Ah, it's time to chill out and get ready for a mediocre. Q&A Live stream: If you're old enough, grab yourself your favorite adult beverage and if you're not, stick with apple juice. put your feet up and relax. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the chat and now let's queue up the intro music.

Oh oh, this live stream is brought to you by Heatcraft Refrigeration Find out more about them at Heatcraft Rd.com Yo what is up everybody? Welcome To the Hvacr videos live stream. It's good to see you guys. Why do I feel like I don't know why but I'm hearing uh I don't know I'm hearing like a sound oh that's what it was I had a a thing turned up too high on my mixer that makes sense I was hearing like a white noise sound really really loud out. So welcome to the live stream.

Hopefully you guys are doing well. I'm uh, better than I deserve uh myself. So yeah, that's where we're at. Um got a bunch of stuff I want to talk about tonight as usual and uh, want to get to your guys's questions too.

So if you guys are watching live on whatever platform, it's all good. It doesn't benefit me either way. what platform you're watching on? but I will tell you there's more of a community on the YouTube platform. Um, if you want to be part of the community and the comments and stuff there's you know going to be a couple hundred people in the YouTube area commenting you're welcome to shoot from there.

but if you guys want to stay on whatever platform you are, that's fine. LinkedIn all those different ones, it's all good. Doesn't benefit me any differently. Uh, the one thing I will say is if you guys have questions or comments things that you want me to cover, put them in caps lock.

It helps me to see because there's a lot of comments going by. If I miss any of your comments or questions, feel free to shoot me an email Hvacr videos Gmail.com Um, if it's still during the live, you can keep reposting them until myself or one of the moderators tells you to stop. Just keep reposting them and then eventually I'll see them. I Know a lot of people kind of get frustrated because they'll put comments in here and they just like they fly by.

So it's been hard you know I can't get to them all so just keep reposting them and that's your best bet. Uh, let's see. I'm going to go through the chat. There's a lot of great regulars in here.

Welcome everybody! Thanks so much for being here! Um let's see. Yeah hello to everybody. It's uh, it's been a long week. it's Monday yeah I Had a hard time this morning because of time change and stuff I was just not wanting to get up.

Brian Sanders Thank you very much for that! Super Chat Man, you are so generous with those. You do not need to continue doing those. I Really do appreciate them. Thank you very much my good friend.

Okay I really do appreciate it. Um, so let's see. Um, this week for me has just been a normal service week for work. Um, you know, didn't didn't film a lot this week I Did a little more work on my house this weekend so that was really cool.

Um I'll talk about that so you know I if you aren't already amiliar. I've been doing a video series replacing the air conditioner in my house, but of course, in my own true fashion, it can't just be an air conditioner replacement right? So I went crazy attacking the envelope. Um, you guys can find the whole series on my channel I think there's five or six videos? Um I Finally got the equipment installed. um about a month ago.

Now a couple weeks ago something like that and it's been running and everything's been fine. We had a couple more weekends after the equipment was installed where we hit above design temperature. Everything was doing good. Uh, got a little bit more work done on my house.

Uh, there was one uh bathroom that I did not have tied into the system as far as the supply duck. So I tied that in this weekend. That's good to go and then um, there is. Let's see what else did I do this weekend, Oh I got my new return grills uh because I had put in some stamped face grills temporarily and I had some custom grills coming that were a bar style um, grills that you know have less of a pressure drop and for the return and stuff.

So I got those installed so that was awesome And then I did a preliminary uh, airflow measurement as far as getting started. Uh, started with balancing my system so we're kind of getting ready for that. I'm probably going to do a little bit of work on that this weekend. Um, I will say that as my house stands right now technically I do not need to balance it.

Okay, and what I mean by that is is technically I'm within the margin of error. Uh, I think it's I don't know how many percent or whatever. like whatever you want to like when you're balancing my understanding and the research I've been doing is, you're not necessarily looking at a CFM number, you're looking at a percentage of design. So I'm within the margin of error for the percentage of design for every room in my house.

Pretty much okay. but I'm still going to adjust the air flow a little bit more because I want to tweak it and dial it in just a little bit. But technically, as it stands with Flex Duct, okay installed because I know a lot of people said that I was going to install flex duct on my house and it wasn't going to work I wasn't going to get air flow I've got perfect air flow okay and I haven't even adjusted a balancing damper once yet. Okay, and it's because of how we sized everything and again I got to give a lot of credit to my buddy Adam Adam definitely helped me out with the design, gave me some guidance and you know, helped me to make sure that we did everything as best as possible so you can achieve proper airf flow with flex duct if installed correctly and if sized correctly.

Okay, um, I did an install in my mom's house. probably oh gosh, 10 years ago, maybe maybe even longer, right? I Replaced the air conditioner at her house and I remember going through the design process and one of the things that frustrated me was when I called the supply house and I said hey, this is what I want I specifically uh, went through and sized the system, sized the equipment, sized the duct work Siz the registers, everything and I I took a lot of time specifically selecting the right registers and what I wanted the boots and all that stuff right. and then when I went to go pick up all the materials, they had to bring it all in. it took a long time.

once they got all this stuff I went to go like you know as I was. Check it off going down my list I realized that a lot of it was incorrect and I remember talking to the supply house and I go hey why is all this this These Boots incorrect like I ordered a specific size and he goes well well those were going to have to be custom order and he goes. this is what everybody else ordered so he just decided to sell me what everybody else ordered right? Not what I wanted but what everybody else ordered. So I had a few things to say to the supply house guy.

I was a little frustrated and I just told them when I tell you I want something specifically via part number and size, that's what I want I don't want you to make a decision on my behalf I think that a good majority of the industry for the longest time has decided that you know this is what everybody else uses. So let's go ahead and continue with this right? Let's continue doing this When I told people that I needed specially sized boots for my house There you know in the comments, people recently were like no, just just use this, just use what everybody else is using. no I don't want to use what everybody else is using. We want to change what's normal, We want to do what's right and I think that the industry in general needs to do a better job of understanding that you know every house is not cookie cutter.

