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

and now let's cue up the intro music. Thank you thank you Foreign Foreign thank you thank you Foreign! How is everybody doing? How come it seems that every time I come in my office no matter how much time I prepare something is tweaked like my my microphone is like goofy or something like someone leaned on it I don't know now I'm going to try adjusting it and then it's going to mess everything up right? It's all good. Hopefully you guys are doing well. Welcome to the Hvacr Videos live stream.

So uh I know you know I'm broadcasting on on a lot of new social media platforms and I know there's a lot of new people attending these live streams so forgive me the people that are regulars and I recognize you guys are all here. I'm gonna do a little introduction. Okay, so my name is Chris I'm an Hvacr service technician here in Southern California and I started making YouTube videos as a training aid for my employees. This is the cliff notes.

Okay, uh I reluctantly hit the public button. It grew into a thing. Here we are like five years later and I do these q a question and answer live streams to kind of consolidate the questions because I put out a lot of video, a lot of content on all kinds of different social media platforms and I get like a ton of redundant like questions that people ask the same things all the time. So I try to consolidate those questions into a live stream and then people tend to also send me emails that I answer in the live format too.

So I have a bunch of questions here in front of me. If you guys do have questions or comments, do me a favor, put them into the chat and put them in caps lock. That helps me to see them. You may have to repeat it because there's a bunch of people watching on all the different social media platforms where a couple different Facebook pages groups Instagram or no, we're not on Instagram we're on YouTube LinkedIn and I think that's it.

But anyway, so just throw them in caps lock. Okay, do me a favor, those that are watching if you guys could smash the thumbs up button on whatever social media platform you're on, majority of the people tend to be on YouTube but you know it's fine. if you're watching on Facebook or whatever, just smash the Thumbs Up Button YouTube Facebook LinkedIn whatever it is just kind of helps the social media platform to realize that I'm actually here because they they notice a lot of interact, action and stuff. Okay so if I miss any questions, you can feel free to send me an email to Hvacrvideos Gmail.com And now that we've gone through that, let's get on with the show.

No. I'm just kidding. All right, cool. So uh I am doing pretty good over here I'm getting ready for the Ahr uh trade show so Ahr goes on next Monday Tuesday Wednesday But I am actually flying out this upcoming Friday fly to Atlanta and have a whole bunch of pre-agr events.

Uh, going to be attending the Solder Weld uh HVAC Tactical Awards or the HVAC Tactical Awards I guess hosted by Solderweld I think is what you're supposed to say. But anyways, I'm going to the HVAC Tactical Awards on Sunday Uh, then I'm going to be doing uh the the trade show itself Monday Tuesday Wednesday I'll be spending a bunch of time at the Sporland booth and then also at the refrigeration. Technologies Booth I'll be spending some time there too seeing my good friend John Pastarello Mike Pastorello. Um, hope to see them all.

But anyways, if you guys happen to make it to the Ahr trade show, definitely stop me. If you see me, uh, follow me on social media and I'll be announcing like the different places that I'll be. Uh, there's also going to be all sorts of events. We already know that tentatively we're doing some sort of a meet up.

um, with some other social media creators the Saturday before. So uh, We haven't figured anything out yet I need to start reaching out to people. but I know I had a few other social media creators that were interested. So if you are going to be in the uh downtown Atlanta area, possibly on Saturday again, reach out to me.

pay attention to my social media. We'll be announcing somewhere that will be going and just having a hangout or something like that. So I hope that I see you guys at HR if you do make it I tend to walk around when I'm at shows like that I have a bunch of obligations like spending time at certain booths and stuff I encourage you guys 100 percent. uh, as long as I'm not holding a camera in my hand I encourage you to walk up and interrupt me I don't care who I'm talking with Okay, so walk up, say Hey you know, politely obviously.

but say hey, stop me, talk to me. Okay I tend to get tunnel vision when I'm at those events like I said. So sometimes I walk with a mission and I don't pay attention to anything around me. Make sure you stop me say hey man, you know and talk I have a conversation.

Okay so I look forward to seeing you guys at the Ahr trade show. Just kind of getting ready for that. and I just wrapped up a big project at work so that was a fun one. Unfortunately, there's not going to be a video on it for some so for various reasons I couldn't make a video but it's It's a very fun project.

I Showed a little bit of a glimpse of it and it was a hood control conversion. So I had a Smart Hood system. Long story short, the customer realized that the Smart Hood system cost him way too much money. didn't save him any money.

They wanted me to rip out all the Smart Hood controls. So when I say Smart Hood controls. This was a May Link Intellihood system. So it had optical sensors.

it had variable frequency drives. It has temperature sensors and it slows down and speeds up the exhaust fans dependent on the demand. So some of the hoods look at the smoke as it crosses a a beam and if it interrupts the beam then it speeds the fans up. Some fans work off of uh temperature.

if it senses a high temperature, it speeds the fans up. So anyways, it's a cool system, but it just became not cost effective for the customer and they had me bypass it. but it wasn't just a simple bypass. Okay, because I had to set up the entire Hood system to operate just like the the Smart Hood system with all the safeties built into it.

So I installed two power switches one for the lights and one for the hood fan. So now they just have on off switches and we have four uh, motor starters, four relays and amidst all of that, we are interconnected into the fire suppression system. So if the fire suppression system shuts off, I showed you know reels and Instagram clips and I showed a clip of it on the HVAC over time. So so I'm sure you can find the whole Hood package.

Um, but that was a long process for me because I think it took four days and the reason why it took four days was because the restaurant was completely functional the entire time so we could only work from the hours from 7am to about 10 10 30 a.m. and then we had to leave because they needed to open their kitchen so it was just a bunch of back and forth getting it all going. But I finally wrapped it up. Friday I think last Friday I think so that was a I'm glad to be done with that and there's like a bunch more that need to be done so it's like a whole thing, but getting pretty um, good at them.

you know, just having to go in and we have certain procedures that we do. So it's a fun project, but like I said, unfortunately, there's not going to be a video just because of, uh, some various reasons. but I'm sure I'll make some sort of a, uh, you know, like an instructional video, maybe just not an on-site one. We'll do something like that so.

but I hope that you guys are all doing well as usual. Got a couple things I want to cover I'm going to look at the chat right now and uh, let's see what else we got going on in here. uh Donald Baker says since he predict is overpriced and full of ridiculous agreements. uh Donald Baker I actually have a Scentsy predict down here that I bought with my own money from my own house and I never installed it.

