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 Daniel thank you thank you! Really, really good foreign what is up everybody? Let's see if I can do this right.

If I can figure out how to do this, let's remove that. There we go. So welcome to the Hvacr videos live stream. Uh got someone new sitting next to me on the other side.

that's uh Adrian from reliable HVAC R it is the r on your name right? Yes! Refrigeration Yeah so uh Adrian has a YouTube channel and uh, posts on Instagram Um, you do stuff on Facebook too. Uh, trying to kind of trying to recycle some stuff up on there. So let me ask you this. um can I ask you how old you are I'm 35 35 Okay, so you're not that much younger than me.

um I'm 40 or I'm a b40 this year? Um so uh, like have you ever been active on Facebook uh back when it was like I guess popular when it started and uh, tried it out for business and stuff. you know? yeah yeah, I'm still pretty active on Facebook Um, but it's probably old school. that's why I was asking how old you were because like when I run into a lot of people like my sister who's 10 or 15 years younger than me is? uh, Hvr stands for Randy Adam stop with the super chats Man, thank you though that's cool. Um Adam does that to distract me because he knows that.

it like throws me off when I see a super chat from Adam So it just messes everything up. but um yeah, so a little different tonight. I have a guest on. That's probably why I'm a little bit like not in my element because it's a little different.

but I've been trying to do different stuff lately. So um, Adrian and I actually got to do an interview uh, at the Parker Sporland booth at Ahr. but we were experiencing problems with the live streaming stuff and it actually wasn't live so that was kind of a bummer. Um, so uh I just figured hey, why not have them on? give them an opportunity to come on here and uh, I'm gonna go through a couple questions as usual and then I got a couple questions for Adrian.

So um, but as far as where everybody can find your information, it's reliable. Hvacr on YouTube and Instagram or your two main platforms main platforms. uh, trying out Tick Tock and Facebook Okay Cool! So I'm sure you can just look that up and find Ohm's electrical thing. Thank you very much for that super chat.

I Really appreciate it Man, yeah that is. That is a pretty cool name too. Ohms Electrical. That's pretty unique.

Um, all right. So um, got a couple things I want to talk about as usual. Uh, definitely want to get to the chat questions you guys have or comments or things you want to ask for myself. or Adrian do me a favor, put your comments or your questions in caps lock.

It helps me to see and understand. just like Jason Johnson said just put them in caps lock. It definitely helps it out. Okay, lots of great people in the chat right now.

look at: Kraus is in here. um all a lot of the normals. Chipmunk Mike B Weaver LED Handyman man. Lots of great people in here.

This is awesome. Lots of really, really cool people. Everything. Hvacr that's Steve right? Yeah, I'm almost positive that's Steve that's cool.

So lots of great people. You know the the HVAC Community is pretty cool. We got a pretty good group of friends and I feel like lately more so than ever we've been getting closer and closer and I think that's pretty cool I definitely think uh sorry I didn't mean to cut you off. What were you gonna say oh I said oh yeah like uh to me I don't think I can really talk shop locally too much and if I do, it's always the older guys that are not about doing things the right way or anything like that.

It's whatever they were raised on. Yeah, it's cool to go online like to Instagram or YouTube even in the comments and talk to guys that actually do or care about their work. and uh, either you know give you tips. you know it goes both ways like I try to show what I do at work but then I get people in the comments that actually correct some of the stuff or tell me how to do things better and it it's helpful for sure.

Yeah it is. And and I got to give props to um, you know there's always been uh, people being friends and you know little groups because that's how I met the overtime guys Adam Joe and Bill you know was because I used to watch their live streams when it was on a previous platform and we all got to know each other. But I will say that I got to give props to Ben Poole from HVAC Tactical because Ben is doing a great job bringing the industry together, especially on Instagram he's and even he's cross-platform bringing people together too. Um, oh yeah, we were both at the Tactical Awards and that was really cool.

Um, it was really neat. Were you at the awards the previous year? No, you weren't right. No because I missed. that's my flight that time.

yeah that was in Vegas at HR but uh, that was the first in-person tactical Awards and it was awesome and then the second one was even better so it was really cool. It was definitely a fun experience. Um I Saw a question on here and this is a really subjective question. Uh, first off, someone says, where's the time stamps on my videos uh I have honestly haven't had a chance to do those.

Um, you know it's one of those things that if if you realize how difficult it is to do time stamps I Was having my daughter help me for a while, but she's been really busy with school. um, you have to have your editing program Auto generate timestamps and then you have to go through and edit them because they're never correct. Uh, and then for me I make longer form videos. So already when I edit a video whatever the length is I've at least watched that video three times.

so I get kind of sick of hearing myself. but then when I'm doing the time stamps, I gotta go and re-watch it again so it adds a fourth time and then sit there and type everything out. It's kind of a pain in the butt so I like doing them and I get it? I I Know that people appreciate them, but it's just been kind of a pain in the butt. And actually, you know what? I'm also talking about Captions: Time stamps and captions are two different things, but they kind of go hand in hand.

Timestamps is when I go find the cool moments in the video and give it a time. but that's the same thing you run. Yeah, you're like good I kind of I kind of stopped doing that for a while too I mean I know it's helpful and everything but yeah, it's a lot of extra work to do after your videos like up already. Yeah and then YouTube for people that don't know that are watching right now YouTube has what they call the YouTube best practices and they want you to follow these so that way you make the algorithm happy and blah blah blah blah all this different stuff and uh, it just.

sometimes they add some of the most annoying requirements or things that you should do and it's like it seriously takes so much time sometimes and and again I get it like and I know I was mixing up captions and time stamps but both of them are actually really important because some people like timestamps to be able to find a certain moment in the video. but then as far as captions go too, captions captions are the worst. But I get it though because for the hearing impaired which I actually do have a few deaf people that are regular viewers of my videos. so like I get it, you know? and I still have the auto-generated captions from YouTube but those are completely incorrect.

