HVACR Videos Q and A livestream originally aired 06/1/20 @ 5:PM (west coast time) where we will discuss my most recent uploads and answer questions from the Chat, YouTube comments, and email’s.
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Ah, it's time to chill out and get ready for a mediocre q, a live stream if you're old enough grab yourself your favorite adult beverage and if you're not stick with apple juice, put your feet up and relax. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the chat and now, let's queue up the intro music hello. How are you guys doing this evening? Hopefully you guys are doing well for what we have going on right. It seemed like hey thanks so much for that super chat that was really cool.

It seemed like you know. We were just dealing with a bunch of drama. You know a couple weeks ago and then here we are again um this one. I know we're all going through it uh for those of you that are watching that aren't in the united states.

I'm sure you've heard on your media or your news channels that it's like all hell's breaking loose over here right now. We have protesting and rioting all over the country. California is where i live as a state in the united states, and we got a lot of protesting going on. You know you got to remember something for those of us that you know.

I know you guys are thinking the same things that i'm thinking and immediately when i see this protesting, you know the dad instincts kick in and i want to go like scold, my child, you know like i want to go. You know just stop doing that. You know yeah, i'm gon na shake my child, you know stop it, but you know we have to remember that that really isn't the way to do this, and i know a lot of people you know are frustrated as to why the police aren't going and just Bashing in heads and arresting people and stuff - and that's not the solution here - there's obviously something going on and there's multiple things going on too there is peaceful protesting. There is non-peaceful protesting, there's a little bit of both and it's hard to tell where the the the differentiate or where it where it changes right.

Unfortunately, unfortunately, for the people that are trying to peacefully protest, you've got these knuckleheads that are coming in, and rioting and looting it sucks um. You know it just it is what it is and i grew up as a kid in los angeles or the los angeles suburbs right. I wasn't living in the ghetto or anything like that, but i mean you know. I grew up and i remember the 92 riots in los angeles, but it was different back then, because we didn't have social media right um, you didn't have cell phones really back, then i mean some of the gang bangers did, but you know they weren't calling their Buddies really so it's a different time and things are different and you have to understand that you know the police.

They can only do so much. You know aggravating. That only makes it worse. You know so they just got to be careful and i'm not defending either side.

Okay, because i see good things and bad things on both sides of the arguments here, so it just sucks. You know um, where i'm at right now uh. I live in uh riverside. California, um there's a protest going on right now.
You know about two miles away from my house two and a half miles away from my house and last i checked it was peaceful. You know the most important thing that i have done with everything that is going on is i have two daughters, both very young. One of them is going into high school and the other one's still in elementary school, and i just reassured them like. Look, i'm not hiding this from them.

You know we. Let them watch little bits of the news, so they know what's going on because we told them like you're, going to remember this stuff for the rest of your life. But you know we um. We kind of explained to them like hey, you know, you're good.

I made sure my daughter's 100 knew that they're safe they're going to be fed and they're going to be protected. 100. I will make sure my kids are safe and i made sure they understand that, because i don't want them to watch the news and get scared right, even though i'm kind of scared in a weird way. You know i mean i feel it in my gut and it's not so much that i'm scared someone's going to hurt me, but i'm just i'm scared for the whole situation.

It sucks. It really does but um. I got to make sure the way that i'm getting through. This is making sure that i take care of my family.

I take care of my own right and we make sure that they're, safe and provided for and that's the only thing i can do really and just you know hope that nothing really happens in my area, which i don't think it is. I don't live in a very bad area or anything like that, and you know and yeah. It is what it is, but i hope you guys are safe. I know that this is going on across the country.

I've talked to some of my friends um, you know talking to them every day, and i know it's uh, it's a mess everywhere guys and it really does suck, but just remember something again, not defending either side, because both of them have good points and both of Them have horrible points right, but both sides, you know they're trying their best. I guess you know, unfortunately there's some bad people mixed in with the protesters that are, you know, there's some good protesters out there and they're just trying to get their message out, but then there's a lot of bad people mixed in there. So just remember that, okay, i'm not an expert when it comes to any of this stuff, i'm not an expert when it comes to political, marcus m. Thank you.

So very much for that super chat. I'm going to say this just like i say this at every live stream. I really do appreciate the super chats, but they are not needed guys. Okay, we are going through crazy times right now, um, you know if you want to do it, so be it, but please don't feel obligated, don't feel like you need to jump on the bandwagon.

If other people are doing it, i mean you know whatever it is. What it is guys, i really do appreciate you guys coming and just checking out these streams and remember you know the reason again, i'm i'm dead set on this. The reason why i do these live streams is to save my sanity and to give my family my purse my attention when it's needed, so you know i get these videos, i do. You know, get tons of questions and i find myself staring at my phone.
All the time, so i decided to start doing these live streams to kind of focus. My time you know, and so that's why a lot of you probably see you know for those of you that have emailed me. You probably got an email from me today because i usually try unless it's like an urgent email or something that i could really quickly take care of. I really don't read the emails until mondays, you know i try to get off work early and i try to focus on emails and comments.

Um, that's just the only way i can do it. Unfortunately, it's gotten to the point that i get so many comments and i i greatly appreciate every and i i i think i really do read every single comment and i acknowledge him with a heart and a thumbs up just to let you know that i'm reading Them, and sometimes i comment, but i mean it's getting to the point that it's starting to get crazy. I mean how many comments there is and - and thank you guys so very much uh. Some of them make me laugh.

Some of them are hilarious. You know um, it's it's cool. I really do appreciate this, and this is an awesome thing we have going. So thank you guys very much for attending these and you know leaving the comments and stuff.

