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

Foreign, foreign, foreign. Thank you thank you thank you Hello! How is everybody doing today? I'm doing pretty good here just hanging out a little like chaotic at my house. Um, you don't realize how good you have it until your family leaves for just a couple hours. My family is my kids, you know.

my wife and my kids went off and did something today and so I got home and we've got dogs. So I had to like let the dogs out and you know all that stuff right? Okay, I'm sure there's a funny pun in there, but um, it's it's kind of funny. It's like having to babysit your own kids. You don't realize how much work your wife does until she leaves and then you're like, how do I do this Like and it's just dogs that I'm having to deal with but it's a bit crazy.

So if I have to get up and run out of here, it's because my dogs have done something horrible in the other room and I have to go solve that problem. Oh man, we are so fortunate to have significant others. If if you guys do I am I'm so fortunate my wife does so much and I don't think I give her enough credit because something as simple as they're leaving for a couple hours and I'm like oh my gosh, what is going on? What? Wait, wait. all these things you have to do but it's kind of crazy.

Hello to everybody in the chat I See lots of lots of great people in here so um am I a Baja man? um as in like racing? Uh, not really I don't know if that's what you mean by that will um, let's see or are you talking about the song but that's not Baja man anyways I don't know whatever I'm distracted. let me know in the chat I'll keep an eye on it. so got a couple things I want to talk about in the Stream As usual, if you guys have any questions or anything you guys want me to cover, feel free to throw it into the chat. just do me a favor and put it in caps lock that way.

uh okay. Baja Man made the song Okay, yeah, yeah. I got it. Um I see what you're saying? Yeah, no, um, but uh yeah.

feel free to put them in the chat, put them in caps lock. It helps me to see them Okay, Um, if I miss your questions, feel free to shoot me an email to Hvacrvideos Gmail.com and will thank you very much Um for continuing to be a supporter of the channel. Will Speed is a good friend of mine. He's in the chat right now, so if you guys are watching this after the fact, if if you guys don't know, there is an entire live chat now.

this is also streaming on several Facebook places like on my page and my profile and I think it's streaming in the HVAC overtime Facebook group and then it's streaming on LinkedIn it's streaming on YouTube so there's an entire chat going on that oftentimes most of you probably won't see, especially in the replay and you guys are missing out because there's a whole Community within the chat. Oftentimes there's other people helping other people like I'm answering people's questions and then people in the chat are answering people's questions. So you definitely want to try if you can to tune in to a live event because it really is a great community and there's a good good group of people that are constantly in here. Okay, so thank you very much for those that are curious who I am.

You may be popping this up on your social media for the first time or anything. My name is Chris and I'm an Hvacr service technician here in. Southern California I Started making videos on YouTube about five years ago now I think maybe six I don't know November of 2017 so whatever that is, someone can do the math. It was a long time ago, but I started making videos for my employees and then it just slowly turned into this thing that it's become.

and I do these q a live streams to kind of consolidate the questions. So um, you know when I upload videos I typically do two videos a week and one live stream a week and when I do, there's naturally a lot of questions or comments. Um, and I'm also completely open to feedback if you watch one of my videos and you have some criticism to give me. I'm a hundred percent willing to take criticism if you guys have advice in ways that I can better myself.

I'm always looking for that advice. just be courteous about it, right? But no, I'm always looking for feedback. Good, bad, Whatever it may be because if you have something or you can educate me, then it's an opportunity for me to learn. I'm always looking to learn.

Okay, that's something that as I've gotten older and I'm sure there's some people in the chat that can agree with me, but as I've gotten older, I actually look forward to being incorrect as weird as it sounds once you for me once I learn to let go of my ego and let go of my uh in a sense Pride but Pride isn't the right word I'd say more ego once I once I've learned to let go of my ego I'm now an open book and I love being proven wrong because then I get to learn a new thing and I love learning I really do it's it's a very great thing. and I also encourage everybody out there to share their knowledge. Okay, you know there's this old adage that if you shared your knowledge, you would no longer be needed and you would be replaced if that was ever true which I still don't even know if it was, but if that was ever true, it's not the case now. Okay, if you are a good technician, if you are competent, you're kind, you're courteous, and you're productive.

You will be employed for the rest of the foreseeable future no matter how much of your knowledge you share. Okay, so I encourage everybody out there to share the knowledge when none of us have it all. But if we communicate and share it with each other, there's potential that we can help the next guy. So I get a great dopamine.

Rush when I get emails or comments or anything like that that say something that I shared helped someone else that is a great feeling and I uh I encourage you guys all to try to experience that by sharing something and getting the um the Gratitude and getting the thank yous from the people that you shared that knowledge with. Okay, all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. um wink HVAC thank you very much for that Super Chat and hello from California wink says he is from Connecticut So right on man. All right.

Uh, let's see. Will Speed says being wrong means you learn something 100 I Love that. Uh, let's see Jason Johnson says okay so he's answering someone's question. Okay, so again, there's there's great things going on in the chat right now.

Um, reading through here. Uh, all right. cool. Lots of great people.

So the good guy says he has a true reach-in freezer not temping. Suction pressure is 40 PSIG System had saddle Taps added to the suction only. Okay, so uh yeah. you need to see both sides of the system.

You need to see the high side pressure and the low side pressure. Uh, to tell you anything, you're not going to be able to do it with just the low side pressure. So uh, and get rid of Saddle Taps saddle Taps are junk I'm assuming you're talking about the mechanical fittings that you tighten on with an allen wrench. Those things are junk and they leak so you want to take those out.

If that's what you're talking about. you want to weld something in there that's permanent with pressure ports, and then make sure the unit is completely defrosted. Make sure the evaporator is clean, the drains clear, make sure the condenser is clean. operate the box with no food in it, keep the doors shut and monitor it and see what happens.

