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

And now let's cue up the intro music. Thank you thank you Foreign thank you thank you What is up everybody? Welcome To the Hvacr videos live stream: I See a lot of great familiar faces or familiar screen names I Guess you should say I'm not seeing anybody's faces but they're screen names. Do you even say screen name anymore? Is that the like or am I Dating myself when I say screen names screen names goes all the way back to AOL right when you had a screen name for aim AOL Instant Messenger Gosh, that was a long time ago. You know that like so I'm turning 40 this year.

Okay and uh, I I was like I don't know. 17 when the internet kind of became affordable to be able to have AOL and stuff and my parents like were slow adopters. so I don't think I got the internet password until I turned to 18. I had to ask my parents to log me on to the Internet so that way I could go online and download.

Um yeah, let's just not talk about what I was downloading. but um, no download. Uh, at the time it was like Napster right? because you were downloading music, you'd go online and you'd spend two hours finding like reputable sources to download from and then you'd schedule them all up and cue them and then go to bed and then you'd wake up in the morning and there'd be like four or five songs downloaded like you know that was dial-up internet too because you had the whole like sounds and everything to get logged on. Gosh that was so interesting! Telling my kids I have a 16 year old and a 13 year old telling them about how we used to have to ask permission to get on the internet and just oh man, dial Up Internet how slow it was.

it would take us all night to download a few songs. Good grief. I'm pretty sure that I still have some Case Logic um cases with CDs in them that have my mp3s that I downloaded like from Napster and stuff. My my pickup truck I had a 1988 Chevy S10 and in my pickup truck I had a CD player that could read MP3s so I could put in a CD that had just MP3s on it and you could have you know 100 songs on it or something like that because it wasn't a full file size.

Yeah that was interesting. What a what a time! What a time right now to think that we've got these AI generating things and yeah, it's just crazy what the technology is today. So hello to everybody in the chat. Lots of great people in here as usual.

Um, super tech. What do I think of freezing moisture when pulling a vacuum? My understanding is that it's nearly impossible to actually freeze moisture in a system. Um and in a typical system? Okay, it is possible, but my understanding is it's very very difficult. So I think a lot of people and myself included.

especially when the Advent of large diameter hoses and everything came out I don't know 10 years ago? whatever that was, you know, 15 years ago? um you know I think I even thought that maybe because a vacuum was taking so long that I know I mentioned it a few times. Maybe or something like that. you know it's taking too long. maybe it's you know Frozen inside the system or something like that.

and most of the the my understanding of all of that is is it's just not really happening and it's not very practical. Um so that's just my two cents on the matter. Um, let's see. Will Speed says he can assure me that he still has a Case Logic case full of downloaded music.

It's right here in his office. That's awesome. I'll have to go find mine. Uh a couple years back my my daughter was probably about 13 at the time, my oldest daughter and she was going through my closet in my bedroom and she found a giant moving box that had all my CDs in it and she was like Dad can I take these and I was like yeah, just don't get rid of them you know I like a giant box full of CDs so now she has them in her room and all occasionally like there's uh I had the most proud dad moment ever when my daughter came out of her room one day and uh it was when she came and asked me for the CDs right and I said yeah, just take them whatever and she had just gotten a CD player and it's you know like a CD player to her is nostalgic like a record player was to me right? because record players weren't that well known I had taped decks and then CDs um I can tell you my very first CD that I ever bought with my own money was Green Day the album dookie and then the very first CD that was given to me which would have been the very first CD that I had in my possession was uh the remastered version of uh the Eagles Hotel California album.

um but yeah crazy. But anyway so when my daughter excuse me when my daughter uh took my box of CDs she took him into a room and like the most proud dad moment ever was all of a sudden I heard out of her room you too and she was playing Joshua Tree and I could just hear it just you know, turn it up and then she comes out she's like Dad this is a really cool album and I'm like yeah it is That's like an amazing CD and it's it's that was really cool when she found my CDs and then you know she still like will go through and play them and it's It's a lot of fun. So all right let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. Hello my viewers, that's Dr Zarcloth Man I'd really like to you know I You know what would be awesome I need everybody in the chat to start emailing Dr Zarcloth Go find him right? he's I think his Channel's still there.

