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, hello, everybody forgive my uh scratchy voice, i'm still getting it back from being sick. It's been like two weeks where i've been sick. My whole family got it big old mess, but we're all better now everything's good, just a pain in the butt horrible two weeks of drama, nothing good going on, but we are alive and that's a lot to be thankful for so i hope you guys are all Doing well, i hope you and yours are safe, healthy and happy for sure all right, um, real, quick uh.

Let's see i'm going to address this real quick uh dan jay asked what ahr is because there's a poll question in there if anybody is going to ahr. So ahr is an air conditioning and refrigeration trade show. Essentially, it was for engineers and manufacturers, it's kind of how it started, but it's kind of changed and became more for what you would call normal trades people, but it's a giant showcasing of all the hvacr manufacturers for the most part they all kind of go there. They're all there to present what they have going on, there's also uh manufacturing companies that sell products and machines to the you know: carriers, trains yorks, all those different guys too, so there's all kinds of people there showing their their stuff that they have so um.

The hr trade show moves every uh. What is it every year or whatever and it rotates around so it happens to be in las vegas nevada this year, um here at the end of january, i will be at that hr trade show um actually friday through wednesday. Uh of the trade show, so the trade show is actually monday, tuesday, wednesday um. I will be doing some guest appearances at the sporland booth and at the refrigeration technologies booth.

Once we get closer to the trade show, i will actually announce it on social media and we will be doing some cool stuff and have some cool giveaways, and things like that spoiling is actually doing uh for people that come to the show, and there will also Be an online link to enter to win an entire zoom, lock max press tool, jaws and all that good stuff, so definitely check that out. That's pretty cool um, so there'll be more information about that um. Also after the ahr trade show uh. What is it at? The end of february middle of february uh, i will be also at the hvacr training symposium uh for hvac school in um claremont florida i'll be doing that.

One to that show that's put on by brian orr myself, and a couple of the overtime guys will be there. Uh adam and bill will be there. Joe will not be there, but uh we will be down at the show, we'll be doing a live podcast. I think and then also be presenting at the um training symposium too, but ahr is the first one.

That's coming up very soon. So i was just kind of curious and i put a poll in the chat to see if anybody was going. So it's really cool um. So let's see what we got going on in here, uh all right: lots of lots of cool talk, um yeah! I did uh get a little sick, but all is good.

Now everything comes across good, so we're happy um lots of stuff to talk about as usual. If you guys have any comments or questions things that you want me to cover in the chat, do me a favor put them in caps lock. I will try to get to them, i'm going to try to breeze through this. I don't think i'm going to go any longer than an hour because we're actually going to go out and get some hamburgers after this.

So my daughter has been asking me and asking me so: yes, a show with brian orr uh brian's, a cool dude uh. He made the hvacr school website uh and he runs the hvac school youtube channel. He has a bunch of people working with him um. We are not the same people even though we get uh, i think um mistaken, sometimes that people think i am him and he is.

I and you know no um, i'm humbled by that, because uh sure, if i can be confused for brian orr, that's an amazing mistake, because i can only wish that i could be on his level but he's an amazing, very nice, dude too so, but yeah he's Putting on a training thing at the end of february, so uh uber arc angle archangel. Thank you so very much for that super chat. I really appreciate it. Um, let's see what is the nastiest thing? I've ever had to remove to get a job done uh.

What's the nastiest thing, i've ever had to move to get a job done. Well, i physically didn't move it, but when i was working in a morgue cooler, they called me out there and said: we've got a four passenger moore cooler, that's fully loaded with bodies and the refrigerator's not working. So we need you to work on it and before i even got there, i said you said it's fully loaded and he says yeah and i said you need to get those bodies out of there and he's like what do you want me to do with them? And i was like not my problem, but this is a four passenger cooler. This isn't a giant walking cooler.

This is four doors with rollers on it. So all those have to come out for me to get inside of it to be able to work on it. So get them out, so i guess that would be probably the nastiest thing that i've ever had to have removed. Ironically, i've told this story before the guy was like what am i gon na do with them, and i was like i don't know man.

I have no idea, but i can't work on it until they're gone and when i got there they were gone. I thought they'd be sitting in the room or something nope they were gone. I had no idea where the four bodies went. I could only imagine some orderly opens up a closet and whoa or the little ladies walk into the the walking cooler in the kitchen and dietary and they're, like.

Oh, my god like. I have no idea where they put the bodies, but there was no other refrigerated places to keep them, so i don't know lots of crazy stories with that one have. I ever worked on a system view carrier before? No, i have not um. I don't do a lot of the big stuff uh, not really much at all.

So let's see uh yeah. Do me a favor smash the like button guys. It really does help out the stream any kind of interaction you guys can do to help youtube realize that i'm here would be very, very cool, so um, something that i wanted to cover. I get emails uh joe thanks for continuing to be a supporter, but that's awesome man.