Every house is not the same. You know, Uh, every commercial job is not cookie cutter. Every commercial job is not the same. Every job has its own nuances, right that we have to, um, work through and know about before we design that equipment.

Whatever you're designing Refrigeration Air conditioning. You know that kind of stuff. One of the other things that we need to understand too, is we need to trust the science. Okay, um, and I'll admit when when I knew that my system in my house was oversized and we're definitely going to talk about this and I think we're going to do a podcast about this too with Adam But you know when I knew that my system was oversized in my house, right? I had a 4ton system and I knew it was going to be too big, right? But then when it still came down to the design and the design called for a two ton system, my stomach kind of Twisted a little bit like two tons.

Hm. But you know what? I trusted the science and I'm like, you know what? no stop, you know I had that gut feeling like no, maybe I should go with a three ton, right? but no, we need to stop that and I feel I'm pretty sure that there's other people in the industry that still have that gut feeling too when they see what a load says. You know when they run a load on a house and the software says to use this size? Now here's what we need to understand though. Okay, when it comes time to trusting the science and trusting the math, we can't just wing it.

We need to make sure. So in my situation for my house, I was redesigning the entire system I was not trying to work with exist duct work okay, um, and I was actually putting in new boots, new registers, new everything. So if we are going to do a load calculation right, we have to do it properly and we have to make sure the duct Works sized correctly. The refrigerant lines are sized correctly like everything is sized correctly to get full performance out of our system.

and that's so important. Um, let's see what the chat has to say right now. Um Brian Sanders Wants to know if you fart in the woods and no one is around, Does it stink? I I don't know Brian That's a good question. That is a very good question.

Um, how is my Apprentice with me before he's ready to service on his own? How long is my Apprentice with me before he's ready to service on his own Free Funky is asking. uh, it depends on every Apprentice every Apprentice is going to be different. Uh, my most recent Apprentice that's no longer my Apprentice because he's a service technician now. He rode with me for just about a year.

Okay, just about a year. Uh, for the most part me not really charging for any of his time. uh, sometimes I Did you know depending on the situation, but a good majority of the time I was eating the cost of his wages while he was riding with me because it was an investment into him to make sure that you know he got properly trained and worked his way up. So that's the way that I'm rolling.

I've done it differently in the past. Um, but you know this is something new that I'm trying and so far it's working out good. So again, it's going to change on every. Apprentice I Mean every person's going to be different.

There's no cookie cutter standard as to how how long someone has to ride with me before I can put them in their own service truck. Um, what temperature does a internal overload on a Copeland compressor close? Had a compressor at 50 degrees. came back next morning the windings were closed. um Michael Lewis Okay, I do not know that exact answer.

What I'm gonna strongly suggest that you do is uh, go to the Copeland mobile app okay and look up your compressor or Google search Copeland AE bulletins and find the AE bulletin for the compressor that you are working with. Okay, Copeland's AE bulletins have a really good, actually really amazing amount of information in them. Surprisingly, even I still learn things just by downloading the AE bulletins for certain things and just reading through them. Um, it's very interesting and they have a lot of great facts in there about thermal limits, temperatures, and different things that the compressors need to be.

You know, operating within? uh, as far as a compressor that's off on overload. if it's a commercial system or a system in a place where you're not going to damage anything and you can carefully do it I Highly suggest you get uh, you know, one of those to those magnetic tools that you can put on the top of the compressor and the hose attaches to it. Uh, cool presser tool I think I think it's distributed by subco? Um. but anyways, if you buy one of those, you can run cold water over the top of the compressor.

and I suggest you run it over the top of the compressor for you know, Half hour 45 minutes and usually a compressor will reset and you're good to go. It's very important though, when you are cooling down a compressor. whether it be with a water hose, ice, whatever it may be, is. once it resets, let it cool down even longer.

Uh, I Find it best to use water itself as long as it's not going to make a mess and create a problem. I Find that water does the best job. Um, just putting ice on the top of the compressor in my opinion, just takes too long. Um I like running just cold water over the top.

All right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. What am I missing? Um Christmas is approaching. That is 100% true for those that celebrate it. Christmas is right around the corner so uh, isn't the type to talk about his merch so you will.

Lots of sweaters at a low price. Thanks Joe Thank you I Do appreciate that my friend. Um, let me see what else we got going on here. Would I hire someone that lives in? Compton Uh I mean for my business, it wouldn't be practical to hire someone from Compton because Compton is about 40 miles from my house and they wouldn't be in my service area.

If you're just implying hiring someone from a a like a lower income type neighborhood, Yeah, I don't mind. I Mean my biggest thing is is that is the person a trustworthy person? Sure, you know then I mean you know it is what it is. Now you start to question about you know you could be anywhere you know. Uh shoot.

I have someone that lives right near me and they just got their van broken into kind of in my neighborhood. Okay, so you know I mean it happens everywhere so you know it doesn't matter that you're in Compton or you're in a nicer neighborhood, you know I will evaluate and if we start to notice break-ins on vehicles, then I'll ask that person to park the van in a safer place kind of a thing or park it at the shop or something like that. But for me, hiring someone 40 miles away from my location where I work and operate, that wouldn't be practical and it wouldn't make Financial sense for me. So uh, let's see what else we got going on here.

What is my favorite tool that I use Favorite tool that I use? That is a good question. Um I mean that's that's a really hard one. I mean think about this. Practically things that we take for granted: Uh, A A a meter a V meter right? that we can measure volts amps a clamp meter I mean that like think about it.

You know we all take for granted that we've had meters for most of our career, right? Um, you could see that like my dad's meter was that Simpson 260 right there on in the middle. the black one that was his meter when he first started in the trade. So imagine having to carry that around. you know, like yeah.

Okay, hold on, let me just grab my meter and we're going to set this down and we're going to climb up to the roof and we're going to do all this stuff. So I think one of the best tools that I have is a portable clamp meter that can do this and more right. this is a really cool thing. This again was not mine.

this was my dad's actual meter. Um, it used to just sit in the shop. It probably still works. but um, very high quality, very expensive meters back in the day from my understanding.