You could probably find his email address. Tell him to come on the overtime show. Oh man I would love to have Dr Zarkloff on the overtime show. That would be awesome Dr Z He was one of the very first YouTube channels that I started watching when I found HVAC content.

his name was Dr Z and he was an older gentleman. uh and he would always start his videos with hello my viewers ah that was awesome. that was a while back. All right.

So uh George Robles the stream is low quality. That's very interesting. Hmm yeah I don't see any reason why it would be low quality I don't know? All right, let's get through the chat right now. Uh, what else we got going on in here reading through here, reading through the chat, what thermal imager do I have? How much did I pay for it? Super tech I have a stupid expensive thermal imager.

Okay I'm going to tell you right now, majority of the people out there uh for thermal imaging cameras. The Fleur One Pro was my go-to for the longest time. It pretty much did everything that I needed to. uh I think I I think I have the Hick micro B20 maybe I think I think it was dang near a thousand bucks.

whatever it was and I bought that just for um videos use like most people that are doing like commercial refrigeration and air conditioning probably don't need a thermal imager like that one. I bought it just for videos, stuff to be able to do experiments and then also my house project which I'm still working on. so uh, reading through here real quick. All right, cool, good.

good to hear George George Had said that the stream was a little low quality but it cleared up on his end. so that's awesome. But um, yeah, lots of great people in here. Uh, everything.

Hvacr Steve What's up my friend? We need to do something. Man we're always interacting on social media and on YouTube I need to. Let's get you on the show. One day on this one we'll we'll have you on here Steve and we'll do some sort of a Hvacr and Friends Podcast interview thing with you.

Uh, maybe we'll get Bill Russell on there I don't know. It's been hard to get Bill to tie him down because he's been super busy. Um, but maybe it'll just be me and you Steve but we'll do an interview kind of a thing. So um, let's see what else.

B30 there you go Jason Johnson C Jason knows what I have I have the B30 There you go. All right. Um, let's see what else. uh, reading through here see: I don't even know which which thing I have I Here's the problem: I'm the type of person that I will research the heck out of things and I'm sure this has to do with whatever mental disorder that I have.

but I'll research the heck out of stuff like I go crazy doing research and I go back and forth and I contemplate it and I put things in my cart online and then I take them out and then I go back and forth and then I do more research. then I ask Facebook questions and I look at prices and I find the best place to buy things and then I buy it and then I forget everything and then I just know I have something stack it up. Thank you very very much for that. Super Chat man that was really awesome.

I will get to your question here in just one second. Um, but yeah. I I do all that research and then I I find the best price and then I purchase it and then all of a sudden it all vanishes from my brain. as to the reasoning as to what I bought as to why I bought it All that I know is that when people say why did you buy that, it's like I know I bought it for a reason but I can't quite remember the reason right now.

Okay, so I I my brain is kind of weird how that works, so stack it up again. Thank you very much for that super chat. Um, so for those that are watching right now on LinkedIn on Facebook um all the different Facebook groups because I'm posting in a couple different places understand something. The main platform that I stream on is YouTube Okay, if if I'm streaming on YouTube you have the ability to support the channel and that's what I mean by Super Chat someone has donated to the channel.

Okay, um, you guys don't have to do that. It's much appreciated if you do. But again, I appreciate any and every bit of support you guys can give and the easiest way to support support the live streams the YouTube channel. Any of that stuff is simply just watch the videos from beginning to end.

Leave feedback, interact comment thumbs Up! You can't do thumbs down anymore, but it used to be Thumbs Up Thumbs down. Whatever. That's the best way to help support the channel. And then of course if you want to go above and beyond, you know you can donate financially.

However, which way you choose to do Super Tech thinks much for that. Super Chat man where's the coke knows I haven't had um my my nose hairs I've been keeping them trimmed really good. See the problem is the reason why I used to have coconuts all the time where I'd always be like gosh my nose. It's because my nose hairs would get so long that they would interact with my beer, my mustache hairs and then the mustache hairs and the nose hairs would would touch each other and then that would tickle my nose and make me get Coke nose Okay So there you go.