Okay, get lots of temperatures. Temperature of the air going into the condenser, temperature of the air going into the evaporator, and just monitor the box and you will. You will learn a lot more about the unit, but you're not going to find out anything with just a suction pressure port, it's not going to do it for you. All right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

If I missed your stuff again, either repeat it, put it in caps lock again, keep putting it in the chat, and or um, uh, shoot me an email. HVAC Videos Gmail.com All right. I'm scrolling down right now to see what I'm missing in here. What's my biggest HVAC mistake That turned into a learning experience.

Hmm, you know sometimes these questions are hard to answer on the fly, but right off the top of my head, this wasn't a big mistake. but I can remember the first time that I had to call for help. My dad had to come out and help me and he was a little irritated because he had to drive about 45 minutes to come help me. Um, and you know there was probably a little bit of fault on his side, but also some lack of confidence on my side in the particular situation because I was brazing an expansion valve into a system.

so I had a failed expansion valve and this is one of the old um I think they were I don't know who made it but it was a peanut expansion valve. Okay, we called him a peanut expansion valve because they were tiny and they were little stainless steel expansion valves and not being confident in my braising abilities and being worried about ruining an expansion valve for the life of me I could not get the Silver solder to flow across the expansion valve. uh, connection points right where the the copper was being braised to the stainless steel valve. I was so afraid of overheating the valve that I wouldn't get it hot enough to allow the silver solder to flow into the valve joint to seal it up and that was a learning experience I Remember when my dad came out, you know he was, you know, irritated.

but then when he got there, he's like, all right. Here's the deal. You know you got to put flux on the joint, you got to make sure it's clean and you got to get it hot. And the interesting thing that I learned that day was Silver solder.

Or you know, yeah, Silver solder. We use 56 by the way, so we use a high silver content, but you know once that solder starts to flow, it acts like Plumbing solder like tin solder. It just flows all the way around, but you just got to get it hot enough. And that's always an uncomfortable situation when you're learning how to braise.

Because you're you're so hyper aware of that expansion valve getting overheated. And on a peanut valve little tiny one, there's nothing there to cool off with a wet towel. You can't do that and you know that's something that I get quite often when people are talking and they're like how come like for instance: I recorded a video today. it's not uploaded or anything yet.

but I can guarantee you that I'm going to get comments: How come I didn't protect the filter dryer with a wet towel or using a heat blocking compound like the Viper wet rag or you know, whatever you know, a cooling gel or something like how Come I didn't protect the dryer sometimes, especially when you're working on small stuff, there's not much you can do okay, and if you try to use a wet towel often times right, what'll actually happen is the towel will get so hot that the steam will start Rising off the towel and it'll actually affect your braised joint. And I know this is hard for people to understand, but when you're working in tiny little areas and you're trying to braise something really small right there and you have a wet towel right there, that steam is going to mess up your entire braised joint and it's not going to allow it to flow correctly. So you have to understand that there's a time and place and sometimes you can't get out all the fancy stuff now of course I try to protect my braised joints as much as possible I try to protect the components, but also sometimes you just got to go hot and heavy, right? Get that Torch Hot. Get in there, get it sealed up, and get out, Then cool it off right? Um, it's just it is what it is.

So I wouldn't call that like a big mistake, but it was definitely a learning moment I can remember that and I still remember the feeling, the awkwardness and everything. and then once I saw my dad do it I was like, really, like, literally just held it on there for about four seconds more than I was willing to do so and the solder just sucked right into the joint. You know, so sometimes and and so you know. Another thing too is that I have tailored the way that I Mentor people and teach people to the style that I needed when I was being brought up in the trade.

Now unfortunately, you know my dad's not perfect. My college professors weren't perfect. Um, the senior mechanic at my company wasn't perfect. Not everybody had one perfect way to teach me.

It was a mixture of everything. but for me, I'm the kind of person that you know. You show me how to do it once or twice and we're good to go. Okay, so I take that approach with my apprentices is that I make sure that they have an extended amount of time usually about a year.

most of the time, about a year is the the minimum apprenticeship time and then from that point forward I start releasing them a little bit at a time only on jobs that I know they can handle. Um, you know I came up a different way and I know there's a lot of people out there. Maybe you guys in the chat right now can comment if you guys came up this way but I came up the way where I just had to figure it out and there was some frustrating things about that that I really didn't care. Now granted I learned some valuable lessons, but I'm trying to make it a little bit easier for the future guys that come to work for me.

So I'm curious in the chat: are you guys the the the the throw the throw them to the wolves and see if they can survive or are you guys the more slow mentorship approach like which way do you prefer to train people and how were you trained? Were you trained? Were you thrown to the wolves or were you did you go through a proper apprenticeship? Um Michael Metzger thank you very much for that. Super Chat that is very, very awesome. I Really do appreciate it again. Thanks Bud.

Really, really cool. All right. All right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Um I am reading through the chat right.

now. Do I have a video on how to bypass an economizer for a train and a York Rtu for spring checkups Stephen Covington No I Do not my friend I apologize and that's not really something I can tell you how to do right here. So um, you can. uh I'm sure maybe someone in the chat? Yeah, it also depends on what type of economizer it is too.

Is it a jade economizer or is it an older Honeywell 7200 I'm trying to remember the numbers. it's been a while. uh what? I will say hold on foreign I Would highly encourage you to download this manual. This is the Honeywell Technical Reference Manual Design and Application Guide for Honeywell Economizer Controls.

Now everybody out there you guys. if you can get a print version of this, Do it. Okay, it's an awesome book, but if you open this up, this goes through Legacy controls all the way back. Old school controls in here.

the the the black modules I mean it goes through everything and it gives you wiring diagrams. Really does a great job of explaining going through the new controllers. This is a great book. I Highly encourage you to get this.

This will help you on a good majority of equipment out there. So the Honeywell Technical Reference Manual Design and Application Guide for Honeywell Economizer Controls Very good book to have. All right reading through the chat. Um, let's see.

Mario JR says the Wolves got the best of him. Um, cool. So let's see. uh Jason Johnson says he was thrown to the Wolves wasn't his favorite but it made him learn quick.

see a lot of people went to the Wolves uh Micah do I love being a technician. That is actually the my favorite thing about my job. I also run a business and and when I get stressed out when I'm just overwhelmed with everything because the business can be frustrating in different things. I get relaxed when I just go out and do service calls.

