Ah, it's time to chill out and get ready for a mediocre. Qa 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. Thank you so very much for that super chat Ike.

I really appreciate it man. Let's start this off, you know I I do appreciate the support. It is awesome when people do a super chat or patreon donation or anything like that, but it is not expected. I totally am okay, you know III appreciate them, it does help okay, but I just want to make sure that you guys don't feel obligated.

Okay, I continue to do these streams. You know and it's all good right ways that you know again. I totally appreciate it. It is awesome, but if you guys want to support the stream, there's some really easy ways to do it.

The stream or the videos, if you guys, have YouTube premium, which I actually have commercials, don't play, and it doesn't matter. It's YouTube gives me a small portion of that, so I get Adsense just from you watching the videos, if you have youtube premium, if you don't have youtube premium, if you could do me a favor on all of my newer videos, probably within the last year forward, I only put one commercial in my videos. I am responsible for the commercials. I can't pick, which ones are there, but I actually choose.

You know how many are in there and I only put one commercial in the middle of my videos. If you guys could just watch through those commercials, it's a way that you can help to support the channel, and you guys could let YouTube pay me. Okay, the other way to support, if you guys wanted to was simply by donating through patreon and all that stuff. It yeah anyways, I'm not I'm not asking for that stuff.

Okay again, I totally appreciate it. Let's get on to this. Okay, there's a lot of new people, I'm sure coming into this stream right now, I've had a big influx of new viewers to my channel lately. So again, as I did last week, I'm gon na kind of start this off.

My name is Chris. I'm an HVAC are service tech here in Southern California, and I started making these videos on YouTube as a training aid for my employees. Okay, when I say I started the first two videos right, I I'm uploaded videos and I shared them within my company and then after that it was like okay, I'm gon na make these things public, NACA, fire and security. Thank you so very much, but so yeah.

I decided to make them public and it just grew from there. The whole point of these live streams is to give myself sometime for my family, because when I first started this channel, I found myself really addicted to my phone answering comments. Emails all this different stuff and that's when the live stream started. The live stream started about a year and a half ago, or something like that, and it's a way for me to consolidate the questions.

So basically, I will get a bunch of different questions and I'll answer them live or I'll pick, the ones that are the best ant questions to answer live and I'll answer them on here. So for those of you that send me emails that leave comments on the YouTube videos, if you see a heart and a thumbs up on the YouTube comments. That means that I read your comment. I make my best effort to read every single comment.

Now, there's no possible way that I could answer every comment. Okay, it's insane how many comments come in on these videos hundreds a day, I'm not kidding with you hundreds a day, it's nuts, so there's no possible way. I have time to answer every single one, but I do glanced through them and I try to address them on the live stream. Whenever I find one, that's like a really good question, you can also get a hold of me via email, HVAC.

Our videos at gmail.com feel free to send me an email. If you guys want to ask a question, I try to get to those two, but I get, I wouldn't say hundreds of emails. I probably get 20 to 30 emails a day and I try to address those as much as possible, but sometimes I can't you know, because I have to give time to my family, okay, so the whole. That's the reason why I do these streams and the reason why I do the YouTube videos is just to share the little bit of knowledge that I have now again.

It started as a means of training for my own employees and I still use them as training for my own employees, but I quickly realize the value and showing my mistakes to other people in hopes that maybe they don't make those same mistakes. And then there's a few things, a few little tips that maybe aren't mistakes that I share with you guys you know. So I try. I released two videos since the last livestream: I'm not paying attention to the chat right now, guys so I'll look at it here in a little while, okay, so I released two videos since the last livestream and the first one.

It was a late-night walk in freezer call. Okay, so that was an interesting video. I got a bunch of pushback in the comments on that one. That was one where it was late.

It was about 9 o'clock at night. I got a service call on a walk-in freezer. I went out there and I found that the system was off on high head pressure. Okay, this isn't a shopping mall, so it's a little bit difficult to get to the location and then, on top of that, the equipment is up on a mezzanine on the second floor of the parking structure and this parking structures, three stories, so I'm trapped in between The first or the third, and thus the first floor, so it gets pretty warm up there.

What had happened was the condensers were dirty. Okay and the cooling fans had failed or they had loose belts. They weren't being maintained all right, so I went ahead and cleaned the condensers. Now here's the problem right because it's on the second floor and it's in a shopping mall.

I shared some information that I didn't ask for permission before. I did that. Okay, this is one of those things I was stressed. It was late at night.

I just wanted to get this call done and I'm sitting here thinking how the heck am. I gon na ask for permission because security is a phone call there. I don't even think they have someone physically, they might still have someone physically sitting in their office, but it's a nightmare to get them all to approve things so because I'm the owner, I made the decision now. I wouldn't want my employees to make this decision, but I was very careful.

Luckily, there was nobody in the mall because of the whole kovat thing right. So there was nobody parked below me. There was nobody walking below me and I went ahead and rinsed off the condensers, but all that water, all the dirt. All the chemical that I was using was going down on the floor below me.