In all honesty, I installed the thermostat and it sat on my wall for about eight months and I really didn't like the functionality and the look of it. so I ended up installing an ecobee thermostat and I have the whole Sensi predict Hardware I'm supposed to send it to one of my friends, but it's just sitting there. never used it. don't know much about it I think it's a couple bucks a month or something like that.

So um, Oscar says do I have Spanish-speaking customers? If so, how do I communicate with them? Um, you know there's a funny thing Oscar So one of my guys that works for me uh I don't think you're watching right now, but you know who you are. Uh, it's funny because he is like totally Hispanic right? You cannot doubt that he is Hispanic but he doesn't speak a lick of Spanish So it is hilarious for me to be in a restaurant and watch the kitchen staff walk up to him and just start going into a conversation with them and watching his eyes be like uh uh and it's just funny to watch him say yeah I don't speak Spanish and it's just yeah, that's the whole thing. but um, no. I have I work in kitchens in Southern California So there's a good majority of Hispanic people people that speaks you know solely Spanish I do not know Spanish I do not speak Spanish um I can understand just enough to kind of get an idea.

but uh yeah, we don't really have anybody like restaurant. usually there's a manager there or someone that can speak English Um so yeah. I've never run into that. That's actually one of my regrets is not learning Spanish I Really wish I did know Spanish because it would help me so much in my career for sure.

So and it's it's good to know multiple languages anyways. We encourage our kids like my gosh learn as many languages as you can. So uh, what was the one job site where I was on thin ice about walking away or hated the most? Uh Heidi D So there was a job I've talked about this before. um, this was one that I actually walked away from the job.

Uh, it was a giant uh Indian casino near me but I wasn't working for the casino I was working for a uh, let's see what it wasn't I wasn't I mean I wasn't working for the general contractor. The general contractor hired a contractor that subbed me out because they didn't know what they were doing and I walked into the job and realized it was a giant cluster. Nobody knew what was going on. We were gonna have to work on the gaming floor.

It was a nightmare. Um, long story short, I ended up solving a lot of their problems correcting by looking at the plans, realizing that what they had planned and purchased and engineered for wasn't going to work. So then I got them to change all that for free by the way. In the end, um and fixed all those problems.

And then the night that I went to go do the work and install the equipment and run line sets. I'm literally standing pushing through the hallways of the casino with a scissor lift and when I get to the floor I walk out to the floor to the tables that were supposed to be moved and they weren't moved and they were gaming at the tables. you know it was the middle of the night and I had to get the casino boss involved and they were like we're never going to shut these tables down but it was was told to me that it was just a giant mess and uh, amidst that and all the other problems that night, I very quietly packaged up all my materials because I'd heard some really really bad rumors about Indian casinos. um and the weird laws.

Not nothing but bad about the Indian people or the native people that run the casino. it's just the the rules and everything's different on the casino property. I mean on the you know, the the native land and everything right? and so anyways I ended up packaging up all my materials as quietly as I could, getting them on my truck and bouncing out of there and just calling the the general contractor the next day and just saying I was done like I was done with the job. that one gave me so much stress.

All in all, in labor alone I uh, we lost five grand so um, I was kind of bummed about that, but it was just everything was building up you know and it was just like one thing irritated you. the next thing irritated you. and then finally the night that I went to go do all the work and then they told me that it wasn't going to happen and just all that I was just I had it I was just done, bounced out of there, told them get someone else I hadn't signed any contracts or anything like that so just got out of there and then when I called the guy the next day um they were like no please no, we'll make it work and I was like nope we're done I just knew better. just walked away from that job.

So uh, let's see what else we got going on here. Um, reading through the chat right now, Right on? Uh Jason Johnson I'm not going to confirm or deny what Indian casino it was because I just don't want to get in any kind of trouble. So um, let me see. uh, why is a smoke detector on an air mover and not on the units I'm assuming that you on an air mover I don't know what you mean by that bud.

Can you clarify that? uh, put it in caps, lock down at the bottom again and or send me an email because it might get lost in the chat. Okay, um, all right. so why is it that? well I already answered that question. but I did want to talk about a a Instagram real YouTube short that I put out just a short form video about a service call on an exhaust fan and how I put a link belt on there to temporarily get it going.

My goodness gracious! I Have to say that one of the downsides to social media. Okay I appreciate everybody that watches my videos and I appreciate all the um, the people that get something from them. Whether it is what not to do, what to do, you know I appreciate all that. That's really cool, but with these social media companies forcing content creators to produce short form content I I'm being forced to do that.

Okay, not really what I like to do. Every once in a while you might get something educational out, but I have to find a way to produce this short form content because they're not sharing normal videos anymore. It's like a whole thing. So I have to evolve or let everything move on without me, right? So anyways, but one of the things that I noticed from doing short form content is it brings out the trolls.

and I'm not afraid of people. It doesn't dig at me. It's just kind of annoying having to go through the chat and just watching. So the short form content gets showed to people that don't necessarily want to watch this right and they're just interested.

So my goodness, the comments that came out about putting a link belt on there. So I'm going to address a few things that you know: I think those repetitive questions asked all the time. Why on Earth don't I stock the right size belts on my truck? Well, here's the deal my customers. Um, don't do routine maintenance.

Okay, a good majority of them I have a few that do, but majority of them don't do routine maintenance and uh, they don't get to choose what I stock on my truck. they have free will. Hey Pat thank you very much for that super chat from Commercial Kitchen! Chronicles Pat Finley I Really appreciate you Bud! Okay, I'm going to meet up with Pat at HR I think Pat you're going to be one of the people that's there on Saturday right? Pat I Thought you said you were getting there early if not whatever. but um, uh, Anyways, go check out Commercial Kitchen.

