HVACR Videos Q and A livestream originally aired 06/28/2021 @ 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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Streaming software was not supposed to bring my image on here, yet we still have a little board. Intro music got ta, have the famous beer pour or dark apple juice, pour ah it's time to chill out and get ready for a mediocre? Can anybody guess what i was trying to mimic grab yourself with this intro and if you're not stick with put it in the chat, 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. So well, hello! How are you guys doing this evening? Sorry for the rocky intro there, the streaming software had a mind of its own speaking of streaming.

Softwares, if any of you guys follow the hvac overtime channel, you may see that our streaming software, for that is being a little finicky right. Now too, it keeps going live so it went live yesterday and then adam didn't even do it. Adam has the control of that one. He didn't even do anything and then it just went live and then this morning it went live randomly too for like a couple hours, because none of us were at a computer to be able to turn it off so streaming.

Softwares are being silly right now, so if you guys don't know the live streams, we use streaming software so um, i don't remember which one adam uses, but i use streamlabs, and so you know it has your stream key and it can launch the live streams for You so sometimes they act. A little finicky like as the intro was playing mine, switched the cameras and brought it to the view where it showed me being an idiot. You know ahead of time, but hey. How are you guys doing this evening? Hopefully, you guys are doing well um, i'm sure you guys know this, but if you don't, my name is chris uh, i'm just an hvacr service tech here in southern california, and i have this little youtube channel.

I started making videos for my own employees and then i decided to make them public, and here we are now a couple years later, and it's just like this whole thing that i never planned on it becoming so um. I saw a super chat come through a few minutes ago, uh the 98 deville. Thank you so very much for that bud and his super chat message was: please hit the thumbs up, and that is awesome. Please guys, if you guys, are in the chat, if you're watching the video, the stream do me a favor hit the thumbs up if you're watching on mobile, all you got to do is back out of the chat screen hit the thumbs up and you can go Right back into the chat, if you're on a tv, it's a little bit more difficult, but you can do it if you're on a computer.

It's super easy! You just hit the thumbs up um my understanding, with the way that youtube works and everything any kind of interaction that we can get lets youtube know that you guys are actually interacting with the live stream, and i've been told that they like that kind of stuff. Whether or not it's true, i have no idea, but let's test it, so please smash the thumbs up. Button leave a comment. Um, if you guys have any questions during the live stream, feel free to send or to put the questions in there in caps, lock.
Okay, it helps me to see them a little bit better and if i miss your guys's questions, you can feel free to send me an email to hvacr videos. Gmail.Com now i will say this last week has been crazy, chaotic for me. I have not been through my inbox for emails. It's crazy! Okay! Today i was working out in the coachella valley, which is the low desert of southern california.

It's extremely hot out there, so i was on the roof, threw a thermometer up on top of the air conditioner at about. I think it was 10 30 in the morning and it said 123 degrees in the morning that wasn't even the hottest part of the day. The hottest part of the day is typically around three or four in the afternoon um, so yeah, that was nuts okay, we were out there for a couple hours and working in that heat can be very dangerous, so you have to watch yourself. Okay, i kind of wanted to talk about that a little bit as we go through this so um.

You know i work in the low desert in the high desert of southern california in the inland empires where i'm located. You know my house is probably about 105. Okay, but when i was working out in the desert today was 123., you have to make sure you guys are hydrating drinking water, skin protection that kind of stuff. Now i wear long sleeve shirts people ask me all the time.

How is it that i can wear long sleeve shirts when it's 123 degrees outside it's, because we do not have humidity here? Okay, we have very, very low humidity, where i was working out in the desert where it was 123. It was 8 relative, humidity um. At my house right now, i think it's like 23 or something like that, so it's even still really low, okay, um, so the long sleeve shirts they actually protect my sun or my skin from the sun. Okay, i'm petrified of skin cancer.

So it keeps the sun off my skin, but then also helps to uh. You know my skin from getting baked by the sun. Basically, okay, so it keeps me cooler now um. As far as protection goes in the heat and stuff, i wear like a silly brimmed hat with a head scarf, underneath it i'll usually get the head scarf, wet and then um.

I wear an undershirt like an under armour shirt, so it pulls the sweat away and then a long sleeve shirt over that, and it does me well like where i wear the same uniform from the winter to the summer, and it does a really good job of Keeping me cool, um or keeping me warm either way, so it does really good uh the work shirts that we wear like the dickies work shirts, so that that hard dickies material and uh they do. They do pretty well. But it's so important guys to protect yourself in the sun. I'm not an expert in any which way, but um hydrating, big time, okay and understand something if you start to feel symptoms of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

It's too late, okay, you're, i mean you could still protect yourself, but i mean you need to not be able to feel those symptoms. So you need to take breaks. You need to go cool off, know your body, okay. I am notorious for trying to work through things.
I've only got a few layings left to do. I'm just going to power through this and get it done. You know you have to be careful when it starts getting above 100 degrees. I mean even at 90 degrees and doing that um you got to be so careful with yourself.

Don't push it too far. Know your limits and take plenty of breaks. It's so important and eat food. Okay, not only drinking water.

You got to use uh, you know drink a gatorade every once in a while or something, but i mean i drink more water than i ever. I had like one gatorade today, because it'll help me a little bit, but then you got ta eat okay, eat. I know it's hard because i'm the worst person at eating, lunches and stuff, but i have to force myself to eat because you need the calories to keep you going, that sun man, it just drained you and you will hit a brick wall. You'll start getting jelly brain like i talked about last time and it'll just mess you up so um.