You don't have to do that, but joe's always there for me joe's my bud joe hvacr north is on the hvac overtime show with myself so joe's a cool, dude, um, hey zeus, how you doing hello to everybody in here so peter right on man, um! All right so uh, oh right on, will speed yeah. I haven't gotten my badges yet, but i guess i don't need a stinking badge right. We don't need no stinking badges over here, so i should have a couple different badges going, calling for the hr show, but man, whatever i'm sure, they'll. Let me in one way or another um i've had communication with them, so it's all good, so um! You know.

I have a lot of people that email me that are in trade school and it's really cool. You know it's really awesome to uh to be able to influence people to potentially lead people in the right direction to change people's mindsets um. You know i make these videos to kind of help, the next guy, but there's a lot of unintended consequences and uh. It's it's all awesome.

You know it's really cool to be able to support the trade and and share the little bit of knowledge that i have. Okay, but i want to address something right now with these trade schools: okay, whether they be public or private. What i find is many times, especially in the private ones: okay, but not all of them, but especially the private ones. They are constantly constantly over hyping.

What technicians are gon na make when they get out of trade school okay? So i had someone recently email me and uh. He wasn't far off, but he was a little bit surprised with what the service companies were offering to pay him right out of trade school. He was a little shocked because he thought the number should have been a little bit higher and you know i want everybody to make a ton of money. Of course i do okay, but you also have to understand something trade schools tend to over hype things.

Okay, especially the private ones, because they want people to keep signing up okay, um and they want to keep that money coming in now. I'm not saying this is the truth for everything, but majority i'd say: a good portion of the private schools are simply there for profit they're, not necessarily there for the good of it and while there's probably nothing wrong with that. Okay, because, obviously a business needs to make money. I think that there needs to be some ethics and some um.

You know some care that goes into the education that some of these people you know obtain from these schools. Okay, but one of the biggest things that hurts people is when i get emails from um. You know, students that are dumbfounded because of what they're getting paid straight out of trade school and or they think that they're going to start their own business straight out of trade school, something that we all need to understand. Okay is that um? Just because you go to a trade school, it does not give you industry experience.

Okay, trade schools, give you knowledge, they give you an education. Experience is earned. Experience is not learned. Okay, you do not go to trade school and just because you've worked on an ice machine, you do not now have ice machine experience.

I have to say that is one of the most frustrating things that just makes me kind of almost laugh. Every time i get a resume because i get rounds of resumes from trade schools and oftentimes on these resumes. They say that i have 18 months of industry experience. No, you do not.

If you have not been out in the field working for a service company, you do not have industry experience and there's nothing wrong with that. Okay, because you have to learn - and it's going to take time, but i have a frustration with these trade schools that tell these students that they are experienced and they coach them on how to fill out resumes and they coach them on what they should be making And you know - and they over hype, these students brains to make them think that they're going to make x number of dollars straight out of trade school now. Trade schools are good because we need them. I am i'm a a supporter of an education alongside an apprenticeship too okay, so you go to work for someone.

You start as an apprentice. You work your way up. You get your experience, so trade schools are necessary. In my opinion, okay, um not saying that everybody has to go to them, but at the same time you need to understand that, just because you go to trade, school does not mean you are experienced.

Okay, experience comes over time all right. I think that is so important for people to understand um. You know, because you know this is a great trade and while it can be very fulfilling very rewarding and very lucrative, we can make very good money being hvac our service technicians, that comes in time after you have experience. Okay, so let's see what we got going on in the chat, how many people did i trigger with that comment? Um, let's see they all do that hamilton says um.

Chris young was asking what fluke mega i was using in my blown fuse video a fluke. 1587 is what i was using, i'm going through here. Remember, if you guys have things you want me to cover or talk about put them in caps. Lock north allows free refresher torches, which is only thing that makes you know what clan vids.

I have heard of schools doing that, and i think that is an amazing thing for schools to do whether they be private or public. I believe that they should offer free refresher courses. You know for a student to come in after the fact and just challenge a class just go through a class, maybe half a semester and just kind of get some more experience and or knowledge to refresh their brain. I think that is a great idea.

Um, honestly, i have i've entertained the idea of starting over at trade school myself, just just because i'm amused by it. It's like man, i'd love to sit down and get schooled again, and you know, because there's lots of things that i'm sure i don't say properly and or do properly, and i would love to go through a trade program again. Unfortunately, the further you get into your your career and the further you get in life, the harder it is to step back and go back to school. That is a frustrating thing and i wish i could go back to school, but i just don't have the time right now.

So, let's see what else we got going here, uh. What is a high pot test? Okay, um! I am not an expert in this, but a high pot test is a, i would say, a more sophisticated mega ohm test. It's not using a mega. It's a different way to electronically test a compressor and they typically do it on a manufacturing level because they have to have specialized equipment.