So if someone was walking underneath there, yeah they'd be pissed off. If someone parked their car under there, they'd probably be irritated because I was using, you know there was just water and chemical going everywhere. Now. The one thing that gave me comfort was, I was using refrigeration technologies, cleaner.

Okay, I was using the Viper HD cleaner, which is non-toxic completely safe. It's essentially just a soap formula: okay, it's not gon na eat, paint away, it's microchannel safe. So I knew that if something got down below it wasn't gon na be the end of the world. It would been just getting soap on a car, but still you would never want to get that cam, not saying it's safe to put that chemical on a car, but it just gave me comfort to know that that is a safe, cleaner, okay and it's also safe In the fact that it's microchannel safe right, it's not gon na eat any metal.

It's not gon na edge. The metal, unlike some of the other manufacturers that make crazy chemicals, that'll just eat metal away on a sidenote little tangent. If you're cleaning a condenser right with the man, you the the competitors, you know the main cleaner out there made by the giant conglomerate the blue stuff, and you notice that when you put that cleaner on the condenser and the condenser starts to turn shiny right, it's Actually, eating away the metal, it's itching the metal away. So it's not so much that it's cleaning it.

It is cleaning it, but it's also eating away the metal. So you continuously use that other manufacturers cleaner over and over and over again and you're gon na start deteriorating that thing and it's going to become a problem. The well that's funny I'll have to look and see huh. Let me turn.

Let me let me fix that. I don't know why stream Labs is timing. People out, let me fix that real, quick something's going on there I'll fix that thing. Real, quick! Let me find the moderator and let me turn that off.

Don't know why it's doing that, but it should be fixed. That was weird yeah. It should be fixed now. Sorry about that yeah I am I I just turned treant stream labs off, so hopefully it'll stop you guys.

Stop doing that. Sorry for those of you that don't know this is a live stream and there's a live chat going on if you're watching this after the fact you're missing out on the live chat and within the live chat. I had one of my moderators text me and tell me that my moderator bought. I have a computer bot that runs the the the chat and kind of monitors it to help the moderator and it was like timing people out for some strange reason.

So I just turned off that so anyways. Now I go back into it, so the chemical cleaners, so the cool thing I kind of got sidetracked, but the Viper cleaner is it won't, eat everything away. So with that being said, I went out on a limb and I went ahead and hosed everything off. I did verbally say that I was kind of afraid I was going to get kicked out of the mall because I was hosing everything off, but I had to get the customer going.

Customers walk-in freezer was down. I was willing to take the heat for that. One again, I'm a person that can make a decision like that within my company. I don't suggest you guys do things like that without asking for permission, okay and I went down after I was all done to go ahead and clean the floor that I had gotten all the crap the ground from, and I decided that it wasn't even that dirty.

Okay, but I did go down there with the intentions of cleaning it off all the dirt and stuff, but it was fine. Okay, while I was up there, I figured I was gon na be in trouble. Anyways and I went ahead and cleaned every other condenser up on that mezzanine, just because hey I'm here, I'm gon na do it. I ended up going back a couple days later and getting two of those cooling fans going to help move some air up.

On top of that mezzanine, because I said in the video that I've seen it get to a hundred and thirty degrees up in that mezzanine in the middle of the summer. Because of the weird parking structure, the heat has nowhere to go that kind of stuff. So alright, so that was the late-night walk in freezer call. My question is: is it better to ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission before? That's it, that's a sticky subject, because sometimes it can be difficult.

You know sometimes getting permission from a mall. Is a nightmare like I said, I know what they would have wanted me to do. They wouldn't wanted me to hire a crew to come in rope off the area, make sure that all that water gets put into the pot right place. I mean it would have just been a nightmare, you know, for instance, they have people that they do.

Car washes in that parking structure and the people that do car washes in the parking structure. They have to vacuum up all the cleaner. They have to put up little dams, catch, all the water and vacuum it up. It's just like come on man, you know.

Inevitably, I know that that's the customers, responsibility like the customer has to be willing to pay for that kind of stuff, but it's like for real. You know I'm not putting hazardous chemicals down the drain or anything like that. So it's just kind of crazy, so yeah. I was surprised too, that the the security guards didn't come by.

You know they came by before and that's the other thing, I'm very upfront with people, and so even when I went there at 9 o'clock at night, I did call security before and say hey. I just want to let you know: I'm gon na be up on the second floor of your parking structure with a flashlight and all this stuff, and I didn't want you to freak out cuz. Can you imagine a security guard here, cuz the coke knows already. Can you imagine a security guard? You know 9 o'clock at night, seeing some dude up there with a flashlight thinking what the hell's this guy doing.

You know. So I did let them know. I was gon na be up there. So, even though I let them know I was gon na be up there, they still didn't come by to check on me, so go figure.

