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

Thank you Foreign, foreign, foreign hello and welcome to the Hvacr videos live stream Um I See a lot of familiar awesome people in the chat right now and that's really cool. So we're streaming on a bunch of different social media platforms. For those that are watching, we're streaming on Tick Tock a bunch of different Facebook platforms LinkedIn YouTube For those that are watching on a different platform besides YouTube it's all good I really don't have a preference either way. I'm good with any platform.

It doesn't benefit me either way differently. Just understand that there's usually a significant amount of more people I Don't know if that's the right way to say a significantly larger amount of people in the YouTube chat and there's a whole conversation usually going on So, but to each their own. All right. I Really do appreciate everybody.

So um, for the new people that are in here I Typically do these live streams Monday evenings and it's a way to consolidate the questions. So um I added Tick Tock to the platform today because I posted and I post occasionally on Tick Tock and different platforms. but um, I posted a uh, a short on Tick Tock and it just blew up and it's really interesting because the comments that I'm getting on that are just a dumpster fire and I wanted to kind of address some of those. Okay, so and of course we're going to get to my normal stuff too.

So the whole point of these is to consolidate questions, discuss my recent videos, and go from there. So I really do appreciate you all. Uh, for making it in here. and if you guys do have questions, do me a favor and try to put them in caps lock.

It definitely helps me to realize or to recognize the questions. Um, being that I'm I'm going on so many different social media platforms I apologize if I don't answer your guys's questions. I'm sure a lot of people are going to have questions that they want me to cover. Feel free to put them uh in an email if I don't get to them.

My email is Hvacrvideos Gmail.com so feel free to do that and uh yeah. cool. Um, so uh I released a few videos and a whole bunch of short form videos on several different social media platforms. um and I uh, like I said earlier I definitely want to talk about those and so I'm just kind of scrolling through the chat looking at everything going on in here.

Okay, cool, so you know let's just get to this one really quick because this was the the the questions that I got in all the ridiculous comments that I got. where on the video where I used a uh circuit tester circuit tracer. Okay, so I was looking for an uh a circuit breaker and the breaker panel wasn't labeled correctly. so I grabbed a circuit tracer out of my van.

Now I realize you know a lot of people were pointing out the fact that I wired in a receptacle to the exhaust fan to plug in the circuit tracer. Okay and everybody's like I should have just taken the alligator clips that came with the circuit tracer and use that. mine didn't come with the alligator clips. Okay, come on people for real.

Um, so you know I just threw a receptacle in there because the receptacle had the Speed connections on the back I didn't have to do anything I used Wego connectors because they're very easy to work and and I'm not condoning anybody work with live electricity. but I used juegos to connect to a live circuit because it's really easy to have the lever connectors do that knock it out right? Um, but uh then I went downstairs and I you know tried to trace out the circuit and one thing that I personally have noticed. now to be fair, the circuit tracer that I was using I think it's made by Klein I think is what it was. it's not sponsored or anything like that.

Um, it's not a very accurate one. it's not a great one. I Don't run into very many instances where I have to use circuit tracers. so I don't want to go buy a really really expensive circuit tracer.

so I use that circuit tracer and I was looking for the breaker and you get a lot of false alarms when you use those circuit tracers. It very well could have something to do with the fact that it's a lower end circuit tracer that I had I tend to notice more issues on three-phase panels and I'm sure you know people have all kinds of comments and different things to address and I'm again I want to make this clear: I appreciate feedback and I appreciate comments and I appreciate criticism I really do. Okay, um, but you know you could be cool about it. Let me know, right? I mean there's a lot of people in this chat right now that I can see and I recognize their names and they're awesome.

They send me emails all the time with advice and that's what social media really should be about. Okay, but I also want to be clear: I mean I'm not butt hurt by it. You know all the the crap that I got. it is what it is.

but regardless, let's get back to it. So I used a circuit tracer to uh to to look for a circuit breaker and I got a couple false alarms and you know understand something that was short form content and I record one video and I posted it across several different social media platforms for short form content. Some of those platforms have 60 second limits so I just made the video 60 seconds in doing that I had to cut out some other things. The main thing that I had to cut out of the video was when I showed myself pre-running every panel up and down and then going back and running down and then finding it.

and even after pre-running the panel with the circuit tracer I found several different uh, I'm sorry I found uh I got a false alarm on one of the breakers. Now it's possible maybe they were sharing a neutral. who knows I don't know. But regardless, I tend to get false alarms with those.

Okay, um, but it's funny though because so many people were upset with me because I was taking the time to use a circuit tracer rather than just shorting to ground the hot wire. Okay, I'm not into that stuff. First off, you know I have to be very careful. The stuff that I show on these videos right? because I get a lot of people that watch these videos and they they try to mimic the things that I do.

so I got to be careful right? I'm not saying I'm this and you guys all know I've told I've said this so many times in my normal long form videos. I'm not perfect I make mistakes all the time and I try to show and own up to them as much as possible. But one thing that I don't do is I am not going to short something to ground um on purpose I'm not going to do that because you never know what's going to happen. You can have a lot of issues with um okay, cool.

You can have a lot of issues with uh with sensitive equipment down in the restaurant and if I'm trying to short a wire to ground yeah, I know it's 115 volts right? I Got so many comments of people saying just work on it live you were and a lot of people misunderstood what I was doing in the video and again because it was short form content I was explaining it that uh, it was a um I was replacing the entire exhaust fan I wasn't just changing the motor. Okay, so I had to pull the seal tight conduit out from some ways that it was routed through the fan so the easiest and safest way was to turn off power. Another thing that a lot of people need to understand too is I run a business I'm running a refrigeration and air conditioning business and most of the time I have my employees working with me I am not going to teach my employees to short things to ground to try to find circuit breakers because and I'm going to tell you guys a story. Okay, I've told this story many times on social media, but I was working at a restaurant.

it was a late night service call. is that a fancy golf course near me and this was probably 15 16 years ago? Um, fancy golf course I was really young in the trade and uh, you know, still kind of nervous going out to service calls and I came up on an air conditioner that had a blown fuse so you know me not being very smart right? I went ahead and replaced the fuse, then turned it back on and the fuse went bad again and I'm like okay, so my brilliant genius self again. this was when I was very very young in the trade, decided to go ahead and put in another fuse, right? Maybe it was a bad fuse I don't know what I was thinking but I put in a third fuse, turned it on and this time everything turned off on the building I blew the main. Okay, so instead of just blowing a breaker for that air conditioner, I blew the main for an entire panel.

