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. foreign thank you Foreign foreign. What is up everybody? I am alive I am back from Ahr. What a exhausting trip that was.

I had a good time but it was exhausting. So I just recently got back from uh Ahr which is a industry trade show they do. uh this year it rotates around but this year it was in Atlanta I flew out the Friday before I Originally my family was supposed to go with me I booked my trip like six months ago my family was supposed to go. Long story short, we got a puppy in between so that didn't work out so family stayed home.

but I kept the plans because I knew I needed a little time to kind of like get used to things there because I I get kind of crazy when I have a lot of scheduled things going on and stuff. So I like my time to kind of get used to everything. So I got to Atlanta on Friday hung out, just relaxed, walked all around downtown Atlanta on Saturday at least the convention center area you know. walked all through there, checked everything out, got my bearings, figured everything out and then Saturday was really cool because I got to meet up with a good friend of mine Pat Finley from Commercial kitchen Chronicles who I believe was in here earlier.

Um so I got to hang out, have dinner with Pat and his wife on Saturday so that was cool and then Sunday we had the HVAC Tactical Awards uh, that was put on by Mr Ben Poole He has a bunch of sponsors that helped him out with the event, but it's a really cool thing he does where he honors the technician so he has all these different categories. He has a space on his website HVAC Tactical.com and you go on there and you nominate people. So it was really cool too because um Ben had me present the award that I won last year which was best social content. So I went up on stage, read a little speech, watched a video, and I was very surprised to see my good friend Pat Finley pop up on the video of three nominees and then when I opened up the envelope, it was really awesome because I got to call out Pat Finley's name so that was really cool.

Um, it was a fun event, got to meet a lot of great people and then Monday started the Ahr trade show and then the chaos ensued. Monday Tuesday Wednesday All kinds of stuff going on. It was a lot of fun, a lot of fun. Got to meet a ton of amazing people, Got to have some really awesome conversations that was so cool.

Got to sit down um I Parked at the Parker spoiling booth for a good amount of time I did like three hours a day there but it was really cool because it was like a central meeting place so everybody could come check out the show. I Gotta be honest with you though, like I honestly didn't even really get to see the show I walked the show for like two hours on Tuesday and that was about it. like I really didn't get to see the entire show. it always happens that way that I originally planned for nothing on Wednesday and then of course my schedule just got filled up.

uh I was asked to be on a influencer panel. that was really cool. So I haven't gotten the footage yet I'm waiting for um Nicole from Ahr Nicole's Awesome by the way, she's the Press coordinator I believe and she kind of coordinates all the chaos from all the influencers and the Press people and stuff. but yeah, I'm waiting on Nicole to get me the footage hopefully and once she gets me the footage, I'll be able to put like a little bit of that up on YouTube I'm hoping.

but we did this big panel. None of us knew what to expect. It was a bunch of social media influencers from a couple people from there. was like two of us from YouTube There was a bunch of people from Instagram um Tick Tock a few other social media platforms and it was really cool though because uh Ben Poole was the moderator and he just kind of came out there and started it off with a few questions asking us to introduce ourselves and then we started taking questions from the audience and again I didn't know anything what I was walking into so we had a mix an Eclectic mix of questions from the audience and it turned out to be really really neat.

and uh I'm going to cover one of the things that I covered. You know it's funny how sometimes someone will ask me a question and I'll come up with an answer because I I'm I don't really plan things out like it just comes out of my brain and then when I hear myself say it I'm like that's really good, you know and it's like I need to talk about that a little bit more often. So I'm going to talk about that in a few minutes. but stay tuned I'm also I I'm super busy right now with like videos and things like that but I'm going to be um hopefully putting something together like a recap video for Ahr once.

I get that footage from Nicole bush from Ahr I'll I'll try to put it together and then you know we'll figure all that stuff out. So hello to everybody that's in the chat right now. Um, let's see. Mike B says it's hard to see that show in two hours.

It took him two and a half days exactly. There's no way you can honestly see the Ahr trade show in in two hours. It's just not possible. Uh I've been three or four times now and I've never once fully seen the entire show and every time I watch someone else's recap video I realized dang it.

I didn't go to that Booth or Ding and I didn't see that. That's just how the Ahr trade show goes, but it is an awesome event and I encourage everyone of you to attempt to go at some point next year is going to be in. Chicago Uh, definitely planning on being there and then it'll rotate back to Orlando and then back to Vegas Now Vegas that one's going to be awesome, just like they're all going to be awesome. but Vegas is awesome because it's only like three and a half four hours from my house.

So I just drive to that one. That one's super nice. Um, but yeah, lots of great people in the chat. Lots of regulars.

I See in here this is awesome. Um I will direct the attention really quick uh Jason Johnson Posted a link in the chat earlier to a Michigan heating guy posted something on his channel and I know he didn't want to post it but um, one of his children is going through cancer treatment. It was a really interesting, really sad story and I encourage you guys to go check out that link that Jason posted. um he you can post it again Jason it's to a Facebook article.

You guys check it out. Um, you know, give them some support even if it's just a comment or a thumbs up or something like that. Just let them know you guys are checking that out. So um, let's see what else.

Uh, all right as Ike says right now, hit the thumbs up. and uh, don't forget to join the Discord community did you? Uh, okay, yeah, Ike's asking me about computer things. um Ike helps me out with some of the computer stuff. Uh, he helped me build my computer and I was asking him some questions because I'm running out of space so uh, my hard drives are filling up for sure and uh, it's funny how fast those things fill up.

but I I think it? it might have happened faster than we anticipated because we did some rough calculations when we were calculating how many videos I was doing a week. We're like, yeah, these things are going to fill up like that and I think it even happened a little bit faster. but but anyways. Uh, definitely, if you guys are interested in joining the Discord server, shoot me an email.

That's the best way I can shoot you over a link through email. You guys are welcome to join if you want. uh Ike runs the Discord server so let's see. if you guys have questions or anything you want to talk about, make sure you put them in caps lock.

