Uh, 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.

Thank you thank you thank you Foreign! This live stream is brought to you by Heatcraft Refrigeration Find out more about them at Heatcraftrpd.com and what is up everybody? Welcome To the Hvacr videos live stream If you don't know who I am and you don't know why you're here, my name is Chris I'm an Hvacr service technician here in Southern California and uh I started making videos on YouTube a while back to kind of help my employees as a training aid and then you know. Long story short, here we are now. it's been a couple years and this channel has become something that it was never intended to be, but it's been a fun detour. Um, you know I just make videos showing myself working on a daily and uh, kind of let people in on the way that my brain works because I know it's a little bit different than some other people.

I'm a very peculiar person in the way that I think in you know, troubleshooting, go through things so you know I uh I Just kind of continue to make these videos and it's very humbling to get all the support from you all. So thank you very much. One thing to be 100 clear on is is that I do not see myself as a super tech as the best technician ever or anything like that. I'm just a normal service technician I Just so happened to pick up a camera and film What? I do I know that there's many other service techs uh, that are much better than I had what they do.

they just maybe haven't picked up the cameras, you know? I encourage everybody out there. You know sharing your knowledge is a really really important thing, especially in this day and age. There's no nothing to really be afraid of for sharing your knowledge. I mean go for it.

You know, if you if you have interest in making content, I encourage you to do so, just understand something. I Do know that there's a lot of content creators out there now and that's great. but I see a lot of content creators chasing views, chasing money I I'd kind of hesitate to push that kind of stuff. I mean just do you And if people like you, they'll follow you.

You know you don't need to beg for people to follow you. You don't need to beg for people to watch your videos. If they don't want to watch them, they don't want to watch them right. You're You know clearly if if you know you can't naturally get people to watch your content, you know it is what it is and I you know.

So anyways, take it for what it is. but I really do encourage everybody out there to share their knowledge whether it be getting on Facebook forms, whether it be on Instagram or Tick, Tock or any of those platforms, even if you're just in the comments. Being a person that's regularly given advice and giving feedback, you know one really neat thing. Uh, we got people watching this content from all over the place, right? Um, they're watching.

uh, um, watching on Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Actually, I'm not on Instagram right now. but LinkedIn you know all those different platforms if you are watching on any one of those, that's live stream. That's great. I don't get any benefit from whatever platform you choose to watch it on.

It is what it is, right? But I will say that there's this whole community on YouTube right now. There's a large group of people currently at the moment and there'll be more here in a few minutes, but there's 85 people watching on YouTube And um, you know there's a whole conversation going on in there. And one of the cool things is that the conversation isn't just about what I'm doing. There's people in the chat right now helping other people answering questions, and it's a community is what it is.

So I encourage you guys to have conversations within the chat. That's all good. You're not offending me in one bit. That's something that all the different YouTube content creators that do live streams their communities have become like we're just one big community and it's just a place to go and talk to other people and hang out, watch some content, and have a good time.

Um, be kind to one another for sure if you guys do have questions or things that you want me to cover. I Encourage you guys to put your comments or your questions in caps lock all capital letters because it helps me to kind of see the questions. Okay, um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. Uh Mike Mayberry in here my buddy HVAC Reefer Guy hello Mike How are you doing today? It's good to see you in the chat my friend.

Um, so Mike Mayberry is another content creator and uh Mike and I Mike used to be from the Southern California area. He's no longer in the Southern California area, but he travels all over the country with the company that he works for. Um, but it's uh, it's really neat to have this community of content creators too, people sharing their knowledge and that's something that Mike has never been afraid to do. Mike was one of the first people pushing social media HVAC social media especially on Instagram really big and he's always been willing and open to share his knowledge.

Now we you know previous generations, even people from Mike's generation are afraid to share knowledge. but Mike's always been one person to just put it out there so that's really cool. Good on you for doing that. Mike All right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

um, reading through the comments right now seeing what I'm missing. Okay, I and again when I read through the comments. guys I'm looking for caps lock all capital letters because it's hard for me. There's there's lots of conversations and I'd have a ton of dead air and dead air drives me bonkers.

Okay, got a couple things. Um so I always encourage my family and you know some people may not agree with this but summertime is our crazy time we get super busy so I always encouraged my family during the like crazy busy you know July and August somewhere in there I encourage them like hey, get out of town, go do something. So usually what we've been doing is my wife has been taking my daughters and they head on off to North Carolina to go visit some family. Uh, they did that again this year but this time my oldest daughter stayed back with me so it was my wife and my youngest daughter and I Have to say something, the older I get the more dependent I become on my wife.

She is my better half. She is the person that helps me to stay sane. She was gone for 10 days and let me tell you, it was pretty rough. It was pretty rough now.

I know I can take care of myself but you know having to take care of a 17 year old. but yeah my 17 year old. she's pretty self-sufficient and then having to take care of the house and the dogs and then just manage my normal business and run the normal service calls. Let me tell you what, it was a pretty stressful time my wife got back on.

Friday I'm very thankful she's back. It was a nice weekend, got to spend time with them and you know do the family thing. So I'm a happy person because they're all back. but I am thankful for the amount of help that my wife gives me because again she is the better half.

She's the person that helps me to stay sane. So I'm glad that she is back. Um and it just kind of. It's kind of weird when she was out of town, you know I think this might have been one of the hardest years.