Okay and I'm not I'm not being sarcastic here. I went downstairs I'm panicking because it's a Friday night at a golf course that does hook weddings and all that different stuff. And what had happened was when I blew the Mane the the main, there was a problem with it and it would not reset. The main, failed for the entire building.

Well for an entire you know side of the building. basically. so where they were having wedding reception and all this different stuff, they no longer had power. They no longer had three-phase power because I blew a 460 volt Main and the main wouldn't reset.

Now that was a mistake, right? Because I was young I wasn't you know purposefully shorting something to ground. But the point that I'm making is is when you go out there and you try to short something to ground, you never know what's gonna happen. You really don't With all the sensitive equipment inverters running almost everything right. you guys see in my videos all the time that I make videos where I'm changing a Vfd or I'm changing some kind of a sensitive electrical circuit board right? Something like that.

they go out all the time and if we as technicians are being lazy and going up on the roof and not exhausting all resources before we have to do this right. And you know we need to use the proper tools to try to find the equipment we have to work on. like if we're looking for a circuit breaker right the last absolute Last Resort that I would ever even I wouldn't even really consider it would be to short something to ground. I'm not into that because you just never know and the liability of that You know what happens if someone's I don't know, you know I mean bad things can happen.

So let's be safe when we're out there. There's no sense in in trying to hurt ourselves. There's no sense in doing things that that you know we shouldn't right? Just don't really don't. Um, I'm reading through the chat right now to see what's going on.

Hold on just a second seeing if I'm missing anything. Um, let's see Danny uh Danny Copper and said you emailed my site for a messed up shipment supporting my videos and never heard back. Oh dude, send me another email if I missed an email from you bud. Danny Uh, send it to Um Chris at Hvacrvideos.com Uh, because that's where the the the merch orders and stuff.

Yeah, no, we'll totally get that worked out. but send me an email, give me your information and I'll definitely work that out with you. Danny I'm sorry if I missed an email for me, but um, reading through the chat right now. Uh, seeing what I may have seen? Okay, cool.

Right on. Um, reading through the other chat because I've got so many chats going on right now. Yeah, work smart, that's that's 100 True uh total. SEC Um uh okay.

cool. Yeah, you were talking to someone else in there. Okay, if you guys do have questions, do please put them in uh caps lock. Okay, because it helps to uh to see them.

So that way I can see what's going on because I'm scrolling through a bunch and it definitely helps it. uh Brian Sanders wants to see my hair I don't know what you mean by that. You want me to take off my hat I don't know if you're being sarcastic am I here I have hair I'm not bald so uh Adam thank you very much HVAC over time you didn't need to do that super sticker man, that's really cool. That's my buddy Adam from the HVAC Overtime YouTube show with me so Adam Bill Russell uh, some weird Canadian dude named Joe I'm not joking.

If you guys have ever watched the HVAC overtime show, it's Friday evenings on YouTube about 605 PM Pacific time. Um, we do a show with my friends and it's It's literally a very uncensored show, so be cautious. Okay, um, but it's just a bunch of dudes old dudes like they're going to the bar after work. Okay, um, in all honesty, we used to all get drunk on the show, but then, um, a lot of people stop drinking.

Well actually I don't think Bill ever got drunk because I don't think he was drinking. But anyways, it's funny we're so old that many of us have stopped drinking and whatever. But anyways, we do a show Friday evenings. It's a great time.

You definitely want to check it out. HVAC Overtime YouTube Channel Okay, um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat right now. Okay, yes, um. so a couple videos that I released in the last week.

um and I'm going to get to some questions from those. one that I released was a short form video and then I also released my house reveal: if you guys didn't know I'm changing the air conditioner in my house I've been doing this whole slow process letting you guys see how crazy my brain is working through a process and learning. and uh, anyways, I released an update video revealing what type of equipment I'm going with which is Carrier Infinity We went with a two-ton system I talked about the load calculation and then at the end of that video I did excuse me I did a little test where I was uh, putting my uh new fan coil that I have not installed yet uh and I was running a duck blaster on it and I was testing for the air leakage on the uh air handler to see what the air leakage was and I measured at about 25 pascals I measured about six Cfms of leakage and then I did a little experiment where I pulled a little rubber grommet around the liquid line to show how much more air leakage it was and my gosh did I get so many comments from people saying why am I worried about six Cfms of air leakage? It's nothing. it's silly to even worry about that.

Don't worry about that. I'm an idiot for worrying about it. Oh my gosh, the comments were ridiculous, right? Everybody's missing the point. The whole point of my videos is that my brain is messed up and I hyper focus on the weirdest crap and instead of hiding that from everybody I like to show it to everybody and I like to show how my brain processes different things I Had a curiosity I was listening to another YouTube show called the HVAC Grapevine The conversation went into a Direction talking about air leakage on new equipment and I thought hey, I've got a brand new air handler in my garage.

let's put the duck blaster on it So we did that and I found the leakage. Okay, so first and foremost, let's understand something: air leakage is bad when it comes to our duct system and our air handlers. Okay, if it's leaking from somewhere, that means it's not going to somewhere. Okay, my system we designed very very.

