Check check, testing testing testing. Can you guys hear me: is the microphone working? I am really fed up with all of this stuff right now. So let me know if you guys can hear this. I have a feeling it doesn't seem like it's working properly.

Can anybody hear me in the chat right now? This is frustrating uh. Okay, it is working. Can you guys hear me on normal levels, because it's not showing okay all right yeah? This is frustrating um, oh well, we'll get started with it and we'll deal with it, but for whatever reason i had to go, live with youtube live and i couldn't do the intro music and my cameras flipped very frustrating. This is what happens when i take my computer apart to go to the ahr trade show everything gets messed up and it is what it is so, oh well, for today my office will be backwards and uh everything will be like this, so hopefully you guys are Doing well um, so i'm fresh back from the ahr trade show had a little bit of time to relax.

Uh took the weekend. Actually i took the friday off. Let's see i got back thursday yeah. I think it was thursday.

Whatever day i know so. I took thursday off and then i was working friday and then had the weekend off and then you know obviously today so um, but i have to say the ahr trade show um for those that are just uh tuning in right. Now we had some technical difficulties. Everything's messed up right now, all my gears messed up because of the uh um.

I had taken everything apart, so it's just a disaster right now my office is still a dumpster fire. I'm about to take everything. Well, not i'm not going to take everything apart, but i am about to go to the the hvacr training symposium in florida too. So it's just it's just a hectic week for me, but it is all good.

So i hope you guys are all doing well. Um, like i started saying, uh hr trade show last week was amazing. Uh actually was really nice because i got to take some time off fly out with my wife, um and uh spend the weekend with her, and then she actually flew home monday morning to pick up the kids from school. But it was really nice to be able to spend some time with her, and you know just it was really cool too, because she got to meet with a lot of my peers right and she got to meet a lot of the sporting people.

She got to meet some of my friends. She got to go to the hvac tactical awards with me, and that was really cool to be able to just to have her be part of this. I'm talking about my wife right now, so the fact that she was able to be part of this and and get to see the littlest glimpse. Now she didn't get to see the hr trade show live, but she did come into the show with me on sunday to kind of set up the sporland booth and get all my audio and studio gear and stuff set up.

So it was really cool. I do have to say thanks to uh um solderweld and thanks to hvac tactical, for putting on the hvac tactical awards that was really cool. It was really neat for those that are chiming in right now, everything's kind of messed up right now, my camera's flipped everything's backwards, because my streaming software is not quite working yet you know it's really interesting, so i have this whole youtube thing right. I put videos on youtube.

I do all this stuff and uh. I really am not that good with technology, so something's wrong in my streaming software and it's the same thing like i wasn't able to figure it out at the ahr trade show too. So i really got ta dig down into it. I'm sure it's just a button.

I need to click, but something got messed up and for whatever reason, i'm not outputting audio. Using my normal live streaming software. It is a pain in my butt. I am not that good at all this stuff, but it is what it is.

So i hope you guys are all doing well. I am well, i am healthy. My family is healthy, so that's all that i can ask for in these crazy times right now, but um so yeah, the ahr trade show uh what an amazing event uh. I was uh at the sporland booth for a good part of it.

It was really cool, great central meeting place uh the sportland people are all amazing people, it's great to be able to hang out with them. This is my second event that i've done uh. The second hr trade show the previous one was in orlando, so um, and it was really neat because spoiling really did it up. They had a full live streaming setup for me, a place to hang out and it was neat to have a central meeting point for people to come up and say: hey.

If you guys are watching this and you don't know what the ahr trade show is. It's an annual show um, there's a lot of reasons that they do it. It's a multiple meetings of um, ashrae and all kinds of different stuff people meet up to have meetings, but on top of that they do an annual trade show, and originally this was more for manufacturers and distributors to kind of get together but they've started. Bringing in.

I wouldn't say the public, but they started bringing in technicians and contractors and stuff and it's kind of changing, shape and kind of going in a different direction. So it's really neat um, it was attendance, was definitely lower than it's ever been, but that's kind of to be expected. The numbers were pretty good, they did have mass mandates. We don't got to get political about that kind of stuff, but i mean you know that probably drove a lot of people off, but it was really neat and i have to say that i think vegas was a great location to have the ahr trade show.

I do have to tell you guys, though i don't know if i told this story on the uh the overtime show. If you guys don't already know, i do a show on friday evenings with my friend on the hv or friends on the hvac overtime, youtube channel. Um but anyways, i can't remember if i told this story or not, but i went out with some friends. I went out with gil cavey from hvac uncensored and my buddy scott and uh.

What was it probably tuesday night, i think, maybe yeah. I think it was tuesday night we went out and we were hanging out had dinner, we're drinking and stuff and we all parted ways - and i was gon na hop back on the tram, because there's a a monorail that runs between the casinos and i got lost In a casino now to be fair, i'd been drinking, but i literally got lost in a casino for an hour. I was walking in circles for the life of me. I could not find the tram i just kept walking in circles over and over and over again.