Let me see what else we got in here. Do i drink enough water? Yes, i definitely drink enough. Water usually have a giant water jug with me, so wearing a hat more than eight hours a day will make you bald. Well, you tell me: i've been wearing a hat for years, and most people didn't even know that i have a crazy amount of hair.

I usually shave my head um, but i decided to kind of grow it out and uh. There's no signs of balding at the moment. There's lots of gray hair, but there's no signs of balding. So um, let's see what's the worst freezer condition.

I've seen i i don't know, but that's that's kind of a difficult question. I need more context than that. Um, let's see uh what is the evaporator and temp for a cooler and a freezer? Well, it really depends on what your evaporator td is set up to be okay engineers design the system. So it really depends.

They can change the td of the evaporator, depending on the product, that's being inside there for general product, like a walk-in freezer, you're, typically going to have an evaporator td of about 10 degrees for a walk-in freezer and about 10 to 15 degrees for a walk-in cooler. Depending on what they keep in it, so with that being said, if your box temperature of the uh the space temperature of the walk-in freezer, is negative 10, then your evaporator temperature is going to be 10 degrees below that so negative 20.. If you have a walk-in, cooler and you're maintaining 35 degrees, then your evaporator temperature is going to be anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees below the box temperature. So you can just do the math and you can once you find that evaporator temperature, you can find the corresponding pressure on a pressure temperature chart and that can kind of give you an idea where you're going to go okay, but it really depends on, what's being Kept inside the box, if you have a general walk-in cooler, let's say a beer cooler right that has a lot of bottled beer and cardboard boxes in it.
Well, you don't want it to be too humid in that box, because what you'll start to notice is the humidity will start to condensate and the boxes. When you go to pick up the the packages of beer, the beer will fall through the bottom of the boxes, because it's so humid in there. So you got ta watch that and the systems have to be designed appropriately. Okay, so be very cautious about that kind of stuff produce coolers.

They typically run higher humidity because you don't want to dry out the produce a fish cooler. Let's say you keep um, you know at a seafood restaurant. They typically want to see uh. You know you.

Don't want to dry out the fish on those things, so you know they'll tend to run a little bit higher on humidity too, because you don't want to ruin the fish while it's just sitting in the walk-in cooler. So it really depends. You know flower boxes, uh, they're, gon na run higher humidity because they don't want to dry out flowers. So every single product that you keep in there it it it's gon na change.

The way that the box is meant to operate so always keep that in mind. Um, let's see what else we got going on in here man, the service calls just keep on going um. This is the the service request that i just got. The the kitchen ac is broken throughout the entire restaurant.

Please send help. It says back of the house. Heart of the house, ac is broken throughout the entire restaurant, so it sounds like they have multiple air conditioners down. You know, let's talk about this, so this has been happening more and more.

It's a dire emergency. Everybody needs me 9-1-1. We need you now we had an emergency service call over the weekend where walking cooler was down. My technician went out there.

The box was completely frozen up once he got the ice off. There was a layer of dirt and lint below that. Then he got that off and then the coil was falling off right. The coil was falling apart.

So we're running into this more and more that the customers are not doing routine preventative maintenance, okay and then what happens is is the repair is a 9-1-1? They need. You now you know, and while i have sympathy for them, you know it sucks for me because i'm trying to operate a business and trying to stay profitable, but at the same time, man, you know it's like every single time. I plan something boom. I get a service call and i have to go so this is life.

This is our busy time. This is how it goes, and you know i say this quite often too. If i don't accept the call - and i don't take the call, then they will find someone else that will take the call, so you have to kind of keep that in mind and weigh out your options. You know: do you wan na, be stern and stand up and say no, i'm not doing this crap anymore.
Well, they're gon na find someone else that will do it. So you got to pick your battles, you know and and be cautious about that. So um hello to everybody, that's coming in right now, if you guys uh, like i put on there, if you guys have any questions, please put them in caps, lock that helps me to see them. Okay, um! Let me see nick a balance.

Port txv versus a normal txv. What's the difference? Um, let's see if i can think of the technical explanation for that um yeah, i'm not gon na, be able to explain that one on a live stream right now off the top of my head, i'm not even gon na try to go there right now, um! Let's see uh the video i had yesterday, why don't restaurants clean them at least once a week, okay, chad's asking that one so he's talking about the cook stores? Okay, so i had a cook's george reach in and we had a service call on it. It was a overtime call. A couple weeks ago i went out there on a saturday morning and uh.

I was a little bit frustrated when i got there, because the box was still full of food. That kind of frustrated me because i had told them to empty it out the night before um. As far as cleaning the box out, you know it's very rare that these customers actually clean these boxes out, um and uh. You know i don't really too much about it.

It's just kind of one of those things. I've gotten used to believe it or not. You know part of the reason why i don't show the restaurant locations or say what restaurants i'm working at is because there's so many people out there that just don't understand, okay and what they think is gross, really isn't that gross. So what i saw in this region, it was not nasty guys.

This is this: is normal life in a kitchen refrigerator like of a normal busy restaurant, okay yeah! If you have a slow restaurant, they might do a little bit more time, cleaning and stuff like that. But, to be honest with you, the the volume of these restaurants, they don't have time to clean this stuff. Um, you know there's times you know, i usually don't show it in videos, but there's times that i'll, walk up and i'll say i'm not working on this. Until you clean it, but this box wasn't at that point yet and another things you have to understand too.