So um so Adrian when it comes to the industry, what got you into the industry? Okay, so basically my dad got me into it. um like like most people they get into the trade I think they they either have a you know, their dads into it or a relative of some sort that gets them into it. The only thing with me is is my dad does not do HVAC he's a you know what we call like the hot side uh in the restaurant. so he does like uh, friars and Steamers grills all that stuff and he had started his own company and then he was I went as a helper.

so I used to work on the weekends because I had another job and I used to work on the weekends with him. you know, up early in the morning driving out to any like side jobs he he had collected when he started and then uh yeah I started as a helper. so I was working on grills and stuff when I started and I wasn't super into it and then uh, he's like well I want to be like an all-in-one company I don't want them calling somebody else to do another part of the restaurant you know and have two companies in there. Yeah, so he's like I'm gonna need somebody to do refrigeration and AC work and all that stuff.

so I'll say Okay found a school um like a college down here that did it. so I went to school for it I gotta basically an associate's degree for it because I was already going to school for something else I was going for like electrical engineering at that time and I was like I'll just switch over because I didn't know what I was going to do and uh you know, like I said got my degree there uh worked as soon as I could I wanted my license I got that right away as soon as I was eligible and we we run it together. Basically he does one side and I do the HVAC side. Okay yeah see I came up working for my dad too.

uh, grew up working with him holding the flashlight. um yeah, you know, doing that stuff and getting yelled at and uh, that's how you start Yeah I think we all had to, you know, get get yelled. there was one I Was telling this story recently where I can remember the restaurant I was at where I was at and I remember my dad. we were working on an AC and he had me hold this low voltage wire and he said don't let it touch anything and he walks away and I'm like I wonder what happens you know? So I'm just like running I literally just put it right to the side of the wall and then uh, it shorted out and then he comes back up and I was like uh, it accidentally touched.

he's like how did it accidentally why he was having me hold a low voltage wire like I Still don't understand that because like I think about it. it's a solid wire right? Nobody needs to hold it, it's it's everything else is still connected literally. just pull it and kind of isolate it. Don't touch, it's fine.

but I don't know what he was having me do. but I don't know. my dad's kind of like that too. When I started you know I mean I wasn't like I said I wasn't super into it I wasn't I was just trying to get you know a paycheck and go home I was I was really young so uh there was a few times where we would walk in together because I was working with him and then we would start something and he would just randomly leave and he would be gone for a while and stuff and then uh what? I noticed because like the guys that we worked with or they were my uncles, you know it was a family business and they're like oh yeah he does that.

He does that on purpose. He wants to see what you're going to do and if you're gonna you know, continue or or if you picked up anything and it's kind of like a like a little test or whatever. right? Yeah, my dad, um well let me ask. we'll see but your dad isn't in the Hvacr side but he kind of is inadvertently.

but uh yeah I grew up learning all the wrong methods I learned beer can cold I learned charge by pressures I learned vacuums weren't needed and I say this all the time. I'm not faulting my dad. Yeah, it was incorrect, but he wasn't the only person in the industry doing that in the late 80s, early 90s. You know when I was starting to come up into it, that was still pretty normal like a lot of people were that way.

um and you know it was. it was that and then when I would ask him questions and he wouldn't have the answer. that would drive me nuts, he'd be like ask your instructor because I was going to school at the same time and that drove me nuts. You know because my instructor didn't tell it to me in a way that I understood and so that that actually drove me to want to learn and message boards were really big to me.

HVAC Talk message board was huge to me. Yeah. I remember those that helped me so much Man, you know and uh and and it continues and it still happens today. Uh, the whole uh methods you know from the past because I still run into it now and when I started you know in the late 2000s or whatever it was um you know there was there was other guys that I was supposed to be learning from or working for to get you know my to get everything ready for so I can take my test and have everything uh in order because you need experience and all that.

Yeah and I was like like I would I would in my head I don't wanna step on anybody's toes but I'm like this is not the way we're supposed to be doing this. Yeah because I had went to school and I at least had an understanding of that stuff because we did all that recovery vacuum. You know they went over all that. Yeah, we had Hands-On at our school and then you go out in the field and it's completely different.

It's like everybody's using you know their own ways and it's like, um, it and still it still happens. I Run into some older text recently and they're just stubborn on that stuff. Yeah, it's definitely still. There's a lot of uh, incorrect stuff and I want to touch on that in a minute too.

But let me get there was a question earlier. Someone had asked what's the best meter? what's the best voltage meter? That's a real subjective question. I mean there's so many variables that go into that what kind of work you're doing? Um, you know. and then there's brand preference.

Um, you know. I I Personally have always been a field piece fan, but there's a time and place for a Fluke meter too. So I mean it's really, really dependent on what you like, but we're not knocking. I'm not knocking any of the other brands you know, if you like UEI or insert name of whatever meter, so be it.

as long as it works. you know, if you're doing refrigeration and air conditioning I'd say the most important things, especially if you do any kind of heating work uh, is you want to have uh, what is it millivolts and milliamps? Those those are beneficial to you and then also you want to make sure that your meter has capacitance Uh current, you know? I Worked with my dad coming up and we had a separate. We had an amp clamp. you had a separate and it wasn't even digital.

it was a uh, analog amp probe you know and you would just go up there and just that little scale of Bounce doing doing like weighted or whatever. Um, so you know, but but you're better off if you can get away with getting a clamp meter that has a clamp on it. Whatever works for you, Just buy, Buy whatever you can that just just max out your budget like you know it within reason, you know. But just just spend.

You know, whatever brand you decide to go with, buy the nicer one if you can afford it because it'll typically have a few more features that you'll like. Um, and you'll probably learn to like things that you don't even know you need. So yeah, you just want to research, um, see what each one has to. uh to offer.