Um so anyways Clifton you can stay on LinkedIn it's all good. but the only reason why I say that is I Noticed that if I go back and I watch the LinkedIn chat. oftentimes people I don't think the LinkedIn chat sees everything that's going on. there's there's a good majority of the people are watching on.

YouTube So this whole chat section going on and a lot of times you all are missing out on the chat so you can. You can watch this wherever you please like. It doesn't change anything but I'm just saying there's more interaction on YouTube and there's a whole uh I want to say like family it? you know it's it's a good group of people that interact and communicate within the chat, so it's really cool all right. So um, let me see what else we got going on in here.

Um, what's my r290 setup? My r290 setup is uh I mean it's a JB scale I don't know the part number. it's a JB wire or JB scale where the you know tank can screw right into it and that's pretty much it. And then I just use some stubby gauges or some digital probes. Either one, it's all good.

Um, see what else we got going on in here? Okay, whatever happened to Laska I see Alaska a lot on Facebook because we're Facebook friends and so I interact with him on Facebook every once in a while. But yeah, he hasn't been in the chat lately. So um okay. well I'm gonna get to a few of the uh questions that I have.

So as usual I started that off Started this off welcome to the HVAC videos live stream. You know the reason why I do these again just to kind of get because I know there's only you know quite a few people just coming in right now. The reason why I do these live streams is simply consolidate the questions from my videos and kind of address hot topic ideas. So I'm gonna I decided that when I do these live streams I want to start bringing in a little bit of a change of course I want to do q a Still right? I'm going to answer your guys's questions.

If you guys do have questions, it's best to put them in caps lock. Um, you know it helps me to see them when they're in capital letters. Okay, uh, let's see. Um Oh, Matthew Kane says just sent me a message on Facebook about the Eev he had a problem with today.

It's long-winded I'm assuming we were talking today. were we not Matthew I think I was talking with you about an Eev a Corel Eev problem you were having I think that was you. Wasn't it all right? Um, why don't I have NorCal Dave on the live stream Supertech? You know what? I've been trying to get NorCal Dave on the overtime show for a while now. Um, now that I'm doing guests on this, maybe I'll have them on this one time too.

You know the one thing about having guests and this is this is a problem that I'm trying to get past for myself. One of the issues that I have is I'm I'm an audio snob okay and I really like I get I get distracted and overwhelmed when there's a lot of noise going around or or if I'm watching a stream and then the audio is horrible I have a hard time. Okay, so I've been getting better and better at letting go of some of that because I realize it's my own issues in my head, right? It's just silly. So I've been trying to get past that a little bit more and more and just be cool with the fact that they don't have to have perfect audio.

So that's why I've been having guests on More and More and I'm slowly weaning myself off of the craziness that I've been dealing with. So all right, Um, let's talk A2l's Clifton All right. So Clifton if you guys don't know, is with Esco Institute Okay, and uh, they are. They have great, great materials about refrigerants.

Um, A2l's is the new Hot Topic right now and I I made a video last week where I was working on a hydrocarbon system. It's an A3 Refrigerant r290. Okay, and a lot of people are still very apprehensive about working with hydrocarbon refrigerants. Okay, if you're in the refrigeration sector, especially the Light commercial, you've probably been working with Hydrocarbons r290 for quite a while now.

A2ls are the new mildly flammable refrigerants that are coming to the air conditioning side. Okay, as you know, the the global warming is addressed more and more. We're trying to be a little bit smarter with our environment not releasing bad stuff into the environment. Inevitably, if you have a refrigerant, that refrigerant, even if you don't vent it into the atmosphere, let's just say R22 Okay, you have R22 in an air conditioner, it's manufactured and then once it's manufactured, it's put into operation in a machine.

And then if you know there's no catastrophic failures, that R22 is eventually recovered from that machine, then you turn it into a recycler or a reclaimed place or whatever you want to call it right. But you send it into a supply house. The supply house sends it out to be disposed of. Sometimes they will take that refrigerant, they will separate it, They will pull certain components out and do other things with it.

Other times, if they can't do anything with it, then they find a way to dispose of that refrigerant. Oftentimes a good majority of the stuff is disposed of where it still ends up hitting the environment in different ways and it's not the greatest. Okay, now what they're trying to do is they're trying to make refrigerants less and less hazardous to the environment. They have less global warming potential, and A2l is the answer to that.

