line set change too so majority of the time when i do customer supplied stuff, i'm selling them a line set, i'm selling them disconnect switches and i'm pretty much selling on my labor any plumbing materials and any electrical materials that i'm going To use the customer will usually provide the condensing unit, the evaporator and that's about it. Luckily, my customers don't deal with any of those stupid. Quick connect line, sets um with aero quip fittings, or anything like that.

So i don't have to worry about that crap, but even when i have done like uh startups, i've done startups, for you know, chains that pop up all over the place, restaurants and where i'm just working for a general contractor. You know and they've got customer supplied equipment and they hand it to me and it's like aero, quip, fittings and stuff. Actually, in my quote that i give the general contractor, i cut out all that crap, so i cut out the quick connect fittings um. You know braze brazen the line sets and be done with it, because i hate arrowquip fittings or quick connect fittings.

If you guys don't understand what the aeroclip fittings are it's for a completely pre-charged system, so there's it looks like a ginormous flare nut, but the line sets actually charged with the refrigerant. The uh condensing unit has refrigerant, and the evaporator has a trace amount of refrigerant. In there and what they're trying to do is is the cut the the equipment manufacturers are doing this so that general contractors can install this equipment um oftentimes. If you have pre-charged condensing unit line set and evaporator, then you know technically, you don't have to do an evacuation, so a general contractor can come in and have his handyman.

You know twist on the fittings on a side note, those handyman and those general contractor installed. Jobs usually generate some some work in the future because they don't understand proper line, set placement and stuff like that, but that's a whole nother conversation, but all right um. Let me see what else uh any tip: how to get restaurant customers to start your new company and thank you, uh chevy truck. That's a hard one man! That's a million dollar question.

How do you get more customers? How do you break into the commercial sector um? It's all about who you know uh, you know we have been fortunate enough that when my dad started this company in 1980 89, i think is when he started it um. When he started in 89. He uh he got one customer from a friend and that customer has built our business to this point, because we've worked for that same customer. For a very long time.

People have left that customer managers moved to other restaurant chains, brought us to those chains and so forth. So for the most part it's been word of mouth um. There's been some customers that we've gone out and you know poached or approached. I guess i should say and stuff but um for the most part, it's all been word of mouth for us.

So as far as how a contractor could get in with commercial restaurants, that's going to be a hard one, commercial, restaurants. It's usually not the on-site management that has anything to do with the decision-making process, especially chain restaurants, it's usually on a facilities director level. The only way i could say to get your foot in the door at a restaurant i mean just to get you literally in the door - is apply to become warranty, approved contractor for um. You know these refrigeration or ice machine companies uh.

That will get you in the door because when there's warranty work, they'll call you you get out there and then you can hand out your cards, but where that's going to go in a chain? Restaurant, that's going to be a hard one. So don't have a lot of great advice on that one. What ac size should be installed in a 2 000 square foot building like the tonnage todd the gamer? It's it's. You don't base an air conditioner off of that size.

So there's a lot of things. You have to consider you have to consider the heat infiltration in through the building or the heat loss, so you have to basically calculate or do a load calculation based off of the square footage, the location of the building where the sun rises, where the sun sets. You know the insulation value in the walls, the insulation and the windows. You know all that stuff, so it's not a simple throw in a five ton.

It's not that simple and it really gets critical depending on where you are located in the country, because, if you're in florida - and you have really high humidity levels, then throwing in an oversized piece of equipment is going to cause some serious problems potentially have some um. You know growth in the walls mold that kind of stuff, so you got to be very, very careful with that all right, let me see what else: okay, um, what causes voltage drop across a contactor? Well um, basically an uh, a connection that is not good. So if you have a contactor that has two points on it, i'm trying to see if i have a contactor back here um. I think i do this one has an overload assembly, but this is off of an exhaust fan, but this is a contactor on the top, and you have two connection points right here and you're, usually going to have a bar in the middle.

That's going to pull in and make a connection and allow voltage to pass through. Well, when that connection point gets deteriorated, full of carbon it, it starts to run a really high resistance. It heats up and that causes a voltage drop because the contacts are just burnt or pitted or whatever so uh. Typically, a high resistance or uh a voltage drop across a contactor is caused by a failing, contactor, something stuck in the contactor bug stuck in the contactor.