So yes I love being a technician I love fixing things I Just um, am not in love with running the business, but of course I appreciate the business. It's just kind of a love-hate relationship you have. Um, let's see. Oh wow, so very interesting.

A lot of people were thrown to the Wolves sink or swim. Yeah, very cool. Um I mean not very cool, but you know it's kind of one of those things. Um I'm reading through the chat right now and I'm reading about this question Steve is saying Honeywell Jade So I don't know if the original problem was on a Honeywell Jade controller or if someone else or if it's another controller in there the Honeywell Jades are not that hard to bypass.

they really aren't Uh, you could do with a couple jumper wires so uh Trey says he was put out there to figure it out. but you teach slow. You can usually listen to the customer and know if it's a call you should go to. Yeah, that's a good idea.

I I will oftentimes listen to service calls as they come in and I will think about them before I send certain technicians out now of course I want every single technician to be as confident in the type of work that I do as myself. Uh, not saying that I know everything, but I'm pretty confident in the type of equipment that I work on because I'm very familiar with it now. of course I want every technician to be as confident as me. but I'm going to be very careful about who I send out because we also have to worry about reputation.

So it's not just about my technician learning, it's also about find finding a balance between getting the equipment fixed as soon as possible. So that way the customer is satisfied with the repair you know of course in a perfect world I would love to continue sending the the service technician A out to the call that gets callbacks on the first thing that he tried to fix, right? So let's say he goes out and tries to fix something an ice machine and it works for a little bit but then it stops working again. Well, in a perfect world. I Want to send technician A back until he gets it completely figured out, but that's also problematic because then the customer starts to lose confidence in them.

On the flip side, it's also problematic if every time technician A goes out and tries to fix something that there's a callback that I go out and save the day. That's a problem too because then that makes the customer only want me to go out there. So it's definitely a balance finding a balance there between letting a technician go on his own callbacks but then also saying hey, All right, this is getting a little, you know, bad. So I need to go take care of it.

So usually what I do is I usually give them about one to two calls so if a technician has an issue we we try to fix it and it doesn't fix it and we get a call back. I'll usually let them run the Callback but if there's another call after that then I'm going out there because we need to get to the bottom of this and usually I'll take the technician with me depending on the situation and then we'll go through it together and we'll try to figure it out. But there's a very, very important lesson here if you are thorough and you document everything and you give the customer options. Oftentimes it's a way for you to get out of a callback and what I mean by that is I'm not trying to like, make it seem like we're going to go in there and and talk them out of something, right? But if you thoroughly go through the equipment and you're reading through everything and you're documenting everything and you're telling the customer, look, here's the main problem.

but here's some other issues that I see too. and I'm a little concerned about them. I'd love to dig in further, but it's going to cost a little bit more than the quoted amount because there's obviously other things going on. What it does is it gives you an out.

So that way, if there is a callback, then if the customer denied fixing those other things, well, it's not really a callback because you get where I'm going with that. So it's all about just understanding the relationship and communicating properly with the customer is a really important thing too. All right, reading through the chat. So I know I'm missing a lot of stuff.

So again, feel free to put it in there. and again I know there's going to be a lot of stuff that I'm not going to get to. Okay, so if I miss your questions, feel free to shoot an email. Uh, Trey says he tries to give the text three tries before you send someone else or yourself.

Yeah, and it's it's that fine line of, you know I I'm usually like the second callback, it's like okay, yeah, it's time for me to go back out there. Um, but it just depends. you know it depends. All right.

Um, take as much time. Okay, yeah, uh. so Will Speed is telling infowarrior to take as much time off as he needs because burnout is real. Burnout is real.

So it's a matter of finding a balance between work and your personal life. You got to find a happy balance there. Um, all right. Jason's saying that he's burnt out from last week and finally accepted.

you're not young anymore. You and me, both my friend, you and me both. I'm starting to get this: Uh, my wife says it's carpal tunnel in my left wrist where it just on the top of right here. it hurts all the time and it hurts in my wrist and I'm like what is it from You know, because I don't really do a lot with this hand at work like I don't know I don't feel like I'm as active as I used to be at work I definitely am not and yes, sometimes I sit at my computer and I type.

but what I actually think it's from is I tend to drive with my hand on the steering wheel and I tend to kind of lock my wrist and get into a comfortable position and drive with one hand on the steering wheel for a good majority of the time. and I think that's what's hurting my hand. but yeah, realizing that you're getting old. that is a real thing because I realize that every single day it's ridiculous.

All right. Um, we're all old, all right. So I'm gonna get to uh, some of my things on here. So um Keith in the beginning of the stream he said something and Keith it was very nice of you.

thank you very much. but he said that he's Blown Away with my knowledge and my work ethic. So the reason why I wanted to address this Keith that was very nice of you. I'm very humbled by those words.

That's awesome. Okay, but it's interesting because and and I don't I'm being serious. The knowledge that I have doesn't seem anything special to me, right? if that makes sense like I get it? I get that you guys are watching and people watch my videos and maybe they learn something, but it's hard for me to grasp that concept. So while I I don't know if this makes sense like I can understand and appreciate the fact that you're saying something nice to me and I'm thanking you for that.

but then at the same time it's hard for me to accept that praise I don't know how what that is. it's just hard for me to grasp the concept that you appreciate that like I don't know. but again, I'm thankful for it if any of that makes sense. um Mark asked uh in a recent video, it was one where uh, that I uploaded that I changed an evaporator, two compressors, a drain pan on that EC and Mark said, you know, is it not just cheaper to replace the entire unit? Okay, so here's how this works: I've talked about this before, but um, when I make a repair to a piece of equipment I give the customer options.

Uh, in that particular video, I changed an evaporator coil because it had restricted metering devices I changed two compressors. Um, we put our 22 back in the unit like we did a lot of work on it, right? It was an expensive repair I gave the customer a replacement option. Okay, in California it is very difficult to legally replace equipment. Okay, but um, customers even not legally right, not polling permits is still really expensive.