Alright, the next video that I released was the beer is to warm. It was titled okay and it was a glycol system. I talked about glycol systems on the last stream, it's kind of funny how it seems like I get like you know, service calls in a wave. You know I get a couple glycol units two three glycol units in a row or within a couple weeks of each other and then I'll get a bunch of a/c calls and a bunch of walk-in freezer calls but anyways.

I had another glycol unit and this one again too was that was actually a one thing after another call, because it started as dirty condenser what looked like a dirty condenser. Then it went to a temperature controller that had failed. Then, once I replaced that I preemptively went to go, replace the dual pressure control, because the capillary tube was rubbing out. You guys saw that in the video okay cool right on and then then I found that the compressor was bad and it was just like good grief.

You know, and it was up in a tight little space working up there and I got a bunch of feedback on that one too, with with some people saying you know, when I blew everything out, you know I should have warned the customer and I should have Guys, I don't always put everything in my videos, but I did let the customer know that I was gon na be blowing some dust, but I still anticipated that they were gon na get mad at me even after I let him know, but there's a point when You just got ta, do it right because in that situation, yes they had food in the restaurant. It was quite a ways away from where I was working, but still they had food in the restaurant, and I did tell him I was gon na be up there. You know making some dust, but that was a pretty obscene amount of dust, but you know if they're not doing preventative maintenance ha's, and this is what I have to do. I I you know I mean: what do they want you? They need cold beer right.

You got to do what you got to do so again, keeping the customer in the loop, letting them know what's going on now, in that situation too, when I first went up there with my little blower and I started cleaning everything off the first thing. Thank you very much for that. A super chat, Ike and Randy a great appreciate it man, I ain't drinking, no piss beer. Tonight, man, you know it.

This is. This is not piss beer. This is see the definition of piss beer, in my opinion, okay, my definition on piss beer is that it has to be so ice-cold that you don't taste the so you have to drink it really fast, hey guys, these super chats. Thank you very much.

Okay. So I prefer like brown ales, I'm a brown ale fan so and again for those of you that aren't 21 sorry, guys: okay, don't drink and tell you're 21, but yeah. I'm a brown ale fan and the cool thing about brown ales is the flavors actually come out when they warm up so the ideal temperature for my beer right here is about 45 to 50 degrees and then the flavors totally change. So I'm drinking a rogue hazelnut Brown that I talk about all the time.

It's like my favorite beer. It's like a coffee, flavored beer and it's good when it's cold, but it's even better when it's 50 degrees, because there's so many different flavors that come out of that beard and changes completely so yeah, that's my definition of piss beer, piss beer is the stuff. You have to drink, you know so cold because you don't want to taste what it tastes like when it hits 40 degrees 50 degrees. So all right, let me see I'm gon na look at the chat here, real, quick and then we'll get onto my list of stuff.

So um all right looks like Stream Labs change their little icon, their picture. That's kind of interesting Stream Labs just posted in there. The whole true tech tools, that's another way too. I didn't mention that the beginning of the stream, true tech tools, if you guys, are going to purchase any tools if you're considering it go to true tech tools - com, if you like their pricing, they have very good customer service I'll, give you that and have a Great selection, but if you like their pricing, make sure you price shop and look at everybody else too.

Do me a favor use my offer code, big picture. One word big picture just like it says in the the chat. You'll get eight percent off your order and I get a small commission from that. Doesn't cost you anything extra.

I've just worked something out with true tech tools, so that's another way to help support the stream or the videos too. Okay, again not spending any money that you weren't already going to spend potentially on a tool right and you get it from them. So alright, Joe! Thank you very much. Everybody! That's done the super chats! You guys are awesome again.

I think I might have missed a few. I really really appreciate you guys. Okay, alright, let me see what else have I had a customer get upset because of multiple problems: stacking up, great question: Dylan Hall? Yes, yes, I have. I've had customers that start to get so frustrated because, but I have learned that you need to go to the customer very carefully.

So I go to the customer. Let's say I walk up on a service call and I go to them and I say: hey, let's just say the glycol unit went to the customer. Now, that's not a good one, because the glycol unit, I already had approvals to do certain things. But let's just use that one okay! So on the glycol unit, I have a $ 1,500 not to exceed value, so I'm allowed to work until I get to $ 1,500.

But even though I have a $ 1,500 not to exceed value that was on my service ticket that the customer sent me, I still keep them in the loop okay, but even the general manager, because the general manager, the restaurant technically, doesn't have a say in what I'm doing, but I don't want to make him feel like he's worthless right, even though I'm working for the facilities department, I still in communicating with the general manager and making him feel like he has an opinion. So the way that I talk to him, but I went over there said hey, you know what the unit's got a bad temperature controller. I got it going temporarily while I get back so that way we can bring the beer temp down. That way and again I approach the customer, like this: hey bud, working on the glycol unit.

The unit has a bad temperature controller, but I realize I want to get your beer sales up as soon as possible because you're just about to open. So what I did was I bypassed the temperature controller to make it run while I'm going to pick up the part. So that way it keeps your beer, temps, nice and cool right, and then I say you cool with me going to get the temp control. He says oh yeah great, go! Do it so again.