So all right, um as usual, got lots of stuff going on. Uh definitely want to address a lot of things. I have a few things on my list and i already talked about you know the a little bit about the protests and stuff that are going on and another thing that i had on my little bullet point right here was: i was talking with my older daughter Because my older daughter um, has some opinions and she's, you know younger, but i mean she has opinions and she has a great heart and she has compassion and i don't want to ruin that compassion. I i want that compassion to stay strong with her, but at the same time she has an adolescent, teenager-ish compassion right, because the sympathy that she has for um people right now you know - is a little misguided, but i'm not gon na change.

Her her thought i'm gon na, let her believe her own stuff, but i'm gon na try to educate her as much as possible with both sides. You know giving her perspective on everything and again i'm not the perfect person, i'm just you know telling how i'm doing it. Okay, so don't you know, i'm sure i'm screwing a lot of things up with my kids, but you know i'm trying to teach her tolerance. I'm trying to teach her that her compassion is great and i don't want it to go away, but i'm also trying to teach her what's real and how protesting is great and it is good and it does do good.

But rioting and looting is not a form of protest, and that is just ridiculous. That is people just being opportunistic and being greedy feeling like they deserve something that they can't have right for whatever reason not because they can't have it. But just because, for whatever reason they aren't pa purchasing it, they aren't paying for it, and you know they're they're going to get them some right um. So i'm trying to teach my daughter right from wrong in that way.
But at the same time i don't want to be that person that tells her. She has to believe 100. What i say because that's not how i raise my daughter, you know jeff. Thank you very much for that super chat bud.

That is flippin awesome right. I love it um, so yeah all right, uh yeah. I saw that refried beans and again i don't want to get political okay too much, but i will say that you know um. I did see that our administration did declare antifa as a terrorist organization, and while i do agree that antifa is a bad thing, i kind of don't know if it was quite the right time to declare them as a terrorist organization, because i kind of feel like It fueled the fire a little bit.

If you know what i mean i mean i totally don't agree with antifa, but i also uh feel like eh. You know there could have been a better time to do that. But again, let's get off the politics, because that's not what this stream is about. Okay, uh mike! Thank you very much, but i really appreciate that.

That's awesome man all right, um, so uh, lots of stuff. Remember that if you guys have questions, please put your questions in caps. Lock, i'm gon na try to get to them. I know some of the questions fly by and i don't get an opportunity to get to them.

If i miss your question, feel free to send me an email to hvacr videos - gmail.com, okay, i said this in my recent video. You guys can probably see these right here. These are all the shirts i'm working on a website right now. As soon as i do get the website up, there will be a way for you to purchase those shirts if you guys are interested because a lot of people have been asking.

Also behind me is a crap ton of hats. So it's these hats right here. This is the hat that i designed um. I went with a generic hat because my thought was.

I love my logo that i have on my shirt right. I love it and i love the fact that it represents me. Um i'll, show you the back. I know a lot of you have seen it so.

The back of the shirt says big picture diagnoses um, another funny thing. People think that i messed something up, but i didn't okay, so the back of my shirt says diagnoses, it doesn't say: diagnosis, okay, um, because in designing the shirt i went with the plural, so people send me emails, you spelt it wrong. You spelled it wrong. No, i didn't because i wanted my shirt to say big picture diagnoses, as in plural, like we do lots of big picture diagnoses.
So anyways i'm going off of the thing, so the hats they will be coming soon, they're not available yet. But the point of the hats was: i wanted people to be able to wear these and not represent my brand, so that way they could potentially wear them to work if their company allows them to, because it simply just says hvacr, it does not have my logo. So it's not representing my brand. That's going to be the hats.

They're super awesome, they're like a uh. I don't know if the camera camera's quite picking that up but they're a breathable mesh. I've been wearing my hat for a year, not this one. It's in my truck, but i've been wearing it for a year and the biggest thing about the hats that i really like is the underside of the bill.

Is black really dig that so those will be coming out too? I have small medium and then large extra large in both of those so anyways enough about that crap that'll be coming soon. You guys will see the announcements and all that stuff, okay, um. Let me see what i'm missing in here. I don't think i'm missing anything else, all right, um going through my list of stuff that i have going on here.

So i had a question um just addressing the different refrigerants and someone was asking me a question saying: hey, you know what um there's so many different refrigerants. How do you keep up? Which one are you sticking with you know? New refrigerants are coming out every day and guys the way that i approach this when it comes to refrigerants is i'm not scared of any refrigerant. Okay, yeah, there's things you got to do when it comes to flammable refrigerants. I do a lot of work with r290 or propane when it comes to propane.

You know, there's just some new rules. You got to follow some safety things right, but i don't care what flavor of refrigerant we're dealing with right, because there's a new flavor every single week it seems, like you, know, they're the same colors, whatever they're doing it's just another thing that we have to figure Out and i'm fine with that guys because guess what we get paid to figure that stuff out, that's the way that i look at it. So you know what uh! In the last two years, i've been dealing with r448a refrigerant and people. I know some of you guys in other parts of the country haven't even used it yet.

Well guess what get used to it, because r404a, the the refrigerant um ban or or you know, phase out. I guess actually, our 404a is kind of a ban in california because we're not allowed to use it. It's not like it's being phased out. Slowly, you're allowed to use it on it's a somewhat of a ban, but anyways you guys will get what i'm saying.

But you know refrigerants are changing every day and our job is just to know how systems work and if you understand saturation temperatures and condensing temperatures, it doesn't matter what refrigerant you're dealing with okay. If you ask me today what pressures i'm going to run on r404a, i don't know because i look at the temperatures. I know what my condensing temp should be, and i know what my my evaporator temperature should be so learn that kind of stuff. Okay, learn to deal with the the the temperatures and the pressures will come with that, because then you don't have to remember every single refrigerant's pressures.
You just know that you want to run. You know, let's just say a 25 degree evaporator on that walk-in cooler. Okay, that's going to maintain about a 35 degree box. Okay, that sounds great.