Ironically, someone had asked me a question, and this is the perfect time to talk about this. Someone asked me about my opinion. It was actually andrew asked me about my opinion on the emerson sureswitch contactor um, so the sureswitch contactor is a totally enclosed contactor. It is not open to the elements whatsoever, it all happens inside, so you have less potential for bugs to get inside their ants to get inside there.

You know and less potential for the contactor to be exposed to the elements, and now how do i have experience with the immersion sure switch? I personally never installed any of them. I've come across equipment that has them installed um. My understanding is, you can only get them in 208, single, i'm sorry in a 24 volt coil voltage, so they're typically meant for air conditioning systems um, and i don't think they come in three-phase. I think they're only single phase.

So two pole, contactors essentially you know the emersion sure switch. You know it looks interesting again. I have not a lot of experience with it, but it's essentially a um uh. What do you want to call it? It has um, i can't think of the name of it right now: phase monitoring or it has a voltage monitoring built inside of it.

So uh the contactor. The sure switch, has anti-short cycle delay in it. It has a brownout protection. So if you get low voltage that kind of stuff, so it's it seems like a great contactor that could help out with a lot of the situations, but i'd be kind of curious.

If you guys in the chat, have any experience with the sure switch again. I have not had an opportunity to install when i've just come across systems that have them in it. So all right, let me see what else we got in here: um, hey! If you guys haven't already check out my website, hvacr hvacrvideos.com. We got these shirts available.

These hats: this is the flag design, so this one has the flag on the sleeve and then, if you haven't seen it already, the back says uh hvacr videos. We also have a couple other designs. This exact shirt is available on a women's cut too or a women's fit um and it's a v-neck on the women's fit so check it out. Hvcrvideos.Com um.

All right am, i always on call matthew, kerry. Well, yeah. I mean in a way because um i'm the owner, so you know i have other service techs that work for me uh, but um. You know if they ever can't figure something out.

Then you know i will have to go out, but we do have a call rotation. So it's a five-week call rotation and i'm on call three weeks in a row and then i have two other service technicians that each take a week. So i'm on call three off two on call three off two and then but my guys are good. So i rarely ever have to go in unless it's like a big compressor change out or something, and they just need physical help lifting.

But even then i can find someone to usually help them. So all right, um, so tim b, good question so uh tim says he's looking to buy his first set of wireless probes and he's curious. If i have any recommendations well, first off i'm gon na go ahead and segue into something else. So my buddies and i the overtime, crew, okay, so adam joe and bill curious, hvac guy.

I brought them in on my youtube channel. My new tools: youtube channel. Okay, i've talked about my tools, channel for like a year and a half. Now i've promoted it and i only made one video on the tools channel and i haven't done any other videos.

Well, it's just because it's been super stressful. I just posted the link to the tools channel in the chat right now, so i'm bringing the overtime crew into the hvacr tools, youtube channel and we're all gon na start producing content on that channel, um first off. If any of you guys have questions or things that you think we should cover tool, ideas, different stuff like that feel free to send an email to tools t-o-o-l-s at hvacrvideos.com. Okay, that's going to be the official email address for the hvacr tools, youtube channel.

So the first video that we are going to be uploading is going to be on the new testo manifold. So right here i have the testo 550s manifold uh also brought or bought two of the 605i hygrometers or hydrometers psychrometers, whatever you want to call them and haven't opened it yet, but in this box right here is the new wireless testo manifold. It's the uh 550i manifold, so it's the one without a screen on it and it just connects to the smart app. So now i have traditionally been a field piece: wireless probes, person uh.

We will see time will tell um i'm a pretty die hard field. Piece fan their uh joblink probes are amazing, so definitely check those out. There's actually should be links in the show notes of this video and if you guys, are interested in purchasing any tools check out truetechtools.com, i got an offer code, big picture. One word: you can save eight percent and it doesn't cost you anything else, but um uh.

