Is everybody out there ready for some mediocrity. You know just a standard mediocre q. Q. A live stream as usual nothing fancy don't expect any crazy big productions kind of kick your feet back relax open up your favorite adult beverage.

If you're not old enough stick with apple juice. You know see there we go don't got my normal sounds right now. But i can improvise you know so uh let's uh cue up the intro music and uh. We'll be back in a second do yo.

What is up everybody so that did not work out as well uh people are watching on instagram right now for some reason as usual when i try new things it never works out so i had scheduled a stream on youtube and on facebook and for whatever reason when i hit live it didn't work so i had to restart another stream go figure. It's how things work that's why i don't try to mess with my stream. Very much when i try to do new things it just seems to not work out the way that i want it to but regardless we're streaming on youtube now we're streaming on instagram facebook that went out the window who cares about that so guess that's not really gonna work one of these days. I'll hire someone that can help me figure all this stuff out so welcome to the hvacr videos q.

A live stream. So i'm trying to toggle in between two cameras. Because i've got instagram over here. I've got youtube over here.

Let's see what we can get to so i don't know how this is gonna work as far as the questions go on instagram you can try and post questions or comments or anything that you want me to address on instagram. I would highly suggest if you're gonna post anything on instagram you put it in caps lock okay as usual to my normal viewers that are on youtube right now i apologize the uh the the stream got messed up and i had to start another one so here we are so i got a couple things i want to cover. But first let's start over okay because we have some new viewers as usual. We constantly have new people coming to the stream right now so um.

I am an hvacr service technician here in southern california. I started making these videos as kind of a training aid for my employees and then next. Thing you know here we are like five years later and it turned into this whole thing. I never really anticipated it turning into what it did and in all fairness.

I don't treat it in the way that most people that you would call an influencer would right i don't i try not to obsess about youtube. I try not to obsess about social media. I try to just do my thing right i like making videos about service calls and how i approach things these are the ways that i do it i learn from you maybe you can learn a few things from me maybe. It's just like hey don't do it like him because he's an idiot.

I'm sure there's a lot of that going on when people watch my videos. But i want to stress this the most is with any influencers anybody you're watching on youtube do your research. Don't just trust some dude. Because he said this is how it works and he sounded really convincing on youtube do your research.

So if you watch one of my videos and you hear something you see something that looks interesting do some research and verify that i actually did it correct don't just trust what i did okay because anybody can be convincing right if i make a video on youtube. I can edit it i can edit the mistakes out i can show you just the good things okay now i don't do that i try to leave the mistakes in my videos as much as possible so that way you guys know that i'm a real person that i'm a human right. But um yeah. So i'm just a normal service technician.

Nothing special. I put my pants on the same way. I freaking you know have the same issues as all of you i'm stressed to the max. All the time right that's just life okay.

I'm not perfect. I'm a human just like you okay so as usual. I got a bunch of questions i want to cover again if anybody's in the instagram stream or if anybody's in the youtube stream make sure you guys put your questions in caps lock. I apologize to the people that are just finding this right now because you know whatever my stream failed it sucks.

Because what happens is and i showed the people on instagram before because i started talking to them first. I have like a whole list of things right questions. And i emailed all these people. And i sent youtube comments out to all these people and um uh.

I invited them to the stream with a link and everything and then go figure. This is how streaming works when i started the stream that stream didn't work and it started a new one so that link that i sent all those emails and those comments to to invite people to the stream. Because i would answer their questions they're going to click on it and it's not going to take them anywhere. That's just one of the frustrating things about streaming.

But you know what i've learned is don't let it get to you it is what it is you know that's that's the most important thing because i used to get so stressed out about the live streams and how things work. And i learned just to take a chill pill and not try to take it so seriously. It is what it is okay so um real quick. I wanted to address a few things i've been getting a lot of questions and comments about the stuff behind me right.

I've got some new pieces up on the wall and then for those that just don't understand. There's some new tools or maybe. A tool that you've never seen before okay. So i want to talk about those real quick and then i'm going to get to your guys's questions and get to the the things that i have on my list in front of me so starting over here.

We have a on the the top up. There that is a hermetic compressor analyzer. It's an annie okay. I personally did not use that annie one of my employees.

Gave it to me let me grab. It because everybody's always asking about this stuff. So for instagram. This is an annie.

This is a early model hermetic compressor analyzer okay for youtube. The people looking right there i have it as a showpiece just on the back now. I personally did not use this this was given to me by one of my employees. I had a a different compressor analyzer.

It's actually hidden back there. But it's a big giant. One made by thermal engineering. But this right here would have been used to start or to attempt to start a compressor to verify whether the starting components were bad.

Sometimes now not with this one. But actually no you can on this one you can reverse the phases. Too so um. But you could rock a compressor back and forth try to get it to break free okay.

So this is an older tool again i personally never used this one. I used some different ones. Now we really don't have a use for hermetic compressor analyzers as much these days. I'm sure someone can justify a use for them.

But with the advent of three in one temporary starting components. You know you can buy them some manufacturers make them they have a relay and overload. They're not the same as the normal starting components okay. But you can use them to try to start a compressor and see if it works and then if it does work then you can go get the starting components.

Okay. So i'm gonna set this down and grab another one real quick next back there again. I'm just talking about the tools that everybody's always asking me about that are in the background. So to instagram.

This is a simpson 260 meter uh. This was the bee's knees. When it came to meters this was before my time for the youtube feed right there simpson 260. This was actually my dad's meter.

Okay. I learned from my father my father used this before i started working with him um. I don't doubt that this meter still works uh. But it's just a cool thing i found in the shop.

And i threw it up there i like this um again. I personally did not use this. Okay uh. I've been really kind of becoming obsessed with older tools.

And i'm starting to have fun with it going on ebay and buying an old hvac tools. So this was one that i didn't have to buy. It was kind of cool just found it in the shop kept it for myself let's get on to the next one so real quick. This is a dial a charge.