All right. uh, let's see what else we got going on in here. Um I want to talk a little bit about something? Uh, first and foremost and I'll I'll mention this here in a few minutes if any of you are local to. Southern California uh and you're interested.

I'm going to be at the Icky Trade Show in Pasadena California tomorrow for probably good majority of the day. definitely when it opens for a couple hours, definitely into the afternoon. I Don't know if I'll stay till it closes at like six or seven, but I'm definitely going to be there. I've Got a Friend meeting me there.

So if you guys are local to Southern California definitely stop by the Icky Trade Show in Pasadena You should find me walking around on the floor around the show. so come check it out if you're going to be there. Um, all right. So I need to preface this and uh, I don't know if I've ever talked about this before.

so I've had a few instances where I have shared certain details with some people. But um, the reason why I'm reluctant to talk about this is because I don't want people to think that I'm gloating that I'm trying to benefit from this. Um, because I'm not okay I'm sharing this story with the majority of you simply because I want to get a message out. Okay, and that'll come to fruition once.

I Explain this. So I was on the HVAC overtime show I don't know. Uh, about a year ago, Something like that, right? Actually, yeah, it was about a year ago we were doing the show and I had a screen up with my email and an email popped up and I mentioned this on the show. but I'm going to talk about this a little bit more.

so I got an email and uh, I'm going to read you the email. this is from a teacher and it says hello I'm a fifth grade special education teacher um, and I'm not going to disclose the state that he's in. he saysi have a student with autism and he's obsessed with all things Hvacr. He spent well over a half hour yesterday explaining everything he knows and frankly, he left me speechless when I asked him how he learned everything he told me from your YouTube videos.

So naturally we had to look up your channel and watch some for a bit. He just loves it and then the teacher is asking me now, is there any way uh that the teacher could get My Autograph for him Okay, which funny story that's like my that makes me the most uncomfortable in the world because I've had like two people in my life. Ask me for an autograph. it's the weirdest thing ever I just don't understand it.

But regardless, okay so um the teacher says that would totally make his day anyways I just wanted to let you know that your videos are reaching special young people and helping him learn things that we as teachers could never teach him at school. Okay so the teacher asked me for an autograph in my I don't do that but I definitely did it for this kid I wrote him a little note and then I asked the teacher um you know because he just asked for the autograph I said I'll do you one better like what size is this kid uh he's a fifth grade kid so I sent him everything that I had in merch that would fit him okay and I can't share this picture with you guys right now. but I'm staring at this picture and it's one of my favorite pictures that I keep in my phone and it's of this kid. He's got the biggest smile on his face, he's wearing my hat, he's holding up my t-shirt and he's super stoked because he got that.

So I didn't share this story because I wanted you to be happy for me I didn't want it to seem like I'm gloating. The reason why I shared this story um was because I think we can all have this impact on people. Whether it be an autistic kid, whether it be whoever, we can all have this impact if we share our knowledge with them in one way or another. you know for me, I make videos and kids might watch the videos.

Okay, um, you know for other people, it might be something different. Just because someone is autistic doesn't mean that they can't be in this trade just because you know. And I'm not expecting this kid to get into Hbac, but just the fact that he's interested and that caught his attention. and it surprised his teacher because he watched the video and he learned something and he you know, recited it back to the teacher, right? But the idea is that we all have the power to do this kind of stuff.

and I encourage everybody out there to share your knowledge one way or another. whether it be about work, whether it be about skills, whatever, share your knowledge, help the next person, right? It could be an autistic kid. It could be, uh, you know, an adult. It could be anybody and we all have the ability to do that kind of stuff.

So I encourage you guys all to do that and again. I Don't want it to come across like I was trying to brag or gloat or anything about this story. Um, you know. I I Was recently talking with someone about this story and they were encouraging me to share it and I was very reluctant to because I just I just don't want people to get the wrong impression.

but I do see value in it too. So I just thought that would be something cool to share. Um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. H And and there's more of those kids too Guys, Surprisingly, there's been like three of them.

Not not autistic necessarily, but three kids that have reached out in different methods. um, you know. and and I was actually just talking to my daughter about this before the show because she saw the picture of the kid on my computer screen and then she asked me the story and I reminded her she's heard this before. but I um I've had a couple other people reach out to me and you know when I first started the videos and I started getting comments and subscribers and different things I Used Used to get a little frustrated because a, uh, a good majority of the people, um, or a good amount of the people that watched and commented on my channel were not in the Hvacr trade and that kind of made me feel awkward at first because I was for whatever reason hoping that more HVAC Texs would watch my videos right now.

The numbers are totally different. We definitely have more HVAC people watching my videos than um, non-hvac but it was like a year after. I Got that weird feeling that people like I was kind of getting frustrated that people that weren't in the trade were watching the videos and I was kind of like I don't know. It felt kind of weird to me.

but then I got an email from someone and you know, surprisingly like I wish I could find this email but they actually got into the trade because they started watching these videos and then I realized that there's value in everybody that's watching this kind of stuff. So again, someone, whether it be good or bad someone made a decision to get into HVAC because they watched you know my videos and they thought it was interesting. So you know again, we all have the ability to make that impact on people I happen to have a platform on YouTube but you know you have the ability to, whether it be through your church, through a school, through a mentorship program. whatever it may be, you know, share what you have in hopes that you can change someone else's life too.

So um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, all right, cool. So um, you know I want to talk a little bit to I Kind of discussed a little bit about my house project and something that I'm kind of struggling with when it comes to learning all the information that I'm learning about designing the system in my house, right? I have um, just one second and I'll definitely get to that question here in just a second. Joe I do see that? Okay, um so uh W with the house stuff, you know one thing that frustrates me with the industry, whether it be um, residential, commercial, refrigeration, whatever it may be is manufacturers sometimes or Educators or trainers sometimes have the ability to get so so lost in their work that they they they become out of touch with normal everyday service technicians and normal simple-minded people like myself.