I'll try to get to them Okay as usual. I got a whole list of things on this little screen in front of me right here that I want to talk about and then of course I want to get to your guys's comments and questions. So um, let me see what else we got going on in here. Uh, how did I get into this business and when did I start? So I got into the trade as a young kid working for my father.

actually I grew up working for him holding his flashlight I had to learn how to, uh, work with my dad. That was an interesting Dynamic that I've had to navigate over the last 40 years dang near. But yeah, I worked with my dad ever since I was a little kid coming to work with him I mean in elementary school they would. My parents would do like the divorce swap because my parents were divorced so my dad would pick me up when he was out working and then take me home to his house.

so it's just how it would be so he'd pick me up, you know and I'd go to work with them for a couple calls and then we'd go home and then I'd spend the weekend with him, then he'd take me back home. But I officially started working for him and in 2002 and then shortly after that, we partnered together. um and here I am now running this so I just have always had this in my blood. Ironically, when I was in junior high school I told my dad I didn't want to do this and I hated it because it was too hot and all he would ever do was have me when I got older, go up onto the roof and change filters and belts and evaporative cooler pads or swamp cooler pads and all that stuff.

and I hated it because it was just hot. But once I really got into the troubleshooting aspect of it, I really started to enjoy it and I absolutely love it now. So uh, everybody's hiring. Where am I located? Um, let me see I am located in Southern California I Don't know if that question was for me.

Uh, everything Hvacr it's Steve right? I believe is your name Everything hvacr I'm pretty sure it's Steve Um, but uh, I am located in Southern California the Inland Empire of Southern California specifically Riverside California is where I'm located. but I don't know if that question was direct directed to me or not. So uh, let me see what else we got going on here. Yeah, if anybody is looking for a job and you're in my area of Southern California the Inland Empire Feel free to shoot me an email Hvacrvideos Gmail.com I have not hired anybody yet I put out a post about a month or so ago saying I was hiring and uh, we did not pick anybody up from that post.

So uh, feel free to shoot me an email again. Hvacrvideos Gmail.com I'd love to look over your resume. So um Alexander Figueroa yeah, I did see that Alexander won a press tool uh from the RLS booth at Ahr. That was really cool.

Yeah, that was one thing that a lot of booths did was they had events and contests. uh to get people over to their booths and I Gotta tell you some of them, it really paid off because every time I'd go buy certain boots, man, there'd be a line around, you know, a couple booths behind it of people waiting in line to enter a giveaway or win a contest or spin a wheel or whatever it may be. So that was kind of fun. Uh, it was pretty neat.

A lot of these manufacturers are really jumping on board. Um, let's get into this a little bit. So when I was at the Ahr trade show the last day of the show, Wednesday I was invited to be on a panel of other social media creators and amongst all the questions that were asked, one of them was an interesting one and I think I kind of took an interesting uh angle on this question and really went went at it and uh I kind of wanted to recap that a little bit so paraphrasing the question. The topic: we were talking about manufacturers and we were talking about how manufacturers it was.

A manufacturer's representative was sitting in the audience and asked a question. you know, how as a manufacturer can we be better? How can we utilize social media to help the manufacturers grow right? So that was the manufacturer asking the question and then someone answered something really quick. but then I kind of went off on a tangent and I had to apologize a little bit because I didn't mean to just ridicule that one particular person that I asked the question but I was speaking to manufacturers as a whole to paraphrase my answer. One of the main things that I said that manufacturers can do better is to understand their customers okay manufacturers and the technicians us that are fixing their equipment.

Okay manufacturers as a whole do not do a good job. Now there's a few that do a good job. but manufacturers as a whole do not do a good job educating the technicians and speaking to the technicians in a way that the technician can understand them. Okay, so I'm talking to you manufacturers right now.

You guys do not do a good job of getting your information. Sometimes we have to struggle to find information and I'm not going to name names right now, but there's some manufacturers out there that you have to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to get any of their literature from them and it's ridiculous. Okay, then on top of that, when they do release their literature and their training materials, a good majority of you manufacturers make it illegible. We can't even understand it.

It's written in like engineer speak and there's nothing wrong with Engineers. It's just that they speak on a different level from a normal blue collar worker. a guy that just works in the trenches. Okay, so as a manufacturer, what I'm telling you is you guys are not doing a good job because and I can insert name of any manufacturer of the equipment that I work on in my videos.

People regularly reach out to me through email, through text message, through direct message on Instagram asking me for troubleshooting help on the type of equipment that I work on all the time. And why is it that they're asking me? I'm just a normal service technician who happened to pick up a camera and started talking to it. but why are they asking me and why are you guys not asking the manufacturers and I guess I shouldn't say that I should be talking to the manufacturers, but why is it that the technicians are asking me? they shouldn't be? The technician should be asking the manufacturer's technical support department. But unfortunately the technical support department.

is not paid enough, right? They hire people that don't know what they're doing, some of them and and I understand. there's exceptions here and there, but a good majority of the manufacturers they all have this problem where they don't speak normal technician talk right. You call them and you say Hey You know when you start having a conversation and oftentimes you can hear the guy on the other end of the phone. the tech support guy.

his eyes roll back in his head because he doesn't know what you're asking them. You know you're going off on a thing and I get it? I Get it, You know? I Have to put myself in the perspective of the technical support guy too. They have a long day. they're asking a lot of repetitive questions.

Sure they are, but at the same time I'm not attacking the individual tech support rep. I'm saying this to the manufacturer. You guys are not doing a good job of educating us the technicians in a way that we can understand. You guys are not doing a good job of you know, programming and setting up your equipment that way.

It's user friendly when we as a technician come out here to work on it. Okay, in my honest opinion, every manufacturer that makes a new piece of equipment today that has a circuit board in it should have some sort of capability to connect to a smartphone. There's no reason why every residential air conditioning manufacturer should not have a wireless connection Port that can connect via Bluetooth to my smartphone. There's absolutely no reason the customer should not have to pay extra for that, and the same goes for every Refrigeration manufacturer out there too.