So we'll see i i've always used the field piece, joblink probes. I will now be able to compare to the testo probes. I have never used a single testo product. In my life in my career, so this will be interesting trying these out, so we will have to see i've yet to open that up, but uh we'll see what happens once i open it up and give it a shot now.

The cool thing is that i sent uh these to all the overtime crew. Also so joe got the 55s manifold adam got the manifold bill got the wireless manifold and i got the wireless manifold and the regular manifold. So uh we're all going to be in the video talking about what we think about these testo manifolds and then from that point forward, we'll be making other videos together. I've got a couple other things that i'm going to be doing too two coming up the new veto, tech pack mc - so that's the small backpack just ordered that and received that uh.

I ordered it's not in yet, but it is ordered the new veto, uh rolling backpack, so it's the full-size rolling backpack with the handle and everything once that ships it'll be shipped out here. Um yeah a couple other veto bags, the blackout, backpack and, of course, anything else that you guys have suggestions within reason. I'm not saying we're going to do every tool that you guys suggest because obviously we're not making any money from this channel at this point in the future. Maybe if we start making money it'll help us to do that ways that you guys can help us with this channel is um by watching the videos on there.

Okay, get the views up so right now we're at the point where we have enough subscribers, but we need watch hours on the channel. So the more of you that watch the videos, the more it's going to help us to get to monetization status, on the hvacr tools, youtube channel and then we'll be able to uh really start purchasing some tools and uh. You know checking them out. I'm gon na post a link to the youtube channel again, also we'll be doing giveaways and stuff like that.

So please go subscribe, check it out and there'll be more uh information to come as time goes on too. So all right, let's see what else. What else am i missing in here you're interested in a set of giveaway probes? Please, okay, that's good to know all right. Do i often see walking drains teed in with other walk-ins yeah.

It's very, very common, see that all the time um right on jeffrey. Thank you very much for the support man. He says he's glad to be here and he's wearing his t-shirt, so i'm assuming he bought one of my shirts. So thanks bud.

That's really awesome! I appreciate everybody that has supported the channel. That's really cool of you guys! So this whole thing is so weird for me. Just to you know, do this youtube thing and it's such a trip so um, mr ice, the tp xxl definitely bud uh, because i already have the tpxl um as norcal dave, my buddy norcal dave. If you guys haven't already go subscribe to his youtube channel, i don't know if one of the mods can put a link to norcal dave's youtube channel in here, but anyways.

Your norcal dave has labeled the tpxl as tippy. He calls it tippy because the thing just falls right over so on the xxl. I noticed it doesn't look like they increase the base size. So it's going to be even more tippy i'd.

Imagine but um yeah, i'm interested in the tpxxl, so we'll see they need to change the names a little bit too, because some of them are kind of crazy um. In my chat and in my youtube comments when you guys post stuff, i want to make it clear: i am a hundred percent okay with criticism. Okay, i'm good with people posting that they don't like me that they think i'm a hack, it's cool. I have no problem with that everybody's free to say what they want and i'm not gon na go delete someone's comment because they're criticizing me: okay, i've said this many times before, but i will say this again.

The only comments i really delete is pure hate. If people have pure hate, especially for one for another commenter, i delete those okay but then also if people are trying to guess restaurant names or not even trying to be malicious about it, people just randomly say hey. I know where you're working or that looks like this particular chain guys. Those are the only comments that i delete, because i try to protect my customers and other customers.

Now i don't just delete the ones that are the right guesses. I delete the ones that are the wrong guesses, too. I've just kind of made it a principle that if people are commenting restaurant names, sometimes they slip through the cracks, but for the most part i delete those comments. Okay, the reason why i brought that up was someone had commented on facebook with some criticism for me in one of my recent videos, and then he went about trying to say what restaurant he thought i was working at and he was actually incorrect on the restaurant That i was working at, but still i deleted his comment, but i felt bad because i didn't want him to think that i just deleted it because he was talking crap.

I sent him a private message on facebook. He never responded. I don't even think he looked at it because you can tell on facebook when people look at it, but still that's the only stuff. So if you guys have something to say, you know, just don't put the restaurant names in there and and it'll be up and again feel free.

