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 cue up the intro music. Foreign, foreign foreign foreign foreign. I Don't know why, but I was just thinking of the word puppies puppies right at the end of that song I Just randomly was thinking about puppies. Speaking of puppies, I Got a new puppy coming right I Got my buddy Luke you guys have all seen Luke he always comes in at the end of the stream I got another dog coming. We're gonna get a Australian shepherd and it's supposed to come just before Christmas so it's actually already been born. A friend of ours is a breeder of Australian shepherds. Long story short, we we were actually waiting for one of her puppies before we got our dog Luke and uh, she didn't have a litter and I was like anxious for a dog. so I got my doggy Luke and then my wife's been wanting one of these Australian shepherds so got one of those coming too so that'll make for fun. We're going to rip off the Band-Aid and start all over again with a puppy right when Luke was starting to be really chill. Here we go again, right? And this time we're going to get a dog with a lot of hair. It's going to be a nightmare, but uh, hopefully you guys are alive and well. I Imagine that if you're watching this, you're probably alive. but then again, I've had those days so some of you may not be alive you know? um I Gotta say that you know I don't really talk about this too much, but I think I've alluded to it a few times with some of the craziness that happens. Um, but you know I run a small business right? And you know running a small business you have some perks and then you also have some downsides to having a small business. and one of the downsides is I don't have a lot of employees So What had happened was one of my guys that was on call. he had something come up, it was an emergency and you know whatever life happens. but I had to take his call this weekend and uh I was kind of bummed out about that because actually you know I don't plan things very much even when I'm not on call. I never get my hopes up. but for some reason this time I did and we were afforded last minute concert tickets we were supposed to go to Zac Brown Band this weekend and just everything fell through and I was in a pretty crappy mood all weekend because of it to say the least. Uh, it was kind of a bummer, you know, but that's just how things go and especially being a small business. You know this kind of stuff happens. you know when when someone gets sick, which is inevitable I'm not mad about people being sick and different things like that, but it just it's like a gut punch because you know it just constantly. But you know I know we all have problems and these certainly are first world problems, right? To think about the fact that I was upset because I had to go to work. Some people don't even have a job to go to, right? So I have to look at it like that. There's always a brighter side to it. You know it is what it is. just take one to the chin and move on, right? But it was definitely kind of a frustrating thing. So yeah, you know, um, but you know there's there's a lot of perks too to be in a small business because it gets to be more intimate. You actually know your employees, you know, and the bigger you get, the harder it is to truly care for them, right? besides just compensating them. But I mean genuinely caring for them? It gets harder and harder the bigger you get. And while I'm always looking for people and I'm actually haven't hired a new Apprentice yet, but I'm still working on that. That'll be coming soon. We kind of had a wrench thrown into the fire with the whole hiring a new Apprentice because we're having a hard time finding a van right now so it's just like a whole thing. but anyways, it's all working out and life is moving on. I Hope you guys are doing well like I said earlier. so let's have a look in the chat. Um, remember that you know if I if I don't address your questions if you have questions that you want me to address. If I forget to address questions that I told you I would address, feel free to throw them into the chat, put them in caps lock. It helps me to see them a little bit better. If I miss your questions or anything like that or can't get to them during the show, feel free to shoot me an email hvacrvideos gmail.com and I'll definitely get to it. So um, let me see exactly Carl K says have fun with that little psychopath. Fetch never ends. That's how it is with my dog Luke He's super high energy. He's a silver lab. he's about I think 14 or 15 months old right now and uh, he's so high energy. but he's a good dog. So um, gotta reassess the air filtration in my house with the Newfound hair coming into my house. Definitely definitely hope yeah. Um so uh, am I on call tonight? Yes Yes! I am on call right now. So um, let's see a bunch of service calls have come in, but none of them have been emergencies. So I will definitely get to them tomorrow. Not today. Um, let me see what else we got going on in here. Mike B says they are looking for a new van for him a medium height Transit 250. yeah I haven't delved into the transit world I'm still stuck on stupid with my Chevy Express fans I really like those Chevy expresses because they're so predictable. but I believe? is it 2024? I think Chevy's getting rid of the express and they're going to a Euro style van is my understanding so they'll have some sort of a Transit competitor or something like that. I don't know if that's true, that's what I heard. so let's see if that happens. Um I've always been. uh, let's see. Jason says he loves driving a 250 utility bed. Yeah, I had a utility bed before. it was nice but I was in it for about five years and I just needed a change. So I went back to a van but I've been in Vans most of my career. There's ups and downs to both. The cool thing about Vans is if you live in a rainy climate which I typically don't but then we have these weird years where we get a crap ton of rain and that used to happen in my service truck. it would be just raining and it was nothing worse than opening up your parts bin on the top and then everything getting wet and just that kind of stuff. But again, you know there's a trade-off either way, being in a utility truck it was super quiet. you you just just you know it was so nice right? And then being in a van you get to hear everything clanking around in the back. Even though I do my best to try to organize things I think that in the vans though, it truly is easier to organize the the truck stock and different things. especially because I work on a lot of different stuff So but again to each their own right. Um, let me see. So uh, just let's get this over with real quick. So uh, here in Southern California We have a local trade show that comes up in November of every year. This year the Ihaki trade show is going to be on November 15th and I will be I Plan on attending the Ihaki trade show so it'll be in Pasadena California If any of you guys are local to Southern California and you happen to make it to the show, try to find me, shoot, hit me up on social media. I should be there I Was just confirming with Truetech Tools that they're going to be there. so I'm sure I'll be at their booth at some point in time, but I'll be around the show. It's not a big show, it's a really small so show so if you guys do make it I'm sure there'll be an opportunity to stop and say hey to me. Do me a favor, you know. One thing that I have to say is that if you've never met me before, sometimes I may not seem approachable. I don't mean that I just have written on my forehead all the time. so just stop me if I have like a I get Super Hyper focused on stuff So when I start like walking around a trade show. oftentimes I'm just focused on walking around looking at everything and I'm not necessarily looking at everybody walking around me and people might be trying to get my attention. just stop me, say hey, what's up you know and then I'll stop for a minute and I'll I'll talk with you. So if you guys do happen to make it to the show, just definitely stop me. Um, if you catch me, I'm gonna plan on bringing a