Chronicles Pat's a cool dude. So um, but anyways, one of the things why don't I You know my customers don't get to choose what I carry in my trucks. Okay first and foremost second, everything that I buy in my truck and it sits in my truck for six months to a year is money that I could have used somewhere else. Okay, it's about maintaining inventory.

Yes, having an inventory in the truck is good, but you don't want to have too much inventory and belts are not something that get changed out on a monthly basis for the most part. For the customers that don't do routine maintenance, we have to change belts every three to six months at those locations. Okay, for various reasons. So for me to stock a belt in my truck to wait three months to use it is wasted money.

Okay, I'm trying to control what I carry in my truck. plus there's less chance of those parts getting ruined. Next thing, why don't I go to the auto parts store and get a belt. Worst case scenario: if I didn't have any other options, I would do whatever I have to do to get that equipment running.

but I prefer to use my normal supply houses. if I buy my materials at one place consistently when there's a problem, it's a lot easier to go back to that place. If I buy materials at 10 different supply houses, then I have to try to remember what supply house I bought it from. So again, also I have employees and do I really want my guys going to 10 different supply houses on a daily basis? No because it's just wasted truck time right? And also it makes it more and more difficult.

Um for people to consistently buy the same Brands and the same parts. We like consistency across our company. We buy all the same temp controls regions, everybody stocks their own stuff. Unfortunately, I mean I shouldn't say unfortunately.

but I don't let my guys go and buy whatever they want from the supply houses. We buy what we know we need I take suggestions from my employees if they think we should pick up a new item that they saw. I will definitely look into it and we'll have a conversation. but I don't let them just go to the supply house and buy whatever they want so we try to control everything.

Um, you know if I had to I would go to an auto parts store but I don't really want to waste time on a Saturday trying to find a belt back and forth. Not really my thing. So okay, let's see what else we can go in the chat going on right now? Um, all right, looks like just normal conversations. Let's see what else.

Um I'm reading through the chat Ike Ike's in here right now on YouTube What's up Bud, How you doing? Um Ike has been a uh, a channel supporter and um, he's been an awesome friend of mine that's helped me do a lot of cool stuff. He helped me build my computer and uh, let me let me rephrase that. he built my computer, telling me the idiot what button to push and what screw to tighten. Okay, so Ike's a cool dude.

So um, and he also runs a Discord server for this channel. It's the Hvacr videos Discord server. if any of you is interested in joining, shoot me an email. I'll get you the link.

Okay, all right, so let's see what else we got going on in the chat. How is it that I wear long sleeve shirts all year long? uh I again I Can tell when I have new viewers to the channel because they don't realize that I work in extreme ambient conditions I live and work in the Inland Empire of Southern California and the low desert of Southern California so in the low desert of King D in excess of 120 degrees in the summertime and I have lots of videos showing me working in Crazy heat 115 116 all the way up to 120 was the hottest I've ever worked in. Um, and I wear long sleeve shirts all year long. How is it that I can wear a long sleeve shirt? Okay, so here's the first thing: I wear a black Under Armor sweat wicking t-shirt Okay, every day it's my undershirts.

wear it underneath there. So actually I'm wearing an undershirt and a long sleeve shirt. I wear Dickies they're like polyester or something or other. um, loose fit.

Uh, long sleeve shirts I want to keep the sun off my skin? Okay, uh. I am definitely afraid of skin cancer and different things like that. So I Really, you know I used to wear short sleeves all the time and I'd have a permanent farmer's tan even through the winter and it just confused me. You know I was just like what's going on here, just didn't seem right.

Started wearing long sleeves I actually stayed cooler in long sleeve shirts. Couple key things though, is we're in Southern California where it's not very humid at all during the summer. often times. uh, the relative humidity outside can be as low as 10, sometimes five percent.

Okay, it's extremely dry here, so that's one big key factor because if it was super swampy and humid and over 100 degrees, it'd be a little difficult to be wearing long sleeve shirts for sure. Okay, uh, let's see. Um, let me see what are going on through the chat right now. Okay, cool, All right.

Uh, next thing is I already discussed that question. uh I already had discussed that question Crossing things off my list right now. So um, when I was doing a recent video I had to change a compressor. it was my most recent video where I or actually yeah I think it was no, it was whatever, it was a video two videos ago.

but I had a compressor replacement and while I was changing the compressor I had to remove a flare connection on a pressure control hose and when I pulled that off, they had one of those plastic flare saver gaskets on there and I had said I took that out because there was no need for it I had a commenter that said that I was incorrect for taking that plastic bushy now and that that actually needed to be there because that's what SEALs the flare. Okay, so this is a refrigeration and air conditioning flare. This is not a chat lift fitting. This is not a um, uh, you know, compression nut.

Okay, it doesn't require a gasket in there. When you take a refrigeration flare, the only thing you need is actually just a little bit of oil now. I happen to use Nylog, which is essentially Refrigeration oil, but you don't need that gasket in there. I'm not saying that it will won't work because that gasket had been in there for quite a few years, but I Typically don't use that kind of stuff.

If you have a proper flare and you have a proper connection, there's no need for a gasket. Okay, I'm not saying that you're bad for using one. Okay, but I am telling you that on refrigeration and air conditioning flares, there does not have to be a plastic or a rubber gasket in there. You actually want to metal the metal connection on there.

Okay, but it's also very careful. You have to be very sure that there's no damage to the flare or the flare nut or the threads when you're doing that. Okay, all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. All right.

Um, and uh, let's see. I covered that question going through there. covered that one. Have some really good emailed questions that were sent today too.

I'm about to get to them. Um, so oh, this is a good one. Uh, let's see. I had a commenter: I'm not going to reveal the name because I don't know if you know you want your name revealed.

Uh, if you guys send me things that you want questions or anything like that, if you can, let me know if you want your name revealed. I will definitely try to do that if you guys send me emails. but sometimes I see questions and I'm like, yeah, maybe they don't want me to say their name, you know? So anyways, uh, this person is new and they have been working in commercial industrial. Okay, and this, uh, he has been noticing that when he's on the roof he's kind of confused because he'll see um Regular packaged air conditioning units but he'll see them running with mechanical cooling even though they have economizers.