I know the harris casino really well now, because that was the the casino that i got lost in um. I didn't gamble, though, so i didn't fall into their trap. I know they were trying to trap me in their casino, but you know it's interesting because for people you know, i've always heard that casinos do deceptive things to try to keep people in them. So they can't tell what time of day it is.

They can't see daylight that kind of stuff, but for someone, that was mildly intoxicated. I genuinely realized that they do try to trap you in their casinos, because it was just a long story short. But i mean it was just a long night, but it was just kind of funny because by the time i made it back to my room. It was like midnight, it was just like and then on top of that yeah to add insult to injury.

So i got lost in the casino and i finally, the only place i didn't go was up this escalator that had no signs telling you what was up the escalator. So, finally, i went up the escalator and then sure enough. There's the tram entrance stupid me. You know but anyways, so then i make it to the tram and i get on the tram and then i realize i got on the wrong one and i went the wrong direction so then i had to get off at the las vegas convention center exit.

All by myself, i'm the only people at that tram platform, only person at the tram platform, and it was just just what a night, but it was such a great great weekend and it was amazing so um as usual. Uh i've got a lot of things. I want to talk about. I got a list of things to talk about in front of me if people are just tuning in right now and they're wondering what the heck is going on, why everything's backwards in my studio? It's because my camera's messed up right now and i just still trying to set everything up from the trade show it's just a mess, so um real, quick, i will be tentatively, i mean everything seems to be going.

Okay, i will be at the hvacr training symposium for hvac school in uh claremont florida here. What is it uh next next week? Yeah, i think i leave next week. Sometime, i think, is, is right: yeah whenever it is, i'm gon na be there so myself um and some of the overtime guys it'll be adam and bill curious, hvac guy will be there. Uh joe will not be there, but you know we'll see joe another time but yeah we're gon na be at the training symposium.

So if you guys are going to be in you know, uh around the orlando area, claremont florida is about 45 minutes away. I will be there: maybe we can figure something out or something like that. Just hit me up on social media, so it should be a great event if you guys, i believe, they're already sold out for the event. I think, but i know that they'll probably still be selling some online tickets, definitely an event you want to be at and or even do the online event.

I'm sure it'll be a great thing. So um, let's see not tram monorail there you go yeah so yeah. I just got lost in there um. Let's see, uh, no okay, so um keep six is saying on overtime.

I said: booths went for as high as a million dollars. No, that was a little inaccurate. I was told by someone in the past that some manufacturers spent up to a million dollars on their booths. I don't know that to be the case.

This time i do have to say that it seemed like every manufacturer at the trade show. This time did scale. It down a little bit from previous years. Orlando um, i want to say there was like 50 to 60 000 people at the orlando event, which was two years ago, and some of the booths were definitely bigger at the orlando event.

I think everybody's kind of scaling it down just a little bit because they didn't know how many people were going to be there this time. But i imagine, as the years come on, it'll get better and better. Something that was interesting, though, was at the ahr trade. Show was how exhausted everybody was right, so any of the social influencers any of the educators, any of the booth attendees or the booth people running the booths.

Things like that. We were all exhausted because, even though i come from southern california and we have very dry air, it was extremely dry in vegas um that and all the smoke and everything from in the casinos. It was just a nightmare. So um, let's see what else we got going on in here, uh, oh yeah, i see a lot of people are waiting for the live stream to start um yeah i hold on just a second had to launch lau and soon another one audio issues.

So people are still waiting for the live stream to start so someone just messed with me right now, so audio issues um hold on just one sec, just search hvac or videos on youtube. This is actually hvac reefer guy, i'm messaging right now. Um youtube! Sorry about this guys, i'm not a fan of dead air but uh. It is what it is right, all right, um, so uh anyways.

It was just such a great show. So i'm gon na get to a couple questions here so um as usual. You guys uh feel free when you guys get the opportunity to send me questions comments, different things that you want me to cover now. I can't always cover this stuff.

If you guys have things you want me to cover, put it in the live, chat, put it in caps, lock i'll, try to get to it. If you um, you know, people send me emails and different questions and different things like that. All the time - and i try to address them at least i consolidate a lot of the common questions and try to address them on these live streams. Okay, so um had a a couple videos since the last live stream, because obviously i skipped a few because of the ahr trade show.

So we got a few videos to talk about, but i want to jump into some of these questions. Um. Let me see where's a really good one, because there's a couple good questions that i had on this and i wanted to cover uh some certain ones right here. So um, let's see as far as the recent videos, something that i wanted to talk about.

So i had a video called clean oil is overrated and preventative maintenance is not necessary. I think, is what i said um. So that was an interesting video because it had a failed head pressure control valve in it. Okay and i had a lot of questions about the failed head pressure control valve people seem to blame head pressure, control valves head masters, whatever you want to call them, because they think that they are constantly failing when, in fact, they're just prone to system issues.