Every single one of your pieces of equipment, whether or not the customer wants them connected to the internet, should still have bluetooth capability. So that way we should be able to pull things up on our phone. In this day and age when we have sensors, circuit boards, and all this fancy stuff, give us a little bit of the fancy too when we are. the technicians working on your stuff, right? It makes us appreciate your equipment and be able to operate and fix it better and faster if you guys make it easier for us.

So shame on you manufacturers that are not doing a good job of making your equipment user friendly for the technician and shame on you for not making your equipment Bluetooth connective right? Because there's no reason why every single one of you manufacturers should not have some sort of Bluetooth connectivity and we shouldn't be having to pay a crap ton of money to do that because if US service companies and US technicians are having to pay a bunch of money to download your software or to get a license for your software, you're only hurting yourself. You really are okay and there's one not going to name a major air conditioning manufacturer. that's the worst at releasing information. And they're one of the biggest out there and they are the worst at releasing the information.

It is so hard to get you. you dang near have to be one of their own service technicians to get the software to be able to access their equipment to be able to go through it. And it's ridiculous of Okay, so shame on you manufacturers for not making it easier. But to answer the person's question, the manufacturers need to do a better job now.

While I'm off on a rant right now and just complaining and arguing, the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to say something about the supply distribution people, right? The supply houses. Okay. As a supply house owner, operator, manager, whatever, you guys are killing your own supply houses, you guys are making them disappear. Okay, The internet is replacing your supply houses and the supply house managers owners.

all those people are the ones responsible for it. Because supply houses in general right? They sell to the contractor. Okay. But when I walk into a supply house and I walk into some of the biggest ones and I and I frequent them often, they don't have what I want, they sell me what they want to sell me.

Okay, when I walk into a supply house and I want to buy a specific product majority of the time they don't have it. They have what their manufacturers Representatives push. Okay, so a lot of the supply houses The way that it works is they have a manufacturer's representative and that rep reps several different manufacturers, right? He might rep 10 15 different manufacturers and he's good friends with the supply house owner or so be it manager. whatever.

and they make a handshake deal and all of a sudden all those products come into the supply house. and then oftentimes those reps make uh, rules in in agreements that that particular supply house won't bring in any of their competitors products. Okay, so they only have their products out there and that's what's killing the local supply House. You guys are not doing a good job.

As far as the manufacturers that are selling to the supply houses, you guys are not doing a good job too because you guys require these supply houses to purchase purchase in such large quantities that it makes it impossible for them to bring in one item of something that you sell. So let's just say for instance that I want to go to the supply house and I want to buy this new tool that just came out well. if they don't already have agreements and in a rep that already brings them that product, then that supply house usually has to buy in a certain quantity to be able to get. So let's just say I want to buy one of these digital manifolds? Well, they might have to buy X number of them to be able to get the good pricing right.

and that's the thing that sucks. Okay, and that's what's pushing us to online retailers because online retailers typically have a good majority of what I want because I can go online and I can say hey, I want to buy that product because you guys have it the the local supply houses. They don't do a good job of that. So local supply houses you guys need to change things up too.

or you're going to get pushed out the door by the online supply houses because the online supply houses are doing a pretty darn good job. All right. Rant over on that one. So apologize if I took up all your guys's time.

but it is what it is and sometimes I have to say the things that I need to say. So let's see what else we got going on in the chat real quick and see what I'm missing here. Hi Mr Bunch of comments going on All right. Um, should have an open source to interface with equipment a hundred percent.

and also as far as the equipment goes, I was watching an interesting YouTube video I read an article where um, a good majority of these manufacturers. you know they really need to start uh, adopting. you know, um, control strategies that float amongst all the manufacturers. So that way we can really choose the equipment.

I Gotta be honest with you, my home air conditioning system, you know I'm going back and forth between several different equipment manufacturers and I know that I'm kind of messed up in the head, but a good majority of my decisions once I decide that I like the equipment and the reliability. then I start looking at their control system and their thermostat. and if I don't like the way their thermostat works or if it looks like a a foreign like European uh, mini split controller on the wall that just seems really weird and like blocky I have no interest in that. So that pushes out a good majority of the mini split manufacturers that make you know ducted equipment.

because I don't like their control strategy now I Understand that when you deal with some of the manufacturers, they allow you to hook up third-party thermostats, but a good majority of the time if you look into the details. When you hook up a third-party thermostat to a modulating piece of equipment, you lose functionality a good majority of the time. So you know when you when you deal with these high-end name ones. and I'm not really going to name any manufacturers right now, but you know it's just one of those bummers.

so these guys need to do a better job of listening to us. Okay, um, let's see I see some comments in the chat that are making me laugh right now. Um, all right. so let me read through here.

Uh, does true no longer make? OEM Motors as far as I know Mr Green True Manufacturing Still, well they don't make their own Motors but they have an Oem motor that they use for the true uh reaching coolers and reach in freezers for sure. Um, let's see QWERTY Court is saying what software do I use for my text and my billing currently right now I use Intuit Field Service Management um I am I am software shopping I Have been for a while now but I'm very slow to make decisions I've been using Intuit Field Service Management for well over 10 years and I'm in deep with them and A change is going to be big I will say um I have not researched the software yet, but I'm very intrigued by a new software out there called repairs. um again. I'm not endorsing I have not researched a bunch I'm just kind of curious about it.

They've been reaching out to me and we've been trying to set something up to do like a you know where they show me everything or whatever. but I just haven't been able to set it all up yet. But I am very intrigued by the repair software. Um, let's see reading through here.

Um, Chipmunk. my bad if I said European foreign but you know what I mean I Was trying to think of the words and the words weren't coming out of my mouth and all I could think of is European and foreign and I don't know but you know what I'm talking about. You know that blocky thermostat that just looks like you're playing Tetris it doesn't even have any character to it. It doesn't have any color to it.