Okay uh personally i have not used a dial a charge right uh because when i started in the trade in the mid 90s uh digital scales were pretty prevalent okay this was a very very accurate way and some people still use dial of charges. Okay uh. It's a very accurate way to measure refrigerant um basically measures by volume and you can see exactly how much you're going to put in there. Now this one right here was specifically for refrigerant 12.

22. And 502. So the gradient scale would not be accurate on this to use it with modern refrigerants because the the pressure temperature charts and different things would be different on it. But yeah.

This was a dial of charge again. I'm just kind of talking about these things because a lot of people. Ask me questions about them and in all honesty. That's why i put these tools up in the background.

They're conversation pieces so so this is one of my favorite tools right here this is a robin air leak detector. This was given to me um by chris edes with ac. What is it ac. T.

Ah. Shoot. What is the name of his company. I'll think of it in a minute ac ezt.

I think it's ac ezt. He's a manufacturer and a business owner and he anyways he had given this to me. When i was at the hvac training symposium and i think this is one of the coolest leak detectors that i have ever seen in my entire career. Okay now it actually works by i have not used this.

But it actually works by taking this wand off and getting it closer. But it's just a cool design. Because it looks like a ray gun right looks like you're in lost in space or something. Like that right i imagine that this is only for chlorinated refrigerants more than likely.

But yeah it wouldn't work with modern day refrigerants most of them but this is one of the coolest leak detectors. I've ever seen it'd be really neat. If i could get a manufacturer to make like a new leak detector like this like all retro coolest thing ever all right let's uh. See what else we got i'm just talking about a few tools and then i'm going to get on to q.

A questions so this might be the heaviest one for instagram this right here is an amp meter. Okay for facebook. I'm sorry for youtube this right here. I've shown this before i found this on ebay.

This is a westin volt meter. And it's for measuring dc current. Again for instagram look. At this thing.

This thing probably weighs 25 pounds. And it's a portable amp. Probe. Right it had a leather strap on the side right here.

And you were supposed to carry it around and then depending on what the current of the devices you're measuring you would change the little poles right here for different currents. But this was for dc amps. My understanding i just found this on ebay and i couldn't pass it up because i think i paid like 20 bucks for it and this thing is pretty darn epic alright so cover those because i get those questions all the time all right next. What we're gonna do is uh.

Yeah. I covered that i'm looking at the chat right now again. If you guys have questions or things you want me to cover do me a favor put them in caps lock. I'll try to get to them.

I'm still kind of figuring out this whole um oh it looks like uh hvac reefer. Guy. Mike mayberry's in the instagram chat and he says that he has a western volt meter at home as well really cool piece like mike. I know you're all into hvac history.

Um for those that don't understand what's going on. I'm streaming on instagram at the same time so i'm looking at the instagram right now but uh these old hvac tools. They're just fun they're just fun. I'm not spending thousands and thousands of dollars like i said that weston volt meter i picked it up for like uh 20 something bucks uh south main auto repair llc thank you so very much for that super chat bud um.

It's really cool to see you in here. Uh. You know i recently found your youtube channel from some of my viewers that recommended your youtube channel and i started watching it and i really dig your troubleshooting techniques. It's really really cool to see other like minded people troubleshoot the same way so i consider myself to troubleshoot.

Very similar to your method and don't take offense to this but i call it dumb logic okay um. I know how to use the the sophisticated super smart stuff too but sometimes easier is better. And if you just break things down to the simplest methods of how they operate and then just work your way through. I call it dumb logic again it just seems to work and click so most of the time.

I don't have to get all crazy brainiac. I just break it down slow down step back think about the sequence of operation work your way through the process. And it's awesome so again. Thank you so very much for that super chat.

So um let's see uh going through the chat right now. I'm looking and seeing what's going on uh. It's time for me to get a vintage coke machine. Someone said.

Yeah you know i'd be interested in picking one up uh ironically. I had access to one many many years ago. But i wasn't in the phase in my life where i was interested in that stuff so it would have been cool to keep yeah for sure so all right. I'm gonna get to a couple things i have on my list of things to talk about so.

One of the most common questions. Okay and again let me let me phrase this okay. The reason. Why i do these live streams is to consolidate the questions that i get from my youtube videos.

Okay uh. I have a family. I have a life i run an hvac business. It's hard for me to keep up with all the comments.

The emails that all the different stuff so i go to the most commonly asked questions and i consolidate them and answer them in a live format. So that's the point of these live streams. Okay and for those that are watching on instagram right now this is a thing that i've done for like five years now typically every monday evening. I go live on youtube.

And i just answer questions for days okay so in my recent video where i was working on a roof and i had to change a compressor and i think it was titled they have sand in places. They shouldn't one of the most common questions. I get i've been working out in the coachella valley. A lot lately and we have sandstorms out there and the sand is just wreaking havoc on our equipment.

And everybody is asking me. The same question. Why in the heck. Am.

I not using solid state relays. Why not use solid state relays instead of totally open compressor contactors. Okay. Number one they're not readily available in my local supply houses.

Okay i shop at a few refrigeration supply houses. They typically don't have solid state relays. My quick research has led me to believe that most solid state relays can't really handle compressors okay. That's my quick research now i'm open to all kinds of information.

If any of you have information to share with me that can enlighten me more okay uh. I've got a bunch of people that sent me emails. Saying that emerson makes solid state relays. They do emerson makes something called the sure switch okay.

The sureswitch is a great device. I have a sure switch on my own home's residential air conditioning system. But the sure switch is only made for single phase voltage. It is not made for three phase voltage okay so my understanding and my quick research.

I haven't spent weeks or days researching this but my quick research says for the price. There is nothing available that's within reason that is affordable now. I do know and i have read a lot of your emails and comments that said that they make industrial style controls that are totally enclosed. Yes.