Actually, we designed um, on the heating site slightly below the load calculation is what we're installing. Okay, we're kind of taking a little bit of a risk. Um I need every single CFM of air that I can n from my ear Handler and if I'm losing it somewhere, that means it's not being delivered to another place. The system that we're designing is very dependent on the airflow.

Okay, we're using special grills and registers to throw the air across the room to make sure that it's being delivered in the rooms and mixing properly. Brian Sanders Thank you very very much for that. Super Chat he says ADHD and add make you an awesome Tech Yeah, I definitely have something along those lines. Um I Know that when I was younger I was diagnosed bipolar with Manic all kinds of weird crap I Don't know.

whatever. So anyways, air leakage. Okay, air leakage is important. so you know A lot of people stated the obvious.

There was literally I'm sorry I'm going to call this person out. There was literally one comment on that video that blew my mind and the guy was like he: he implied that the I was blowing the air the wrong way through the air handler and not not in the like. He was implying that it was installed and going in the wrong direction like it didn't make sense what he was talking about. Okay, so yes, I was using the deck Blaster but that's not what he was talking about.

but I was using the deck Blaster and I was pressurizing it. You know? Yeah, the air Handler's technically most of it going to be under a negative air pressure, but still, air leakage is bad. Okay, so let's think about something right now. if we have air leakage and we locate our fan coil into the attic, the air leakage on my system would have been on the negative air pressure side of the fan coil.

Okay, so it would have drawn in unwanted, untempered air from the attic in a high humidity condition. Okay, that's six Cfms of air is going to be a much much bigger number because if we're leaking six Cfms of air out, right? or we're pulling in six Cfms of attic air into that building, What we're doing is we're adding to the heat load of the building. So not only are we using delivered air, we are now adding to the heat load right, which is just making the problem in the house even harder and harder. And I realize Six Cfms of air? Yeah, in the grand scheme, if my entire system leakage is six Cfms.

when I'm done, I'll be the happiest person in the world. Okay, because I understand that. But the point that I'm making is is that: stop thinking about it as if it's not a big deal. Air leakage is bad when it comes to air conditioning equipment.

Period. Okay, so strive for excellence. Understand you're not always going to be perfect. Nobody's going to be perfect.

But just just try your best. Okay, so to immediately tell me that I'm silly because I was even being concerned about six Cfms of air leakage. That's a ridiculously dumb comment. I'm sorry.

It really is, because the point that I'm making is that we want to do our best and we want to make sure that our equipment is operating properly. So air leakage is bad. Now in my situation, my uh, fan coil it's going to be a two-ton heat pump is going to be install all in a mechanical closet that when I am done more than likely I want to make it part of the conditioned space. Okay, right now it's a mechanical closet that has a forced air furnace in it and it draws combustion air from that closet.

so it has direct vents going into the attic to bring combustion air into that closet. So in a perfect world. if I if everything goes the way that I want to do it I want to seal that complete closet when I install all my new equipment to where it is now part of the conditioned space. but still, if we're leaking air from there right, we're drawing air in, it's still not the greatest thing.

Okay, um, so you know you wanna. It's not as bad as if it was in the attic for sure, right? Because then it'd be drawn in outside air over pressurizing the house. Potentially, you know. But think about this too on the supply side of the ductwork.

and I and again, I'm not an expert when it comes to home performance. Absolutely not. I'm not okay. I'm just showing people and trying to make people aware of the silly things that I find.

Okay, I'm seeing a bunch of super chats come through. thank you very much much. Uh DB thank you very much for that super chat I Really do appreciate it. Um I will get to your question here in just a second and then also Brandon Priest Thank you very much for that super chat.

So DB Uh, you said your 33 you work as a condo? Uh PM for the last 10 years and looking to get into the HVAC trade next year? Um, doing courses at the local College Do I think 33 years old is too late to get into the trades? Absolutely not. It is not too late to get into the trades? Okay, 33 years old I would argue that you are probably when it comes to the average person reaching your full um, uh, what do you want to say? maturity point in your life? So no in your 30s would be a great time to get into the industry, but understand something. This is a demanding industry that requires a lot of physical effort. Depending on what Niche you get into, you're going to be crawling in little tiny places.

Just keep in mind you know, obviously as you get older, but um, no, 33 is definitely not too old. I Highly suggest you get into this industry. If you think it's interesting, do it. This industry is amazing.

Lots of good money to be made too. I'm reading through here right now again. Okay, I already addressed that one. Um, let's see what else.

Uh, so yeah. just really important. Like, people are missing the point when they're when they're thinking I'm silly just because I'm concerned about air leakage I'm just curious about that friendly neighborhood maintenance guy man. Thank you very much.

I really do appreciate that Super Chat He said first beer in three weeks on call sucks. That's a bummer man. Um, so we don't where I'm at. We try not to get too crazy in the on-call situation.

Uh, we try to keep the maximum amount of time that a service technician is on call is three days. Okay, well no. I take that back. It's four days is the maximum amount of time and that would only apply on holiday weekends and weird situations.

Uh, normally throughout the year we only have one person on call for three days at a time at the max, and then other technicians take the days during the week. So there's a one technician on Monday, one technician on Tuesday, one technician on Wednesday one technician on Thursday and then one guy gets Friday Saturday Sunday and then it rotates the next week. Okay, and then the only potential for that technician at my company to have four days in a row is if a holiday weekend comes up because the way that we handle on-call at our company is if a holiday falls on. you know if an observed holiday Day falls on a Monday then the technician that was on call the previous week takes that Monday Okay, so that would be a four day week that he would be on call, but that's only going to happen What two three times a year.

So all right. Um, let's see. Uh, let's talk about I want to get to a couple things I have on my list right now. Okay, first off, I am seeing social media blow up with all these new tools coming out.

Okay, there's a lot of great tools coming out in the industry and it's awesome I Love tools. When it comes to tools though, we need to be careful. Okay, tools are great. Tools are meant to assist and to make our jobs easier and make us as technicians more efficient.