So the repair that I did was, probably you know, two-thirds of the cost of a replacement. And yeah, to me, they should have replaced that package unit. But at the same time, we couldn't get package units at that time. and still, to this day it's difficult.

I think I I got a quote from carrier for a four ton four ton heat pump. Uh, downshot. just a normal package unit. Nothing fancy and they said six month wait time for the package unit.

So it's hard to get equipment right now. it's It's hit and miss. sometimes you can find them, sometimes you can't So I always give my customers options I give them repair versus replace quotes and I let them, make the decision. If they choose to do a repair, then so be it.

I'm going to go ahead and Bill them for my time and I only warranty my workmanship I'm not warrantying the entire unit and it is what it is. So my customer made the decision I'm not gonna spend a bunch of time trying to convince them otherwise. I I Got other jobs to do so I'm just going to knock it out and be done with it. So um, all right, so let's cross that off real quick and look at the chat.

Um yes. uh. Chris Hn is asking me to talk about an automatic pump down system. Let me see, hold on just one second.

Um, yeah. so an automatic pump down system is something that we do on a refrigeration system to prevent uh, refrigerant migration. Okay, and then also Well, that's the main reason is to prevent refrigerant migration. prevent flooded starts.

What can happen in certain situations is the refrigerant is typically going to be attracted to the coldest place in the system. So sometimes the refrigerant might migrate all the way up to the compressor in the off cycle, or it might migrate all the way down to the evaporator. And oftentimes when it does that, if it migrates up to the compressor, what can actually happen is that refrigerant can mix with the refrigerant oil in the compressor and then when the compressor starts up, it can wash the oil out of the compressor. They call it a flooded start and it can wash the oil out of the compressor which can lead to a compressor failure.

So that is one of the main reasons why we will do a refrigeration pump down. So what we will do in a refrigeration system in a remote refrigeration system is we will install liquid line solenoid valve. Sometimes you can do it in air conditioning too for those same various reasons. Okay, but what we will do is install a liquid line solenoid valve on the liquid line and then the solenoid valve will turn on and off via a thermostat or a temperature controller.

Okay, so that's the main reason why you're typically going to see a pump down system. Okay is to prevent refrigerant migration. So when the system satisfies on temperature, the liquid line solenoid valve closes down. But then the compressor continues to run Okay and the compressor continues to run.

And the compressor has a storage vessel on the roof called a liquid line receiver. And that liquid volume receiver should be designed to store the entire refrigerant charge when the system is pumped down at the liquid line receiver. That's how they should be designed. Doesn't mean it's always going to be that way, but that's the main reason why you would use a pump down system or a pump down circuit or whatever is to prevent liquid migration.

All right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Um, let me see. New to Refrigeration Best advice to text besides open your ears mouth and yeah, open your ears, keep your mouth shut kind of a thing is is just be observant. Okay, be observant and be willing to help.

Be willing to learn. Uh, when you're on the roof, take lots of pictures when you can. and I say that because there's certain job sites that you're not allowed to take pictures on. Okay, especially if you work in government facilities and things like that.

Um, but just be willing to learn. Be very observant if you see something you don't understand, take a picture of it and do some research on it. Okay, as an apprentice. I don't know if you're an apprentice or not, but as an apprentice, uh, don't be afraid to be a gopher.

The guy that's going to go back and forth to to get parts and materials from the van because that's an opportunity to learn. Okay, there's an opportunity to learn every single day and you need to do it and just understand also when to ask questions. Uh, the the best piece of advice for refrigeration is to start out by getting a book called Commercial Refrigeration for Air Conditioning Technicians by Dick Wurz. Okay, get that book.

It will help to understand some of the fundamentals and it's a great. It's not a very big book and it's a great book. to keep in your vehicle in your work van. so that way when you're curious about something you have something to grab now.

Also, we have these really amazing things called smartphones that happen to store lots of information and give us access to all kinds of data. So also as a technician, one of the very important things you need to understand and learn how to do is how to research things. Okay, now there is, uh, lots of great resources out there if you need manuals. Um, you know for different pieces of equipment.

There's several manufacturers and and uh, companies that consolidate manuals. Uh, Blue On is one of them. They consolidate a lot of air conditioning manuals Parts Town does a lot of refrigeration and Appliance manuals. but guess what? It's not that hard to find the manuals yourself too.

and sometimes Blue On or sometimes Parts Town isn't going to have everything, so it's always handy to know how to research that stuff yourself, carrier the air conditioning manufacturer. They have some great resources, but you have to know how to find it if you're doing residential work and things like that. There's special contractor websites to find information from, and while it's not openly shared where to find it, it's not wrong to also find them on yourself, right? So you know, like if you want to find the contractor side of I just happen to know this one one off the top of my head right now. Arco Air Arco Air is a a carrier brand, right? It's one of the United Technologies brands or whatever company runs the entire I think it's United Technologies I think but Arco Air for residential side.

If you want to find the contractor side of their website, go to Goarcoair.com and you'll find the contractor side and you'll find lots of great manuals. So every manufacturer usually has a contractor side of their website. So if you go to Carrier.com that's the customer side, right? That's where the customer is going to go to find out about their information. You may or may not be able to find the contractor Side By going to Carrier.com you might have to do some other research and figure it out so you know, just understand how to research things online.

That's really important People ask me all the time. Where in the heck do I get my manuals that I carry with me the ice machine manuals, the different things I get them from the manufacturer, call the manufacturer, say hey, where can I find these manuals online or where can I buy them and they'll tell you. Okay, all right, let's see what else. I'm I know I'm scrolling past a lot of stuff.

so um okay. so James James is saying that chat GPT is quite informative with refrigeration and contain your answer many questions. He was very surprised. So it's that's very interesting that you say that because I was just having a conversation with Chat GPT Yesterday if you guys have been living under a rock and you don't know what chat GPT is, Chat GPT is a uh, how do you even explain it the easiest way to explain it.