So if i went out there - and i said this box is too dirty - you guys need to clean it first i would have had to go out there. Sunday morning they would have cleaned it saturday night and they would have had me come out sunday morning. So it's one of those things that i'm here i don't have time to come back. This is going to get done now and you know they're not.

I politely. Let them know hey, i'm about to make a big mess right now and i'll bring the cook over. You see how nasty this is. I got to clean this right now you know, and so then i say: i'm gon na make a mess.
I'm getting my hose out and we're going to town okay um, so i don't really give them a choice, because here i am, i can either leave and come back in a couple days, but i'm not coming back tomorrow. You know um that kind of happens with me when i get service calls. That's sometimes why i struggle with letting other technicians go and do calls and or some calls, i should say like like apprentices and stuff, but and or i'm trying to walk management through problems. Okay, so let's just walk through this, so i get a service call on a friday afternoon and they say my walk-in freezer is not working.

Is there anything? I can check and i say: well, you should probably check the breakers and you go. Tell me if it's iced up, so what will happen? Is the customer will say i'll check the breakers and i'll call you back? Okay. So then i don't hear from them for like three hours and then they call me back and say yeah, it's still not working. I need you out here now by then it's late in the evening.

So most of the time, i don't try to walk these customers through problems. You know, if it's something simple i'll ask them. Did you check the breakers yeah? I checked them. Okay, good yeah! Then i just need to come out.

You know, of course, there's times that i can ask them to do things, but i'm postponing the inevitable, which is i have to go out there and i'll give you an example. Yesterday i had a service call and it was really frustrating because i was cooking dinner. I and it's my partially my fault, but i was on call and i hadn't gotten any service calls all weekend and i decided to invite some friends over. So we were going to cook some kebabs, we had a bunch of food, we prepped it and i was literally holding the food in my hands and i got an emergency service call for that.

Walk-In cooler that my other technician went and took care of. So it was really frustrating to me because it's like here, i am i've - got friends coming over. I've got food plates of food in my hands that i'm about to start grilling that i'm gon na have to grill, and then i already made the decision like i'm. Not gon na be able to eat.

I don't have time. I was gon na have to just leave and go do the call because yeah i could have stayed home and ate the food, but then that would have postponed my time. You know, then i would have been working until super late, so you know. Luckily, i text one of my technicians that wanted to make some extra money and he was like yeah i'll totally take the call and he took it, but even still he was there for like four hours you know de-icing cleaning, make sure making sure everything's working properly.

So i try not to postpone the inevitable. I try not to help the customers as much as possible over the phone. I mean you know sometimes i'll give them a bone here. There make sure the breakers on, but i hate it like if they, if they say well, let me call you back, i say no, no, no get back on the phone right now.
Just go check the breaker and come back and tell me you know, because i don't want to wait for them to say yeah. Let me see if it works i'll, give it a couple hours you know and then because then i'm just sitting there thinking! Okay! Now i can't make plans and i'm going to have to go, do this, so you know i'm just griping at the moment you know just frustrated or whatever, but it is what it is. You know i i i know that this stuff happens, but um all right. Uh we had a hundred plus calls for the service.

Today it's busy busy busy yeah. We don't get anything like that jason, but we definitely are pretty busy so um, it's insane. You know the amount of service calls coming in and stuff right now. Luckily, i was surprised i was able to make it home.

I literally walked into my office 10 minutes before the live stream and was like all right i'll get in here. You know just it was nuts i'm not prepped or ready or anything like that. But it's all good all right! Um, let's see have i had bed, oh no um you're asking! So if anybody has questions my buddy ralph is in here i'll post. His email right now hold on just a second and i'll get it up.

Ralph is with honeywell refrigerants and if you have refrigerant related questions, ralph's the man to ask he can help you with conversions and changing over and alternatives and all that fancy stuff. So i'm gon na post, ralph's email in here right now, um he's with honeywell refrigerants, feel free to send him an email. I notice there's a conversation about 422b and stuff. So ralph is the man to answer all that stuff.

Um yeah. It is brutal right now. The cooler guys i know you're down in san diego area um, i don't know if you saw my social media post any of you guys follow me on instagram or facebook or whatever i was working out in the coachella valley today out in palm desert and at Like 10 30 in the morning it was 122 or 120. I should posted a picture.

I think it was 123 degrees on the roof at like 10 a.m. It was nuts and that wasn't the hottest part of the day. It was insane man, it's just nuts um. Let me see what else we got in here um.

How am i successfully finding technicians to hire? We are struggling, i'm not i'm struggling just like everybody else, but here's the thing i will not. I refuse to to settle for anything, but exactly what i'm looking for. So i am not willing to hire a technician that doesn't meet my standards, i'm just not going to do it. Um i've done it in the past and it just bites me in the ass.

So if i hire someone as an apprentice, they're they're, someone that has potential like i'm not just going to hire a technician to get me through the summer or anything like that, i'm not going to do that because it just turns into a pain in the butt, Especially for people here in california, if you guys don't know you know, if you, if you hire a technician that you know, is not going to make it it's a pain in the butt to get rid of that technician. It's just a nightmare, so you know in california you don't want to hire people just to hire them. You want to make sure they're a good hire so that way, you're not stuck with them forever, jose rivera. Thank you so very much for that super chat, but that is amazing.
You are awesome. Thank you bud all right, um. Let me see what else we got in here. That is an awesome super chat.

