Hey guys how y'all doing this afternoon - or this evening I guess, starts to say so. I wanted to hold on so I'm getting some feedback here there we go audio, sound, okay, yeah, I'm getting some kind feedback, but it's the way I have my mixing board set up, so it's kind of screwy. So I wanted to come on here and kind of talk about this. This video that I uploaded today, if you guys, haven't seen it already.

It's on an exhaust fan system that uh that I should say the the service call was a complaint of a funny smell in the restaurant and a negative air pressure problem, and I found a massive negative air pressure problem like I showed you guys in the video And I got a lot of cool questions about it and very interesting questions, so I wanted to kind of come on here and start off. This live stream. Talking about that and answering some of the questions that way, we could clarify some of the issues that we had with this. So the biggest thing I want to start off with is: I am NOT a certified air balance, technician.

Okay. I I want to make that clear. Okay, so I am NOT the end-all be-all when it comes to an air balance. Okay, I know enough just to get myself into trouble and I know what the what I need to do to fix this situation, because I know what's going on here.

Okay, I didn't engineer this system. Is it right what I have to do here? No, it's absolutely not right, and I really don't like the way this this restaurant is set up. I really think that every restaurant should have a dedicated make up air unit, and you know it's just that's the way. I feel that they should be okay, but what's happening, I'm starting to notice a trend in the restaurants, and I imagine it's about energy savings and money savings and all this you know weird political stuff, but you know it's just cheaper for them to build these restaurants.

You know without a makeup air unit, it's one less item they have to install now. I will say that I know that the restaurants that I have done this particular bypass to the air conditioning system still work. Okay, even in the middle of the summer, and some of them get 100 degree ambience outside and even in the middle of the summer. You know the air conditioning systems still work.

Fine, okay still maintains the kitchens at 76 degrees, which is you know, as cool as you're, going to get a kitchen typically, so so to start off. You know the way that I, the problem that I ran into what like I showed you guys in the video, was a massive negative air pressure. Okay, so, and what it was actually doing was it was polling the sewage smell, whether it be from a crack sewer line from a dried out, pea trap. I have no idea where the smell came from, but it was pulling the smell into the restaurant okay.

I also informed them once I temporarily fixed the issue that they should really have a plumber figure out why that smell is coming in the building, because I don't think that the the negative air pressure was enough to pull the water out of a pea trap. But you know who knows, I don't know those scientific calculations to to find out. If that's what the problem was. So I'm going to answer a couple questions real quick.

So that way I don't get lost in here, Alex Lopez. You asked how long did it take for me to get comfortable with commercial and refrigeration? It's taken a long time. I have been in the trade for since 2001. So what does that? I can't do the math right now, 18 years 17 years.

I guess 17 years. Yeah, probably it's made an idiot out of myself with that math, but yeah, so I've been in the trade for 17 years officially, but I grew up in this trade. I i i'm co-owners of this company with my dad. Okay and I've been doing this since I was a little kid, so you know I it's hard to say exactly how long it's gon na take someone to get comfortable with refrigeration.

The biggest thing that I could, the biggest tip I can give anybody is, is just slow down, listen and keep your mouth shut. Don't get cocky just listen to whoever's, teaching you and when I say, keep your mouth shut, it's appropriate to ask questions at the right times, but don't ask snarky questions you know and just you'll get there it'll take some time, but I read a lot of books. I've kind of said it in past live streams that I was taught wrong. I shouldn't say wrong: I was taught old school methods and those just didn't make sense to me.

Well, you know when I asked you know, why does this do that, and I was told just because it does that kind of frustrated me, so my you know I had. I had to dig to find out the answers to these questions and I've said it before too. I believe in a podcast, but one time I called tech support and the tech support. Guy asked me what the superheat was, and I asked him what super heat was because I didn't know what it was and he hung up on me.

So that was a humbling moment. I can remember that one and how awkward I felt you know, and I I I could promise you, though, that the next day I knew it super he was, and I could answer that question for him when I called him back. I don't think I talked to the same guy, but you know I I had to learn the hard way, so it's just really important to get comfortable you're just gon na it's just gon na take time. You know it's gon na take time and it's gon na.

Take familiarizing yourself with equipment, so, okay, so to get back to the topic about the video. So first off I had a couple questions about. You know why can't I just adjust the belts on the exhaust fans. I think I mentioned it in the video, but you know I'll clarify this.

This particular restaurant had a mailing Intelli hood, smart hood system, okay and starting from the exhaust hood, the canopy over the cooking equipment. The exhaust hood is not set up for a make-up air unit. Okay, it only has grease filters and it has a very small amount of air coming into the hood - that's recirculated from in the kitchen that just creates an air curtain. So I can't just add a make up air unit to this hood.

It was never designed for it. Okay, now, on top of that, all the exhaust fans are direct driven, VFD ran exhaust fans, so they're three-phase inverter Duty motors and the motors speed up and slow down via the VFD drives, or the variable frequency drives. Okay, so there's no way to slow down those exhaust fans once you bypass those variable frequency drives because to bypass them. I just basically took input power from the VFD and hardwired into output power to the exhaust fans, so those exhaust fans are running at 60 Hertz.