I approached him with the solution. Right, hey, I'm looking out for your best interests, I'm getting the system operational temporarily and I'm gon na go pick up the partner, I'm gon na come back. So one thing led to another: while I was up there, I saw that the pressure control was rubbed out and it was about to start leaking. I was getting ready to change that and that's when I diagnosed the bad compressor when I went to go pump.

The system down to replace the pressure control, I realized that it wasn't pumping down very good and the refrigerant the reed valves in there were leaking by. So at that point I knew I was gon na go past the not-to-exceed value. I called the facilities department. My contact there and I said: hey here's the deal I'm about this much into this.

I had to do this this and this and it has a bad compressor. Do you want me to get you a price and he said no just do it get it done, because he knew that beer sales are like number one, they wanted it up and running okay, so I was keeping the customer, the general manager in the loop, but Then also keeping the facilities department in the loop now have. I ever had customers get mad at me because of that. Certainly I have okay, but I try to make sure that I bring everything up to them and keep them in the loop the entire way through.

So when I go to the original diagnosis on a customer, especially if it's a new customer I'll go to them and say hey this unit's not working right, I need to clean it first, it's so dirty that I can't diagnose anything until I clean it. Then once I clean it, we'll start diagnosing okay, so then I clean you know sometimes they'll ask for a price or something whatever we get to the point where we clean everything, and then I got a couple hours of diagnosing putting my gauges on it. Checking the air flow. If it's an AC, you know looking at everything, then I come up with a problem.

Okay, you know what the unit's low on charge, but there was no way to know if it was low on charge before, because we had dirty coils plugged up filters loose belts, so we had to get it operational, but I keep the customer in the loop, the Entire time, so that way, once I get to the next step, then you know they understand again. It's still, you know, they're still gon na be upset when it comes to these big giant service calls where there's a lot of issues, that's where Trust really comes in Randy Johnson. Thank you so very much for becoming a channel supporter. That's that's! Awesome! Bud! You're! Awesome! All right, so, let's get to other questions in here.

Okay, let me see what else we got in here. Oh yeah. I did see that our nest, Oh about getting tested for Kovac, that's a bummer dude! I mean you got to do what you got to do. Yeah I mean yeah, that's sucks, dude, that's a bummer! That's the scary thing with this whole Kovan thing going on right now.

You know, let's not get political, but I mean we know that there's a virus out there. We know that the virus is real. The the whole political nasty part that everybody fights about is how severe it is right, but I mean the scientific information tells you that majority majority of the people will survive it. Okay, there's a there's, a small percentage that won't or that gets sick.

You know, but majority of healthy people, young people typically are pretty good. So you know it's. It's still scary, though you know, I still am worried about my family members. I still have a grandfather that I haven't seen in five months now.

You know, and I it's kind of a bummer like I really want to go, see him, but I work out in the field every day. Who knows if I have it, who knows if I'm carrying it, that scares me and that's a bummer, because I'm always worried about my grandfather and I really want to go see him, but I also don't want to make him sick. That's who I'm worried about. You know Ernesto, I got good thoughts for you, man, I'm sure it might.

You know the odds are you're gon na be fine and I hope you are, and you know hopefully, your family is all good and stuff too, but yeah. It is a bummer. It's scary and as a business owner, I'm scared because I don't want to go through shutdowns and things like that again, you know it's kind of a bummer, it is what it is. I mean we can only do so much and we can only stop our lives for so long as the way that I look at it.

So I'm gon na be honest with you, I'm probably being a little ridiculous, but I'm burnt out on the whole mask thing. I really am, and then our governor of California again, I understand why, but it's still frustrating, but our governor of California just instituted a mask policy again, so mandatory mask requirements in California again, so you have to wear a mask if you're in a public place where You can't be socially distance if you're in an enclosed building, you have to wear a Mac that kind of stuff and it just it does suck you know, because it's just frustrating I I really AM ready just to get back to the no mask thing and just To move on, but again we got to do what we got to do, because inevitably we have to be cautious about other people's health and keeping other people safe. So that's the way I look at it all right, let's see what else we got in here. What? If a customer has their own components like a contactor great question, mr.

green, so if a customer comes to me with their own parts, pretty confident I'm not gon na use them. Okay. Now I do work for chain restaurants, some of the bigger chain, restaurants, they buy their own equipment and every once in a blue moon. They might try to buy a motor for like an exhaust fan or something, but I really push back Andre uninstalling.

The motors. I would only do it for my biggest customers, anybody else that tries to buy their own equipment. They can call someone else, because I'm not doing it. I don't I'm sorry by their own parts.

I do not install parts for customers even down to the line of when customers want to order gaskets. That's even a gray area too they'll try to order gaskets themselves from parts town and then they say: hey. Can you put these in and I'm like? I don't want to install your gaskets, you know like I could have sold you that gasket. So I really push back against that one.

But no, I I you know my company policy for the most part. I do not install parts for customers some of my bigger chain, restaurants. They want to order their their equipment. Okay, so be it, but no don't that's not a.