Is it okay, if an lg air conditioning unit to surge or do you turn it off and have a power outage on 626 to 627? You are on a standby generator. You live in tacoma washington. Is it okay for an lg? I i don't know matt i mean it really depends but um. If you have power surges, that's not good.

You want to have some sort of surge protection or something like that. It's not good for any electronics, so um. I will advise anybody out there if you're gon na, if you know you're having power issues and stuff like that, all you know, customers will call me and they're saying they're gon na have a plan power outage or something like that. What i'll typically tell the customers to do, or they can have me, do it - is to shut everything off.

Just if you know the power is going out, just go shut off all the three-phase equipment just shut it off and then leave some lights on. You know and then, when the power turns back on, then you go turn the three-phase equipment back on. So that way you don't see weird stuff here in california, we're notorious for getting brown outs, low, voltage issues and things like that in the summer. I can tell you that in laverne california, their grid, the energy grid, is jacked and you'll, see really low voltage, like 100, sometimes below the threshold you'll see like 185 184 volts for a 208 volt circuit, which is way low, um, and it it just it's.

It happens more and more so uh power, um conditioning devices, surge protectors and things like that are very important, so um. Why don't they make window units like heat pumps or is it already a thing they make window unit? The most window units are a heat pump or you can buy a straight cool, so no that totally works. Let me see what else we got in here. Thoughts on mobile acs, don't really have any thoughts.

I don't know more context to the question if you want, but you can either send me an email or try to post it in here again what can cause a head pressure control valve to bypass when it's not supposed to john deere fan? Well, a head pressure control valve typically bypasses based off of the system pressures. Okay, so it looks at the pressure in the system and it says: hey it's below a threshold, so it'll open up and try to bypass the condenser or flood the condenser to try to drive the head pressure up so low ambient temperatures. Um. You know things like that and or low charge can cause a head pressure control valve to bypass now um head pressure.
Control valves typically don't fail on their own okay, things cause them to fail. I'm actually working on a video where it was a perfect example that i had a failed head pressure control valve and there was nothing wrong with the valve. It was a piece of debris that was floating around in the system that got stuck in it that caused it to stick open, so it wasn't the fault of the valve. Okay, it was the fault of improper, brazing, improper refrigeration practices.

Something catastrophic happened in the system that allow debris to float through the system and eventually got stuck in the head pressure control valve okay. So i'm gon na stand up on a a a ledge and and say this that majority of the failures that i have ever seen on head pressure. Control valves are not the fault of the valve. Okay, there's so many people out there.

That say, i hate head masters. I hate head pressure, control valves because they always fail well. No, if we did our job properly, they would not fail as much okay. Yes, of course, there's going to be a failure or two that's a factory issue or something, but it's very rare, okay majority of the time crap floating around on the system's gon na plug it up cause it to get stuck open and it's gon na.

You know it's gon na have to be replaced because it's stuck open, but you can autopsy the valve and take it apart and you'll see oh crap, there's stuff stuck in it. You know, that's why it wasn't working so keep that in mind. Is there a segment of the hvac trade better suited for people that don't like heights well, austin? First off, of course, there's going to be some niche in the industry. That might let you work on something.

If you don't like heights. Okay, i can tell you that uh, if you do kitchen work, you might be able to get by depending on the kind of work you can do. Hot side equipment work where you fix fryers and flat tops, and things like that. Typically, you're not going to have to get on a ladder, but if you do air conditioning and large refrigeration work, walking, coolers and freezers you're going to have to climb ladders, that's something you're going to have to get used to extension.

Ladders. Building ladders - stuff, like that, you might get by working in an institutional setting like in in a warehouse or maybe a hospital, or something like that you possibly can get by. But that is going to be a limitation that you're going to have to overcome in some sort of way, because a fear of heights is going to be difficult in this trade. For sure, let's see what else we got in here thousand square foot house install outdoor condenser, plus evap, coil, induct or install ductless mini split matthew.

Schultz square footage doesn't mean anything to me as far as the size of equipment and the type of equipment. Okay, it really depends on the uh heat infiltration of the house. You need to know uh, you know, do a proper load calculation and then make a decision. There's good things and bad things about mini splits, there's good things and bad things about a split system with a condenser and a remote evaporator, okay, um mini splits uh.
I don't care how often you clean the filter. Basically, if you have a mini split, you just need to plan on pulling the blower wheel out and cleaning the blower wheel about every six months, because even with a filter on a mini split, they have their own little screens or whatever crap still just accumulates on The blower wheels okay, it's always a good idea too. If you do a lot of mini split work, most guys will tell you they're going to go. They might even stock blower wheels in their vans.

Okay, so keep that in mind, with mini splits, mini splits. I have heard i don't know much about humidity, but i've also heard that they do not do a very good job of dehumidification. So you got to keep that in mind where you live. Okay, but square footage is not going to be how we're going to size anything.

You know. Square footage is part of the picture, but you need to find out what your heat infiltration is. What your heat loss heat gain all that stuff and then size the equipment appropriately. I would probably push someone towards a split system and or a package unit versus a mini split.

One of the things you have to understand about mini splits, too. Is they have proprietary technology? I'm not saying they're bad. I mean i've thought about doing a mini splits for my house too, but you need to understand that they have proprietary technology and they often change their designs. So let's say you put in a mini split in your house four years from now you might not be able to get a new evaporator head unit.