Now you know full power going to them, so they run in full speed. So that's where our problem came from was because all the exhaust fans have been bypassed. I don't know why it took them this long to figure out they had a balance problem. You know long story short, but so that's the way this restaurant set up.

It's not an ideal situation. Obviously I've addressed it, but they don't have a makeup air unit either. But what's important to understand is is the the hood system that was there was a great hood system, it's just that the customer feels that it's not cost-effective for them to repair it anymore. Okay, so that's why they had me bypassed, or at least that's the logic as to what they're thinking and why they had me bypass it.

So you know I realized in my I used those crutch words a lot I find myself saying so and I'm a million times. I need to get over that and just talk. Sorry with with this hood system, you know, like I said I can't add a make up air unit to it. Now I could add, make up air into the back of the building, okay, which is something you know that the customer may consider.

But it's important to understand that when this hood system was running properly, the building was balanced. With the hood system at low speed, it was never meant to run at high speed 24/7 high speed only happens on this hood system. When it's working, whenever smoke interrupts the laser beam or the optic sensor, you can call it or when the temperature, underneath the hood canopy rises to a certain threshold, those two things or there's an emergency hundred percent button on the control panel that you can push to. That would speed them all up to a hundred percent, but even when the system was operating, if you sped that system up to a hundred percent, your building would be out of balance and it would be negative just like it is today, okay, so the the hood System is only meant to go into high speed whenever it really really needed it, and that's where the efficiency came from, that the company may link sold them on and again I'll make it clear.

I really like the hood system. I think it's a great system. It's just the customer chose not to fix it. Okay.

So with that being said, that's where our dilemma came from all right. I had to go out there and on another note, another thing is is when the restaurant was designed. They only designed the kitchen with a full economize er, the the dining room and the bar a C's only had fresh air dampers, so it wasn't a full-blown economize er and that's why, in the video I also recommended, or what I actually recommended a customer was that Late, they, let me install a full-blown economizer on those other two ACS and if this makes sense to you guys this way, I don't have to operate the kitchen at a hundred percent outside air anymore, because if it has a full-blown economizer, I can throttle them down And it's gon na throttle the building air coming back out. Also so coming out of the return, I should say because then it's just gon na force the air through the filters into the supply, so I would be able to open I'm just guessing.

You know the kitchen 30 %, the dining room, 30 % and the bar 30 %, and then we evenly spread out the heat load across the whole building instead of making the kitchen suffer. So that's where I you know, that's what I wanted to do and that's what I told the customer they haven't approved anything yet for now, they're just running the way that I left it and they will they're very good at doing these things that just they haven't Gotten back to me yet on it so a couple more questions I want to address that we had with with the sorry I'm getting service calls on my phone as we're talking to looks like it's for tomorrow, though, so it's not an emergency. I don't know if any guys ever have to deal with service Channel, I'm getting service channel alerts on my phone for a restaurant. What is this one for? Okay? That's the easy one.

So a couple of the other questions that I got was: what manometer was I using? Okay, I was using the field piece, SD, mn6, okay, this is the manometer. I mean this is the manometer that has the pressure switch tester in it too. Now I don't do a lot of heating work because I'm in Southern California, I really like this manometer, but I'm gon na be honest with you. I've only used the pressure switch tester once or twice, but I think it's a really cool manometer, if you guys haven't had one and then also what I did I lucked out in that I was able to take the static pressure tip and just hang it from The the roof hatch, which is where I was getting my pressure reading and the roof hatch, had enough of a rubber seal around it that I could shut the hatch and it didn't pinch my my silicone tube.

Basically, you know so the silicone tube was still able to go through there and the rubber just went around it. So that's how I was able to get my building pressure. So that's that on that one, I'm gon na go into the comments right here and look at some of these questions and see if you guys have anything so far. So some of the other questions you know I was getting was: is the restaurant going to be? Is the ACS efficiency going down the drain and it is because now they're pulling you know a hundred percent outside air, at least through the kitchen? The one thing I will say is this: wouldn't work around the country.

This works here in Southern California because we don't have any humidity and it's even in the summertime. That would be fine, but we don't have humidity here. You know on we're running. You know 25 % 30 % on a normal day.

So that's why? If we had, you know really really high humidity, like you guys have in the Midwest or the south, this wouldn't work. You wouldn't be able to do this. Okay - and I imagine that restaurants and buildings don't use much outside air through the ACS and the Midwest or in the South, they probably use all conditioned, make up air unit would be a Maya Matt. You know what I would think and I would imagine you would use DX coils on them and it would temper the air you know.

So that's just something to think about. I realize I got that comment a lot to was you know you couldn't do this because of that. Well, it's because we don't have humidity here. So sorry, I'm just looking at the comments here.

Chris Diaz asked me if I've ever come across a challenge, I'm imagining you mean just at work. Oh yeah, you know the interesting thing is. Is I've told you guys that I'm one of the owners here so I take all the difficult calls. My and that's something? That's gon na happen, even if you're, not an owner, when you become a senior mechanic, you're gon na start getting headaches.