Right now, A2l refrigerants are mildly flammable. Okay, and one really important thing to understand is this industry is: Ever Changing If you're afraid of change, then you need to get out of the industry right now. I'm dead serious. Okay, if you are not capable of changing your mindset and learning that change is inevitable, right? you have a rude awakening because this industry is changing all the time.

Every single week. There's something new coming out. A2l's is just the new flavor of the week. Okay, there's new refrigerants all the time and you know, inevitably, we're gonna be going to more natural refrigerants as the charge limitations are reduced.

Okay, and it's just how it's going to be. So we need to embrace change and we need to understand. Okay, um, let's see. Uh Clifton is saying that he just had his first R32 drum recovery cylinder completely full.

What do they do? That's a good question. Um I haven't gone down that path yet because I haven't worked with R32 But here's the other thing about the industry too is that we tend to implement regulations and changes before we figure out how we're gonna, um, deal with those regulations and changes, right? So they just throw stuff at the wall and then they say by this date, we have to be using this much of this refrigerant, this much of this whatever insert name of whatever thing, right? But we we tend to not figure out the details yet. Okay, so I can tell you there's a good majority of supply houses out there that if I took a drama R32 to my local supply houses, they would know what to do with it. Well, I'll tell you what they would do they would, they would take it from me, then they would call the the recycling company for me.

My local place uses a company called Chill Tech Okay, so they would call Chill Tech and Chill Tech would be like uh yeah, we can't accept R32 and then they tell me, well, we can't accept this so I'd probably end up sitting with it in my garage for a little while or my shop or something like that. But eventually we're going to figure out what to do with all that stuff and we're gonna figure out ways I think eventually it would be smart if they figured out a way that um, well yeah, I mean it's it's all change that we have to learn and figure out how to uh, deal with right? So I wanted to address a little Hot Topic item that I noticed on social media and I kind of commented a little bit in some of the Facebook groups. So over the weekend um I posted a video and this is the first place that I realized it was. I posted a video and I was using Measure Quick and I was having a problem with Measure Quick.

If you guys don't know, Measure Quick is a software that we use with a lot of our digital tools. It helps us as technicians to diagnose um, you know, systems and it gives you tips and and ideas and it also consolidates information. Now I'm not trying to flex I'm not trying to say I'm better than anybody I'm just old and I've been in the industry for quite a while and I'm used to the stuff that I work on. So for me, Measure Quick is a software that consolidates data so that way I can analyze it by looking at it.

Okay, so I hook up all my digital probes when I'm working on a package unit I turn on Measure Quick and it just gives me everything right. It does some really cool Auto calculations for airflow and it calculates superheat. It helps me to consolidate the data so I can look at it in one place on a tablet and then I can make a diagnosis. Okay, Measure Quick Also though for the less experienced and there's nothing wrong with having to use the troubleshooting or anything I'm about to talk about.

Okay, um, but for the people that need it, Measure Quick also will help you with diagnosing equipment. It will print out reports. It'll give you detailed information to pass on to the customer. This is especially important when you're dealing with residential customers where you want to prove to them that something is meeting whatever criteria you need it to.

Okay, so there was a a little software change within Measure Quick and it kind of just riled up everybody. Now here's what I'm going to say I Found out a little bit more information. but number one, they implemented two major changes in Measure Quick. Okay in that if you want to use Diagnostics and if you want to, um, uh, if you want to take screenshots, you have to be a premium member meaning that you have to pay for it.

Okay, Measure Quick has been a free app and it'll continue us to the best. Okay, let me before I go any further. I have no affiliation with Measure Quick. Okay I don't get compensated I don't get any perks I don't get anything right I promote the heck out of it.

but you know I don't I don't have any affiliation with them. Okay, so I got to make that clear. These are my opinions. These are things that I hear just because I hear things from other people in the industry.

Okay, so now the new changes are that if you want to use Diagnostics and you want to be able to take screenshots, then you have to be a premium member. To be a premium member, you have to buy something called qubits. Okay, this presented a problem and the Facebook groups are going insane. Reddit is going insane multiple Facebook groups.