That's about as far as i'm going to go into the explanation, because i don't feel any more comfortable explaining it further than that, because i'm not an expert in the manufacturing side, so um all right. Let's see what else we got going on here! Uh - let's see jason johnson says he started out in 99 at nine dollars. An hour took a lot of years of hard work to work up the pay scale and and again something i i am a business owner. So i have to make sure that this is fair.

When i say this, i'm not saying that people aren't worth more money. Okay, i totally want to pay technicians as much as they're worth, but as a business owner. The way that i run my business is, i have an apprentice right. I'm training an apprentice right now, he's doing really well and um.

You know he's working his way up, but you know i can't afford to pay him 35. 45, an hour to be an apprentice because i'm technically not very making very much money if any at all off of him right now, because i'm investing into him right, i'm making an investment in the training and in hopes and and not even in hopes, because he Is you know in in the next couple months he's going to start venturing out on his own? So that's just how we work and, as he starts to venture out on his own, then he's going to start making more money and more money and more money. And of course i want to pay him absolutely as much as possible. You know, because it's not just about me making a profit, it's about my business, continuing to succeed for years and years and years to come, so i'm not looking for a quick buck, i'm looking to make an investment into a person in hopes that they turn around And help that investment, you know, have a return on investment.

Basically right, you know, i want to start making money off of them, but i want them to start making money off themselves too. So you know all right see. We got going on here, um uh. What was my most frustrating service called derrick a that is a hard question, but to answer like right off the top of my head, i've had a lot of frustrating service calls um.

I i can't really pick one per se, but i will say usually what happens for me. Is the really really frustrating service calls, and this is in reflection. I realize you know in hindsight i see these things after right, because when you're going through a crazy frustrating call in the moment, you're you're pissed off you're irritated, you think you're an idiot because you can't figure it out. It's just one thing after another: it's just irritating, but in hindsight, when you finish those and you you will finish them eventually, when you finish those frustrating service calls, they tend to be some of your favorite ones, because you can reflect back on them.

You can grow from them and you can learn lessons good and bad from them, so they tend to be my favorite ones and they tend to be the best learning moments when you can look back on them in hindsight and say: oh yeah, you know what that Happened - and you learned some of your best experience in those really frustrating service calls and something that happens in the trade is as you're going along you're going to hit a point. I remember because i work for my father for many years right. I still work with my father but um. I remember him telling me you know, because i was doing really good service calls were getting knocked out.

You know i was just one call after another: wasn't having any call backs or anything like that and he said look he goes you're doing really good right now he goes, but i just want you to understand something. He says i'm only giving out the service calls that i know you can do and he goes. There's gon na come a point when i'm gon na start challenging you and he started divvying out the harder and harder and harder service calls, and he said just understand something you're gon na get put in your place. You know, because i was kind of up on a high horse thinking.

You know my stuff didn't stink and i was you know, king whatever, and then it's like. Oh you mean those were all easy service calls. Oh that's why they were easy. Okay, so there's gon na come a time and it's kind of an evolution.

You know you you peak and then you come down and it gets real easy for a while and then it gets really difficult again and it just kind of goes back and forth. Okay, and even as an experience, what i consider myself a decently experienced service technician, i still have to remember. Sometimes you know and basics and different things like that. That kind of put me back and it's like oh yeah, i didn't even think about how simple this was and it was caused by this.

You know so it's going to take time, but experience is something that is invaluable, because you will learn countless things from experience. So um jason johnson says he loves manufacturers training. I i enjoy going to manufacturers training too. The cool thing about manufacturers.

Training is, if they're taught by, they usually are taught by pretty decent techs at the manufacturer right and then what you do. Is you start going to manufacturers training year after year and you start to know, get to know the trainers and then it's fun to be able to go to these training classes and try to pick their brains. You know, and, and some of it sometimes depending on the trainers that you get they enjoy the challenge too, when you can go up to and be like look man in front of the whole class. I ran into this problem.

You know here's some things that happen. Don't be a jerk about it, you don't got to be a punk and make them sound like an idiot or anything, but they enjoy to be at least the ones that i've run into that are fun. You know enjoy to be challenged with these weird quirky calls that you get too so but yeah. I love training in general, um, it's great, so uh.

Let me see. Uh man who stands on toilet is high on pot. That's right! High pot test! I got you um. Let me see, compressors have a low resistance.

What is the point of a mega? Well um. Remember that uh, you know, a compressor is a motor. The motors windings are covered with like a wax coating or an insulation right, and if that insulation starts to fail, you can have intermittent shorts to ground, so a mega ohm test. While i just recently started using a mega ohm meter because majority of my career had gone by without it um in the few times that i have had successful use with the mega ohm meter or the insulation tester uh, i found it to be a pretty good Life-Saving tool, when you need it, you know if you know how to use it right and it's like.

Oh okay, yeah that found a problem before you know. I had to trip the breaker three times to single out the motor as the problem. You know. So really it's going to test the windings of the motor to see if there's any cuts breaks cracks in the insulation that can cause intermittent shorts to ground, essentially, okay, so um they are useful, but they can also be give miss information.