You know you're gon na run into those problems. That's good! That's! What's gon na come even as a you know, a mid-level mechanic, if you're good. If you're not going home with headaches, either your jobs too easier you're not doing something right, because you've kind of got to really think about your job and unless you're getting the super easiest calls in the world. Okay, so I run into challenges all the time.

I get stumped. Okay, I don't know everything I still to this day will call tech support to ask them questions. You know I mean it nobody's perfect. Okay, I don't know everything and neither does anybody else.

There's people that are good at a lot of things. You know I consider myself to be in like a little niche and I and I I consider myself to be good at what I do, but there's always still challenges, there's always new stuff that I'm gon na run into new problems that I'm gon na run into. So I'm gon na kind of scroll up to the top of the comments here and see if there's anything that I'm missing trying to answer more of you guys's questions, because I want to make this as interactive as possible guys. So you know maybe on some of the I don't - I'm not really set up for it right now, but maybe on some of the next live streams we can, if, if you guys have a microphone and a camera on your computer, maybe I can bring you guys Into the Hangout - and you guys can talk, you know we can do it a few times so Isaiah.

You asked what we're talking about today today we're talking about the video that I uploaded about make up air. I'm sorry negative air pressure on the building. So I just dropped this morning and we're just kind of going over the the issues that I ran into with that. Okay, if you guys haven't watched the video I suggest you guys do so.

I think it was pretty cool. It was a pretty interesting one. So yeah you need to watch it critical. Think, I'm just kind going down through here real quick, Eric deeds.

You said negative air pressure is scary yeah. It is if you guys scroll back on my channel. I had another video where it was. I think it says carbon monoxide something or other and the building was so negative.

It was pulling the carbon monoxide or the the the flue gasses from the flue pipe out of the water heater and basically filling up the back of the restaurant with carbon monoxide. So that was another scary one where yeah it would then that problem on that particular call was that the outside air damper actuator had failed on two ACS, and so they were, and it was the same thing where they didn't have a make up, or they had A very small make up air unit, but they were pulling most of the make up air through the ACS. So when the AC actuators failed for the outside air dampers, this is on my other video yeah. They went into an extremely negative air pressure situation and they pulled the flue gasses out of the water heater.

They I'm surprised too, because they got they. They got. The gas company came out and told them that they needed to call the HVAC guy and he didn't shut them down, but I'm telling you if you guys watch the video when I walked in the back door. My carbon monoxide meter that I had on me pegged so they should have been red-tagged and shut down and they weren't all that the gas company did was they went in there and told them.

You need to leave your roof hatch open until the HVAC guy gets here, so he basically alleviated the negative air pressure problem by opening the roof hatch - and you know that solved it, but it still blew me away. I said I was still reading carbon monoxide when I walked in the door, even with the the roof hatch open, so yeah negative air pressure can be scary, especially you know, with with these restaurants being as tight as they are these days. You know, there's not a lot of infiltrating air coming in and you know that they're going lowest budget on the install, so you know running without makeup air units and different things like that. You can run into some serious problems with negative air pressures.

So luckily, this one that I just uploaded today was just a sewage smell and it wasn't a you know, carbon monoxide or something like that. I tend to notice too that a lot of the new restaurants are putting their mechanical rooms outside. So you know there's so that way they lose more the potential of carbon monoxide, but I mean I guess you still have issues with your cooking appliances and stuff, but all right, so I'm just kind of going through the comments here, seeing what else I'm seeing. No, I didn't have to drill a hole - Brian ah Katella I like I had mentioned.

I don't know. If you heard me, I was able to close the roof hatch and there was enough of a rubber seal on the silicone hose that it was able to go down through and still give me a pressure reading. So I was kind of worried about that. Okay.

So what was the cost to fix the hood Brian? I can't pronounce your last name: it's G key now, okay, now I'm sorry if I'm butchering your name, Brian okay, so the cost to fix the hood the customer was buying. Those VFD drives from may link themselves and, if I remember right, the VFD drives were costing them eight to nine hundred dollars per drive. Now, yes, I could have purchased a VFD Drive on my own, they were just allen-bradley drives and yes, I could have probably gotten it for four to five hundred dollars, but they weren't programmed and see. The mailing hood system relies heavily on the program of the drive.

So it could have been done, but it was just kind of like I didn't know if I was comfortable going through and programming that Drive with that hood system. I really didn't want to be too responsible, so I was kind of urging you know I was. I was cool with the customer just buying him from a link themselves and or in the past. I had bought them from a link.

Myself too, I just wasn't comfortable in programming the drives because of how many things they had set up in them, and you know they and, like I said they were, they were using the drives for the way that they had them integrated in the hoods. It wasn't just slowing down and speeding up the exhaust fan. They were communicating with the hood system. So that's why I was like yeah so at the customers was telling me that the drives were costing them about 900 bucks their cost, and then they were paying me.

Five to six hundred dollars per drive to put him in by the time we would come out - and you know, set him up and everything so and then, because the customer doesn't have any kind of power conditioning on the building. They were running into a lot of problems, usually about the three to four year mark. They would lose the drives any time they would have a power outage. They'd lose one to three drives, sometimes right after a power outage.