I mean my dad's a fluke guy I'm a field piece guy myself. Yeah and it's it's kind of like a Hot Topic sometimes because I I personally got the uh SC I think it's like 680 or something like that the super tall one and everybody tells me it's it's too big and this and that. but I like the features that it has. yeah and I'd rather have them than you know not.

so that's the one that I go for. but I always tell people if you wanna or if you have a budget you know stick to one or the other they have I think three different meters. yeah in that that kind of style that am clamp meter yeah and uh, whatever fits your budget and just look at the features. If it does everything you needed to then go for it.

and like I said, my dad does fluke so he's he's real stubborn on it. I think I try to get him a field piece one time and he was like nah I can't use this so he's he's a flute guy and that's perfectly fine. It's it's whatever you know suits your needs and like the kind of work that you do 100 and there's so many people out there that say oh, this one sucks it's it's whatever you like, it's okay. you know, like we're not doing scientific work over here.

Okay, you know if we were doing super scientific electrical engineering work, yeah, I'd probably push you towards a really high-end fluke. That would be stupid expensive, right? But for what we're doing with the scales that we're working with, there's there's a good majority of meters out there that'll work just fine. It's just whatever you choose to use, you know? um, there's lots of different places you can buy it. It just depends, You know, So find your the best prices with the the qualities that you want.

see I Don't have the 680 I used to have those ones. those are the ones where the the head swivels a little bit. Um, I have the 480, which has basically all the features that the 680 does. except for it doesn't have the swivel head and it doesn't have the dual temperature readout so it only has a single temperature.

But again, that's what works for me. Something different works for Adrian That's fine, you know, like who who cares like it's funny when you see some of the groups or arguments people get into like all that meter sucks it's like dude, why does it matter what meter he uses You know, Yeah, they get so heated on some of that stuff but it's it's every Tech is different and the same thing when I when I show when I show my tools and stuff my my little Loadout I'm like this works for me I do troubleshooting and some service work I don't do you know anything else 90 of the time this is what works for me. And like everybody, every Tech is different. Load out your tools, your meter, your preference on different things.

Yeah and you know there's some things that like I have that you know normal service technicians probably don't need to have because I I do buy a few things because I'm making videos and it's like oh, that'd be cool to have that particular thermal imager because it has a bigger screen or buying a tablet that but that's a whole nother thing you don't have to buy like when I put stuff out. you know when I post a picture I don't really do a lot of tool stuff which I'm going to start doing a little bit more. but when I post that stuff, it's not to brag. It's not to say this is the best tools ever, it's just because Adrian knows this.

That's probably one of the more common questions you get as a content creator. Show me your tool bag, make a tool bag video and at first it was weird, but so many people are curious. you know, So again, to each their own, it is what it is. Um, so when it comes to let me get to a couple questions here that I had on my list before I forget to answer these.

So in a recent uh YouTube short and Instagram reel and just whatever short form video I Made a little comment because I posted a a clip of a Hoshizaki ice machine and I said something like these are really common issues with the Hoshizakis and the aeroquip fitting was loose and it was leaking and then it had a bad evaporator. The evaporator plates were bad, so you know it's one thing I Understand This is why I don't care for short form content. Unfortunately, we kind of have to do it with YouTube because they're It's the way that they do things. Now you have to do short form to get your content promoted and whatever.

So I kind of have to do it. But the problem with short form content is you can't give context, you know? So I make a little clip saying typical Hoshizaki problems and there's 50 billion questions. That machine's really dirty. That's what caused it.

It probably has the wrong size water line. That's what caused it and everybody has a thing. Um, no, none of those. You know if I if I would have made a full video on that, it would have made more sense.

No, that machine actually has normal water lines. Um, I did not install the machines, but I've serviced the machine since day one. It's not a cleaning issue that caused the evaporators to go bad. Yes, the machine was dirty.

I was actually there to clean it, but then I didn't clean it because the evaporator is ruined and I didn't want to cut the machine was still working. So I'm like I'm not going to clean it and cause the evaporator to separate more or anything I'm just going to leave it alone and go from there. but I was very surprised and I usually don't do this I usually don't call Brands out but I did call out on Hoshizaki because they told me that it was going to be eight months to a year for new evaporators and I have two machines right next to each other that are identical that both need evaporators and I was pretty blown away and uh, I don't know if you saw any of my I don't I don't think I said this in public. The other thing that Hoshizaki said was um they they when when they told us that it was going to be eight months to a year for new evaporators and they said no guarantees on that either they said but we have a solution.

We will give you a smaller evaporator that puts out less ice machine capacity under warranty and you can put it in the machine and so oh wow I went to the customer and I Go! This is on you bud, what do you want to do and he goes well, how much less capacity and I think they said like six or eight percent but I guarantee that six or eight percent is not at summer conditions I guarantee they're saying six or eight percent when it's cold and the ice machine actually produces the full 1600 pounds of ice on a normal working machine when it's a 1600 pounder, that's at perfect conditions. when it gets 115 outside, it's more like a thousand pounds or 1200 pounds. Like it reduces capacity big time. So I was kind of Blown Away that they offered that and so I put that on the customer I said here, you deal with this, you see what you tell me what you want I'm not even going to get involved in that one like I was I was pretty blown away, but you know there is also shortages and all manufacturers are going through that.

So uh, but the question that someone said was um, what caused the plate Separation on the machine because that's a real common thing across the country right now. Actually is people finding those ice machines that have plate separation and there's got to be something in the manufacturing or something like that because uh, it's happening everywhere. And I was thinking about something last night because in my comments, have you heard about the plate separation issues? Adrian as far as Hoshizaki, I haven't worked on those in in years, so um I Honestly haven't seen a lot of plate separation myself. Uh, I've seen two or three of them in the last couple years.

not not. I don't consider that to be a lot, but um I was sitting here thinking last night because I'm reading my comments and it's like 50 50. people are like I've never seen plate separation. there was let's say 50 comments saying they've never seen it and then there was 50 comments saying they have seen it.