That's easy! Then i don't have to remember the pressures. Okay, these super chats that are coming in. I really really appreciate it guys. That is awesome.

Thank you, so very much for the super. Chats that is awesome, okay, um so have i seen any problems replacing r22 with 407c uh? I'm going to tell you right now that i have not used 407c. I've worked with it, but i have not installed it on a system: okay, uh. 407C.

Your best bet is to do an oil change. I realize that some manufacturers are telling you that you can, you know just add a little poe oil to the system and it'll probably be okay in certain situations. That would be fine. Okay, i have personally not run into any problems uh with 407c, but again i haven't done retrofits with it, okay, but i know that if i was going to use 407c, which, if you asked me today - which alternative to r22, it would probably be 407c that i Would choose okay, but i already understand that if i was to do a 407c retrofit, my way of doing it would be to go ahead and do an oil change, whether it be a compressor change or changing the oil in the compressor and changing as many of The seals you can get to and i would be comfortable walking away from a system like that, but understand something.

No matter what refrigerant you deal with 407c 22. Anything you guys need to understand um, especially with the blends and the replacements right. You need to understand that systems need to be fine-tuned after that, okay, you can't just put in a certain amount of 407c and walk away. You need to make sure the system is operating properly.

Okay, remember! If you walk up to a system, let's say you go to an air conditioner, it has a bad compressor. Okay, it's r22 and you decide well, we need to change the compressor. The customer approves the quote and you decide to use 407c. Remember something: did you figure out what caused that compressor to go bad? Yet you didn't because you can't without changing the compressor and starting it up so on startup you're, going to analyze the system you're going to go through it and you're going to see.

Oh my gosh, i have really low superheat and you find out that there's something wrong with the expansion valve. Okay, so most of the time on air conditioning systems. You're not gon na make an adjustment to an expansion valve unless it's like a big built up system. You're gon na replace the valve, but in certain situations it might just be an adjustment that needs to be made.
Okay or maybe the sensing bulb, fell off or maybe there's a restriction in the fixed orifice metering device. You can't just drop in or change over a refrigerant and walk away. You need to fine-tune the system after, and that goes for if you're just putting r22 back in the system too, you know i preach this whole big picture. Diagnosis thing.

I highly suggest that all of us follow that because it leads to so much more we're not there to just solve the problem or you know to uh. I'm sorry we're not just there to solve the symptom. I forgot my catchphrase for a minute: we're there to figure out what the problem was that caused the symptom right. So that's the whole point.

So if you're using a drop in what some people call it a drop in right, we got to be careful with that term. Let me be frank: with this right now drop in does not mean that you put it on top of another refrigerant. You don't ever mix refrigerants okay. I know that some people have done it and they say it works, so be it, but that is not correct.

Okay, we are not chemists when it comes to refrigerants. You start with when you're doing retrofits, you do not mix them. You take all of the existing r22 out of the system, then you put 407c in or whatever flavor you decide to go with okay, but you always want to follow the manufacturer's instructions. I highly highly suggest you do not listen to what the supply house counter guys.

Tell you, okay, it's not their fault, but they are not engineers. Sometimes a technician might come in and say: oh yeah 407c works great when you mix it with r22. So then they may pass that information along. But that is not correct.

Okay, you need to do the work yourself. You can't just trust what someone tells you at the supply house counter now. There is some really good supply house guys out there too, but you need to know how to trust those guys and to do that, you need to do some research yourself and find out. Hey you can't mix this refrigerant, that's not right! Okay, now my buddy ralph, i saw him in here earlier, he's always willing to help people with refrigerant retrofits.

He works for honeywell refrigerants, i'm going to post his email in the chat right now feel free to send my buddy ralph. An email he's always willing to help you guys out when it comes to these things. I'm not a genius when it comes to refrigerants and all that different stuff. Ralph is a pretty smart dude.

If you have questions, i highly suggest you ask him: he could probably help you a little bit more and give you some more guidance on different refrigerants and stuff. Okay, i've got a big. You know. I tend to go off on these rants and sometimes i know i missed a lot of stuff in this chat.
Um hvac apprentice, what temperature for a walk-in cooler freezer before you clear the sight, glass or adjust the super heat? Well, okay. So what he's referring to is, i mention all the time when i'm on my videos - let's just say, i'm working on a walk-in freezer and i changed a compressor. It's been down for a very long time and when i start the system up um, you know i add some refrigerant get it to. You know somewhat refrigerant pressure, then i turn it on after i've done the repair and i find that the sight glass is flashing.

You want to be very careful about clearing up a sight glass when a system is under a very heavy load. Okay, because sometimes, depending on the design of the system, you can overcharge it. Okay, the expansion valve might be wide open. There might be some issues there, so you always want to be cautious.

Now what is the exact temperature that the system needs to be at before you clear the sight glass that one as a technician? You got to kind of make that decision out in the field. Personally, i can look at the system. I can tell if i'm flooding back so long as i'm not flooding back, i don't mind clearing up the sight glass and then i'm gon na analyze, the system after, but i'm gon na pay attention. Okay, um! You know i mean if this, if the box is literally at 80 degrees, i'm not going to typically run a clear sight, glass right away, there's other ways i may charge it: okay, for instance, if i have a brand new condensing unit like a heat craft, i Install a lot of the heat craft, condensing units - and i know that for certain uh two horsepower models that are low temp.

The maximum refrigerant charge in that receiver for 404a is 14 pounds in the one that i'm thinking of in my head. Not every system that you're working on, but i just know that the ones that i'm thinking of in my head is a 14 pound maximum charge so often times as my install protocol, i will install 14 pounds of gas in that system and i know that that's The proper charge in the system - okay, that's the maximum charge, i should say um recommended by heat heatcraft 404a for the particular system i'm working on. So in that situation i would go ahead and put 14 pounds of gas in it. Watch it for a while watch.