So, there's a lot of problems here again, I'm not faulting the mail Inc Intelli hood system, because it is a great system. I just think that the customer could have done a little bit better. I think that they could have used some power conditioning had electricians, install things on him. I imagine that there's other things we could have done with the VFD drives to putting grounding rings on these.

You know to help them and there's a lot of things they could have done, but just to the customer, it just wasn't cost-effective. Basically because they were spending. You know, let's just say, $ 1,500 per drive every three to five years and then they have. If I had to guess off the top of my head, this was a new prototype at this restaurant, so they had probably 15 or 20 of these restaurants in California and then they have more across the u.s..

So it was just a big expense for them, and you know they just kind of chose to have me go through now. I was trying to scour my computer to find these pictures that I have because I've done. I think four of these bypasses where I've gone through and completely gutted the mailing system and installed traditional switches and traditional motor starters, and I was trying to find pictures of them and I don't have pictures so I'm gon na when I, when I do bypass this One I'll make sure I make a video out of it and explain everything to you guys, because it's actually pretty intricate. What I have to do to get this system, because, like I've mentioned in some of my other videos, this hood system is all controlling.

So it's tied into the fire suppression system, the ansel system, it's tied into the alarm system for this through the smoke detectors it's tied into the ACS. So basically the sequence of operation is is when you turn on the hood switch. It sends an occupied signal to all the ACS and all the outside air dampers open up. Then it turns on the exhaust fans and it turns on yeah.

Then it turns on the exhaust fans and then it turns on some small exhaust fans. You know restroom dishwasher exhaust and all that too, but then on top of that, what it does is, if there's ever a fire in the building, when the hoods are running, the the exhausts will remain on and it'll do emergency stop on all the ACS. So it's integrated through relays. It basically sends an emergency stop signal to all the ACS to stop supplying the building with make up air and and then running the exhaust, vents and then yeah.

Then it sends a signal to the duct detectors to tell them that there's a fire in the building and then on top of that, if the building is unoccupied and there's a fire and all the exhaust fans are off, then it it powers on the exhaust finds Exhaust fans, whether or not the hood switches are on - and you know still kills the power to the ACS, so it has all kinds of features into it. So I've done a few of these. I think it's four four, maybe five of them I've done, but I just don't have video of them, so the next one I do, which will be this restaurant I'll, get some video so that what you guys can see cuz it's pretty pretty cool, it's pretty fun. If you guys follow my Instagram, I I have some pictures on Instagram of the the motor starter setup and everything because, like I, can pre wire some of it in my office and then take it with me to the job site and then integrate everything into it.

So but yeah it's pretty interesting, so keep an eye out and I'll have that coming out, so I'm gon na go and scroll through some of these. Some of these comments, Scott Lawrence and I see you're one where it says in organ. You cannot install a hood without makeup air, okay, so but remember technically this hood has makeup there. It's just not a dedicated makeup er now I don't know if that's allowed and organ or not, but it does have makeup air, alright and and what it does, and it does sounds strange if you guys understand how a hood works.

You have a you, create an air curtain in the exhaust fan, urn the end exhaust hood okay, so you usually have make-up air coming out the front or the back, and then it creates kind of like a circle air curtain. You know through the hood, to try to trap the smoke and the heat in the exhaust hood, so this particular one, even though I can't it doesn't, have makeup air piped into it. It does have small axial fans that pull air from elsewhere in the kitchen and just creates that small little air curtain across the hood, but the the fans and the little ducks that are going into the hoods, aren't big enough to supply it with a massive amount Of air, so I can't pipe in the makeup air into that, but so they still have a hood canopy. I mean this is a legit system and you'd be surprised.

This system is installed in a lot of other restaurants besides this particular one. So it's pretty common. So I am kind of curious about this system and you know what they would allow it to do. I imagine to you know now that I think about it.

We could do this in the Midwest and back east as long as they had energy recovery, ventilators or here uh. You know yeah RVs on the outside air, so they could still condition the outside air through the AC and run it this way too. We just don't do anything like that out here, so chill Kosmos, you said asked if I've trained new texts before yes, yes, I have I've worked with other texts. I've had several come up through me.

I've had text train with me and leave to work elsewhere. You know all kinds of stuff, so yes, I'm always looking for technicians. You know right now it's it's kind of like tricky, because we're kind of going into the slow season. So it's that that scary thing of do.

You want to hire someone because I have to think I want to keep them busy, so I don't want them to be slow and you know, but yeah, I'm always looking for good text, so Isaiah how you doing man HVAC with zaiah Jeff. I see you there. I see everybody all right. I'm gon na keep going through the comments here guys, Sam Hulsey, yes, you're right.

There is something wrong, but it's been happening on multiple restaurants. So, in my opinion again, this is my opinion, but these systems are very susceptible to power problems, and here in Southern California, we have a lot of electrical issues. We have brownouts and different things in the summertime, so I think that this hood system would still be working and if they had proper power conditioning on this building, so I again there's nothing wrong with the hood system. I honestly don't think, there's anything wrong with the drives.