Okay um, the sometimes I'll read an instruction manual and while it may take me a little while to understand it, I'll I'll eventually get through it. but then I realized like how stupid it is that this instruction manual isn't understandable by everybody. Right off the bat, I'm a big fan. You know it's something like I have done uh, testing before I don't do any currently right now.

so I'm not working with any manufacturers as far as tools go at this time. but I have done testing and different things for like field piece for instance. right? Um, and one of the things that I used to do when I would test field pieces tools before I was like a beta tester right and again, I'm not doing any active testing for anybody at the moment. but um, one thing that I would tell Fieldpiece was when they would send me a new tool that they wanted me I'd say don't send me in instructions I don't want to see instructions for your tool I Want to know how intuitive it is I want to know how easy it is for a normal person like me to just pick up your tool and start using it and work my way through the navigation screens.

And the same thing in my opinion, goes for a lot of our equipment I Feel like these manufacturers need to do a better job? of course? I Know that they can't just give a simple how-to stepbystep instruction for equipment that could be dangerous, right? I Get that. But for a service technician, make your instructions, make your manuals understandable by a service technician if you're an educator out there, right? Um, you know if if you're going into Basic HVAC Let me ask you this: why in the heck do you have to learn the craziest stuff before you actually get your hands dirty? Why in the heck do you actually not start HVAC school by taking apart a compressor by learning how to use wrenches? Because that's the backbone of our job is mechanical work, right to to have a student? Something that I struggled with massively when I was coming into the trade when I went to trade school was like we you know basic intro to Refrigeration They're teaching you about heat transfer, convection conduction, all this different stuff right? radiant heat and all this different stuff. Why did we need to know that in the very beginning? I was not using that information in the very beginning. that information is valuable.

but I think later in my career it would have been more valuable. Okay, when it comes to installation instructions, when it comes to school, when it comes to teaching people, remember Okay, we're just people. We're not rocket scientists. You know we need to start basic.

Start with moving things, touching things, grabbing things with your hands. Showing someone like this is the refrigeration cycle in my opinion. Okay, this is my opinion. for you know, you guys may all chastise me for my opinion and that's fine, right? But you know, instead of teaching a guy the basic refrigeration cycle out of a book, why don't you walk him up to an air conditioner and have him grab the lines with his hands and and and help him to visualize.

Okay, you start. basic compressor outside fan motor blows hot air evaporator inside fan motor blows cold air right? Let people feel those differences. It's so hard for us in my opinion to understand the basics when we have to learn these really strange things in. You know, when I was going through school I Remember I was horrible at math like honestly I don't even know how I graduated high school because I literally only took Algebra A.

That's all I took was algebra A right Algebra A. and algebra B was. Basically, if you were not capable of taking algebra right, then you had to split it up into uh, two years. Instead of taking algebra, you split algebra from one year to two years you did Algebra A Algebra B I Never even took Algebra B right.

I Skated through school with algebra A because I took architectural drafting all four years of high school and that counted as math credits. So for whatever reason, right? My school. Yeah, I don't think they can revoke my diploma now, right? because it's been too many years? I'm too old. but like yeah, I took algebra A and Architectural drafting all through high school I got more knowledge from architectural drafting than I did algebra.

But the funny thing is is that now fast forward later in my career. I use more complex math than I ever thought I would have used. and oftentimes I'm doing it in my head. You're calculating superheat.

You're doing all these different things right. but we need to learn that stuff eventually. But I think we need to start educating people a different way because I feel like we're pushing a lot of these kids out of the trade schools. Um, so Jordan is asking any advice for someone who just moved from residential service to light Commercial Refrigeration in HVAC Lots of kitchen work, similar to the type of work that I do well.

First and foremost I can tell you the first thing you need to do if you haven't already. I Haven't had an opportunity to plug this book in a long time. Commercial Refrigeration For Air Conditioning Service Technicians written by Mr Dick Wors This right here is the best. Book For a technician in your exact steps, right or footsteps, this is for a technician that already has a basic understanding of the air conditioning cycle and now you want to transition into Refrigeration This simplifies, gives you some good rules of thumb right, and gives you a basis to start building from.

This was a turning point in my career when I got my hands on this book. Okay, 100% Now it was many versions back. Um, you know it was really, really awesome. Now I am gonna brag about one thing.

Okay I don't like to do this but I am gonna brag about the fact that uh, Dick Wors, the author of this book has since reached out to me and it is really awesome because in the preface of the book it actually mentions me so that was really cool. That's something that I was really awesome. We mentioned myself and Brian or uh in like the preface of the book. so I thought that was really cool.

All right. So let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, Kaden saysthe company that built the houses around where Cadence or Kaden lives burned through their entire budget quickly and that led to very undersized equipment. and Ducks Sadly, I wouldn't even say that it was burning through their budget.

I Would say that um, a good majority of Track Home builders do not do a good job of sizing air conditioning equipment. Um, Unfortunately, in the construction industry, air conditioning is not really thought of as a high priority when it comes to Building Homes Uh. Typically, in my opinion, a lot of Uh home builders look at all the other trades in front of air conditioning. and honestly, I think air conditioning needs to be up there in the top of one of the most important trades that the builder needs to work with in designing the house because the air conditioning system is basically the Comfort The without the air conditioning system in a track home that Track Home is is basically not going to be livable in certain situations, right? Um, and the air conditioning is really important and it's it's sad, but a good majority of the Track Home builders undersize and do improper design when it comes to air conditioning systems.