It's just this weird looking looks like an old Game Boy like I don't I'm not interested in those thermostats. they don't. They're not sexy, they don't look nice. They wouldn't look nice on my wall.

Now if those manufacturers that had the stupid looking thermostats allowed me to have remote room sensors and do multiple remote room sensors, I would consider buying their system, putting the thermostat in my utility closet, and just putting remote sensors all around my house. And if it had a connectivity app to my phone, I would be very interested in one of those. But you know a lot of these manufacturers are really slow to to jump on the bandwagon of this new technology coming out. So um, let me see what else we got going on in here.

Let's see: Jason Johnson says Mitsubishi has the Ae200 central controller. That's pretty dang nice. Yeah, um I I don't know if I can recall what that one looks like or not. I'll have to give it a look.

so uh QWERTY Court says don't use service Titan Well Service Titan really wouldn't fit my business model because I do like commercial refrigeration and air conditioning. We don't do flat rate. we don't do any of that. So my kind of software would have to connect with all the third-party softwares because it seems like every one of my customers has a different software that they use such as um Corrigo uh Eco Track Service Channel Those are all third party softwares that they require me to log into and check in and check out on the job site.

but then I have to have my own software too. So in a perfect world, my software would communicate with all those third-party softwares and I would only have to log into one source as my company. That would be ideal for me. Um, and I believe I I Heard that Rue Pairs is going to have some sort of connectivity with the third party softwares whether or not it's going to have exactly what I need I don't know so we'll have to see.

All right looking through the chat right now. Um, seeing what I'm missing? Yeah, a lot of people are saying a bunch of different ones. Yeah, um, all right breathing through the chat. Okay, seems like HVAC Tactical awards are getting more and more acknowledged by the big corporations.

Uh, Tito Ernesto saying that? Um, yeah, I mean I. You know you have to understand too that the HVAC Tactical Awards that is a movement and it is getting bigger and bigger. It's It's not as big as you all think and you know Ben did have a lot of sponsors, but those sponsors helped to offset the cost. Uh, but those events and the amount of of work that goes into them is insane.

So yeah, but he definitely had a lot of sponsors for the show and and I'm really happy for him because it helps to offset the cost. But I'll tell you that a good majority of these people when they do these events. and I don't know anything about Ben's financial situation when it comes to the event. Ben and I are friends, but we haven't discussed any of this.

Um, I Wouldn't be the least bit surprised if if he's barely breaking even with that event because those things are nuts and the amount of work that goes into those is insane. So uh, hats off to Ben on that one. So and uh, you know the interestingly enough too is I Did hear some pushback I Heard some pushback from several people saying that certain people shouldn't have won awards and that you know other people deserved it more so well. Guess what? everybody was capable of going to HVAC Tactical.com and nominating someone? Okay, all you had to do was go into HVAC Tactical.com find the awards.

There was a nomination form, you'd nominate someone, you'd say what they should win and what they should win for and everybody had the opportunity. So those awards every year, more and more people are going to start nominating people. now. me personally I was very happy with the people that won.

Uh, but you know you, you have to understand the way that those things work and you can't just expect someone to win if you don't nominate them. and if multiple other people don't nominate them. so that's how those awards win or how those Awards work right? All right? Uh, let's see what else we got going on in here. Um, yep.

and HVAC Reefer Guy in here says he was a sponsor and he was proud to do so and Mike Mayberry was there HVAC Reefer Guy again. Yeah, so um, you know that kind of stuff is awesome because it helps people to build those events. you know. same thing like Ben does the HVAC Tactical Awards and and if you guys didn't I went to the first one I went this was the SEC Well this was technically the third one.

The first one was an online awards ceremony, the second one was in person in Vegas and this was the third one and uh, it was an amazing event. It really was I mean you know I told Ben after I said Ben because I I was hanging out with him the next night I said dude I don't know when I went on behind the scenes but I said as a person just sitting in the show it to me it looked like it went Flawless it really did and they did a great job of setting everything up. Um it was awesome and though you know they arranged the tables and they gave plenty of time for everybody to hang out. So definitely want to check out the HVAC Tactical Awards next year and I can promise you this they will sell out and they will sell out fast! Okay this show was sold out and I know there was a waiting list of people trying to get into the show.

so next year you guys need to get on it and get your tickets ASAP as fast as you can. So all right um let's see what watch do I use for calls since you have a Samsung Galaxy watch three John Deere fans. So I just use the Samsung watch and what I do is I get a heavy duty case for it. So currently right now uh you guys have been seeing me where the Samsung Watch 4 classic is I think what I have the names are just ridiculous and then what I did was I bought a protective watch band from sub case s-u-p-c-a-s-e sub case and and basically just snap the watch into that thing, put the band on it looks like I'm wearing a big giant G-Shock watch but it has all the connectivity and capabilities of a smart watch.

now. Um, I did just get the new watch Whatever. but I don't think I'm gonna be wearing it to work I don't know which one this is. This one is a yeah I don't know what it's called but it's the new one that just came out I Literally just got it today.

Um, but uh I don't know that I'm gonna wear that one to work I think I'm gonna use that for personal use and just keep using the Galaxy watch for classic for work I think is what I'm gonna do. So um, all right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Okay, so I want to, uh uh, cover a few things. So I already talked about that.

So Elvis had asked a question as why in my recent video I was working on a glycol. Chiller Okay and he was asking why the glycol was clear and how come they didn't have a die in the glycol? That's a good question. So um, a good majority of the time when excuse me. We typically work with propylene glycol in my sector of the industry.

Propylene glycol is a food grade glycol. Basically, it's not ethylene based, so you're just not going to die if you drink it or consume it. Okay, so propylene glycol it's not means that you can just sit there and drink it although I think you can technically, but it's not good for you, but they put propylene in a lot of different things. but anyways, whole.

Beside the point going off on a tangent. Um, propylene glycol? Good. Majority of the time does have a Dye added to it, so that way it makes it easier to find when there's a leak in the situation. Of my recent video, when I looked into the glycol Reservoir the glycol was clear, the fluid was that was just the beverage company.