Okay, so the question that he's asking is why is that happening and what kind of problems can and he see he's specifically concerned about and this is below 32 degrees by the way. I probably should have said that. Okay, so ambient temperatures below 32 degrees and he sees package units running with mechanical cooling on so he's kind of curious what's going on. All right.

So he he had an amazing question, especially for a new technician. And what this tells me is that he went to a place where he actually learned something when he was educated. Okay, because he's curious why these AC units are running and why the expansion valves are operating properly if they don't have the designed pressure drop across the expansion valve. So I really like that question.

That's a really good one and that shows me that you really are thinking something really technical. Um, good for you Bud. Okay, so first and foremost, you know you never know when you're working commercial industrial. you can have units that run very critical rooms when it can be 32 degrees outside and there can be a demand for that unit to run it could be running a computer, server room, or something like that.

Okay, and I know you know that. Next thing is, you know again, you never know what they're doing with that building. I Have a lot of my locations that the economizers are actually disabled and they're using minimum outside air only so they're basically just using it for a minimum outside air dampers. Okay, so you know and that's a a particular customer that wanted them set up that way.

Okay, but the question about the expansion valve and the pressure drop and how that expansion valve can operate properly is a really, really good question. And let's go into this a little bit. Okay, so when you have an expansion valve, it's meant a thermostatic expansion valve. It's a dumb expansion valve.

Okay, it's meant to have refrigerant going through it at a certain velocity, right? They they measure that in the pressure drop across the TXV so you can have liquid pressure at a certain saturation temperature on one side of the TXV but then on the other side it's going to be liquid Vapor mix and it's boiling off the gas as it's going into the evaporator. Okay, and that refrigerant has to go through that valve at a certain speed or certain velocity and again, we measure that with the pressure drop. So your question, what he's asking is when it's really cold outside, Obviously, the pressure drop is going to be a lot lower. Okay, and so how is it working? You know again, there's a couple different variables in there.

We don't know if that particular unit package unit has some sort of capacity control. Okay, sometimes you can have some sort of a hot gas bypass valve that because they're feeding a critical room, they can operate in much lower. Ambience Sometimes they'll put cold weather kits on the package units, fan cycle controls, and different things like that. Definitely having crank case heaters on them so it really depends on the situation and what's going on.

But that is a really good point and a really good thing to think about because you have design conditions of a system and if it's operating outside of design conditions, lots of weird stuff can happen and the unit will not be predictable anymore. Okay, so it's really important that we understand. You know that and again good on you for asking that question. but that is a really cool one.

Uh, let me see. uh for defrost clock after power supply you power the other two on the open side David Youtubing, You're gonna have to send me an email bud that's a I need maybe a picture? uh, Hvacrvideos Gmail.com and I can try to answer that. Okay, um I'm reading through the chat right now again. guys.

If I miss your questions, feel free to send them through email or keep repeating them because I see a bunch on Instagram right now? Um, but uh, let me know. Okay, shoot me an email. Um, all right. So reading through here right now, um, let's see what do I mean by force to do it like withholding ad Revenue Uh, Cyborg Sheep.

So basically my views are are through the floor right now. Uh, we're going back to the question about YouTube So Cyborg Sheep asks what do I mean by force to do it? So YouTube and Instagram and all these different social media platforms are forcing you to, um, use their short form content. So I'm still going to make long form, but I have to make short form in there too. So what I mean is My Views And the videos are not being recommended to people anymore.

So the channel is not growing as fast because they're changing their formats and they want you to do short form content. So now the strategy as a content creator if you want people to consume your content is at least my understanding of what we have to do right now is majority of our views are going to be coming from short form content. so you have to hook someone with your short form content, get them interested in, and then direct them over to your normal videos to get the views like we used to get months ago. So within the last five months I've Seen Crazy drops in like new views I I get consistent on my normal view users and stuff like the people that watch my videos and already subscribed.

but it's the new people coming to it. So um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat right now. how is my home AC project going? uh, my home AC project is doing good I still have another video that I actually am probably going to work on editing. maybe on the flight this this upcoming weekend, but um, uh, it's doing good I have yet? I'm basically at a standstill because I need to pick which equipment I'm gonna get I wanted to I was so close to ahr like I was a month and a half away from HR and I was like you know what I had an idea what equipment I was gonna buy but I want to go to HR and see if there's anything new coming out that maybe I'm interested in.

So I'll go to HR check out some new equipment and if I don't see anything that changes my mind then I know what I'm gonna get and then once I do that I just gotta jump into it. So, but I'll be releasing that video because I did some more air sealing on my house and reduced my blower door number significantly from the last video. So um, all right. reading through here.

Um, reading through the chat right now. Okay, all right, I already answered that one. Um, So anyways, uh, that again, the person that asked me the question about the TXV pressure drop in the packaging unit, That was an awesome question. So good job on that.

Uh, in my recent compressor video where I had the compressor that failed over the weekend and then I cut the compressor open at the end, why was I not brazing with nitrogen while I was brazing the system up? okay, uh, I would like to know. Okay, if anybody I'm going to give it a second and I'll get back to the question. but I want to know someone in the chat right now if you're watching this. in my recent video where I changed a compressor over a weekend I think it was last Thursday why could I not have braised with nitrogen? like what was preventing me from brazing with nitrogen when I was changing that compressor? I'm asking the chat right now see if anybody knows where I'm going to go with this.

so I'm going to let them chime in and then I'll answer the question here in just a second. So um, reading through here, let's see if any answers come into the chat right now. I'm going to go to another question and then I'll get back to it. So on that same compressor job, why in the heck did I not put in a flare dryer like I normally do? well first if you listened in the video I had an old 30 cubic inch dryer in the shop that was 5 8.

It was sealed and packaged I just hadn't used it in years. so I wanted to use that up. so that was the main reason. And uh, the next thing is that that location was about an hour and a half away from my shop and I was just like eh.