I can't be in business with the customers buying their own parts. My my labor rates. I have to make a small amount of money from my labor and I have to make a small amount of money from my parts. I can't just cut the parts out of the picture without raising my labor rates, because we wouldn't survive as a business.

So all right, let's see what else I'm missing yeah, that's true. Elam Sylvia. You says that thinks the masks are the least we can do and not stop living. That's true and and the same thing I mean I put my mask back on, you know and I'm wearing it again, and you know I respect other people.

I know some people are deathly afraid, even even when, like when you know four weeks ago, when we the requirement, wasn't to wear a mask anymore. I wasn't wearing a mask all the time, but if I would walk into an establishment and they had a mask required sign, I would put it on without bitching at all. If I was walking by people that had masks on, I would pull my mask up, because I usually have a net Gator, so I would just pull it down over my neck. I would pull it up to be polite to those people, so I'm not an anti-establishment anti-government, crazy.

You know right-wing crazy person, I mean I I do lean more towards the right side, but I I do for the most part, trust Authority. So all right, let me see what else I miss it in here you're, not in the trade, but you ended up with about 20 pounds of r22. What's the best way to sell it, I guaranteed I mean, unless you're selling it to a tweak or you're not going to sell someone a half empty jug of our 22. A reputable contractor for the most part is not going to buy a half empty jug of our 22 because those check on the refrigerant cylinders - they don't work very well, so you can actually push refrigerant in to pass those check valves in some cases.

So with that being said, I can't knowingly buy a half used drum of r22 and try to sell it to a customer, because I don't know what I'm selling the customer theoretically, so that's gon na be an almost impossible thing for you to sell all right. Let me see what else we got in here. What tool bag do I use Ryan. I use the veto Pro pack, tech pack, the big giant backpack, and actually I was actually had it in my cart.

I probably should have our I need to order it tonight. I think because if you guys go to true tech tools, I don't know if it ended already, but over the weekend they had a deal where you got like double the points or triple the points, or something like that, because true tech tools has like a rewards Program and I was gon na order - the smaller veto tech, MC backpack and I was also gon na order, one of their handbags for carrying my smart probes in just because I want to see him. I had him in my cart. I should have clicked order.

Actually, now that I think about it, but um yeah, all right, I'm gon na get to my list of things to talk about here. So I preach all the time about a big-picture diagnosis. Right. Big-Picture diagnosis is a very important thing.

Um, whenever you're working guys, you got to use your senses right, you got to pay attention to things you got to look around. You got to listen, I'm an advocate for not wearing headphones unless they're being used as hearing protection and loud environments. Okay, when I'm doing a preventative maintenance headphones are not on my head because I'm looking at the big picture, while I'm doing the preventive maintenance, I'm listening to the equipment, I can hear an exhaust fan across the roof. I can hear a condenser fan motor way across the roof, making a funny noise when it starts up.

It's those little things today. I was working on an exhaust fan that I I haven't made a video on this yet, but I was working on an exhaust fan that while I was doing work last week, I found a tripped motor starter on the exhaust fan. I was working on something else and when I turned it on, I could just hear a sound in the motor just a funny sound that didn't sound right, because I'm so used to hearing exhaust fans run. Something wasn't right and I went back today and I changed that motor because and then, when I pulled it apart, the bearings had play in the motor.

You know the shaft had slop in it. You could move the shaft just ever so slightly. The bearings were going bad, and that was because I used my senses right. I was looking at the big picture.

It's so important right, but very important. We don't create work. We never create work because we are not in business to rip the customers off. Our best interest is to keep the customer happy find problems that could be bigger problems later, bring it to their attention and then let them make the approvals right.

So I'm not making work, but I I am listening and paying attention. Here's. Let me give you an example. Last week I think it was.

Last week I got a service call on a reach-in cooler and I went to the reach-in cooler and I had the condenser was a little bit dirty, but when I got there it was down to temperature. They had called me the day before said it wasn't working. I went back out the next morning, checked it out and it was working when I got there, but I had the condenser was a little bit dirty. So I cleaned the condenser real quick, it wasn't horrible and I'm watching the unit operating and it's working and I'm sitting there thinking what could be the problem here and then I asked the customer because it was early in the morning I said: has it been hot In the kitchen - and he says, yeah it's been hot, so I went up onto the roof.

That was my Inn right because I said: has it been hot and he said yes, okay, cool. I need to look at your kitchen a/c, because if you have a really hot kitchen, your regions won't work when it gets really hot in the kitchen. That's that's a good big-picture diagnosis, kind of a thing right and that's troubleshooting, so I went onto the roof and I found the kitchen a/c wasn't working and I found that they had an exhaust fan down. Okay, so because I was there on a reach-in, because I was there looking at the big picture and I was solving - I it led me to the kitchen a/c.