So you got to be careful about that kind of stuff, so um, let me see uh worst uh. Let's see i'm reading through this right now looking to buy a torch set any recommendations, akimbo jones, 21. um, you know torch sets - are kind of difficult. It really is dependent on what you have available to you and what kind of a torch set you use.

I use an oxy acetylene torch, but here's the thing you can look online and you can probably find the most you know. Badass best recommended torch set in the world, but um and you have to order it right and then, though, when you need parts for it, are they going to be available? Okay, so be cautious about what you buy. You don't want to buy something too cheap, but you also want to buy something that you can get replacement parts for it and or replacement gauges and different things like that in a decent time frame. So i tend to buy from my local supply houses, and it just depends on who stocks? What majority of the stuff you're going to see out? There is going to be victor uniweld, stuff you're, going to see that a lot, but you know it just really depends on what the supply houses have.

You know, and i will say that i have yet to come across an oxy acetylene torch that knocks my socks off. You know everyone has different. Everybody has different preferences too. Where do you want the you know, uh, do you want the valves for the oxy acetylene torch below the handle in the middle of the handle, i'm more of an in the middle of the handle person? So i can regulate them with my thumb, but you know every torch set that i've ever had has some kind of a problem with it i've yet to find one that just blows my socks off so um, let's see chris young says he's been on the fence With a mega, he can see a use for one.

I was on the fence for a very long time too, and i finally just bit the bullet and bought one, but i mean you know: do your research find out what your needs are? Remember that mega ohm tests on compressors that are semi-hermetic or hermetically sealed in general, you know, can be a little misleading. So you have to understand the limitations of a mega ohm test on a compressor copeland has a tech document out there. That says, you know they recommend mega ohm tests over lengthy periods of time watching trending data things like high moisture in the system can affect a mega ohm test and give you some false readings. You know that could potentially be cleaned up by changing the refrigerant cleaning.

The oil up dehydrating it that kind of stuff. So just keep that in mind. But you know i was on the fence about mega ohm tests for a very long time and i finally just bit the bullet and bought one. And i have to say that i am thankful that i bought it and i have found uh two things that i'm going to be fair and say that i would have found elsewise i but the mega ohm test or the insulation test that i did on the Motors and the compressor, actually it was motors the multiple motors that i did um.

I would have found the problem eventually, but you know how many times was i going to have to turn the system back on to see the intermittent short, when i could just put a mega ohm test or an insulation tester on there and boom. It tells me right away. Motor is bad. Oh no, wonder it trips, the breaker, when only when it's raining outside, because it had a slight crack in the insulation and there was high moisture content in the air and boom.

It would arc. You know - and it was a 480 volt system too, so that probably led to why it was arcing so much, but still you know um do i still get people asking the name of the company that screwed the equipment. Oh yeah people ask me that all the time, i'm not in the business to try to name companies, so how long can walking evaporator fans be turned off before flooding the compressor out uh. The least amount of time is possible, depending on how the system's wired, sometimes the fans, might shut off solenoid valves.

So it won't be a big deal at all, but if the fans are just being shut off, you don't want it running for very much time at all. So let's see, how can you improve your troubleshooting skills? You've been in the trade for seven months, joel ramirez, the best way that i can tell you to improve your troubleshooting skills is simply by paying attention and understanding the sequence of operation. Okay, read up on that. If you're going to work on a piece of equipment, you need to understand a sequence of operation.

If you can walk up to the equipment in your head and say, okay power comes from the disconnect switch goes through, the transformer goes down to the thermostat comes up from the thermostat goes through the pressure. Controls goes to the compressor contactor. Oh, wait. There's a logic board in there i mean, if you can say all that stuff and by the way that was a carrier unit that i was explaining right there, like a carrier package unit that it's going to go into the compressor lockout board.

It's going to run through that sequence then go through the pressure controls. You know so i mean you know. If you can understand the sequence of operation, it's really going to help you greatly when it comes to your troubleshooting skills. That's the most important piece that i think that i can explain to.

Everybody is just understanding: sequence of operation have an installation manual. Read it read up on how the equipment works. That way, you know when you get there, you can remember okay, you know what, after this, this is supposed to happen. You know.

Um preventative maintenances definitely help with troubleshooting too, because if you're on the roof and you're doing a preventative maintenance, even though they can seem mundane and boring, take you know make sure you don't have headphones on. Listen smell, pay attention open your eyes and just do your pm work and listen to the roof. You'll get accustomed to the sounds that the equipment's supposed to make. You know understanding simple things like hey, you know what you're doing a preventative maintenance and they want you to get um.

You know the the current off the indoor blower motor. Well, you can't do that with the panels off. You know so understanding how to troubleshoot this equipment is so important. All right, uh, let's see what else we got in here mega.