big old bag full of stickers I'll hand out stickers while I'm at the show so definitely stop me. So all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um yeah that is. That is very very true Mike Being for sure been there a couple times. so um Mike B says HR Expo in Atlanta yeah my tickets for HR Expo are booked. um I am 99.9 Sure gonna be there too. Uh uh but I'm gonna make that I mean that one I'm gonna be there for sure. So yeah, I've already got my tickets booked to that I'll be at HR um in Atlanta What is that like in January or February or something sometime I'll be there uh, the Friday before I fly in the Friday before and then I fly out the Thursday after. so I'll be there I'll be going to the HVAC tactical Awards on Sunday and just all kinds of different stuff during the whole event. so I'll definitely be available. I Have a booth time scheduled at the spoilin booth the refrigeration Technologies Booth it's probably going to be at the Heatcraft Refrigeration. Booth So I'll be around at HR for sure, but this upcoming what? next week again. Pasadena Convention Center Ihackie Trade show November 15th I will be there for sure too. So let me see. uh, do I get any no heat calls yet? No no I haven't gotten any no heat calls, you know? I Don't get a lot of heating calls out here I Have a feeling this is going to be a cooler Winter though. So I think we're gonna have some heating calls? Um, in my area it's going to be a lot of heat exchanger. Replacements because a lot of our equipment is oversized so you have a lot of short cycling and then we don't use the heaters very much. We use a lot of air conditioning so there's a lot of condensation build up, rusted out heat exchangers I've got a lot of heaters that I condemned before covid that customers just never fix because we don't have a huge heating demand here. So I think last year I mean my company in general probably got three or four heating calls all winter, but again, we don't know what cold is here in Southern California We're so you know, just used to moderate temperatures so our average temperature in the winters in the 50s. it's really not that cold. So, but to us it's cold because Ugg boots and beanies are already being worn so 100 let me see what else we got going on in the chat reaching down through here. All right, cool, let me see. I Do have to say I would appreciate some help from you guys I Usually don't ask for any kind of help, but um, you know when it comes to the channel and the growth of the channel and all that different stuff, there's a lot of stuff that I have no control over. And right now YouTube and a lot of the social media platforms, they're having a hard time so they're not promoting content in the right way. Things are really weird right now. Um I know that I get emails from people all the time too. like hey, I didn't even get notified that these videos dropped and all this different stuff. First off, I'm super consistent. Live streams are typically Monday evenings right? typically have two YouTube videos a week usually Sunday morning super early in the morning and then usually Thursday midday. Those are my two upload days, so it's pretty consistent as far as those. and sometimes I'll throw bonus videos in between. But when and if you guys see my videos If you see something that interests you or you think other people could benefit from, please do me a favor and share it with your friends. Whether it be on social media through emails or different things like that, just help to get the traction going about the content that's out there because there's times that it's like, you know I know that there was something good in a certain video and I don't want to like blast social media and Facebook too much promoting my own stuff. like because I know there's some groups and different things like that. Get upset. So I try not to like Bombard social Media too much when I'm posting videos and things. but if you guys see something that interests you, please throw it over to friends. Share it. Do whatever you got to do on all the different social platforms. It will definitely help out the channel. So thank you very much for listening to my little infomercial there. Let me see what we got going on in the chat right there. Um I should make videos on Supermarket video or expand my knowledge? Yeah, um I am not qualified nor do I work on any Supermarket Refrigeration But the cool thing is that the content space uh, within the Hvacr community is really awesome. And I have some very good friends that do make Supermarket content. So uh, the couple different methods a couple different places, but uh, the easiest one to find right now is the Advanced Refrigeration podcast my buddy Brett Wetzel Kevin Compass Over there they make Supermarket related videos, but then there's a bunch of other Supermarket channels on YouTube too. I Don't know the names of them right now, but there's a few I think I think you can still go to my YouTube channel and you can see who I am subscribed to. So if you go to my YouTube channel, check it out. You can see different channels that I subscribe to I subscribe to a few of the supermarket channels and different things. So just go in there and look through my subscriptions. you'll see it. Um, let me tell you too that just because I subscribe to someone doesn't mean that they make amazing content. Okay, so be careful and use your judgment when you're watching the videos. Sometimes I subscribe for comedic value too. So um, let me see, do I work in Thousand Oaks Ethan Clay No I do not work in Thousand Oaks My service area in Southern California is the Inland Empire and South Orange County. So I'm mainly in the Inland Empire Riverside County San Bernardino County that kind of area. So um, having moved to Texas from Buffalo loving the fact it's still in the 80s in November says Jason Johnson So here we're having kind of a cold snap. it's raining outside. Uh, drizzling? I Wouldn't even call it rain again. Every thing we get in California is in low quantities except for the heat. It gets hotter than you know what. But when we have rain it, you know it's pretty minimal. But yeah, it's going to be raining for like the next three days. I Think off and on. Uh, but again, I don't think it's going to be that much rain. So let's see what I got going on in here. If I miss you guys questions or comments, definitely throw it in the chat again in caps lock or shoot me an email to Hvacrvideos Gmail.com So I'm scrolling down in here and what's my opinion on water cooled condensers? Ishmael Ishmael I Don't know how you pronounce your name but I'm sorry if I'm butchering it. but Ishmael um uh, what do I think of water cooled condensers? I Mean it's They're rather efficient, but the problem is is that they're very prone to get fouled up and dirty. Okay, so depending on the types of water cooled equipment you work on now me personally I don't do a lot in the past. I used to do a lot of cool water cooled refrigeration and air conditioning when I worked for a particular Hospital and uh, they would have a lot of issues because they had an open uh, what do you want to call it an open system with a cooling tower outside so they would constantly get mud built up inside the tower and then it would make its way into the water lines. It would go down to the basement where a lot of the refrigeration equipment was and we would just be changing strainers over and over again. It was just a nightmare cleaning condensers, cleaning mud out of them, and different. Grime They definitely I I Have since heard that they fixed a lot of their problems and redone a lot of their systems. but um, yeah, definitely something to think about. My buddy Scott in here. thank you very much for that! Super Chat HVAC rookie. That's really appreciated. You know you don't have to do that buddy. but thank you very much Scott Let me see what else we got going on inside the chat here. Uh, reading through here, you sent me an email yes I did see that email Jason Johnson Thank you very much. That old school manual from Honeywell was pretty cool looking so Jason has been really awesome to share lots of training knowledge with me. Um, and uh, you know I post on social media that I get kind of bored sometimes and I go on to eBay and I start looking for old refrigeration and air conditioning manuals I like to collect them I Like old tools too I'm not spending arms and legs on them. Um, 20 bucks for a manual? 