You might not be able to get a new condenser because they may have changed the entire design. Okay, a standard split system you can get by you can put another brand condenser outside you can put another brand evaporator inside. You can do things to get by, but on a mini split you can't cross and mix match brands. That's not going to work right! Okay, so keep that in mind uh mini splits um.

I don't think they're gon na have the shelf life that a standard split system and or a standard package unit is gon na have uh. I would put a shelf life on a mini split. You know five to ten years um if you're lucky maybe closer to five uh. If that so just keep that in mind.

Okay um! Hopefully i answered your question there, uh jason johnson you're on call for the fourth. Luckily, only have to be on call a holiday once every three years, that's really cool bud yeah my family and myself are actually getting away for the fourth of july this year, we're i'm taking a day off. I'm gon na take friday off and uh we're gon na go up to our local mountain resort. Big bear and spend the weekend up there for fourth of july, with my wife and my kids take the paddle boards out and do that kind of stuff.
So i'm looking forward to it, i'm a little bit stressed going into today and this week, just because of how busy we are and knowing that i'm gon na take friday off like it's just building in my chest, right now, but um i need to get over It but it's gon na be uh a nice um vacation. Hopefully one day you know it's funny. I take one day off, you know, and i'm stressed about it so um all right. Let's see what else um what we got in here.

Where do you start? If you want to get into hvac work well, what i would highly suggest you do is find a local community college get enrolled in their trade school program. You can go to the community colleges, local. You can usually take night classes and take one or two classes. Okay, the cool thing about community colleges versus private schools is, you can just go for like a class or two and then decide this isn't for you, i'm not saying you can't do that with private colleges too, but just be very cautious and make sure you understand Before you make a huge commitment and then decide this isn't for you, okay, also, while you enroll in school, what i would encourage you to do is apply at local hvac companies, whichever style you want and let them know you're very interested in the trade.

Ask them for a shop position, a parts delivery position, a helper position. Anything most places are looking for anybody, that's breathing right now, so you probably have pretty good odds of getting hired on as an apprentice and then just explain to them that you want to go to school at night time. You know make sure you get off work and time and you can go to school at night work during the day. So i i think, you're going to have a very good odds of getting hired on at a company, be very leery um understand where you're going to apply okay, residential, there's, absolutely nothing wrong with residential work.

But just understand: there's going to be a major sales aspect to the residential side. Okay, you can do installs for residential. You can do sales for residential. You can get into the commercial side where you're going to have to learn everything and it's a really good trade.

I love it all together, so if you have any more questions on that feel free to email at hvacrvideos gmail.com, so um steve had asked me about what book i recommended for commercial refrigeration, so he's in the residential side, and he wants to get into the commercial Side - and there is a book that i recommend it is called commercial refrigeration for air conditioning technicians. Now this is the older version. He actually has a new version. So this is the third edition there's a fourth edition now, but this is commercial refrigeration for air conditioning technicians by dick wurst, very good book.
This is written for a residential air conditioning technician that wants to get into commercial refrigeration. That's what this book is written for. So it goes through some stuff, but it also skips over some things, because it's not teaching you the fundamentals of everything, but this is an amazing book, especially if you're working in refrigeration. It goes through defrost clocks, all types of stuff, um and actually really really neat.

Uh, i got a mention in the fourth edition book. Dick words actually gave me a mention because he had used some of my videos for like a because he has like a book and then you also have like a uh online portal that you can follow along and take quizzes and whatever, and he uses some of My videos in there, so it was really neat to find out that he mentioned me in the fourth edition book. Just you know in the the beginning or the end or whatever, just like a special thing, so that was really neat of him. Um, let's see what else we got in here, oh, what are we missing? Um, let's see where were i on friday for the overtime show? Where was i on a service call uh? If i wasn't on, i honestly don't remember, i'm pretty sure i was on a service call, though, if i wasn't on the overtime show, i don't remember where i was but yeah i was.

I was probably on a service call and i won't be on the overtime show this friday evening, either because i'll be gone with my family. So um, let's see, let's see what i'm missing in here. Big bear is fun. Yeah it'll be nice, it'll be nice to get away for the weekend.

We just rent like a little cabin and spend the weekend uh. Let's see, i already answered that one flare nut spanners, don't seem to be used these days. Any reason why flare nut spanners are those i don't know what those are those those little chinguses that you put on the inside to make sure that you tighten them properly. It's like a little gasket or something like that.

Is that what you're talking about, or i i don't know what you're talking about by the spanners um forgive my ignorance? Can i imagine, if humpty, what am i saying then atreus is he would fall down on brakes? What would be silly is because he's really supposed to fall off a wall. No all right uh, which do, i think, is better carrier, split or train um, i'm not gon na say either. One is better. I'm gon na say that um, it really depends on who's.

Gon na be working on the equipment and what they feel comfortable in okay. So when it comes to the commercial equipment, i have some equipment that i love working on and i have some equipment that i'm not as comfortable working on and it's not that either or is better or worse. It's just that i'm not used to it. Okay.

So it's not really fair for me to say which one is better carrier or trained, because i don't do a lot of residential equipment. Okay, trane does have a history of having a lot more technology built into their equipment, and it's usually proprietary technology, so be very cautious about that. But carrier can have that too. If you get into the higher end infinity systems, it's going to be very proprietary and you can't even sell infinity systems unless you're a dealer and stuff so um yeah, i'm not going to say either way which one's better or worse.
Because i really don't have an opinion on the matter, so um, oh spanner, is us talk four wrench, okay, gotcha uk talk um yeah. I don't use wrenches very much uh on the flare nuts people will typically use uh. You know um torque, wrenches and stuff. I just use adjustable wrenches and tighten them down.