It come down to temp, but if i don't know the capacity of the receiver or how much refrigerant it can hold, i'm probably going to run an almost clear sight, glass with just a few bubbles every once in a while and let it run until i see It get into 20-ish degrees, box, temp and then at that point, i'd probably feel comfortable, adding more gas and clearing the sight glass, but understanding that i'm using my symptoms the entire time, while i'm working on that system and i'm paying attention, i'm looking at my superheat Coming back to the compressor, i'm noticing that it's not flooding back, you know so i'm using all the vital signs. It's not just a wait till this temperature, then clear the sight glass. It's wait till this temperature, while you're watching everything i'm looking at this. I'm looking at that everything's.
Looking good to me all that data is coming into my head and then i decide. Okay, i can probably go and clear the glass up. Okay, so i i hate to say this, but i can't give you some magic number at which the box needs to be down to before you clear the site class: okay, that's where being a technician really comes in and you got to kind of just trust. Your gut and you know, look at everything and then make that decision, so um scott.

Thank you very much for that super chat. Bud. That's awesome, really, really cool um. Let me see uh have i worked on raypack boilers.

No. I actually have never worked on a boiler um, not that i couldn't, but it's just one of those things that never really got into boilers or chillers any of that stuff. Okay, so i just do the only kind of uh heating systems that i do is just like: a heat pump unit or a uh, a gas-fired heat. You know package unit or something like that, like i don't do any uh hydronic systems boilers, water heaters.

Anything like that, i don't work on them, so i'm sure i could, but it's just not something i've ever gotten into so um all right, uh right on. I appreciate that scott, that is, awesome. Yeah scott posted, my true tech tools, discount code. So, yes, i do have a discount code working with truetech tools, if you guys are considering any tool purchases and you happen to choose truetech tools as being whatever i mean, i highly suggest you guys look at all avenues as far as buying tools.

You know you want to buy them locally from your supply house. That's great! You know you want to buy them from truetech tools, so be it if you choose to go with true tech tools. Consider using my offer code, big picture one word and it does save you eight percent, on your order and then i get a small commission and it doesn't cost you anything extra. It helps to support the channel.

So, what's my largest motor, i've worked on of any kind, probably like a 10 horsepower, blower motor or something like that, nothing bigger than that. So probably that's about it. When does big picture diagnosis become too much, i'm assuming that's what you're asking so um! You know. That's a good question: again: you have to kind of to judge that one and use your gut while you're out in the field i mean.

Sometimes you know uh the customer. Doesn't i i think i made a video and the thumbnail was sometimes the big picture doesn't go for the or the customer doesn't go for the big picture, repair right or it was something along those lines and that's true. I always go with a big picture diagnosis, but at the same time i know usually i can feel out the customer - and i know like hey: they don't have any money right now. They just want this thing operating, but i'm gon na make sure that i cover my butt on that invoice or my report and it's gon na say you know, problems could still exist.
I'm gon na cover my butt, so it really depends on each customer and what they want. Okay, um understand that as a service technician, you guys can't just go out there and spend four and a half hours on a iced up, walk-in cooler. You know and then call your boss, you know and say. Oh i got this big long list.

I highly suggest that you keep your company in the loop, your service manager, your supervisor, your boss, whoever your dispatcher and let them know hey. This is what i'm running into so that way: they're not like where the heck are you. You know you don't just go diving into things when i'm doing this whole big picture diagnosis that you guys see me doing, i'm keeping the customer in the loop the whole time. I don't show that, but i go downstairs and i say hey.

This is where i'm at you know when i come up to a walk-in freezer. That's not working like the you know, one of the recent ones where the most recent video i had walking cool around walking freezer down. I went upstairs found that we had a bad condenser fan motor. While i was going to get the condenser familiar.

I stopped back downstairs to the customer and said hey. I found a bad condenser fan motor i've got to change this part to proceed to go any further. Once i get that change, then i'll finish evaluating the system, you know make sure that they're, okay with that and once they say, yeah, okay, cool, really. I appreciate it, you know, then i continue on with the repair and then, if i find anything else, i keep them in the loop on the walk-in cooler on that call.

You know i went to the customer and i said, look dude this thing's iced up and it's filthy. We got to de-ice it and clean it before we can go any further. So we did that and then i found you know evaporator falling apart fan, blades going backwards, you know and the whole time grabbing the customer now sometimes the customer doesn't want to hear it. That's okay! You know, but i still make the effort.

I still let him know: hey i'd like to talk to you. Can you come in the walk-in? No, i'm too busy. Okay, no worries, here's what i found you know and then sometimes i don't want to listen to that. But i made an honest effort.

You know so that way in their head. They remember. I know you tried to get me to come over there, but i was too busy. Okay cool right on.

You know one of the cool things that i have um, i'm lucky in this fact. In that most of my customers, i actually don't work for the restaurant. I actually work for the facilities department in a weird way. I still respect and keep the restaurant in the loop, but i work for people above the restaurant general manager.

So i know in my head: what's allowed to be repaired? I know like i don't even for most of my restaurants. I have verbal approvals that if i have a walk-in freezer, that has a bad compressor, go ahead and start changing it. You know yeah, they know it's going to be expensive, but i'm thankful that they trust me when it comes to that kind of stuff. Now still, even though i have approval, i still call and try to communicate with people while i'm working, you know and and let them know and of course, try to keep the manager in the loop, because i don't want to make the manager feel like they're worthless.
I don't want to make them feel like they don't have a decision-making power. I still keep them in the loop, but i know that if they say no to a walk-in freezer compressor, that's bad. On a friday night, i'm going to make a few phone calls, because i know the general manager is telling me no, but i know that you've got. You know 15 000 worth of food in there and we need to get this fixed.