But certain tools can become a crutch and cause problems. Okay, so there's one tool out there that I think is an amazing tool. It really is amazing, right? And it's a little jumper box I'm not going to say the name, but it's a jumper box with alligator clips. It's kind of like a decade box but it doesn't do different resistance values.

Okay. but anyways, it's a great tool. It's a new idea that just came out. It's being pushed all over social media.

You basically connect little alligator clips. I'm not a fan of the piercing things that they have, but hey, you know to each their own. But the one thing about jumping equipment out that you just need to be careful about I I'm considering getting this tool and I probably will. Okay, so I'm not bashing the tool, You just have to remember you don't want to use a jumper as a crutch.

Okay, very important. and I've learned this from experience this one. Rings It just strikes a nerve with me because I've made this mistake way too many times. I Go out to a customer.

they say one of my ACS isn't working I go up under the roof and this literally has happened to me. I go jump it out, check few things and I'm like everything's good. Uh, call me back if it happens again. they call me back.

you know, another day still doing it. Check it again, you know. and I'm writing invoices when I'm doing this. and then I realized that there was a problem with the thermostat.

Don't ever assume that the thermostat's okay if you're gonna use a jumper. If you're going to use any kind of a jumper, wires or anything like that, check the thermostat first, then jumpers where they really shine. And using these these special jumper boxes and different things where they really shine is. Once you've confirmed that the thermostat is not the problem, then put the jumpers on there and go to town right then.

You don't got to walk up and down and they just save a ton. But it worries me right now because there's a lot of people on social media right now that are pushing these. These this this fancy jumper tool and it doesn't seem like they're pushing it for the right reasons, so be cautious about that. I'm good I pretty much can guarantee you I'm gonna get that tool and I will buy it.

Nobody's going to give it to me. Um, but uh I know to always test the thermostat first. So I encourage everybody out there. Same thing when you're using certain tools.

be very, very careful. Okay, um, let's see. oh what do we got going on in the chat right now reading through here. Um, oh, that's funny.

Yeah, we're gonna get to that in a minute. Uh, let's see. put all those conditions ADHD add bipolar on my business card like MD DDS that's a that's a good idea Del Mar I should probably do that for sure. huh? Um, so uh, let me see.

Um, let's okay. so I talked about the jumper box. Um, just be cautious about using those jumper boxes. Okay, um I'm reading through the chat right now just trying to catch up again I Apologize.

Uh I know there's a lot of different Social Media stuff going on? Um, let me see. Okay, cool, Uh, all right. um I already talked about uh and I'll cover it again real quick because I know there's a lot of people in here. First off, let me address this because I'm on some different social media platforms.

Uh, the people on Tick Tock Right now, these live streams are typically Monday evenings. I try to get to questions majority of the time they're about answering and consolidating questions from the videos. This goes for the new people on YouTube too. Okay, so um, if I missed your guys's questions, feel free to send me an email to Hvacrvideos Gmail.com and I will try to answer them.

Okay, Um, so uh I got a a quite a bit of pushback? Um, well, actually no. I want to talk about something else real quick? So let's talk about pulleys, adjustable pulleys or sheaves. Okay, there's there's a a split line down the middle of the internet where one person calls this a uh microphone warning sorry I know that probably got really loud in people's ears. my my bad.

that's why I shouldn't be holding pulleys. Okay, so many apologies please I probably broke your eardrums. Let me see here. hold on.

Okay, so anyways, uh, when it comes to these pulleys, a lot of people will go back and forth. They call them a sheave. They call it a pulley. Okay, this is an adjustable pulley to me, call it a sheave I don't care Google the word um, you know and uh, people are gonna google this right here and there's gonna be two great explanations for why it should be called a pulley and why it should be called a sheep.

Okay, when it comes to these, these in a perfect world. you don't put adjustable sheaves on equipment or you don't leave it on equipment. you use it to figure out the proper RPMs then you put a fix pulley on there. but that's not practical most of the time.

In the type of the industry that I'm in, we don't do that very often. Okay, these things go bad all the time and you need to make sure that you're replacing them because they're going to reduce the uh, Cfms that are typically delivered or moved for whatever reason if they start to wear down. Okay, the belts aren't going to ride in them, they're not going to spin as fast and it's going to become a problem. So make sure we're always checking these pulleys.

Okay, talking about this one right here. Okay, this is a brand new variable pitch pulley. They make tools for these. Okay, this is a little Gap tool right here.

You can use it and you can. It's a gauge tool actually. so I'm showing you guys. Okay, but basically you're going to put this in there and you're going to look to see how it rides on the angle of the pulley.

Same thing for Tick Tock Over here you're going to look and see how it rides. and the the v-grooved pulley right here should be straight. It should not have grooves in it. Okay, I Have a couple pulleys right here, right? Both of these are bad used ones and the Gap tool does not sit right on them.

So these Gap tools are great. Now once you start working in the industry long enough, you can get pretty good at looking at a pulley or a sheave and saying it's bad. But those Gap tools are great and you always want to make sure you're checking that stuff. Uh, when we're doing PM service and different things and making sure we're bringing that stuff to the customer's attention to get approvals.

Okay, um, let me see what else we got. Um, all right. cool. Uh, let's see you call them belt Wheels Okay, belt wheel.

whatever it is, man, pulleys or whatever. we all know what we are talking about. it's all about yeah, exactly. Um, all right.

Uh, they have those in prisons. That's funny. Um, all right. So I'm reading through the chat right now.

Right on. Yeah, this is really, really awesome. Cool. Okay, um so in a recent video where uh, it was a fun one actually spoiler alert so it was holy Redneck.