If you guys have criticism for me, that's how i grow. I've learned some things from people that have sent me emails and different stuff, so please keep it coming all right. What's the tool to test glycol called, it is called a refractometer, so you take a refractometer and you put a couple drops of glycol on it. Well, first, before you use a refractometer, you have to calibrate it, so you put distilled water on it.

It shows you the freeze point of water, which is going to be 32 degrees and then once it's calibrated, then you'll put a couple drops of glycol and then you look at it in the light and it'll tell you the the concentration level and tell you what The freeze point of that glycol because glycol is an uh, an anti-freeze base or it's a propylene based antifreeze, essentially, okay, and then you mix it with water to get a proper dilution ratio. The whole point of using glycol is so you can get things below freezing points, so we'll use glycol as a cooling medium on beverage lines or on chillers and stuff like that, because we can get it below freezing and or close to freezing um. You know what, unlike water, would freeze solid glycol. We can run it more okay, so all right, let's see what else we got in here.

How long should you accept being a helper before you should consider going somewhere else, greg whoo? That is a good one. Man! Well, obviously, it's gon na take time and experience um and i'm not gon na be able to answer that completely for you. But you know in your gut when it's time for you to be let free, but at the same time you know if i, if i bring on an apprentice, that's fresh out of school, more than likely he's going to be helping me, for you know at least Six months, um off and on you know i might be you know letting him lose a little bit more testing the waters kind of a thing, but i'm not going to throw him to the wolves. Okay.

So with me, it's going to be a minimum of six months and then, from that point forward, we're going to start evaluating things and i'll slowly, release him doing more and more until i complete feel completely comfortable that he can go out and do whatever he needs To do so, i can't answer for you know your company or whatever, but um all right. Okay, let me see what else how long? Okay, i already answered that one um uh jordan, bryant uh on that hvacr tools, channel i'll post a link. Again i have a uh, that's the actual one video that i have up there is on pants, so you asked which pants to wear when it's really hot. I wear the 511 tactical strike pants and i wear black pants and they do great in the summertime.

For me, they're breathable, you know i don't overheat in them. They're great great pants, so check out that video on there and you can see my. I tried a bunch of different pairs, so all right, let me get to my list of things um. We already talked about that one, and i already talked about that one.

So i'm marking things off my list right now, um. So sam asks me. If i have any tips, uh he's just coming out of the military and he's an hvac service technician in the military and he wants to transition as a civilian to an hvac service technician. But he's kind of feels, like he's, not quite ready.

He's kind of scared about coming into the public sector. He kind of wanted my opinion. So i've spoken with a few people that come out of the military doing hvac and i will say my understanding and i could be wrong, but my understanding is that within the military you know, there's certain pieces of equipment, they're, typically not working on a big broad Range of stuff, you know they have a lot of one certain type of equipment, so they're very, very comfortable working on that, and they have certain procedures. And it's also a little bit different equipment too, because it has to be rugged and be able to be shipped and all that stuff.

So one thing i want you to understand is the fundamentals: are the same in residential commercial refrigeration, all that stuff? Okay, the the electricity fundamentals, the airflow fundamentals, they're, all the same, all right, the controls are going to change. The packages are going to change. The defrost strategies are going to change. Okay, that's all stuff that you can learn.

So if you have a good understanding of the basic electrical cycle and the basic refrigeration cycle with a little bit of brain power, you can figure it out moving past that okay, so if you're, a residential tech - and you want to get into commercial, you know going Just strictly air conditioning residential to commercial you're, going to notice higher voltages you're, going to see 230 volt three-phase equipment, you're going to see 480 volt equipment. You know stuff that you typically wouldn't see in residential you're, going to see bigger, blower assemblies package units on the roof that are, you know, 20 tons, 30 tons, 40 tons, big giant ones, but the concepts are still the same. Okay, we're still moving heat from one place to another. That's all that we're doing is relocating heat, essentially, okay, so um with air conditioning.