10 bucks for a manual something like that? Um, my newest little batch right? here is the Johnson's new Handy Manual on Heating ventilation, mechanical refrigeration, and Air Conditioning. Honestly, this is about the size of like a Gideon's Bible Um, it's pretty cool little book. Uh, written on the inside says 75 cents. um I think I paid like 20 something bucks for it. Uh, pretty pretty cool little book. What? I like about this one. It's just really interesting to read these, but it has leaflets like pop outs little books describing different things. Now a lot of this stuff is for steam. They talk about steam heating. they talk about absorption Refrigeration it's just really cool to read these. Little Manuals Air conditioning Refrigeration Jennings and Lewis this one I think I've had for a while now I may have shown this on social media. This one has a let's see. the the last printing date was 1948 on this one. I'm intrigued by finding these old old manuals. um this one right here I'd Like to go through them and see this one was copyrighted in 1936 the Refrigeration Engineer's manual. This is another fun one. Um, this one right here is really interesting because this is from DuPont Refrigeration and it talks about uh, this is from 1960. so it's service pointers for working with Freon refrigerant and it's really interesting to go through and read the different things that they're talking about. They do talk about evacuation, but at the same time too. They also talk about just purging the system with refrigerant and nitrogen, so it's really interesting to listen and see how things were really, really cool. But yeah, I love that and that's kind of what Jason was referencing. He said when I posted that I got these new books, he sent me a new manual and it's really cool. So let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. my buddy Brett Wetzel is actually in here right now. You're welcome Brad As always Bud Um, let me see what else we got going on in here. So it's really cool too because um, you know within the HVAC community that we have people making content like Brett and uh, several other people too. We all have a small little community and we all know each other and we all communicate with each other talk to Brett on the phone, probably uh, maybe once a month or something like that. Brett and I are talking and I talk to other friends too and we all get to collaborate and talk about different things. So it's really, really nice community. and I definitely encourage everybody out there to find a support group, right? no matter what you're going through. If you're not going through anything, you're just having a normal life. It's always good to have someone to vent to. So I have a pretty good core group of friends that I can call and complain about something and you know each individual friend has a different thing that I'll complain or talk to them about. It's kind of cool, so it's really, really neat. I Encourage you guys to find that that good support group people to talk to when you're when you're stressed or whatever right? Anyone else who is interested as well? We all in this together. Definitely. we are definitely all in this together. We should probably figure out a way to maybe a Google drive or something like that that we can just make public and people can start just dumping things in or something. Who knows, we'll figure something out. I Got all kinds of ideas, just no time to implement any of them. So um, reading through here how to choose which side of the field after finishing school Nell fills I Don't know how to pronounce your name Bud Um, what's up Reuben Reuben Macias is in here. That's rookie Refrigeration that's another good friend of mine. Um, let's see. so how do you choose what side of the trade to get into after trade school? That's a really good question. I mean I encourage everybody to get a basic understanding, but you know it really depends on what you want to do um, and and what kind of money you want to make and how interested you are in spending more of your time with your family or more of your time working. I mean Everything's Gonna Change right? So you know it just depends on where you're at in life and what you want from this trade. I Personally love doing restaurant refrigeration and air conditioning I have a very um uh Niche little area that I work in. even though it's a small little area like a little niche that I work in, it's still I work on ice machines, refrigerators, air conditioners. Today I was going out and surveying a job where I'm going to hang a fly fan on a back door of a restaurant like I mean I do all kinds of different stuff so it's kind of fun and I like doing that. So um, if I'm missing you I see a lot of stuff flying by in the chat right now guys. So if I'm missing stuff I'm sorry, just feel free to put it in the chat again or shoot me an email. Okay, do I work on chain restaurants or Mom and Pop shops I typically work on chain restaurants I I have done mom and pop stuff in the past, but right now it just so happens that I work for a few different restaurant chains and just have a pretty good workflow within those guys. So um, let's see Jason Johnson says he has aeon manuals Chiller manuals formulas for chillers, water source, heat pump manuals, etc etc. and it's always good. The cool thing is with these things right here. we have the ability to store thousands and thousands of men manuals in our phones and then on top of that, we have the ability to search all those manuals out on the internet too. And one thing I kind of want to talk about is uh, first off, uh, you know I always tell people to send me an email okay if they have questions or different things and I try to get to the emails. but the one little Quirk I have issues in my head. okay I know I do I have all kinds of crazy issues. but one thing that drives me nuts is when I don't have a first name to call people by if you send me an email and you just have a screen name in the email that just like I don't know why but that just messes with my head I get the douche chills from that like I don't like mentioning screen names I'd rather mention someone's name in one way or another. uh you know if I know your name then yeah I got it, you know? But yeah, if you guys are going to send me stuff, just let me know your name too. because then when I cover like I'm gonna answer some questions tonight and it's kind of weird. like I don't really want to mention some weird screen name I'd rather say Hey you know Bob from wherever. Give me a fake name I don't care, just give me something. so cross that off the list real quick. and then I already lost my train of thought on what I wanted to talk about. So um oh, this is where I wanted to go with social media. Okay, so social media I notice a lot of people asking questions and I'll be honest with you in. like the Facebook groups and stuff, they're a great resource. they really are. but then at the same time they're just kind of frustrating because I'll see someone ask a question right? and then you'll have 10 different people coming from all different directions saying I think it's this I think it's this I think it's this I think it's that like and it's just kind of silly. So if you guys and a lot of the times too when people start answering other people's questions and even I've been guilty of this too, they don't answer the questions, they don't look at what the person wrote, they they give them incorrect answers. So first and foremost, if you guys are gonna post things on social media, if you're gonna ask questions, please do to everybody, myself, or any other Creator or any any groups I Encourage everybody to ask for help right? But be thorough and be concise in your description and your question and on the flip side, if you guys are