What I was thinking about last night I was like why is it that there's still 50 comments in there and and you know that have never seen it? Well um well I guess I can't answer that But the point I was trying to make was, you know I communicate with people on a broader scale like I communicate with people all across the country because of social media and so I'm hearing about it more because I'm hearing from people all over the place, you know? So maybe it's not as big of a problem as I think, but I'm just hearing it from a lot of people. So um, the next question that I had on here was forgive me you didn't put your name so I didn't answer, put your name on this But someone asked if, uh, if they needed they're converting a system to 448 A. So I'm assuming they're talking about a walk-in freezer, a walk-in cooler and uh, they were saying that um, they were curious if they had to change the expansion valve. So when it comes to 448a, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you guys to lean on the manufacturer of the compressor, the manufacturer, the refrigerant, read all their documentation on retrofits and go from there.

Okay, don't just trust my word when I tell you about retrofits. But what I'm going to say is every one of those manufacturers is gonna tell you whatever they need to tell you to protect their equipment. Okay, but the refrigerant manufacturer is going to tell you something different. the refrigerant manufacturer is there to Market their refrigerant.

They want the refrigerant to be easier to use, faster to use and they don't want you to have to hassle with any of the BS that they consider to be frustrating or hard work. Okay, so they're going to tell you everything. So when you look at a refrigerant manufacturer's technical documentation of course right on the front of it, it's going to say no need to change oil. That's not with 448a, but I'm just talking about in general retrofit refrigerants, It's going to say no need to change oil, no need to change expansion valves.

We did this. We did that. But if you go to the back, the bottom, or the back of those sheets down in fine print, it'll typically say something like when it comes to the alternatives for R22 that they say you don't need to change oil, they'll say you know if long line set conditions exist. Oil changes are best if high pressure drop conditions exist.

Oil changes are best. They're basically covering their butt because in certain situations you don't need to do an oil change. But when I look at something like that, what that tells me is go ahead and do an oil change because if they've got it in the fine print, they're trying to cover their butt. So that way you just do it right.

If you ran into any of the retrofit refrigerants you've been using any of those. uh, the only one. the only one we had to worry about was R22 to be honest, uh, we haven't done anything for 404 yet. it hasn't I guess hit us Yeah, Um, so like for R22 we tried a few of them and I learned really quick that the whole drop in term people were taking it a little too literal yes and just trying to mix or just put it in and and not worry about the oil and that was a discussion actually was referring to when I said I've talked to older texts recently and I'm like oh yeah, we're talking about I was curious as to what they were using for R22 and they were using 407c and I'm like okay, that's one that I'm on right now that we're trying out and uh, I was like yeah, it's cool and all just got to do that oil change and then he looked at me.

he was like confused for a second. he's like no, you don't have to do that I've never done it, Everything works and yeah, you're good and I was like well, it's not what you're supposed to do but okay, yeah yeah and you know what. Again, if it works for you, whoever's watching it, so be it I mean it is what it is, but I have employees and I have to make whatever I do as easy as possible for everybody because the last thing you want to do as an employer is do things that are complicated, making it really difficult. So when we make decisions, we typically make decisions to make it as easy as possible for our employees and to cover our butt.

So for me I just I mean this last summer was the first time I used any retrofit refrigerants and honestly I didn't have good experiences with them. so I'm probably going back to R22 My customers are okay with that. They're like it is what it is, you know I don't really give them a choice per se, but you know. Um, this last summer everything that I put 407c in if it had a XV it did fine.

but if it was fixed orifice like carrier package units that have the fixed orifice metering devices. When it got above 110 degrees, those those units started blowing fuses left and right. The current went up like crazy on them. We had to put misters on him to bring it down and we charge them correctly using Target superheat.

Everything was on point and we just ran into nothing but problems with fixed orifice metering devices. So that's just my experience. But maybe Adrian doesn't have the same experience. So I'm not necessarily bashing the refrigerant.

I'm just saying use your the knowledge and the skills that you have. Read the installation instructions and don't just read the instructions from the refrigerant manufacturer. Lean on the compressor manufacturer, lean on the expansion belt manufacturer and see what they have to say about it too. You know, and that that's honestly I am not the best service technician out there and I'm pretty sure Adrian will say the same thing.

Um, it's just about wanting to be the best and trying to be the best, but also understanding that you're never going to be perfect. You know you're always going to make mistakes. no, and it's always about like you know, like you said, reading up, you know, get the manuals for everything I had a couple of them that recommended 407c so that's why we tried it out. like from Copeland and stuff and then you just read as much as you can research after work or if you're trying to figure out something for your customer research, it do all that.

uh as far as like the carrier units we haven't run into or we don't have any more that are R22 so all the carrier ones that I've seen are 410. Yeah, um, the ones that still have R22 tend to be the trains. Okay, run around here. so those are the ones that we converted I still have more R22 units than I have 410A units.

Oh really, it's so difficult to change equipment here. it's oh, that's right. Yeah, and and and I'm gonna be honest too. like you know you don't necessarily I mean you technically have to pull permits, but not everybody pulls permits.

but um, it's just a nightmare. It's a nightmare going through the permitting process. Um I mean they want basically the restaurant owners first born they want they want everything to pull a permit. There was a a little Mexican restaurant that a friend of mine called me uh during the lockdowns and all that stuff.

He called me on the phone he's like hey man he said I want to run something by you and he his company did air conditioning and they're just getting into Refrigeration so he'd call me with questions and he goes. We've got this little Mexican restaurant. They needed a new walk-in cooler. They sold them all new retrofit equipment so new evaporator, new line set, new condenser on the roof.

Well they went to go pull permits and what happened was the city got involved the city of San Bernardino and they basically came into the restaurant and they made the restaurant bring everything in the restaurant up to code I'm talking in order to get the permit signed off for the walk-in cooler they had to bring their fire sprinkler system up to code, which that one was arguably should have been done anyways. but they literally made them change the FRP covering on the walls because it was yellow like they went and made them re-tile in the restaurant like this is all to get signed off on their walking cooler to work. Um, the guy told me that after whatever my friend's quote was to change the walking cooler, the restaurant had to spend like an extra 30 Grand in repairs to be able to get the permit signed off on. Like that's what's kind of sad.

that's a bit. yeah, you know. and I I don't think they're I Guess they're not as strict here like we pull permits all the time. It's not a big deal, we get them done yeah in a relatively quick time and uh yeah.

like for the most part they'll opt to get a new equipment most of the time, especially for the older stuff. But I've I've heard and seen you talk about how hard it is over there. Yeah, it's a nut I mean even residential, it's nuts. Um for everybody that's wondering too.

