This is the HVACR Videos Q and A livestream originally aired 2/18/19 @5:00pm (west coast) where I answer questions from the last few videos and questions from the Chat.
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To support my channel please visit
Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/hvacrvideos
and or my Patreon page here https://www.patreon.com/Hvacrvideos
For Optimizing my videos I use Tube Buddy
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Please consider subscribing to my channel and turning on the notification bell by clicking this link https://goo.gl/H4Nvob
Social Media
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For any inquiries please contact me at hvacrvideos @gmail.com
Intro Music : Pilots Of Stone by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Artist: http://audionautix.com/
Hey there, everybody, how are you guys doing this evening? Hopefully you guys can hear me loud and clear should be coming through. We are got a couple things to cover this evening. Nothing spectacular I'd say, but I do have a couple topics that I want to talk about and then once I get through that, then we will get into the question and answer session. When you guys ask me questions from the chat and all that good stuff.
So should be seeing you here soon or should be getting to that point soon. I should say all right cool, so you guys can hear me. Okay, so did not release a video on Friday. I apologize about that.
It was a hectic week last week on a personal note, was kind of cool found out about a month ago. Yeah about a month ago, I got confirmation of a rumor that I heard in my family that my biological mother had another child 20 years ago. It was kind of a rumor, that's been going around for like the last two years. Well, I got confirmation a month ago and I got the DNA results Friday and I was talking with my sister Friday night, so pretty cool trip so yeah.
I was a little busy and didn't have a chance to upload, or actually that was Thursday, so I didn't have a chance to upload anything, but I'm back at it now and yeah everything's good, so uploaded the unofficial, vantur video. It is not completed yet, but I am in it. I was in it officially today I didn't work very much just went and ran one call, and then I was in the office doing some work so, but so far so good on the van. Definitely lots of things to tweak and adjust and you know make to my liking.
It's gon na take about a month or two. I think before I get everything the way that I want it and then I'm sure I'll change it in another year or something like that cuz, it's kind of a never-ending thing. When you get in those things, you start hearing a noise and then you come up with a new idea and you know that kind of stuff. So I apologize guys there you go.
That's my bad! You should totally be able to see me now sorry about that. Guys but so yeah van tours up, I said you guys already heard that part there. You know these streams can never go smooth because I always forget to do something so whether it be audio messed up or video messed up or some, and so there we go. I went talking for two minutes and realized I never clipped over the transition to show my face.
So my apologies, so yeah fan tour, just kind of did a quick one. Lots of things left to do inside the van, like I said, I kind of talked about it a little bit and you know moving bottles around and coming up with a solution, for my ladders definitely want to integrate. I actually just picked up a GoPro. I've had him before, but I was never a fan of it, but I kind of have some ideas about using it for different clips.
I don't really plan on filming on the GoPro per se all the time. I think I've mentioned it before, but I might as well cover it. So when I film my videos, I film with my phone, I have a galaxy s - 9, plus nothing, nothing special about it. Just a normal galaxy phone just have the settings. You know it just it has a great camera, a great microphone all around I mean you can always find something that has. You can always get a better camera that has better resolution or vice versa, microphone that kind of stuff. But I do find that the phone is very convenient because it's not obvious to I don't have to make a big deal of it. They just throw it in my pocket and when I'm ready to film my film, so that's my primary source of filming my videos.
You know there's times where I think it'd be great, to have a GoPro. You know so I went ahead and picked one up, but one of the things I'm not super smart when it comes to these videos and editing and different things. So when it comes to those you know, I'm still trying to figure out how to do all that stuff. So we'll be integrating that in a little bit.
I kind of have some ideas about using the GoPro in the van mounting it on the windshield and having some some clips or something like that. Maybe you start doing the outros in there or something so we'll see you know it's it's a work in progress and we're just kind of you know. Again. I've mentioned it before these videos.
They were never meant to be for public. So I really don't even know what I'm doing you know. I just started making them for my guys that work with me and then here we are a year later, it's kind of crazy, too. I got to say thanks so much because the subscribers like it's, I it's nuts, it just keeps going we're at 18,400.
Subscribers like. I can't believe that I can't believe that many people actually want to watch some dude. You know talk, fixing things but hey. You know it is what it is and that's what they do so you know I appreciate you guys all for doing that.
So thanks so much um. So a couple of the topics I want to cover - I just was thinking about something today you know, and it's it's that time of year, where you hear a lot of service companies talking about reviews, it's that you know usually the first of the year. At least that's kind of how we've done it in the past or whatever. So you know you sit down and you talk to your guys and, and we usually make it a two-way conversation, you know so hey.
This is the things that you did great this year. This is the things that we could have our the previous year. This is the things that we could use some improvement on and then we'll usually ask for feedback on the opposite side to like what do you think we could do to change things, and sometimes we can do those. Sometimes we can't you know, there's things that that we as a company can't change and there's things that we can work on nobody's perfect by any means.