Ingenuity Batman um I'm jading myself with uh, 1950s Batman reference that I was not alive for but yet I'm just a fanatic with those old shows and I actually grew up watching the original uh Batman series with Adam West Um yeah, my stepdad was a big movie buff and stuff so I was all into that stuff as a kid. but anyways, a lot of people probably didn't even get that reference. Um, so in that video uh, that video was actually from three years ago. everybody that video has been sitting in my hard drive of Wonders I've been going through consolidating and cleaning out my hard drive and uh, I've I found that one and it's like oh I forgot I had this in here.

you know, like I don't know why I never released that but um, that video is pretty funny. uh you know and uh that that location was pretty interesting I was pretty perplexed when I walked up and I saw that if you guys haven't seen it, you definitely want to go to the channel it was my video on YouTube that I released last Sunday and uh, anyways, but uh, that was a fun one. that was a very, very fun one. So in that video there was a four stair uh, furnace up on the roof and I shut it down for safety reasons and I got a lot of pushback from people saying that I should never do that and that's the customer's decision to make.

Hey, guess what? The cool thing? I You know every area is different. Every municipality is different. For me, my conscience is the number one thing, right? And then you have laws and regulations and all that different stuff. I have to feel good about the things that I do I don't work for people that don't let me work the way that I want to work within reason I'm not expecting anything crazy of them.

but I want to do things as best as I can and I want to be a professional technician and professional contractor and I have employees that I teach and I have videos that I make for people I have to do what's right. So I walked up to a furnace and I knew this thing was going to be a piece of junk because it looked like it was from the 60s. Okay, but when I open it up I opened up the the heat exchanger section and there was a clear defined crack on the heat exchanger. So I disabled the furnace and shut it down and I said that in the video and excuse me.

A bunch of people gave me crap because they said I was that was not my decision to make and that should have been the business owner's decision I didn't destroy their equipment. Certainly, they could have sent another technician up there. that technician could have turned it back on. in.

hell, they could have sent me the bill for that technician and I probably would have paid it. but I couldn't leave it on I couldn't leave it running. Okay, uh, that's just me. That's how I run my business so suck it all right.

See what else we got going on in here? Um I already covered that one too. Um cool. let's see. red tag Best Tool in Ontario There you go.

Um, all right. PN Installer replaced that gas unit Chris Yeah, exactly. Uh oh yeah. You like my mason jar.

These are my mason jars with handles. These things are the best. This is a mini mason jar though it's not a full mason jar. This is my favorite cup to have.

So someone in the comments right now was asking me about my mason jar and it's a work night. so I'm not having fun right now I'm drinking a Vanilla Coke So it's like one of my my crutches that I like to go to. My wife and I both really enjoy a Vanilla Coke um every once in a while. So um, all right.

cool. let's get to an email. So Christian sent me an email and uh, this is an interesting one. So Christian I'm gonna paraphrase this email real quick.

Christian's from Atlanta Georgia and um, he's kind of bounced around a few times and he's uh, he's done a little bit of air conditioning work and then he did a little bit of an electrical work and he just didn't really like the air conditioning work that he was doing and so his question is he. He watches my videos though and he's intrigued by what happens in my videos. Okay, I'm I work for some people, some people I don't It's okay if you guys don't enjoy my videos, it's all good Christian does. But regardless, the question he has is that he's saying that my videos are making him want to get back into the industry, but he really thinks that he wants to go the commercial route like the kind of Light commercial stuff that I do so he wants to know.

Is it really a great part of the industry and you know what I mean It really depends for all of you. Everybody needs to choose the niche that they're in, right? My buddy Jason Johnson in the chat, he's in, uh, commercial heavy commercial kind of work and my buddy Dave Johnson in the chat, you know he does uh, more of a facility type work where he's working at one central location and working on all sorts of equipment. right? My buddy Brett Wetzel in here is a supermarket Refrigeration Tech that moved into a management training position where he gets to to mold the minds of new Refrigeration technicians coming into his business, right? Um, and and everybody has their own little niche. So I can't tell you specifically that like Commercial Refrigeration restaurant work is, you're gonna love it I mean I love it if you know, but it's It's definitely challenging.

It's definitely, um, solving a lot of cool puzzles. Um, you know. And to be fair too, though you know, understand that you're not going to go work for a company and start doing the kind of work that I do immediately and just get to dive into these really complex problems. You have to earn your way up and show that you're capable of the company letting you do those things.

so don't be fooled. You know you're gonna have to start from the bottom and work your way up, but commercial is a great thing. Jim Thank you very much for that super sticker I Really do appreciate it. Okay, um or appreciate it I should say um, let's see Mr Green wants to get into Vrf? Yeah, for sure man.

I mean there's lots of great things. Hvacrvideos Gmail.com is the email. Yep, um, Hvacrvideos.com is the website that is correct. So uh, let's see.

um so I want to uh, talk again? because I know there's a lot of new people in here. Um about the uh, short form video that I release showing the circuit breaker finder I Just want to kind of recap that real quick. Got a lot of pushback because people said that a lot of people a disturbing amount of people were frustrated with me in the comments because I didn't just take the hot wire and short it to ground and that I was an idiot for wasting my time and using a circuit breaker Tracer to try to find the actual correct breaker. So I want to address that again because I think that's a really important one for the new people that are chiming in right now.

That's not okay. Okay, don't take the lazy short path. Okay, do your best to do things right. You never know what kind of damage or who can get hurt or what can happen if you try to short something to ground to find a breaker.

I Told the story I'm not going to get into it again. You guys can go back to the middle of the stream. but I've told a story where I had a big mistake with shorting something and it wasn't good. Okay, but regardless, we need to try to do our best as technicians don't short things to ground.