You know so i know what needs to be done now. I realize that some of you guys that work for bigger companies that's a little bit harder, especially when you're working with a not to exceed value. I have not to exceed values too, but i know that a lot of them. I can go over those depending on the repair, but it's just one of those things, but my own technicians.

They don't make those decisions without talking to me. So if my technician goes over there - and he says dude, this thing has a bad compressor. He doesn't just start fixing that he calls me and says: hey we got a bad compressor. Are we clear to fix this and i'll usually say yeah go so that way? When you know i can start making phone calls for them and let them know so.

I think i went off on a big tangent on that one, but um okay, would i recommend replacing an 11 year old ac system with a small refrigerant leak and a compressor that is going bad? Well, it really depends dog screen. I mean it depends on your. You know what the customer wants. Okay, i would give the customer all the information and give them a price to change the compressor.

It's a very old. So it's not, i wouldn't say very old, 11 years old is a good system, but i mean you you. Definitely if you wanted to put some money into it, you can get some life into it, life out of it. But here's the thing on an 11 year old system, there's a lot of variables at play that i don't know, is the condenser starting to rot out where's the leak at you know, there's things like that.

If you put, let's just say four thousand dollars into a you - know 11 year old system to change a compressor, whatever the cost is i'm just throwing a number out there here goes, my coke knows as usual. If you put, you know, let's just say four thousand dollars into that system, i can't guarantee you two weeks later that you're not going to lose a blower motor. I can't okay. So yes, it is a gamble, but you know, let's just say here: in southern california, you know a 4 000 repair, let's just say, to change a residential compressor.
That sounds a bit extreme to me, probably a little bit closer to 2500 repair or something like that. But um a new system with ductwork and all that stuff is going to cost him 25 30 grand for a higher end system. So four thousand dollars versus thirty grand you know - i don't know it depends, but by the time you add, but that's i'm not saying that a four thousand dollar repair is what it would cost. But i'm just saying you know you get where i'm going, i'm using numbers, so you got to kind of weigh everything out um in that situation and you need to be able to trust your service company.

If you don't trust your service company, i highly doubt you get a second opinion. Okay, you've got to be able to trust them, but there's also truth in the fact that an 11 year old system it's getting up there and you know maybe it's time to consider replacement. That's going to come with some warranties. You know you got to make those decisions right.

I don't make decisions for my customers. I don't go in there with the thing of you know. I'm gon na sell them this, like i'm, i'm not a salesman, okay, but also understand something. I'm not a residential company.

Things are a little bit different, i'm on the commercial side, where people don't replace things a lot. Well, some people do, but most people just want to repair things. So that's me all right um. What am i missing in here um? What do we got going on? Uh, oh right on ralph have a good night man.

Hopefully you stay safe, but okay have i ever got consider or have i ever considered going into supermarket rack refrigeration? Jonathan jonathan, i am intrigued by rack refrigeration. It's very interesting to me. I would love to get my hands on some supermarket racks. I would love to do some work on racks.

It sounds very interesting to me. Here's my problem. I have great employees that work for me, but they are not supermarket rack people. So if i was to get into that kind of stuff, even just nudging, a little bit like getting into more higher end refrigeration systems, the problem is: is that either i have to hire technicians that can do that kind of work or if i keep my same Staff, i have to end up doing a lot more of that work and it puts me into a situation where i don't know.

If i want to get into that. Okay, so i tend to stay in the restaurant refrigeration stuff because i know it i'm not in you know i don't know everything, but i'm pretty good at the restaurant refrigeration stuff and for the most part i can walk my guys through majority of the repairs over The phone, if need be, if you know a system like a rack for a supermarket or something like that first off, i wouldn't just go out and work on something, but i would be very intrigued to get my hands on some of them and and go into Some equipment rooms and learn a little bit more. It sounds very interesting to me and to be honest with you there's times in my career, where i get bored and it's like man, i'd really like a change. I'd like to do something different.
You know that kind of stuff, but you have to weigh that out. I mean i have a business and do i risk the business to do something fun? Do i keep the business where it is? Do i just keep the boat going straight? You know and just let it go, i mean you know it's, it's it's a gamble. So, yes, i would love to. I know i make long stories out of everything, but i would love to get into rack refrigeration, but it's not really something.

That's practical for me to do um how old is too old to get into hvac. That is a great question. It really depends on what type of the industry you're getting into. Okay.

Hvac has all different sorts of sectors, and restaurant refrigeration is probably a really difficult thing for an older person to get into because you're crawling you're, climbing you're in hot kitchens you're in cramped places you're on your knees, a lot you know you're doing a lot of Dirty work and you're in tiny little regions, you've got to be able to see really well, so um, probably wouldn't be the best thing to get into. But if you're doing you know just like commercial hvac work where you're walking across a roof and stuff like that, i don't see anything wrong with getting into it when you're older. So long as you can do the physical work, you can lift your tool bag up on the roof and that kind of stuff, okay, um supermarket stuff is probably pretty intense for an older person just getting into the trade. I don't know how old you're talking about, but supermarket work is probably pretty intense.

I would say supermarket's a great thing for younger guys that uh don't mind not sleeping and busting their asses, all the time um you know and making really good money. You can make really good money in the supermarket stuff, but you're going to work your ass off. So i'm going to get to my list here a little bit. If i'm missing anything in here guys, don't uh don't hesitate to repost it just keep putting it in caps, lock i'll, try to get to it and or send me an email to hvacrvideos gmail.com.

Okay, i'm getting to my list of things to talk about um! Oh great, okay, so two videos. Last week, the two videos that i had were um the walk-in freezer call where it was a disaster right that was insane going on another company going behind another company that walk-in freezer was insane and it was all because of a drain line that was crazy. Uh. The next one was a walk-in cooler and a walk-in freezer that were down the both of those were not restaurants that i normally service.