Are we a perfect service company? Okay, we are not just like anybody else. We make mistakes there's times that we're winging it there's times that we're just figuring things out, okay, so, but I think it's really important that no matter what happens that we all constantly try to better ourselves, okay, whether it be with education. You know perfect thing is right now, this time of year is the time that we have all the training classes. You know and talked about it a bunch of times but better yourselves by taking a training class by you know when you go home, you know doing some research figuring some information out looking into the equipment that you're working on. Don't just wait for your service manager to explain to you how it works. Don't just wait until the moment that you have to work on it to figure out the sequence of operation for that particular piece of equipment, especially if it's something that you know you're going to be doing regular service on you know, do it your you know. Take the time when you go home to do some research, I've said it before. This is definitely a great thing, for you know apprentices, but it also applies to regular service techs.
You know when you're, when you're on the roof, working and you're coming across an interesting piece of equipment, take a picture with your phone, the model and serial number, and when you get home, do some research figure it out download the PDFs. You know a lot of the new equipment is kind of cool because it comes with those those barcode. Looking things that you can scan, I'm sure there's a technical term form, but you know you can scan them with your phone and then it brings you to website with PDFs and all that good stuff. So you know it's getting easier and easier, but I definitely think that you know we can constantly continue to try to better ourselves when it comes to that stuff.
Okay, as the busy season comes, you know you want to be ready, for you know summertime and whatnot. I mean we still got a couple months before it gets crazy, but getting yourself pumped and ready for that now you know making sure you have the tools that you know. You're gon na need the hand tools at least or I don't know how your company policy is with tools, but at my company we provide pretty much everything but the hand tool. So you know I just always encourage the guys to make sure that they're getting ready.
So that way, it doesn't hit them all at once that they realize they need all this different stuff and it's like slowly start building it up and build yourself up and extra stockpile of stuff, and you know simple things like me personally, I keep a stockpile of The things that you're gon na lose the pocket thermometers I'll, usually buy. You know a couple at a time and throw them in my van in a drawer. So that way, when I do lose one because it is inevitable, you are gon na lose that stuff. The pocket screwdrivers, you know you, hopefully you're, not losing your big tools, but you know I always keep a spare voltmeter on my van. You know that kind of stuff. I mean that's common sense stuff, but I think it's also important to remind people to think about that stuff. You know you should always have a backup meter. You should always have you know backup set of gauges.
Definitely especially if you're running digital gauges. You know I. I love my field piece stuff, but I always carry a set of analogs in my van just in case. You never know what happens.
I'm fortunate enough to be able to have two sets of field piece gauges. That's just me, I'm not saying everybody has to have two of those, but I'm just saying: if you don't make sure you have an analog set, you know a backup set, because what happens? Even if you don't break and what happens if you leave them on a job, you know so you know being ready for that kind of stuff and remember you know what I was talking about is big-picture diagnosis. Okay, big picture, dinos diagnosis. Let's solve the problem, not the symptom, okay, that sounds simple and it is but remember we're not there to just change the compressor, we're there to find out why the compressor failed.
Okay and straight on down the line when it comes to almost component. We want to solve the big picture, you know, or you know, look at the big picture. Okay, so you want to make sure you're you're fixing the whole thing and not just that. You know that's the symptom.
Okay, you know in the symptom is also a gateway to the the main problem. You know, and it can sorry I'm just trying to remember what I was my talking points here. So you know it's it's that kind of stuff. That's gon na make the customer appreciate.
You more as a service tech, okay, every company has that one service tech that a customer has requested that that tech not come to their location, anymore. Okay and that's a crappy thing for a company owner, but that's also a crappy thing for that company. Let's make sure that you're not that tech, okay, customers, you know sometimes they're a pain in the butt. Sometimes they can be arrogant.
Sometimes they can be rude. Okay, it happens. You guys know that. I know that.
But you know sometimes you just got to suck it up close your mouth fix. What you need to fix, kill them with kindness and move on. You know, that's the best method to do is just kill them with kindness. That's that's, usually what I do I get.
So much joy out of that win when a customer is rude and and just just plain mean you know, and I can sit there and know that they're doing that, but then just I'm not playing their game, I'm not feeding off of their anger. I just sit there and okay cool. You know nothing but polite. You know and move on to the next one.
Okay, so just keep that in mind because as the heat, whereas the summertime comes, that's that's gon na happen more and more when people get irritated and frustrated and we get busy and we can't keep up with our calls - and you know I imagine some of you Guys are dealing with that with the cold snaps you're having you know on the East Coast right now, you know on the same side, it's not it's, not hot. It's just super super cold and you know you can't keep up with the service calls. So just remember it's it's just a service call. You know, there's no reason to get angry with the customer. You know, even if they're being a punk or whatever just you know, shrug it and move on so done preaching on that one. So you know one of the things I want to bring up in. I hate to even say this, but I have to reiterate that I don't know everything. Okay, I am just a service technician.
Some of the questions that I get and different things I mean I try to answer what I can, but I don't know I kind of get the vibe that people think I'm smarter than I am and I'm not. Okay, I'm just a service tech. Just like everybody else, I've made mistakes. I try to learn from the mistakes.
The only difference between me - and you is probably that I just have a platform to talk on. Like I mentioned in my last video, some of you guys just haven't, picked up a camera. Yet that's all okay, I'm sure, there's plenty other guys that are even in this chat. Right now are watching this video that can fix things just the same, if not better than me.