going to answer people's questions, read what they're actually asking right and what I wanted to I'm kind of seguing into a point that I wanted to make was there is such a lack of proper training in this industry. The questions that I am seeing being asked are pretty high level equipment that these people are working on and they have no idea how it works. Now to be fair, I don't know everything about refrigeration and air conditioning I don't Okay, but I have a basic understanding to where I can work my way through certain things. but sometimes some of these questions that are asked are just so vague and you can tell that this person doesn't have experience and doesn't really know what they're working on. and oftentimes I will avoid ask answering questions because I know that they can get themselves in trouble. I'll give you an example. a couple years ago there's this person that was super active on social media. They were super active in all the different Facebook groups and it was a younger person. In this particular younger person would ask all kinds of questions and and I think that's great but that particular person you could tell did not have experience and would ask questions that just oh my gosh like you just knew that person knew nothing about what they were doing. So one time I was helping that person, that person asked me a question and I started you know and then I video messaged that person and and he's like hey, um, what is this you know and he he pans over and he's working on a parallel Refrigeration Rack right and I'm telling you this particular person, um knew nothing about basic refrigeration and I'm like I asked him I go where is your service manager and he's like, well you know I didn't want to I didn't want to let him know I didn't know how to work on this stuff and it's like oh my goodness, gracious like and shame on his service manager for sitting sending them to work on a rack too because I looked at the guy and I go dude I don't know how to work on that bro. Put your tools down and go home man like go somewhere else, call your service manager, tell them to call someone else like you have no business working on that. The point I'm trying to make is there's a lot of value in a proper apprenticeship. Okay people that are in trade school right now. If you guys are watching this, share this with people that you know are in trade school. Okay, don't give up, keep fighting and keep learning right? Don't let a company just throw you into a service vehicle immediately. Okay, that that is I'm telling you there's a small percentage of people that will succeed being thrown to the Wolves but it's not a very good percentage and we're hurting the industry by just putting techs and trucks and expecting them to go out there and fix things that they have no idea how to work on. This is my opinion on the subject. I'm sure there's going to be many people in the chat disagreeing with me yelling at me. I Get I Understand that some people do well with Trial by Fire, but a lot of people don't And right now we have a massive shortage in this trade of quality, skilled technicians and we burn people out. We overwork them. We underpay them. We need to give them a proper education. We need to train them properly. so that way they can become successful and we can become successful right? As a business owner, it does not benefit me to throw a guy in the truck and expect him to just go out there and start fixing things because it hurts my reputation. It makes him look bad. as a technician. It makes me frustrated with him because he can't fix things and different stuff like that. So we gotta train these guys. Take someone under your wing If you work at a company where someone is less experienced than with you or than you, even if you don't get to work with the guy every day, check in on on him weekly. Give him a call, ask them how things are going, ask them how his week's going be that. Mentor For that technician, it doesn't mean that you have to answer every single phone call, but help the trade. Look, if you are a qualified service technician and you have a good attitude and you have a good worth it work ethic, you have nothing to be afraid of. And I know there's a lot of people out there in the past that we're afraid to share knowledge because they thought they were going to be replaced. Trust me, that was the stupidest thing they could ever think. but at the same time it's not going to happen. Even if you have that logic in your head and you think like that nowadays, you are so valuable and in your knowledge needs to be shared. So that way the next part of the industry can grow and continue this. We have so many changes coming into the industry. it's such a crazy time right now so try to encourage people if you are a new guy in trade school. look I know that one of the more common questions that I get from someone in trade school is hey, I'm doing really good in trade school and I want to start my own business. What is your advice you know And it's like my advice is go work in the field for five or six years, get some knowledge, get some skills, go to night school while you're working in the field and learn business, and then get into the business side. Jumping in head first, you're just setting yourself up for failure again. I Know that some people will succeed, but a lot of people won't and we're only hurting the industry by encouraging people to go to trade school and immediately try to open their own business. they're just setting themselves up for failure. So all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. Um, Papa looks like there's lots of uh, good assistance and help going on in the chat. and I think that's really important and I really appreciate that and you know something that you guys need to understand if you don't right? I Remember when I first started watching these YouTube live streams and I thought it was so disrespectful when people would go into the chat of a live stream and start having other conversations. but I quickly realized that that is awesome and amazing because guess what and it doesn't offend me at all. I Really do like seeing the conversations going on in my chat because if people come together and are in this live stream and and they're helping each other, then this is a successful live stream even if the knowledge isn't coming from me. So I encourage everybody to have conversations in the chat, share each other's emails reach out to each other. There's a million different people that are totally willing to help younger guys and newer guys or people that just don't know what they're doing out. so please continue to share that information in the chat. Okay I think it's really awesome. Uh, when I had the pinched nerve did I get the painful feeling of pins and needles in my hands. Cyborg sheep. Yeah, that was part of it. I Actually, this weekend might so first and foremost about I don't know. Maybe a year or two ago I had a really bad pinched nerve in my my neck and it was so weird because it started as just a neck ache and it was just a couple nights of miserable sleep. Then it became debilitating where my entire back hurt. Then it slowly started working its way down my shoulder. the pain and then it would get into my elbow and then it would get into my wrist and then it got into my fingers. Did I have pins and needles? Yes I did I had pins and needles as I was coming out of it I still when I had that I still have that pinched nerve by the way I just learned how to exercise it and work with it I don't have time for the surgery to deal with that right now, but um I still have numb fingers. my my middle finger on my left hand is numb and my index finger is slightly numb and I actually burnt myself the other day and I I mentioned that because I was we were. we're at a restaurant and I had ordered my daughter dessert and I went to go pick up the dessert and then all of a sudden it was like ow, you know and my wife goes, that dish is hot and I just wasn't even paying attention. but I can't feel it I can't My finger doesn't have sensation and so by the time it realizes it, it's