I was helping out my customer that area a lot of people are telling me you know in my comments. Oh, you got a new customer. You got a new customer, no, not necessarily because i said it in the comments a few times and in some of the facebook comments and stuff that those two locations in the middle of rush hour traffic are about three hours away from my shop. So that's a little bit too far, granted it's only about 60 or 70 miles from my shop, but it's right through the rush hour traffic of downtown los angeles.
So it can take me up to three hours in rush hour to get to those locations. So those aren't locations that i really have any interest in servicing on a permanent basis, but right now we're kind of slow anyways and i don't mind helping out customers when things are. Are you know really bad for them? I don't mind helping them out, but on a permanent basis, i can't service those locations on a regular. Another thing that i want to point out, and i i got i get a lot of questions about this.

First off my customers locations all right. I try to keep my locations as private as possible. I realize that first, probably a lot of you guys that can watch my videos and realize the locations that i'm working at you might even recognize the location because you've worked there before or something like that. Okay, i try to keep the location somewhat private, to protect my customers - okay, um, for a couple reasons um, but you know we just got to keep that stuff.

You know uh not secret, but you know we got to keep the names anonymous of the locations and the restaurants and stuff like that. Okay, and sometimes i let some things slip in my videos, i probably shouldn't revealing locations or geographic areas that they're in which makes it really easy. You know, because this restaurant's in front of a shopping mall or something and people like. I know that mall.

I know where you're at that's that restaurant you know i try to keep that. So that's actually one of the only comments i ever delete. If i ever see people guessing restaurant names or saying what the restaurant names, i usually delete those comments, just because i want to protect them. The next thing i get a lot of people asking me why i didn't reveal the company that i was following the companies, because there was multiple companies that i've been following behind lately and and fixing all this crazy work.

Okay, guys, i have to be careful about that kind of stuff. If i go out naming the company that i'm following that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. Okay, um, i don't really like to talk crap and yes, i'm sure you guys saw some frustration come out in my last two videos, because both of them were late night calls in fact the video that i released sunday was that was uh last friday. Well, the friday before, actually that was like a week and a half ago, it was a friday, so the walk-in freezer walking cooler call was actually the first call that i got and then, when i finished up on the walk-in cooler, i got the call for the Walk-In freezer at the other location.
So it was. It was a long friday night to say the least and then coming back the next week and cleaning up a bunch of stuff. So but i got to keep that stuff private, i'm not going to name companies um! There's no there's nothing. I'd rather not talk bad about a company.

You know yeah. I know i vented frustrations but i'd rather not name them or anything like that. So um, oh great question, so wolf seek, you said: do i recommend valley hvac classes to start? So i'm assuming that you're talking about valley college, which is near me. Yes, i highly recommend valley college, so that's actually going to segue into another question.

Someone had asked me about whether or not they should use sorry about that pop. I hit the microphone with my pen. This is what happens when i'm holding a pen and flinging it around in my hands. Community college in general, i think, is a great way to get into hvac.

Okay, understanding something, though, that you're not going to learn everything in a trade school or a community college program. Okay, i don't care what that trade school or community college tells you the information they're going to give you. Even if you take a two-year, you know program. You're not going to walk away being a full-fledged service.

Technician doesn't matter guys. Okay, the only way you're gon na get true experience is by going through an apprenticeship. So yes go to a trade school. Yes, go to a community college, whichever you choose, get an education but understand you're, still gon na start from the bottom up.

Okay, that's the only way to do it in this trade. Now, there's there's the few unicorn texts that it i know of a few that like started a business coming out of trade school and stuff, like that, that's if it actually is successful and they actually are successful 20 years later. I'd be very surprised: okay, but you need, to you know, start from the ground up you're, going to go through a trade school you're, going to get an apprenticeship position or a junior level, tech and you're going to work your way up, but yes, community college. In general valley college, i know many of the instructors at valley college.

It's a great program. I personally know many of the instructors because we're all involved in our local rscs chapter, which we actually hold meetings when the whole kova thing's not going on at valley college. So yes, valley, college is a great school. How often do i deal with nights and overtime rates on freezer calls? I just did okay.

How do i deal with ntes? Sorry? I thought i saw knights. That's scott um when it comes to a walk-in freezer ntes are pretty much thrown out the door with most of my customers unless it's a new customer okay. So if i have a walk-in freezer, that's down that walk-in freezer needs to get fixed. But at the same time i usually will involve a facilities manager, because i do have direct cell phone numbers for all my facilities, managers and in case of an emergency.
Even if it's two in the morning, i'm calling that facilities manager, saying hey, got a bad compressor just want to let you know you know and they'll usually say yep go ahead. Do it you know, but as far as ntes go with walk-in freezers, if the system is down, i have to get it going, no matter what okay um short of a bus drove into the walk-in there's nothing. You could do about that. But i mean, if you know if it's got a bad condenser fan motor and they got a 500 nte um.

You know it cost me more than 500 or damn near 500 to get to some of my locations on overtime so but yeah ntes, they're kind of thrown out the window when it comes to walk-in freezer repairs. So all right get back to my list of things to talk about um. Let me i'm going to cross some things off, because i always find that i forget things on my list. If i don't cross them up, so i'm going to cross those things off.

Let me cross the things off that i already talked about. I already talked about the other company and i don't want to mention names or anything like that uh, so i've been getting a lot of questions from new technicians that are very interested in getting into the trade i'm going to kind of lump these all into the Same thing, i've already talked about community colleges. I think community colleges are great if you guys are interested in getting in the trade, and you want to learn the hvac community college is a great way to start. I prefer community colleges, but private schools are great too.