It's an artificial intelligence, but essentially it's like talking to the Internet. Okay, so when you ask Chap Gpt's questions, what it does is it scours various sources across the internet and finds the answers to your question, but it answers them like it's a real person talking to you. It's kind of scary to be honest with you, but I was having a conversation with Chat GPT yesterday just researching some random information about CO2 being used as a refrigerant and R290 being used as a refrigerant. Chat GPT can be great until it's not okay because it what I tend to notice is it does a really good job of answering questions until it doesn't and then it goes way wrong.

So Chat GPT was doing a great job of answering all my questions about CO2 as a refrigerant. but then I saw something that didn't make sense and then from that point forward it went down a rabbit hole of wrong answers. So it's It's constantly learning. Um, you know.

but it also gets a lot of things wrong. so just be cautious about that. All right, let's see what else we got going on here. Can a mega ohmmeter test damage test? Oh, can a mega ohmmeter test damage a motor that's too old? That's a good question.

I mean I don't know. Maybe someone in the chat can answer that I mean I guess in a weird way, if you I mean is it possible to put too much voltage and damage the windings, that's a good question I don't know I don't know the answer to that I mean if if it's gonna damage a motor, is that motor already on the way out, that's that's a really good question. Okay, so uh George Robles is saying too little current. Yeah, that's kind of my thought too.

but I mean I guess there's a weird situation. Um, so yeah, who knows. All right. Uh, what was the name of that book? Hold on? Where is it? It's right here.

It's actually sitting at my desk right here. It's called Commercial Refrigeration For air conditioning technicians This is the fourth edition from the author Dick Wurz. This is a great book. It's not too thick, you just keep it in your truck and it gives you all kinds of great information.

And the other book that I showed too that you all want to doubt. Get this right! Here is the design and application guide for Honeywell Economizer Controls. It is the technical reference manual. You may or may not be able to find a print version of this, but you can definitely download it all right.

Let's see what else we got going on in here. If you use too high a voltage when making a motor, so Jason's saying yeah, you could damage it if you use too high of a voltage. So um, let's see, uh, double the voltage of what you're working? Yeah, and so that's that's what I've always done too. Whenever you're working on a motor, you double the voltage and that's the voltage you apply to it.

So I deal with a lot of 208 volt equipment. so I'm typically testing at 500 volts. So all right, Uh, gonna go get to some more questions. HVAC Life commented that they are, they are glad.

So he was responding to one of my videos that I had to do a late night service call when it was raining and he's commenting saying that he's glad he doesn't do a lot of refrigeration work, implying that it sucked that I was out in the rain and that is something that you have to factor in when deciding what kind of what line of work you want to go into is. and even in some air conditioning situations too, you might have 24-hour service depending on the kind of customers you you service right. But doing refrigeration work, especially in restaurants, What? I do? There is late night work. Now it's not as much as like a supermarket guy might get.

Where he's working all hours of the night, changing compressors and doing different things for the most part. I Don't do a lot of compressor changes overnight, but they do happen every couple years where we get a late night one. but I typically have one to two late night service calls a month, usually between myself. My company does right.

but I'm not getting them all because I have other technicians that are on call. But Refrigeration is a business in which you're going to be busy so you can get into a side of this industry that doesn't do those kind of calls if you need it, right? So you need to do that research and decide where you want to go. All right? Um, let me see through the chat. reading through.

If you guys have questions or things you want me to cover, you definitely want to put it in caps lock. So um, okay. cool reading through here. So why oh so in a recent video, I had an energy management system that wasn't working right.

It had a Siemens uh controller on it, had a whole Siemens energy management system and the controller was damaged. The customer ruined it because they got the wall wet. So in that situation I I Dropped a temporary thermostat down into the return air side of the ductwork. So the question is, why do that? Why drop it down into the return air side? I Kind of covered it in the video a little bit like I don't want to mount it in the unit because of how hot it gets outside and the control cabinet's probably going to exceed 130 degrees in the summertime, so the thermostat itself would just malfunction because it would get overheated.

So you know in a perfect world I Install it in place of the other thermostat down in the building that's mounted on the wall. But hear me out, that particular thermostat has some interesting electrical connections going to it. I didn't want to have to make anybody else work too hard. so the person that goes in to replace that thermostat and put the proper energy management system back in if that's what the customer decides to do.

I didn't want them to have to work really hard to figure out what wire went everywhere. The next thing is there's Zone sensors that are somewhere in the building who knows where and I didn't want to have to get involved in trying to hook up a Zone sensor that maybe had the wrong, uh, resistance value on it or something. Now in that situation, that particular thermostat that I use can actually go between a 20 K ohm and a 10K ohm Zone sensor so you can switch it over in there. But the whole point was what I did was a temporary solution and it was the best situation and the easiest to undo was my thought process behind that.

So instead of going in and removing the existing thermostat Off the Wall mounting the other one, unwiring it and rewiring it I just left the old one there because it's an automation system and it'll just be easier for the next guy when he goes to change that thermostat and or replace the automation system to do it that way. Okay, so that was my logic behind why I dropped it down in there versus putting it back on the wall. Um, reading through the chat, have I worked on a Four Seasons Rtu and if so, would I need a laptop to troubleshoot? No. I have not worked on a Four Seasons unit I believe those are giant dehumidification units, are they not? Um, I have not worked on one though.

So um, let me see. yeah, that's pretty crazy 7K for that Mega Jason that's pretty expensive man. Um, let's see reading through the chat right now. Uh, what is what? I just saw something about chat GPT I don't know if I printed that one or not.

You can feed chat GPT into info to digest too. Yes, you can. Uh, But so for instance, I went to chat GPT and I asked who the creator of HVAC videos was and it got it completely wrong. and then I informed chat GPT that I was the creator of HVAC videos and it said great and it gave me a compliment on the kind of work that I do in the feedback that I get from my commenters.

but then I went back a couple days later and asked it the same question and it got it wrong again. So clearly it has some sort of an algorithm about learning that it's not just going to be like Wikipedia where anybody can feed information into it. It's probably got some kind of fact checking setup going on so you don't just give it. There's another thing about chat GPT too is you have to know how to ask it the questions and oftentimes you can ask it the question several different way days and get different answers each time.