Okay, when we're not maintaining our equipment when we're not cleaning the condensers, it's not just going to go off on high head pressure, there's actually internal damage going on inside that system and that internal damage can wreak havoc on the inside of the system. Okay. So, yes, we have oftentimes high pressure safety controls that will shut the equipment off to protect the compressor. But if a system is consistently running with high head pressure, it's going to start to damage the oil and damage the internal components of the system.

So i had a recent video where there was a lot of things going on with this system. We had an iced up evaporator on a walk-in cooler, but then, on top of that, i noticed, as i was walking away, that the head pressure control valve had failed. It was stuck open okay, so, in that video i addressed something - and i know a lot of people think this is kind of controversial, but i said there's no point in cutting the pigtail on the head pressure control valve, because the failure that i had clearly something Was stuck inside the valve in my situation, the valve you guys will have to go back and see the video, but i analyzed the head pressure control valve. I took it apart and the valve itself was gummed up with black like soot and grime from bad oil.

In the system, okay - and that was simply caused because the customer doesn't maintain their equipment, they don't do proper preventative maintenances and it leads to system failures. Okay, so um, when we don't maintain our equipment. Like i said it's not just as simple as it's going to go off on high head pressure, then you reset it. Then it turns on.

If that consistently happens, you can internally damage the compressor. You can damage the oil in the system. Okay, is it easy to change oil in some situations it is but on hermetically sealed, compressors oftentimes, there's no oil port. In my situation we had a hermetic compressor.

There was no oil poured in it. Okay, so um there's not a whole lot. You can do in that situation other than unsweat. The compressor pour the oil out now, if you have semi hermetic compressors oftentimes, there's an oil fill port and even on some higher end, bigger scroll compressors.

There's oil fill ports too to where you can actually drain all the oil out of the system. Now, on a compressor that has a oil fill port there's easy ways what you could do is you could pump the system down? You could recover the charge and leave just a little bit of positive pressure in it. You could uh open up the oil fill port. You know drain the oil out of the compressor, uh, there's so many different ways.

You can do it, but on a hermetically sealed compressor, that's that's welded, together or braves together, there's not a lot of great ways to change the oil so oftentimes. It's not very practical. I've shown in videos where i've taken compressors and tried to pour the oil out like unsweat them and honestly, it's not the greatest thing ever because when you try to pour oil out of the suction line of a compressor, inevitably, there's gon na be oil on the Inside of the copper line that you're gon na have to end up brazing another piece of copper, two to seal it up and getting oil out of the copper lines. It's not gon na make for a good braze joint.

So it's not very practical to be doing oil changes on hermetically sealed compressors that do not have oil fill ports. Sometimes you just got to deal with it and or if you're going to unsweat the compressor i mean how much more is the compressor, with the amount of labor and time you're going to put into recovering the entire charge for the most part on most systems. You have to recover the entire charge to take the compressor out of the picture now, there's some situations where they might have ball valves, but again it's not very common, so majority of the time you're gon na have to go through recovering the charge. You're gon na have to change the dryers you're gon na have to unsweat the compressor and you're going to go through a lot of effort.

When you know for an extra 1200 bucks, you can probably throw a compressor in there depending on the size. So you know it's not always practical and it really depends on where the customer wants to go in those situations. Okay, uh john deere fan says: have i dealt with an exhaust fan constantly burning through motors uh yeah? I actually have so let me cross something off. My list real, quick um - i already talked about that one.

So for those that don't know, i have a list sitting in front of me right now and i usually cross things off that way. I know that i covered those particular subjects, so i actually have on my list to tell a story about an exhaust fan that kept burning through motors and let me find it on my list, so i can cross it off and then get to that one um. Let's see, i don't see that one right there, i'm looking. Ah there we go so um okay, so it's really important to understand that when you're dealing with exhaust fans - okay, so let's step back a little bit in what i do.

I cover a variety of things when i work in the restaurants. I work in restaurant refrigeration. That's my main priority right. I cover air conditioning refrigeration, ice machines, exhaust fans, heating components.

I do not do fryers. I do not do ovens the hot side, equipment, okay, so um exhaust fans are something that i deal with a lot and i do have to say right now. If you guys have not seen my video that i released on sunday, i encourage you guys to go. Watch that i have to say that is one of my favorite videos.

I've ever done. No, it may not be the best edited video, but just for context. That was a very fun service call. You know when you start getting really really difficult service calls that have intermittent issues.

Usually in hindsight, those are some of the best calls you know in the moment they can be very frustrating because you're not able to figure out the problem, but usually when you can figure out the problem, you can usually reflect on those calls and they turn out To be some of the best, so if you guys haven't already definitely watch my exhaust fan video, i think the title was it's just an exhaust fan. How hard can it be, but it was just a great great video and i'll talk about it. A little bit more but to answer john deere's question: yes, i have had exhaust fans that have burned through motors, and this was a massive learning experience for me. I was working at a restaurant that i no longer service anymore.