The reason why i prefer community colleges is because hvac is not necessarily for any everybody. Okay and sometimes people will go pay for a private college. They'll pay their 15 20 grand they'll uh pay for it and student loans and all that stuff, and then they decide. Hvac is not for them, and then they got to go through the hassle of trying to get their money back and that kind of stuff.

A community college you can pay for each class at a time. You don't pay for everything all at once. You buy some books and you pay for the first semester. You know you pay in units, you pay for the class.

The two classes you're gon na take a week or whatever the other thing i really like about community colleges. Is that excuse me damn? The damn coke knows is that um you can go to night school right. You can work a full-time job during the day and you can go to school from six to ten at night. You can go two days a week.

Community colleges are great for that. That's what i did. I worked full time during the day, learn from my father and from my senior technician, and then i went to community college at the same time and between the three education sources, my brain got filled and i was able to work a full-time job and be able To pay my bills, so community college is great as far as how to apply with service companies. That's another one i get quite often i would highly suggest if you can to go to a night class at a community college, get enrolled in a program take beginning to refrigeration, beginning to electrical.
One of those two classes is usually the beginning class or beginning air conditioning beginning electrical, something like that. Um take one or two of those classes see if this is something you're still really interested in then go knock on some company's door and say hey. You know what i'm enrolled in a community college. I've been going to school for about.

You know six months now, i'm really interested in this trade, and i wanted to know if i can apply for an apprenticeship with you or possibly do some ride-alongs to see. You know, then, you could show them your worth. The cool thing about that. The way that i see that as a business owner is that this person shows me initiative.

Not only do they say they want to get into the trade but they've, given two months of their life. Six months of their life been going to school before they even got a job, and then they show up on my door and say they want to learn. That shows me drive and initiative and i'm more likely to hire that technician versus a technician that comes knocking on my door. Saying i really want to go.

You know work for you and then i have to ask him: are you willing to go to school? Well, i guess you know like that. You know if the person that's banging on my door, that's already started in school. You've got a one-up over the next guy, so i highly suggest you do that. Hopefully, between the questions about hiring, i kind of answered that okay, um ike you're, not old enough, don't ask about a coke nose.

No, i don't i'm joking when i say coke nose, so um all right. I already answered those two questions. Let's see what we got uh so in the video that i just released on the walk-in cooler walk-in freezer, i had the evaporator fan. If you guys watched that video it's my most recent video you'll see that after we got done, we started putting the units back together and realized that the original company and i was reading all their invoices had the system going back to or had the uh.

Sorry. I'm reading an email right now, but uh that the evaporator fan motors are running backwards or actually not the fan motors. Well, they were theoretically, but the fan blades were on wrong, so the blades were spinning backwards, basically, okay, and that more than likely was their icing up issue. Now, i'm not.

I see the customer that their problems forever are solved. I told the customer in that situation that they had to replace that equipment and, in fact, they've already approved equipment replacement there. That's all it took, but as far as the icing up every week that was really easily solved by putting the fan blades on the correct direction now. Furthermore, the question that was asked by adam was, with the fans going backwards.
How did the previous company adjust the superheat? That's a good question because you can't adjust the superheat if your evaporator fan blades are running backwards because you're not pulling enough air across the coil, so your coil is getting too cold right. So how can you go in there and adjust the super to make matters worse? If you read the previous company's invoice, it actually said i wish i could show them to you, but it actually said came out for service call and walk-in cooler. I'm summarizing came out for service call on walk-in cooler found that uh suction service valve at compressor was extremely rusted, could not get roto lock i mean, could not get cap off. So i could not put my service gauges on the system.

Went downstairs found evaporator kind of frosty, adjusted, superheat and told the customer. We would be back to follow up so they adjusted the expansion valve before they even put their service gauges on the system. Right come on. Think about that one that was kind of silly.

Someone was reaching for the sky with that one, what a mess but anyways. That's enough! Talking. Let's move on um any school, i mean i'm not gon na i'm not gon na knock any school. Any school is better than no school guys uh.

I has you're asking about schools um, i don't know west meck for personally i don't know that school, but i mean any school is better than none send me an email, hvacr, videos, gmail.com, and we could talk a little bit more about that. Okay, can i explain? Cpr valves fire suppression engineer is asking me so a cpr is a crank case pressure regulating valve hold on. I got one back here. Well, i kind of have a butchered one right here this this isn't going to make a lot of sense hold on.

Let me get the other piece of it, this one's better, so i've got two valves here. One of them is actually a discharge bypass valve, but it's the same concept. It kind of looks like this, where it goes together. Okay, it only has one line coming out.

I guess i should have shown it like that. It'll, look something like this: it has a big stem coming out the bottom all right, so this itself is the crankcase pressure regulating valve and all that it is really is a valve that doesn't allow suction pressure to come back to the compressor you control the amount Of suction pressure, coming back to the compressor, so, let's think about this you've got a walk-in freezer. Let's just say that it's under a really heavy load, they shut the system down for cleaning it got to. You know 100 degrees in the box.

They cleaned the floors. They did whatever they're turning it back on when you turn it back on that expansion valve depending on the size. If it was oversized, it's going to be even worse that expansion valve is going to open all the way, and it's going to flood refrigerant through that coil. So much refrigerant that the coil's not going to be able to boil off all the refrigerant um.
It's going to come back to the compressor as a liquid refrigerant and it's going to cause problems because compressors typically don't like liquid refrigerant coming back to them on the suction line.

25 thoughts on “Hvacr videos q and a livestream 06/1/20”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RobertoLaGrande Hermansen says:

    do you have any utah places?

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RobertoLaGrande Hermansen says:

    do you have any possible Utah job possiblities

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars flarson says:

    You should cut open a compressor.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars flarson says:

    I love your ckannel.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars jesus garcia says:

    Where can I purchase ur hat? Service area Nepean??