Normally this has been going on for like 10 years where she goes away for a week or two. um during the summer and this time I don't know it was just rough for me, but it is what it is. So uh, question, um am I familiar Otis says with uh, chill water racks I'm imagining that you mean water cooled Refrigeration equipment uh I I am familiar with it. but I don't work on it very much anymore I have in the past? Okay, um, but yeah, I would probably not be the source that you'd want to look to for answers on water cool equipment I Have a general understanding but I'm not an expert in any way.

Uh uh I Have a question here. What do I use to clean coils? Um I prefer the refrigeration Technologies products. Uh, the Viper Venom packs. They have the uh yellow condenser coil cleaner.

That one is completely micro Channel safe, aluminum safe. all that good stuff. It's not going to damage anything, it's just a proprietary mix of soap and water. And then they have the Viper bright cleaner which is for the crazy, crazy heavy duty soiled coils.

You got to be very careful with the Viper bright I Prefer to use the yellow Venom pack condenser coil cleaner. So uh, yeah. I'm a big fan of the Viper products, especially the yellow Venom pack because it's super safe and it's not really going to hurt anything at all. So I encourage you to check those out.

You can check out True Tech Tools.com if you're interested in purchasing any of those Viper Venom packs go to Truetechtools.com Use my offer code big picture. You'll get an eight percent discount majority of the items on their website I Get a small commission when you do. That helps to support the channel. so let me see.

my buddy Adam is in here starting to cause problems and he says Chris is really good at looking at the camera. That's because I focus on it. but then I look down when I look at the chat. so I try Okay, it's a little bit easier when.

uh, if you guys don't know if you're interested uh Friday evenings my friends and I Adam Joe Bill and myself. We go live on the HVAC Overtime YouTube channel Friday evenings about 605 PM Pacific time. Uh, just check out the HVAC Overtime YouTube channel if one of the moderators in the chat wants to throw a link to the overtime Channel that'd be great. Um, but anyways, we do a show on Friday evenings.

You definitely want to check that out, but it's it's It's a very uncensored so show so be very cautious for that. So let me see what else we got going on in the chat. hello Don Felix Hello everybody. Um, did she have to clean the house when she got back? No.

Mike BC That's the interesting thing because I really wasn't home very much. Um, so you know, other than the dogs and my daughter, we pretty much kept up on cleaning and the house was clean when they got back so we really didn't do a lot of dishes or anything because we kind of ate out most of the time. Um, let's see Steven says that he notices on train Voyager Rtus that he doesn't see the metering device. So on the older train package units and some of the newer ones too, they used uh a a liquid header with an accurator metering device in it.

Okay, so um, they're basically and carrier does this too. They have a metering devices in each 3 8 line going to the evaporator coil on the older Voyager units and again you'll see it on some of the newer stuff too. So that's why you don't see a metering device because it's basically a built-in orifice. Okay, you can treat it if you're using like one of the digital softwares to help you diagnose.

You can treat it as a piston or a capillary tube metering device. Same difference, it's just not a TXV Now Uh, the some of the newer systems do have Txvs, but you'll still see some accurate or metering devices in there. So um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, reading through here.

Okay, is it food safe? Um, let's see the yellow Venom pack I Think it is. but you're going to want to consult the refrigeration Technologies website just to be safe. Uh, but I'm pretty sure the yellow Venom pack is. but I don't want to misquote that so check.

Do do your own research on that. Okay, all right, let's see what else we got going on here. Okay, um, something that I wanted to discuss. That tends to happen and I saw a very interesting conversation going on on social media.

I Actually get this question. Quite a lot people emailing me questions um, is how to prepare for a job. So especially the younger technicians, they're more eager technicians that really want to prove themselves okay. and I'm not saying there's anything wrong, but this tends to happen with them a little bit more.

More experienced experienced technicians don't tend to do this as much anymore, but we do get caught in a tunnel vision situation every once in a while. But when you are diagnosing something you want to try not to have tunnel vision, tunnel vision is when you already have a preconceived idea as to what is going on with the system. So that way, when you arrives on site, you're highly focused on that one thing that you've been thinking about for the entire drive over, and you tend to overlook everything around you. You tend to stop looking at the big picture and you focus on one thing.

Having tunnel vision can get you into big trouble when you're troubleshooting things. Okay, so oftentimes what I will get is whether it be an apprentice. When he's riding with me, he'll be asking me questions about the service call. Whether it be someone emailing me, they'll be like hey, what do you think could be wrong with it as we're driving to the call.

Okay, okay, and here's what I tell them I don't know what's going to be wrong with it and I'm not going to even try to think about what's wrong with it. What? I encourage people when they're getting ready for a service call if they're driving to a service call instead of trying to walk yourself through the service call before you get there. Okay, what I encourage you to do is think about the type of system that is there and think about the sequence of operation of that particular system. So don't focus on what the problem might be.

Don't run through the service call in your head before you get on site, but simply think about it. Okay, I'm going to work on a residential straight cool air conditioning system. It's a split system. We have a condenser outside, We have an evaporator fan coil inside with a TXV inside drier outside.