I get that but trust. Me with the customers that i deal with yes. I could go to them. And i could say you know what i can install a thousand dollar contactor on this compressor.

And you more than likely will never have to change it again my customer would not go for that okay the way that corporate money works is kind of weird in the restaurants. If they don't want to go for that they just want you to put another contactor back in and call it a day. Okay then i get a bunch of people saying how come and again we're talking about blowing sand that's just infiltrating my contactors wreaking havoc on my refrigeration and air conditioning equipment on the roof. Then i get people saying well.

Why don't you uh put them in a totally enclosed box and seal them okay. But those contactors they put off a lot of heat. They have to be able to breathe you have to put them in a box. If you were going to put them in a totally enclosed box.

It needs to have some sort of ventilation they do make stuff like that you can get uh like nema forex industrial um boxes that have cooling fans that have filters on them that filter the air before it goes into the box like and again. It's just not affordable. It's just not practical for these customers. They just don't see the value in it okay.

So i'm limited by my customers. And what they want to do and i realized that if money wasn't an issue. We could solve these problems of the sand infiltrating everything. But with them money is an issue and the weird thing and this is just how corporations work in general at least the ones that i work with is i can spend tons and tons of money right or give them tons and tons of invoices to repair equipment right and every invoice will say this could have been prevented if you did a preventative maintenance.

This could have been prevented if you did a preventative maintenance. It doesn't mean anything to them. Okay. Preventative maintenances are not something that a lot of the restaurants.

The big chain restaurants. They don't want to do them right now because this is my understanding of it now. This is just my opinion. Okay this doesn't necessarily mean.

This is exactly their thought process. But the only thing i can think of as far as budgets goes um corporate corporations have different kinds of budgets right and when you have planned expenses that's just a guaranteed expense. You're gonna spend and then you have emergency expenses right emergency expenses aren't planned and you have a budget and it's just like uh. You know okay you know it is what it is so a lot of these people don't want these planned expenses right.

I had one of my big restaurant chains that i do something like 30 of their restaurants. And they asked me for a quote for preventative maintenances right. They asked across the country all their contractors to give them quotes to start doing preventative maintenance on all their equipment. And i want to say i again i'm really bad with numbers.

But i want to say that and i know this is a big number. But that i want to say. It was like two to three million dollars a year is what they would have to spend in planned money to start doing preventative maintenances and they just couldn't stomach that yet. I know it's just totally ridiculous they're spending that in repairs.

But it's just not planned right so i'm just this guy trying to fix their equipment and keep it operating. I give them suggestions if they don't take the suggestions so be it okay. I always tell everybody you can give big picture quotes. All day long.

But they don't have to accept them right. But if you give a big picture quote and you document everything then when they don't approve that big picture quote and they just want to repair the symptom. Well so be it that's fine we fixed it we got it operating. But there's going to be more problems because they didn't look at the big picture.

But at least. I have it documented i have it written down so therefore. It's not going to be my problem okay so i try i try as hard as i can so um next question people were asking about solid state relays. They were asking about enclosing.

The contactors in big giant metal boxes then i had people asking me well. Why don't you install contactors with overloads right. So you have the electromechanical contactors that you use for and if you couple and overload with a contact you basically made a motor starter right so motor starters are a good method too. But it's expensive okay the next question that i had was how come i don't install phase monitors on all my equipment again.

If you're trying to use a phase monitor to solve a problem of a single contactor that's going to go bad. You would have to install a phase monitor on every contactor right because you need to see the load side of every contactor you could install a phase monitor at the the incoming voltage to the unit. But that would only be monitoring. The incoming voltage.

If your problem is on the load side after a contactor. You would have to install a phase monitor on every contactor and in a perfect world. Yeah. That would work that would be a great idea you install like a icm.

I think 450 or something like that on every contactor. Sometimes. These compressors have four stages right. Four compressors.

So you'd have four different contactors and then you'd have a blower motor that would seriously prevent problems it would you could set it for high and low voltage. You can set it for high current all kinds of different stuff that would be a great idea. But again that is a huge expense if i had to guess how much it would cost me to go and install phase monitors. After every compressor contactor.

It'd probably be in the range of six to eight hundred dollars per phase. Monitor including labor and drive time. And you know parts and materials. And all that stuff.

And that's a big expense yes in the grand scheme of things that would be a very smart thing for the customer to do because hey if the contactor failed boom. You know it wouldn't cost them eight thousand dollars to go change. A compressor because sometimes that's what they can cost on big jobs uh. It could be up to eight grand to go change a compressor because of all the stuff you have to do.

Including travel time and all the parts you need and all that different stuff so it would be smart. But sometimes it's like beating your head against a wall trying to convince these customers to do all this different stuff okay. So i try as much as i can i'm looking at the chat right now uh how hot would a compressor have to run for poe oil to reach optimal viscosity uh that's that's a question beyond my understanding. But i mean i don't know the answer to that one i know that there's a thing right there that once you go past a certain temperature that you start to break down the oil and i know that copeland compressors.

Basically says that they don't want the discharge line within like six inches of the discharge of the compressor. You don't want the discharge line getting hotter than 225 degrees. Because now that's not 225 oil temperature. Because the inside of that compressor is much hotter than 225 degrees.

But at the outlet. They have determined that anything over 225 degrees on the outlet of their compressors starts to lead to issues within the compressor so. But what the internal temperature is i don't know those numbers right now so um let's see what else we got going here uh. Let's see jason johnson says.

There are lots of good products out there customers don't want to spend it though so you do the best you can and that's exactly it okay. So i try the best that i can i'm not perfect. Nor will i ever be and it's very important for us to understand that we're never going to be perfect. But we can always try to be perfect right uh will thanks so much for being a super a channel supporter for so long ike.

I saw your thing pop up earlier. Too thank you very much for being a channel supporter for those that are watching on instagram right now. I'm talking about the youtube chat right now. Let's see what else we got going on in here.