People are losing their minds because all of a sudden something that everybody's been getting for free, being able to take screenshots and being able to have Diagnostics you now have to pay for it. Okay, I see two sides to this personal opinion: You're getting something. You're making money off of that app. so why shouldn't you have to pay a little something for it? Okay, I don't have a problem paying for Measure Quick.

Um, I'm gonna say uh whoa, who who the heck Adam Dude, thank you very much for that Super Chat Man, you didn't need to do that. Uh, that's my buddy Adam HVAC overtime. So um I don't mind paying a couple bucks for an app. Okay, the way that I see it is that that app helps me do my job and helps me to make money.

So why shouldn't I have to pay for that app? Okay, I mean think about it. Why shouldn't I you know they have spent hours and I bet you and I do not know this to be truth, but I bet you they've spent probably upwards of a couple million dollars in uh, developing that app. Okay, I I guarantee that they've spent a ridiculous amount of money. And yeah, I'm sure there's some revenue streams that they have, but for the most part you know I've heard some numbers.

It's kind of disappointing how many people actually subscribe to Measure Quick. Uh, I don't remember the numbers but I know I've heard them and they were like, kind of sad to think about that how how much it is. Okay, so um, Super Tech says always added screenshots to his work orders of Measure Quick and you know he says he's not going to pay. So you're not the only person that's saying that Super Tech, you really aren't.

There's a lot of people out there that are frustrated by this, but let's be honest. Okay, a while back when they implemented the premium features, uh, Jim Bergman the creator of Measure Quick, he said, you know he's going to implement these premium features so you can print out reports and you can do these different things and I remember when he when he said he was going to do premium features the internet went crazy then and people were like, well, we'll just screenshot everything, We'll just screenshot it. We'll just screenshot it instead of paying for a premium report. guys, you're circumventing he, he's trying to be cool about it I mean it's really not that much, right? Um, it really isn't And guys I I Pay for measure quick I Don't want to give everybody a hack, but I mean you know I pay for measure quick and it's it's not a big deal.

Okay, it really isn't I don't even use the reports and I pay just because I Feel bad I Just have money in a qubit account I don't even use the qubits. There's just money sitting in there I've had it in there for at least two years I've had money just sitting in the account and it's just there for it's their money that way because I benefit from that. Why shouldn't they charge for something? Okay, they don't. So someone, uh, in one of the Facebook groups too, they were like, you know, but they make money off of tool sales I mean they might get an affiliate commission from True Tech Tools.

but that's about it I Highly doubt and again, because I don't know this to be truth and I'd love to talk to someone who has more wisdom about this. Maybe I can get Jim on here or something, but you guys, message them, tell them to come on and talk to me about it. but I you know I again I just I I Don't understand why everybody's so apprehensive about paying a couple bucks. Okay now I will agree that I don't really like the way that Measure Quick does the qubits.

I would rather pay a monthly fee or an annual fee, but that's who you know. That's that's all. Another problem for another day, guys. attaching screenshots to your work order.

You're benefiting from a nap that you're not paying for and your company is making money off of it. and you're making money off of it. But Measurequick's not making money. Think about it.

Come on. really reflect on that. Okay, all right, let's see what the chat has to say. Um Jason Johnson says he used Measure Quick maybe 10 times.

He always forgets about it. Yeah, you know. Uh uh. let's see.

reading through the chat. uh what am I seeing support Jim pay for it? Uh oh, that was really awesome. Thank you Esco I'm assuming that was you Clifton that was a very very kind thing to do I really appreciate that Super Chat Man thank you very much. You didn't have to do that.

Um, let's see. Friendly neighborhood Maintenance guy says he did that for about a year but he's trying to get a company on board to pay for it and I get that. I get that you know getting in in. Okay, so let's look at it from a business owner's perspective.

My guys come to me and they're like man. I really like this I You know, will you pay for this and it's like if it was measure quick? Yeah, I would probably. But my guys for my company, we don't use reports we don't use Diagnostics we just use it for consolidation. Okay, because my guys have me to call for Diagnostics They have me to call for the information and as far as reporting, my customers don't care about reporting.

but I still support the app. Okay I I don't mind paying a couple bucks. so um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Okay, cool.