it's burnt. you know? So um. anyways, uh Eli Teigman Uh, thank you very much for that. Super Chat that is amazing. Bud Um, let me scroll through and see what it has going on in it. It says two questions: Does an up blast exhaust motor with a Vfd need special bearings? And can you oversize a solenoid coil? Um, from 10 watts to 15 watts? Well, it depends. Okay, First off, the first question: Does a up blast exhaust motor with a Vfd need special bearings? Um, anytime you have a variable frequency drive or a Vfd running a motor, you should have some sort of a grounding I Think it's called a grounding ring or some sort of mechanism in there. The motors typically need to be designed for a Vfd and they will last a lot longer. So yes, that's partially the answer to that question. I'm sure some people in the chat can answer it a little bit more. Second part: Can you oversize a solenoid coil from 10 watts to 15 watts? That's a really good question. I Start to wonder I Don't know if it's if it's negligible or if it's a true thing to worry about. but if you increase the wattage of the coil and the valve doesn't require the bigger coil, are you gonna have a heat dissipation problem because it you know, is it going to be getting too hot? That's a question I don't know the answer to. Um. now let's talk about solenoid valves. You can certainly oversize the solenoid valve, but you mentioned a coil, so keep in mind I'll just share this fun fact out there right now. Solenoid valves, right? We have line shut off valves, liquid line, solenoid valves, suction stop valves, different types of valves right? that stop the flow of refrigerant for certain situations, right? Those valves are very important to make sure that you get them sized correctly and you do not necessarily I'd say 90 percent of the time you don't even want to care about what the line size of the valve is. You want to look at the amount of refrigerant velocity that that valve can handle. So oftentimes on spoiling valves. on whatever valve you use, there's a there's a chart that tells you what different size systems you can use that valve on depending on the amount of BTUs flowing through it. So be very cautious about sizing valves. And I was taught the very good first half of my career that you sized a solenoid valve simply off of the line sizes. So if you had a 3 8 liquid line, then you put a 3 8 valve on there, right? But then you start to learn as I got smarter and smarter and learn more about the trade that you know. There's a liquid line solenoid valves that have different tonnages and different capacities that are 3 8. And there's like three or four different 3 8 size valves, right? But it's also not uncommon depending on the Um, the refrigerant and what's being done in the system to have a valve that might have a bigger connection than what's going into it or might have a smaller. It just depends on the capacity of the system, right? So be very cautious about sizing. And we can even go off on a tangent too talking about Refrigeration line sizes. Okay, just because you have a residential air conditioner that has a three-quarter line set at the condensing unit, doesn't mean that you need a three-quarter line mindset for the system. It depends on the capacity of the system and you need to lean on the manufacturer because they've designed their equipment. Same thing goes for refrigeration. You can go buy a built up condensing unit at the local supply house just an off-the-shelf one, one and a half horsepower and it's probably going to have a 7 8 inch liquid line or a suction line and maybe a 3, 8 or a half inch liquid line. That does not mean that that's the line sizes for the system, nor does the line sizes on the evaporator dictate the line size of the line set. It depends on the length of the line set, the total equivalent length, the velocity of the refrigerant moving through, how many. You know all those different things. So you really need to research this stuff and don't just just guess, because that's what I did for a lot of my career and it's just not going to work anymore with all these different things. So now we have these different refrigerants, right? 448a is A is a new refrigerant that I'm using all the time for medium and low temperature Refrigeration but with 448a, it's very similar to R22 Oftentimes we'll go in and we'll replace a existing walk-in cooler with that had 404a in it before, right? And the densities of the refrigerants are totally different. So on a 404a system, you're typically going to need bigger liquid line sizes, right? Well, let's say we convert it to 448a. Well, now we need a smaller liquid line size. And does it really hurt to have an oversized liquid line? Well, not necessarily. But what it can do is if you have an oversized liquid line, let's say you converted. A 404a System that had a half inch liquid line that was 100 feet long. Okay, 75 feet long? It doesn't matter. and your new system is 448a And what you're going to find is that you don't need that much or that size Liquid line. You don't need it to be that big anymore depending on the length, right? So now you're going to be stacking extra liquid in that line set that's not even going to be really used in that liquid line. So when it comes time to pump your system down up at your condensing unit, you may not have enough capacity in that liquid line receiver to pump the system down completely because it takes so much refrigerant to fill your liquid line to maintain that solid column of liquid going to your expansion valve that you just don't have the storage capacity anymore. So it's really important to understand about equipment sizing. And this is why. answering or talking about someone's uh, question in the beginning I was talking. We need to really, really understand the refrigeration systems we work on. We need to understand the air conditioning systems and we need to be properly trained. So again, this goes back to the younger guys in the trade that are going through trade school right now. Do Not Jump Into A Van. Take Your time. You know when I mean Jump Into a van. I Mean don't let a company just throw you out there and expect you to fix everything and learn on on other people's dimes. Like that's you know, on the customers dime or whatever you need to get a proper training. you need to get a proper apprenticeship, right? So if you go work for a company, say hey I need to work with a senior technician I need to understand these systems. You know? Um, it's really important so don't don't let them just throw you into a van in my opinion. Okay, let's go into the chat and see what I'm missing here. We've got a lot of things going on in here. Um, reading through here how common that crankcase heaters go bad Neil C Vids for me, crankcase Cedar Failures are very far and few between. They don't have to happen that often, but it's very important when, especially when we're changing compressors, that we always verify that the crankcase heater is working okay. And given the opportunity, take the compressor home. When you're done changing it, cut it open and start staring at the insides. I Am not an expert at compressor autopsies nor diagnosing compressors, but just from a year and a half ago maybe two years ago when I started cutting compressors open for my videos I've learned so much about system operations, some of it from friends but then also some just process of elimination. Okay, this compressor or this system kept plugging up Liquid Line Filter dryers. you know? So then you open up the compressor and you look and see that the oil is completely like thick and contaminated or non-existent. or there's so much that you can learn. So I encourage everybody out there take your parts home. If the customer doesn't need them, autopsy them. try to figure out why they failed. Okay, so when it goes back to crankcase heaters, if you have a failed compressor, crankcase heaters are really important in making sure that they're working right because you could be having flooded start issues where liquid refrigerants migrating to the compressor and it's washing the oil out of the