You feel most useful on motors for critical equipment like elevators and stuff like that lm sylvia. I i will agree that i have gotten 18 years of my career 19 years of my career without a mega ohm meter or an insulation tester. But now that i have one i can tell you so many instances where it would have helped me to catch a problem much sooner than i ended up catching them. Okay, because yeah, if you have a direct short to ground or an intermittent short in a motor.

Eventually, it's going to get worse and eventually that motor is going to be a catastrophic failure and okay yeah. You can change it then, but if you can catch those problems ahead of the time but like to your point, you're saying for more critical equipment. I agree you know you can get away with most um. You know without having it on majority of our stuff that we do so all right.

Uh, let's see supposed to use a dar test for meggers to be officially accurate. It's a bit of a process um! I'm assuming you're talking about with the uh um yeah you're, talking about what i was saying with the uh trending data and stuff like that right, right, um, let's see what else uh thanks uh robert mckenzie for the support bud all right, so um. Another thing i wanted to talk about in and i was watching another social media live stream today and i kind of wanted to talk about it. Um is you know, negativity negativity is a really um contagious thing.

You know at work when, when we have co-workers and stuff that are just negative people, i think it was a great point that uh rich maliki was making this on the uh um. What is it uh fed nation um facebook group uh? He did a live stream and um. You know he was talking about negativity and i think it was some really good points that he was making about how you know it just becomes contagious, and you know i think at best that - and i even find it myself - you know sometimes um. You know you can get caught up in a conversation with a group of friends or something like that, and you can go down a negative path and before you know it, i i've in the past been in a position where it's like.

Why am i with having this conversation with these people? Because this isn't me, so it's really easy to start as a joke and just laugh about something and go down the negative path, and the reason why i bring that up is in a workplace that can become very toxic. You know if you're around negative people all the time that negativity can spread. So just keep that in mind guys, you know, keep your personal stuff at home. Let's come to work, let's focus on work, let's pay attention to work, let's excel at work and then guess what, if you're, lucky and you're, not a business owner when you clock out at the end of the day, you get to leave work at work and then You get to go home and have your personal life and and pay attention to that, and then you come back to work the next day.

Okay, now, if you're a business owner, you know that you don't get to leave your personal life. You know i mean that you don't get to leave work at work and it comes home with you and it's frustrating, but that's a whole nother conversation for another day. So um, let's see uh, let me see, make sure oh yeah. I really appreciate that, if you guys could smash the thumbs up button - okay, all right, so i've covered these two things.

I've got a list of things as usual that i like to talk about um. So i wanted to address something and a lot of people will comment all the time in my videos. When i talk about customers, not approving things or customers approving things, you know, every customer is different and the things that i do in my video depend on what the customer's needs and wants are. Okay.

So in a recent video i had, i was uh working on a walk-in freezer and it was just like one thing after another and then at the end of the video, i made a comment that you know what i'm probably gon na recommend that the customer replaced. This equipment, and so i had a few people that were like why the heck would you do all that work and then, in the end, to tell the customer they need to replace it. Well again, like i said at the beginning, it all depends on the customer's. Wants and needs okay, when i'm dealing with walk-in freezers, walk-in coolers majority of the time.

This is critical equipment. Okay, so in my recent video, the this was epic and the problems kept coming, that was a service called a walk-in freezer. Okay, so i made some decisions and i also kept the customer in the loop but bottom line. The customer is the one that decides whether or not they want to buy new equipment.

I just present them with all the information i have to get that equipment operational. Okay, this is not something that i can just tell the customer. You know what it's not repairable, um just go ahead and order a new one. Okay, that's gon na take weeks to get equipment for a walk-in cooler, all the while they have 50, 60.

70 000 worth of food in that walk-in cooler and you know we have to get it operational. So maybe i don't uh address that enough in my videos, but majority of the time this equipment is critical and it has to be fixed. So the matter is. Do i band-aid it and hope that it works or do i fix it right and then tell the customer it's time to start considering a replacement okay? In my experience, doing band-aids and different things like that, are not my favorite thing to do all while i will do them every once in a while, but it all depends on what the customer wants and how critical that particular piece of equipment is okay.

So it's all about communication with the customer and understanding. Now i have to tell you guys something that i maybe don't address very much in my videos with some of my restaurants. I actually work almost on an honor system. I deal with corporate people right, but i'm on site at a local location majority of the times the manager at the local location has no ability to tell me to fix or not fix or anything, and i actually know what the corporate office wants.

So we actually have a a verbal approval to go ahead and do things to get this equipment operational. So, yes, i will communicate sometimes with the customer, but then also sometimes i just have my approval that i know you know what i can pretty much tell you right now. If i have a walk-in cooler or a walk-in freezer, that's down, i can go to town on that for about three thousand dollars anything over three thousand dollars and i probably got ta make a phone call, but anything under that. I can pretty much get it going if it needs to be going okay with one of my customers now another one of my customers wants me to ask them for permission for anything over 500.