Anybody new that's come in here this is Adrian from reliable Hvacr I know I don't have the names up I Typically don't put those up on stream yard I probably should, but whatever. Um but yeah. uh Adrian is a friend of mine and um I thought I'd have them on tonight. So I'm gonna try to do this a little bit more.

um Samuel mentioned uh oh. this is something interesting and Adrian could probably talk about this too. Samuel Mentioned that he's amazed in my videos. He notices that a good majority of the problems that I run into could have been prevented and also a good majority of them could have been prevented by doing routine maintenance on the equipment.

and I would say I would agree with that statement 110 A good majority of the problems that I run into on a day-to-day basis are totally prevent, and if they did more routine maintenance, they definitely could have caught a lot of problems. you ran into that too. Adrian It's something we're trying to push more, uh, lately. like we, we do have some maintenance like agreements and stuff and the ones that do it, you know they get it.

they're they don't want their equipment down. Um, they don't want all these expensive repairs that could have been prevented just by. you know, simple maintenance. It could be cleaning the coils, yeah, you know, checking the belts.

You know, really dumb things that you get called for on the weekends. It could have been prevented like honestly, like 90 of the time. and uh, even if we're there for something you know, like if I'm checking the ACs or whatnot I'll I'll keep an ear out I'll keep an eye out for different things that that we see on the roof. You know, some of the refrigeration equipment.

I'll go ahead and take a look at it. You know it might not be in the contract, but I'll take a look at it. Uh, you know, let them know if there's anything that needs to be taken care of. you go through the store.

you might want to walk through the walk-ins. you know you're there because you don't get called on the weekend. So nope. Nope.

I'm trying to prevent those service calls. Especially it it has started to happen. more so because a good majority of my customers do not do routine maintenance anymore. so at all.

And so with those ones. anytime I'm in their facility with their permission, I will go through, I'll just do a walk around on the roof and I'll do a walk around downstairs. Ironically I get permission from the corporate office to do that. but it's like a person in the corporate office like a facilities director.

The guy that's actually I work for technically because I technically don't work for the restaurants I work for the corporate office and oftentimes the facilities director like he wants to do routine maintenance. he gets it because he sees this. but it's the higher ups that don't want it because those numbers are scary you know? So he'll tell me like when you're on site, go look around. Yeah, please do walk around, take take 20 minutes I don't care.

walk around the restaurant find problems and we do that all the time. like and for a good majority of my restaurants. We don't do any routine maintenance but yet I find problems all the time when we're on site doing other things and then we just bring it up and we generate service calls. Boom boom boom.

Not being shady one bit at all. so no, you're just you're being honest. you're giving them a heads up. Yeah and like you said, for the most part you can generate a whole bunch more work.

uh just doing that just walking around kind of keeping an eye out and then like I put everything in writing I'll take pictures I do all that stuff and let them know and around here a lot of the uh store managers are are for it but it's always. it's always those higher ups that have the last saying it and you know they always talk about budget and stuff like that and I'm like all right. Eventually you know a compressor gives out here or there that's gonna end up costing more but you know you let the customer decide. Yep, I put it all in the customer's hands and see people say that because again, maybe I don't give enough context when I make videos but people will comment all the time.

You know you're you sure change a lot of equipment and it's like okay, First off, you know and then their argument will usually be you just want to sell stuff Well actually, if you know anything about my business model, I Actually don't get to sell very much at all. Um, because I work for these big giant commercial customers that actually buy all their own equipment. So all I'm there is just passing information along and they're making decisions on what they want to do. So throw that out the door, you know? But the next thing is, even if I was selling equipment, I'm not that type of person.

This is all in the customer's hands. I Give the customers a big picture quote and they choose whether or not they want to do it. That's that's pretty much how it is. You know, sometimes they say no, do we have to do all this stuff and I'm like no, not necessarily I mean it's just the compressor's bad.

why do you have an extra six hours in this quote? Well, when the compressor is installed and started back up I'm gonna try to find out why it went bad. Oh, we don't need you to do that. Okay, cool, Right on. here's your quote.

Eight hours to change the compressor and I'm out, you know. Give them the options, you know they make their decision. Yep, Um, so when it comes to YouTube and you know making content that you're doing does and I I think I know the answer to this but does that make you hungry to learn more? like do you get ever get humbled in the comments when people teach you something you know like hey, you know what, you did that a little bit wrong. You should have looked at this like do you get those kind of comments too I mean it happens yeah, it happens to everybody and uh, as long as it's in good uh, taste, that's fine I Actually I like to see uh that in the comments where they're like, um, they know more about something than I do.

Yeah So I had I and I have to tell people like we don't see a lot of stuff or a lot of the newer stuff here. um I Ran into a walk-in freezer like last year and I had never seen a scroll compressor on a walk-in freezer before. Okay, we have a lot of we have a lot of older equipment. we never had one of those and I had a at the time I didn't know what it was and I even had that in the video and I got tons of answers and the comments that it was like a uh, the liquid injector.

yep and I had no clue. People in the comments left me nice. You know paragraphs about what it was and I was like okay, cool I'm gonna go research it and I'll find out more learn on my own time and you know it's stuff like that that the YouTube part of it the Instagram like wherever I post that's the benefit to me you know is like I post and I post to help and all that I I try to talk to everybody who comments or messages me but if I learn something you know that's that's awesome and uh, definitely you know I go online and research everything I can. So um I mean it's a big help when people are watching and they know something that you don't I'm all for it I've been humbled so many times and and learned so much from the comments, people reaching out to me and and like Adrian said too, you know of course be courteous, right? You don't got to be a jerk.

but even from the jerks I'll I'll play with them sometimes too because I'll interact with him and go back and forth with them. just plain dumb. You're like, how can I get better and all this different stuff I have some pretty funny stories about those, but um, but I mean I learned stuff from everybody, right? So I I love learning. that's something as I'm getting older I'm actually getting I'm having more fun when I find out I'm wrong because it's another opportunity to learn something new.