Okay, start thinking in your head what's the sequence of operation of that system, But don't focus on the details of that particular location because if you focus on the details, you can tend to get yourself stuck in that tunnel vision moment and then you forget things when you get there. But if you're focusing on the sequence of operation, if you really need to as you're driving to that call, then when you get on site, you'll be more apt to really look at the big picture, Walk your way through the call and knock it out of the park. Okay, so remember, don't get caught up in trying to diagnose things before you actually get on site. That is a really important thing and it'll stop you or prevent you from getting tunnel vision to where you overlook some of the simplest problems.

Something that I've always told people is when you're troubleshooting something. For the most part, if you're struggling and you're having a hard time I'd say 95 of the time you're either missing something or you're doing something wrong. Okay, there's a small percentage of just ridiculously engineered equipment. That's just stupid, right? But it's very rare that that's the case.

Most of the time, we're just tripping over ourselves and having a hard time not understanding the sequence of operations. Sometimes you need to take a step back, take a breather, think about it, and jump right back into it. Okay, um, Brandon Priest, thank you very much for that. Super Chat My friend, That is very much appreciated.

Okay, he said how to do a beer line unit, followed my steps and well, that's really cool man. So I'm glad that one of my videos was able to help you diagnose something. So he's saying that he worked on a glycol Chiller right? Basically, just a little glycol unit that cools the beer lines. and uh, I have a lot of videos showing those.

So apparently one of the videos helped him out. so that's really awesome. Brandon I'm really glad that that did that for you. Okay, um, let's see reading this chat.

Uh, thank you for your content. Can a worn out pulley on a kitchen exhaust fan after cleaning lead to over amping? They did not replace the pulley, but did clean and re-center the fan? That's a hard question. I Mean in theory, a worn out pulley is not necessarily going to lead to overamping, but there is some situations where it could lead to overamping. So when we have a a pulley system driving exhaust fans, you typically have a motor pulley and you have a driven pulley.

The motor pulley is typically adjustable and if you adjust the pulley opened or closed, you can speed up the the speed at which the pulley is turning the belt, which turns the driven pulley. Okay, so he's asking when they clean the fan, if possibly they cause the unit to over amp them. I Don't know. Man, that's a really interesting question.

I Can't really see that happening unless the pulleys worn out to the point that the belt is getting stuck in it. Or maybe someone did get in there and started adjusting pulleys. That's a possibility. If someone did that, then maybe you know they caused a problem.

But it's hard to say. But you want to get in there and you want to fix that problem before it becomes an issue because you don't want to burn up a motor for sure. All right, let's read through. there.

isn't it? Always The TXV Not always, but 99 of them. No. I'm just kidding. Yeah, all right.

Um, let me see what else we got going on here. Um, remember something too. You know it's really easy. So someone had said that they watched another content creator in the chat before the stream started and they were watching them add refrigerant to a system before they checked to see if the coils were plugged up or anything like that.

That is very common. Again, that sometimes can just be tunnel vision, that sometimes can be lack of attention to detail. It could be a million different things. but remember, airflow is kink.

airflow. Airflow. Airflow. Okay, air flow before charging refrigerant.

Most important thing. Okay, you've got to make sure that you have proper airflow. Your evaporator needs to have the air moving across it at a certain constant velocity with the refrigerant flowing through the system at a set rate. right? Basically, unless it's a variable speed system.

So if your evaporator coil is dirty, then that's going to cause issues. And that's going to potentially cause you to think that you might be low on refrigerant. If your condenser coil is dirty. That's an airflow issue too, because it's not letting the air move across the condenser and not letting it reject the heat appropriately.

So airflow is King Make sure your coils are clean. Okay, how do you know if your evaporator coil is clean I Just had a situation where my evaporator coil was plugged up. My system was working now had I had Benchmark data and been able to pay attention and really put my gauges on my own system and diagnosed it which I never really have because it's just cooled and I'm just like whatever I'm replacing it anyways. but you know, if you have benchmarked data, that is very important.

So I encourage everybody out there when you install new equipment. Once you've dialed in the airflow and everything's where you need to go, it's a best practice to go: measure pressure points across the system. Take a pressure drop across the evaporative coil, write it down inside the equipment, take a pressure drop across across a clean filter, write it in the equipment, take total external pressure static pressure right? Write it in the equipment because if you have that data then later on you know when you go to diagnose the system and you're like I wonder if my coil is dirty. Well look at that.

I Got pressure drops across my coil because when I installed this system I took those numbers so you can throw a manometer on there and you can look at the pressure differential across your evaporator coil and you could say hey, that's a really high pressure differential I think we might have a plugged up coil. Okay, something as simple as that can make your day so much better. Um, let me cross a couple things off my list right now. Uh, Aaron had asked me what thermal imaging camera I am using and he's curious and he was, uh, thinking about buying one.

So uh, currently right now the thermal imaging camera that I'm using uh, day to day is a Hick Micro M30. Now that's a pretty expensive camera and it's a bit overkill for most of the stuff that we do in our trade. I would highly encourage someone to look into a camera that's a little bit cheaper depending on what you want to do with it. If you're simply just looking at electrical connections and different things like that, there's several different thermal imaging cameras out there.

Uh, previous to my Hick Micro, I was using a Flare One Pro which plugs into the bottom of my phone and then you're able and it just uses the software in your phone to do everything. That is a perfectly good camera. probably costs a couple hundred bucks. Super easy to use, so just kind of don't spend a million dollars on a camera if you're not going to use all the features.

Just keep that in mind. Okay and again. check out True Tech Tools if you're interested. so let me see what else we got going on in the chat.