Okay, so it just depends on every particular customer and what their needs are, but it also depends on what our understanding is between what's approved and what's not approved, and what we have to do to get it going. I oftentimes will have to make judgment calls. You know what, in that particular video. I called in another technician, because i knew this equipment needed to be cleaned.

It needed a lot of work, so i can continue working while the other technician brought me all the parts. Yes, it was added labor to have the technician drive out. Yes, the labor theoretically might have been a little bit less if i'd have gone to get the parts, but i got to continue working and continue troubleshooting, because i know that just because they called me for a fan motor, not working. You know what this customer doesn't do: preventative maintenance, so it's probably gon na end up being a one thing after another call, and that happens so it all depends on what the customers wants and needs are okay, and when you're dealing with corporate restaurants, you know, of Course you know, you know, i would love to say you know what let me put door switches on all your walking coolers.

You know what, but a lot of my customers won't approve that stuff. They only sometimes want you to fix stuff, that's existing and they don't want you adding new things to their building. It's just how things work, so getting things approved sometimes can be kind of difficult, uh avas. Thank you.

So very much for that super chat, so you're asking about induction heating for brazing, copper, uh. You know, induction heating is becoming more and more easy to do, but still it's kind of specialized equipment and it's a little difficult to have an induction heater on a rooftop to be able to braise something together. It's just not very practical for most of us technicians now, if you're working in a factory setting or if you have the tools, sure you know but um, it's it's not really something. That's mainstreamed and very easy for us to do out in the field.

So, no not really yet is it being used normally in hvac work, okay, um! So i already talked about that one uh now next question: i have uh lots of people. Ask me all the time and i had a pretty good debate going on in my chat recently on one of my videos, uh one person saying that i spend way too much time: wasting customers, money, investigating service calls or investigating problems. So, first and foremost, let's address this, we were talking about the video that had the blown fuse and the commenter said. You know i spent uh um.

He was criticizing me and i i welcome criticism. I really do because it helps me to grow, even though sometimes i may get a little bit, you know that's a little frustrating that was rude of him to say i grow from criticism, one way or another, okay, so uh. The gentleman john was criticizing me for wasting time looking for a reason for a fuse to blow, and he was saying you know: i'm wasting the customer's time. That was just an old fuse, probably just an old fuse, and it just went bad okay.

But here's the thing it's, i can probably count on my hands in my entire career. How many times i've had a fuse just blow for no reason. Okay, it's probably very very few times. Usually the problems present themselves.

Very rarely is there a fuse that blows in my experience. That has no reason for it to happen, but i'm not going to say that it never happens. But remember people are learning from my videos, i'm making my videos for my own service technicians and showing people how i troubleshoot things. It's a very dangerous slippery slope to go out there, making a video just saying you know what the fuse blew.

I'm just going to throw in a new fuse and see what happens. Okay or you know what i can't find a reason. It was probably just the fuse that blew. I don't really discuss that and i don't really talk about that because it's such a slippery slope if we start training technicians to just go out there and say you know what it was just a blown fuse.

It's no big deal. That's a really easy way for technicians to get lazy versus if we make a technician, do everything in their power within reason to investigate a reason why a fuse might blow. Maybe they can find something i.e, a contactor that you know what the contactor in my video was still working, but was it a problem? Well, we don't know for sure it didn't look good. Certainly, could it have lasted a little bit longer probably, but is there a small potential that that was part of the problem? Yes, there is a potential that the contactor was part of the reason why the fuse blew.

So i changed that i took an educated guess. I looked at the contactor, it visibly didn't look good. The points didn't look good. I said you know what we're going to eliminate that from the picture callbacks in general.

Are they have very big consequences? Okay, customers do not accept when they have a walk-in full of 65 000 worth of food that walking going down. Oh, you know what we just put a new fuse in it. Let's see if it happens again, that's not a very good thing to do when you have a walk-in with that much food in it or even more okay, that is a critical piece of equipment. So we have to do everything in our power.

The next thing is, you know what okay, so, let's just say that maybe it was just a bad fuse. I put in a new fuse, but what are the odds in my luck? The odds are that fuse is gon na blow again at two o'clock in the morning, and i'm gon na have to go out there and troubleshoot in the middle of the night, and i don't want to have to go behind another technician. That just said, you know what it was probably just a bad fuse, i'm going to put a new one in there. Okay, so i'm not going to go down the slippery slope of teaching people and training people to just throw fuses and equipment and call it a day.

Okay, we're gon na investigate things um now, there's you know within reason is a good point, but i did you know that that particular call. I was on site for two and a half hours. Okay, two and a half hours is nothing compared to that thing. Going down again overnight and me not even attempting to try to find a reason for that fuse to blow okay, so it's so important.

You know that again it depends on the customers too, but callbacks are so expensive in so many different ways. They hurt your reputation. You potentially have product loss, it's just a disaster: okay, um. Let me see what else we got going on in here.