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brandon Rogers says:

    I know you said the hats and such will be coming out soon but I don’t have social media so how would I go about purchasing?

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars jflavin2009 says:

    where can i buy your merch?

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gary Bucher says:

    Enjoy your videos. Wouldn't normally comment but couldn't help but wonder what you mean by educate your daughters on both sides… Sounds like you think that police killing black people is ok. And what exactly is the "other side" of people protesting for their basic human rights? Maybe you should be more explicit in your comments so people don't assume the worst.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars GatheringSticks says:

    I couldn't find a video on the gauge tablet you use?

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Paul Watson says:

    I have subscribed today.

    I’m a past tech that maintained Walgreen stores and banks for 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Probably to many stores and banks. I might visit five stores in one day. Preventive maintenance is the key to keeping a healthy unit. I am now out of the trade doing something else. I would apply if I was in your neighborhood. I have watched your videos since you started your presentations. I find your troubleshooting skills beyond exceptional. Hvac and hvacr is a dirty job. It can get very hot on the roof or wet with rain. The part I hated most.

    A story from my past. A masterbilt walk-in cooler had a bad high limit switch on defrost. This caused the heating elements to heat up real good. Well. It got so hot in the walk in cooler during the 45 minute defrost above 160 degrees causing the fire sprinkler in the walk in cooler to break causing a mass water flood in the store. This happened at night when the store was closed. Remember this story. It may happen to you.

    You have to know how to read schematics. You have to understand pressures and how they relate to temperatures. You have to understand gases and how dangerous they may become.

    Another story. A tech was working on a unit. A gas leak developed. The tech took a rag with his bare hand and tried to cover the leaking pipe.

    The techs hand became blistered and swollen. Don’t make this mistake. I don’t know if he lost his hand.

    Make sure all power is turned off when working on a machine. A fire extinguisher next to you when brazing.

    It’s cool to see you work with the tablet toy stuff.

    Keep on with your videos. I appreciate your mind set. I think you would make a good boss. Always plugging at troubleshooting hvac.

    Paul Watson.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Matthew Wong says:

    I watch a lot of videos thanks.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sterling Archer says:

    We've gone back to work thank Goodness , the downside is now I can't be up at night for the live stream , I can only catch the replay .
    Can't have the cake and eat it can I ? Service area Kanata??

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Nathan Farmer says:

    Love the videos, keep them coming! Are you going to ship the merch to the UK or worldwide?

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Jtomb says:

    Hey I just found your channel, and I love it very much! I am currently in college for HVAC, and watching your videos helps me a ton! Just started learning about refrigerant and got my Universal 608 license!

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Big Tom Callahan says:

    One option for your van inverter is to add a second deep cycle battery that is only powering the inverter. Get an appropriate sized wire (probably 8 or 10ga if your system isn't massive) with a breaker and relay (or contactor) wired in to charge your inverter battery only while the van is running. Lead acid battery life is severely shortened by deeply discharging them. Deep cycle batteries are built to handle this a little better. This way it's virtually impossible to kill your starter battery, and in a pinch you have a free jump if the 2nd one is not dead. Are you in Orleans ?

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Matthew Miller says:

    Power inverter – look at getting one with an ignition sense input OR buy a battery-saver module that will shut off the inverter's power when the battery gets low (but enough power to still start the engine) say around 12.2-12.4 volts. Advantage of the ignition-sense is it ONLY runs with the engine, advantage of the battery-saver it will keep charging your batteries if you just run in for a while when you park somewhere for food or restroom between calls, but still saves your battery from going flat.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rich Davis says:

    Easy enough set curfew. Make sure it is known that those violating curfew will be classified as rioters. There in be treated as so.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AaronCo29 says:

    I think more females in the trade is a good thing, to some degree. The truth is, I worked for a nation-wide company that did Banking Equipment, we tried to bring women into the repair side and engineering side, we did our own engineering of equipment, etc. The problem happened, the difference in how men and women are built and the strain of the job on the service side of things, most of the women developed shoulder and back injuries which cost a ton of money through insurance claims and the idea was scraped and we just let them fall of as they wanted, I think we had 1 left when the business closed, but they definitely brought better ideas to the engineering table and a different way of seeing things, problems and repairs, and the multitasking is definitely something most men can't do.

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AaronCo29 says:

    I would like to add on the apprentice thing, after getting your training through a trade school. It will take a solid three years before you have seen every problem that you will eventually run across, two years if you work a lot of overtime and stay late off the clock etc. This can't be taught at any college or trade school, they can tell you about it, but it's not the same thing as on hand servicing equipment.

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AaronCo29 says:

    I've worked on a few rack systems, you are right on, they are fun to work on, once you figure them out, and I have even taught a few other techs in the past, but if you don't have a crew of guys that can handle it, it would turn into a nightmare for one guy and could potentially hurt your business in the long run, which is why I have never taken a rack system, even though I am very capable of working on them, but I will be a second call or "If they can't get the other guys on a weekend" type deal, and I get a call every so often, or did, but we have had several of these places close in the last few years, that I did that for, so the calls have been fewer and fewer. This area is dying off, literally, I have been thinking of going to a bigger city, like maybe Dallas, TX.

  21. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AaronCo29 says:

    I can never get on while you are doing these things, owning your own business, in my case, its more like Self Employment, I start to get busy this time of year. They said, "Be your own BOSS, It will be fun, They Said!" LOL

  22. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars darksabatta says:

    I didn’t know it was going to be a live stream today. So sad

  23. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Carlos Corona says:

    What do you think of hourly rate vs flat rate pricing? Are you in Ottawa ?

  24. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Zach Silkey says:

    Didn’t get to see it live but got good info thanks

  25. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Greg778 says:

    Missed live

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