In this episode Bert diagnoses and repairs a low voltage short in the dark and does the worst caulking job in history.
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Read all the tech tips, take the quizzes
and find our handy calculators at https://www.hvacrschool.com/
My name's live shitbird screen light 8:30 at night and I got another call. So let's go do this. I just talked to the guy and I'm following another company that was telling him he needed a new thermostat. Can you see me yeah anyways, just listen! Okay, Jim: this is a podcast one of Brian's podcasts, so this guy, the use told by the other company, needs something thermostat and they kept replacing low-voltage.
He is it. Wow is really guarded. Try not to get distracted, so anyways boxer pieces and they just left it with him, but he lost confidence in this other company and he called us and so we'll go there and find out that thermostats actually what's causing the shore most likely. Not I mean that's pretty rare, so cool, it's much better when you turn off the air, so hopefully we got a little low voltage short going on and we can do some isolation.
Diagnostics, 101, with Bert this hill quality, just okay. This is how you isolate. If the thermostats actually causing a short or if something else is going on, you pull the thermostat off and at that point, you're not gon na have 24 volts on any of your other wires, because the thermostat sends that call. So you wire not those other wires and too hot into 24 volts, and if the source keeps happening, your issue is in the lines air handler or outside it's, not the thermostat.
If everything runs without shorting out, then you can start suspecting the thermostat okay. So, first step of any short diagnostic is a visual inspection. All your wires. All your trouble points see if you can find that short, so the very first place I look is inside this condenser really common to have rub outs in here on low voltage lines on on your copper, so check out your common spots.
First trouble issues like this splice this here it'll definitely want to open that up. Take a look at it, but yeah I've gone over this little system. Everything looks fine, I'm not picking up any visual shorts. So but that's where you want to start see if you can find it with your eyes first, so what I need to do now is actually isolate where the shorts happening at you can see here.
Our fuse has blown some evidence that we've had some tries trying to get that a short figured out. So that's how I do it. Okay, we got a short happening right away. I put a new fuse in hooked.
It up BAM, instant shore, thermostats off the circuit. So that can be out of eliminated. So what I do is disconnect our wires like this and isolate the outdoor unit from the indoor side, because our thermostat and it's just a process of elimination from there. Okay, so I had a detective been in the field.
A long time the old timer teach me this when I got stuck on the job once and I was blown through fees as I gone through, I don't know 20 fuses and I couldn't figure out this thing. I was really great and my head was spinning. He taught me this little spark test to take it up. This is our hot.
It's coming straight back! It's got 24 bolts on it. You can connect it to one wire at a time to see if there's sparks. These are our wires right here going to the thermostat, so you'll want to do that. One side at a time read no shorts on. There then put those out of the way, and this is just an easy way. They actually build low-voltage resettable fuses for this, but this isn't an easy way that I do this spark. Oh spark you'll often get just a small spark in your contactor or reversing valve, where you have a coil yeah that that's way too much right there on a reversing valve, see that wait too much part. Now I haven't blown a fuse of that.
This is our wire going out to the condenser, and what I need to do is go outside now, disconnect to condenser unit completely now to isolate the wire that goes under to chase an idea of the shore is inside our chase or not. This now isolates the wires between this point and inside at the air handler, so our condenser defrost board all of our safety wires. Here. Everything inside the condenser is now out of the circuit.
Okay, completely disconnected from our chase and dug out the chase, see if we still got it happening inside our Chase, definitely all right when anything hooked up to our condenser, just the chase wire and it's the same way on the inside unit. Nothing hooked up, except for the chase wire, done a visual inspection down as far as I can see into the chase and the wires on the other side down into the platform now we're getting too short to ground on our orange and turn on the meter. Ohms with the beeper for dramatic effect there, it is Assistant ground on orange, so my meters, picking up the same thing that I already confirmed through isolation with the spark test or you could isolate it with fuses or if you have a resettable fuse for diagnostic. You could use that there you have.
It got a short in our chase yippee-ai-yay. I got some work to do so. Yes, we are absolutely gon na run some more wire tonight get this taken care of, because we can all right. I know you're excited to be up here in an attic with me again: okay, just an attic.