It's probably not correct. I probably do need to start using torque, wrenches and stuff, because the more and more we get into flares on these higher pressure refrigerants such as 410a and stuff you're, going to start to see more leaks and it really does affect the performance. And you know you need to be careful tightening down. Obviously you don't want to over tighten a flare because you're going to have issues with that too.

So all right do. I see many train rtus on the west coast. Everything in the east tennessee seems to be train or york unless you're unfortunate enough to come across an aeon, um yeah. I don't see as much as uh of the train package units.

I have a few of them out there and i'll be honest with you. They're, a little bit above my head with all the technology built into them and and, like i said train, does a really good job of keeping that information really tight. You can take classes on the train equipment, but you have to pay arms and legs and other people's arms and legs to be able to take those classes, and it is a little bit frustrating um. You know, but uh i mean it's good equipment.

You know it's just they have their technology in it. I work on a lot of linux package units. That's what i see a lot of out here, super comfortable working on them. You know, even with their prodigy controls, they're not difficult at all to navigate and do your stuff and they have a very decent technical support.

You can call and they'll help you through most things so, but trane has always been very protective of their information. So have i spent any time with brian orr uh brian orr and i have met yes, i have uh done some podcasts with him. I've written some articles for him, brian's a cool dude. I actually met him at a training event in florida about two years ago.

Really really nice guy. So yes, i do know brian orr um. What is my best choice? Temperature? What is my best temperature controller of choice, carlos? As far as the temperature controllers? I really do like uh, the the ke2 therm temp plus defrost controllers. Those are very nice and then my second go-to is gon na, be a ronco, etc.
Temperature controller, like the one eleven 000 or the 140 1000 um. Those are pretty uh good controls too. Michael mc i'm going to try to butcher your name michael mick lachlan. I think it's michael mclaughlin, thank you, so very much for that super chat.

I'm sorry if i butchered your name any good books or online resources for starting for someone, starting in hvac as a service tech apprentice, michael um, i'm going to strongly encourage you to check out my buddy brian orr's website. It's hvac brian has tons of information. Tech tips articles different things like that lots of great information as far as books goes you're really going to want to get involved in a local trade school. I'd highly encourage that and they're going to have required reading for you to do that, you can do night classes at your local community college.

Like i mentioned earlier, it's fairly inexpensive. You don't have a huge commitment up front. So i'd highly encourage you to do that. I do believe in a formal education, although i know that a lot of people can learn a lot by reading and watching videos and stuff, but i still believe in a formal education.

So i firmly would um tell you to investigate some sort of a trade school way, even if it's just night classes at a local community college. So, let's see what else we got in here uh you work on mainly split systems and package units. How do you personally test a faulty circuit board on an ac you're, an apprentice michael? It really depends on each ac, so you have to understand the sequence of operation of that logic, board, okay or circuit board, and then you're just going to go through it. Some of them have self-test modes, some of them don't so then you're just going to put it into normal sequence of operation.

Give it a call for cooling, give it a call for heating. Does these things happen? Does these things happen? It really is just a matter of what the sequence of operation for each unit is and then just knowing when it's supposed to do whatever it's supposed to do and watching the circuit board command those things. Um circuit board failures on the commercial side, at least on the equipment that i work on are not very high. I mean we don't have circuit boards that fail very often it's pretty pretty low, so majority of the time people think that circuit boards are the failure, but when it's actually other things, so just keep that in mind before you go and condem a circuit board.

A lot of times we'll condemn circuit boards, because we don't understand how the equipment is supposed to work, and so we just kind of naturally think well, it's got to be this. You know when it's not actually the cause, you know so be cautious about diagnosing bad circuit boards. I'm checking my thermostat because it is blazing hot in my office right now. No, it's cool in my house, 74 degrees.
I have it set for 69, but it's hot in here all right um. Let me see what else uh, let's see, can i explain how a dixel temperature controller works and johnson controls mr4? I don't know about the johnson control mr4 dixol temperature controllers. I mean there's really not a whole lot to them: they're, typically, a universal control, and they have logic built in you can pretty much program those things to do almost anything you can set them up to be heating, controls, cooling controls, and it really depends on how You program, the control is how it's going to operate. It typically has a set of contacts on the back of the control.

You have incoming power, whether it be 120, 240 or maybe even 24 volts, and then you're gon na have contact relays that are gon na. Do certain functions when you tell it to so. As far as explaining how the control works, i mean i would really know the need to know the context of what it is that you're working on, and then we can talk a little bit more so feel free to send me an email to hvacr videos gmail.com. We can probably talk about it a little bit more in there.

Let me see: uh will low supply voltage to a condenser, potentially trip an overload, slash breaker christopher smith, will low supply voltage to a condenser, potentially trip and over low and overload breaker um. I guess there's a possibility that low voltage can cause issues like that. Um, that's a hard one for sure. I think that's that's kind of a loaded question because it sounds like you've got some history on that.

One um, like i said uh, you know, feel free to send me an email but hvac our videos, gmail.com. We can probably talk more uh. You work on mainly split systems. I already answered that one usually have a linux mini split in your room.