Uh. Same thing goes. I got a bunch of people asking me why not install vfds to run every compressor that would be a great idea. Too because then you would have soft start you'd lower your in rush current.

When the compressors turn on you could slowly ramp them up uh the vfds would have all kinds of phase protection voltage protection current protection that would be a great idea but again it's cost you know it's just cost. That's really what changes everything so um let's see reading through here. How long would a vfd have to uh how long would a v. Oh.

That's funny laska you're funny attention chingus uh. Let's see what else we got going on in the chat okay um at the end of the videos. I do have to say again it is what it is i realize that some of my videos are long right. It's funny because this last video was an hour long and my daughter was she helps me with editing.

She doesn't edit the whole video. But she helps me and she goes dad she's like your video's an hour long nobody's gonna watch that and i'd be i told her i said no you'd actually be surprised. I said now i can see the analytics. Yeah majority of the people do not watch the full hour long video.

But as i'm editing the video you gotta remember my head is different than everybody else's okay um. I don't get offended if people don't watch my video. All the way through that's fine okay i get it an hour is a lot of time to spend watching a youtube video okay. But i do things the way that i want to do them.

And it's okay you know if you guys don't want to watch. It that's fine. But i'm going to continue to make the videos. The way that i make them so if i if i film a video and i see a lot of content.

I'm not gonna chop it up to make it a 20 minute video and cut out all the good stuff. I'm gonna leave what i think is important for certain people to see and if you don't watch. It it's okay again it's no big deal right it really isn't so i do things differently. I don't do things the way that youtube says to do them i don't do things the way that my sponsors or advertisers say to do them i'd i'd be interested for you guys to talk to my advertisers.

And my sponsors and the people that i do work with i bet you they would tell you that i'm a little bit difficult to work with and i am. I realize that i am because i do things my way and that's just how it is when they approached me to work with me or when i approached them to work with them that was part of the stuff is look. I'm gonna do this my way and if you want to work with me great if not it's okay right so i do things my way the videos are long sometimes. It is what it is okay.

But i will say if you guys watch till. The closing words majority of the time when i'm editing the video. I see things and i'm like oh. I should have done that differently or oh.

I know that's going to raise a lot of questions. So i will often answer. Most of your guys's questions in the closing words of the videos. Okay so if you watch till.

The end. You might get your question. Answered a lot of times or i'll talk about how i made a mistake and how i should have done this differently or i'll just recap and say these are the problems that i had you know so in my recent video. Too where i had a burnout because of sand.

I think. It was a low voltage issue causing overheat and different stuff right i did an autopsy at the end of the video. The first question that i got a bunch of times was why didn't i do an oil test. And i'm going to ask you this what is the point of doing an oil test.

When it was clearly a grounded compressor that burnt the refrigerant and the oil now the refrigerant didn't smell that burnt but it was burnt when i poured that oil out it was black that was acidic oil okay. So what's the point of doing an acid test. I know it was acidic. I know it's acidic okay in my opinion an acid test you know is there before preventatively with an operating system.

If you have suspicions if you have a sight glass. That has an acid indicator and you start to see it change in a different color. Yeah do an acid test find that you have low levels of acid maybe you can remedy that by doing oil changes you can prevent the compressor from catastrophically failing that would be the point for an acid test. But when you have a completely grounded compressor and the oil is black.

I don't see the point in doing an acid test. There's acid right now at the the end of the compressor change out after you've got the new system up and running and it's been running for about a week or two yeah. It's probably a good idea to go over there and do pressure drop tests across the dryers and maybe do an acid test. I think that's a good idea.

That's just the way that i've done things is that completely the right way not necessarily. It's not necessarily the right way for everybody. That's just how i do things so i don't see the point in doing an acid test. When i completely have a grounded compressor and there's clearly acid in it i don't do an acid test okay because i know it's there the acid test in my opinion would be for after after you have the new compressor running after it's been running for a little bit then go back to an acid test.

See if you were able to clean everything up now in my situation it really depends on the customer. Some customers allow me to go do follow up visits all day long and i'll do acid tests. I'll check filter dryers all that good stuff some customers don't some customers just want it repaired. So i'll go big with the repair and then they just want us to monitor it so in this case.

This particular customer doesn't want me to go back for a follow up. They don't want me to go back to do acid tests or check filter dryers. So the next time. We're there doing preventative maintenance.

We'll check up on it and see how it goes okay all right let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now um. All right looks like we got lots of great friends in here. Hello to everybody that's in there hello to everybody that's on instagram um. What are the best practices.

Eli asks for as far as pm'ing goes for hoshizaki ice machines. Okay. I'm going to tell you the number one problem. Number one problem with hoshizaki ice machines is undersized water lines.

Okay that leads to the biggest amount of freeze ups is undersized water lines okay. It's safe to say that if you have a hoshazaki ice machine that is more uh than a 900 pound machine. That you need a half inch inside diameter water line going to that machine okay. That's that's it may be that you don't necessarily need it for a 900 pounder.

But that's fine okay now remember that's inside diameter. So that's a 5 8. Refrigeration line. Okay you need a half inch water line.

But not only do you need a half inch water line. You need to make sure that it's a true half inch. Okay you don't want a half inch water line. That goes to an angle stop that has a 3 8.

Going into the wall. Because that's not a half inch water line. Anymore right hoshizaki's theory. Is is that they need a certain amount of water going to that machine.

And it needs to be high pressure. I mean you know within reason it needs to be at a certain pressure. If you're working on almost all the other ice machine manufacturers that you see in restaurants isomatic. Manitowoc scotsman.

Typically they don't require high pressure water going into their machines. They don't require the big giant water lines. But hoshizakis typically for the 900 pounds and up they have a five gallon water sump on those machines okay when you deal with the manitowoc scotsman isomatic those guys have like a half a gallon water sump right and they fill multiple times but hoshizakis they fill up in the beginning with the the standard km machines right you get into like some of their weird other machines they do weird stuff. But so the first thing when you're doing pms on ice machines is look at the water lines.