It was a chain restaurant and we had a large like two horsepower motor that kept failing now. Granted it was a single phase motor. I hate single phase motors because they have starting components. They have a huge in rush on them, they're, just a pain in the butt they're, also more difficult to get in the higher horsepowers too.

At my local supply houses, and i have a i'm in a metro area. So it's usually really easy to get three-phase motors. Single-Phase motors are a little bit more difficult um, because they're not used commonly, as you know, very commonly in bigger sizes, usually single-phase motors are one horsepower and below. But when you start getting above one horsepower, it's a little bit more difficult to find motors regardless we had an exhaust fan that kept burning through motors, so i changed one motor, then, a couple weeks later, the motor went bad again now.

This was in my infancy of my career, so i really didn't know a whole lot and i was kind of confused. There was no motor starter on the equipment and it was just confusing the heck out of me. So i went back in i installed another motor and then that motor failed like a week later, and it's like what is going on. Okay, here's.

What was happening was that particular customer was not having anybody maintain their grease ducts and the wheel on the exhaust fan was caked with grease and when the wheels on the exhaust fans are caked with grease, they can lead to really interesting problems that can lead to Intermittent issues: okay, in certain situations, if you come in during the day when it's really warm, the exhaust fan might be running great because, as the kitchen equipment heats up, it starts to melt the grease and it liquefies and it'll fall down into the bottom of the Fan but then, as the equipment starts to run, it starts pulling that grease because it kind of warms up the grease and kind of turns it into an aerosol in a way and pulls it up through the exhaust fan now the purpose is, is that grease is Actually supposed to get stuck down in the grease filters, but we can talk about that another day. So in this situation, what was happening was if you would come early in the morning and you you'd work on the equipment it would over amp, but later in the day it wouldn't, because the grease would harden it would get thick on the wheel and then it Would be hard when the exhaust fan got up to full speed, it would start over amping and causing issues. Okay, so long story short i went through. I think it was two motors total.

I went through two motors and then come to find out that the wheel was damaged because it was so full of grease. Okay. Now this is an interesting problem, because this particular fan was so big because it had a two horsepower motor on it that you couldn't hinge it. So i had to get multiple people there and it didn't have proper hinges and that's a whole nother thing.

We can go into dealing with kitchens, because oftentimes customers will install their own equipment. They install these giant exhaust fans that have these cheesy little hinges and they can just be a problem. I've literally had exhaust fans that are so big that when you hinge them the the the base plate where the hinge attaches to the metal just folds. When you go to lift up the exhaust fan, because they're so big and so heavy, because the manufacturer of said fan, didn't design it properly and didn't have a proper hinge system on there, it's just a whole other issue.

But yes, i have had fans that have burnt through motors consistently and what i have found in that situation was that it was actually because the fan was caked with grease and that was causing some serious issues so um. It's so important to understand how exhaust fans work, how the grease system works and exhaust fans need to be maintained by grease cleaning companies. There's professional grease cleaning companies that will clean the exhaust fans and it takes a long time um hold on just a second okay. There we go ah got you so um, yeah and they're supposed to be maintained on a regular basis by other companies.

Okay, i do not do grease cleaning, so i also showed a recent video when i was gone. I had all those videos, while i was at hr, they were all scheduled to post. So it's hard for me to remember all the different ones, because i worked on them over the last few weeks, but i also had a video that had a failed upper bearing and when i lifted up the exhaust fan. You could see that the wheel was just caked with char because it was a char broiler and they cook a lot of burgers in it and stuff.

So maintaining the equipment is so so important and we're gon na start to notice and i'm starting to notice more and more that these customers that don't do preventative maintenance man, i'm going to have a busy summer from a lot of these customers. And it's going to be interesting because i've got some customers that that have equipment ordered you know, because sometimes they purchase their own equipment and they've got equipment ordered and it's scheduled to be delivered like in august and and it's their main kitchen ac. You know, and i've got one that it's a 15 ton unit. It only has one compressor working and that one compressor sounds like it's going to die tomorrow.

It's crazy some of this equipment and it's going to be a busy summer of repairing a lot of stuff. I don't know about you guys, but i'm really starting to see part shortages, hey scott thanks. So much for that super chat man. I really appreciate it.

Um scott says smash the like button and please do it really does help out the screen, the stream so hvac, rookie scott is my buddy that we were hanging out at ahr together, so scott's, a cool dude, all right, um yeah, when you guys see my videos, If you guys, like videos, you know the youtube algorithms being really weird right now and it's not recommending stuff and it's not showing stuff. It's not notifying people youtube is, is kind of on crack right now. So if you guys see something, do me a favor? If you guys, like the video share it with your friends, send them a link share it in social media wherever you want to do so anytime, you guys get the opportunity. Let people know if you think these videos are worth their watch, help the channel grow.