Okay, all right! Uh do swamp, colors, do a good job, cooling, a rack, yeah yeah! They do a good job cooling, a rack! You just have to understand that they're going to make it extremely humid inside that rack. So if you have anything that is raw metals, you know not galvanized, not stainless steel, then you're typically going to see rust on it, and things like that. So just keep that in mind, but yeah the swamp coolers do a good job, especially you know when we have really really high heat. I've shown it in my recent video, where i rebuilt a swamp cooler.

I showed you know the reason why we use it and it's because those are indoor condensing units that are just put in a rack: they're not meant for outdoors. What really makes a difference on a condensing unit. What makes it outdoors and indoors is typically some sort of weather protector, okay, covering it from the rain and stuff like that, but the condenser is usually sized a little bit bigger. The receiver is definitely oversized.

Okay, to allow storage of that refrigerant when the system is pumped down and that's an important thing to understand, but yeah we often will have to put some sort of a cooling medium to pre-cool those racks to try to help out in these high ambient conditions. For sure, let's see what else we got going on in here, how much return cfm and what size duct does a three ton unit need to normally operate well again, jackman four! It really depends on your location, uh. What your humidity is and what kind of airflow you require so here in southern california, we will typically run with 400 cfm per ton. So, on a three ton unit: that's going to be about 1200 cfms of air on average, but that's not a set in stone.
That is a rule of thumb and you have to understand that rules of thumb can be very dangerous because maybe the system is designed to dehumidify better okay, maybe it's designed to humidify better. So it really depends on your needs. Okay, but on average a general rule of thumb is about 400 to 450 cfms per ton in my area, okay, but again that's going to change. If you go to a humid climate, we don't know what humidity is where i live, so um.

What's the best, i already answered that one um three, four, eight, twelve, okay, so jason johnson you're saying sixteen hundred cfms see, but i would think four yeah. Maybe i mean i, it really depends on what you're trying to do so and then, as far as duct work goes, it really depends. Are we talking one single run? Are we talking? You know it really depends on where you're going and where the ductwork's going is going to determine your size, uh jj. Thank you so very much for that super chat.

Man. 20. That's amazing! Thank you very much bud um. I already said carlos: the best choice of temp controllers would be the ke2 therm temp, plus defrost is what i choose and then the ronco etc would be the second one after that, um have.

I ever done service on a chiller before you've seen big compressors, and you know what types of compressors no. No. I do not work on chillers. So no don't have any experience on that.

One um, let's see um all right. I'm gon na get to my list of things to talk about so um. I already answered that question and i already answered that question marking things off my list right here, um jake had asked me a question about which leak detector i like and which leak detector. I recommend so currently in my van i have two leak detectors.

I have the inficon stratus okay and i also have the field piece dr82. Both of them, in my opinion, are equals. They they work hand in hand. They both do an amazing job of doing leak.

Detection um there's a the the inficon stratus or detect stratus whatever you want to call. It has way too many names is a nice leak detector, but it is rather expensive at like 800, okay um. It has a cloud hunting mode. That gives you a parts per million readout.

A lot of people seem to like that display um. It is not absolutely necessary, honestly, unless you're working in rack rooms or big giant supermarket situations where you're going to be walking into a highly contaminated area of refrigerant. The cloud hunting feature basically allows you to walk into a refrigerant cloud, because it gives you a parts per million readout and allows you to get closer and further from the leak and further. I you know figure out where it is, but something i got to say.
If you're walking into a rack room that has got that much refrigerant in it and you're having to use the cloud hunting mode, you need to make sure you have some sort of a respirator or something like that. Because that's a lot of refrigerant and it could very easily displace the oxygen in your lungs and cause some issues so be very cautious about that now. Inficon also makes a dtek 3, which i have been told, has the exact same sensor as the stratus. It just doesn't have the cloud hunting feature, so that's something to consider and the price point on that is very comparable with the fieldpiece dr82.

I lean towards the fieldpiece dr82. That is the one that i've been using the most lately but, like i said that the stratus and the dr82 are neck and neck. In my eyes they both work equal. So hopefully that answers your question for you bud um.

I wanted to talk about because i got a million questions about my recent video, where the region was really nasty: okay, um, first off uh. I know everybody always gets freaked out when i show them the pictures of the electrical rooms that are um that are covered in uh or that are that are really difficult to get inside and have uh. You know a lot of crap blocking all the breaker panels and yes, that is a fire code, violation, okay, but it is not my place to report them to the fire marshal. I don't get involved in any of that stuff.

Okay, i will usually advise the customer. The electrical room has a lot of debris and stuff. I advise you to move it and i'm done with it at that point. Okay, now, when it comes to the reach and coolers uh, there's so many comments.

That said, i needed to call the health department. On behalf of customers and consumers, and let them know that that restaurant is nasty. If i get into the business of calling the health department on my restaurants, i'm quickly going to push myself out of the industry. Okay, it's not my business to call the health department.

The health department has their own jobs, they come in and they inspect these restaurants again. The reason why i don't show my restaurant locations is most people don't understand. What i showed in this restaurant is normal. Okay, these boxes get dirty um, it's it's.

I don't know. If i'm just numb to it, you know because i've seen it so much, but it doesn't bother me a lot of questions that i get too is do i eat at restaurants. Yes, i do eat at restaurants. Yes, i will eat at the restaurants that i work at um.
It's not that big of a deal. I don't see it as a big giant thing, because i work in restaurants. Maybe i'm numb to it, but i work in restaurants every day and it's pretty normal to see dirty regions so um all right. Let me see what else if i don't debur flares, you'll end up with a leak seen it time and time again exactly using a flaring tool is an art.