I Mean, if you have to, that needs to be your absolute absolute. Last Resort You need to try everything before you do that. and I would highly suggest that you turn off any sensitive equipment within that panel too, because you never know what you're going to do to a circuit board down the line. You never know what kind of a weird back feed something's going to get or what happens if the breaker doesn't trip.

something can burn up, something can melt. You can trip a main. like. be cautious about that stuff.

everybody. Okay, don't hurt yourselves. Uh, did I label the breaker after I found it? Yes. I did um question that? I got people asking me about uh, filter dryers because I posted a short about filter dryers.

do I always use flare dryers or is you know, do I sometimes sweat them in too? No. yeah, if I'm working on self-contained equipment for the most part, I'm actually going to sweat the dryers in the flare dryers really are just for rooftop work for me for the most part because I'm lazy and don't have to drag my torches up to the roof. Okay I prefer a sweat connection or a weld connection, right? or braze connection. That's what I prefer because you're not ever going to have a problem with that.

but some instances call for different things in a flare if Done Right can last longer, if not as long as a sweat connection. But you just got to make sure you know there's a lot of variables that go into play. So when I'm on self-contained when I'm on OEM equipment. for the most part, I'm going to sweat stuff back in.

Yeah, so um, let me see. Yeah someone said in the chat AL Anonymous said you might trip a breaker in the panel that you can't find. Yeah, yeah, um, think about this again. Working in some of the restaurants that I work in, sometimes breaker panels are located behind the cooking equipment like a set of fryers.

uh, sometimes the breaker panels I've seen them behind Friars Yeah, I Know that's against code, but it happens like there's weird stuff that happens so you have to like move equipment that's got hot cooking oil in it and different. You know, like it's just a nightmare. So just try not to trip a breaker for no reason. Okay, um, let's see what else we got going on in here.

Lots of great people I see lots of comments in The Tick Tock stuff too. so that's really awesome. So I'm trying to figure out a better way to do this and uh, try to get to um my buddy uh Ty Brennaman's in the chat too Ty's a good friend of mine. very cool person.

um I'm gonna I was actually just, uh, text messaging Thai the other day. So Ty's an awesome friend for sure. That's a really cool thing about making this content is I have the opportunity to meet lots of great people and get to network with people that I otherwise probably would have never been able to do. And that's a really cool thing about social media because when I came up in the industry in the the late 90s like when I was really getting into it early 2000s um uh, we didn't have the internet.

It wasn't something. it wasn't social media yet right? We had the internet, but it wasn't social media like it is. Now it wasn't as easy. you know I had to go to message boards to get help and and you know the I'm sorry but the the first Hvc Facebook group came from one of the message boards that we had like that was the thought.

The idea behind a Facebook group um or an HVAC group I should say uh, because that message board. It was Hvactalk.com uh and it was. uh, that was a great great website. It still exists.

It's just not what it used to be. But um, yeah. the internet though, has made this industry better. It really has, so you know the ability to share information.

We used to have a whole shelf in our van dedicated to books and manuals. Like literally a whole shelf and that still wasn't enough for all the equipment we were working on we had. Thomas guys I Still remember Thomas guides having to find maps and learning how to read a Thomas guide with something that is, you know I'm sorry, but a younger if you, if you put a Thomas guide in a younger kid's hand, probably not going to be able to figure it out right quick. It's going to take them a while.

Um Thomas Guides were interesting so the internet has helped us dramatically. All right, Um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. All right. Uh, reading through the tick tock thing right now? Um, let's see.

Uh it says uh, this might be a dumb question, but how do you decide when a filter or coil is dirty? when a filter? oh oh I see um so I'm the okay. so in the commercial World Okay, it is very easy for us to look typically and see if it's a filter issue or a coil issue. As far as being very, very dirty in the residential side, it can be a little bit more difficult because oftentimes the evaporator coil is buried in a closet or in a place where it's a little bit difficult to get to. Okay, and so the question I'm assuming he's asking is, how do you know if it's one or the other you're going to need to know the symptoms of the system and you're going to need? Uh Baseline Data is the best way to know how to figure out between the two of those.

Okay, Um, so you know if you know, uh, the install and commission static pressure of the equipment. the external static pressure That helps you to find things you can take pressure measurements to try to figure out if it's an airflow issue or a refrigeration issue. Um, you know there's some people that like to lean on rules of thumb. Uh, you know, by analyzing the refrigerant pressures and the temperatures and saying they can predict everything that's going on in the system when sometimes you can, but sometimes you have to be able to physically see because of weird, complex problems too.

So um, you know Baseline Data and Commissioning Data is going to be your best friend when it comes to diagnosing airflow restrictions or dirty coil issues or refrigerant related issues. So um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, okay, so Jacob says he has a hard time proving himself when your circumstances allow for easy downfall. and on his part, he's saying he has such an old R22 residential unit.

Oh okay, you have a hard time proving yourself I Don't know if I'm understanding that question. Um, oh okay, we're markings on compressor unit or other companies. easy stuff on my part, such as having all of our 22. I don't know if I quite understand your question there.

Jacob So feel free to send me an email to Hvacrvideos Gmail.com and we can talk a little bit more. I Got a little lost in that one reading through the chat. Um, wow. Charles Hancock says that he loves watching the videos and then I uh and you got into this trade.

Okay, cool, um. read through the chat right now. All right you every oh so do I think that every home should have a manual J Ed is asking I I Actually, do you know? But but there's also these things in the industry that that, um, you know. We also have to understand that we're not going to be able to do everything that's supposed to be proper.

So in a perfect world Yeah. I Think every home should have a proper load calculation done on it uh, and a full building assessment before they decide to change equipment. I 100 even on new construction I Think every home, even if it's in a housing track, you just never know what happens if the person before them took all the insulation out of the attic or did something silly. like every home has different circumstances.

okay uh, new homes right now. Another thing. oh my gosh and I'm sure most of us know this that are talking right now, but it's It's disturbing how bad the the construction is on these new homes and the air conditioning systems. I mean it is a race to the bottom right now when it comes to new construction.

As far as quality goes, it's horrendous. Okay, um I get it. I'm I'm lazy at heart too I really am. But I mean there's some things that I know I have to do and I have to do fully and do it right.