Okay, you know, there's lots of other kind of other guys out there. Okay, so just just keep that in mind, I'm human, just like everybody else. I struggle with things just like everybody else, there's times that I get callbacks, there's times that you know I've done all those things. I've made a lot of mistakes over my career.
I try to learn from them and that's the best thing that I feel we can do as service technicians is try to learn from our mistakes and that's going to make you better and if you remember the symptoms that led up to that mistake, then that's going To help you on the next service call: okay and you'll. Remember that - and you know heed the the the the tips that I give you, because those are the mistakes that I've made. So I'm just I'm not trying to eliminate any mistakes that you ever make. I'm not trying to make it so that you guys never even fall down.
I'm just trying to share the interesting things that I come across. That I think would be useful and that may have left led to some severe mistakes that caused some big problems. You know, cost us money that kind of stuff. Okay, so just remember you know just just take it easy and, let's just you know, look at everything and try to solve.
You know everything and, let's just not, you know, jump in there and, and you know, try to get out of there as fast as possible. Okay, you guys kind of get what I'm saying so quick question I had inside the just before I went live on here. Someone sent me a message asking me if I prefer an oxy-acetylene torch versus a a bee tank or a turbo torch. Honestly, I can't answer that truthfully. I've only ever used an oxy-acetylene torch, so I have nothing bad to say about a bee tank or a turbo torch, nothing bad to say other than their loud. I have heard some facts about them in refrigeration. I I would say that I probably would refer a oxy-acetylene torch, but then again I've never used the bee tanks. You know, I think that uh, you know climbing up onto an attic or onto a walk-in, and you know shimmying down the the walk-in roof in a tight confined space.
I could see where you know a little turbo torch would be very beneficial, so I think they each have their place okay, but when I'm working on some sensitive components, especially in the smaller refrigeration, that I work in change in expansion valves, you know little things. I could see where the flame on a turbo torch looks to be a little bit too big for me, but again never used one, so you know to each their own on that one, I'm not saying anything bad about either. One of those you know just it is what it is so so another one that people brought up to me is r22 replacements. So currently my company is still using r22.
Currently, I prefer not to use our 22 replacements. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: just haven't been a fan of the different replacements out there and the particular customers that I deal with are all okay with me still using our 22, because preferably if it's a bad enough repair they're going to go Ahead and replace the unit - and you know we given the options - I mean I'll - do anything that the customer wants to do. But I still stick with you know my preference is to stick with our 22. If a customer insisted that I use a retrofit replacement, then what I would be doing is making sure that they sign off on that retrofit and I would explain all the potential problems that we can run into.
I would also explain warranty concerns such as, if you guys, don't know, Trane commercial will you know. The interesting thing is: is that train commercial has a publication that specif? They will not warranty a compressor if an alternative refrigerant is used inside of it. Okay, other than the refrigerant that that system was designed for so basically, if you buy a replacement compressor for an R 22 system now granted, I realize how could they really find out? But you know they still won't stand behind the replacement refrigerants. On the flip side, the interesting thing is is that they will also sell the alternative refrigerants in the Trane supply house.
So I do find that kind of funny, but you know my preference is: is I'm not going to use the replacement refrigerants? So that's one that I get all the time as people asking me that question so and I am going to oh that's a I kind of see people talking about it in here too to each their own, but I don't use leak sealants, not a fan of Using additives, you know, besides the Copeland debacle, with AC, whatever stuff that you were supposed to use for the Copeland, compressors AC, renew or whatever, or the old rxo or no, it was a serie new. And what was it called before that something ice, something or other ice? But yeah? I've used that before you know, because you know the manufacturer wanted you to use it. So I've done that, but I prefer not to use additives. I have again I'm just covering the questions that I get all the time guys just to get this over with. I have used die in the past and not a fan of it. It was an absolute dire circumstance. We you know, and we chose to use it. The customer signed off on it, it's not something that we use on a regular basis.
I still have a dye kit in my truck. I've probably used it two times since I've ever gotten it and I've probably had it for three years, so it just sits in there. I'm not a fan of using it. I prefer to use an electronic leak detector.
My leak detector of choice just again to each their own as the detects select I've always used that leak detector. It's always done really well. For me, the only problems I've ever had with it is having to change the the filters on the end and then the sensor like every two years or something like that on it. Okay, so that's just my leak detector of choice, so preferably I'd rather not use a dye or something in the system, because I don't want to get that in my gauges.
It gets all over your hands, it gets all over the system. You get the spray back when you go to take care of the blowback when you take your gauges off and the dye sprays everywhere. So, but I mean again there's a time and place for it. There's there's there's an instance where someone can justify using it.
So I have used sub Co 88 before I. I don't know that I really saw any effect from it. You know what was it I heard sub Kuwaiti. All that it is is kerosene, I think, or something like that.
So you know, I don't know all those different additives kind of scare me. I prefer not to use them unless I have to you so what I would do on a really really bad burn out. You know again if a customer requested something I would do it, but if I have five a really bad burn out, like let's say I have a carrier package unit, you know a 10 ton carrier packaging it with two stages. What I'm gon na do is I'm going to change the compressor, but before I put the new compressor in we're gon na take apart the suction line from the suction header on the evaporator, we're gon na pull it out, there's a little spot, you can unset it.