I'm just gonna braise it. no questions about it instead of having flare connections. So um, okay, there we go. John John Yep, Yep.

Uh. Tav high. So so yes, a bunch of people. Uh, exactly.

Good. Awesome. I Really like this. A bunch of people in the chat are answering this all in different ways.

So good on you guys. So the reason why I wasn't brazing with nitrogen was it wasn't even a pumped down system. I had isolated the compressor. Well, it wasn't pumped down at first.

Okay, but I isolated the compressor by valving off the high side and the low side and only having to recover the refrigerant in that small little section of the compressor. So I had no flow. There was nowhere for the nitrogen to go unless the perfect situation where we had one piston right at the right level to where something was still escaping through there. and I don't even think that's even possible because the refrigerant is not necessarily going to flow through the compressor.

Okay, because it's a valve system. So with that being said, the nitrogen would have just made my braised joints pop out and they wouldn't have went all the way through now. later in the video when I went and changed the filter dryer I pumped down the system I stopped the flow coming out of the receiver, let the compressor run, the refrigerant backed up in the condenser in the receiver. But then everything coming out of the condenser didn't have refrigerant anymore.

So I opened it up, brazed in a new liquid line dryer, pulled an evacuation, and uh, started it back up. But why didn't I braise with nitrogen? then? Well, here's the deal. Okay, there's sometimes that I have to make a decision based off of my experience and things that I have run into. Okay, it's not.

Doesn't mean that this is how everybody else has to do this. In my experience, when you have a system that is pumped down, it's not a good idea to introduce nitrogen into that, even if it's a pumped downside. Okay, uh, you have you run the risk of over pressurizing the system. and if you over pressurize the system, nothing in that system is leak free.

So you're assuming that the valve in the compressor and the valve on the receiver are holding the refrigerant back. But what happens if something slightly leaks? Okay, or what happens if your nitrogen pressure exceeds what's in the system already when it's pumped down? Then you have the potential of pushing nitrogen into that refrigerant. And I do know some people that have some actually actually Rick from Hvacr survival I'm pretty sure he has it on a video somewhere where he ran into this problem where he was pressure testing something. if I remember right with nitrogen while it was pumped down and it actually pushed the nitrogen into the system and it ended up having to change all the refrigerant.

If I remember right, it was a whole ordeal that he ran into. So it's just. you have to think about it. You can't just put nitrogen on there and assume it's going to go where it's supposed to go.

Okay, now if I was to install Taps then you know have some sort of pressure relief. Yeah, you could do it that way. So um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Ah, exactly.

People wouldn't trust the valves. Things still leak through exactly exactly exactly. Okay, so nothing against the person that asked. It's just it was a great question.

So um, let's see. So I had a question on how to set a pressure control when you have all these different refrigerants. Okay, so first and foremost, when you are setting low pressure controls and high pressure controls, you want to look at a couple different variables. A very, very important probably.

One of the most important ones is you want to look at the compressor, manufacturer's installation and operation manuals. Okay, if you didn't know this, Copeland Emerson Copeland right has um, a a lot of good information and a lot of good apps. And they have their AE Tech bulletins. And if you're working on a particular compressor, there is going to be a tech bulletin for that compressor that you can look up and it's going to have all kinds of valuable information on how that compressor is supposed to operate and what the operating envelope is.

Okay, um, and it's It's really cool because it gives you information like what's the lowest pressure control setting, cut out setting, what's the highest cutout setting on a high pressure safety and it's in the compressor manufacturer's information. so that's one of the most important things you want to take into play. Okay, just look up Uh Copeland Mobile Copeland AE bulletins. And and guys, you know, when these manufacturers like Spore Berlin they have Sporland 90-30-1 and Copeland AE Bulletin 1294.2 Whatever, it is right.

Majority of the time, if you just go to the internet and say Copeland uh CR compressor document, you know just just a vague term. boom, it'll come up too. so you don't need to know the numbers all the time. Okay, but look at the compressor manufacturer.

The next thing you really, really want to pay attention to is what conditions your equipment's operating in. What's the ambient temperature outside? Because if the ambient temperature is too low, the refrigerant is going to react to the ambient temperature when it's pumped down. Right? So the refrigerant's sitting up at the condensing unit, pump down and the ambient temperatures? Negative 15 degrees Fahrenheit Okay, and you're working with whatever refrigerant you have. So look at negative 15 on whatever refrigerant and you're going to notice that the pressure is a lot lower.

So that means the pressure differential when that liquid line solenoid valve opens up is going to be really low. and sometimes the ambient temperature outside can affect the refrigerant and cool it down so much that it won't be driven through the system to turn on the low pressure control because you have the setting too high. Okay, so you need to understand the conditions you're installing the pressure control in and how you're setting it. Uh, you know on old old like Legacy systems uh and I actually used to work on these.

We used to work on systems that didn't have temperature controllers and they were just operated off of the pressure control and it would use the pressure temperature chart and you would look at all these different conditions and you would set the pressure control to maintain the temperature in the Box because it was just an on off system. Okay, so you just have to understand how pressure controls work and you have to understand the outdoor ambient environment and look at the compressor manufacturer and look at their Tech data. Okay, it's very important and that'll tell you how to set those pressure controls. 100.

Okay, all right Um, looking through the chat, let's see why. go with the heat pump for heat when it's only capable of 20 degree TD but a natural gas produces 120 degree Fahrenheit Output temp. Well Dale let's look at it like this. The bottom line as to why we're why willingly or not we are going to electrification is because right now the the research that the people that are making these decisions is telling them that the you know the the the pollution you know basically is worse than you know.

Uh so we're having to change things because of you know the the emissions and different things right? So you know that part. Okay, but why is it that people are going with the heat pump? Okay, well Dale One thing to understand is heat pumps are becoming more and more efficient these days. Okay, and you know the old thing saying that the heat pump couldn't work in an ambient below 20 degrees? Well, that's not necessarily the case anymore because when you have a lot of these super high-end inverter driven uh systems, they can operate in much colder Ambience and still pull heat out of the air right? because there's heat. Uh, well anyways, but yeah, that's I Was gonna try to explain something else, but I don't think I can properly explain that.