So I'm I'm down for it all. Um, you know I remember the first time I saw a DTC valve or liquid injection on the side of a scroll too I was like what is that I said the same thing you did. so we've all been there I think one of these these we all have a defense mechanism I think a little bit in us where we don't want to show that we don't understand things you know I have pride you know and sometimes like. especially when I first started making content like I used to edit out the mistakes and then I started to feel really sick to myself because I'm like that's not real I actually screwed that up, you know? So I started leaving that stuff in and it's actually more satisfying to show people that I'm real and you know I make mistakes just like everybody else and I have to learn just like everybody else too.

Yeah, and I think I was like that too when I started I mean I didn't intend to show too much I didn't intend to try and explain everything I just kind of started posting and uh, after a while I was like, you know what you know, leave the mistakes in. leave all that stuff in because in the long run I want to show what it is or what it's like to be out in the field and stuff like that. and once I started posting more of that and stop cutting out things or editing or whatever I got more praise and I got uh, people that love that stuff so that's what they're looking for. They want to see.

You know, where did you mess up? where they can, you know? learn from that. Yeah, 100. Let's see if I can pull this up real quick. Invalid file Tip: I'm gonna share something really quick because someone had asked me a question before so let me try to figure the screen share thing out and window and one time I did this and I shared a bunch of stuff I shouldn't have shared so let's see if I do this.

Okay, so someone had asked me a question about um uh, exhaust fan wiring package that I did like a short like Instagram reel Facebook whatever thing. um on and I showed the typical operation of a hood control system in my area. Okay, understand something. the way that you set up a hood control system when it comes to the fire shutdown and different things like that changes from different City to municipality to Fire Marshal I mean so and it all depends on the hood manufacturer.

There's a lot of variables. Okay, so just because my systems operate like this doesn't mean that everybody else's are going to operate. So when I showed this it was a couple weeks ago. There was like four motor starters and like four relays.

And it was. and I had a couple switches and it was just the way that they operated. You know when you turned on power. This happened and there was a fire relay in there and someone had asked me a question, what the heck does the fire relay do So in this situation, if you look at the schematic, what the fire relay is doing is uh, down right here where it says Hood Okay, that's the main power switch.

When power comes through that, notice that it goes up and it goes through a normally closed contact on the fire relay and it energizes the air conditioners. Now when it says air conditioner in that particular building, what it actually is is it's the make up air units. Okay, because we get our makeup Air at this particular restaurant from the air conditioners. Okay, they don't have a standalone make up air unit.

So in this situation, why is the fire relay there? Well, if you look up here, we have a normally open fire contact. Okay, so when this unit goes into fire shutdown, this contact right here that's normally closed, opens and shuts down the makeup air for the building and this one closes. And uh, energizes well. If if you were to energize the fire relay, it would actually manually turn everything on.

So that's a whole nother conversation for another day. But just to answer that guy's question, that's what the fire relay does. Is it just uh, lets the air conditioner interlock relay basically turn on. So um, all right, so that's that question.

Um, oh I Wanted to talk about this so someone in my comments and I'm curious what you have to say about this too. Adrian So someone in my comments recently I had a video a while back where I went to a air conditioner repair and it had a horrible electrical service ran to it. the electrician was supposed to fix it. it was a disaster and they left all their trash on the roof and I ended up having to redo it.

They ruined, uh, like a 1200 disconnect switch in the air conditioner because they stripped out the giant lugs on it. It was like a giant Linux package in it. They stripped out the lugs. Actually this guy right here.

Bam! So it was this right here. it's a disconnect switch and on the bottom right here this lug. they stripped out the the screw that tightens to the wire and I couldn't find a lug so I had to change it. but anyways the question was the person said I hope that you took pictures of everything, gave it the restaurant and then told the restaurant to sue the previous contractor and I got a million questions like that.

Okay, so what did I do? I've answered this question so many times and I'm going to answer it in a live format I Don't get involved in any of that drama I'm not I Okay so let me tell you, in the past, I've gotten involved in that and I'm gonna tell you exactly what happens and it's the worst case scenario I get involved and I say this contractor did a bad job of doing what he was doing right Then the restaurant says well, that's good I'm gonna make them pay your bill. so then when I go to get my bill to the restaurant, the restaurant doesn't pay and I'm like hey, when are you gonna pay the bill we're waiting for that other contract to pay it well but I need you to pay it well no we're waiting for him to pay because he messed it up and then that contractor says well I didn't mess it up so I learned quickly. don't do any of that crap. all I do is I Went there for a service call.

The restaurant says what was wrong with it I said had a bad disconnect switch and I had to fix the electrical wiring because it was messed up Well we just had the electrician here I I don't know what to tell you I just had to fix this stuff and that's I'm not going to lie to him I'm just I'm going to give them just what they need to know and you know I'm not going to get involved. You guys ever run into any weird stuff like that honestly all the time. um kind of kind of. It's It's like if you if you tell them everything, like if you go into detail, if you try to put the blame on somebody and go down that route, you kind of open up a can of worms there 100 and uh, it never works out.

So like when I was younger yeah I used to try and do stuff like that like oh, like this company did this or that company did that or what were they thinking, this and that and in all honesty, they all some managers don't want to hear it either. Yeah, and they're good. They're gonna think that that's unprofessional. um and they're gonna be like why are you you know talking so much about this other company or why are you talking down, You know we called you to fix it or whatever.

So most of the time you can document stuff. If you need to take pictures or whatever and not necessarily have to, you know, tell the manager everything. Uh, just tell them what you found, you know, try and give them options, get it going for them pictures and but again, I just don't connect the dots for them. That's what I don't do I'll take pictures they say can you show me what happened I'll be like here's a picture.