Honestly, I don't really change glycol I will add or top off glycol levels. but I let the beverage company take care of that because they're the ones that you know. uh, need certain flow rates through the lines to make sure the heat transfer is happening properly and different things like that. So I typically will work on the refrigeration portion and occasionally change pumps on the glycol, chillers or glycol units.

but as far as running lines or filling up the glycol typically let the beverage company take care of that and it just takes one headache out of my hands. So hopefully that answers your question. Let me cross those ones off my list of things to talk about. Um, uh.

also in that same video, I got a lot of pushback. There was like two or three people in the comments I shouldn't say a lot, but there was two or three people in the comments that were saying that it was just so dumb that there was a mini split in that little glycol closet up in the attic that I was in and it just seemed kind of silly that they were taking Refrigeration to cool a refrigeration unit. And while I kind of agree with the point that they're trying to make because there is a mini split cooling that room and it just seems kind of silly, but unfortunately that's just what the customer purchased. As far as the equipment.

Now, in a perfect world, they would have bought outdoor condensing units that were mounted on the roof and then ran line sets down to a heat exchanger downstairs or something like that. Yeah, that would be a good situation to have a remote condensing unit on the roof. That way they wouldn't have to have a mini split in the Attic cooling that little room. But unfortunately, the customer that's just what they buy is those little self-contained glycol units.

And so they got to do something when they put it into that room up there. it needs cooling, especially because it's a long story. But down below that room there's an air intake and then it. there's an exhaust fan above the room.

And what they do is they draw air in from down in the kitchen, through a cabinet, up into the glycol room and then out. well. the cabinet that they draw all the air in through is the server room. So they have a giant server Rack in there with a bunch of equipment that's producing heat.

so they just draw in the 75 degree kitchen air into the server rack it Heats it up to about 95 to 100 degrees then comes up into the glycol room and raises the condensing temperature of the refrigeration equipment controlling the glycol room and then that just goes off on overload too. So in that particular situation, because the customer didn't want to install remote condensing units, they had to put a mini split in that room to help cool it off to lower the condensing temps of the glycol units. So that way they could operate properly. So I really don't have a choice in the matter and it is what it is.

It's kind of a thing, you know. I agree that it's kind of silly a waste of electricity, but you know, sometimes you got to do what you got to do. So all right, let's see what we got going on the chat right now. What am I missing? Um John Harrell's saying Thinking about moving to the supermarket side? Hey man, if you want a challenge, that's definitely a good challenge.

There's a lot of new technology coming into the supermarket side. You'll have an opportunity to learn and work on Co2 equipment. So if you're up for the challenge I encourage it. You know every side of this industry needs some help for sure.

So um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Some of the colors from the Inhibitors they put in it too Jason Johnson says yeah. Oftentimes they will add Inhibitors to try to prevent the glycol from building up certain bacterias and different things inside of it and glycol in general only lasts so long. They'll put Inhibitors to try to make it last a little bit longer. Um, it's it's all a mess to be honest with.

the all the stuff that I work on is is Just Junk junk. All right, let's see what else we got going on in here. What advice could I give to be an oh, what advice would I give to be better at interviews? Oh very good one. Okay, so let's talk about this from two's perspectives: When you go to an interview as a technician, you're being interviewed by a company that you potentially want to work for.

But a really important way to break the ice is to understand that that is a two-way interview. You are interviewing the company just as much as the company's interviewing you. Okay, don't ever let a company feel like it's a privilege for you to be interviewed, but at the same time, don't expect a company to feel privileged because you're you know up attempting to interview them if you get where I'm going. Okay, you guys got to have mutual respect for each other.

So as far as better advice when it comes to an interview, just be honest and be you and don't be nervous. Okay, when they ask questions, remember to ask equal questions to them. So if they ask you about you know, um, what you like to do in your personal time. Well here's what I like to do in my personal time.

but then you need to ask them a question. You know, what kind of, what kind of what work do you guys do or what do you guys do to give back to charity? What do you do to give back to the industry? You know that kind of stuff. So just I think that's some of the advice I'll give you is is that when you go to an interview, you need to understand it's a two-way interview and you're interviewing that company just as much as they're interviewing you. Okay and just Act Naturally All right, if you if you feel like you lost a job because you didn't answer one question right in an interview, you weren't fit for that job because there's not one thing that's going to make you not, you know you go where I'm going with that.

Like if if you're a good person and you know you know what you're doing, then then they're looking at the big picture. They're looking at the whole part of you. so there's always going to be stuff that you have room to work on. Also, when you're going into an interview, be honest and open about the things that you're weak at.

Okay, just say hey, you know what? These are my strong points I excel in this electrical troubleshooting schematic reading. You know, refrigeration systems, but I'm not so good and I feel like I could use some improvement in Vrf equipment or or whatever it may be airflow or duck design or anything like that. Okay, and then let them know ahead of time that you're interested. You want to learn more about that, but just be honest and have an open dialogue.

That's the best advice I can give when it comes to an interview. So um, did I go to school for refrigeration or for certificates? Josiah Josiah Josiah I Don't know how I'm pronouncing your name correctly or incorrectly. but uh, did I go to school for refrigeration? Yes, I did I went to Mount San Antonio Community College in Walnut California I am two classes short of a certificate in air conditioning and Refrigeration so uh, I took all the refrigeration air conditioning um, building controls, pneumatics, energy management system I took all kinds of classes in in school. The two that I'm missing are technical math for HVAC and a welding certificate when it comes to HVAC So learning how to use oxy acetylene so those are the two classes I'm shy of one of these days.