So um, all right I'm reading through the chat right. now. compared to the enthalpy chart and the compressor docs, that's exactly right. Um, hello to everybody.

look at that. Ryan Hughes was in here right now from. Houston HVAC Channel What's up Bud? Jason Johnson All kinds of great people in here. Um John Harrell says bad.

Building science is where we need to start. Oh yeah, I agree. I Do agree. You know, um, the whole building science of this industry.

that side is completely. It's just now getting popular. It's in it. But it's been one of the the most messed up parts about the industry for so many years, right? But now we're just starting to pay attention to it.

and it's not even popular yet. It's just starting to make waves where people are really starting to understand that you know you can control things better. My house. Okay, I will tell you guys right now that I live in an 1850 square foot home in Southern California with a design low temperature of 32 degrees and a uh design high temperature I think of 95 ambient which it gets much hotter than that.

but I have a four ton hundred thousand BTU furnace on my house with a four ton cooling package. Okay, both of those are ridiculously oversized cooling and heating. Okay, and and this is typical in California This is the you know the building science side of this right. Looking at the structure and realizing that people were oversizing equipment and it was super leaky and then now we're trying to solve these leaks and we're realizing how much that can affect people's health and how it can better them and all this different stuff.

So um I think the building science side is really fun and I am fortunate enough to have some really really cool friends in the building science community. So I'm getting some really cool education right now. So um, it's awesome. All right, let's see what else.

All right. Cool that lots of great commenters and stuff going in it right now. Guys, please please please smash the thumbs up button I think YouTube alone I'm looking at 141 viewers and only 77 likes. Smash That! Get that number up there guys.

Thank you very much. Same with all the other social media platforms too. Okay, um so Nick that was a great question about the pressure controls. Okay, Nick also had another really good question and I liked this one because these are fun ones because I've been in these weird struggles before myself too.

So um uh uh again yeah I hope you didn't mind I said your name there Nick my bad, yeah don't you know I said I wasn't gonna say his name and then I did say his name but I don't think it was a bad question I think that was a great question. but so anyways Nick was asking: how do you determine if a receiver is too small when you're pumping down a refrigeration system? So again, you have a refrigeration system. You close the king valve on the the king valve is only on the receiver, guys on the outlet of the receiver, the queen valves on the inlet of the receiver. Okay, so don't ask me why I know that crap I don't know.

But anyways, when you close the king valve down, you're going to back the refrigerant up in the receiver and the condenser. but you still have to have room for that refrigerant to expand within that condenser. Okay, and um, uh. so when you're pumping it down and it's taken a long time to pump down, okay, and I'll give you guys some more key phrases in here.

Okay, but when it's taking a long time to pump down, he's wondering, how does he know if the receiver is just too small? Like what? How's how's he going to know if there's enough storage space in that system Because he's curious why it's taking so long to pump down. So one of the key things I'm going to tell you guys right now is is a very common popular thing that I see in the restaurants he's working at a restaurant. Okay, when you tell me that you have a refrigeration system at a restaurant and it's on reaching coolers, that's a dead giveaway for something okay reaching cooler condensed units when they're remoted to the roof. Oftentimes I'd say 99 of the time the receivers are never big enough because the manufacturers they're buying off the shelf Refrigeration equipment at these restaurants majority of the time when they do these remote setups.

Okay, I've worked with some really big Nationwide chains that had like Cookie Cutter restaurants and they'd have a design person just spec a condensing unit but he didn't know where it was going to be installed majority of the time. when you have smaller tonnage like one horsepower and below the condensing unit size. Um, oftentimes the receivers are only for like a 10 15 foot, uh, length? they're only size for that. So when you run line sets 50 to 75 feet across the building, there's never enough room to properly pump that system down.

So number one restaurants and reaching coolers always assume it's undersized and do your research. But the next most important thing that you need to know about a system that's taken a long time to pump down? Okay, first off, you should do some sort of a compressor check. Using like Copeland's mobile app, you can input the compressor data, the specs, the amps that it's running, the voltage that it's actually being delivered to it, and it'll tell you when or that whether or not that compressor is operating within its operating envelope. Okay, so that's one good way.

Next thing though is you need to have a service port or service hose for your gauges connected on the high side of the system, but you you should have it on the discharge line. Best case scenario: when you're pumping a refrigeration system down, you have your low side hose on the suction service valve and you have your high side hose on the discharge line, not the liquid line receiver. Okay, that's the best case scenario, but it doesn't always work that way because sometimes you don't have a high side service port on the discharge line. but if you do, you should always be connected there because you're going to have a significant um, uh, difference.

or I'm sorry. sometimes it won't sense the high side pressure. so uh, when you have it connected on the receiver, you won't get an accurate high side and you might get a liquid line side going out of the receiver so you can't really see. You really need to see high side and low side when the system's operating and if it's taking a long time to pump down, you should be reflected in your high side if it's overcharged.

Okay, so that's something to think about. but do your research and that is a great question Bud. So hopefully I answered it. I know I went off on a tangent there.

Um, see what else? Um, have you ever set off the fire alarm on accidents MF Farms I was working in a shopping mall I Can say this because this place I don't even think it exists anymore, but I was working out of Gameworks You know the giant mega arcade two-story arcade in a uh shopping mall? I was working at one that used to be at the Ontario Mills and um Mall in Southern California and uh they were. They had their on-site Engineers that fixed everything at Gameworks right but they would call us in for the difficult things. So I get there and they're like yeah, this this smoke detector something I think it was giving them a trouble signal or something like that and this is when I learned my lesson. Don't ever touch a smoke detector in a shopping mall.

Okay, just just don't touch them. just don't All right? So I went up there and I went to go pull the cover off the smoke detector and it set off the tamper sensor and the smoke detector. But the way that they had this wired up was the tamper sensor set off the fire alarm right? Because it's shopping mall in the public, they won't. You know, whatever, they don't.