This is our first time together in an attic. It's really not that bad tonight. So don't cry for me. I fish my wire up to there.
We just got ta crawl through a little bit of this Florida snow. You get a line. I got a pole babe. You know this would be a whole lot easier if you're on the other side, making sure this didn't just hung up and stuck leave enough extra up here, that I can pull it through and fish it into the air handler from there.
Let's get out his, I had it coming swimming has been fun, it's been real, but let's get out of here. While we still can dedication to the selfie stick, if you like, HVAC you're gon na, really appreciate how beautiful what I'm about to do is you know it's just all improv off of my man. You know that you realize that anyways check this out. Oh wow, that was hot, am i right and we're just gon na strap this up right here? Okay, here's my my setup out here. Here's this beautiful watertight connection and I got a strapped here my thermostat wire, going into the condenser. So this is protected from weather and lawn care guys and up into the ease we just got to secure this, which is a piece of cake we're on the beat o'clock behind you just push it against there and you're good. So, let's get to work really really guys. You guys will believe anything about me right now.
No, that's not what we're gon na do it's working! You know when you're tired, you don't really feel like always wearing the safety gear that maybe you should maybe when you're tired. It's also in you in the most vulnerable, making a mistake slipping Wow. I was literally the most boring thing. I've ever said tell you what it sure looks good enough for 11 o'clock.
That looks good enough, like enjoying my dance of celebration.
The wire you said was hot and used to touch the other wires with , is that the hot low voltage from the transformer?
This was a very good video. Great folk happy to share knowledge.
Smart kid good job
Great video, thank you.
How does the fuse not blow with that larger spark? Just not in the circuit long enough? Thanks for all you do!
Great video. Real life HVAC. Thank you.
You better be paying this guy good!!
Lmao. Dedication to the selfie stick.
Good job bert keep it up๐
Bert why not use straight liquid tight in to the attic. Lol
You are so crazy good video man appreciate that comedy but a lot of information good combination keep going man
I definitely like Your videos Bert! Keep up the good work! Service area Ottawa??
Good video, but what about the extra wires that were already there? Couldnโt you have used green, or brown?
funny stuff. makes it look easy Service area Barrhaven??
Because we can! My motto at work!
Love this guy lol Service area Kanata??
Great work my lazy ass would have told them u don't need defrost in Florida and bypassed the board for the night or forever!!! Great job Service area Orleans??
Great documentation of a late night, low voltage short call. And nice dedication at the end to making the new low voltage line looking clean and uniform with the existing high voltage whip. Most guys at that hour would leave it looking โgood enoughโ.
Loving the Bert vids. Awkward humor always gets me.
Looks like you have spare conductors twisted around sheath. Why not ohm spare conductors & use good one saving customer cost pulling new wire? I pull wire with spare conductors for this reason. I salvaged Carrier 3.2amp control breaker, put on aligator clips & clip breaker in series to prevent possible shorting out transformer.
Love the RAMBO head light
Did you check if the blue wire sparked?
Great video!
Nathan your name is Bert
Audio was lousy. Maybe my phone
Chip off the ole ORR
Good tip HVAC Travolta ๐บ Are you in Orleans ?
Keep it up bro ! I'll definitely start to watch your other video. Subbed
Enjoy your videos ๐
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Great tip for finding shorts. I show all my guys that method
Good stuff Brother!
This is awesome.
whoever did this deserves a raise great editing.
The Bert Videos remind me of a Modern Day Jim Varney/Ernest P. Worrell.
Please keep making these.
Subscribed Iโm a newbie and love the way you show each step
plus not boring๐ Are you in Kanata ?
Nice video bro
My first Bert, I'll watch more…
Great vid!! Are you in Ottawa ?
Damm you good
Ryobi drill? Bert, you better than that!
But who's paying OT to have you there at night?
Weโre is the black test wire coming from? Are you in Nepean ?
Freaky fred moved to hvac after what he did to courage
I have my own life, but I can get used to Bert's life.
Bert is a hit!