That'd be great: okay, i'd really appreciate you guys on that one, let's see uh so andrew had emailed me, and he asked me for advice on how to be a better service technician, so he's just getting started out in the trade and he just wants to know. If i have any tips or words of advice, words of encouragement to help him be a better service tech - and i do this - can go out to everybody out there be humble - that's one of the most important things be observant and know when to keep your mouth Shut okay! What i mean by that is, when you're on a job when you're working with a senior mechanic there's a time and place for questions. Sometimes, when you guys are heavy in a compressor change out and people are all working and they're doing everything that may may or may not be the right time for a question. So save your questions and don't be offended if, when you're working with someone, if they tell you, you know what let's talk about that later, because you're in the moment, okay, so as a junior technician as an apprentice when you're coming up in the trade start to Predict what your senior tech is going to need if you're working with someone or your mentor or whatever start to predict, you may be their gopher.

You may be going to the van grabbing tools different stuff, like that, and you may think that that is just a horrible thing to do when, in fact, you are learning, because, if you're working on me with the jobs or working with me on a job site And i'm asking you to go to my van to get things. You should be learning from those moments and you should be starting to predict what i'm going to need, especially if you've been working with me or your senior tech for a very long time. Compressor changeouts! You start thinking in your head: okay, we're going to take up these first initial items and then, as you're, going down to the van to go, get other things. I'm giving advice on how to be a better service tech.

So starting and this can go for apprentices or experienced service technicians when you go down to the van to get something for me, it's difficult, but i find it to work best. Take something down with you. Every time you go down to get something. If you can take something else down so that way at the end of the job, you don't have to spend two hours roping everything down from the roof.

You know so try to start being more efficient every time i finish a service call. I reflect on that service call and i think how could i have done that better and often times in hindsight, you can always come up with ways that you could have done. The call better your memory will help you on the next one, because the next time you do a similar call to that you're going to think you know what the last time i said, i should have done this so really pay attention when you're a tech on These jobs reflect on these jobs, try to think how you could have made them go better. Even if you're, an apprentice, ask your senior tech or whoever you're working with, say, hey, you know what this was interesting.

I felt like you know it got a little weird at this point in the job like and and talk about things, okay, but as an apprentice like i said in the beginning, you also have to know when to keep your mouth shut, because there's a time and A place for questions, okay for apprentices and new guys that are in the trade too, when you're on a roof. If you see equipment that, even if you're not working on it, that you don't understand when and if possible, take pictures of that equipment. Take pictures of the models and serial numbers - and i say when and if possible, because sometimes you could be working on government jobs or certain locations when you're not allowed to take pictures. Don't ever take your phone out if you're not allowed to do so.

Okay, but if you are allowed to do so, take pictures of said equipment and when you go home, your job does not stop. You go home and that's when you start researching, you start thinking about the day. You start reflecting. You start looking into things.

If you saw your senior tech doing something you're like hey wait, why didn't we do this step? You know school taught me that you know you do an evacuation and you pull down to this level. Well, how come we didn't pull down to that level? You know it's okay, to ask those questions to your senior tech and they may tell you you know, there's a time and place to have a perfect vacuum. Sometimes you can't always be perfect. Okay, so don't be afraid to ask questions just know when to ask them.

Okay, so that's one step of being a better technician now, for the experience guys, i already covered this just try to be more efficient right. So, every time you do a job, try to remember try to try to you know, take tools down with you, bring tools up when needed and just try to plan things out. I myself, when i'm doing bigger jobs when i have other technicians with me, i tend to get to the job site early, i'm usually the first person on the job site typically get there an hour to a half an hour early depending on the situation, because i Panic, if i'm ever late, i always like to be the first person on the job i'll, usually walk the job start evaluating things kind of coming up with a plan of attack now in some sense, when i'm doing big jobs. I do like to plan things out, but there's always some last minute: decisions that have to be made on the job site and when you're doing a job walk you can kind of prepare for that stuff.

Okay, so that's that's kind of some of the advice that i have to be a better service technician but remember to stay humble, even if you're the greatest service technician at your company, i can guarantee you're, not the greatest service technician in the country. Nor will you ever be, but you can always strive to be the best right. You can always strive to do your best. You will never know everything we're always constantly learning.

I learn from you guys. You guys leave me feedback in my videos. You often say: hey. You know what you could have done this differently, or this is how i attacked this hey.

I take all that feedback. I take constructive criticism. If you can tell me how i can make my job easier in the future, even though it may hurt my pride in the short term, it'll help me in the long term, so i grow from constructive criticism. So remember that we can all grow from constructive criticism.

We can all learn from each other and we will never know everything. Okay. So let me look at the chat and see um. How do i rate he craft qrc, gregory, wendt uh.

I work with a lot of the heat craft stuff and you know there's uh. Some strict instructions that you have to follow when you're installing qrc systems or intelligent systems or beacon systems, but once they're installed properly, they work great okay, but there's some really important things. And if you're like me, a type of person that typically doesn't read instructions if you're installing any of this new high efficiency, evaporator, coils and refrigeration equipment, you're gon na have a problem because you need to read the installation instructions. Trust me.