They want to know if the smoke detectors are working. but when it set off the fire alarm in the shopping mall, it turned on the emergency evacuation fans and half of the shopping mall. So we're talking 15 of these giant exhaust fans that are supposed to be sucking all the air out of the building turn on right and I'm like and and the alarms are going off and Mall Securities running over and I'm standing there holding the cover to the smoke detector on a 16-foot ladder going what the heck is going on like So yeah. I've set off fire alarms before I've been on the roof before I Kid you not at a shopping mall I was just working my way working on a roof I don't remember what restaurant that was and uh I'm just working on the ACs and next thing you know I kid you not, a hook and ladder truck comes up over the side of the building and there's a firefighter right there and they have again shopping malls and smoke detectors.

I'm telling you they're a nightmare. This particular smoke detector. This was a new building that I had taken over and when I turned off the AC they had it wired in a way Again, it sent a trouble signal and then that set off the fire alarm. It was like oh my gosh man.

But I actually enjoy working on Duck detectors and smoke detectors. But when you're in shopping malls, you need to make sure that everything is disarmed. You need to call the location. Security Department You need to go to the mall security.

I mean oh my gosh, just just cover your bases when you're working on malls and smoke detectors. All right. Um, let's see what else. Uh, that's funny.

Look at that. uh John Harrell says that happened to him at a Kmart in Jersey that's awesome man. I mean it's you know, after the fact, we can laugh about it in the moment. It's one of the most stressful things you ever go through.

But in the end, yeah, it's awesome for sure. So um yeah, uh Tony is saying obviously it was not wired correctly. that should have been a trouble alarm. 100 should have been a trouble alarm.

Uh I'm gonna tell you something. majority of the I've I've literally I do a lot of I mean all the work I do as restaurants right and I work on a lot of duck detectors. They used to confuse the heck out of me and I finally just figured them out because it just it drove me nuts. Nobody at my company at the time could figure him out and it was just.

they were so confusing. and then finally I dove into them and then I learned way too much. Okay so I do a lot of smoke detector work and I have been to countless restaurants that had been open for five to seven years and for whatever reason I I literally had this happen at multiple locations. Okay where I go in there and they're like smoke alarms going off and I go up there and I go to reset it and the smoke detector won't reset.

None of them will reset and you're like what's going on. The systems were all wired wrong like I don't understand From day one, they were wired at these restaurants to where they would never go off or like it was just a disaster and I have rewired buildings that were five to seven years in operation and knowing that the smoke detectors had never, ever worked there. One time I was at a local restaurant chain and I was working there and oftentimes I've worked on them so much that I get used to them right? So majority of the time I will have the customer call out their fire alarm company right or the Burglar Alarm Company and have their technicians come on site when I'm doing big jobs with smoke detectors and I came across one where I met the guy on the site he helped me or I wired it all in. He tested everything, everything was working fine right? I had to go back out there because there ended up being a problem and when I went back out there they sent out another service tech.

okay and this service tech is way too vocal with me and we're talking and he's telling me he goes, what the hell is going on here my stuff was A-Okay the alarm Tech had bypassed the alarm system by using resistors on the wrong end because the end of line resistors that we use they're in smoke detectors. those are what signal trouble conditions and and let you know if it's a fire alarm or a trouble alarm right? So you put resistors across certain terminals. Um, he put resistors on the alarm side. So the loop that was going out to my panels was being ignored because the resistor at the panel was in the way like oh my gosh.

I've had so many different things. so many systems out there wired by technicians, wired by alarm companies that were all completely wrong. Now to be fair, okay, I was one of those people now I've never went to those extents, but when I didn't understand how smoke detectors work before, I figured them out I made some mistakes and I made incorrect wiring and I messed things up and I learned from it. Okay, so I'm not trying to say that I've never made those mistakes, but I've come across a lot of them.

Which makes me realize that and I I Realized this a long time ago that a good majority of our trade, myself included was thrown out into the industry way too fast and wasn't trained properly. Okay, I wasn't trained properly I learned through a lot of rough mistakes that I can promise you restaurants and customers these days wouldn't accept and would fire your company for. I came up in a forgiving time when I could make those mistakes. The industry isn't very forgiving anymore, so we have to be better technicians and we have to better ourselves and understand the equipment we're installing.

Uh, that's a duty of us as technicians, you know, even if our companies are sending us out there, we need to be able to be vocal and say I don't understand how to work on this and you know I don't feel comfortable and don't get in over your head kind of stuff. So all right, let's see what else. um I'm I plan on uh Ryan uh is saying that he enjoyed the videos I made on smoke detectors I really do like the smoke detector ones I'm actually gonna um I've been wanting to get back into the training board stuff and uh I'm gonna make a training board for that whole uh exhaust wiring system that I talked about the beginning of the stream. So I'm I finished a project the last week where I was working on it for like four days where I was rewiring an entire smart Hood system at a restaurant and I finished that up now I didn't make a video but um, because of various reasons at the location.

but I want to make a training board and do more training materials on exhaust systems and proper shutdown sequences and why we might turn on the exhaust fans or turn off the exhaust fans when there's a fire. um I'd love to get into that a little bit more too, so stay tuned. we'll do more of it. Um, all right.

uh. Coffee Reek is saying that it happens on the industrial side too. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of people that have just figured it out. Um, let's see.

Tony Saying that he once had an electrical contractor run rigid pipe to a Liebert unit for an internal smoke head, but he installed the Ridgid through the access panel of the unit when they could not be accessed. That is ridiculous. Tony I Have seen some stuff like that. maybe not that bad, but I've seen some crazy stuff where people were just plain lazy.

I've seen compressors mounted outside of the unit, literally piped in, sitting next to the unit because someone didn't want to lift the compressor in the unit. I've seen that before. I've seen some crazy stuff, but yeah, that's nuts man. Uh, let's see when's the next podcast.

John uh actually in talks right now with uh, manufacturer about doing some cool stuff and uh, so stay tuned. Uh, the podcast. Um, I mean I've kind of talked about it. Not a lot, but I've officially launched a podcast.

there's only one episode on. Actually, there's three episodes on right now. I uploaded some, uh, some video footage on there. that's just audio from it too.