It's not that big of a deal, don't sweat, it just kind of take a step back and you know you'll figure it out. Okay, so i wouldn't be worried too much about it. You're gon na be okay feel free to send me an email to hvacr videos gmail.com. If you want to talk more okay, all right, let me cross that one off the list um so brad had asked me about when i'm doing preventative maintenance service um.

What is my opinion on doing a pm in the winter time? Do i check the cooling and vice versa, doing a pm in the summer time? Do i check the heating and the answer? Is it really depends on what the customer wants? Okay, because in the commercial sector, the customers majority of the time aren't letting you just do a free for all preventative maintenance majority of the time, the customers that i deal with they kind of structure it. We want you cleaning, coils, this much. We want you, you know, checking electrical connections this month and so forth. Okay and or your company may structure it depending on what the customer's budget is okay, so it really depends on what the customer wants.

Do. I have a habit of checking cooling in the dead of winter. I wouldn't suggest doing that. You know, especially if you live in a really cold climate, because you know things aren't going to work right.

It could be a struggle same thing with checking heating. You know, let's say you have a heat pump unit and it's 100 degrees outside and you try to throw it into heating mode. Well, you're going to go off on high head pressure. Okay, that's going to be a problem, so you know i really don't make it a habit of.

You know suggesting that uh, but i'm still going to look at the basics. You know electrical connections. You know all that good stuff. Airflow is key.

Properly cleaned blower assemblies things like that, so hopefully that answers your question for you. But let me get to the chat and see what i'm missing here: hey big clive's in here man, big clive um. You guys definitely check out clive stuff too. Majority of you probably already are subscribed to clive clive's a cool dude, but he has obviously, if you guys don't know, clive has a rather large youtube channel where he goes into all sorts of electronic components and devices tears them down.

It's a really really cool unique channel, so definitely go check out clive's stuff. If one of the moderators could post a link to clive's channels, that'd be great, any of them would be amazing all right, let's see what else we got in here. How often do i see mechanical controls mounted on the coil and walk-in freezers? John deere fan um. You know it happens quite often actually and i'm not a fan of it.

So we used to have the johnson pen a 19 bbc controllers. I think if i remember the part numbers and it's a coil, a wound coil on top, it's not a remote bulb, it's a mechanical temperature controller and they would just jam those on the back of the coil and even some equipment you buy today will still come With the equipment and uh um, the uh um sorry, i lost my train of thought there for a second but um yeah when they mount them on the coil. What i tend to notice is, as the equipment gets older vibration really starts to affect the temperature controllers and you'll start to get nuisance service calls on a walk-in freezer. Well, the customer will call you out.

There say the walk-in freezer is not working and you'll go there, and the temperature controller will be set at positive 20 degrees fahrenheit, okay and you're like. Why would someone adjust it to 20 degrees? You know i've chased this rabbit, but then what happens? Is you start to realize that it's the coil's vibration, that's shaking the control and the numbers are coming up so i'll, set it to negative 20 and a couple weeks later, we'll get the same call you know, and it's like okay, i usually give it one shot. If i come out and find a temp control set just a little bit too high and it's on a walk-in freezer, a walk-in cooler and it's mounted on the coil i'll, give it one adjustment. And if i have to do it again, then it's time to change it and maybe go to a digital control, but i do run off run across it.

Quite often, i'm not a fan of it all um. If i'm going to go back with a mechanical control, that's where i would always install it on the wall behind the evaporator and just run a cord to it so um all right! Let's see what else can you use a three in one on a r290 unit in a pinch, mr ice? Okay, so here's the deal uh, he means a three in one universal start: capacitor and relay okay. In the refrigeration side, we have these universal starting components. Um.

I have one back there, but i don't know where it is, but it can, it has a relay in it an overload in it and a um a capacitor. Okay. So can you use one of those on an r290 system in a pinch? Well sure you could? Okay, because r290 compressors they just contain it's just a compressor, so it's basic electrical, but this is where you got to be careful. Um r290 is a flammable gas.

Okay, so all the starting components and electrical components, motors electrical connections on any hydrocarbon systems - r290 isobutane. They all have totally enclosed starting components. Motors and everything. They're spark proof, okay, so they make them that way.