What size are they are they're the right kind of water lines right then cleaning routine cleaning now. I'm going to give a blanket statement that when you're working on a hoshizaki ice machine that machine needs to be cleaned minimum every three months. Okay now i realize most restaurants don't do that they don't want to clean their machines every three months but if they all cleaned their machines every three months had a deep clean done on their machines. Where they empty out all the ice you run ice machine cleaner through it you break the machine down you scrub all the parts you put it back together.

You put proper water filters on there and you change the water filters periodically. And you have the right size water lines. You could those machines are going to last a long time okay so uh. There's a lot of other stuff that you can check on a hoshizaki ice machine.

But the number one thing i'm going to tell you is make sure the water lines are the right size okay. Let's see what else we got going on here warranty compressor comes with a free inspection report. Ask your supply house replacement comp. Have to pay.

But still get a report. Oh yeah. Yeah. If it is under warranty.

Yes. You can take it. And you can request that it gets shipped back to um uh copeland or whoever manufactures. It and they can inspect the compressor and tell you what the cause of failure was so that way you can address it yes.

That is something i will say that emerson copeland strongly suggests that if you're working on semi hermetic compressors uh rasmus jensen. Thank you very much for that super chat bud that's really awesome thank you so very much so. Copeland recommends that if you're working on a semi hermetic compressor. They strongly recommend that you disassemble you open that compressor up and you take it apart.

And you figure out what's going on with it they don't require on semi hermetic compressors for the compressor to be completely assembled. They just require that it be sealed so if you pull the parts out of it if you pull the valve plates off and different things like that and you don't know you just shove them in the compressor put them in the crankcase that's all they need they just want the parts in there they don't it doesn't have to be assembled okay so copeland encourages that on semi hermetics now on scroll compressors. Yeah. They don't want you cutting those open because they need to see what's going on.

But if it's not under warranty i highly suggest all of you cut open your compressors investigate them dig into them i love digging into my compressors. I still don't know everything i lean on friends when i was diagnosed or autopsy in that compressor that i did on sunday with the sand video um. I called my buddy. Trevor matthews.

Who used to work for emerson copeland and i said look i know this was an electrical failure. I know that there's no damage to the scroll plates like i know it had nothing to do with that but i said i was asking him how do i differentiate between a single phase. Situation and a low voltage situation right and that's what we're trying to determine and based off of what we were seeing in my video. He even wasn't sure.

And he's like you need to forward that on to you know copeland people and let them look at it right and so that's actually i'm going to get trevor a bunch of pictures and have him forward it on to his friends over there and see if they can give me any ideas. What is it going to do for me not much because i know it was because of that contact or that failed. But i just want to know i i like to know i like to start to recognize trends. So when i pull them apart.

And i see like oh. It's grounded or oh. It's got these little rings in it this galling going on in the scroll plates. Oh.

That's flood back you know like i like to learn that way again dumb logic that's what i use i use dumb logic i look at things i see it i remember i learn from it so let's see what else we got in here. What do i think of the r448 retrofit from 404 does it make me hate tree huggers tyler hvacrtec. I use r448a all day long first thing. I'm going to tell you with 448a.

Okay. I know that manufacturers especially honeywell refrigerants. I i have friends that work there great company but oftentimes they will downplay things. And say that you know like for instance with 448a honeywell.

Says. You don't necessarily have to change. The expansion valve. If you're retrofitting from 404 a to 448a.

They tell you you don't have to change the expansion valve oftentimes that the expansion valve is sized. Properly you can reuse the same valve now okay that is true. But when you're doing a retrofit just change the expansion valve change. It over to a 448a valve.

Okay change the guts um. If you're changing on a 404a system look at the nozzle size. Because the nozzle size oftentimes will be different. That's the little piston looking thing that comes after the expansion valve oftentimes.

The nozzle will be different yes you can make it work. You'd have to play with it and adjust it and do all kinds of things. But why not just change the valve when you're in there now i realize if you're doing a supermarket and you've got 150 valves. It's not very practical to go change every single valve.

So you're going to do your best. Realistically do your research find out if the valve is sized. Appropriately okay let me say this right now if you have 404a and you have r22. Okay you have two expansion bulbs.

This right here happens to be a r12 expansion valve okay so what i'm asking the chat right now i'm asking on instagram and i'm asking on youtube. What makes this valve an r12 valve what about the valve makes it an r12 valve is it a single component on the valve or is it multiple components on the valve and which ones are they i'm asking in the chat. Put your answers in there. There's no wrong answers.

We all learn from this okay. Now. I'm gonna say that sometimes you can use this valve on other systems. There's times that you can on other refrigerants.

There's certain times. It's very very small window. But what about this valve makes. It laska says the power head does anybody else out there have any idea.

What makes this valve specific for the refrigerant is it just the power head or is it something else that goes with the power head. I'm asking everybody okay anybody that's in there gaskets is one answer. I'm looking through the instagram chat. Nothing.

Yet. Um. Uh go ahead. And give me.

The power head. Okay. I see another person saying. The power head uh.

It's the gas and the bulb or the power head. Okay the spring okay so there's a lot of answers in here and they're not necessarily wrong answers. But it's not just the power head. Okay the orifice in the valve can be specific for the type of refrigerant that's being used now sometimes you can change the power head.

And you can solve your problems. Because the orifice. The valve internals might be sized appropriately for that refrigerant there might be enough play in there to make it work. But it's not just the power head that makes the refrigerant type for this valve.

Okay the power head is one of two things. And it's the nozzle size okay you size an expansion valve based off of the capacity and the liquid line temperature or the liquid temperature coming into it um. If you guys want an example. I don't have one here right now.