I just think it's no power conditioning on this building at all. So I think that's what the main problem is Alex good to see you, man, HVAC, live with Alex good to see you in here. Okay, guys any of the new guys that are coming in here. Hopefully you guys know.

What's going on, we were talking about my my hood bypass video that I uploaded today. So if you haven't watched it, give it a chance and then come back and watch the live stream after on it, because this this live stream will go on to my channel. So then it will probably make a little more sense to you. I was just kind of answering questions about the hood bypass and what I did and why I did it I shouldn't say, bypass but watch the video and you'll understand all right, guys.

Okay, so what other questions do you guys have that's kind of what I want to talk about with the with the hood bypass, so hopefully that stuff makes sense to you guys, hey. I do want to bring up what I got here. I don't think I've showed this yet I got the new solder welds HVAC kit Brian contacted me with hvac school and sent me one of these said he wanted me to try it out. It's a pretty cool kit.

I haven't used it yet because things are slowing down, but this is a pretty awesome little kit and the one thing if you guys haven't seen I know Andrew 8k Greaves has talked about solder weld a lot on his channel, but the cool thing I really like. I don't know if you guys can tell, but these are round rods, so this is 15 % sil fuss and they're totally round, instead of flat, really really cool, it's just really cool to think and then what I really like is their so, like I said, I Haven't used this I'm not being paid by anybody, I just they'd. They sent me Brian, sent me this kit, so I just wanted to show it, but I really like how this thing comes apart and you can you know so you don't lose those those halfway sticks down inside there. So it's cool little kit, lots of other cool stuff inside here, there's a 56 % silver with flux, coated rods, there's all kinds of cool stuff.

It comes with an awesome little kit with everything you need kind of basically to to do whatever you need to braise. Really you could do aluminum repair and everything from what they're saying I got something else here to hold on. It also came with this little bag, this little go-to bag, so you can go up and it's an aluminum repair bag. It's got all this stuff kind of duplicates what's in the big case, but it's got flux and everything that you need and a steel bristle brush and everything so pretty cool it.

Okay, if you guys haven't check them out solder, weld like I said, I'm not getting paid or anything this was just sent to me. So I thought it was pretty cool. Rayray, you put up a question. Let me go up here and read it.

What was your, did? I miss it? Oh, I think I missed your question. It was it a question you put in the comments or was it a question you put in a YouTube video Ray Ray? What did I miss here? Tell me again: I'm gon na keep going down through and let me know what you see Ray Ray or let me know what you what your question was. Have I done residential in the past? No, I haven't done residential in the past. I've always done commercial worked with restaurants.

My whole life, Oh in the comments, can you type it in here Ray Ray? I don't I did. I answer it. I can't remember dude. I had so many comments today or just remind me what the question was about.

I might remember, if you just give me a little bit of it: okay, Bryan Alcatel'you were asking a good question about remoting, a cap to where you said, someone else asked it. Let me go up here and see and I'll answer this, because total tech saying that the live stream is choppy guys. Is it choppy to everybody else or is it just a total tech? Nobody else is saying choppy, but let me know guys it's good. Ok, I think it's just you total tech.

I think you uh, you probably have a bad connection or something start to make me get scared here. All right, I'm gon na go back up here. I'm trying to find this question about the cap tube promoting a cap to, but I remember seeing something in here going through it hold on I'm trying to find. I don't see it here.

Okay, here you go primetime, you asked it so you said you have a remote two-door freezer. They are cap tubes and they are going into a courtyard. There would be Silla nodes. Do you need an oversize receiver or standard size, sight, glass too? Full okay? So here's the deal primetime, if you are using a cap tube you are gon na - have a really hard time.

Remoting it okay, because the way that a cap tube works is is the cap. Tube needs essentially a solid column of liquid. Going to that cap tube. Okay, so you're gon na have to back so much refrigerant back up into that system.

It's really not going to work. If you have to remote a cap tube system. What you need to do is you need to go ahead and install TX V's at the evaporator coils. I'm not saying it can't be done, but you're gon na have to put so much gas in that system.

It's gon na be unbelievably crazy. Okay and it's not going to be very efficient cap tubes, typically they're, not remoted systems, but I'm telling you, though you know most people will tell you it can't be done. I've seen it done, but I don't know how it worked. You got to put a lot of gas in that thing, so, okay, good, I'm glad total tech yeah, so remote cap tubes, not really gon na work, but so what you would do if, if they're not changing the evaporators, I would suggest you put some TX fees And those evaporators, if it's a cap, tube system, I'm assuming they're quarter-ton TX fees, but you need to do a proper BTU calc, but most capped tube systems are like little third horsepower or quarter horsepower.

Coils or you know it would require 1/3 horsepower quarter, horsepower TXV. Most of the time, and then what you could do is put a remote condensing unit with the receiver and just clear the sight glass. But that's if it had a cap, I mean if it had a TX v. So I I wouldn't suggest running a cap to promote you're gon na run into some problems.