I'll go finish those up. But yes, I did go to school I learned from multiple sources I learned from my father, I learned from school and I learned from my mentor at the time was a senior mechanic working for my company and between the three of those sources, I was able to put my education. It kind of all made sense and everything clicked together and and here we are now. So uh, let's see what else.

uh with glycol, you use a refractometer to check it. It'll tell you your mixture and you use that for freeze protection. It does break down over time says Jason Johnson Yes, So um, very interesting is a refractometer is a really interesting tool and um, stay tuned because I have some really cool footage with the refractometer. But essentially it's a little tool and what you do is you will drip a couple drops of the glycol fluid that you want to test onto the refractometer and then you look into the light and it has a scale on it that'll tell you the mixture of fluid, right? It'll tell you the ratio of water to glycol and it'll tell you the actual freeze point of the glycol that you put onto the refractometer.

So it's a really cool little tool. And like I said, stay tuned because I have some really cool footage coming with a refractometer to kind of show the general public. Everybody that does work with glycol should have a refractometer on your truck. You do not have to go buy a 50 billion dollar refractometer just to work on basic stuff.

But if you are getting into scientific then yes, you should probably invest into some higher end tools. The refractometer that I use probably costs less than a hundred dollars. It works fine for what I do. Again, the higher the level of equipment you're working on, the more scientific the more precise it needs to be.

the higher the level the tools that you're going to need to use. But I'm telling you, there's some refractometers out out there for thousands of dollars. And while those might work for what they need to be used for, for majority of what we're dealing with, you don't need those super expensive high-end refractometers. So um, all right, let's see what else.

Um, see what else? without those certificates you don't qualify to do HVAC and Refrigeration All right. Uh, all right. uh no. I'm not serious I know you don't.

You're not serious. might be all right. Um, uh. just see if you can test out of those classes.

You did three classes that way because you had the experience. You know it's funny because recently, uh Facebook user I don't know who that is. that's saying that if you guys. so I use a software called Stream Yard to do my live streams and if you guys want to make a comment on Facebook you have to Grant Stream Yard Access I don't know how to do that so that way I can actually see your name but it's all good I Just see Facebook user Um, so let's just see if I can test out of those classes.

yeah I was uh sitting down had a a seminar one time and my old HVAC instructor happened to sit down next to me. his name is derosource a really really cool dude. um really nice guy actually. but anyways I sat down next to him and he like he got on me because he's like man he's like you need to finish those two classes because you know I didn't realize this but it is true and is that the school they need me to finish those classes because it helps them uh to to maintain their their accreditation I guess or whatever I don't know if that's the right term but basically they need to see a graduation rate and if they don't see the graduation rate then then uh you know they got to keep up on that stuff.

So I do need to go back and finish that class for sure. So um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. I already covered that one and I'm going through my list of things. Oh so I have some really cool questions that Nick had asked me.

so let's go through here real quick and see what I'm missing. Do I use backflow testers? uh no I have not had to use backflow testers for what I'm dealing with the kind of stuff. Um, all right so do I have my EPA yes, I have my EPA Universal If you're doing Light commercial refrigeration and air conditioning, just get your Universal and be done with it. it'll It's easy enough just to get it.

Um, all right. see what else we got going on in here? Uh yeah. if you guys could please smash the thumbs up button. it definitely helps out the stream.

Whatever social media platform you guys are on, it definitely helps it out. Okay so Nick had some questions and it's a really interesting question and I do have the answers to this. So Nick in the beginning of the stream had asked a question about working on a refrigeration system with a scroll compressor and what. he notices that the name of the brand of equipment doesn't matter.

Okay, but what he noticed is that when the compressor turns off, it immediately turns back on so he'll watch it pump down to like 5. PSI and then all of a sudden you'll hear a sound and then it jumps up to 22. PSI the compressor turns back on and then it just goes on off, on off on off. Okay, why is it doing that? First and foremost, the reason why it's doing it is because your low pressure control is not set correctly.

Now he mentioned a manufacturer's name, the particular manufacturer that is making his equipment in that particular manufacturer. if I Remember right? Well I guess it could go either way, but they have in the past used encapsulated pressure controls or peanut low pressure control. So those are the ones that just twist on the line and they have two wires coming out the peanut or the encapsulated control. Those are notorious for being inaccurate.

Number one. Okay, next thing, what you need to do is go to the Copeland AE bulletin for the particular compressor. if it's a ZR compressor or a ZF compressor whatever normally coutures. On the beginning of there, there's a technical bulletin from Copeland It's an AE bulletin and it tells you what pressures to set that pressure control at.

What you don't realize is that in a scroll compressor, they aren't meant to run in a vacuum and they actually have protection built into the scroll compressor. and um, it will actually equalize the pressures out. So that's what's happening. You're pumping it down too low.

The scroll compressor's protection is built into it. So what it's doing is it's equalizing the pressures out and that's why you hear a sound when when it pumps down. So it'll turn back on and then turn back on. And that's because the the the pressure control is not set correctly.

So the first thing you need to do is get a hold of the manufacturer of the compressor, adjust the pressure control, the low pressure cut out to where they say. The next question that he had was how come on some of the units that have scroll compressors. sometimes they'll see a suction and a discharge check valve and sometimes they won't. Okay.

What you can do on these scroll compressors is you can actually install a check valve and take the low pressure control and put it on the other side of the check valve. Okay, so let's say you have a suction line check valve. So basically you'd put the low pressure control here, then you'd have the check valve, then it would go into the suction of the compressor and what that can do is help to prevent some of those issues of the compressor pumping down like that and then turning back on because what it's doing is it's moving the check valve to the other side. I mean the the pressure control to the inlet side of the check valve and the theory is is that when the compressor opens back up that it's not going to turn it back on.

That's one way to help prevent that. The next way is this: Copeland Compressors actually recommend that you put a time delay in there between the pressure control and the low pressure control, so that way the compressor doesn't short cycle as much. Okay, but here's the kicker. When you're working with Smart Evaporator coils, whatever manufacturer you're using, you don't want to have that time delay because oftentimes they have some sort of a time delay built into the Smart Evaporator controller or they will error out.

Basically, if you work on some, it'll give you a a no superheat reading because it's not registering a change in superheat. So if it goes off on an error message, right and it could just be that it's stuck in a delay. So bottom line, you want to reach out to the compressor manufacturer, read their AE Tech bulletins and find out what pressures they want that compressor shutting off. So that way you won't actually see that turning on and off like that.