But um, if you search Hvacr podcast on any of the podcast platforms, any of the major ones, you're gonna find me I'm on Apple All those ones, right? Uh, myself? I'm gonna have friends on there too. but Bill Russell is going to be a pretty permanent co-host uh, on the podcast and we're in talks with a really cool manufacturer that's going to be a good guest on there. We're not going to reveal anything yet, but stay tuned. Check out the podcast, Go subscribe.

There'll be more footage or more content coming up on there too soon. So um, all right, let's see. uh. In my recent video, I released a shorter video about uh, fixing the floor on a walk-in freezer and uh, someone had made a good comment um in the video when I was sealing up the threshold, I sealed all corners of the threshold so that way there was no potential air Escape From The Box um or from the floor and the person had mentioned that you know when the Box temperature drops you know or Rises that there might be air pockets underneath that metal that would lift it up I Agree, That is a good point and a good thing to think about.

I Honestly don't though in that situation. I don't think that was airtight enough. Uh, even though I put silicone everywhere I Honestly don't believe that that threshold was completely touching all the silicone. Um, so I I agree though that that was a good point to bring up.

So um, drink this real quick. All right? Um David youtubing uh I I don't have venmo so I don't think I do I have no idea how to dude I'm an idiot when it comes to Social Media stuff as far as um, the channel goes, Uh, for those that want to support the channel, if you're interested in doing so, the easiest way to support the channel is watch the videos. Just trust me, just watch the videos. Okay, um, but uh, if there's other ways you can support the channel, you can become a YouTube channel member.

You can donate via Patreon. Um, there's PayPal on there a couple different ways that you can donate to the channel. So if you go to my website hvacrvideos.com there's all the information on my website. There's also uh, merch that's available on the website and also in almost any one of my videos in the show Notes: there's links to all that stuff.

So, but again, the easiest way to support the channel is just watch the videos. So all right, uh, why would an evaporator superheat go from 12 to zero? like it's flooding on a walk-in cooler TXV at 37 degree box temp when the charge is good? Uh, well. there's a couple different things that can be going on. First off, when you say the superheat could go from 12 to zero? okay, is that something that's happening all the time? Is it back and forth? Because we might call that a hunting expansion valve? Um, that can happen when the valve is not sized correctly.

That's a very common symptom of a valve that is not sized correctly. Where it can be hunting, it can also be a bad valve. Okay, but there's a lot of different variables into that one. so I would look into that valve, make sure it's sized right, make sure the sensing bulbs in the right place.

Um, and uh, go from there. All right. let me see what else. How is it that I communicate to my customers uh that you know I have to do multiple things.

So this is a great question. The person was asking me like hey, my recent video where I had a compressor replacement and I changed the compressor but then I had to change a sensor. Okay, so his question is, how is it that my customers don't think I'm trying to rip them off like I told them it was a compressor and then now I need to change something else after the compressor? What the heck you know? Okay, first and foremost, uh, I never give definite answers like uh, definite scenarios or solutions to a problem right? I never tell a customer that all I need to do is change this compressor and then it's going to be fine I don't say that. Okay, the way that I approach a customer when I give an estimate or let them know what I need to order is: I say look, here's the problem: This unit has a bad compressor I have no idea what made that compressor go bad and then I educate them.

Compressors don't go bad on their own. Okay, compressors don't go about in 10 years. They don't go bad in 15 years just because. Okay, now there's always a small percentage now.

I'm telling you the viewers this: there's always a small percentage of a compressor that you might have a failure, but the odds are it's not going to go bad on its own. Okay, so when I tell my customer that it has a bad compressor I say we need to change the compressor and then we're going to further investigate and figure out why the compressor went bad. Okay, so that's one way. The next thing is I'm not interested in work talking for a customer that will not let me fix something you know within reason the right way.

Okay I don't want to work for someone who's going to nickel and die me and I don't want to work for someone who doesn't want me to do things right because in the end it's going to come back to bite me in the butt. So I try my best to work for customers that understand and appreciate the fact that we're going to fix it right? Okay, within reason I understand money and costs and different things. So um, but uh, how do I So I let them know ahead of time I Don't just tell them like hey, it's a bad compressor I say we have to change the compressor and then we'll figure out. You know, So dig through it.

Uh, have I ever put a wiring panel on and the screw shorts that out? MF Farms that's a good question. Bud Uh, so the question is have I ever put a wiring panel on and the screw shorts it out? Um, yeah, yeah, I've done it. I've done electrical boxes trying to screw an electrical box that was over stuffed full of wires and trying to put it back and something buzzes out or something like that. Yeah, I've had that happen.

But I do have a really good funny story. Funny because nobody got hurt, but serious because someone could have died. Okay. but in the in the end it was funny to laugh about it because nobody had gotten hurt.

Okay, understand that. So I got called out to a restaurant. uh for uh, exhaust fan not working in the middle of the night. We need you now like my kitchen's filling up with smoke.

Then as I'm driving there heading to there right? because middle of the night I'm 24 hour call right? So I heading out there because they had to. you know they were gonna have to shut down kind of thing and that didn't happen back then. So as I'm driving out there they called me back and they said now my, my walk-in's not working, my walk-in cooler is not working and then now another exhaust fan is not working and I'm like damn what's happening you know, all right. So I'm heading out there takes me about an hour and a half to get there.

I Get there I get on site and I'm I'm walking around and I'm I don't I have single phase power at my three-phase exhaust fans. Like what's going on here, you know I'm missing a league of power. so I'm tracing back and I'm a little bit more involved in things probably, so be cautious. Don't be doing things that I do just because you see it in my videos.

Make sure that your company is okay with what you do. Okay, so I go beyond my stuff and I investigate a little deeper, right? So I realize that I don't have three phase at my exhaust fan. so I go down to the electrical panel I pull the electrical panel apart where the power comes from and the breaker's at and I don't have three phase at the breaker. Okay, so then I go to the bus bars and I don't have three phase at the bus bars I'm missing a leg, you know I didn't notice anything yet though when I had opened the breaker panel so put the breaker panel back together, go outside to the mains and I test power at the mains and I have three phase.