So I know you have to remote it, but throw some TX fees in that primetime, because you're gon na it'll work, but it's gon na be a Frankenstein system. So one and a half horsepower danfoss yeah two-door freezer yeah dude. I I imagine yeah. I need to know the information off of it who's, the manufacturer of the box, because you can just call them and then just tell them, look what size TXV and tell them.

You're converting it over. What's the gas, that's another thing to what gas are you running in that thing, I'm gon na look at some of these other questions, fluke 196 short of watching my videos. What do I think, the greatest resources to learn commercial HVAC? The best thing the the best education you can get is a true apprenticeship. Unfortunately, those don't really exist anymore, but if you can get a company, that's gon na pay, you to shadow, a tech, I'd say it's worth it your.

Hopefully it's a good tech and you'll learn a lot, but I would also suggest going to night school Community College further, your education that way just take you know one or two classes a week after work. Lots of reading my favorite refrigeration book is a commercial refrigeration for HVAC, our technicians or HVAC technicians, and I know there's a lot of other books too. There's a rack manual, I'm looking over fundamentals of HVAC. Our I've got my HVAC books over here on the wall.

So I was just looking at the names of the books they have up there, there's lots of great information, but your best bet is to ride along with someone shadow with them, and you know spend some time and learn that way. You know these videos and different things are great, but in no way do I expect or want these videos to be a training method for new technicians. I mean it's a great supplement to what you're learning, but you really need a true person working with you, because I, I really don't think you're gon na learn very much from videos, so keep going through these here. Real quick, oh yeah, primetime.

404. A true! Oh easy, bro, yeah, yeah, just call true they'll tell you what size TXV to put in that thing. So it's easy man just put a TXV in there and put the remote the condense and units and get a condensed noon that has a big enough receiver. It's easy enough man it.

It won't be hard at all. You could totally do that. Yeah, Ricky, refrigeration, dick words book is a badass book. So definitely definitely good.

I've had I've had the pleasure of taking one of dick words classes. I did an online class through HVAC, our edu they're, an online education place and a lot of times. They have subsidized education programs that you can get it doesn't matter what state you're in and a lot of states. They have them in California.

The energy companies out here they subsidize their plans, and so you can basically take the online class, for you know a couple bucks and they were doing a pilot program with dick wares and they still use his program. But it was a live class that was taught by him, so I believe the other classes are just kind of recordings and you'll watch videos and different things, but mine was actually a live class, so it was live streams essentially and it was great cuz. I got to interact with dick Wars and then I got one of the greatest compliments ever when, when I wrote an article for Brian or on HVAC school about temperature controllers, I was personally contacted by dick Wars, which was that like sent me through the roof, because That was awesome and he contacted me and said he really liked my article. It was really cool to get contacted by him, so he got ahold of Brian or because he had done a podcast with Brian or and then Brian gave him my information and he got ahold of me and that was really cool, but he's a very, very nice Guy very, very smart gentleman and I would suggest getting his book if you guys don't already have it so I'm kind of going through these comments a little bit more guys.

Isaiah. You left a question. Let me look up here, real quick, I'm going up here. Sorry, but I'm looking for it, I'm gon na answer your question right now.

Isaiah, let me just find it hang on keep going hold on Isaiah. I don't see your question Isaiah. What was it? Can you type it again bud, I'm trying to find it Isaiah? Are you talking about the question about the your converter systems? Isaiah? Is that the question you were asking me I haven't? I haven't seen that quite that that you're converted, oh wait. No is that the one no I haven't seen that I saw the Dyken inverter that you showed in your video Isaiah, but I haven't seen the your converter systems, so all right keep on going primetime yeah.

I would suggest it. I can help you out. If you send me an email primetime with all the specs I can, I can help you to figure out what exactly you need. So, if you want send me an email and we can talk a little bit more, I can give you some some feedback stuff.

It shouldn't be too difficult if it's a true reach-in dude, it's gon na be like a quarter-ton TXV, so their stuff aren't that big, usually online schools for the East Coast, Michael Hayden, well, first off anybody that doesn't know in here, HVAC, school, okay, Brian or runs An amazing website - and he has podcasts and videos that he puts up he's mainly into the podcast, so make sure you guys are subscribers to that online schools for the East Coast. I would look up HVAC our edu, so it's HVAC our dot edu. That would be the only online school that I personally know of. That's that's great, okay, guys! I I can't really vouch for any other online school, so that would be the only one and and it's hard to get an education from just online.

So keep keep it in mind man, you! You really need some hands-on learning too so keeping going through here guys. I have never used an electronic site class total tech. You asked me: I've heard that they're cool, but I've never used one so Sergio Montoya. You said i hack e.

Are you talking about the training, not that i hack offers? I hockey is a trade organization that does training and, and they they offer classes here in Southern California. I I don't know, are they? Are they nationwide? I really don't know if i hack YZ nationwide, but but they have some good information. I've taken some. I hack e classes to locally.

They got some great information. They usually work through the utility companies and alright guys. What are their questions? You guys have any other questions. Jesus Alice.