This was bad. Well how did that go bad? It's hard to say you know, yeah because I'm not connecting the dots to the pointing fingers. That's what I try not to do. yeah because some of them will come behind you and kind of watch you or they'll walk in.

when you're working on something like in a walk-in yeah, uh, cooler or something and then you know they see something, they're like how did that happen or uh, who did that or or whatnot and then you know you kind of shrug it off. you're like I don't know, like you know we can get it going for you and just you know, try to just sell them what you're doing and not worry so much about the previous company. and I'm not gonna lie. and I and if they ask me a direct question, I'm gonna answer it.

but I just try to be as neutral as possible like I think it was Jason Johnson said it earlier. Just try to be as neutral as possible. Yeah, that's exactly it. I'm just I'm here to fix this I know that this was probably caused by someone else, but I'm just not getting involved in that drama like just just I'm here to fix it.

You want me to fix it. It's cool, you know? Yeah, same here. Like if they ask, I'll try and answer as as best as I can. but for the most part, like like he said, be neutral.

you know, do the do the job that you were called out there for and I don't know just yeah I wouldn't worry about the previous person or anything like that. No. and and another thing that I've learned too is is pointing fingers. It just it just doesn't work.

You know it. just it doesn't come back to work. good for you in the end. and also never, um, talking crap on people like? It's just why.

why talk crap on people like life is really too short and there's too much craziness going on in the world to be worried about what someone says or you wanting to prove yourself better than anybody? Just let all that stuff go. just be. you fix what? Yeah, you think you think it makes you look better or sound better, but it doesn't come off that way at all. No, um I lost my train of thought.

But yeah, anyways, it's all good. So when it comes to uh, obviously the content creation and stuff like are you getting overwhelmed with how much time you spend on the content creation? uh uh, yes or no I mean at the beginning I think I was putting way too much time into it to be honest and uh I don't know it was different right now I'm trying to make it I try to block it off to where it's like I spend a certain amount of time doing that and then you know, have time with my family, time for myself you know too. yeah and do other things because if when you get into the whole content creation thing it it can be overwhelming. um and me myself when I do my videos I I watch them like a hundred times I want to make sure I don't mess anything up uh, make sure everything uh looks good sounds good and uh I don't know I'm not a super like perfectionist but I have to watch it so many times and make sure it's good.

Yeah, uh Joe asks anyone got plans for a West Coast HVAC Symposium that would be so awesome? Uh, you know actually Brian said this a long time ago. Brian Orr from HVAC school. he's the the founder of the Hvacr training Symposium and HVAC school and all that stuff. but when Brian first started the Symposium and after the first one, he actually said that he thinks it would be cool if other people did them across the country too.

and I definitely think that'd be cool. but if you guys could only I don't even think anybody really knows how much work goes into one of those events. like it's amazing that Brian can pull that off. He has an amazing team behind him and uh, there's a lot of work that goes into one of those training events.

So um, I'm down to go to one on the west coast but I'm not down to do it I can imagine I'll help but yeah I can imagine I don't know how the whole Ahr thing goes either. Like that's a such a big event too. and even even talking to Ben I talked to him about the the award show because I was like how stressed out are you how you know all that and then that like even that kind of event. they're new, but they're You know it's bigger every year and and it's crazy the amount of work that goes into that.

I would love to go to the the Symposium I had thought about it. um I'm right in the middle though I'm in Texas so either way I gotta go. It's kind of a far uh trip but that one seems a good like a good one to go to because you'll get to enjoy it and see all the speakers and everything. Yeah, the Symposium definitely is awesome.

I've been to two of them I think um it is really cool. it's definitely worth it I encourage everybody to go to one at least for me. It's just hard though because I still run a business and I have employees and it's hard for me to get away from work like for Ahr I was gone for a week. um and then for the Symposium I would be gone for at least four days and and they were literally weeks apart so it was hard for me to get the time and this year I just had to make a decision.

Now in the previous years, I've done it where I did them both but I just am dead for weeks after. I'm exhausted so it's like I gotta I'm I'm having to learn how to find my piece too, you know and and how to try to find this balance between social media and um I don't even think we fully understand the implications of social media and the downside and the way like my wife is always, she's like I joke with her but she's like into all these weird I call it Voodoo vegan crap but um the reason why I call it Voodoo vegan crap is because she eats kind of a vegan diet and she's into all the essential oils and all that stuff. and I always used to make fun of her because she's into all that crap until one day she like put lavender on my wrist and then like it helped me fall asleep and I'm like oh that does work and all these weird things you know but um She's always telling me that you know I gotta find the happiness and whatever and um but anyways, yeah I'm losing my train of thought on that one yet too. But um so we talked about the crappy contractors and you know what do we do about that? I try not to get too involved in it.

um oh this is another great comment. Marcus had made a great comment that as a young guy entering the trade he was very surprised with how important the details are when it comes to the work that we do. and uh, there's A lot of Truth in that statement and I don't think that um I don't want to blame every school, but I'm just going to say schools in general are doing a good job at letting these kids know how important these details are. Uh, you know.

and also as the trade evolves and the higher efficient equipment comes out, you're starting to learn that these details really do matter. And yeah, while in the past we could get away without pulling a perfect vacuum and we could get away without you know, making sure that you know it's charged absolutely right. But like with this new equipment, like you got to be spot on and the customers I Don't know if you've experienced this Adrian but I've experienced that the customers are a lot less forgiving now than they were for me 20 years ago. Like they you'll get fired from a customer in a heartbeat.

You know for things that I did in my beginning that I got away with like and I made it right. but still I made mistakes and like people will fire you for that in an instant. Now you know. Yeah, you definitely have to worry about that more now.