Then I'm gon na unswept, the liquid line, I'm gon na, go ahead and blow through the evaporator trying to backwash anything out of the evaporator that might be in there cuz most of the time it doesn't get plugged up in the evaporator. It pretty much stays in the compressor area and the suction line going to the compressor. In my opinion, then, I'm gon na do the same thing with the condenser I'm gon na cut apart the condenser. You know on the outlet and the inlet and I'm gon na blow through the condenser with some nitrogen. I have used our x11 flush. I really don't see a huge benefit with it. I haven't been using that lately, you know, honestly, I haven't changed a compressor. You know like a burn out since last summer, but I haven't been using it on the burnouts lately, because most of the time I can get the stuff out.
So what I'll usually do in a situation like that to in the burnout? Is I'm gon na? Pour the oil out of the compressor so after I undertake the compressor out, if I can cut it out, but in all practicality, most of the time you have to unswept because cutting it out just isn't practical, sometimes so, pull the compressor out and I'm gon na Tip it over and pour the oil out, you know if I have, if I'm missing, you know 10 to 15 percent of the oil, then I'm probably gon na go looking for it. If it's less than 10 percent, I'm not gon na, really sweat it too much. You know again I'll try to blow through the system as best as possible. Most of the time, I've never really ran into an instance where it became a problem.
I imagine you could start drilling holes and stuff, but I really don't want to drill holes in the bottom of evaporates. That sounds so sketchy. I've heard people saying to do that. That's why I said that, but I've never done it.
So you know that's just my personal preference again, everybody has a different method and my way is not the only way. It's not the right way. Necessarily it's just the way that I do things. Okay, you know we all do what we have to do to get the jobs done and we do the best.
You know that we can with what we have so I'm just kind of seeing things coming through hard, sorry, feminists and things, but uh Douglas. You asked what's the best coil cleaner. Again, that's that's an interesting one. You know.
For years and years I use the new Calgon, the new Brite, that's what I used for years and you know up until recently, a lot of people been talking about the refrigeration technologies. Coil cleaners and I've been trying them and they've been pretty good, so you know this summer I might be using the refrigeration technologies cleaners a little bit more they've been doing really well for me, but the new Brite worked well, it's just. You have to know how to use the new brite, because you know it does deteriorate the coil. It is dangerous for things and it's pretty corrosive.
So you got to be cautious about those things, obviously guys, let's always make sure we're wearing. You know safety gear, the proper. What do they call it? Ppe or whatever you know, making sure I think there was a there was a video on Facebook or guy was cleaning and evaporator coil, and it I mean whatever it's his thing, but he was basically six inches away using an aerosol spray spray. In the back of the evaporator coil and the aerosol was getting on his face as he's spraying, and it's like, oh, my goodness, dude you need to have safety glasses on, like in a situation like that. You've got to use common sense because you get that stuff. In your eye, I don't care how biodegradable eco-friendly it says on the bottle. It's still gon na damage your eye, so you know be cautious about that stuff guys. So no, you really shouldn't be using new bright on a walking evaporator, because new bright first off has a talked like has a very strong smell and it'll.
Take your breath away. So that can't be good for food. If, if you're gon na clean a walk-in evaporator, I would suggest you use some kind of a look look at refrigeration technologies, I'm sure they have something great that you can clean evaporates with now have I used new bride on the evaporator before yeah? You know there's there's instances where I've had to, but I'd be very, very cautious about using a new bride or any cleaners that are, you know, have strong, odors and stuff on an evaporator of an air conditioning unit, because what you don't know, depending on when you Shut that unit off, if the building's under a negative pressure, all those fumes are gon na go down to the customers, so be cautious about that same thing goes for if you're brazing a leak on an evaporator, or something like that. You know that those those fumes and those smells could potentially get sucked down into the building, and you know cause problems whether you're working in a hospital and you've got fire sensors fire detectors of some sort.
You know you could cause some big problems or you know even just scaring a customer when they've got a building. Full of you know, people that have paid for their food and whatnot in a restaurant and there's a funny odor, and nobody puts two and two together and they evacuate the building. You know: that's not what you want to do, so you want to be cautious about whatever you use but be very, very careful about using things on evaporators, making sure that you're being cautious like the new bright stuff, that stuff foams and you got to be cautious Because it'll start foaming out of the evaporator on a walk-in cooler or even on an AC. Another thing to think about too, when you're, when you're cleaning evaporators, especially on an AC unit, is to make sure you know, like I'm picturing a carrier unit in my head and I'm gon na make sure that I'm gon na put something to catch the water that The residual water that does drip off of the evaporator, so it doesn't go down into the return air duct same thing goes for any AC.
You know the easiest ones to clean evaporator is on or on the side shot units where they're not connected anywhere, and I mean you still don't want to fill up the unit with coil cleaner. But at least you don't worry about it getting down into the ducts. So nothing worse than a customer coming up on the roof as you're doing a PM or something like that and they've got water dripping on a customer's food. So you got to be cautious about that stuff. So yeah, I would say, yeah Andrew Hicks, said the Viper works on evap, so I would say, be yeah the refrigeration technology stuff. I mean they have some really cool products, and you know I'm not. I get nothing from them, I'm not sponsored by them or anything. Like that, but I just believe in their stuff, you know John Passarella, I've communicated with them through emails.