compressor like there's so many different things so always want to make sure your crank case heaters are working properly. Nothing wrong with Light Commercial. You just really enjoy heavy commercial and Industrial that's Jason Johnson So there you go man. there's lots of great different sides of this industry. Um, reading through what am I missing here, you'd love to. The guys you work with are heads and shoulders better than you and oh oh so Jason's saying that Yeah, there's many other people better than he or smarter than he at his company and that's always good. I Mean if if because then you have potential to learn from those people I think that's a really important thing? Um Daniel thank you very much for that. Super Chat Man, Uh, I really appreciate it. Okay, so on refrigerant, how am I planning to handle the early ban on 410A Daniel So that's a great question. Okay, so um, let me cross this one off the list right now now. Um, there is, uh, another content creator he's from Europe and um, he's just starting his channel. It's him and another guy I don't remember the channel name right now. but once I I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to them and I'm gonna. we'll try to figure something out where I can introduce their Channel and help to grow it and stuff. But regardless, I Saw a social media post from him so he's from Europe and he put out they were. He was having a conversation with some other people from the UK and so I didn't really understand everything as far as the context of the laws and different things that they were referencing to. But the gist of their conversation was that my understanding is is in Europe they're already phasing out R32 They already have a plan to phase out R32 so let's just keep that in mind right now. Right now, your question was what am I doing with uh, the early ban on 410A Well, one of The Replacements in the United States the the that some people are using like Daikin I believe is R32 it is a A2l refrigerant. It's mildly flam, but it's very interesting that we haven't even transitioned over to R32 yet. Completely right. We're just barely in the infancy of our transition and it's already supposedly on The Chopping Block in the United Kingdom Okay, um, now another thing to understand is is we all know that it's safe to say that every refrigerant we're using today if the hippies had their way, would be banned and will be banned eventually, right? Let's just think about this R290, which is propane right? We have to mine to get that right. or we have to drill for oil. You can. It can be a byproduct of oil drilling and but I mean you have to do all the things that the environmentalists don't want us to do. and what we have learned is that are bad for our Earth or whatever right? So it's inevitable that they're always going to be phasing them out. But it's also interesting to know that when 410, you know became mainstream in the early 2000s, it was already had a phase-out date, right? So 404 is being phased out. it's already on the chopper. It's actually already phase being in the process of being phased out in California. It's technically illegal to do new installs and major system repairs with 404a like compressor changeouts. Now, nobody follows that because it's kind of a dumb rule, but it's already on the chopping block here. so all the different refrigerants we're using are being phased out. And that's why it's so important for us as technicians to really understand how refrigerants work and understand and pay attention to pressure charts and stop focusing on system pressures, right? What's the refrigerant pressure of a 404a system on a walk-in cooler when it's 40 degrees in the Box I Don't know, You know. I can give you some rules of thumb, but the easiest thing is is not even care about the pressure unless I'm setting a pressure control and just focus on the temperatures of the refrigerant because that's the constant right? If I'm working on medium temp, Refrigeration I'm going to have a 20 degree evaporator, Maybe a 25 degree evaporative coil? That's the. that's the the temperature of the refrigerant in the middle of the evaporical. So if I know that I'm going to have a 20 or 25 degree evaporator on medium temperature. I Don't care what the pressure is because I can go to a pressure temperature chart and look up 20 degrees 25 degrees and I can find the corresponding pressures I Don't have to remember those numbers anymore. just pay attention to the temperatures. Okay, medium temperature. Refrigeration Right now, we're going to run probably about 70 80 degree liquid temp or condensing temps. Okay, so you know we can predict what our refrigerant pressures are going to be if we, if we understand that the system was more than likely designed with a 10 or 15 degree evaporator, TD and maybe a 15 or 20 degree condenser TD I can predict what the system pressures are going to be just by knowing the temperatures. so focus more on the temperatures for sure. Let me see what else we got going on the chat. Let's see. for heavy commercial guys, check your supervisor's Channel out it's called HVAC Time Yeah! Holden Shamburger has a great Channel called HVAC time um moderators Jason You can post a link only. the moderators are allowed to post links in the chat, but you guys are free to post links. You can post links to Holden's Channel if you're referencing someone else's Channel I'm all for that stuff. so go ahead and post links. Moderators you guys can share that stuff. Um, but yeah HVAC Time is a great great Channel Holden was uh I watched you know I didn't watch the whole video but I watched him using some of the new Navac giant vacuum pumps on some uh, chillers that he was working on I believe and so I was watching some of that and it's pretty interesting. So um, let's see what else we got going on in here. A school system has units from the 60s and 70s going battle tanks. Mike B is saying that? Yeah, definitely, especially in the school system. In some of the older hospitals and government facilities, they can have some really, really old equipment that surprisingly, you could probably use some of these manuals that I have right here from the 60s and they probably apply to that equipment. So, but uh, some of that stuff is still pretty cool. Man, let's see what else we got going on in the chat using PT charts is why you don't mix refrigerants cold. One that is exactly right. Oh, it's so important, right? Because you know what? if you look at a PT chart? Yeah, R22 and 407c, they look really similar. but that doesn't mean that when you mix them, they're going to be the same. Okay, just because the pressure temperature charts look similar, that doesn't mean that they're going to react the same. So it's so important that we don't mix refrigerants. There's a lot of people out there that, ah, it works fine. I've done it a million times and it may work fine. but what about the next guy that has to try to figure out and undo what you did right? It just gets confusing. so don't mix refrigerants. We're not chemists. we're just air conditioning techs, right? All right. Uh, R12 is still used in private jet AC units? Yeah, I still have some R12 some 502, some 408 mp39 I have a bunch of those 409a sitting in the shop. just little drums here and there. Um, all right. uh, what's that? Mike Mayberry's in here HVAC Reefer Guy. That's right. What's up Bud? Um I don't Are you gonna be at the Ihaki trade show? Mike I know I've seen you there before if you are I'm sure I'll be there at some point in time we'll cross paths. If not, maybe I'll see you at Ahr. So uh, right on man, that's awesome. Um, let's see. can a walk-in coil get refrigerant leaks if the coil has been excessively shaking for a while? John Deere Fan Yeah, I mean definitely refrigerant leaks can and will happen with excessive vibrations? Yes, Now, oftentimes a lot of the refrigeration manufacturers are, um, designing their equipment to handle more of that kind of stuff. like for instance, I was just at Heatcraft Refrigerations um, testing R D Lab and everything. And for some soon to be released videos, there'll be one