I was able to fix the kitchen a/c clean it up and I was able to fix the exhaust fan now. The exhaust fan was the one that I was talking about a few minutes ago, where I ended up having a bad motor, so I didn't create the work, but I took an opportunity while I was working on something else. Looking at the big picture, ask the customer, if it's not if it's been hot in the kitchen, hey that could affect my region, I'm gon na go up onto the roof and check your ACS out. Okay and then I found other things so so important.

The whole big picture - diagnosis thing: okay, now, at the same time, I know with pretty 99 % certainty that that restaurant has got dining room air that are not working right now. I've mentioned it, and just talking with the customer that I'm pretty sure you're gon na have dining room a C's down, because if your kitchen AC belts were this bad and the filters were this bad, all your dining room, a C's are dirty too, but the customer That I didn't go and open those a C's up because they weren't asking me to do that. Okay other than bringing up to them. Hey your other ACS or work are probably doing the same thing.

That's it! That's where I drew the line. I did not start digging into you know going further and further and further because then when would I ever leave until that entire restaurant was shiny, clean and the customer wasn't asking me for that right now: okay, they were asking me to fix their region, so I Was going out on a limb diagnosing the AC to because that theoretically could affect the region, but that's where I stopped. I didn't go any further, even though I know that there's probably problems and to be honest with you, since the whole kovin thing happened, I might have gotten to dining room AC calls in the last four months guys. I know I have dining room a C's down, but the customers - they you know the building's - aren't full of customers at this time.

They've they're only out like 50 % capacity, so the heat load isn't there. So the restaurants aren't noticing that some of their ACS are down. I know we have a C's down, but I'm letting it be because the restaurants not asking me to dig into those ones. On the flip side, I need to make money as a business owner, because that's how my business goes is if I keep my customers happy, but at the same time I also have to protect my customers.

I know that I work for big corporations. Pardon me guys this is my what I call my coke nose for some reason when I get into a stream, it starts itching, whatever reason, but I know that I have to protect my customers financially, so just because I know that they have broken equipment. It's not a you guys are dumb for not maintaining your equipment. I don't have that mentality.

You know yeah. I know that a simple service call is gon na, be a massive cleaning project before I can even diagnose, but that's not really the customers fault. Nobody knew what was gon na happen, so every restaurant out there stopped operations when kovat happened. They stopped preventative maintenance as they stopped just about everything.

Okay and and it's okay. It's alright that the customers didn't maintain their equipment because they had to do what they had to do. They stopped spending money. Okay, so we can't be mad at the customers because we go out there and everything's dirty.

I mean you know yeah we, but we have to remember when we go out to diagnose things. There's no more simple service calls right. Now, there's no more hey! You just got to go blow out a drain. I mean you can't you: have you can't look past the obvious of all the equipment being filthy? You got to go through everything and be thorough, so I've realized that there's no more to our service calls.

There really hasn't been a to our service call since kovat started, because everything is okay. Yes, it has a bad contactor, but I you know, coils are dirty drains are plugged up, belts are loose, charge, looks low, but maybe it's just the belt being loose. I mean there's so much so you got a look at the big picture when it comes to that kind of stuff, but you got to have the customers best interest at heart. That's what builds trust in my opinion, that's how I operate things.

It may not be the smartest business move, but I build trust with my customers. They trust me at least. I hope I like to think so so I want to look at the chat, real, quick, all right. Let me see what I'm missing in here.

How much does a 2,000? How much is a 2009 mini-split worth? I wouldn't pay $ 5 for a 2009 mini split because mini splits are so cheap these days yeah I wouldn't even buy it. It's not. I mean you might be able to sell it on Craigslist or something like that, but it's kind of hard to sell that equipment on Craigslist, because how do they know that it actually works? Alright, any of my customers requesting UV lights to be installed on their ACS. Great question so, yes, I actually had a customer.

My whole face is at you. I actually had a customer. I think I have herpes on my face. That's not good! So yeah I had one of my customers in the very beginning of Cova.

They came to me and they said they wanted some special air filter from China that killed kovat, which I told him you're nuts. It was a. I have a good relationship with him, so I literally said: you're nuts, that's stupid, we're not gon na order. That kind of stuff - and then he said he wanted UV lights and I said dude, I I really don't believe in UV lights.

I don't think that they're good install in my situation, I'm not judging anybody else, but I just said I don't believe in UV lights and I said but I'll look for you and I looked and I couldn't even find a UV light to save my life. Every residential company out there's brought up every single UV light, so you know, and then I went to my customers and I started doing some research on UV lights and I said, dude to put a UV light in a commercial package unit. It'd have to be like a bank of lights. It's not no silly little lamp that you'd put in there.

I mean for it to legit work according to the way that the manufacturer wants it to work. You got to put a ton of light like a lighting bank in there, and I said uh you know so I really don't suggest it. My customer said, and I really want something I really want something keep looking. So I did my due diligence.

I told him my opinion on him. He chose to continue the path he said. Look. He goes.

I'm gon na pay you or I'm gon na pay, someone else to install some sort of an air filtration thing, and I said: okay, cool I'll get you. So I put new filters in the unit and I found I wave from new Calgon. I found some eye waves. I was able to get my hand on like 20 of those, and so I went and installed 20 of those I wave things now.