He in there he was a nice enough guy to send me a box of ice machine cleaner, because I had some questions before I did a podcast with Brian or I think, maybe I wrote an article or I don't know. I was doing something where I did. It was doing some research on ice machine cleaners and I reached out to John Pasteurella from refrigeration technologies, and you know, was just quizzing him on the different chemicals and ice machine cleaners and stuff. And I mean he was nice enough to send me a box of his Viper ice machine cleaner and I've been actually using it, not very impressed.
I mean just by him sending me that has kind of sold me on it. It works really well. I've used the you know quite a few bottles of it and it it works great. So you know i-i've been kind of a fanboy with the refrigeration technology stuff.
You know, obviously the big, blue and the nylon, but you know enough about them. So, okay, I'm looking at this Justin, you said your dad is an old-school HVAC technician. He struggles with the new technologies coming out new computer programs, any advice for him to keep himself relevant. That's an interesting one.
So my dad is in HVAC also we're partners. We run this company together, but he really doesn't work in the field anymore and he if he had to use technology every day like we do, I think he'd go crazy. You know, I that's a hard one, but I mean he's gon na have to embrace it. If he wants to stay in here, that's what he's gon na have to do.
I mean he doesn't have to go too crazy technical, but get him a set, a field piece, digital gauges and let him learn on those and then once he hmm. I think the easiest way to show him you know the to make it make sense to him. Is you know to take that set of field piece, digital gauges and try to get Eve? Apertura Heat, okay and you know mind you, though, I'm thinking of like the SMAN for 60s. Okay, that aren't wireless, so you know you got to take the digital gauges downstairs and hook it up to the low side and then get your superheat and then, but how you gon na get your high side pressure.
You're gon na have to go upstairs. I mean it's kind of a struggle right, so I mean then then you can show him the smart probes and say: look dad. You could do it this way, you know, and then he could see how easy it is. Really. It comes down to him wanting to learn is what it's all about, and I mean I'm not faulting him for not wanting to learn. There's there's things that dude, I'm not! Joking with you. I had my daughter, my 12 year old daughter, help me with my cell phone, so I'm stubborn in all kinds of ways too. So you know I'm gon na that's funny.
I just thought about something right now. My nose is itching. It's like a twit, a nervous twitch, or something like that. It makes me look like a freaking drug addict, because every time I come on these live streams and you my nose like yeah.
So you know I've mentioned before that field. Piece is coming out with the new digital gauges. I really should put those in the background right here but um when they come out with the new ones. You can use the SMAN manifold with the wireless clamps and you know that's pretty cool too.
So you know it's just one of those things that he has to want to learn, but I think that if you show him, you know, have him do the work and show him. You know take him through the steps of getting evaporator superheat on a walk-in, cooler or whatnot, or an air conditioning unit, a split system. You know and then use the wireless stuff and show him how much easier it is to use you know. Then then, I think it's easier.
I think that definitely you know with with invoicing and different stuff, like that, I mean it again. It's just gon na take time for him to to get used to it. It. I think we all struggle with that stuff.
I struggled with the electronic invoicing, but we've been on an electronic invoicing system for five or six years so and we've been on the same system. We use because I know I'm gon na get the question right now. We use Intuit field service management, which is basically Corey. Go we've used them for a very, very long time.
It has dispatching built-in again. I really shouldn't be doing this because I'm giving these guys a free commercial, but it has built-in dispatching it has GPS tracking. It has invoicing, you can get signatures on-site. You know you could do all kinds of stuff with it.
So that's the system we've always used so again, that's Intuit field, service management and or curry go you could just look them up they're both the same. So that's what we've always used! Aeon family! You know that's a really good question and I honestly don't know the answer to that. Okay, I would have to be on-site to look at that particular mini-split. I would have to be on-site, but I don't even know it just depends.
I mean sometimes our. I don't even know. If, if that system yeah I mean, I guess you could pump it down but be cautious if it has a microchannel condenser. I'd be very about very cautious about pumping that system down, even if the system has 410 in it I'd be cautious about pumping it down, because those many splits are, I don't know, I don't know if they have enough room and that condenser to pump all that Refrigerant in there but yeah, how are you gon na pump it down? Yeah, I don't know, I'd have to be in that situation, so I I honestly don't know what system you're working on I'd have to stare at it and look at the valves and stuff. So yeah I've heard a wind tech before I've heard of people saying that today, ok, so Joe 65, you said you saw in my video. I was looking for a spot to put my 6 foot ladder. Could I put it on 2 or on top of the van between the other two? No, because there's gon na be a pipe rack going between the other two ladders, but what I'm probably gon na do someone hadn't? I was being silly and really wasn't thinking straight and someone brought up a really good point in the chat or in the YouTube comments, and so what I'm probably gon na do is take the extension ladder and move it over to the other side that doesn't have The drop down and then go ahead and put the 8 foot ladder in the 6 foot ladder on the drop-down thing. That's probably what I'm gon na do, because I honestly use the oh.