Um, a one degree drop across a liquid line dryer is about three to four. PSI pressure drop across? replace the dryer? Yeah, and it also depends though on the velocity how fast the refrigerant's moving through the system. So that's why it's so important to adequately size your liquid. Line Filter dryers and suction Line Filter dryers Because if you put too small of a dryer on there, you potentially can create a a false pressure drop.

That's literally just because the dryer doesn't have enough. Um, doesn't have the ability to let the refrigerant flow through it properly. Okay, so keep that in mind I tend to try to oversize my dryers as much as I can The type of systems that I work on typically Refrigeration two horsepower and Below I'm using 16 cubic inch dryers on most of my stuff. If I'm doing bigger air conditioning stuff, I might jump up to a 30 cubic inch dryer.

you know? And that's pretty much what I'm using for most of what I do Okay if you have the room of course. So walk-in freezer freezing up at the TXV Any thoughts: There's a million different things that could be causing a walk-in freezer to be freezing up at the TXV but I will say some people tend to think that simply a little bit of frost on the evaporatorical is a problem. It's not necessarily a problem. Okay, depending on how bad it is, that's when you need to worry about it.

Okay, um, if it's a There's a lot of variables in here and it's kind of hard for me to answer that. You can feel free to shoot me an email I'll try to get to it if I can. But one thing I will tell you is if you have a smart evaporator that has Smart Defrost Demand Defrost built in. doesn't matter if it's a heat craft, if it's a Ke2, if it's a intelligent Beacon Um Russell I Can't think of what Russell's Smart Evaporator is called.

something that a lot of the smart evaporators do is they have temperature sensors all over the evaporators and those temperature sensors can help to make sure that ice doesn't build up on the coils, but they typically don't ensure that you don't have ice building up in your expansion valve section. So something to keep an eye on is if you have Smart evaporators just because the coil is clear, you should always on a periodic basis open up the expansion valve section and have a look inside there too. If the customer is really bad about leaving doors open and the smart defrost is taking care of the the the frosting up. but sometimes there could still be some ice on the expansion valve so that's something to think about.

And depending on how bad that ice gets I've seen it cause some damage because of course when ice freezes it expands and at some point that ice something's got to give and it starts smashing components, breaking power heads, and different things like that. So just because you have a smart evaporator that has built-in smart defrost doesn't mean that you don't have to go in and look at the expansion valve in the electrical section every once in a while too. Okay, something to think about. Same thing goes for in this when it goes to like direct drive exhaust fans with Vfds and different things on them.

Just because it doesn't have a belt doesn't mean you don't need to open it up. Clean the vents on the motor, and different things like if it's in the exhaust fan, that kind of stuff. Okay, so that's one thing that I'm starting to notice when it comes to this. smart equipment is.

uh, sometimes it's not as smart as you want it to be. So I'm reading through here. My buddy Bill's in here. Um, oversize your dryers.

But don't oversize your units. That's a hundred percent true. Um, all right. let's see.

Okay, cool. um Aaron asks I already answered that question. Okay, so Kevin Oh, Kevin had a really good question he wanted me to cover. So Kevin is in the industry and he's kind of struggling a little bit.

He's having a hard time picking it up okay, and uh, he's really starting to wonder whether or not he should get out of the industry. Uh, because he's just really having an issue learning everything that he needs to learn. so that is a really hard question for me to answer. Kevin But I'm gonna go ahead and talk on it a little bit.

This industry can be difficult, but something that you need to understand. Just because you know someone that's watching this might like the way that I explain something doesn't mean that my explanation will make sense to everybody. Okay, just because I can think of a really, really good teacher that I had in trade school. his name was Daros Soares and he was at Mount San Antonio Community College actually I still run into him from time to time I see him around.

he's a really awesome dude. He's one of the best teachers that I've ever had. Um I Thought he was a great teacher, but he may not be the best teacher for every single particular person, right? So if you're having a hard time, maybe change something up, find a new Mentor find a new person that's training you. Okay, maybe it's time to move on to a different company.

Maybe who knows. Okay, I would encourage you not to give up I would encourage you to keep trying. Okay, um, start doing some research on your own time. If you haven't already, start watching videos, go to HVAC schools website.

read their Tech tips my buddy Adam who's in the chat right now starting to write Tech tips for HVAC School Um, you know there's a lot of people that give their information out there. Look up my buddy Ty Brandeman Ty Brandeman is probably one of the best teachers that I know he has such a way of talking to people. Um I would I would suggest that you don't give up on this industry. This can be a great industry.

Maybe you just need to change something up. Okay, so that's going to be my advice to you. If you want more clarification on that, feel free to shoot me another email. HVAC Videos at Gmail com Okay, um Mike B says Speaking of Defrost on demand, do I use it or just use time.

Defrost Mike uh if it's under warranty I leave it an on-demand defrost or whatever the manufacturer wants you to do. but I prefer the time defrost just because I run into too many issues. So personally I I usually give it a shot like I'll install a system and I'll leave it in demand defrost. but usually the first or second time that we have a freeze up that I can't figure out why I take it out of that I put it into time.