I've learned it the hard way: okay, i've got lots of videos showing mistakes of improperly installed equipment, i've ruined pressure transducers, because i over pressurized them. I've done all kinds of things. Okay, so take the information and the advice that i give you in my videos, because it's usually from some sort of horrible past experience that i've made mistakes on and if i can help you not make those same mistakes hey. I feel like a good person, so um.

Let me see what i got going on in the chat. Real, quick guys, if you do have questions, feel free to throw it in the chat put it in caps, lock i'll, try to get to it um. It's kind of hard to see everything. So if i miss your questions, feel free to send me an email, hvacr videos, gmail.com, okay, uh, let's see what else i missed in the chat.

Remember, throw him in caps lock. If you have things um, let's see uh yeah. So jason johnson says shut up for a little while when we're done we'll talk about it and he's he's talking about that apprentice to senior level relationship, and that's that's true. Okay, to an extent when we're in the middle of a heated job we're in a compressor change out, it's not the time to ask questions because i've got my hands in something and i'm busy.

But for me i have to remember - and i'll say this to all you senior level texts too. Remember that you were once a beginner. You were once ignorant. You were once naive to the way that things work, so everybody has to grow so remember and and have patience with the younger guys.

Okay, i have to say that i was on a job site today, working on an ice machine and another vendor came in to work on a different piece of equipment in the restaurant, and i have to say i was kind of blown away because i saw a Senior level technician walk in and then i saw three apprentices walk in behind him. So this senior level tech was trying to train three apprentices at the same time and mind you. They were working in a small space in a restaurant and it was crowded over there. It's really interesting: we are hurting for technicians right now, and companies are resorting to training three apprentices to one senior level tech right now.

That is just flipping crazy and i feel for that senior tech, because man he's got his work cut out for him, because i saw what he was trying to train. Let's just put it there. Okay, i'm gon na leave it there, but whoo man. He had his work cut out for him all right.

So, let's see what else we got going on in here um. Sometimes it sucks to be smart, but not know what the right answer is. Um, oh yeah, cyborg, sheep yeah, i mean you know. I would consider myself to be somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to light commercial, refrigeration and air conditioning, but there's times that i get my butt handed to me so for those that are coming in here right now recently, i talked about this in the very beginning.

Well, first off the studio is backwards. I'm gon na address that right now, it's because my camera and everything's still messed up from ahr. So forgive me for that. I still got to figure some things out.

I'm running off of youtube live right now and i'm not using my streaming software because i couldn't get the audio to work right. So i apologize for that. We'll get things figured out and hopefully be back on a normal stream soon, but um. If you guys, haven't already seen my video.

I said it already. My video that i released on sunday. I genuinely have to tell you guys that is one of my favorite service calls. I have done probably in the entire previous year.

It was absolutely a fun service call. You need to watch the video. Please share it with all your friends help that video get some exposure, because i think there was some great lessons in that video and it was how not to just stop at the first thing that you find, i was trying to find an intermittent problem as to Why a motor starter kept tripping for an exhaust fan and it was a little difficult to find, but i finally figured it out and you have to stay to the closing words because that's when i really talk about what i thought the real issue was. I kind of addressed it in the video, but i really covered it in the closing words and - and it's very interesting where we were led in that video, so uh, the video was called, the exhaust went.

Oh no, the video was called it's just an exhaust fan. How hard can it be so please go check that out. If you didn't already recommend it share it to people that you think would enjoy that video too. That was a very, very interesting one um.

What award did i win when i was in vegas so uh in vegas? I went to the hvac tactical awards and i was very honored. I had no idea, but i had booked my tickets long before uh well way early in advance to the hvac tactical awards. They gave me this amazing pendant right here, um and it says uh never stop mastery in your craft. This thing probably weighs a good half a pound.

I mean this thing's solid, super thick, really, really nice. It says hvac tactical, and it has an inscription on the back on the back side uh. It was an awards event put on by the hvac tactical brand. If you guys haven't heard about that brand, my buddy ben he's the creator of it.

You definitely want to go check it out. Just look up hvac tactical on instagram, um, hvac, hvactactical.com, great great place, uh soderweld helped him and there was many other sponsors so um. I think the award that i actually won that they gave me at the event, was maybe best best social content. I think i think, is what it was something like that so um i was very honored.

I never expected to win anything. It was just cool to be able to go to an event like that. Um vegas i'd been looking forward to vegas and it was so awesome and they did such a great job mark my words. The hvac tactical awards will be double the size in atlanta um, because uh, the next ahr trade show will be in atlanta in 2023 and mark my words.

They will double in size guaranteed because they did such a great job and it was such a great awards. Event and there's going to be tons more people that jump on board with it such a great concept for recognizing technicians that normally wouldn't be recognized for normal texts, normal people that do normal stuff right now granted they did give me an award - and i am you Know somewhat known on youtube and stuff, but many awards were given to people that were just normal service technicians in the trade and it's such a great little thing to be recognized and it's awesome. So, thank you so very much to ben and lance from solderweld ben from hvac tactical. You guys did a great job.