Just in case there happens to be a refrigerant leak, and you know the weirdest circumstances happen and then there's a spark from the overload and ignition happens. Okay, so i don't suggest using any aftermarket parts actually on any r290 and or hydrocarbon systems just for liability reasons guys so could you do it, i'm sure if it if it's meets the specs, i'm sure it would start it, but it could be potentially very dangerous And or a huge liability for you and or your company, so my policy is no aftermarket parts on hydrocarbon systems period. You know my insurance company, let's put it this way. If i went to my insurance company and said hey, i wan na, even if i know that this is the right part, i wan na put it on this flammable system.

You know, and i know it'll work - is it gon na be okay, they're, going to tell you? No, your insurance company is going to say flat out. No, you do not want to alter the equipment now. We both know that you know more than likely nothing's going to happen, but what, if something did who was the last person to work on it? And what do you think the manufacturer of said equipment's going to say when, even if it's a manufacturer's problem it catches on fire and someone gets hurt, the manufacturer is going to go back they're going to do their due diligence they're going to find a part that Doesn't belong on there and their insurance company is going to blame it on that part and or who installed that part. So when you're working on hydrocarbon systems or flammable refrigerant systems, i my policy is oem parts only for liability reasons.

So gdf refrigeration asks me. What does the epa think about me topping off the charge on my system, so uh, gdf refrigeration does not live in the united states, and i get this question quite often from people outside of the united states. So here in the states we are legally allowed to top off refrigerant charge. Okay, now, once your refrigerant charge within the circuit of the system and the circuit is defined, i mean it within the system.

A system is defined as one individual circuit. So if you have a two-stage system, they do define it my understanding they define the first stage as one system, the second stage as another system. Okay. So if your total charge is below 50 pounds in a system, okay, basically there's not really any restrictions other than recovering the refrigerant.

If you can okay, you can keep topping off the charge. The moment that you pass the 50 pound threshold, then there's some log keeping. You have to set up a plan to repair the leaks um you know so, but even then it's still kind of a gray area of whether or not you're you're able to top off the system. You just have to have an action plan in order to fix the equipment.

Okay, so we are allowed to top off the charge on systems. So with that being said, the next question that i get quite often from people from other countries is you know here in america we don't have the greatest. You know this is what they're saying you know. You guys have a responsibility to be more concerned about the environment, all that stuff.

Okay. I understand that and i hear their arguments that i have a moral obligation to make sure that you know i'm eliminating all these refrigerants and that you know if it's a leaking system that i immediately recover, the refrigerant you know fix the leaks and or shut it Down and leave the customer okay, but here's the deal we're a very litigious society here in the united states, meaning that everybody sues for everything. Okay, the next thing is guys. If, where do i stop okay? So i have a moral obligation.

I feel bad because i'm letting a system operate with r22 refrigerant that is not leaking right now, but potentially tomorrow it can leak. So yeah, you know. Okay, so let's say i feel bad about that. But where do i stop? You know: hey guess what that electrical contactor in seven years is going to fail.

Should i change it now? Do i have a moral obligation to the customer right now to change that? Contactor i mean you just you got to draw the line. Okay, if i went around to every customer and shut off their equipment right now, because it had refrigerant leaks and recovered all the charge, i would not be employed by any of those customers ever again. Unfortunately, because there's not a law saying i have to do that. My customers want me to keep maintaining their equipment and making sure that it's working.

That means, if i have to top off the charge. So you know it is what it is and i have to stay in business, i'm following the law, i'm not doing anything illegal. I got to stay, you know in business, so hopefully that makes sense for you but um all right. Let me mark that one off the list and let me get to the list of questions inside here so um, there's big clive's youtube channel right now.

Can you top off r290 and r600 kevin uh? I have actually had manufacturers. Tell me yeah just go and top off the charge and let's see if you have any more issues, i don't feel comfortable with that again liability reasons. If it has a leak on an r290 system, it's getting shut down, we're not going to keep the equipment operating. So that's my personal preference there's, not a law saying you have to do that.