probably releasing. maybe this week where I interview the the tech or the uh, the training department. uh don Fort the senior technical trainer for Heatcraft Refrigeration. him and I have a good 45 minute. It's kind of like a video podcast right where we're going back and forth. But amidst that one, there was several other that would be released throughout the rest of this year and the beginning of next year and one of them will be the research and development lab of which they have special equipment like a shake table that they'll put equipment on to test how it'll operate within certain vibrations. They test different frequencies of sound and how it affects their equipment. So there's a lot of testing at a lot of these manufacturers. and Heatcraft's not the only one that does this stuff. A lot of them do it, so it's really cool so stay tuned on the channel. That Content from Heatcraft will be different. It's not going to be my normal style content because it's It's interview footage. You know it's a 45 minute podcast basically with video footage within it. So stay tuned. it'll be a little different. and I think it's something cool that's coming to the channel. We'll have a bunch of those different ones and hopefully I get the opportunity like I did with Heatcraft where I get to do this with other manufacturers too. This is actually something that I want my channel to turn more into is something that I get to travel right in the future I Kind of want this. This is kind of a goal of mine is to take this Channel and be able to travel around the country heck even around the world and talk with other people and get to film other different things and learn about what kind of equipment they're manufacturing and different stuff like that while still maintaining technical videos too. That's the hope. So this is the start of it and I'm hoping we get to do more as time goes on. Um, Jason Johnson says he's worked on turbo cores before. Those are the danfoss I believe they're manufactured by Dan Foss right? And they are, uh, magnetic? uh, compressors where there's no, uh, there's no metal to metal contact, right? and it's just a a levitating crankshaft right? if I understand it right? I think that's what it is and they're pretty cool. I Heard they're really quiet. Um, really interesting. Are p-traps needed? even without a height or rise between the evaporator and compressor? Well, I mean I'm sure that someone will figure out a way that you need something like a p-trap but I mean for the most part, with most systems that I've dealt with, if you don't have a vertical rise or drop between the compressor and the evaporator, as long as you pipe it correctly, you shouldn't really need a p-trap But again, there's a lot of factors that can go into that. Let's say your line sets 5000 feet long. Well, they might want some sort of something in there, right? You might have to resize. The lines do different things, but for the most part, if they're the equal height I For most systems, you shouldn't have to put a P-trap in. Um, Mike B says he used traps for all of his walk-ins and I kind of do that often too, as much as I can. But there is times where I can't put a trap or there's times where there might be already a trap in the Attic different things like that. So um, let's see. Oh see see. Christopher's saying that walking p-traps are needed even without a height or rise fall. So again, I told you. Some people may say that there's a reason each manufacturer is going to have a different thing, so it just depends. So uh, let's see, oilless magnetic bearings? That's right. Jason Johnson Sorry, that's what Jason Johnson says. where's the link for the Discord Cyborg sheep? um I yeah, Ike will have to get it to me I I'm sure it's in my thing. Let me look I'm sure he's messaging me right now. Let's see a link for the Discord. Um, hold on just one second. I Have a message from him right here and I will share this link right now. So hold on just a second. let's see if this works. Ctrl C And let me put the link for the Discord in the YouTube chat right now and let's see what this says should be. Let's hope I didn't share anything I'm not supposed to and the link for the Discord should. Yep, there you go right there. Uh is in the YouTube chat right now so there is a Discord server if you guys are interested for the channel. It's just like the people in this chat room right now. There's just a lot of cool conversations that go on inside that Discord server I just shared it in the YouTube chat I Don't have the ability to share it in the Facebook chat right now, so feel free to check it out. Uh, what would cause oil to not return? Christopher says that's a good question bud. I Don't know Man, it just depends. It depends on you know you need to have the proper refrigerant velocity. um to bring the oil back. The lines need to be sized correctly. You don't want them to be too big or too small. You want to make sure that you have a crank case heater on the compressor. Oftentimes depending on line set lengths, they may have you install line shut off valves to prevent liquid migration. I Mean there's so many different variables so let's see. um, what would cause oil not to return? All right. Cool. Uh, let's see what else I got in my thing. Okay, so uh, forgive me if I'm butching your name. Okay, but Manolis uh, asks about immigrating to the United States from Greece. Okay, so he has a very cool email written out and it was very nice. You said some very nice things to me so thank you very much again. I'm sorry if I'm butching your name. uh, Monolas. um I'm sorry. Okay, so anyways, he was just kind of asking a few questions and I get this quite often about people wanting to immigrate to the United States and they're kind of curious and I'm probably going to add some things to his question too and just consolidate a lot of questions, but he was kind of curious what kind of certifications he needed to come over to the United States He's already been in the industry for quite a few years in Greece and he was just curious and he's fluent in English. He's done all that, so he's curious about what it would take for him to transfer to the United States so the answer to your question is it really depends on where you want to transfer. Certain areas make you have state licenses and different things to be able to work in the industry here in Southern Calif or in California in general. But Southern California Especially, Um, you do not have to have a license to be a technician. The only thing you have to have is an EPA certification, which is a really easy test that you pass that basically says you're not supposed to vent refrigerant into the atmosphere. Okay, but there's a bunch of different questions. but in essence, the EPA certification. The 608 certification is literally the the only takeaway you need to take from the EPA certification is is don't vent refrigerant. That's that's the whole point of it. But they filled it full of like a hundred ridiculously dumb questions and dates and different things trying to drill in the fact that you don't want to vent into the atmosphere. Okay, so anyways. I digress. That's the only thing you have to have in California Now if you want to be a business owner, it's a little bit different, but a technician to start off, you can just start working. and I mean it's kind of scary, but you go to different places and you have to have state licenses. I Believe in Texas You guys have to have a state license right? Jason Um, and I Believe that in different places like that you have to take a state license and it's just a basic intro test. So it really depends. Bud. But um, you definitely I mean in the United States If you're a fluent English speaker and you have basic understandings of the refrigeration and air conditioning system and you can make your way to the United States you will find a job. Okay, because we need all the help we can get now. I'm gonna go into another section which I know you weren't really asking about this, but I'm going to answer other people's questions. Can I facilitate people's transfer into the United States