I was very upfront with the customer and, I said look I said I don't believe in these, but here's the documentation from new Calgon. I said you can read it. How you want to do it. I said the next thing is is, if you trust their documentation, this eye wave is meant for a residential setting.

In theory, you'd have to install multiple eye waves or you'd have to get a commercial I wave to make it work, and my customers like no. No, no, I just want one in every one of my units. I said okay, all right, so I installed him like he wanted to, but I was upfront and honest about my opinion on him. I have not had any other customers ask me for any UV lights or anything like that.

Some of my big chains - they actually use like filter, changing companies, but I've yet to see UV lights, go into anything my personal opinion when it comes to UV lights and air cleaners and all these fancy things is my personal opinion. I just want to clean the unit. I want to put good fresh, clean filters in it. Just normal pleated filters, and I want to fix they're fresh air dampers fix the economizers, bring fresh air into the building.

Do multiple air exchanges? Yes, the energy costs are going to go up, but in my you're gon na get fresh air in that building, you're gon na exchange it and that's what I think would be the best thing for these customers. But again I just give the customers the options. I said this is what I think you should do and they said no. I want an air cleaner.

Okay, here's your air, cleaner, you know all right, Brian Porter! You want to become an HVAC technician. Any tips or tricks get enrolled in a local Community College. Go to a local Community College. The reason why I suggest a local Community College, nothing against the private schools, but a local Community College.

You can pay per unit, so you can go sign up for one or two classes take a beginning to refrigeration class and a beginning to electrical class get through both of those classes. If you still think this is an interesting trade go apply at a local shop. Air-Conditioning company and say hey, you know what I already enrolled in school. I thought it would be interesting.

Tell them your story, be honest. I thought it would be interesting. I enrolled in school, been through two classes and I'd love to continue going to school, but I also want to get a job, get a part-time job or get a job and a full-time job and go to night school at the Community College and continue your education Or at that point, if so be it, you can choose to enter a private college, but the private colleges you do. They do do night classes but you're more apt to get night classes and pay per unit with the Community College versus being fifteen to thirty thousand dollars, upfront with a private college or loans and all kinds of things like that.

So I'm an advocate for Community School Community College, but I'm gon na tell you something it doesn't matter if it's a private college or a community college just because you graduated with an HVAC, our certificate doesn't mean that you're now an HVAC are service. Technician: you're your you're gon na start, an apprenticeship now and you're gon na work. Your way up, don't think that, because you went to school, you can go start your business, that's not how it works guys. Now, I'm not saying that you can't do it.

There's some people that have started a business after Community College, but guys it's not the smartest thing to do after Community College or private trade school. You need to get five to ten years of hard work in and then consider starting your own business. Business is a whole nother thing. I know people ask me that all the time listen to start a business.

You need to be an expert in biz this and you need to be an expert in your trade. You try it's difficult, you can do it, but if you're an expert in your trade - and you think that starting a business is gon na be easy. My friend, you are in for a world of hurt, because business there's days that I just want to go work for someone guys, there's probably quite a few days where I just want to go, be someone's employee. I really do sometimes wish that I could just be someone's employee all right.

What else we got in here, all right, yeah. It looks like we got an all-time high with the viewers. Today, we've never had this many people. We push damn near close to 500 viewers.

Never seen that before so, thank you guys so very much. Hopefully I can live up to your guys's expectations, so I'm gon na get to some of the questions that people have asked me. Okay, staying healthy. This was someone.

Someone asked me something listen we're in HVAC. It's really easy to get unhealthy. I'm gon na tell you the way that I deal with things right, because I have anxiety and all kinds of mental issues in my head. I've talked about them.

If you want to know about that. Look up on my channel HVAC, our life series and you'll, see me talking with my wife about my mental issues. Okay, but my thing is, is that when I'm working out in the field - and I have a really hard day - it's really easy for me to justify going to the drive-through and getting burger fries and a coke on the way home, because I'm really hungry or whatever. Okay, it's really easy for me to justify that.

It's really easy for me to justify going to the gas station because I just want a candy bar or little candies or whatever right or drink soda all day long, because I'm stressed out or whatever that's not good. For me, and I had to make a change in my diet - I am NOT perfect Joe. Thank you so very much man for that super chat. So I am not perfect, but I cut all that crap out all right for the most part I stay away from drive-throughs.

I tried starting to take my lunch. It's really hard. I cut sodas completely out. I cut candy completely out for the most part.

I lay off a sugar. Now I do. I went extreme for a while where I did no sugar for about two months. I lost a bunch of weight and then I I brought sugar back in slowly so this weekend.

You know for Father's Day we had a cheesecake and I had two pieces of that. Well, I'm not gon na lie. I had three pieces of cheesecake but um. You know so a diet, though, when we're in HVAC.