With that event, i know ben put in a ton of work, and i know lance with h. Uh solder weld also helped out. So that was a really really cool event. I was very humbled to be a part of it.

So um, let's see man, i'm still having issues with my throat like um ever since being sick like four weeks ago and then vegas. It was just so hard. I got some hot tea right here to help me out, so i said it in the beginning i'll say it again: uh if all goes well and everything's. Looking really good, i will be going to the hvacr training symposium for hvac school in claremont florida.

What is it like next next week in like a week and a half or a week, or something like that, it's going to be awesome, it's going to be in clermont florida. I will be there so stay tuned, follow my social media. If you're in the area um, let's see jason h now, i originally planned on showing pictures of this, but i can't so jason h sent me some really cool pictures of a walk-in freezer that he's having a lot of problems with again i plan on showing pictures And doing a screen share, but i'm having issues with my streaming software. So that's not going to happen right now, but um.

He sent me pictures of a walk-in freezer that has ice all over the ceiling when you guys have walk-in freezers that have all kinds of ice issues. You need to pay attention whether or not it's ice on the evaporator coil, whether it's ice on the ceilings ice on the door frame, pay attention to the ice and stare at it. For a little while and i can actually look at jason's pictures - and i can tell that he's having moisture intrusion issues, okay, so he's having warm air coming into his walk-in freezer and it's naturally gravitating towards the evaporator coil, because the evaporator is trying to absorb all The heat from the equipment right, it's going to be the coldest thing in that box, so the heat's naturally going to dry um be attracted to the coil. And then it's got fans to help move that heat across.

And if you pay attention to the pictures that you sent me jason again, i'm sorry i can't show these on the the live stream right now. If you pay attention to the pictures that you sent me the ice, that's forming on your box, you can clearly tell that it's moisture being blown out of the evaporative coil. So there's a couple different things that can be causing that number one it looks like you have warm air coming into the box um. Judging by the pictures that you sent me jason, some of the inner gaskets that go between the panels of the actual walk-in box itself seem like they're coming out.

I would highly encourage you jason to take a thermal imaging camera and go inside your box and look at all the seams and look to find where the warm spot is make sure you close the walk-in freezer door go inside and look at the door also, but Clearly, from your picture, you have some sort of warm air coming into the box. It is condensing and then blowing out across the box is what's happening. Okay, so what other things can cause ice on the box of a walk-in freezer? One of the biggest issues is defrost termination issues. If your defrost is running too long.

What's going to happen, is you have excessive moisture build up because that ice or the frost is gon na, is gon na melt right and then that water's got ta go somewhere? So, there's a couple different things that your equipment does to try to prevent that water from blowing out of the evaporative number one. We have a defrost termination switch. That's not going to let the evaporative coil get too warm, typically about 50 to 55 degrees, evaporator coil temperature. That's not air temperature in the box, because oftentimes walk-in freezers will have electric strip heat okay.

Sometimes they have hot gas defrost, but majority of them. In the light, commercial sector are going to have electric strip heat with electric strip heat. If the coil gets too warm, you're really going to start to melt things and cause issues, but we typically have a defrost termination switch. That's set to come out about 55 degrees and that will turn the equipment back on, even if the time has not finished for the defrost cycle right.

The defrost termination switch usually sends a signal up to the defrost clock that terminates defrost. Now there's another safety feature in that evaporative coil and that is a fan. Delay switch because when we come out of a defrost, we do not want the evaporator fan motors to immediately turn on. If the evaporator fan motors immediately turn on all that condensation that had been dripping off, that coil will blow out of the coil in little water droplets and stick to the ceiling and cause like steam to come out and it'll just immediately re-freeze and cause a lot Of ice issues, so that is another thing that can cause a lot of ice is if the defrost termination switch is not working and or the fan delay switch is not working now.

Sometimes the defrost termination and the fan delay are encapsulated in a three wire clicks on device, so it basically acts as one single control and it controls defrost termination and fan delay. Sometimes with some manufacturers they have a separate defrost termination and a separate fan, delay um. So those are important things, but one of the most important things in a walk-in freezer is you want to make sure you do not have any warm air leaking into that box through line set penetrations drain line penetrations it's imperative that on a walk-in freezer that there's A p-trap on the drain line outside of the box. You do not want to p-trap on the inside of the freezer, because that can lead to a catastrophe: okay, unless it's massively insulated and has good heaters on it.

Typically, you want a drain line running out of the box. You want to p-trap outside of the box and then you're going to wrap a heater even still on the drain line inside the box, but you want the p-trap outside of the box. So that way, warm air doesn't come in through the drain line, because that is another problem that can happen in walk-in, freezers, okay, so hopefully, with a few of those things, jason uh, you can kind of get to the bottom of your walk and freezer issue um. If, if the things that i've, given you the ideas that i've given you haven't, helped you feel free to reach out again, we can talk a little bit more.