Thank you very much. I appreciate it. How's, the thermal imager Brian ocotilla, honestly, I haven't had much of a chance to use it been busy. I spent the day in the office today, so haven't had a chance to really do anything else with it.

I take that back the other night. I heard a noise outside and I think I have like a rodent running around my backyard and I was trying to find it with a thermal imager and I wasn't able to find it. So that's about the only the only bit I've used the thermal imager for so, if you guys don't know, I in one of the last live streams. I said I got a floor one Pro, because I want to use it to try to check receiver levels, but I just haven't had a chance to use it again.

So, okay, total tech, you're asking where am I getting my R 290? What size, jugs and cans? Okay, so originally our 290 was really expensive. Now it's gotten really cheap. We get it from our local distributor, which is our SD anybody that sells. I core refrigerants.

I core is now distributing our 290 refrigerant, so you can get it from anybody that sells Ike or Ike, or is the company that makes hot shot? I think I believe there Kim Wars now aren't they. I believe Matt McKinney was on shop Talk and I believe, like I'm, pretty sure that they're Kim Wars now but um yeah, so I court has the are 290. It's like a little 15 ounce can, I believe it comes with two of them and it comes with all the tools and everything to do it. It's like a little kit, so that's who I'm getting it from.

I do they're not that expensive anymore. I want to say they're less than a hundred bucks for the two cans or something like that. It's still, if you break down the per pound price of our 290, it's still pretty crazy how expensive it is. But when it first came out, it was more expensive than our 22.

So, interestingly enough guys, I had a compressor failure and I think I have the I think I have yeah. I think I'm gon na make a video out of it. I think I've got some footage. I have an edited yet, but it wasn't our 290, but it really made me think of our 290 because the customers complained.

It was a Dell filled refrigerator and the customers complaint was that it shot sparks out the back of the box, and then one of the cooks was saying it shot flames out. So when I went out there, it was already dead found that the terminal blew off the compressor, but I had multiple people swearing up and down that a blue flames out. So what we had was a terminal vent where there were more than likely. There was a direct short, the starting component or the relay or something failed, and it arced against the posts of the compressor and it blew the terminal out.

So the customer saw sparks. Imagine if that was our 290 refrigerant in there. I'm telling you who someone would have been surprised because yeah that would have been a an interesting one. All right, hey, there's, Zak, yeah Kim wars see I watch your pot.

I watch your stuff Zak. I remember the episode with Matt McKinney. All right, Kevin ear asked how I got into the HVAC industry my dad, so I I run this business with my dad we're co-owners together. I grew up in the trade working with my dad.

I can remember sitting on his bucket holding his flashlight. So ever since I was in elementary school, I officially started working for him in 2001 about a 2000 then actually 2002, so I lied earlier guys. So it's been 17 years, so I officially started working in 2002 a year after high school and that's when it's beneficial. I've been doing this so but um but yeah.

I grew up in it. So that's how I got started. I kind of was born into this trade. Alright, going through anymore, are 600 Scott Lawrence and no, I have not done, are 600.

Yet I've done are 290. That's it, but I mean it's no different than our 290. If you guys haven't watched my video, I have the are 290 video, where it shows me changing a compressor, give it a watch, it's interesting. If you follow all the rules which I did in that video, it's kind of sketchy, because if you follow the rules that the manufacturer wants you to do, the system does not come on come with service ports on it.

Okay and you have to pinch the lines off and weld on service ports with our 290 on the other side of that pinch off tool, and then, when you're all done, if you follow the rules, I change the compressor in it recharged it. I had to pinch off the lines cut off the service, ports and weld them shut. So if you guys follow the rules, it's kind of sketchy and that's the way you're supposed to do it and it's sketchy. I'm gon na be honest with you.

I'm not a fan of welding, the ports back off or cutting the ports off when you're done. I've since done a repair on a system, and I did not weld the port shut. I left them on there and just taped them with red electrical tape and made it obvious that it was our 290. So I guess the biggest thing about the our 290 is is that you don't want to tech to just go in behind you and throw service gauges on there, because you don't want them to be.

You know casually just throwing gauges on there, not realizing that it's r29 to you remember with our 290. You can't smell it. So you're not going to know it's leaking out. So if something sticks you know, if you're using something electronic nearby and you've got a nice blast of our 290 on it.

Potentially you could have a fire hazard. So that's the reason in my opinion as to why they want you to weld those service ports shut. When you're done so, you know, but it's still yeah, it's sketchy for sure. So, okay kind of keep going through the comments here, seeing if I'm missing anything guys, okay, so I'm gon na go up here cuz.

I think I'm missing some good stuff. So I'm trying to get to the top of these comments, because I see some conversations about la see, valves, total tech, you're saying you mainly run into DuPont, refrigerants yeah. You know the interesting thing and you tell me if I'm right, but I find that the rules in Canada seem to be a lot stricter than in the US. It seems that it's harder to bring let's say, as far as you say, you see DuPont DuPont in my opinions, a more common brand and I would assume a more expensive brand.