Unfortunately, a good majority of this trade is based uh or their their logic oftentimes is based on Antiquated Rules of thumb: sizing per ton. Um, you know, using a straight ductulator without understanding that a ductal lator is not quite the right size to size duct work. A ductal can be a tool in the process as you're following through the manual D worksheet. um, workbook and stuff.

but uh, the duct delator is not the one and true answer as to what size duct work you need. There's a lot of factors that go into that, and that's something that the trade needs to work on big time when it comes to track homes especially. So um, let's see. all right, cool, Which refrigerant did I use in my home system? My home system has 410A So so when I was ordering my equipment for my house I was, you know it would be awesome if I did have the new refrigerant in my system.

but you know, whatever that's 410A I'll deal with it I'm not worried about the cost or anything like that. Um, you know when it comes to my house system. Uh, do have another question right here too. And this is actually one of the more common questions that I get or got asked.

why in the heck did I go with carrier? A lot of people think Carrier is the worst manufacturer out there. What was my logic as to why I chose carrier? Um, I thought about a lot of different equipment Bosch was like almost one of the things that I wanted to buy just a Bosch system. Inevitably, what changed my mind about Bosch was that I wanted more of a full variable capacity experience. Now I will say there's some things about the carrier equipment that I'm disappointed in, but I'm going to mention that in some future videos because I am going to be able making videos about this.

Um, but as far as why I chose carrier I Looked at a bunch of different other manufacturers and um carrier was the easiest manufact. I had trust in their equipment because I do use their equipment a lot I know there's problems, there's problems with everything. but I have trust in carrier. Okay, do I think my system is going to be Problem free? No.

100% I Know I'm going to have problems. Guaranteed stuff's going to break. Actually something's already broke on my system or there's a problem. It may be a part that's broken or there may be a problem.

I've kind of mentioned it before, but I cannot for the life of me log into my system with my phone. There's two ways you can log into a Carrier Infinity system. You have a consumer facing app. it's carrier home and you download that and I got that my my phone's connected to that I'm carrier home set up all that good stuff.

The problem I'm having is the Carrier Service Technician app now. I did get access to the Carrier Service Technician app I had to ask my distributor to get me approval to get into it because I'm not a Carrier dealer for residential equipment right? I do sell their commercial equipment so that's what got me into here, but they knew I was installing it in my own home. They don't know anything about the videos but I just got them to get me access. So I have access to the carrier service technician app.

but when I log in I got to deal with carrier I don't know what the problem is. it won't let me log into the equipment, it it sees it. but when I try to log or connect to it, it it errors out. So there's a problem there too.

We'll talk about that, but the main reason why I chose carrier was just I had some trust in them I have a uh, you know I work with their equipment a lot and it was very easy through the distributor that I happened to purchase from. Now one thing about my home system I did not get any deals other than just being a contractor. Okay so I paid stupid money if I was a dealer I would not have paid what I paid but for my condenser, my thermostat, and my air handler I think I paid eight grand for my equipment. Okay now um I know a dealer can get it cheaper right? and I know I should be able to push but I didn't want to because I didn't want to feel obligated whatsoever to um to not say what I truly feel about their equipment I just didn't want any anything there.

So I just started to purchase my equipment my own way. no questions asked so nobody helped me through that. Um, all right, let's see what. I'm I'm going off on a tangent here, so let me see what else we got going on in the chat.

Um, try a different phone. Yeah I did try a different phone. still not the same thing. Um, what's the one tool I wish I had I really really would like to get my hands on uh I think it's called a pel grid attachment for a Flo Hood So that way I could measure um airf flow across exhaust hoods.

That would be something fun. uh I would love to get my own flow Hood uh I currently have a Flo Hood at my house but it's not mine. I'm going to be sending it back to Retrotech Retrotech and uh uh, the energy Conservatory both loaned me tools for my house project and I will be sending those back. Um, but I would like to get my hands on a highquality Flo hood that um uh can can use the pel grid attachment I believe is what it's called so that way I could measure air flow across exhaust fans.

That's one fun thing that I think I would like to the other thing too. you didn't ask me this. but the other tool that I guess I would like to get is I would like to become Pro efficient with actual welding. So that way because there's many instances in the type of work that I do that.

if I knew how to weld on stainless and steel and uh, work with metal a little bit more, it would benefit my business significantly. So that's something else too. is um, probably a MIG welder? Uh, you know I'd like to learn a little bit more about that. So uh, see what else we got going on the Vel grid? There you go, not pel grid Vel grid.

There you go. See! got to count on Will my buddy there and will I haven't forgotten about you with that thermostat. but I haven't sent it yet because I've just and being a pain in the ass, did I look into the Dyan fit equipment? Sammy Yes, I did look into the Dy and fit. At the time, one of my best friends was having a heck of a time with some Dyan equipment and he ran into some major design flaws with the Dyan equipment and he was kind of squawking in my ear hearing all the problems that he was having at the moment.

Um, and uh. so I decided not to go with Dyan for that exact reason because someone that I personally knew was having a really bad experience at the time. Uh, and this wasn't a person that was ignoring obvious things. And yeah, it's just a whole problem.

There's like a whole story to this. Um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. uh Taco hard shell or soft shell? uh crunchy chicken tacos are the bomb for sure. but if I'm eating street tacos, they need to be soft shell.

Um, so let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, all right. cool. So um I released a short last week about a piece of equipment that I went onto the roof and uh, long story short, I quoted some new air conditioning equipment and some repairs for a customer.

They chose not to go with me. they said they found the units elsewhere. um I happened to go back out to that customer to work on another piece of equipment I heard that they had the new air conditioner so I just said hey, I'm going to jump on the roof and have a look at them I went upstairs. Uh, as I was talking with the manager, the manager had mentioned to me that he thinks that the units that they installed were used and I said really why and he goes I just they just look like they were used.

So I was interested now. So I'm like I'm going to jump up there and look at it you know? So I jump up onto the roof. it wasn't used equipment, it was brand new equipment. But the problem was they changed one of the wrong units.

So that restaurant uh I had quoted a seven and a half ton and a 10 ton unit and when I got there they had changed two seven and a half ton units. Uh, one of the units was correct, one of the units was not the right unit and it it wasn't you know. Anyways, they still need a 10-ton unit and I made a short about that. So I got a bunch of questions from that.

It's kind of going pretty big as far as views and stuff and a lot of people are like why on Earth would I go back to a customer if I knew that they didn't use my quote? Well I'm in business to make money and to work with good customers. but I can't fault a customer for trying out another company because I do that. How can I go and start using a new different mechanic shop or buy a car from a different dealership the next time? I mean and it you know it's okay. if my customer chooses to go work with someone else to try something else, you know I don't mind I I'm I'm not, you know I still want to be able to work for that customer and do work with them.