It's really easy for us to try to justify you know to to eat unhealthy, but you got to remember to eat healthy, remember, drinking soda all day long guys. The question that someone had asked me was about kidney stones. That's gon na lead to kidney stones and that's not something fun. Trying to piss rocks out it.

Ain't gon na be fun guys. I've never had it. Thank goodness, but I know friends very close friends that have had kidney stones and they've told me that it ain't fun, trying to piss a rock out it. It's not okay, so be cautious, but you can also get kidney stones from drinking too much coffee too.

Another thing you know you, you know that we do so we got to be taking care of our bodies. We got to drink a lot of water now granted I take it Monday evenings I sit down and have a couple beers, but guys this is my new soda right here. This was really hard, HVAC grit with Greg. Thank you very much for that super chat bud.

So this is my favorite thing right here I traded sodas for sparkling water. I drink sparkling water like it's candy all day long when I first gave up soda. I know this is hard to say sparkling water has an interesting taste to it. I started adding lime to sparkling waters right sparkling water with a little bit of lime.

It kind of tasted in a weird way like a like a soda without sugar, but that helped me and then now I don't drink anything and I just drink these things all day long sparkling waters. Alright. So I had a question from. Let me see right here.

Let me see I had a question from HVAC apprentice. I believe had to ask me: when is it time to leave a company? Okay? That is a hard question for me to tell you all right, but here's the deal. I say this all the time you know in your gut when it's time to leave, you need to do best. What's for you and your if your own? Basically, okay, so talk to your wife, your husband, your spouse, whatever talk to your loved ones and make a decision, I suggest that you don't make a decision because of an argument you had the day before, unless it was like some hideous thing that happened sleep on It always take some time sleep on things before you make a permanent decision.

That's going to change your life. Remember that it's not always greener on the other side right and sometimes not always, but sometimes the problems that you think are problems really are your own problems and not necessarily someone else's. Now, I'm not saying I'm not. I have no idea HVAC apprentice.

What your situation is: okay, no idea, but I will say that there's been many times in my life, I work for my father or I work with my father. Now we run the company together, but when I was just an employee, there was many days when I wanted to quit my dad and I went through some bad times where I was having major issues when I was going through my health problems, guys with these super Chats, thank you so very much man. I really really appreciate it. So there was times that I went through some bad times when I was dealing with stress and anxiety, and I blamed a lot of things on my dad when it wasn't my dad's problems.

I was actually had mommy issues, but that's a whole nother thing right. I'm gon na do a new stream on that, but or I'll do another episode with my wife, but you know with I'd, lost my train of thought there for a minute, oh yeah, so we you know, I had some issues with my dad and stuff and there Was many days when I wanted to go work for someone nowadays, that's it that was 10 years ago right! So now I look back on it and now I run the business with him. We do everything together and we get along perfectly, and I realize I was being a dummy. So I'm not saying that this is your situation, but there was a lot of things that I was doing wrong, where I was blaming him for things when in reality, I was in control of my own fate and I had to work harder on myself to make Things better at work.

I was blaming him for things and things like that. So sometimes it could be you that's the problem and not the other person or not the other company, okay, but also there's a time when you need to leave if you're getting if your paychecks aren't coming in. If things are bad, if you're getting gypped on your pay, if they're not getting the proper hours, that kind of things then yeah, I would highly suggest it's probably time to consider. Thank you so very much for that super chat and I think we might have hit the all while we definitely, I think we hit 500.

I think I saw in there. So thank you so very much for that super chat. That's awesome! All right! Let me see Nico had asked me about how hard he's from another country - and he was asking me how hard in the United States it was to find service technicians Greg. Thank you very much for that super chat.

Ok again, guys not expected, but thank you. So very much for these super chats guys so Nico's from Europe and or he's part somewhere in the EU, the European Union, but he was asking how hard it is to find service technicians. It is very difficult to find service technicians in the trade right now. Ok, we have a major skills gap, there's a lot of people retiring from HVAC right now.

Another thing is a large majority of our senior service technicians are above the age of 50 years old in the HVAC trade, which is fine because they have the knowledge and they're amazing. But once you start to get above 50 and 60, most people are gon na slow down a little bit and not be able to work as hard or do certain things. They may have the brain power and the ability - but maybe their body just doesn't want to work as hard or they can't take the abuse that this trade does to you. On the flip side, it makes it hard because we have all this new tech coming in.

Even for me, and I'm 37 - and it's even hard for me - sometimes with some of this new technology coming in and I get frustrated right. So imagine people older than me. So, yes, we have a massive skills gap. We need more younger people in the trade.

The hard thing is is that we all need service technicians right now, so to find an experienced service. Technician is like a unicorn, a diamond in the rough and people pay big money for a good-quality, experienced service technician. We definitely need more younger people in the trades. I would love to get involved in the high school level and bring kids from the high school level into HVAC.

That's been something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've actually kind of reached out to local schools and in weird ways there are their career departments and things, but I would love to advocate, within the the high schools for getting high school kids to start going to trade school and learn that way. Adam. Thank you.