Okay, all right, let's get to the chat and see what we going on here: um, not seeing anything in there seeing what i'm missing uh yeah, if you guys haven't already, please smash the like button, guys it'll definitely help out the stream hello to everybody. Sorry, the stream's messed up right now, because yeah, it's a whole nother thing. I've got camera issues and all kinds of stuff right here, um going through the chat. What caused the burnt wires on that motor starter voltage surges, john cantwell.

So in my video that i released on sunday again, if you guys haven't seen it definitely go check it out, it's one of my favorite videos, i've made in a long time - and i don't think it's quite getting the attention that i think it can really help. Some people out, because it's a really interesting video, so what caused the burnt wires in that system? Well number one. I think that the extra contactor that is up in the attic was causing all the issues, but i also think that that is not making good contact causing low voltage, which is causing all kinds of issues with our equipment potentially leading to motor starter failure. But i did say that in the past about a year and a half ago at that location, we had a lot of electrical issues, so some of those burnt wires might actually be previous from old issues.

They had a lot of electrical problems and they ended up having to replace an entire electrical panel. Because of this, it was a giant nightmare at that location, so some of the damage could have been from then too so um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat uh. Let's see the jammer said uh. Thank you very much for that super chat.

You said sorry, you couldn't attend the acr, oh right on all those rooftop and splits. Did i get the stat hooked up on that exhaust fan? No, the customer has not approved me installing that new thermostat. Yet i did bring it up to the customer, but it's in their hands, so i do want to address this too. Let me take a drink of my tea um when i'm in my you know these restaurants.

If i see something that's against building code, what do i do about it right? Do i retort it report it to the building authorities? It would take a lot for me to have to report one of my customers to the police, to health inspectors or to building authorities. Okay, i try to stay in my lane now, of course, if i saw something life-threatening yeah, i would feel obligated and have a moral obligation to report said issues to the the the building department or the health department, or something like that. But i would not go there first. The first thing i would do is address it with the customer or go over the customer's head.

Before i reported something to a building inspector, i would definitely go over the on-site management's head and report it to their their bosses or the owner of the business. In my situation, i deal with a lot of corporate restaurants, so if i ever saw something that was just insane, i would definitely go to the corporate office and say look. This is getting to the point that i feel like i need to let someone know you know and address it in that level um it's! I have never in a situation gone to report, my customer to building authorities or anything like that. You are walking a slippery slope if you start doing that and you will be alienated as a contractor um.

You know, that's just a nightmare, so you don't want to go down that path. Unless it's a life-threatening issue and something like that, so no, i don't go and report that so i just report to my customer. Let them know hey: these are the issues these things need to be fixed. This can be an issue document everything and make the customer sign off on everything tell them to call.

So that's why, in that situation, in that video, i said, get an electrician involved because then another person's involved - and it's not just me so now - there's an electrician, saying: hey this isn't up to code, and i let him deal with that because he's the electrician right, I'm just the hvac service technician, so i leave it in his hands. Um. You know i'll tell them to get the fire suppression company involved. You know get them involved.

Let them deal with their thing right. So i just kind of stay in my lane and do my stuff i'm not trying to lose customers over something like this um. What about? Oh? No! No, no will speed said what about cats and microwaves, what i call peta um, if you guys don't know you need to watch the hvac overtime, show. Okay, that's all i'm gon na say i do not condone putting cats in microwaves or anything like that, but you need to watch the hvac overtime show there's a lot that goes on on the hvac overtime show on friday evenings at 6, 05 pm pacific.

With my buddies, so you definitely have to watch that show. Will speed is obviously a normal viewer of the hvac overtime show. So it's kind of an inside joke uh. Let's see what else we got all right, um.

You know when you're working on these job sites when i'm working on exhaust fans, because i work on them a lot - you know it in a perfect world. I have fancy laser alignment tools and all these fancy things to help me make sure that pulleys are aligned and belts are straight and deflection tools to make sure belts are properly tensioned. But it's not always practical that you can use that stuff. Okay, so um! I don't work on heavy industrial.

I don't work on really critical equipment. So for the most part i can actually do a lot with my eye and using reference points to make sure that things are aligned. So if you're, trying to figure out if pulleys are aligned and stuff to get you close within ballpark of being 100, you can usually use reference points. Okay, so find something that's straight and level on the roof, and you know position your head to look at a motor pulley in a way that you can reference something else.

That's on the roof or look at one motor pulley, like you're, looking through a site, and you know when you, when you're, looking through a site and you're looking down the barrel of a site. You line up the two sites and you use the two sites. As a reference point, and then you you find something in the site that you want to lock on with right, it's kind of the same thing when you're looking at pulleys, you know if you're trying to align pulleys put a belt on there turn it on. For a few minutes and look at how the belt is riding in the pulleys look at each individual pulley is the belt kind of crooked.

In one, does the pulley look cockeyed, i mean there's so many different things that you can actually see with your naked eye.