And there is things that I can get away with doing in my restaurants that the restaurant wouldn't really. Otherwise, you know, push back on. um if that, I don't know I don't know if that really makes sense to you guys, but um, you know? Yeah, all right. but but we definitely need to have load calculations on every home for sure.

100 So um, thank you everybody for the nice words I Really do appreciate it. Um, this is really awesome. How popular is repairing aluminum coils on site? How popular I mean or how possible I mean it is possible my buddy Bill Russell just did a repair but unfortunately. um I don't know if this is where your question was going, but I'm just going to answer it the way that I want to answer it.

Um, you know with aluminum quotes if it's a micro Channel coil the repairs typically are going to take, you're going to delete a circuit from the micro Channel condenser. Uh, the way a Micro Channel condenser works is it has a crap ton of passages for the refrigerant to flow through. But each one of those passages is a single Circuit of that condenser. so it's not going back and forth like on a standard tube and fin condenser.

That micro Channel passage is the entire condenser. that one little section right there. So if you typically have leaks on those because something hit it, something hit the side of the condenser and punctured them. You know you will Oftentimes have to delete four or five of those circuits.

so that is a downfall of the micro Channel condensers. If you're talking about how often does it happen I don't think it happens as often as maybe the internet makes you think. but I think there is a lot of those happening out there for sure. So um, thank you very much man.

everybody's really. uh you know. One thing I got to say is thank you to everybody out there. You know these videos that I post on YouTube for people that are just tuning in because I know some people are just jumping in here.

Um, you know I do these live streams Monday evenings It's kind of a way to consolidate questions that I get for my YouTube videos. hvacr videos on YouTube too. Um, for those that are watching on other platforms and uh, these are just kind of consolidations. So that's the whole point of these live streams.

Um, let's see what else. um Tai says he likes trains. he gets to see the big boy Wednesday right on Ty is uh so I first found Ty Ty Branneman in the chat loved HVAC with Ty Brennaman is his name in YouTube uh Tai and I I just started following him on social media I think is what it was and he was traveling at the time I think I had seen some of his educational content because he was working as an educator in a school at the time. and then he started traveling and and it's really cool though because from social media we've become friends and you know Ty and I messaged back and forth.

We meet up when we can and so it's awesome. It's awesome what social media has done for this industry. um HVAC Community is awesome and it is absolutely One thing though that's very interesting and again it I'm not saying this because I'm I'm hurt or anything because of it. but um, the HVAC Community is also interesting on my side because you know, sometimes like right now I'm getting a big push on some of the social media platforms.

not so much. YouTube but Tick Tock and Instagram are really being pushed right now as far as followers and different things and uh, the initial people that come to the channel. some people can be kind of rough as far as like comments and stuff. and then it's funny though, this is a trend that I noticed so it's not that I'm complaining, it's just something that I notice when when you have a lot of a mass influx of new subscribers or viewers, you get a big influx of like negativity and then that Peters off and then the true ones stay and hang and you know become part of the actual Community Interesting little observation that I've noticed.

Um yeah for sure. this is awesome. It is really cool. Uh so uh, what do I got? What do we think about home or business must be able to breathe Oh um so Dr Allison Bales has a book called uh, does the home need to breathe or the book is uh, a house needs to breathe or does it Question mark and uh he goes through the process in this book.

it's actually a really cool book I Highly encourage you guys get it, it's uh or I don't know if it's doctor I think it's just Alice and bills I don't think it's Dr Allison bills but anyways, um pretty cool little book and it kind of helps you to understand more about the home in different situations. Another thing is, uh, if you want to learn more about the building science side of things, um, look up the tool manufacturers the individual ones and they have a lot of great training resources. Both of them, uh, retro Tech and the energy? Conservatory Uh and while they're training you on their tools, you're also getting education about the industry I mean about the whole building science stuff at the same time? So it's kind of a little cheat. So go to their websites and figure out how to get, um, just the training.

Even if you're not going to buy the tools at first, maybe you just want to take the training and just learn and stuff. I'm sure they got those opportunities. So go go to their websites and you you can figure that out. All right.

let's read through the chat, see what's going on. Um, oh okay. so uh. Joshua's saying lots of dependent Pro dependence problems and pain killing measures factor into this trade.

Just reality. Well, I agree I Agree that there is a good portion of of, um, you know, painkiller usage and broken down bodies in this industry too. I Would like to think though and this is what I truly do think I think it is getting better. Okay, uh, this trade, you know had some really rough times in the past and I feel like we're becoming a better trade, because we're really starting to be more concerned about safety and taking care of our bodies.

Certainly I had the mentality when I first got into the industry that you know I was bulletproof. um I'm hard of hearing now because of it and my eyes I have issues with my eyes because I've gotten so much stuff I I could literally if any one of you guys got something right in the in the eye like a piece of glass or something like that, I literally could do the procedure on you because I've had it done on me so many times that I know exactly what's going to happen when he brings out the UV light and the UV dye and he looks at your eye with the in the dark and he goes wow, you have a lot of retinal scarring and all the I mean so anyways, the reason why I'm telling that a funny little silly part is is that we we were really bad about that stuff and we tend to be getting better. Like the industry is getting better, more people are becoming more concerned about safety I see a business's uh, social media influencers A really really good social media influencer that you know I have followed them for a very very long time is Mike Mayberry right? Uh, what is it? Uh HVAC Reefer Guy um and uh Mike I think that's his channel right? Yeah. But anyways, Mike is a really cool dude.

met him many times but the the the role that he has right now is he is like a safety manager for a big giant company and it's really awesome to see the kind of stuff that he gets to train people on. and it's really neat so definitely go check him out for sure. Um Eyes Ears Nose Shoulders, back, knees, feet? yeah uh, unfortunately. I mean but you know it's inevitable too that blue-collar workers I mean come on, we're a breed in our own right and we tend to do that selves to that stuff to ourselves.