So let me see what else. What else do we have in here? Um true says: you can only use a three in one for diagnostic purposes. Only edward rushing well, my personal preference is, is that i don't like three in one universal start kits: okay, the reason why i don't like three in one - and i know i'm gon na - get some backlash from some of my haters on youtube. Those of you that know that what i'm referencing you know exactly what i'm talking about, but i literally had someone go and make a youtube video filming my video, because he didn't like that.

I said three and ones are compressor killers; okay, my personal opinion, but anyways. Let's go change this, so not, let's just keep talking so three and ones. The reason why i don't like a three in one on a system is because two things um the overload. Okay, on a compressor, the overload the clicks on overload is usually mounted or and or affixed to the side of the compressor.

So it can thermally sense, the temperature of the compressor and or look at the current and shut the compressor off when it goes off. On a high current situation and or a thermal situation where it gets too hot, okay on a universal three-in-one that overload is now moved away from the compressor shell. It's no longer sensing the heat from the compressor shell, okay, that's one thing: the next thing is is that the relay and the start capacitor sometimes can be oversized and or undersized. So i prefer to go back with oem start components on uh.

You know systems. Now i do keep three and ones in my van and i will use them as a diagnostic tool. Okay, if i think i have bad starting components, i'll throw a three and one on there see if the compressor starts do a current draw, let it run for a few minutes and then i'll turn it off and or leave it running. While i'm gone, go pick up, the oem start components then come back and install them.

Would i install a three in one on an r290 system? Probably not. I haven't had the opportunity to have to do it yet most of the the like. I work on a lot of del field equipment. I have some of those oem r290 starting components in stock, so that way i can test it so all right um.

I already answered that question. Let me mark that off my list, so dana had asked for my advice on making the switch from residential to commercial he's having a hard time without the hands-on experience again. That is a really hard one to tell i don't know what your personal experiences are. Are you having a hard time because you don't feel confident moving over or are people not hiring you? I think it's more than likely you're, not feeling confident, but i could be wrong.

The reason why i say that is most contractors out there are just hiring people that are actually breathing and have a pulse. People are tend to be hiring unless they're. You know smaller companies and they're really picky about who they're hiring. Then that's a different story, but so switching from residential to commercial just understand.

I kind of already covered this a little bit ago inside the chat, but i mean you know all that's going to change. Is your control control strategy, the voltage of equipment you're working on the size of the equipment? Um? You know and that's pretty much it i mean the the concept, the electrical concepts, the refrigeration concepts and the air flow concepts are still all the same, just bigger equipment. So i wouldn't say i wouldn't be concerned about being afraid of that, but feel free to send me an email, hvacr videos, gmail.com. We can talk a little bit more about that.

Okay, all right, let's see what else we got in here um every time i do an ice machine video. I get this question. Where do i get the books? Okay, the tech specs books hold on. Where do i get these books? This is a hoshazaki book right here for 404 and 134a.

Here's two different manitowoc books, okay, okay, i get them from the manufacturer. When i go to a manitowoc training class, they have an in-person class well before the whole craziness right now now is online, but you sign up for a class, so my particular distributor from manitowoc ice machines just emailed me about two weeks ago, and they said we Have virtual training going on just like they used to do i paid 25? I think a person and they're sending me all the service books like three or four of them and the service manual too and uh. That's how i get them. Okay.

Now i like physical books so about once or twice a year. I end up having to go back to my distributor and say: hey. I want to buy some of those books. Sometimes they give them to you, but i don't expect that majority of the time they charge you 20 30 bucks a book or something like that and it's well worth it.

So i purchased them from the distributor, but each one of those manufacturers every ice machine manufacturer out there that i know of has the manuals available online for download you can get them in pdf format. You can print them out. You can do whatever you want. I wanted to talk a little bit about um manuals in general.

Okay, i'm a huge fan of manuals. I don't like to throw manuals away. In fact, i have a a wrestle refrigeration manual - that was my dad's when he was in school, but it still has lots of relevant information on it um he paid five dollars and fifty cents for this at mount sac book rack, which is the community college that We both went to, but this has lots of good information about load calculations and that kind of stuff. So, even though this is an old book, i love saying saving these things.