Uh, let's see uh ghost shadow says he's had every breaker and fuse blow noticed wire entering the meter box scorched electric company had not properly conducted uh connected wires entry meter boxes; hey, that's, that's a possibility: okay! Um! Let's see oh jason johnson you're talking about probably in the snow people getting stuck and everything yeah, that's crazy. I know you guys are getting some crazy weather um. Let me see uh unless the summertime hits and the voltages are super low um. You know it's possible.

Yeah brett, advanced refrigeration, podcast and also brett is going to be at the ahr trade show myself and brett will be at the sporland booth and uh brett is probably i actually brett is going to be doing the live stream on the monday evening with me, um We'll be doing the normal live stream, 5 p.m, west coast time we'll be doing that, so brett will be on that with me. So, let's see facility lead engineers can be a pain. Their bonuses come from unused money from the budgets you know and and uh jason johnson, i'm stepping into a conversation there. But that happens with my restaurants too, because the restaurant management uh, you know in the past and they've kind of tweaked budgets a little bit too.

But the restaurant management general managers on site their bonuses are based off of you know: expenses at the restaurant's level, so majority of the corporations have pulled back for most of my restaurants, the way that their bonuses are calculated. So that way, management has no control over repairs and choosing whether or not to do repairs, because on a corporate level, most restaurant corporations have realized that they need to spend the money doing these repairs. You know, and it's not really something you give someone a choice. So all right, let's see um john cruz, says he had a double pull single phase contact or lose a leg and it was fairly new.

Yeah can old window acs be restored to work like new joe burke? Of course they could. But it's a matter of figuring out how much money you want to invest into a window. Air conditioner that you can probably go, buy a new one for x number of dollars. Okay, but at the same time the new equipment doesn't last and that's going to segue into a conversation that i wanted to have about.

You know in my video someone had commented with me and they said, because i mentioned that you know this new equipment. Unfortunately, won't last as long as the equipment that i was talking about in my video, and there is truth in that so um you know i don't get political about it, but you know the new stuff that we have today certainly does not last as long as The stuff made in the 80s and the early 90s, and even before that that stuff was made to last okay now, is that the manufacturers just wanting new equipment to be sold, i mean, i guess there might be a tiny bit of that. But honestly, it's us as consumers demanding cheaper, cheaper, cheaper and you know this is what we get if you take a condenser coil from the 1960s, all the way up to the early 90s and you cut the tubes apart and you look inside of it. You're going to notice that the copper is very thick.

Okay, if you take a new condenser coil you're, going to notice that copper is paper, thin okay, but we demand cheaper, faster, more efficient, you know stuff, and this is what we get okay. So, unfortunately, majority of the equipment out there today will not last 25 30 years. It just won't versus the stuff that was made in the 50s, 60s, 70s 80s and early 90s that stuff you would get 20 plus years, if not longer out of it. Okay, it just is what it is.

Um, it's a bummer, but you know it is what it is all right. Let's mark that one off, let's see what else we got going on in here. Oh, i already answered that question two, i'm gon na cop that one off and again too i was talking about criticism earlier. I have no problem with criticism again.

I i welcome it okay, so i mentioned the guy's name, john, who was criticizing me. I thank you for that, john because i love the conversation to be able to go back and forth. So i'm okay with criticism. Okay, as long as it's not you know mean or rude so uh, the guy you trained with robert mckenzie, said always uh.

Just don't be a parts changer and that's very true, um uh chris young says big picture limits, callbacks and lost customers. That's right! If you can become that person for your company, that saves the day you become more valuable at your company and you become more valuable to the customer. Okay, it's you know. Reputation is a big thing.

So if you become a good technician - and you become that guy - that can find those problems that nobody else can, because you dig deeper you're going to become more valuable at your company and you're going to become more valuable to the customer. So keep that in mind. Okay, to a certain extent, okay, again, let's see um. Let's see your parents, r 22 system lasted almost 40 years before the replacement.

Yep, that's true troy. I mean a lot of it did last forever. Now, to be fair, though, a lot of the older equipment was very forgiving because it was not very efficient. Okay, you could overcharge old equipment and it would run fine with too much gas in it.

Just have elevated head pressure. You know you can't do that with the new equipment. It's too efficient, there's too many safeties built into it. It just needs to be working right and if it doesn't work right, a computer sensor is going to say it's not, and it's going to shut the equipment down.

That's just how it is on almost everything. Now. Okay, i already answered that question. Uh, let's see.

Oh i wanted to address this. I had an older question from an older video and i still laugh about this one, but it was a small package unit. It was an office ac that wasn't working right and i walked up to it and i noticed that the condenser fan motor wires were ripped off from the motor. They were only about two and a half three inches long and they were severed, and i said you know what it needs: a new motor and i got a bunch of criticism from people saying why didn't you own out the motor you could have repaired.