I'm gonna get to uh yeah. Esco does have a channel going on and um, if one of the moderators can do me a solid and find out the channel and post a link to Esco's channel in the chat, that would be amazing if you could do that please that way. I Don't have to Fumble around trying to go to Esco's so just post a link to Esko's YouTube channel so that way they can pop on here. Okay, um Esco is a training organization now.

Esco's a little bit different than other organizations and I really should have someone on here. So that way they can clarify because I'm sure I'm gonna stick my foot in my mouth a few times right now. But where Esco really specializes is not only does Esco have training materials for technicians, but they go and they train the Educators Okay, so you can buy a few books to study for different things for. you know, um, different, um, things within the industry, right? And they have several authors that work for Esco2.

Uh, Eugene Silverstein Jason Obju, both friends of mine, uh, they have both written several books and you know, so they they're they're a bunch of Educators right? But they also go and train the schools on how to teach the practices. and so that's a pretty good angle that they have going on. Where other educational resources are typically just training technicians, they're actually going for technicians and for the uh, the schools. So that way they can learn a little bit more.

Okay, all right, gonna get to a few more things. Remember, if you guys have uh, other things that you want me to cover, definitely throw them in caps lock. I'll try to get to it. Um, how am I liking the field piece Dr82 Tiffany asks The Dr-82 hands down, is probably my favorite refrigerant leak detector out there.

Uh, it. Just to be clear, full disclosure: the Dr-82 was not or is not capable of detecting hydrocarbon refrigerants, natural refrigerants. It's only for normal. um, you know, refrigerants that we work within in in the industry.

Okay, so it doesn't do with r290 doesn't do CO2 r600 any of that. Okay, but the Dr-82 is a great leak detector. I and again I Have worked with Fieldpiece in the past for promoting and stuff I am not currently working with them right now. Nothing against them I'm just saying that what I'm talking about right now is my own true feelings.

Okay I have the Dr-82 and I have the Dtec or Inficon. Stratus In my opinion, those are two of the best portable. Leak Detectors for the Light commercial refrigeration and air conditioning side. Okay, uh, the field piece leak detector I Want to say is four or five hundred bucks The the stratus is eight or nine hundred bucks and those are probably a couple years ago pricing so maybe they're a couple bucks more.

Okay, both of those go head to head. They both have features that are different than the other ones. One of my favorite features about the field piece leak detector is the lighted tip. so on the tip of it, it has a little LED light on it so when it senses a refrigerant, it starts lighting up and flickering.

I'm hard of hearing because I'm a refrigeration mechanic and I've been dumb with my lack of hearing protection for many years so I have a hard time hearing. Having that lighted tip is really awesome and then it has a numeric value that it assigns to the size of the leak. Okay, so it's a great leak detector. It does really good for what I do Now the Stratus again.

I've never had any affiliation with Inficon. Okay, they don't pay me for anything, but the Stratus is an amazing leak detector on its own too. And it has a PPM readout. A good majority of the people out there don't even understand because I see so many people on social media walking around with the Stratus and they're showing it on social media, taking pictures.

and they're using the PPM readout the PPM readout where it gives a numerical value and it's basically telling you the size and parts per million of the refrigerant sample that it's taking at the moment. When you have it in PPM mode, it's not the most sensitive mode most people out there should not be using. PPM The PPM mode or Cloud hunting mode is what they call it according to Inficon is meant for large refrigerant, saturated refrigerant areas. So let's say you're going into a rack room if you guys don't know what a rack room is and supermarket.

and Industrial Refrigeration will oftentimes consolidate a parallel rack into one tiny room that's very well insulated sometimes uh, to deaden some of the sound, But in that rack room, if you have refrigerant leaks, it's a confined space and it can be very difficult to pinpoint a leak when it's sensing the refrigerant all throughout there. Now another thing that I've gone countless times and said if you're ever walking into a rack room and you need the cloud hunting mode, you need to have a respirator on. Okay, you know I never understood that Where people are like going into the cloud hunting function into a rack room to find a leak and it's like you don't got to respirator on dude, you're breathing all that crap in. It's not good.