I mean I I Try to keep our callbacks like to a minimum because word gets out really quick and a lot of the you know the new customers we get. You hear all these stories about like why they fired the previous one and and they catch on quick like yeah, you know companies that go out there and add freon all the time or companies that blow things up I hear about that stuff and you know they're they they talk so if you if you mess up um you got to worry about that more I think more so now. Uh because reputation is like a big thing so yep we're gonna try to keep him. try to keep the the callbacks to a minimum and you know, take care of your customer.

Yeah, keeping the callbacks to a minimum I Can't stress enough how important or you know it is to not have callbacks and of course you're always going to have something. but you know man, just just just take a few more minutes to check this or that or take a walk around after you fix something. take those extra few minutes to look around and make sure you did everything right and I know I have problems. but I've literally gone back up onto a roof two three times to make sure I turned a disconnect on like I I I just can't because I've done it so many times where I left it off that I I'll get in my van and I'm like wait a minute I was talking on the phone.

did I actually see that? I no I know I went up there and turned it on you know and then I'll go back and check again. It's like why it's on. Okay, you know, but I've done it. I'm a Nut same thing like I care and this is probably some undiagnosed crap.

but I carry two keys for my van in my pocket because I'm sick of getting locked out on my band. so I have a key in each pocket all the time and so it's things like that and like I have to hear the the horn chirp even though I know I locked it I have to hear the horn shirt like I gotta make sure you know I'm just I'm just a nut about that stuff because I'm afraid. how many times have you left your tool bag somewhere? Adrian I it's it's happened a few times and the last time that it happened it got stolen within like 15 minutes. So I learned real quick not to do that again.

yeah, that is. that is one man. There's nothing worse because I cover a big area probably. uh I don't even know mileage.

probably three 300 mile re range you know, in different directions or whatever and it's not regular that I bounce to each end. It's just that I I have a certain area I work within. but then if I do work for these really big customers, they're like we need you to take these three stores out in the boonies too and like these two stores over here. So I only go there for certain customers.

but there's times that I'll leave something an hour and a half two hours away from my house. I I It's happened so many times, probably three times maybe in my career, but it's happened enough that actually keeps spare. Tools in my van I have a toolbox that has pretty much everything I need for the most part, you know. adjustable wrenches, service wrenches Allen wrenches.

you know, just the basic stuff. an extra meter because oh my gosh, nothing worse than leaving a tool bag. Um yeah, I kind of done that too. like I have I have my bags I have a couple of bags on my van and then anything whenever I upgrade a tour or something like that I put the other tool in a toolbox just in case and then I have another tool bag in my personal vehicle like I don't know I just haven't spread out just in case.

Yeah, uh so Victor Flores says any advice for first year apprentices. so I kind of have a pretty generic advice that I give you, but it's it. I Think it's pretty important and it's first off, when you're an apprentice, don't you're not too good to do anything. Okay, you know you're not too good to be the Gopher the guy that's going down to the van to get the tools, to get the torch, to get the whatever because there's value in everything and you learn from everything So if you become that gopher, the guy that you know I send down to go, hey, go get my vacuum pump from my van.

Okay, well, what you can actually learn from that before you start doing your own work, you start learning the things that I need when I do a job right? So I'm doing a compressor replacement and I send you down to get the Torches Well what's the next step after I get done brazing the system up the vacuum pump. so hey, maybe grab the vacuum pump at the same time, start recognizing that stuff, start recognizing the patterns. You're going to become a better service technician. Another really good piece of advice and I'll let Adrian talk on this one too.

that I'll give to apprentices is when you can. okay, ask as many questions as possible, but also understand that there's a time and place for questions if I'm in the middle of raising something. I'm gonna say hey Bud, we're good. We'll talk about this when I'm done okay, but ask those questions and whenever you're on a roof when you can take as many pictures as possible and why I say when you can Because sometimes you'll work on these sensitive locations where you're not allowed to take pictures or a customer might have it in their fine print.

There's no filming on their property, that kind of stuff, so always be cautious of that. But take pictures of stuff, that. you don't understand and that you're curious about model numbers and serial numbers. And when you go home, start researching that stuff.

you'll become a better technician just by learning. So do you have any advice for new apprentices? Adrian I think I give similar points that you just made. But yeah, you got to be helpful. I Mean when you start, you're not going out there running calls yourself.

So when you're with somebody you know. like you said, make sure you're You're the one that helps them get their their equipment down. Uh, recognize. You know the stuff that you're grabbing.

You know, make sure you know what certain tools look like. you know the names of them because they're going to be asking you. like to go grab you. You know different things at different times during the call.

Um, and then when you're on the roof, go ahead and look at I would I would look at schematics uh, maybe take down some model numbers and then look them up when you get out of work. stuff like that and then uh I don't know. Just just when you work with somebody, you're trying to be as efficient as possible. So the worst thing is you know not knowing like I said the tools or you know, being upset.

if you're the one that has to go get them, get down and go get them. So I I would say um, stay off the phone when you don't need to be on it too when you're on the roof and you're working with something. especially for me When I'm working with someone, there's nothing worse than when I'm trying to teach and I'm talking to them and I turn around and they're staring at their phone. It's like why am I talking? You know, like why am I trying to educate you as I'm working and you're back there.

Stay: I Haven't had that in many years, but that's happened in the past you know and it's like hey Bud, you need to put down the phone. focus on work. You know, let's listen. Let's learn.

Um, you know there's a time and place to pick up your phone and take pictures and different things like that. and obviously it's when you know you're not needed to do something else. I Thought this comment was funny HVAC Boss wants to know who the Latino is HVAC boss knows who the Latino is, but that is a reliable Hvacr that is. Adrian So That's funny though.

Um, you know what's awesome too? This community again. we talked about it at the beginning. but this community of people, you know, we see a lot of the the same commenters in here. You know, they cross from platform to platform and it's really neat to be able to be.

You know in connection with all these people and you know, like my best friends, Adam Joe and Bill um, we met on the internet. You know that's the weirdest thing, but this has all afforded us the ability to meet and find people that are like-minded and I think that's really important? Uh, you know someone. uh, one of our regular viewers and one of our friends on the overtime show big Clive um he's actually li