So it's not like going to take over the world today. Okay, it's you you do, there's there's certainly a way to use it and it's good at some things and then other things. that's not. on another note.

I Heard that there's a huge update coming and it's going to be like revolutionary for chat. GPT Let's see if that makes it any better. So um, reading through the chat right now, can I cover the topic of 240 volt line break using T-stat Wire Yeah, 100. that's actually the next thing.

So in a recent video I had um I had actually it was a video it was that was filmed all the way back last year I forgot about it I've been going through my hard drive and like finding videos so what actually happens I think I covered this recently. but what happens is oftentimes I'll I'll film very similar videos like back to back and maybe I posted probably a bunch of air conditioning videos and I was like all right I need something different so I I stopped posting air conditioning videos and started posting some more Refrigeration ones and then I just sat on the footage and then I forgot about it. So I was going through my hard drive of Wonders and I was like oh, this is an interesting video and then I watched it and then I saw that thermostat thing and then it all came back to me. So what happened was I went out to a customer and actually I think I'm going to do part two of that this week.

probably where I go back and fix the other two ACS There was actually quite a few things going on with those too. One of the ACs had a Linux Prodigy one board and it had a 5 amp fuse and it's only supposed to have a four a two amp control fuse and I'm like what the heck, some people, some people's kids right, they just blow me away. but anyways, um while I was diagnosing that I was like going through things and you guys saw I did like a YouTube short on it and I I put it in the video I found that they were powering the the smoke detector down in the building so that was the smoke detector being powered by that thermostat wire. They were powering the smoke detect well.

I shouldn't even say powering I Don't think they were powering it I Think what they were doing was they were running the control contacts down from the 240 volt side of the Transformer. Now first and foremost, that particular Linux unit is a Prodigy unit and right I showed it in the video right on the board. It clearly tells you how to wire the smoke detectors. It has a Uh R, a common and then an input wire and so what you do is you power it from the R and you run the r wire down through the smoke detector and you run it into a contact.

Now remember smoke detectors or duct detectors. It's a bunch of dry contacts in there. Okay, so when you power the duct detector the normally open and normally closed contacts, they're not energized. Okay, so you actually have to run jumper wires from the r over to the common of one of the contacts and then you do whatever you need to do with the other side of that contact.

The normally clothes are normally open and you you perform functions within the smoke detect sector. So in this situation they could have wired the the duct detectors in simply through using the the logic inside the board and wiring it to the smoke detector feature. but they didn't So I was in my head thinking okay, here's what they're doing: Old school mentality would just break the Transformer wires the 24 volt wire coming out of the Transformer. They would run it through the smoke detector through the contacts and then come back up and feed it to the thermostat or to the unit and then break it that way.

Because the theory was on older units, they didn't have smoke detector inputs or emergency stop features. So in this situation, someone made a mistake and they grabbed one side of the 240 volt line going into the Transformer and ran it through the thermostat wire. Okay, so I mentioned in the video that, um, they shouldn't be powering 240 volts through an 18 gauge thermostat wire. I Realized that in some weird situations, 18 gauge wire will be okay for 240 volts if you don't have a high current.

I Do realize that. But what? I Think people aren't realizing what was going on there. The the insulation on that 18 gauge thermostat wire is not rated for 240 volts. That insulation on, especially on Old thermostat wires.

That insulation gets hard and brittle and it cracks. Often times that is not rated for 240 volt. Okay, so in that situation, Also, thermostat wire typically has not ran in conduit. Sometimes they do.

In this situation, it was not renting conduit. Okay, so then another person brought up a great point. They said hey, Well there were only breaking one side of that 208 volt circuit. so technically it was only 120 volts going through that thermostat wire.

But do you remember I said they did it to both Transformers There was a control Transformer and a contactor Transformer depending on how the manufacturer Linux wired that unit up I Bet you anything the the phases are switching between the two Transformers I bet you they are I bet you anything to reduce the load. So that way they don't have both Transformers connecting to line A for one leg and line B for the other leg I bet you on one Transformer they do line A and line C and then on the other one, they do line B and line C or something like that. So there is the possibility that they actually were running 240 volts through that thermostat wire, but just 120 on each leg. So I realized that 18 gauge potentially can handle 240 volt current, but that insulation on that 18 gauge thermostat wire could not handle 240 volt current.

That was a very dangerous situation. Someone could have gotten hurt. The next thing to address is that typically right and this is the thing that we all need to remember: We always assume that everything's okay. We run across a thermostat wire and we're like, oh, it's just the thermostat wire I Don't mind dealing with it live.

You'll I'll strip wires all the time doing it live on thermostat wire I Do it often, right? But in this situation, if someone went to work on that duck detector and didn't know and just stuck their hands in there, they could have got hit with 240 volts. In most situations, you'll probably survive that, but in some you might not. and is that a risk that you're willing to take? Uh, this clearly was a dummy installer I Kind of felt bad about some of the things that I said in the video because it made me feel bad calling them the stupidest person in the world. But I mean that aggravated me right? That was irritating to see that kind of work being done and to know that someone potentially could have gotten hurt, right? That's kind of scary.

So that was completely incorrect on their part. so let me cross those ones off the list. Another thing too you know people didn't understand uh is that in some situations, depending on the size of the equipment, you might all you might call for a return and supply duct detector. Okay, so I didn't mean that there shouldn't be two duct detectors on that unit.

There actually should because it's a 15 ton unit. I think there should be a return and a supply detector and uh I technically did disconnect the second detector because I told the customer that they needed to get someone the the fire alarm company involved and they never got them involved. But yeah, so they are running with one duck detector on that unit. so let's go through the chat again.