All right. Um, any good Hvacr books anyone recommends? Yes. The book that I recommend for everybody I have no affiliation with this is Commercial Refrigeration for Air Conditioning Technicians by Dick. Words: Okay, Dick Wurz is a great great person.

Really nice guy to meet for one. Um, and uh, he does a great job with that book. So that book is written for air conditioning technicians that want to learn and transition into the refrigeration side. That thing, uh, gives you the I mean In in all honesty, even a technician that doesn't know anything about refrigeration and air conditioning can pick that book up and learn a thing or two.

It's a great, great book. So I highly recommend that book. Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. What am I missing? Um, how do I fix the problem when the compressors run the wrong way? When the compressor runs the wrong way? wink HVAC Well, it depends on what is going on there.

Okay, so with coupling compressors, if it's a three-phase compressor, what you can actually do is you can reverse the phases. Okay, because with a three-phase motor, if you reverse the phases, the compressor will or the motor will spin in in the you know the other direction. But on coupling compressors, they're directional. They can only run in One Direction But there's another thing that happens.

There's some Advanced protection built into the scroll compressor and oftentimes what can happen too. People can actually think the compressor motor. uh, because of protections that are built into it. People can think that the compressor motor is running when in fact, it's not turning the scroll set right So you you want to check out.

uh, just. Google Search Copeland Scroll Compressors internal protection and you'll find out about all the different things that they have built into the scroll compressors. There's a lot of Technology at the same time they're they're still pretty robust and reliable. The Copeland scroll compressors I really deal with them a lot.

and to be honest with you, if they're operating within their operating envelope and that's the other thing too. To understand, you know a compressor is meant to operate in within certain temperatures of of the low end and the high end. and if it goes outside of the envelope of where it's supposed to operate, you know you can't really predict much and that's when the thing is going to start failing. so you have to make sure that it's operating within its Envelope as far as condensing temperatures and evaporator temperatures because we're relying on that evaporator temperature, the suction gas to come help cool the compressor uh, depending on the refrigerants we're using, so just be cautious about that.

All right? Um, so I answered that question. Uh, Nick Also asked a question about when I'm setting up demand defrost, or to know how when you're working with a smart evaporator whether it be a walk-in cooler or walk-in freezer especially walk-in freezers. what kind of a defrost you should set them up for? So typically what I do when I'm dealing with refrigeration equipment. If I have a smart evaporator, I will assess the situation, look at the customer, and kind of a in go from there.

Okay, if I know that this customer is one that props their walk-in freezer door open all the time. That's something I'm going to think about when I'm setting up the defrost strategy. Old school defrost strategy. We'd set up a certain amount of defrost per day and it would do all those defrosts within a certain amount of time.

Uh, what I mean by that is, Oftentimes you'll have a defrost termination, but it'll always go into defrost. Um, and you know, potentially I deal with a lot of electric defrost. That might be wasted energy because oftentimes you don't need to go through a full defrost because there's not enough Frost or ice on the coil. Okay, so they started making these smart evaporators that have demand defrost where it looks at sensors and then decides whether or not the coil needs to go into a defrost.

They they will work. but there's certain situations that they don't work. Okay, so you really need to assess what the customer's needs are and how to use their equipment to know whether or not you're going to set up demand, defrost, or time Defrost. My rule of thumb typically is go ahead and set it up for the most energy conscious setup.

Put on demand, defrost whatever it is, and give it one chance. If they start having freeze up problems, then I'll go back in and change it to like a Time defrost and then go from there. Uh, Nick Also asked a question and I don't know if I'm answering this correctly, but I'm gonna just address what I know about this. What I will say is when you're dealing with demand, defrost or smart defrost.

What you will notice is that oftentimes it skips the defrost or it'll defrost the coil and it usually does a good job. But what it doesn't do a good job of is defrosting around the expansion valves and around the electrical sections a good majority of the time. If you have a smart evaporator that only has one evaporator sensor, a good majority of the time, you're going to have ice build up like crazy around the expansion valve and around the electrical section because the defrost heaters are typically just under the coil. so it's going to melt the frost and the ice build up.

but they're still going to be ice buildup on the expansion valve and different things like that. Okay, uh, what I will do in that situation is certain manufacturers like Ketotherm allows you to add a second evaporator sensor so you can actually have two evaporator sensors on the keto therm system. So I'll put two evaporator sensors at each end of the coil and it tends to do a much better job of making sure that we're eliminating all that ice. and then we tend to eliminate a lot of freeze up problems that way.

but other manufacturers allow you to do that too. so let's see what else we got going on here. All right, let's see what else is in the chat. Yeah, if you guys have questions, definitely put more questions in here.

Uh, in caps lock? Okay, um. reading through here, can you explain High leg or a wild leg or a stinger leg on three phase Danny I Cannot explain that in a way that people would be able to understand it. That is not me that is good at doing that kind of an explanation. So I apologize.

Um, just I will say be very careful on Delta Systems that have the high leg. Um, because they'll get you. So how did I get interested in Hvacr? I Started working for my father and then uh, just watched and learned from him. um I could tell you a funny story I can remember being a little kid I probably told this story before but I can it was probably Elementary School I don't think it was junior high but I was on a service call with my dad and it's funny because I can picture where I was at it was at El Torito Mexican restaurant I don't do any of their work anymore so I can say that.

but I was at an El Torito Mexican restaurant in West Covina California and I was working on one of their air conditioners. It was an old train packaging, a really old unit and um, for whatever reason my dad had given me a low voltage control wire and he said hold this and don't let it touch anything. So I'm sitting here and I'm assuming it's the 24 volt Hot Leg from the Transformer right? So I'm just holding it and he says I have to run downstairs Now to this day I Can't think in my head what he would be having me do and why he would have me hold the 24 volt wire. But the key word is when you tell a 10 year old maybe 12 year old would be my guess how old I was, don't let it touch anything.