But you know let's just say that you have a 404 a valve on your van um you know quarter ton 404. A valve right and you're working on r22. Some would think that oh all you got to do is change. The power head not necessarily true sometimes that might work but other times.

The orifice in the valve might not be big enough or small enough for that refrigerant. So it's not necessarily just the powerhead. So the point. I'm trying to make is when you read manufacturer's instructions you have to understand something these refrigerant manufacturers they want to sell their refrigerant.

Okay and they want you to have to do the least amount of work possible to to install that refrigerant because it makes them successful and you buy more of their refrigerant case in point. When it comes to converting refrigerants drop in refrigerants. Oh my gosh that's such a voodoo term drop in refrigerant okay drop in refrigerant does not mean mix the gas drop in means that there's minimal work that has to be done in converting just the refrigerant over to the replacement refrigerant. The drop ins.

The first ones. We were dealing with were r12 drop ins. Okay one of the most common r12 drop ins in the early 90s mid 90s. Was 409 a or mp39 that was another one too that we 401 a.

I think was mp39. But 409a was another one now the term drop in came out. And lately. A lot of people seem to think that drop in refrigerant means that you just dump it on top of the other refrigerant in there that is absolutely not correct you don't make your own refrigerants okay.

But when it comes to the refrigerants um losing my train of thought of where i was going there. So yeah there we go that's how that works i go off on a tangent and then i forget what i'm talking about all right so um. Now that i totally went off on a tangent and i was gonna say something i'm totally forgetting here. What it was that i was gonna say and i knew i was gonna make a good point.

But i was talking about the refrigerants. I was talking about drop in refrigerants. Oh. I was talking about refrigerant manufacturers.

Okay so refrigerant manufacturers out there of the drop in refrigerants. They want you to do the least amount of work possible because they want you to buy theirs. But i'm going to challenge every one of you to go read the installation instructions for insert name of any refrigerant. Okay uh and read the installation.

Instructions and preferably a drop in refrigerant right. Something that replaces r22. Something that replaces 404a something that replaces r12 and if you read the installation instructions from the manufacturer down at the bottom of the installation instructions there will be caveats. There will be blanket terms that say if your system has high pressure drops.

If your system has long line set runs this refrigerant works best with polyester oil and i'm talking about the r22 replacements all these different ones that everybody makes mp39 or mo99 407c all these different ones b. Insert whatever flavor of r22 replacement. Out there. Some manufacturers say it works.

Okay you don't have to do an oil change. But even on that same document that says you don't have to do an oil change. If you read down to the bottom. And it says in situations with high pressure drops in situations with long line set runs works best with polyester oil.

So their own installation instructions contradict themselves because in the beginning. It says. It works fine no oil change necessary. But then down at the bottom.

It says. Oh yeah. If you got to do that you probably need to change. The oil so it's safe to say the easiest way is if you're working on an r22 replacement.

A drop in refrigerant you're not going to mix. It you're removing all the refrigerant you're changing the dryer you're changing the seals. Your best bet is to change the oil fight me on that one okay all right manufacturers fight me on that one. I know that everybody out there is going to say i've been doing it for 20 years and i've done it for years and you don't know what you're talking about and it works fine and that might work.

But there's those few times. That it doesn't work fine and i'm not okay with those few times. So i'm not mixing refrigerants. I'm not dropping in this refrigerant and not changing the oil.

Oh. The one that drives me nuts. There's a there's a certain influencer out there i'm not gonna name names. But he has a video and it's just like it's more ignorance.

I don't think he meant to be wrong. But it's just because there's so much misinformation out there and i blame the supply houses for a lot of the misinformation. But what he did was in the video. He literally said how to convert a system to 407c and he has an existing operating mineral oil system.

He didn't do anything to it he's using the same compressor and what he did was he took 20 percent of the oil charge whatever that number was let's just say. It was 30 ounces. So he took 30 uh. 20 of 30 ounces.

And he put polyester oil on top of the existing oil. So he added 20 oil to that system and then said. This is how you do it that is not how you do it. If you talk to any compressor manufacturer out there they do not recommend adding 20 percent more oil to the compressor.

No no no a lot of people misread that information and what they say is is that when you're changing oil oftentimes. There's going to be a small percentage of mineral oil left in the system. After you've done multiple oil changes. Because if you do an oil change on a compressor you drain out all the oil and then you put polyester oil in it.

There's inevitably still going to be some mineral oil in the system. And so you let it run for a few days. And you come back and you analyze the oil or you just change it again because each time you change it you're going to have less and less percentage and oftentimes. They'll have an acceptable rate of percentage of mixed oil and a lot of people are misinterpreting that thinking that you can just add extra oil to the system.

No that's not how that works there's a lot of misinformation out there again like i said don't just trust some dude on youtube that tells you how to do things do your research. I caution you to go to the supply house and let them tell you how to do it. Because you will get a lot of misinformation from the supply house. You need to do your research.

You need to do it you need to call. The manufacturer. Call coupland. Ask them hey.

I'm changing over to this refrigerant. Do you have any guidelines. Call honeywell refrigerants uh. Whatever insert whatever name or refrigerants.

Ask them what are your methods. And then don't be afraid to ask questions right if you call copeland and copeland says you need to do this. And then you call you know insert name of refrigerants dupont or whoever and they say no you don't have to do that then say wait a minute copeland says. I do and you say i don't so who's right here.

Ask the questions challenge them get the answers don't just trust. The supply house. Okay supply houses. Sometimes they can give you good information.

But i've been given bad information by supply houses. I've had supply houses. Tell. Me.

Oh yeah. You just mix that who told. You you can mix that well the last service tech. He says he does it all the time.

And it works fine the last service tech is not the person i want to listen to i want to listen to the manufacturer. And i want to know how to do it right so do your research. Okay be cautious about that now that i went off on a crazy tangent let me get to uh the chat and see what i'm missing in here. Um.

Let's see. Mike b. Says. He has a whole jug of r12 and r22 on his van.