I don't use the 8 foot ladder as much, but yeah anyways, we'll figure it out. I just want to keep it out of the van, because I don't want to pull down and you know what I'll do when I do. My because I'll do an official van tour when I finish everything and when I get my old van cleaned out I'll show you guys what happened from the jet rack and how it pulled down the roof and stuff. So I'll show you guys all that stuff Kane.
I IVA sir, you said: you've heard a lot of bad reviews about field piece s men's, hey man. You know some people don't like them. It's all good. I've been a field piece user forever.
I think they're, probably one of the best out there in my opinion, but again you know I've never used the testo stuff. So I really have nothing to come. Okay, but I do know that field piece has better wireless range than pretty much well. They don't have better wireless range than the IEEE manifold system, but the IEEE manifold system is kind of you know going through some hard times right now and they need to get some stuff fixed before anybody jumps on that.
But the IEEE manifold by far has the best wireless range because they use the ZigBee protocol and their wireless probes and their repeatable. So you can go. You know like almost the sky's the limit as to how far you can go on those things. As long as you have enough repeaters, you are limited to how many repeaters I think you can have twelve devices on.
I could be completely wrong. It's been a while. I have all the high amount of old stuff, but it's literally just sitting in my back and in my van and I haven't used it in a while, but the field pieces is coming up really well, I think that the moment that they make Bluetooth repeatable, that's When everything's gon na change so and I'm sure they're working on that somehow or something like that, I'm not smart enough to know how that stuff works. So thanks so much Ryan. I really appreciate it. Then he said sweet van setup, that's really cool yeah! You know the field piece, Wireless yeah, it works well, but it also you know. Sometimes it's hit and miss. So you know I was working on a system the other day and I was eight feet away from the walk-in box.
I was on the roof and I was having problem problems connecting, but then again I don't know if I made a video about. No, I haven't made a video about it, yet I have a video filmed. I just haven't edited it down, but I was working on a shopping mall the other day and I'm up on a mezzanine behind this particular restaurant and 60 feet on the other side of a brick wall was my my heat pump, air handler or 40 feet, or Something like that and I had perfect range and all my stuff was connecting through a brick wall. So it's it all has to do with interference, and you know radio signals and all that fancy stuff and it can mess things up.
So I wouldn't necessarily say it's a problem with field piece. It's just you know sometimes there's interference. So you know everything can't be perfect. John.
You said the new high manifold graphics, suck yeah. You know I can say that honestly, I have been turned off of the eye manifold just by the update that they did six months ago. That's I really haven't used a sense. It really turned me off now.
I've also heard some people say it's pretty sweet once they get used to it. I was just a real fan of the old set up and I was so used to it and again maybe I'm just being stubborn and I don't like change and you know so. I was just kind of turned away, but I think I was already soured and I know that this is water under the bridge, but I was also soured under all the crap that happened a couple years ago with you know all the people that, like out, let Go from my manifold and stuff so that just kind of twisted everything up, but it is what it is, and you know I haven't thrown their stuff away. I have a lot of money and a ridiculous amount of money.
It's embarrassing invested in all the high manifold stuff, and I mean it's still a great product and as far as the range goes, it's still the best. I will preface and go back to say that you know I have used the I manifold stuff with measure quick and it works great with measure quick. So I just haven't used the high manifold app. I should say so.
Okay, something is long with the is wrong with the like button press it to see if it goes up, I don't know. I would appreciate, though, if, if you guys haven't already, if you would go to the video and give it a thumbs up, it'll definitely help the stream I'd much appreciate it. It helps me too. It basically ranks me better in search results and whatnot and helps my channel grow. So is the way I understand it, but again that's another thing that I'm not super smart with when it comes to the computer stuff. You know figuring out all this, this computer stuff and fancy audio stuff. I I'm kind of not that smart when it comes to this stuff guys, thank goodness for YouTube, because YouTube has really helped me to just be able to watch a video and learn how to set up stream labs or you know, but I still make mistakes on It all so I I appreciate that Miguel right on okay, so guys, let's uh, make sure if you guys, if I haven't answered a question or whatever like, let's throw it down into the bottom of the chat. So I don't have to go searching forever.
For these things, I don't want to get lost too far up in these things. I really appreciate all the guys that are saying sweet van setup. You know I get the inspiration from Andrew Greaves van layout, Facebook group, you know and and then seeing how a que sets up his stuff. You know that gave me a lot of inspiration and all the other guys on that Facebook group or a Facebook page or whatever.
You want to call it. You know and then there's another one too, it's more or less European, but it's what does it van racking group or something like that? It's very interesting because, like I swear that we're the only country that uses metal shelves in our vans, you know you look at the European countries and and a lot of those people they they just do all custom wood setups in their van, which actually is really Smart because you utilize more space that way because their shelves literally go up to the back of the van, whereas there's a lot of dead space on ours. That's kind of interesting to think about that he'll! You know most of our stuff is all metal, but I imagine the wood stuff gets pretty heavy when you get some of those, those guys that have their vans completely set up with all that wood, that's got to get heavy after a while. You know, I think, that you know the metal can definitely be lighter in some situations.
So interesting. Okay, let me go up into here, real, quick, okay. What do we see appreciate you guys hitting the like button? Thanks a lot man? Okay, okay, Damian! That's a really interesting question: you said grassland defrost clocks are no, and so I've covered this before, but I'll cover it again. I use grassland and Paragon defrost clocks.