I See a lot of stuff coming going by in the chat? um on the Siemens EMS call. What happens if a two-speed tap get energized two speed Taps get energized the same time Gabe So in that uh, video, that's a three-phase package unit? um, and uh, that particular blower motor. uh, you know that blower motor might have been single phase, but it's not a two speed. Um, so yeah, that wasn't a two-speed unit.

So um, all right. reading through here right now, did I figure out my home central air solution ductless mini split in the studio room? No. I have not. It is time to get going back on that again.

I Kind of took a break on everything because I needed to focus on some other priorities. But I want to get it done before the summer so I'm not climbing around in my attic. it's already getting in the middle of the day. it's hitting about 80 degrees in my attic.

So I want to get that work done I'm in the process. For those that don't know, I'm doing a replacement on my home HVAC system but something to understand, right? and I know people want to see the outcome and they want to see the results, but you have to remember something. It's my own home I Am not in a rush to get it done so you know I very well may install and redo the ductwork and do it. but it's going to be a project that's going to go on for a while.

so I'm sure it's going to be a series that I'm going to keep posting about. Um, so yeah. anyways, but nope. I haven't done anything yet I'm still dying in my office right now.

So because it's hot, All right, Um, read through that. um, what's the name of that video? Sure I don't know man. So the last two videos that I did the AC is heating and cooling at the same time. That's the one where I dropped a thermostat down in the ductwork and then I Can't believe they wired the smoke detector that way as the one with the duct detector.

So those are my most two recent full-length videos. Um, and I did find humor in the comments that someone said imagine if the smoke detector caused a fire in the building, that'd be pretty funny when you think about that. wouldn't it be ironic? The smoke detector that's supposed to shut down the air conditioner causes a fire because some dumb dumb wire 240 volt to the contacts. So um, so in the video I did like a a video too where I changed a contact or actually it was in that recent video with the duck detector down in the Ducks I changed a contactor and I showed my little tip where on the Mars contactors you can actually pull the lug screw out and pull the lug off.

and it'll accept normal screws because there's two types of contactors in the kind of work that I do, there's a contactor that has lugs and there's a contactor that has screws. If any of you ever worked on train Voyager equipment the package units, you'll know that Trane has their OEM contactors that have screw connections on one side and lugs on the other and I know there's some people out there. There's actually a lot of people that said why even bother doing what I did, why not just put a lug in there and cut off the little ends and shove the wires into the lugs. Well, here's why: sometimes in some situations there'll be multiple wires going to places and you don't have enough room on the contactor.

I Prefer to put back in is what's there. Sometimes wires are too short, sometimes you don't want to be cutting an inch off of the wire a half inch off the wire because they didn't leave you enough room, they didn't leave you enough slack and then you'd have to undo 50 billion zip ties and stretch the wire. So I prefer to go back in with what's there now. Uh, you know I love putting OEM parts in, but there's also things that I realize you don't necessarily have to use OEM for as long as you match up the specs on a contactor and it's rated for the voltage and the coil voltage and the duty cycle of that particular equipment.

There's no reason to go in with an Oem one sometimes that are oftentimes ridiculously overpriced. when I can just make the contactor with a normal off-the-shelf contactor, but understand that there's differences in certain types of contactors you have to know in the field when you can look at it and say this is a high quality contactor. I'm going to try to go back with the OEM because it's made with better parts or is it's just a cheap junk contactor anyways from the manufacturer I might as well just make it and use what I have on my truck and not have to spend two hours going to drive to get the parts. What about putting in flag connectors with those contactors? I Still don't have a flag connector tool so I still have not bought that I keep thinking about buying one and I just haven't done it.

Hey, while I got everybody here right now. If you guys are interested, check out my website Hvacrvideos.com We have merchandise available on there hats and t-shirts. I'm actually wearing the big Picture flag shirt so I'm sorry this isn't the big picture. this is the Hvacr videos one and then it has a flag on the sleeve.

Uh, check them out, they're available on the website Hvacrvideos.com if you guys are interested in helping support the channel. Um, let's see exhaust my computer heat outside. How many watts in BTUs was it? Dale Marr I don't even remember. dude.

Honestly, I think it was 2000 BTUs of heat was added by my computer. Okay, so Dale Here's the deal. if I exhaust my computer outside, we have to bring in makeup air. So if I have a fan pulling out 400 Cfms of air, 300 whatever it is, 100 Cfms of air, something's got to give and that's going to put a negative air pressure on my house.

So if I do that, then I have to make up for that air that I'm exhausting out and that's adding more air into the building. So it's definitely something that I have considered. but it's not as simple as that now. I've thought you know I mean a lot of people have said well take because of my computer is water cooled right? it's running glycol through it and all that fancy stuff.

But you know? Yeah. put the glycol uh, heat exchanger outside and and and fans on it and exhaust the heat out there and then you know there's all kinds of things you can do. but I don't want to get that difficult. I mean it's not going to be that big of a deal if I just add a mini split to my office or something like that.

So I'm still evaluating the best way to go about this. So um, what's the best way to be successful in HVAC as a high school student? Nathan Dude. I'm super stoked that you're interested in HVAC as a high school student. Okay, you are going to hit the ground running if you start studying now.

Uh, depending on where you're at, there's going to be all kinds of great training resources. Of course you can go to trade school local community colleges I encourage you not to spend a crap ton of money on a trade school. Okay, so if you're still in high school I want you to get a proper education and I want you to get trained. But a couple things you need to understand: Number one: you are not going to learn everything in trade school.

Of course, trade school is a must. You're going to learn the basics, but you're still not going to learn everything I Don't want you to go out and spend 35 40, 000 on an education and then realize that you still are going to start at a company as an apprentice. Okay, just because you went through trade school doesn't mean that you're now going to make a hundred thousand dollars a year. You're not.

You're going to start from the bottom and you're going to work your way up. I Prefer that people go through Community College programs or something like that that they're not blowing their Wad and and just spending all their money on. Now, of course there's those Diamonds in the Rough private trade schools that are expensive that'll give you a good high quality education. Unfortunately I Have to say, as far as the private schools go, there's more private schools that suck than there is private schools that are great.