Okay, but the cloud hunting mode is meant when you get into a highly saturated room with refrigerant. It gives you a numeric value as you get closer to tell you as you're getting closer to the leak because if you had it in a normal mode, it would just be gone screaming at you, telling you there's a leak. but it can't pinpoint it right? and it's trying to Auto zero and and just you put it in the cloud hunting mode. So the Inficon is a really nice leak detector too.

One of the features or a couple of the features for the Inficon is they have different sensors that you can put in it. I would love to get my hands on the hydrocarbon sensor because they have you can use it for propane I have the Stratus. it's like man I'd love to be able to put the propane sensor in there and use that for my hydrocarbon leak detector. Okay because I currently have the gas Mate by Inficon and I Gotta say that leak detector sucks.

That's the the the hydrocarbon leak detector. It's for gas you know and all that stuff. but uh, that one sucks. It really does.

So I don't like the gas mate. but I really would like the propane sensor for the stratus I just probably need to order the sensor myself. But anyways, all right now that I took 10 minutes to answer that question. Uh, super tech.

um thank you very much for that super chat. So he says he uses the Stratus and Rack rooms all the time. There you go, That's the most important thing. Um, let me see what else.

Uh, Supertech says no respirator, just turn the exhaust on. Yeah, exhaust is on Advanced Refrigeration podcast my buddy Brett Wetzel's in here right now so um, reading through the chat. Uh, all right. okay, lots of great stuff going on.

uh Mike B says the gas mate is weak. yeah I don't really care for the gas mate. it's just a sensitive leak detector. Uh, so if you guys don't know, um, the gas mate reminds me a lot of the CPS leak.

Seeker I'm gonna date myself again too. the little yellow torpedo looking leak detector. or even before that, the uh, the very first uh D-tech leak detector I Remember my dad walking around with the D-tec leak detector the very first one. but um, the the CPS Leaf Seeker looked like a yellow one and it reminded me of the gas mate the one that I have now.

So all right. Um, okay. I'm gonna get to a few more things I have in here. So um I wanted to kind of cover something real quick.

You know Ai's just starting to become mainstream. People are starting to realize the potential of AI and one thing that I am already getting disgusted with uh, just again. When I say discuss it I have to. you guys understand something when I when I talk about things in my videos, it's my opinion and I realize that sometimes I don't have a filter on my mouth and I say things because you're you're literally hearing my troubleshooting process.

My troubleshooting process is I talk out loud. okay and I talk to myself. It would be no different if I didn't have a camera on I talk to myself. Okay, so sometimes I say things and and I don't have a filter on them right? So, but AI I I I see the potential.

but I'm already irritated with how many HVAC companies and sales organizations and training and just all these different people that are implementing AI chat Bots Okay, one of the things that I despise the most now. maybe I'm different than most other people and that's a very good possibility. but I despise not talking to a human I hate talking to robots I hate talking to you know, stupid prompt systems. Push three for this.

push that I'm screaming operator at my phone every just to get a ding operator on the phone like my wife can attest to that. Okay, so I can't handle this AI crap that's coming around for as far as the HVAC companies that are implementing sales calls and different things like I just I don't know I I Made a post on social media today saying I wouldn't be surprised if there's an HVAC company out there that goes and markets themselves saying we don't use AI we're going to be a real person that you're going to talk to when you call us. So all right, um, reading through in here. uh Troy Belding says he talks to himself too and people look at him weird, including his wife.

Don't worry about it. Yeah, um Mike B says he works with uh, the gas mate on the hot side and have good luck with it. Oh okay, good. um uh.

reading through the chat right now. see what? I'm missing? Get a small hit with a gas mate, then bubble the hell out of it. Yeah, that's what I would do have I ever used that Yellow Jacket r290 detector. Super tech.

No I have not never used it. So I have nothing bad to say about it. Um, everyone has earbuds now so it's normal for people to be talking to themselves. That is something that is very true.

So uh, all right, reading through. Okay so Greg had emailed me and he asked me a really good question and again if you guys email me and or leave a YouTube comment either one. okay Greg I don't know if you emailed me or left a YouTube comment I can't remember but I don't mind when Layman send me comments I don't mind when homeowners send me comments when non-experienced texts send me comments. um I don't mind.