I use a mechanical defrost clock in one situation and I use the grassland and the others where the grassland is weak is when it's mounted outdoors and when it's mounted in sandy conditions. That's where the grassland gets weak. Even if it's in a protective housing, the sand will still get inside of there and it gums it up or a moisture, rich environment. If you can mount a grassland downstairs or if it's not a sandy condition, so I'm in Southern California. So we have some pretty like chill climates in certain areas. You know, of course, if we go by the ocean, it's roll. You know everything gets eaten alive, but if we go out to the desert everything sandy but like in the Inland Empire, which is where I live for the most part, except for like three months, you know two months out of the year: it's pretty calm yeah. It gets hot, but it's not too windy.
It's not too sandy. So you know grassland clock works fine for the most part. I hear a lot of people saying that they have problems with them and I will say that there was a I'm about ten years ago that grassland had a bunch of bad clocks and I stopped using their clocks for about six months. They rectified that situation and I still use grasslands to this day, but I also use a Paragon on the flip side.
The mechanical 81 45 24, like a walk-in freezer yeah. I use those too. It just depends like you know. If I walk up to a system - and it has a pair gun on it - I'm probably gon na try to put the pair going back on it.
I'm not really gon na try to mess things up, just because I'm probably being lazy and I don't want to go through all the rewiring and reorganizing things. And likewise, if I walk up - and it has a grassland so long as I don't see a problem with either/or - then I'm just gon na keep it the way that it is and move on. But I will say: I'm not a fan of any of the oddball clocks that are out there. I pretty much only use grassland or Paragon.
Those are the only two that I use so, okay. What recovery machine would I recommend that's kind of a hard one for me, because I've used the appian g5 twin for so many years. That's not even funny. I've rebuilt them they're super easy to rebuild, but I will say that the field piece, whatever their vacuum - pump, the mr.
45 or something like that, whatever it's called, looks really appealing. I did get the the field piece vacuum pump: the vpat 5. I haven't even had a chance to use it yet, but it's a little bit heavier than I thought it was gon na be the vpat 5 is, but it's it seems like it's super well-built and on the fly. Oil change looks awesome.
You know I always was interested in the appian vacuum pump, but it was just so much money that I never could justify the cost on it. So I never got it. The field piece is definitely a lot less money than the happy on it. I want to say the field piece was like I'm so bad with things I want to say it was like 500 bucks correct me.
If I'm wrong guys, I think that's how much it costs a field piece, one, the vpat 5, and I want to say that that a peon isn't it like. 800 bucks. It's been a long time since I've looked but yeah. I ended up doing the field piece for the vacuum pump.
It works great and I've always used the a pion g5 twin recovery machine but um I I might consider getting the field piece recovery machine. You know we'll see, we'll see how you know when I need, when I the appian I mean if mine broke today, though I'd probably just rebuild it again, because they're super easy to change the valves on them, so I'll probably use it until the motor dies or Something and then we'll go from there, but I the pump I have on my van I've rebuilt it once already and it it was a couple years and I'll be honest with you. The only reason why I had to rebuild it was because a previous service tech kept turning the valves on it. When it was running, he doesn't work for us anymore, but yeah. He would like. He thought it was one of the old school vacuum pumps that you had to like purge, and so he constantly I kept telling him stop turning the valves on a peon, so you just turned it off and then actually you're supposed to leave the valves open on It too, even in storage, so that's the probably the only reason why the valves went down on it, but I will say what's interesting about the appian. Is you know it's always been touted, and this is the recovery machine - is that it's always been touted that it can recover liquid refrigerant. But when you pull it apart, the valves and the parts inside there they're all plastic it's kind of a trip, but it it works great.
So yeah Damien that that rigid right angle, drill I've actually had that for many years, probably three four years. I've had that thing I actually bought it when I was doing some drywall work at my house, because it's actually a multi-tool, it's not actually a right angle, drill per se, it's just a multi-tool that you can add different tools on so I used it as a Drywall cutter, when I was cutting around you know, receptacles like behind me the light switch and stuff cuz. I try walled my garage and I was cutting around the receptacles and I bought one of those that rigid thing as a multi-tool and then I realized that they had an impact head for it and then they have a drill head for it. So I just bought those because I already had it I have been well, I stepped away.
I don't I don't yeah, I mean it's still working so far, but I did get my my little 12-volt. What do you want to call it come on I'm having a blank here right now, Milwaukee fuel little drill driver from my tool bag. I have been using that that did replace my Dewalt. The only thing that was wrong with my Dewalt well actually was a couple things.
The light stopped working on my little Dewalt that I kept in my bag. This is just my little small one. I had an 18-volt the wall that I used to keep in my tool bag and so the light stopped working on it and the trigger kept sticking. And then all the rubber was like peeling off the drill driver.