Okay, understanding how to do a proper flare is an art. A flare starts with a piece of copper. Being cleaned and deburred okay, if you have to cut it, then you clean it and deburr it after you cut it. Okay, once you debur it, the thing is: is you cannot debur it too much if you debur it too much you're gon na compromise, your flare, but if you don't de-bird enough you're going to compromise your flare, so you have to have a properly deburred piece of Pipe and then you're going to put a flare nut on it.

Then you're going to put your flaring block and you're going to flare it. You don't want to go too far. You don't want to go too small and you need to have a clean edge when you get that flare done, you need to inspect it and if there's ripples or cracks in the end of the flare start over and do it again using a flaring tool, is An art - and i will say that the first part of my career i hated flares because i could never do them right. It finally took me long enough that i love using flares because i'm lazy - and i don't want to - i want to try to eliminate unnecessary work, so i use flares quite often for liquid line, dryers and stuff.

Like that, let me see what else we got going on here: uh. Is there a shortage of parts and refrigerant? In my area like in florida yeah, we have a massive shortage of parts. Refrigerant prices are going through the roof, all that stuff, whether or not it's a true shortage or whether or not people are just playing the game because everybody's raising their prices - i don't know but yeah, it's pretty ridiculous. How expensive everything's getting these days um, it's nuts! All right, let's see what else we got going on here, got a million emails coming through right now, work, orders and all kinds of things: air conditioners down.

Of course, everybody's got an air conditioner down and pretty much every one of them is going to be dirty needs maintenance needs belts, needs everything. So it's kind of crazy. All right, uh have i seen a true region with an evaporator fan motor completely locked up. Um yeah, but but yeah all right um.

How much is r22 out there in cali. You know: prices are like three times higher than everywhere else. You hit 2k for 30 pounds. Yet no! No! It's nowhere near that.

So nowhere near that um absolutely nowhere near that. The prices in california really aren't that different from everywhere else. It's pretty competitive all the way across the country, so um, let's see what is that object behind my right shoulder on top of the shelf? That is a dial, a charge that is an old school device for using for charging critically charged systems. Before we had highly accurate digital scales, you could fill that with refrigerant and it has markers on it.
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24 thoughts on “Hvacr videos q and a livestream 06/28/2021”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars James G says:

    Dude I think your bad ass and I am very happy to follow you!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars corey Babcock says:

    I wish the humidity would be lower at my place Are you in Barrhaven ?

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars leon rootman says:

    howxit bro. im in south africa, how can i cantact you directy?

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Driftless 1 says:

    Yep. So relatable: Long sleeves. Layers. Oversized brim hat. Lots of water for high ambient conditions. Also, Hate aspects of restaurant work. But, you lost me at "Yes, I eat at those restaurants." Nope. Hard pass. I'll eat at home.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Justin Webb says:

    Air conditioner tonnage in air-conditioning was used by how much tonnage of ice it took to cool a building in the old days

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars quietone610 says:

    "Pick your battles."
    "No, no, that's too many battles. Put…put some battles back."

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars John Bond says:

    You will perspire just as much in low RH as in higher RH, but it doesn't accumulate on your skin and clothes as fast, so you appear drier. In fact, in extreme conditions of low RH, you can lose even more water and electrolytes from perspiration. And you may feel cooler due to evaporation of sweat, but that's not all there is to it. Warmer air saturates later, and holds more latent heat, so it always feels warmer at higher RH, even though the sensible heat (temperature) is the same. Even in cooler temperatures, humid air will feel warmer at the same temperature than drier air.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chris says:

    I like how all the morons live chat in all CAPS when he specifically asked for questions only to be put in CAPS. You guys dumb or what?

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rene Salinas says:

    When smal pips start to tork its tight enough

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rene Salinas says:

    In germany you lern the HVAC profession in 3,5 years in a company on the job combined with 1/3 theory at school and extra practikal schooling like brazing, electriks….

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rene Salinas says:

    I Love the mix of all

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rene Salinas says:

    Always depends if there are goods in the frige…

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rene Salinas says:

    Greetings from Cologne

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars D Rodriguez says:

    “Spanner” is a wrench for English people. It’s a flare wrench I’m sure you’ve seen before Service area Nepean??

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Arotech Mechanical HVACR says:

    We used to use aftermarket start components but they’re sooo cheap and never hold up if we’ve gotta use them to get by until we can get the oem components they just do not hold up.. Especially start caps!

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars HVAC-RA says:

    Tried to watch last night but my wife caught me when we were watching a movie 🍿

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars scott adams says:

    I love the intro music. I rock out listening to that every time lol.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ted E. Bear says:

    Great live

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SOCAL REFRIGERATION says:

    I almost condemned a Lennox board on a condenser , I forgot to reset the board. The breads went out on a low pressure lock out due to a bad txv and iced coil

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SOCAL REFRIGERATION says:

    I almost condemned a board today

  21. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars SOCAL REFRIGERATION says:

    I saw two ETCs on that reach in your talking about. Can one ETC in the middle of the unit cut it? Instead of two? Or did I miss something with the coils?

  22. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Manuel Ramirez says:

    That intro music slapped.

  23. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RedFathom says:

    tonnage is from the old days when they used ice. like horse power, but for cool.

    you should watch "how clean is your house?" you'll love it. Are you in Ottawa ?

  24. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars peter Griffin says:

    great live as always Service area Orleans??

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