So is it? Am I correct in saying that you know some of these other refrigerant manufacturers that are smaller are gon na have a hard time importing into Canada because of your guys's trade restrictions and different things? Do you think that's what it is? The reason why I say that, as is aren't you guys isn't, aren't the unions really strong in Canada? Am I correct in saying that it just seems like the education is better? It seems like the licensing requirements seem to be a lot stricter in Canada. I'd be kind of curious to know about that see I kind of liked the fact that Canada is strict guys, I mean yeah. I live in California, where yeah we have crazy, liberal laws, but licensing requirements are nothing. Anybody can be an HVAC tech.

I mean you just have to I mean anybody can be a tech. If you want to handle refrigerant, you have to have a federal EPA, 6:08 certification, but that's it you know, and then we get a lot of you know people that really aren't the greatest technicians. So I like the fact that you have to have a license in Canada, see, I think, that's a great thing guys, I'm gon na be honest with you guys, I'm not a the concept of unions is great to me. I think Union, if, if it's not corrupt - and it's not, you know doing shady stuff, I think the unions are great because you have representation and the education that you used to get from the unions was amazing.

You know we used to have union companies here in California, I mean there's still a few but they're. Not that big I mean if you want to do government work. Essentially, you have to be Union or the company that you work for one has to pay prevailing wages, but that's the only place that unions are still really strong, as in government or institution work. So in California I should say, but I it's kind of a bummer, that the unions aren't that strong anymore, because I feel like maybe we would have better education.

You know, but I know a lot of people. You know have different things: Sean, Michael, hey man. What's up fluke 196, I mean yes, it is possible for a union to be corrupt. For sure I mean corruption happens everywhere.

Our police are corrupt and not all of them, but some of them are corrupt. You have corrupt politicians, but then some of them are good. Too so it's hard, you know, there's corruption everywhere. It's definitely interesting.

So cam and I keep going through the comments here. Real, quick, hey, Wolfie, how you doing man all right, okay, be Thome. 956. You asked if you can service our 290 without certification.

Yes, you can. There is no in the United States that I know of unless it's a local law or code. There is no certification needed to work on our 290. All right some supply houses may do that silly thing that they did with 410 a when it first came out where they want you to have a certification, but there's no federal law saying you have to have a certification to work on our 290.

No and that's the scary thing too, but nope nope, no federal law at all, you don't even need to have an EPA license to work on our 290, because it's a you, don't know, you know what do you have to have any PA? I don't know the way the way the old EPA certification is written. It might still be classified as a refrigerant, so you may have to have your EPA license, but you definitely don't have to recover it. You just vent it into the atmosphere because it's a natural refrigerant, so all right kind of go through the comments. I see a bunch of them coming in guys, so I'm gon na try to cap catch up with these Sean Michael.

I, when I read your comment, I thought you said your buddy just proposed to you sorry now and then I reread it and I saw my buddy just now. Okay, so at first I saw your buddy proposed to you and then, when I reread it, I saw your buddy propositioned you, okay, yeah proposition. You did. Okay got you, I see what you're saying now, but that's funny.

Dude at first I saw your buddy proposed to you. It's all good bro, I'm from California, so we're good with that. So you could. You can be whatever you want.

We don't we don't judge here in California, okay, I'm gon na keep going guys, keep looking through the comments here. Wolfie, you want ask me a question about a home window, AC sure total tech. Thank you very much. Man really appreciate that yeah go ahead.

Ask me a question about a window: air conditioner I'll answer it to the best of my ability. So I'm gon na keep going through the comments here. No, I don't do any work on Aon units, Jay, Baltazar Romero. Do I think you'll be able to have a service company if you only pass the EPA and all the sections, and only having a year of experience, uh Baltimore? Are you saying that you want to open your own company? That depends on where you live and what the rules are here in California yeah there is a law about contractors licenses and you do have to have so much industry experience.

Excuse me before you can obtain a contractor's license and or I believe you can show yeah. There's rules, so it all depends on where you live and what the rules are in the municipalities that you live in, so I wouldn't suggest it though man I would. I would really suggest that you get a little more experience before you. Try to open your own company because I think it you're gon na run into some problems.

Gon na keep going through here: okay HVAC, our Knoxville. If there are any bubbles in a site glass before you add refrigerant, what do you have to check before adding refrigerant and why? Okay, first off, are we talking about an air conditioning system, a built up air conditioning system or a refrigeration system? That's very important. Does the system have a receiver if the system has a receiver, an actual liquid line receiver and it has an expansion valve and a sight glass? What you're gon na do when you fully charge that or when you first charge, that system is you're gon na put about what you seem to be about three-quarters of the charge in the system and you're gon na? Let the system stabilize out you're gon na add refrigerant slowly, it's okay! If there's a few bubbles at first okay, you want to just kind of add refrigerant. Slowly as the system stabilizes out as it gets within about 10 degrees of temperature, you should have a clear sight, glass and then you want to check your superheat okay.

What you don't want to do. Is you don't want to clear that sight? Glass, when the system is still 90 degrees inside, because you're potentially going to overcharge that system now, once you have cleared that sight glass, then once the system has stabilized out, then you need to add your way to charge for the headmaster.