so they can work with me Now that is a giant Nightmare And that's not anything that I would ever get involved in. but if you can make your way to the United States a lot of people are looking for technicians. so if you are fluent in English and you can handle changing over and converting the units you're normally used to working on, right? Because you go from Celsius to Fahrenheit and all those different conversions, um, you know you definitely could have a great career. So I encourage everybody to do it. Um, let's see. let's see what else we got going on in here. I'm looking through the chat. Uh, wish you luck. You just had your shopping Truck broken into a bunch of tools stolen. Holy moly. but I am I Feel for you man I Had that happen probably about 10 years ago. they literally I parked in between two closed circuit TV cameras. The dude was in my van for about two minutes. three minutes at the most and it was like twenty thousand dollars worth of stuff that he was able to steal because I had everything all nicely neatly organized in cases and this was years ago. it was a disaster and that the crazy thing. and again I Feel for you bud and I I hope everything works out. but the crazy thing is, you don't even realize half the stuff that's stolen from your van because you have stuff in places that you don't even remember. So for me, like a year later, a year and a half later I go to get something and I'm like where's the oh, it probably got stolen. You know, like you find stuff later that you just don't use very often and you're like oh my gosh, so so frustrating. Um, let's see reading through here Oklahoma as well. Yep, okay, cool. um right on. Uh, let's see. So I answered that question. Let me cross a couple more questions off the list because I've gone through a few here. Um, oh so I got a lot of questions about this. My recent video that I released last week was of an ice machine repair I had to change a water pump on a Hoshizaki ice machine. Pretty basic repair, but I mentioned something and it seemed to rile up the comments and everybody got all curious and started asking more questions. If you look on that water pump it says 2002 on it. Okay, it's 2022 right? Why am I installing a water pump that says 2002. So first off that is the Hoshizaki Water pump and while it is a old new pump right, it's never been used. Um it? Uh, Hoshizaki has a weird habit of writing dates on their pumps I think they they would produce a lot of them and then they would sit in their stock for a couple years so you would see that all the way into like the 2010 2012. You'd see pumps that say 0403 different things on them right? So first and foremost, but what actually happened in my situation was I had a pump that was buried in the back of my shop that I totally forgot about. but it was the wrong pump. If you're familiar with Hoshizaki ice machines, it was a Essos S O so630 Yeah, I think is what the part number is for the Hoshizakis and that's for the 1600 pound stackable machines. So it has two water pump hoses or outlets on the water pump housing and one's bigger, one smaller. What I ended up doing was I found that pump in the back of my shop and I don't have any of those machines anymore the stackable machines. So all the Hoshizakis I have are the upright. uh you know, 1300 machines or whatever. So I was able to actually take the motor off of that pump and just order a new pump housing and put it on there. and I was able to, you know, not have to pay a thousand dollars or twelve hundred dollars. Those pumps are ridiculously expensive right now, so it's kind of a cool shop find that I found. So yeah, that's how I came about installing a pump from forever ago. It was just buried in the back of my shop and there was nothing wrong with it. And it was the old Hoshizakis. Uh, they used to use Panasonic pumps and they lasted so much longer than the new pumps that they have. Um, so anyways, let's see, you've had your van broken into three times in your career. Yeah, it sucks. Jason Johnson That first time there was an Ins a company-wide policy. That's why we have the hockey pucks on all of our vans. Um, and even with the hockey pucks, they just keep the the honest people honest really. But um, the hockey pucks have been a big Lifesaver for us. so we put those on all the Vans now um let's see double risers for when. multiple evaporators on one compressor. Yep, that's right. Uh did I have insurance? Uh Del Mar is asking no I did not have insurance and even then Marine insurance. Uh you. First off, that's when we realized that our our insurance policies and all our vehicles we thought that it was cover the theft and no it doesn't Okay, it doesn't cover that stuff. You have to have special coverage. It covers the the company's parts and different things to a certain extent. But as far as the employees tools and some of the company's tools, a lot of times the insurance doesn't cover that stuff. so you have to get Marine insurance which is an add-on but even the Marine insurance doesn't cover as much as everybody thinks it does. it's it's really kind of a scam. the whole insurance thing. it really sucks. So um, have I worked on inverted Vfd compressor systems before I have a few out there I haven't done I had to do a lot of work on them I have a couple train uh Voyager package units that have the inverter driven scroll compressors I work with a lot of inverter driven blower motors and different things I've done a little bit of work on like Vfds, but not enough to be proficient in teaching it or anything like that. Um, let me see. uh, did I have no? because well I already answered that one. Um, all right. I'm gonna go ahead and get through my list of things. So that was the Hoshizaki question I knocked that one off the list in the Hoshizaki video I changed a water pump and I said that I tested the capacitor and there was nothing wrong with it. But yet when I put the new water pump in I changed the capacitor. Why why would I sell them a new capacitor if the old one tested? okay, the old one was a very old capacitor and honestly, capacitors are so cheap that when we're dealing with PSC Motors we typically say to always change the capacitors as part of the motor replacement. Okay, it's cheap insurance, even manufacturers. If you have a condenser fan motor that's under warranty, the manufacturers typically will want you to change the capacitor too because it's cheap insurance. And another thing to understand is when we're testing capacitors, we are using our voltage meter right? that is usually powered by a couple Triple A's Double A's or even a 9 volt battery. But when the system voltage is applied to the actual capacitor in the system, oftentimes it will be under a true load and it may not be as accurate at the higher voltages. Sometimes a small nine volt battery doesn't have enough voltage generated within the meter itself to properly charge up the capacitor to be able to test it appropriately. So the point I'm trying to make is it's cheap insurance. Capacitors are super cheap I change them whenever I change the motors. but at the same time we all need to make sure too that we understand that there is methods you can actually test a capacitor with applied with proper voltage going to it. You can test it while the system's running. There's a couple mathematical calculations you have to do just look up, test, run capacitor while system is running and there'll be a few methods that come up. Uh, the HVAC school app tells you how to do it. Measure Quick. We'll calculate it if you have the subco Idvm 450 meter I think or something like that, even the field piece one I think you can do it with if you're using Measure Quick. So I probably get five or six of these questions every single time. I make a video what application am I using on my tablet on my laptop. First off, I'm not using a laptop I Typically use a tablet. It's very rare that I use a laptop, but if you see me using Measure Quick, it's just a tablet that has a keyboard. Okay, but Measure Quick is the software that I use majority at the time. Sometimes I'll use the Field Piece app, but m