You know we as blue collar workers for the most part. especially people my age I'm turning 40 here in like a week. Um, you know, my age and older. you know we tend to think, ah, the people behind us, they can't handle it.

You know they they can't even lift anything anymore. They're a bunch of sissies. you know is kind of what is really said a lot. and in all reality I think the stuff coming into the industry with the younger generation being more concerned and wanting more days off and being more concerned with their health I Think that's actually a good thing because this industry in general needs to change and become while I agree I'm a business owner I need to make money, but it also needs to become a little bit more about the employee too.

Uh, you know and the the benefits that employees get and it's is getting better. It really is the pay that technicians are getting better. The concern for safety is getting better. I have a good positive outlook for the industry when it comes to that.

Yeah, we have hurdles right now because we're still trying to bring in more of the younger generation. but um I think that they're leading this industry into a good direction for sure. Let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um Jacob says that the HVAC schooling was my YouTube because their teacher wouldn't teach now.

Okay, so yeah, that's a bummer. man, that's too bad. that really is. and unfortunately I think that's a lot of schools are bad when it comes to that.

I'm actually uh I have this idea. okay and I've been thinking about it and I'm in talks with a company right now about um, bringing to light a really cool education thing for the industry. Okay, not changing anything. I'm not doing a school or anything like that.

it's just a program. an education program that I think is really neat I'm not revealing anything yet. Uh, we're still working stuff out. but um, stay tuned because I will be talking about something that I think is not for everybody, but for a certain percentage of the the people coming into the industry.

I Think this new resource that I have stumbled upon I think will be a good thing. So stay tuned because I'll be talking about that soon. Nothing yet. but um, all right.

Chris thank you very much for that. Super Chat man I really do appreciate it. Uh, really awesome all the support I I'm looking at Tick Tock too and I honestly don't understand anything that's on my screen on The Tick Tock stream right now. uh it? there's there's weird I don't understand it.

It's really hard. I can't wait until I can get tick tock on my computer because I just need a screen to look at and there's too much Consolidated into a little screen right now with comments on Tick Tock Um so between uh, between up blast exhaust fans and down blast exhaust fans, which one is the worst to clean up? Oh down blast down blasts are the worst because up blast you can get a lot from the top and down blast you have to disassemble in a different way. So as far as cleaning up, blast with and you want uh, fans that are designed for grease removal, uh, those are the best and then uh, then they're easier and they have ways to clean them much easier than like an exhaust fan design for just a mechanical room or something. So um, if you don't understand Tick Tock it's because I'm almost 40 and that's 100 true I do not understand Tick Tock I do not um I I just don't So, but I'm I'm blown away I Don't do Tick Tock and I uploaded a tick tock.

uh I mean I do it every once in a while. but I uploaded a tick tock yesterday. No yesterday I was yesterday or Saturday and it's already almost at a million views and I'm like damn I've never even seen that before on. Tick Tock Oh pretty crazy.

Anyways, um yeah, I'm not afraid of any of that stuff. The Tick Tock stuff I mean I don't know if you're afraid of tick tock. I mean what do you think? Facebook and YouTube and all those different people are taken from you too. So kind of social media's destiny.

Um no. I don't do Tick Tock dances. no I don't So right on. well it is time I am going to wrap this up.

I Really, really do appreciate you guys. Oh wait no. I had one more thing I needed to talk about. Um, sorry, yeah, one more thing.

Okay, cool. I Want to make sure this. Um oh okay. so a lady had emailed me talking about her elderly mom and uh, they're really concerned about the diagnosis that she got on her house.

So basically they had someone come out. um and they said that the compressor was bad and that they had to change the whole system because the compressor was bad. So anyway, she proceeds to ask me a bunch of different questions. and to the lady that wrote me that um, her name is Lauren Uh, First off, understand that the industry as you know, has some bad apples in it.

Okay, I'm not saying that the technician that gave you a diagnosis was a bad apple, but I said you do have a little bit of you know. um, you need to be a little cautious like you are and make sure that you're vetting certain diagnoses right from people. So when it comes to situations where you don't have confidence I Haul I Wholeheartedly, um, encourage you to get multiple bids. What? I Think people need to understand more is that you have better odds of getting a reputable bid.

Uh, if you are paying for the bid companies that are giving free estimates, you know, um, oftentimes maybe won't dig as deep as they should. Okay, uh. but then also, there's companies that give free estimates just because that's what everybody else in the industry does. So it's not every company that does free estimates that's bad.

But I'm just saying you do have a little bit of um, you do got to be a little careful. Okay, so the point that I'm making though for the lady that asked me the question is I Highly encourage you to get a couple more bids from different companies within your area. Don't be afraid to pay for those bids and kind of get educated that way. From talking to each technician, don't necessarily choose the cheapest.

Okay, because the cheapest is not going to be the best in most cases. Okay, so be cautious and kind of think about that. so I don't really know your particular situation. Uh, you know it's kind of hard for me to with just the information you gave me to completely answer it.

But I highly encourage you to get some more bids from other people. Okay, let's see our 49. AC tune-ups Good. I Mean you need to read the fine print because a 49 Ac tune up is usually an opportunity for a sale.

so it's a a lost leader Essentially okay, and unfortunately, a good part of the industry has to do that kind of stuff to stay in business unfortunately, and it's typically the residential side on the commercial side for the most part. I'm not saying that every contractor on the commercial side's the best contractor in the world, but we typically have a little more scrutiny than um, you know, than the residential side for the most part. Okay, so don't take that the wrong way. There's good residential contractors too.

There really is, and there's bad commercial contractors, but hopefully I kind of made sense of your question there. Um, all right. So I really, really do appreciate you all. Thank you very much for coming in here! Um I am going to cue up the outro music and we will definitely definitely catch you guys on the next one.

If I can figure out how to turn Tick Tock off. All right Thank you so much. We'll see you guys! Foreign, Foreign Business Foreign Thank you Foreign.