Now if it starts to get a bad relationship turns bad, gets disrespectful that kind of stuff. If they're you know I've had customers in the past where it started to go down a path that we decided not to work with them anymore because they were using other people. But for this like no, I'm not mad if my customer gets a quote I'm not mad because someone else beat my price. but it is awesome to be able to go back to the customer after the fact and say Hey you know that quote that you disapproved of mine.

Cool, All good. I Don't mind the company that, uh, went out there. they didn't change the right units. like okay, cool, yeah, that's you know that's I'll just kind of have discussions with them right? but I'm not afraid to go back and work for the customer, right? I'm in business to make money.

so um, exactly? Uh, Brian Sanders says it's their money as long as they pay the bill. Who cares? exactly? It's okay if my customer uses someone else, right? Remember I tell my employees my videos are mainly meant for my employees, but obviously other people watch them too. but I tell them quite often I try to treat I Try to remind myself and again, this isn't something that just comes naturally to me. But I have this motto that you know basically when I go out to a service call I'm treating that service call like my competitor is going to come right behind me and try to talk crap on the work that I did I Don't want someone else for the most part to be able to walk behind me and talk crap about my work, right? That's what motivates me to constantly try to do my best which is not perfect nor will I ever be perfect.

but I'm constantly trying to do my best and so if a customer uses someone else and they do a better job than me or I see a job and I'm like hey I didn't get that they did and they kicked ass on that I'm gonna pay homage to that too. I would have made a video about that too like hey I lost the bid but this company did an amazing job like I would have posted that. Okay so anyways, all right let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um no not not today.

Brian Not today. Uh see going on in here. You guys are funny. Um, let's see.

I'm reading through my I have a list of questions right here. I Already covered that question Why on the I posted a video on Sunday about a package unit that had a bad compressor because of sand again? um still. DET haven't quite determined what was the C of death more than likely leading towards a failed contactor single phase, loose connection burnt the compressor? That's my Logic on that one right now. Okay, but again, we need to do a little bit more investigation on the compressor.

But one of the more common questions that I get is you know why would I have a unit that says that has outside air dampers on it If we have that kind of blowing sand, why would I let that happen? It doesn't matter the dampers or not, that sand is getting through the panels too. So the compressor section is full of sand and it has locking hinged panels. Okay, so the dampers. You know it's still going to get in now.

Yeah, sure, if the dampers are open, it's going to get in a little bit more. but we have a problem here, right? We have a building balance to be concerned about when it comes to air conditioning equipment. A lot of these newer modern restaurants do not have makeup air units, or they rely very minimally on the makeup air units because in more modern restaurants, they're very concerned about fresh air in the building, right? They don't want the CO2 levels in those spaces to get too high. You don't want your restaurant patrons to start getting lethargic and tired as they're sitting at your table.

You want them to keep ordering drinks and you want them to keep eating and having a good time communicating with people. So we got to bring fresh air into those buildings so it's a fine balance during the high sand season. I Would love to go in and dial down the dampers a little bit. reduce the amount of infiltration through the dampers.

Yeah, that would be a great thing to do, but we also have to ver to weigh the fact that we have outside air. Um, that's going to come in one way or another because if you have exhaust fans running, it's putting a negative pressure on the building. So we add fresh air and makeup air to. Make Up For What The exhaust fans are pulling out so the more outside air dampers we close on that particular restaurant, the more negative that building gets.

So in the summertime when it's really, really hot and it's Sandy Not only are they going to have sand coming in through the outside air, but then whenever someone opens the front door, that air is going to rush into the building building instead of being pulled in through the air conditioner where we can precool that air before we dump it into the building. So bringing fresh air is a very important thing in the design of these buildings so we can't just eliminate the dampers completely. we still need them unfortunately. I'm sure there's things we could do for this location to reduce the problems with the sand, but it's not.

It doesn't make Financial sense, right? These restaurants don't make that much money and in fact, this particular restaurant is doing really bad as far as sales. so they're not going to dump that kind of money into this building. So unfortunately, two to three times a year they have some failures on the roof because of electrical issues because of sand and different things. and that's just something the customer at least for the six years that I've worked for them has just dealt with because in the grand scheme of things, to dump the amount of money they would need to in that building, you know it just doesn't make Financial sense for them.

So all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. What am I missing? Um, all right, cool, sweet. Now let's what else I got in my chat. Um oh, this was another interesting one too.

So and this is something that I've always been really intrigued about. Okay, take this for what it is, but I find it so very interesting. The people in the industry that will I'm not offended by this when I bring these things up to you guys I'm not offended. Okay, I bring it up to you because I think it's interesting and I communicate this kind of stuff with you guys, right? So I'm not offended I'm not heard I don't care what these people have to say.

but I'm I mean interested in their thought process, right? So people will criticize me often because of unsweating a a copper line from a compressor. Okay, in a perfect world. Yeah, best practice. And the person that emailed me yesterday about this or messaged me actually wasn't criticizing me.

but people in the past have. But um, you know, in a perfect world, it's best to cut copper off of components that are ically sealed. It's best to cut a dryer out, right? It's best to cut a compressor out, but you also have to be practical if I go and cut that compressor out of that unit. how much more work is it going to be For me, right? You have to pay attention And these are things you have to think about in this in this situation.

on this compressor, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but sometimes manufacturers use non standard line sizes right on. A lot of the little reaching coolers that have R290 those copper connections on the compressor are not quarter inch connections. They're like 516, so quarter inch pipe doesn't quite fit right. You have to pay attention to things.

so sometimes you really I mean a good majority of the time. You really have to think about it before you try to cut a component out of a system. when you're working on a tiny reach and cooler, even an air conditioner. Sometimes cutting a component out is going to add so much more unnecessary work that you know I think we're a little afraid.