Defrost for defrost a day for our climate is perfect. Six at the max typically 30 to 45 minutes long with a defrost cut out of about 65 degrees and we're good to go. So um, that's typically what I do I try to keep the smart Defrost in there because of course I want to try to save energy, but if it becomes a problem, it's out the door and we're just going back to time. D For us, most of the time when we have defrosting issues, it's not necessarily the equipment's fault.

it's the customer misusing the equipment. They're in and out of the box too much. It's not designed for them, pushing rays of hot food in there. different things like that.

So that's where the demand. Defrost really starts to have issues because the customer is not using the equipment the way that it was designed to be used. Okay, um, Mike B says he just used time. Don't want to have to come back? Yeah, you know, Probably all right? Um, let me see what else.

Dawn wants some ideas? Oh, this is a great question too. So Dawn wants some ideas on places that he can get equipment manuals from. So he was asking for my advice on different websites or different places. Okay, there's a couple different manufacturers Distributors that have really, really good information.

Number one: if you're working on a Copeland compressor on any of the app stores, just look up Copeland compressors. Okay, they're going to come up with a whole bunch of different apps, cross reference apps, the Copeland mobile app. All these different ones you have to learn the art of Google searches. Okay, with the Google search.

less is more and what I mean by that is just put keywords in your Google search. Okay, do not put an entire phrase. What happens if my coupling compressor is making a clicking noise? You're going to get some random ass answers. Okay, if you want to find a manual for a Copeland compressor, just look up Copeland compressor and the first four digits of the model number.

You don't have to put what is the manual for. Where is the man you just put Copeland compressor zb30 Kce Okay, manual. Boom. There you go.

Okay, Um, so the art of searching for things on Google Less is more? Okay, uh. if you go to equipment manufacturers, almost every manufacturer out there that's reputable has a great website or has a way to find information. Um, Carrier has some really good ones. Linux has some good ones, some of them you have to register for.

you know, just get a username or something like that. There is companies out there like Parts Town who's a distributor? They have a lot of refrigeration and ice machine manuals. Um, Blue On: who's a refrigerant manufacturer and they do tech support and stuff like that? They have a lot of manuals too, but Blue On is starting to put a lot of their stuff behind a paywall, so they may or may not have free information. I Haven't been up to date on what Blue On's doing.

Um, they're constantly. They're just dumping tons and tons of money into it. and they're putting some stuff behind a paywall. Uh, like the tech support I Don't think is free anymore.

You only get tech support if you use their app to order parts. which makes sense because they have to make money. So I Don't know if their manuals are behind a paywall as of yet. Maybe maybe not.

You guys may be in the chat can answer that, but there's a lot of great resources out there and it's all simply a way of asking the Google Okay, Manitowoc Ice machine. Now here's what I suggest if you're looking for Manitowoc Ice Machine manuals. Sure you can go to Parts Town and Parts Town has a lot of manuals, but your best bet is to go to Manitowocice.com Okay, Hoshizakiamerica.com For Hoshizaki, Isomatic, go to their own websites and try to find the manuals there because if they have updates, uh, they're going to be on their own websites typically. First, your best bet is to start there if you really struggle, there's other places to find the manuals, but search your own risk because if you go to third party websites to try to find manuals, they might not be the accurate manuals.

so keep that in mind. Okay, um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat right now. Um, out of curiosity, how many license techs do I have compared to apprentices? Well, we don't have licensing requirements here in Southern California so I don't have any licensed service technicians. Okay, uh, all that we have is a contractor's license to run a business and you have to have a federally mandated EPA Section 608 license.

Basically, it's just a test you have to pass the node. that refrigerant's bad for the environment. Don't vent it into the atmosphere. So in California you do not have to have any kind of a license to be an Hvacr service technician.

I Wish that you did. I'm not a fan of government regulations and government intervention, but man I Really wish we did have some sort of licensing requirements. but then again, the way that we do things, if you had were required to have a license, there'd be some way to bend the rules to get a license anyway. So what else we got going on here? A good Refrigeration training site is Advanced Refrigeration Yeah, Brett and Kevin do a great job Advanced Refrigeration podcast Lots of great information on there.

Um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, do I ever go big Clive and replace components on boards in a pinch Dustin Dude I have soldered components on a board. Maybe one time in my career it was on an older Hoshizaki Ice machine and that was it. For the most part, it's not really worth it to me to try to fix components on circuit boards and different things like that because the liability is just too high.

and I run a business and having my guys out there trying to repair circuit boards, it's just not really feasible for me so we just buy new and move on. Um, all right, reading through the chat. when did I start in the trade? Well, Tony I started working for my father officially like officially in 2002 but I grew up in this trade I grew up working with my dad from a young age sitting on his bucket from probably five six years old and up going to work with them when school was out. My parents were separated or split up so my dad would pick me up on his way home from work and I would go.

usually run one or two calls with him and then uh, you know, go to his house for the weekend or something like that. So I I was I've always been touching things. The funny thing is is that the early part of my life like Junior High School I told my dad I hated this I hated doing this work and I didn't want to do it anymore because most of the time when my dad would take me to work, he'd throw me up to the roof and say hey, go change the the pads on the swamp coolers, go change the belts on the swamp coolers, go change the AC filters and it was just all work on the roof and it was hot and it was just like in I wasn't doing anything technical, it was just boring right? I was Just a limbing changing Phil filters and changing belts and it was boring to me once I started getting into troubleshooting and diagnosing. That's when everything really started opening up for me and I realized like how much I loved this trade.

we've since partnered. um you know he's semi like he's got three feet out the door. He really doesn't work. he doesn't work at all I mean when like physically out in the field he works in the office comes in two to three days a week? Um, but yeah, he's pretty much done with the industry.