The electrical leads you could have put a new motor on there, i mean you know, fix it and it probably would have worked fine, okay, so oftentimes, i will make a video and you guys won't hear everything right, because i'm trying not to waste the customer's time. I am a fan of oem parts: okay and there's a reason why i'm a huge fan of oem parts. First, off majority of the time, the manufacturer has engineered that equipment to work a certain way and the oem parts majority of the time not always, but the oem parts typically will work and they will work fine, okay, when we start putting aftermarket parts on equipment. This is where the business owner in me comes in.

It starts taking more brain power and more thought process to make sure that that aftermarket part is going to work properly. Okay, so in my situation that video the wires were were ripped off on that ac, but though that condenser fan motor that was on there was not an oem condenser fan motor. So i had been looking for an excuse to change that motor back to an oem motor plus. On top of that, where the electrical connection was going to happen was going to be on the top of the motor where it was going to be exposed to rain.

And different things like that now, yes, theoretically, i could have insulated the wires, put heat shrink on and protected them that kind of stuff, but i'm looking for an excuse to take that after market motor out and put in oem and one of them. The reason why i said here's where the business owner and me comes in is because i want to make that equipment as easy as possible for my technicians to troubleshoot and fix. I don't want my technicians to have to come through and try to find oem motors on a weekend i mean aftermarket motors and trying to make things work and trying to figure figure out. You know how to make a a four wire motor work with a three wire capacitor set up, and it just takes thought process that i want to try to make easier for the next guy okay, so i try to go oem as much as possible.

Now there is instances - and it just so happened today where i was working on something - and i said you know what this motor has failed multiple times on this particular piece of equipment, and it's always the oem motor that fails. I'm going to do something to change the oem setup and i made some field engineering calip. You know changes to the system so that way, hopefully we don't have any more problems with it. So occasionally i will make those decisions, but i am in charge and i can make those decisions right so um, let me see uh the 98 deville.

Thank you very much for that super chat. I really appreciate it. Um, you guys are amazing with all this support. Okay, all right, let's see what else um, let me see what we got going on in here.

I see my buddy trevor. Matthews is in here right on not gon na, say what but trevor matthews and i are working on some cool things, maybe for the future. So stay tuned for that trevor's, a cool dude and he's got a cool cool thing going on over at refrigeration mentor. So definitely go check him out over there.

Okay um, you can look him up, refrigeration mentor! You can go to his website. You can go to his youtube channel, just find him on linkedin trevor's, a cool dude, so um. Let me see what else we got going on in here. Okay, i'm gon na cross that off my list and let's go back into here so um.

I already answered that one. Actually, i already walked through that one cool. I see i'm already working through my list of things. I always have a list right here and then i try to get to the comments too.

So remember, if you guys have comments or things you want me to cover about um, let's see, did you think you were being critical or did i think you were trying to help with that video of the multiple problem? Oh kevin? No! No! No! I don't think anybody's being critical and again kevin. I vaguely remember your conversation in there. No i'm good man really. I am totally okay with criticism, whether it be actual criticism, constructive, i'm good with it.

I learned from it all kevin. I think i remember the conversation that you were having um, but no i don't. I don't take offense to any of that stuff guys. No, definitely don't i'm all for that.

Okay and it really depends on what the customer wants in that situation. I believe kevin. You were talking about in the walk-in freezer, where it just kept snowballing and going one thing after another. No, i didn't take offense to that at all, and i kind of already addressed that earlier.

But you know when it's a critical piece of equipment, a walk-in freezer that has you know thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, tens of thousands 20 thousands right of dollars worth of food in it. The customer needs it fixed. We got to do what we got to do you know so no, but i didn't take any offense to what you were talking about kevin, not at all so um. Let me see what else we got going on in here: uh cool right on um reading.

Through this uh, no super chat option well right on kevin. Well, super chats aren't necessary anyways, but um lm silvia you're, saying you see very few phase monitoring devices or voltage protection on units over there. How come you know uh? I really would like to see more voltage, conditioning or power conditioning stuff, whether it be monitoring and or correction stuff on here. It's just not something.

That's very common uh, our supply houses. They they stock a few of like the icm phase, monitors which i guess are better than nothing, because they will shut equipment down. Um. Honestly, though, i'm going to tell you something - and this is kind of weird - it's a fine line between putting voltage monitors on my equipment because we have so many power problems - i mean, i guess it would help in the long run.

But i just worry that it's going to create nuisance faults. You know what i'm saying like because yeah i know there's a fine line of where you don't want the voltage to get lower than this or lower than that. But man, you know. Sometimes i swear.

We would get more nuisance stuff. You know um like, for instance, a different thing, but in the summertime it gets so hot here it gets to about 120 degrees. Is our extreme high right? That's the highest! I've ever seen. It is 120 degrees.

That's not a normal thing, but it does happen if i had manual reset pressure controls for the high pressure safety cutouts on my systems, i would literally be going crazy going around resetting pressure controls because our ambient temperatures just get so high that the equipment can't handle.