We still use that in virginia. Um. I have about a half a jugger r12. I have no use for it anymore.

I have probably three quarters of a jug a 502. I got 408 409 uh hot shot um. I i think i might even have some uh mp39. Still in the shop.

Just like i don't know why i kept it i probably just need to get rid of it. But yeah. I still have a few of those. But i still use r22 all day long so that's that's still very common can a grounded compressor turn on and run hvacr videos well it depends on if it's a direct short to ground or if it's an intermittent insulation failure like recently um.

I've got a system. An air conditioner out there running right now that trips the br it blows a fuse about every two months. Okay and i've tested it and the compressors have intermittent shorts to ground. I got my insulation tester on them.

And i tested it and yes. They do not have a good insulation test reading and i've been the only person to work on them. They're not full of moisture. There's no other variables that are causing that bad insulation reading.

But yet the compressors are still running they just blow the fuses about every three months. We're in the process of replacing those compressors so yeah. I guess there's an instance where a compressor could be grounded and still run if it's just an intermittent short. But if it's a direct short to ground now that thing's not going to run and it's dangerous if it's running right so how can you know the volume of refrigerant you need to fill a given system uh it depends on how the system was designed if you're working on a residential split system um.

You know the manufacturers will typically tell you that uh. If you're looking at like let's just say you're working on the home air conditioner on my house. I have a four ton arco air system out there and on the name plate. It has refrigerant charge.

And it says let's just say four pounds of refrigerant. Okay that four pounds of refrigerant is only for a certain length of line set usually a very short amount and anything past that you have to add extra refrigerant depending on the length of the liquid line and the line set in general. So the manufacturers typically have charts that'll tell you how much extra refrigerant to add this is especially important when you're working on heat. Pump systems because heat pump systems are very critical to get charged correctly especially when they're operating in the heating mode.

So you weigh in the charge on most residential split systems and most heat pumps depending on the length of the line sets. Now you also will typically dial in the charge. Once you get the weight close to where you think it should be you'll turn it on and you'll check your system. Vitals your air flow is number.

One you have to have the right airflow for your system. Before you start adding refrigerant. If your airflow is too low or too high and you add refrigerant there might be repercussions. Because of that now i'm not going to say i've never added refrigerant to a system that had low airflow yeah.

I have okay sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But it's really going to be your system vitals after that so once you weigh in the charge. Then you kind of look at the vitals and figure that out uh austin kuhn. Thank you very much for that super chat bud that is really awesome.

Any tips on getting your journeyman refrigeration. You've been in the trade since 17 you turned 21 this year. Uh well i appreciate the nice words man that's really cool um. I mean i would just say just make sure that you study up for it i don't know what the journeyman test consists of in new mexico.

But i mean realistically you've been in the trade for quite a while so i would start studying up reaching out to whoever runs the test. And ask them for a study guide or something and then you can look into that feel free to send me an email. If any of you guys if i miss your questions or you want to talk in more. Depth uh hvacr videos gmailcom.

Okay um. I had a question in a recent video. Where i was talking about a high traffic door or i call them dairy doors and those are just the swinging revolving doors that go in and out someone asked. If we would be using those on walk in freezers.

No you're only going to use a high traffic door or a dairy door on a walk in cooler. And even then they just lead to issues because they have a lot of air leakage around them they're typically you'll see a high traffic door walking into a kitchen or something like that it's the ones. That's on hinges. And they swing back and forth both ways.

But they make those for walk in coolers. Too. But yeah you're not installing those on a walk in freezer. No way they don't have the ceiling capabilities that most don't why don't my walk in coolers use alarms.

I get that question i swear every week. Because a lot of my videos are iced up walk in freezers and different things. So. Why is it that we don't use walk in freezer alarms and different things like that.

And it really just comes down to the customer. Not wanting to spend the money to install alarms. I have installed alarms in several restaurant chains out. There.

Like when the door uh thermometers. Go bad. And they had a digital. One like i'll install a new one that has an alarm and it'll be an audible alarm that'll beep and scream at you and i'll go back a couple weeks.

Later and the alarm. Little things will be covered in duct tape. And the managers don't care. So oftentimes.

Again this is an opinion of mine. The corporate restaurants. They typically don't want door curtains put on their walk ins. They typically don't want door alarms put on the walk ins.

Because the door curtains. They just the cooks don't like them they don't like walking and having them hit them in the face. So they end up ripping them off. And just throwing them on the ground.

Um. Oh. Yeah. That's great yeah.

Just fire. All the cooks and hire new ones. But that's not how that works okay the restaurant industry. It's really difficult right now.

It's a struggle to get them to to keep on top of everything and just even maintain their own equipment. So um. I already answered that question going through my list of things to talk about what do i use to cut open compressors and what do i use to cut open all my parts that i have okay so right behind me. I actually have a lot of parts that i have cut open.

I do a cutaway of an expansion valve thermal expansion valve this is a sporlin valve right here and i've done cutaways you can see inside of them you can see the operations and how they work it takes a lot of patience and a lot of trial and error when i cut open the parts. I actually have a jig that i set a big band saw into it's called the port a band pro and i set my big band saw in there. And then it has a tray and i can feed the parts across safely. Without cutting my hands off and i get them cut and then i'll polish the valves up so that's how i cut the valves open.

I have several different components here i have a liquid lined solenoid valve. I have a head pressure control valve that i've cut open and again. It's a lot of trial and error so uh in order to get this head pressure control valve that i have right here cut open this way i probably went through three of them so it was quite expensive. I went through three valves to get this nice of a cutaway now in my situation.

I was able to lean on spoiling and say hey guys would you mind sending me like four or five of these because i'm about to butcher them so i can get one good cutaway and they said sure so they hooked me up i cut them open or i just have old parts at the supply houses. It doesn't have to be a brand new valve when you when you unsweat it a head pressure control valve that's not working take it home open it up cut. It open learn how to do it they're not going to be this perfect at first as as these two right here okay. But it just takes time and then you get to them and then and then you can use them as training aids for people to see like how this valve works.