So um, let me say hello to everybody. All right? um Copeland uh oh so I I made a video this last week and I thought it was a pretty cool one because going through the Copeland AE bulletin I was able to figure out I changed my I don't know if I told you guys in the closing words but I originally had thought there was something going on with uh the the IPR the internal pressure relief valve inside that compressor. but after I started reading the the AE bulletin as I was making the video and putting it up on the screen and showing everybody that stuff I quickly came to a change in my diagnosis and realized that it was the snap disk that was the problem in that compressor. it wasn't the IPR valve.

So I encourage everybody out there if you're working on a coupling compressor. Go Download the AE bulletin for that compressor. It's not the same one for every compressor and every compressor has different the different ways that they're built. They're built for higher compression ratios.

Low temp compressors are built to have higher compression ratios. Um, you know they're built to pump down to lower rates and different things like that. So the compressor that I was working on I think it said don't pump it down past 17 PSI when you were doing a low side pump down, right? But if you're working on a low temp compressor, you're going to see them have an approval rating to be pumped down to like six or seven. PSI right? So every compressor is going to be different.

so I highly encourage you guys to go download those AE technical bulletins, just download the Copeland mobile app and just Google search Or you know, search up the compressor and there's so much information in there. I was shown in the video that I learned that apparently on um, you know, uh, single phase compressors you don't need. uh on the ZB models, you don't need a crankcase heater I never knew that. that's really cool.

So there's so much information in those manuals. and I encourage you guys to Google search to look it up. Um, Oh, I learned something this last week. Something that I didn't know I was surprised I didn't know this.

Hey, I learned something new every day and I'm not afraid to admit it. So in my video I had a pressure control that had failed on that system. My compressor had two Roto lock valves I don't know why I've never thought about doing this before, but someone in the chat came up with a brilliant idea so they said hey, why go through all the trouble that I went through to install the temporary pressure control when what I could have done was started to pump down the compressor, get it to like 35 PSI whatever I could then shut it off right, shut the breaker off Then what I could have done was taken a hose from the high side port, put it onto the low side port, front seated both of those valves. Okay, well actually no I could have front seated the valve.

but anyways, take the take the pressure from the high side with the compressor turned off and dump it into the low side. um with the valves actually no. now that I think about that, will that actually work? Yeah, you could I guess. but basically transfer the gas from the high side into the low side.

but you'd have to do some some work around because you can't have the compressor running to do that and you have to make sure that the compressor doesn't run when you front seat both of those valves. But what I could have done was I could have dumped some high side gas into the low side. Um, you know what? No. now that I think about it.

No, I couldn't have done that. You know what? I was I was reading through the comments right now and someone said that I could have front seated both of those valves and dumped the high side gas into the low side. but no, that wouldn't have worked. Um I could have taken some of the pressure out of the high side I guess, but it's probably going to relieve inside the compressor.

You guys are hearing my brain work as we're going through this right now. Okay, so I could have gotten some of the gas out of there, but in theory the only way to properly change that control is to recover all the gas out because it wasn't like I had a parallel rack system where I could just shut down one compressor and have the other compressor suck the gas out of the high side of just the the crank case right there. so no that that wouldn't have really worked in that situation. But anyways, you guys get what.

I'm going at that All right. Um, reading through here. Uh, reading through the chat right now. See what I'm missing? Okay, cool, uh, nothing on there right now.

Um, all right. So when you know uh, I was working on the roof the other day and uh, we're we're having some monsoonal moisture come through in Southern California where the humidity is going up? Of course we're still not hitting really really high humidity. Okay, um, but we had uh the other day I was up on the roof and uh, we had 26 relative humidity outside. Okay, that's pretty high for us, that's it's not very common that we see 26 relative humidity, but it was 115 degrees on the roof.

That's a heat index of 128 degrees. I Was working on the roof and that for about eight hours on the roof doing a bunch of rooftop work. You need to be careful. You need to make sure you're taking care of your body, know your body, take breaks before you think you need breaks, and make sure you're eating food.

I'm the worst person at doing that, but trust me, you don't want to get a heat stroke. Imagine how difficult it's going to be if someone even finds you in time. If you pass out on the Roof then the firefighters have to get you off the roof. That is going to be the biggest ordeal in the world when you can simply just climb down the ladder.

Go take a break every 20 to 25 minutes. so be careful, take care of your bodies. Okay, um, let me see what else we got going on in here. Uh, he says I've been having problems on airflow where door is easy to open when on.

um I need some more information on that one bud. So shoot me an email HVAC our videos at Gmail.com Um see what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, reading through here right now? Okay, cool. nothing there. Um I am going through right now where we are having so many compressor failures and it's just a direct sign of the customers cutting out the routine maintenance.

It really started when Covet happened and the shutdowns and everybody started changing their budgets and focusing their priorities. And then when they came out of the coveted crap, they started spending money again. But then they were like hey, let's not do routine maintenance right We are having so many compressor failures right now two to three at a time on the same package unit because they're not taking care of their equipment and it's just leading to lots and lots of issues. These customers are going to learn their lessons I Mean it's just ridiculous.