So there's a a potential of a flame out when you're when you're unsweating a compressor, especially if it you has oil related issues. Or there could be flameouts of other hermetically sealed devices like dryers and Txvs and different things like that, right? But you know you just have to understand that there's going to be an element of of danger in what we do, right? It's not dangerous, really, but I mean there's an element of things you have to think about. and you just got to sometimes unsweat a component because it's more practical. It's easier.

it's going to make less work for the reinstallation of that component. So um Brian Sanders says true. Refrigeration is bad about using 516 on their stuff. Yeah, the the 516 thing actually Brian to be frank is because of the R290.

Um, I Know they're starting to use it on other things, but the higher capacity, the higher the Blends and different thing refrigerants that you're getting, the more efficient ones. The line sizes you know are very critical with those. and also when it comes to R290, they needed you know to have the smallest liquid line sizes as possible because um, you know that's more refrigerant they can put elsewhere. Um, you know it's very interesting how these systems are designed.

So yeah, but the 516 stuff's popping up a little bit more. Uh, is the claim it can burn off your face just a myth? No, there's a danger there. There is a danger of a flame out from refrigerant. Yes, that there is a, you know, it's an element of danger that we have to just work with, right? There's always the chance that something really bad can happen, but if you're concerned about a potential flame out, then why not? Purge A system with nitrogen I Don't care what refrigerant it is, Okay at certain temperatures Poe Oil will combust.

At certain temperatures, mineral oil will combust. So if A System's hot enough, if you got a torch going to the right place, yeah, there could be a little bit of combustion. It's not going to be like gasoline exploding. Um, but there could be a little flame out.

So yeah, but you know, a compressor burning off your face because of a flame out? Typically that's going to be trapped. Refrigerant? Um, you know. So that's stuff that you can typically solve by pushing nitrogen or doing a proper evacuation or proper recovery before you know, actually pulling down to the to the lower levels that EPA States when you're supposed to do a recovery. Um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Um, oh there was.

Let me make sure I got through these questions. Um, why isn't And this was what from the very very beginning. Um, why isn't Vrf gear way more popular for my customers? If I have highish power costs? Okay, so that's a good question. Why are we not using more technology in Light Commercial Refrigeration and Air conditioning? Um, because the price of that technology.

This is my opinion. The price of that technology is still just quite past the threshold of the you know the abilities of the Light commercial sector right to put a full Vrf system in a restaurant. That would not be a smart move. There's too many issues in a restaurant's operation that cause problems.

Something that we have to deal with in the commercial restaurant. Refrigeration side and air conditioning side is grease. Okay, often times Hood systems are not properly sized or customers are not utilizing the actually I'd say majority of the time the customer is not using the exhaust. Hood Correctly, they have too much equipment under it.

It's pushing out past the boundaries. Did you know that typical code out there for a restaurant Hood that's over. A cook station that has a fryer and a grill and everything. The cooking appliances have to be 6 in in from the open sides of the hood underneath the canopy.

That's typical code for most restaurant Style exhaust systems. Now tell me those of you guys that do that in restaurants: How many restaurants? um give me a percentage in the chat. How many restaurants do you guys think that have are are improperly using their Hood systems like percentage wise. Okay um what do you? What do you guys guess? the percentage wise of restaurants improperly using their Hood systems? Um, put a percentage in the chat.

I'm here is what you have to say. um do do we use R32 R32 is just coming into the US Um and it is going to start popping up everywhere here, right? Quick. Okay um anybody use ultrasonic leak detector Seven sickos I currently do not I've tried an Ultrasonic it just didn't work for me. The kind of stuff that I do Um I work in walk-ins and different things that have a lot of fluorescent lights.

when I would work around those fluorescent lights with the Uh in with the Uh ultrasonic like I would hear this weird hissing sound from the fluorescence and it was hard to decipher a refrigerant leak versus the fluorescent sound. so it just didn't work in my sense. But you know there is good value in ultrasonic. Leak Detectors Just for what I do it doesn't make sense.

So um, so yeah yeah, these numbers are pretty good people in the chat right now. Uh yeah. I would argue that probably 90 to 95% of the restaurants are not using their hoods correctly. So that's something that on the commercial air in side.

in the Light commercial stuff that we have to deal with. we are going to have grease in our duct work. We are going to have grease in our air filters. These are not perfect units.

You start putting more mini splits and even these restaurants that have these horrible kitchens they're going to be going through Mini Splits every year and a half because they just can't be cleaned properly. We have to degrease grease off of evaporated coils on kitchen. AC's all the time. So we put a Vrf system into something like that.

We get grease on circuit boards and yeah, it's just it's not going to be practical financially for these restaurants to deal with that kind of stuff as the price starts to go down. Yeah, people are going to start investing a little bit more in technology. I mean the most technology we have in the Light commercial side right now is inverter driven compressors. Um, but it's not full Vrf systems.

Uh, we're getting few inverter driven compressors but it's not mainstream yet so it'll be some time before they put something like VF and a restaurant. Uh, see what else the chat has to say in here? Um, how many times times have I had something blow up when I threw the switch? uh on camera I think three times I think on camera where I've had something when I turn the switch on. those are always fun when I actually get to film them. Uh, probably before that.

probably another 10 in my career I made a lot of mistakes. So what's in my everyday carry? I Carry a uh, a veto Tech pack wheeler Edition So the backpack that has the wheels on it I Don't use the backpack very much I use it every once in a while when I want to go up a ladder. Um, but when I'm working down on the restaurant or even on the roof I don't carry it on the backpack straps I roll it across the roof on the wheels. Uh, in that is just my basic hand tools I mean uh as far as on person I carry two phones with me, one for filming, one for work.

um I just made the transition to an iPhone so that's interesting I'm having fun with that but I still use an Android phone too. uh and then just a flashlight and a Leatherman Tool is what's on Me on the daily so uh, read through the chat will I show my home project energy usage. Oh yeah yeah! I would like to get better data I kind of made a mistake when I put my home energy monitor I have an Emporia energy monitor on my whole electrical panel for my house and I have data for an entire year actually for like 13 months I have data electrical usage data before I changed my air conditioner so I would love to make that data public somehow I think that would be kind of cool if I had a landing page with you know my current energy usage like just going straight to an Emporia page or something and then I would love to have temperature data and this is where I think I made a mistake when I put the energy monitor on I should have put temperature monitoring at the same time because for data reasons to show you my energy usage I would love to be able to show you previous right and now what? outside air temperatures are too so you can see Trends as outside air temperatures go up electric I'd like to be able to tie that in so. but anyways, yes I do have electrical data and I will be showing it on a video in the near future.