I love old books. I love having physical copies of books. That's my personal preference, but at the same time too, even documents like uh. This is the spoilin.

Let's see 90-31 document right here uh this is for doing head pressure, control, valves, calculating flooded, charge and stuff. Like that, i love having physical copies of these too. You can get everything online, but it is so nice to have a physical copy of a manual for me. You know when i first started in the trade.

I know some of you guys, probably older than me, but when i first started you used to have a dedicated area in the back of your van on your shelves for books, you would have a whole shelf full of books and manuals and different things like that. So it was really important um, you know things that people don't even realize if you work on a particular piece of equipment. Let's say you work on true refrigerators. Okay, i work on a lot of true equipment.

Did you know that they have awesome, awesome, troubleshooting, books and books about their equipment that people don't even know that true manufacturing does look at this? This is a physical book from true manufacturing called sequence of operation for temperature controllers and guess what it does. There's things in here that tell you all the information on how to set temperature controllers, how to diagnose the different styles of temp controls um, what the part numbers are even obsolete part numbers right here what the tech specs is in case. You have to try to make something aftermarket work temporarily, so we can see a temperature controller, a true part, number 800 303, and it tells you the cut in temperature is 35 degrees and the cutout temperature is 14.5. So you could use that information to you know, figure out an aftermarket solution if you have to so.

I love saving these manuals installation manuals when you do equipment installation this is the old heatcraft qrc. This is the second generation qrc board, even though it's an obsolete thing and they don't use that anymore. I still have the information. Okay, i love this stuff, so save the manuals.

When you can, i always say that to new guys. You know they ask me, hey how can i become a new, a better apprentice or whatever, when you go on a roof as an apprentice and you're working with someone else and you're working on a piece of equipment up there, you know you're there to help the Person that you're working with you're there to learn. But at the same time, i always say whenever you're on a roof - and you got a free moment - go around and take pictures of equipment where you can be careful because some customers and rooftops you're not allowed to use cameras. Government, sensitive facilities so be cautious about that, but when you can take pictures of equipment, if you don't understand what it is, take a picture of the model and serial number when you go home after work, get on the internet and start looking up that equipment find The manual for that heat craft, condensing unit and print it out and read it: that's how you're going to grow as a technician by by reading that stuff by saving it by understanding it.

That's how you're going to understand the sequence of operation, so it's so important to better yourself in that way. Okay, let me cross that off see what else we got in here um. What else do we have in the chat? Where did i get the idea? This of the soda pouring and do i think, it's like drake and josh, making a cheer to the glass, soda bottles and drink the soda, oh um, so the whole intro. This thing right here right and if you want to call that.

So if you want to call that soda, you can do so, but be cautious, okay, because i also call this apple juice and we all know the truth. So the whole idea was on one of my live streams. I had this thing and i was like you know what i want to use. The intro from the offspring smash album the intro to the album and that's where i got the idea of the ah it's time to relax.

You know that whole thing, so i played that one time and i immediately got a copyright strike on my youtube channel. That's actually the only copyright strike i've ever gotten. So that's where i got the concept of that whole beer pour in that intro. I'm kind of spoofing the offspring smash thing.

Some people have figured it out but um as far as it being a drake and josh thing. I never watched drake and josh. I think my little brother watched that one who's grown up so all right um. What else we got in here all right, uh? I already talked about it in the beginning.

I want to talk about it again, real quick, guys, uh. I am start, i'm not starting, but i'm working on a new project with my buddies from the hvac overtime show. I'm posting a link right now. It's a new youtube channel that i've actually already had.

It's called the hvacr tools, we're going to be doing some tool stuff. So in the back you see the new testo 550s manifold. I've got the new testo 550i, also sent the manifolds and or wireless manifolds to everybody else in the overtime crew too. So we're all going to be making videos together.

So go subscribe to that channel help us to get the views and the watch hours and all that stuff. Up that way, we can hit monetization status. If you guys have things that you want to suggest that we do videos on as far as hvacr tools uh, you can send an email to tools t-o-o-l-s at hvacrvideos.com.