I Just had a service technician out at one site we have two compressors. The condenser was completely impacted to the point that he had to spend like three hours cleaning the condenser because it just wouldn't come clean. We had to use the improper cleaners on it because it was a micro Channel condenser. What? It was impacted with grease? It's just a disaster.

What's happening out at these stores? And and it's all because the customers aren't doing routine maintenance. You know? Um, reading through the chat right now. Hello to everybody hello Jesus How you doing Bud? Um, all right. I did read that uh Copeland is going to have a price increase.

We all knew that was coming right because they had a buyout where they had a giant company buy them out. um Blackstone Partners I think bottom out and I'm sure it was inevitable that it was going to be price increases even if they didn't buy them out. but I heard that there's going to be a significant price increase come September 1st, so get ready for that one. As usual, that means everybody else's prices are going to go up even significantly too, because that's going to eat into their profits, right? Um, so Joe had asked at the beginning of the chat.

Joe Corbin if I have a plan to start getting rid of all my 410A equipment I haven't I still have more R22 equipment that I have 410A equipment. So don't think we're going to have any plans to start retroactively replacing or proactively replacing equipment. These customers are not going to do it. They're going to hold on to the last minute.

So what? I encourage everybody out there to do. If you work in any of the commercial stuff like I do stockpile that refrigerant. Buy it now when it's cheaper because two three years from now, the prices are just going to go through the roof and you get to sit on a stockpile. So trust me, do it Back during the Kova deal, we all had a crystal ball.

We knew this was coming. 100 Mike 100. You know, 100 have I Dealt with digital compressors before. Um I Have a few digital compressors out there, but really haven't ever had any problems with them at all.

so they've just been running their hearts away. So I really haven't had to dive deep into them? No, um, what is up there will speed how you doing my friend. Uh, something interesting uh Joe was also seen and I didn't realize this but it totally makes sense and I did a little bit of research really quick and did find this to be true. On the A2l refrigerants that are coming out, they're gonna have reverse threads on the refrigerant cylinders.

Okay, so that's interesting. So you're going to probably need an adapter. You're gonna have to thread on an adapter so you can use normal refrigerant hoses to be able to connect to the A2l refrigerants. I will tell you right now too.

A2l refrigerants will not be approved. Okay, for retrofit, period. A2l refrigerants will only be for new systems. That's it.

Okay, so A2ls are mildly flammable refrigerants. They have a mildly flammable component. It does not have R290 in them. You are not putting R290 into residential equipment yet.

That will come in the future eventually. It can. mark my words, that will come, but it's nowhere near that right now. now.

We're just introducing A2l's but those A2ls will have special cylinders. They will have reverse threads on them and just remember, you will be not. You will not be retrofitting existing systems with A2 Wells Okay, so you don't have to worry about that. It will only be on new installs.

Uh, let's see what else we got going on in here. Yeah, make sure to hit the Thumbs Up Button if you guys haven't already. It definitely helps out the Stream Um. reading through the chat right now, what am I missing in Cleveland We have 26 percent humidity in a 500 Micron vacuum.

That's funny Weaver Yeah, we don't know what humidity is here in Southern California Okay, when you get near the coast in different places like that, yeah you can get it. but you don't get the high temperatures. so you know I work out in the desert a lot I Do not live in the desert contrary to what people believe when they see me working out in the Coachella Valley the Palm Springs area I Live an hour and a half away from there, two hours away from there I'm nowhere near there. that is not my service area I Just happened to service a couple customers.

What started me with those really far out stores that are out in the middle of nowhere is a customer coming to me and saying hey, we want you to take on 12 of our restaurants right? And I said sure, let's do it and they said oh, but if you want to take those 12, we need you to take these two out in the middle of nowhere. Okay, you know, so you take them as all right and then they end up becoming your busiest stores right? So yeah, I don't regularly work out in that crazy area the Coachella Valley but it's just I do it for about one, two, three, three customers I go out there for so I'm reading through the chat. Um, right on. John John says he does Automation and just enjoys the troubleshooting techniques and walkthroughs.

That's really cool. You know it's really neat. Uh, it was. It was a little disheartening when I when I realized that people that were not in the HVAC trade were watching these videos.

um, just because it was like oh man, I wish people that were doing this were watching it right because I get a mixture of both. But I've quickly realized that what was really neat is when you start getting the emails and they're like hey, I started watching your videos and then I got into the industry and it's like oh, that worked, you know and then you start getting more and more and more of those and you're like oh, this is kind of cool. You know people that aren't in the industry might be intrigued by this and then get into the industry because they see these cool videos. You know so it's really neat.

Any Refrigeration tips for new guys? Yeah, man, just keep your eyes open and your ears open right? Know when to ask questions? There's a time and place for questions. Take lots of pictures when you can because there is some job sites you're not allowed to take pictures, but make sure you're taking pictures and researching equipment when you get home. Okay, um, don't be afraid to ask other people questions too, but something that's very important. if you work for a service company, your service manager needs to know your weaknesses.

If there's nothing wrong with someone knowing what your weaknesses are, okay, but your service manager needs to know when you're struggling with something. Even if you get it figured out on your own, he still needs to know. Hey, I had a hard time figuring that out. I Reached out to a few friends.

they gave me some ideas. This is what they told me to do and then run it by him. That's going to show him number one. It's not going to show weakness.