It was still working, so I ended up picking up the the Milwaukee one because everybody's been talking about the Milwaukee stuff, so I figured I'd, try it out and I liked it so far. I'm gon na definitely consider moving with some more the 12-volt Milwaukee stuff, because I've heard nothing but good stuff about it, so we'll try it out, but there's also like, for instance, the other day I was doing a condenser coil cleaning and it was in an awkward Place it was actually the one where I was talking about the field piece, wireless probes, that had great reception - and this is a condensing unit - that's on a mezzanine in a parking structure. So it's on the second floor of a three story of parking structure. So it never sees sunlight okay, it only just sees ambient heat and it has a lot of dust in there, but there's no grease or anything because there's no exhaust fans in the area, so the condenser needed to be cleaned, and I was really thinking about picking Up but nobody had it in stock, the the Milwaukee cordless leaf blower. They have like a cordless leaf blower that works off of their 18 volt system or whatever, and I was gon na - go pick that up, because what I ended up cleaning the condenser with was my leaf blower for my house. I have a plug in one that I just plugged in, and I just blew the thing out, because it's just a bunch of dust and it blew it right out, nice and clean. I did have to split the coil. It was actually another one of my texts that was there doing it, but I mean we did it with the blower and it blew right out.
So I was thinking I might pick up one of those Milwaukee blowers for that for an instance like that that'd be kind of cool, you know just use the leaf blower to clean out the condenser and not have to use water or anything, because this particular situation, You can't really use water because it's on the second floor and it's a corrugated platform that you stand on so the water just goes down below and gets on patrons that are walking to like a movie theater and whatnot. So you really got to be cautious about using water up there. They even like they have people that wash cars in that parking structure and they have like diapers that soak up all the water. They don't let the water go down the drains or anything.
So that's kind of one of the joys of working and shopping malls, they're kind of silly like that: okay, okay. So what ryan trial said? What are the best advanced learning online Reed sources, besides me and Brian, or on HVAC school? Thank you for putting me in the category with Brian or because I would highly suggest you guys check out what Brian ores got going on, because that dude's a smart dude. You know, I didn't even know what to say about putting me in that category about things. Other online resources HVAC our edu or it's about Q, if you're in Southern California, they are an online resource.
Sometimes they have subsidized education. I heard they are getting rid of some of the subsidized education, but it's an online resource. It's ran by a gentleman named Chris Compton. If I remember right and it's some great stuff, they do all kinds of different trainings I've taken some classes, that's actually the class that I was talking about. I took one of dick worse, the the author of the refrigeration for air conditioning technicians book. I took a light commercial refrigeration course with dick Wars being taught online through it's about Q, which is also the same company as HVAC our edu. So they have a lot of training resources so check that out, oh right on lil Mac, yeah, I'm thinking about getting that leaf, blower! So no nastiness that I don't know if I'm pronouncing your youtube name right. I have not used blue on the app.
No. I have not used the app so um it. I don't want to talk crap about any one company, but man there's a lot of money behind the blue on stuff and more power to them. But man you look at their commercials and it's like it's so produced.
There's more money put into that commercial, then it seems like a very, very expensive commercial to produce and I'm not saying that that means they have a bad product. Okay, it's just kind of when I saw that it's kind of like I don't know, but some of the science I don't know, I'm not a smart enough person to analyze the science behind their claims. But you know their energy efficiency claims just by using these different things. I don't know man, I'm kind of heard, a lot of bad stuff about these retrofit refrigerants, so I'm very skeptical when it comes to any retrofit out there, pretty much so from personal experience and from just I don't know, but I could be completely proved wrong.
If someone from blue on is watching this hit me up, let's talk, you know, but I just I don't understand it so and it just seems kind of kind of sketched to me, but I could be completely wrong, so yeah Damien there's, I don't know it to Be honest with you Damien it doesn't matter. If someone hits the thumbs up, are the thumbs down button? Any interaction? Okay, not saying I want you guys to go all hit the thumbs down button, but there's about five guys on a regular that thumbs down my videos and I'm pretty sure it's the same five guys, because it's so consistent on the numbers constantly like every video. Has these particular five or three dislikes so it's got to be the same people. It's probably someone that I pissed off or something so whatever it doesn't bother me.
It is what it is appreciate it there, hizzouse, okay, yeah Ron. Walker was the original actually well. Oh shoot, what is the guy's name is in the back of the the RSES magazines and the indoor comfort news. There was the dude that used to make the training videos before YouTube.
👍 Are you in Barrhaven ?
Say, my freezer keeps building up ice when defrosting. About once a month I have to shut it down and get hot water and melt the ice that’s built up. I added a fourth time for it to defrost a day but it still isn’t working. Please help!
Great job again like always A+
I drove a van with all wood cabinets. It was really really nice. but yes they were extremely heavy. Was an E250 and it eat fuel and brakes…
Vulcan Lockring works well on R290 systems have fittings for conecting cap tubes as well. Service area Nepean??
Another great video. Thanks for all you do.
Hello i wanted to know if you can be a guest speaker at the UEI collage in riverside in our HVAC , class evening , class from 6 p.m to 11 p.m Monday throw Thursday . Talk a little about what you re doing and , a run of things to look forward to learning.Thanks
How much pressure adding to walk in freezer (bitzer compressor semi hermetic)
Your videos help a ton. Currently in the Santa Fe College HVAC/R program and love it. We watch some of your content in class.
Thank you for being you 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Why walk in freezer compressor going to vacuum when i fixing gauge to suction port please let me know sir
I still have my five and 10 pound Robinair charging cylinders from 30 years ago