Uh as far as the compressors go i use a grinder with like a six inch grinder disc and you just go through it's just time just just learn again every time you cut open a compressor the first time you're gonna butcher that thing you're gonna cut it in all the wrong places you're gonna cut all the internal components. But once you've cut open enough of them you'll start to learn. And you'll be like hey. I know where to cut this you cut you know a quarter of an inch above the weld on the top of a copelin scroll.

So that way you can see the top side of the muffler plate. Then you cut a quarter inch below the weld on the top of a copelin scroll and then you pull the dome off. And then you can see the floating seal right there and all that and then you cut down the seams and then look down the compressor. It's just trial and error just getting in there and learning drain.

The oil first and you'll learn. And it's messy you'd see the the back of my yard is just nasty. I have like a little thing on the side of my house. And it's just all dirty over there because i cut compressors open.

All the time so uh dewalt has a portable pressure washer that can draw water from a bucket. Yeah. I have seen that before i've never personally used it um. That's from instagram and uh.

Yeah. I have seen that uh. There's a couple manufacturers that make different ones. It's like a little pressure washer and it sucks out of a bucket and you can wash.

Things i guess that could be beneficial for washing. Very small condenser coils on the roof where you can't necessarily get water in weird situations. I've had to go buy transfer pumps from milwaukee and then take buckets of water on the roof. Because they had very little water pressure.

So when i would turn on the hose like it would initially pour out and then it would just be like blue. You know just like nothing so. Then i put a a transfer pump on there to boost the pressure just a little bit. Which is not the intended purpose of a transfer pump.

But it worked for my situation so um all right uh do i like the blue vac micron gauge or the field piece what is it the mg 44 micron gauge. I think that's what theirs is called do which one do i like better well. I mean it really depends on the situation that i'm working in the bluevac professional is probably the most sophisticated micron gauge out there. But it's quite expensive okay.

And it's not necessarily needed for everybody out there bluevac also makes some like bluevac mini. And they make the non professional version. There's differences in them the professional version gives you communication within the app and then some of the lower versions just have a really good sensor. But they don't necessarily have communication with the app or something like that the fieldpiece micron gauge is a great micron gauge.

The new one the mg44 okay they used to have a round one and that one was problematic. But the new one is is a really good gauge. So it really depends on the job that i'm doing and how i'm going to measure it i use them both pretty equally. But i do have to say that the uh the blue vac professional micro engage is probably the most sophisticated most uh accurate affordable micro engage that i have okay so the blue vac pro and then the field piece is like right below that and i use both pretty equally.

They're both in my vacuum kit and i trust them both they both have great things about them you want to know something interesting that i heard and i don't know this to be completely accurate do your research. But some micron gauge manufacturers if you've ever used the bluevac micron gauge. You'll notice that it's like dude every system i work on the it's it you know when you when you start to do your decay. It's like boom.

It goes high really quick. But then you'll use another micro engage and it doesn't climb as fast. Yeah. That's in the programming.

By the way okay um. So understanding that there's going to be a leak rate. For every system. Out.

There. Nothing is a hundred percent leak free um. And it's all about time. And doing your decay test.

And what you ex what you settle on as being an acceptable leak rate. Okay so keep in mind. That just because you notice that insert name of lee of micron gauge. Well this one doesn't move as fast.

When i turn off my stuff. So the other one sucks no it the other one might actually just be too accurate. So remember that and do your research again don't just trust some dude on youtube. Okay um.

In a recent video with the sand video. Again a lot of these questions are about my sand video. I was pulling the blower assembly out and i mentioned that when i started up it was going to blow sand everywhere. So someone had asked me when i pulled the blower assembly out to tighten the belt.

Why didn't i just start it up so that we blew the dirt out of the unit. Well that's a double blower. The one that everybody saw me pull out to adjust the belt. There's another blower that same size back behind it it's a double blower.

So the only way to get that completely out of the system would be to have three guys those things are heavy by the way three guys over there you have to take the motor off and then lift the whole skid out clean it put it back in when you're working in sandy places like i was just it's inevitable every time i turn the air conditioner off and turn it on all of their tables. Downstairs get covered in sand and the restaurant. Just knows it it's just something they have to work with um uh rock and soul says does the field piece hook up to measure quick. No jim bergman has said that the only micron gauge that will work with measure quick is the blue vac micron gauge.

That's it jim has an affiliation with blue vac and he uh within measure quick. The only one he has said this maybe he'll change his mind. But he has said the only one that works with measure quick is the blue vac micron gauge. You can use all the other field piece tools with measure quick just not the blue vac or just not their micro engage all right um.

What of what of the motor is separate from the compressor with the belt and the pulleys. I don't quite under your understand your question bud. What of the motor is separate from the comp. Oh.

What if the motor is is separate from the compressor with belt and pulley. So like a belt drive. Um. Or an open drive uh compressor.

So yeah. Those do exist. They are still out there um and in that situation. I don't know what you're asking me.

Though. But that is a common thing in heavy industrial and some older supermarket systems you would see open drives. Where you'd have an actual hermetically sealed compressor. And then you'd have a shaft.

Sticking out with a shaft seal and then you'd have a drive on there um. But i don't understand what your question is i i s. So feel free to try to post it in the chat. If i miss your question feel free to send me an.

Email okay hvac videos gmailcom. Uh. Jason johnson says decay test valve off vacuum pump watch how far microns go up leak. It'll shoot up fast slowly above a certain level moisture.

That is absolutely true and well yeah. I can't seem to find my evacuation book. I was probably in another room because i was reading it but um jim bergman and brian orr revised a book that they sell at true tech. Tools if you just go to truetechtoolscom and search evacuation right just a search evacuation.

The book will come up on their website. U