What it's going to show is that you have drive to learn, but you're also keeping him informed. So that way he knows or she knows that you need a little extra attention when it comes to that subject. Okay, I think Honesty is so important in this industry because too many people join it and then they'll let their pride get in the way of things and they don't want to ask questions and they don't want to admit that they don't know what they're doing. There's nothing wrong with asking for help.

Okay, it's just just trust me as a business owner I want to know my guys weaknesses so I can help them or I can keep track of their learning. So that way I can make sure that they're all you know doing what they need to do to figure things out. Um, no pad and pin always have it for sure right? for sure. How do I determine which torch tip to use? Joe Mendoza Um, well it just depends.

So I use I use a zero tip I use a number two tip I use a number 15 tip. So I typically use about three different tips. Um, if I'm using a zero tip, it's typically on half inch and smaller copper. Okay, zero tip is going to be the best.

A zero tip is amazing. I do uh, Oxy Acetylene brazing. So I don't use a B tank or anything like that. Okay, so Oxy Acetylene brazing with a zero tip.

if you're fixing evaporator coils or condenser coils that have a whole bunch of U-bins that zero tip is the best because it focuses the heat where you need it and it doesn't fan out the flame too much. If I'm working on big stuff, then I'll use a number 15 Rosebud And you know, let that solder just melt all over the place. If I'm working on just moderate stuff, you know, half inch and above. I'll use a number two tip typically.

So um Daikin will find out. the hard. Oh okay. I See, you're going in there.

Um, reading through the chat right now. what else am I missing? Um, reverse threads are what you use on Automotive One, two three four, YF Well, right on there you go. Tom Um, that makes sense too, because that is a mildly flammable refrigerant. So um, what else do we got going on in here? So uh, let me ask the chat.

So in the chat: are you guys Oxia Acetylene brazers? or are you B tank brazers? When you're when you're using a torch or whatever you want to call it I've always been Oxy Acetylene. I'm going to be honest with you. the B tank. It makes so much noise.

it drives me nuts. like I couldn't ever use that because it just makes way too much noise. Can't handle it? Um I'm sure it's effective in different times, but the Flame's a little bit wide on a B tank too. So I just prefer an oxy acetylene setup.

So uh, lots of people use bee tanks. Lots of people use oxyacetylene. There's nothing wrong. Either way, if it works, it works right.

Whatever floats your boat. Um, right on. Very cool. Now let me ask you this when it comes to Oxy Acetylene, if you're using a number two tip, what is the proper way? If you're using a number one tip, a zero tip or a 15, a rose bud doesn't matter.

Whatever. A Captain Hook tip. How do you know what pressures to use for the the the tip that you're using on your Oxy Acetylene brazing rig? So I'm asking the chat right now. How do you know? Because we all have rules of thumb that we use right? Because I certainly know my rules of thumb that I was taught and the the numbers that I use now.

But where's the proper way to figure out what pressures to set your oxygen and your acetylene at? There's a pressure chart that's a hundred percent true. There is a pressure chart So When you buy the manufacturer on the tip, they have either instructions with the torch kit or when you buy a new Harris or whatever brand tip for your oxyacetylene brazing rig. On the packaging, it has the pressure settings for the different tips that you use. It just so happens that with my zero tip I Typically braze at about five oxygen, five acetylene and that's right within the range of what the manufacturer says to use on that zero tip.

Okay, so always want to pay attention to what the manufacturer is telling you to use. So that way the tip is being used effectively and dispersing the heat properly and giving the right amount of heat when you're brazing. Um, let me see. All right, cool.

Uh, your Western Regulators are preset. They are preset free on Leon but they're not preset for each individual tip, so keep that in mind. Um, yes, Western has a problem with the rosebud tip because they're they're preset for different tips, but they're not really set up and that's that's the thing that I was a little worried about when I saw the Western Regulators that were preset that came out. So um, you stopped worrying about exact pressure after both your dials broke and I'll be honest, there's been times in the past that both of my dials were broken.

Then you have to just dial it in by feel. I've been there before, but I try to get the gauges replaced. Try to set an example for everybody. Forever Nasty says your Regulators work.

That's exactly right. Trust me. I've been there. we've all been there okay, 100 been there.

Uh, have both options raised on B tank but prefer oxy acetylene. However, you're having an issue with the handle you believe where the tip keeps getting hot and burning up the gaskets. It's suited up a bit so something to remember. Uh, something that I realized a long time ago was I was actually buying a rosebud tip for a while that was meant for a bee tank and I was using it.

Um, it was meant for yeah. I Think it was meant for a B tank or something like that and it wasn't the right tip. So make sure you're buying the right tips for the type of gases that you're using on your system. So um Tom Lech says he works with broken dials.

No big deal. Your ears and eyes will tell you a lot. That is a hundred percent true. When you've been working in the industry long enough, you really start to get accustomed to things and you can tell what's right and what's not right for sure.

Um, all right. Cool, Right on. Well I think it is time to wrap this one up. I'm trying to make these things a little bit shorter because we tend to go really long and then I tend to lose my voice and get exhausted And it's dinner time here.

So I'm gonna go try to spend as much time with my family as humanly possible. I Really do appreciate you guys making it to the live stream. Thank you very much. Remember to be kind to one another.

Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and queue up the outro music and we will definitely catch you on the next one. Okay, and maybe I could do this right to where it actually does it there. Thank you Foreign thank you thank you Foreign.