Um, all right. so what's a good R290 leak detector? Okay Zachary Williams that's a great question. And honestly I have not found an amazing R290 leak detector yet. Okay uh actually I've really only found one R290 leak detector I I think a couple other manufacturers have them but when I started looking for them, all that I found was the Infocon gas Mate and I have that that is my R290 leak detector that that at this moment.

but I don't like it, it's it's just clunky. it's just I don't know. it's just not a comfortable leak detector to use. The settings are weird, but what I did here I happen to have an infocon Stratus or a DC Stratus right? that's one of my Leak Detectors that I carry but that doesn't Well, the typical one doesn't do hydrocarbon refrigerants, but there's a sensor that you can buy for the stratus and I've been looking to get one of those sensor.

so hopefully I'll get the the Um hydrocarbon sensor for the Stratus leak detector. and I'm hoping that'll be a better leak detector when it comes to R290. but stay tuned if I if I get that. I've been trying to find one that I can buy um and I need to do it because right there's just the the infocon gasma just sucks as a leak detector.

It really does. So um, the stratus sensor is legit. Yeah, Brian so Brian Okay, so have you used use the hydrocarbon Stratus sensor Brian I'm stoked if you have dude because that's awesome I'm definitely getting it. Um yeah I would like because I The stratus does a good job but I also carry the Dr8 to so if you're doing and that that's another thing people ask me all the time.

What's my favorite leak detector? I carry the field piece d82 and I carry the inficon Stratus right? The field piece is my go-to that's the one that I use all the time. Um, why I don't know I I Had a little bit of a beta testing with that one, so that was a fun one towards the end to be able to beta test and do some stuff with. Um. So it was kind of fun to be part of that project, but in my opinion, you know the Stratus and the D82 um, basically are pretty darn equal if you don't need the cloud hunting function.

Okay, the Stratus it holds neck to neck with the field piece d82 in my opinion. Now, what a lot of people don't realize about the Stratus is it has Cloud hunting. Okay, so that's where you'll get a PPM parts per million readout on the Gra on the screen. did you know? and if you didn't see I didn't know for the longest time when you're using the PPM mode where it reads the parts per million, that's not the most sensitive um setting.

If you actually go to just the settings where it says high, medium, low, or whatever, that's the best most sensitive setting. and when you have it on the PPM it's actually not as sensitive. Uh, but anyways, the the The Stratus is a cool leak detector though, so uh, will the D82 read r290? No, it will not. Um, any tips for fixing Euin leaks on coils? Uh I mean take some advice from me, watch my videos and learn what not to do I tend to run really high temp on my solder, but I've always been running I mean on my flame so I tend to um, have more issues with burning of the condenser uins.

but I've just always done better brazing with higher temperatures especially when I have little things. So I try I'll still run High temps but I'll put a very, very small tip on there and uh I just like the way that that braze is better. Um, so is far as as tips for um, brazing on ends, clean them as best as possible. Get a Dremel tool if you need to make sure there's no oil flow nitrogen as you're brazing and low heat, you know when you can.

That's probably the best advice. So um, all right, reading through the chat. Okay, um, let's see what else we got going on in here. I already answered that question.

I'm looking through my list right now if a Drer gets clogged. Oh, this is a really good one that someone asked. So if a dryer gets clogged, he's using logic. He goes.

that means that there's contaminants floating through the system. So if I change a dryer, he's asking me, why wouldn't I then change the refrigerant too? Good question. Okay, um, that's going to be a judgment call depending on how contaminated the refrigerant is. If it's a grounded compressor, the refrigerant needs to be changed.

Okay, um, that's my suggestion. Okay, no, no questions asked. but just because of contaminants doesn't necessarily mean that you need to change the refrigerant if you have proper system protection. Okay, if I truly believe there's going to be a massive amount of contaminants in a system, I'm going to do a sweep with nitrogen, change whatever components I need to change, then I'm going to put a suction line filter dryer and a liquid line filter dryer.

We're going to come back, We're going to monitor the system and we're going to clean it up with the dryers. Doesn't necessarily mean that I have to change the refrigerant. Okay, but again, it's going to be a judgment call by the technician because if I go to a system and I have a really good suspicion that there's some serious issues, yeah, I'm G to change it. Okay, so it's really going to depend on everybody.

um, or the situation really is what I should say. Um, and you can certainly clean up refrigerant as long as it's not too acidic. and as long as it's not fractionated, you could clean it up with dryers. So no problem.

I Mean back in the day before it became against the rules uh, we used to have, you know there actually is a difference between a uh uh, the recovery machines, right? We use the phrase reclaimer recover all these different things. but there actually was a refri a machine that would clean the refrigerant? Okay, and um, but that was before politics got too involved in it. They knew they wanted to save the environment. So why don't we start cleaning our refrigerant, reusing it, right? But then you know you get these giant refrigerant manufacturers and they're like Welly that's not safe.

You can't reuse refrigerant. So the refrigerant manufacturers in my opinion, these are all my opinions, got heavily into the Epa's ears and made it part of the rules that you're not allowed to reuse refrigerant because I don't see the the harm in reusing refrigerant from customer to customer. It's a silly EPA rule in my opinion. So um, all right, cool.

let's see what else we got going on here best. HV Joe Thank you Bud. All right. so what Joe's alluding to as I told Joe um I have merchandise on my website Hvacr Videos.com Okay, and Joe is alluding to the fact that I told him and Adam the other day they'd never heard this before that the sweaters that I have on my website are the worst seller.

They're a really nice sweater, but they