That's the unfortunate truth in in the chat, Let me ask the chat right now for the HVAC technicians in the chat right now. Do you think that there's more good private schools? Or just answer my question. You get what I'm going I'm having a hard time getting that question out. but I mean do you guys agree that there's a good majority of the private schools that suck? You know? So I'd hate for you to go spend all your money Nathan on a trade school and then be in debt to get started in? HVAC There's no reason for that.

Okay, now if you go to a community college, uh, often times depending on where you're at, sometimes that can be subsidized education. There's also training resources that are local and then also. Another thing too is sometimes companies are willing to pay for Education too, you know? So um, but as a high school student, do some research. you're going to hit the ground running because you're going to have years over most of the other people.

Okay, so it's really awesome that you're interested. Um, on the job. training is good. Okay, but I still think that there is some value in a trade school.

That the reason why I want kids to get education from school is because they get the fundamentals that I cannot teach I Am not a person that's going to teach electrical Theory I Am not a person that's going to teach Refrigeration Theory I can teach them the know-hows and the the real world stuff. but I cannot teach electrical Theory So that's what trade school or a proper education is for. That's where you learn that kind of stuff. Um, reading through in here.

Ah, all right. Uh, you got paid to learn Hvacr learned it all through on-the-job training and now you're your company's lead service tech and and that's great. Okay, that is great. Um, A B Refrigeration Heating And Cooling says why do supermarkets put ice under the fish in a refrigerated display case simply for presentation.

That is absolutely the reason why they do it because underneath that ice is a stainless steel metal plate. Okay, and uh, the the ice is just something that looks good. The fish looks good on top of it. It also helps with the cooling because those display cases are not the greatest, especially if people leave doors open on them and stuff.

We're talking about the deli style fish cases and different things. Um, so yeah, they use crushed ice or flaked ice simply as uh, it just looks nice and the appearance looks better. Um, reading through here right now you only need like 100 Cfms that will be made up through the other House's exhaust fan leakage. Yeah, no see.

Dale that's not how my house is gonna work. I'm not gonna accept that we're going to be pulling through other exhaust fans because the exhaust fans in my house are all going to have Backdraft dampers on them so you're not going to be able to pull air in through the exhaust fans. they're only going to be able to push air out. Um I am going to be bringing fresh air into my house for sure.

but I don't really want to have in my head right now again. this may change as things go on. but I typically don't want to have some sort of an exhaust fan in my office or something like that. I'd rather have uh well, we'll see again.

That's just my my initial thought. but feel free to shoot me an email if you want to talk more about it. So all right, reading through the chat, have I seen Honeywell thermostats powering Heating and Cooling at the same time? Yeah. I mean you know it happens for sure all brands can do it.

Um, just means something's wrong. Do I think the Hvacr trade is underpaid? Dave M Well I don't know if it's underpaid I mean I try to be as Fair as possible for my service technicians and make sure that they're compensated. Of course you know I want to make more money as a business? you know So I guess in a way I'd say that you know there's certain people that are underpaid in the Hvacr industry for sure. Um, you know in companies you know I wish that companies could be charging more money.

Uh, you know if you're in a saturated Marketplace it's hard to raise your rates because there's always going to be someone that's going to be cheaper than you. So those are things you have to consider. So I guess Yes! I do think HVAC R techs for the most part are underpaid. Um, but there's also people that are paid very well.

Um, you know. So uh, let's see dedicated intake and exhaust for the CPU Definitely things I can do, you know? but I I just don't really want to be cutting a bunch of holes in my wall if I don't have to. I'm not going to live in this house forever. so I don't want to have to spend a bunch of money to have to patch things up when I leave out of the house.

So um, all right. I'm going to read through a couple more questions. uh, why not? Oh okay, so in exhaust fan video that I did about a week and a half ago I installed a European style disconnect switch that had a dial knob on it that you turned to turn off the power and the question was why in the heck did I not use a standard lever style disconnect switch that uses knives, right? So if you have a standard disconnect switch, you typically have a lever that goes in and it closes like this. Okay, a lever.

It's a handle that you pull and it's a disconnect and it opens and closes. There tend to be bigger. they accept fuses. Sometimes sometimes they can be non-infused So why didn't I use one of those instead of the the dial simply because of the environment that it was installed in.

That particular environment has a lot of blowing sand and I used a Nema 4X enclosure that is going to prevent that sand from getting into the disconnect switch. Now nothing's going to prevent it completely, but that is the main reason why I tried that switch. So that was an experiment because I typically don't use those style switches, but I did like it now. I'm going to go ahead and address the comments because the number one question that I got on that video when I installed that lever style disconnect switch was why in the heck did I bring power into the top of the switch and why didn't I bring it to the bottom? It was simply a mistake on my part.

Okay, but it's going to be fine I'm not worried about it I'm not going to go and correct it. It was a mistake on my part and I honestly didn't even think about it. and I can put you in my head space at the time we're in the middle between rainstorms I Drove up there when it wasn't raining, but it was supposed to be raining that day so in my mind I was already kind of like I need to get this done I hooked up the power to the top like the old one and then pulled the power from the bottom you know, like that one uh to to answer the questions too. I Got a bunch of people saying that I wired the switch wrong, that the power should have been coming in the top of the switch, the line voltage and then the load voltage should have been coming out the bottom of the switch.

it was people just got mistaken because the conduits were flipped, the conduit for um, the the the motor was coming in the top of the disconnect housing, but the wires were running to the bottom and the conduit for the line voltage was coming in the bottom and running to the top. So it was wired as far as the switch goes the right way. but simply if I would have just extended the seal, tight conduit coming out of the motor extended the wires I could have brought that down to the bottom and prevented a future problem of potential moisture getting in through the top of that switch. Yes, I could have done that.

That was just a mistake on my part, but I'm not worried about it and I'm not going to go correct it. It's fine. Okay, um, that. uh.

the main reason why the previous switch had faile