My mind as he walks away starts racing. Well what happens if I let it touch something like what's going to happen, how bad is it hmm and then you know that little devil on my shoulder got the best of me and I said well let's just see what happens and I let it touch and then I had instant regret because I saw the little itty bitty spark and then I said uh oh I knew something bad happened and then I remember telling my dad when he came back I was like it accidentally touched something and he's like how did it accidentally touch something and I was like I don't know oh man that was too funny. but yeah I just I learned working with my dad so um it was fun. You know there was times that it was frustrating but here I am now.

So uh, do I still run into equipment using R12 I think I just phased out my last customer that had R12 equipment so no I don't think I have any R12 I just changed out I think I yeah I just changed out my last 502 system also probably I don't know. A month ago I changed out my last R502 walk-in freezer system. so yeah I just have R22 and newer refrigerants now I still have a lot of R22 equipment out there for sure. so um, let's see what else we got going on in here.

Uh uh, Industrial has high leg Delta as well. Yep, um, reading through here, you ran into an open Delta you was weird and threw me for a loop. Yeah, I ran into a corner grounded Delta system and that was weird too because when you check three phase, you have three phase from leg to leg. but if you check leg to ground one of the legs, you're gonna have zero volts on a corner grounded Delta system and that'll freak you out because you'll have three phase.

But then you check one of the legs to ground and you're like why is it zero What the heck I Remember the first time I saw that I called an electrician friend of mine what the hell is going on and then he explained it to me. Um, I'm not capable of explaining it in proper way that you guys can understand it, but it'll blow your mind if you ever see it. So um, let's see am I impacted by all the new CR2 changes here where Cali is always ahead of the curve but would like to hear my thoughts on the subject. Dylan So yeah, you know what? California is typically ahead of the curve when it comes to refrigerant phase-outs Uh, when it comes to new Energy Efficiency changes.

A good majority of the CR2 changes have already been implemented in California. For a couple years now, they're phasing out natural gas in California They're really pushing the heat pump thing. Um, you know what are my opinions on all these new changes? I mean I hate regulations I think regulations are dumb, but I also understand that we need something or our industry wouldn't change. Um, so you know it's one of those things.

I It's kind of a bummer some of the things, but at the same time it's also kind of silly when you think about most of the European countries. Okay, let's let's put it this way. we haven't even really started using R32 mainstream in the United States yet in the European countries are already talking about phasing out R32 Okay, so come on like we are so behind the times when it comes to everything. If you saw every every fifth comment on my channel is I Can't believe you can still use R22 Yes, we can still use R22 in the United States And should we? no, probably not.

we should be phasing out to something a little bit more healthier for the environment. But you know I mean as a contractor I can't be the only person to not use R22 You know you got to get equipment running for customers and stuff so it is what it is. But yeah, we are so behind the times when it comes to refrigerant regulations and changes. As far as the Energy Efficiency I don't mind having more energy efficient equipment, but where I do have a problem I have a major problem is with.

let's just say the state of California or whatever government entity that decides they want to implement a change. The state of California implemented something called Hers Rating. Okay, Hers rating is when we do work right because we as an industry are so stupid and so lazy that we can't do work and we can't do it properly. So the government had to get involved and say okay, if you're going to legally do work then you have to have another contractor come in and make sure that you did the work right because we are so stupid and can't actually do the work right that they finally had to implement a rule that says we have a third party come in and make sure that we actually did our job right? Okay, so they call it Hers Testing.

Okay, it's an energy auditor that comes in and make sure that the equipment's Performing to where it's supposed to be. But here's the problem. When the Hers testing first came out, they had all these different rules and they had all these companies sign up to be Hers Raiders And the the thing they realized is that nobody could pass the Hers Rating test. Nobody.

Nobody. Because nobody understood airflow. Nobody understood proper refrigerant line sizing. Nobody understood anything.

Okay, so then what started happening was all of a sudden a lot of people started passing the Hers testing. Okay, do the math right. These guys get paid when they you know they get hired and get paid when they pass people. Okay, I mean that's not technically why they get paid, but you get where I'm going with that.

So a lot of people started passing the Hers tests all of a sudden. Okay, I mean do the math. So I have a frustration with any entity that comes in and says you have to meet this certain goal without giving away us a way to meet that goal. Okay, so they're phasing out refrigerants, right? They're just telling us that this refrigerant is going to be gone in 10 years.

Just insert a date. Okay, that's fine, but how are we going to get there? Well, that's not our problem, you just need to get there. And then we as an industry just sit here and wait. You know, because we know this is coming and then all of a sudden the last minute we're like What are we gonna do? We're not ready for this.

Well, we've had 10 years to get ready for it, right? So we're kind of dumb on that aspect. but you know I don't know. Maybe I'm just mean, all right. Um, let's see what else we got going on in here.

Uh, let's see. Ulysses says he just used 12 pounds of 22 today I use 22 all the time I mean the the comment that I got a bunch of heat for was I had a walk-in cooler that was down and I went out there on Friday night and I dumped 10 pounds of gas in it and then I came back the next day and found the leak I looked to make sure I wasn't a major league, but you know I get it. I get that. R22 is not good for the environment I get it.

But as a contractor I can't be the only one. It has to be the industry as a whole because I just can't decide today that I'm not going to make any more money I just refuse to use R22 that customer needs their walking cooler up and running. it needs to be operating Now they have a plan to replace it. We've already ordered new equipment.

Yeah, that's all on the the you know we're going to work to get that R22 out. but in the meantime I came back the next day I fixed the leak and we were good to go. So I'm not going to stop using R22 right? because I can still use it legally. So I'm going to use it.

It's it's expensive, but it is what it is. So um, how much do I charge for R22 I'm not going to reveal pricing on here right now, but uh, I pretty much follow industry standards for Southern California when it comes to refrigerant pricing. so that's as much as I'm going to say about that. Uh, but to be honest with you, I hones