Okay, so if you don't have an understanding of something, if you reach out to me and you ask me a question, I will try to get you the answer if I don't know it. Okay, but again, questions are good. Don't be afraid to ask what people call stupid questions. Okay, because a stupid question is a question in your brain so it's not stupid.

You just don't understand how that thing that you're asking a question about works and the best thing you can do is ask questions. Okay I am the person in a training seminar that bugs the heck out of the instructor because I'm asking questions I Love asking questions. Okay, uh I I that's how I learn as I'm getting older again I mentioned earlier I'm turning 40 this year um I look forward to being wrong because when I am wrong, it's an opportunity to learn. and I am craving and loving knowledge right now.

So I I love questions so ask them away. Okay so anyways Greg can ask me a question and he said look, why do I me He's asking me, why do I always preach that when you're pumping a system down I'm talking about a refrigeration system with a liquid line receiver so Greg is asking me, why do I always say that you need to have your low side and your high side on the system when you're pumping it down Okay So I want to ask the chat: Why is it important to have your high side gauge and your low side gauge on a system when you are pumping it down when you're stacking all the refrigerant up into the liquid line receiver? I'd like to see some answers from the chat. Someone put it in there. Wrong answers are fine guys.

If you don't know the answer, it's okay. I'm not going to criticize you, we're just going to explain why. It is a major major of of major importance to have your high side and your low side on the system when you're pumping it down. So ask them.

Okay, um, challenge accepted. Let's see what else we got going on here. Um yeah, Brad Yeah, don't please don't Brett No no I don't need you to be challenged by me saying ask stupid questions Okay, uh Jason Johnson says to see when the low pressure switch will open. That's another one.

Okay, so Brett Advanced Refrigeration Podcast says to make sure when it's pumping down, you don't have excess charge in there causing a high pressure situation that is 100 the exact answer that I was looking for. Brett You are the man. All right. So what Brett said when we are pumping a system down, you need to have high and low on there.

Okay, low side. so that way you can monitor the operation of the system. You you should have a low pressure control on a pump down system. If you don't, your compressor is not going to last too long.

Okay, but you need to be able to monitor your system to see when the low pressure control cuts out. Because guess what, when we're pumping down a system to make a repair? Remember I'm always preaching the big picture diagnoses, right? So we're looking at the big picture. So we're there to pump a system down to go work on something on the low side, right? We need to go change an expansion valve, clean a strainer, whatever. It may be okay, but we're not just pumping it down and disappearing and then just changing it and just ignoring everything else.

While we're pumping it down, we're looking at the cut out pressure of the low pressure control to see if it's accurate because low pressure controls fail. Okay, same thing when we have a high side gauge on there when it's pumping down. how would you know that it's overcharged? Because guess what? systems are overcharged all the time. Okay, what happens if you have a vessel of refrigerant right in? Refrigerant reacts to temperature and you're putting too much refrigerant into that vessel? Okay, and then all of a sudden it gets really hot outside.

If you have too much refrigerant and a vessel and the temperature that is going to change because the outside temperature changes, the pressure is going to change right? So as the temperature goes up, the pressure goes up in the system. Well, if you don't have enough storage capacity, if you don't have pressure relief devices, you can have a rupture of that storage vessel. that liquid line receiver. If you have a rupture of that storage vessel, that could be very, very bad.

Okay, you could have shrapnel flying. People could die from that. It's not something you want to have. Plus, you could damage your compressor.

You could damage other components in the system. You could damage. uh, Eevs, Ask me how I know you can Dam it. Or actually, you can damage pressure transducers.

That's one. Ask me how I know you can damage a pressure transducer because I've done it over pressurizing the system. You know pressure transducers are only meant to handle so much of a pressure and if you exceed that on some of them, you can damage them. Okay, so when we are working, we need to think big.

We need to think safe too. Okay, so when you're pumping down a system, you always have to have your high side and your low side on there. So that way you can monitor the system now. I'm going to tell you something else because I'm made this mistake and my dad had some things to say to me when I made this mistake.

Okay, we were going out to a restaurant to pump a particular piece of equipment down so that way we could take it a condensing unit. So they were doing a remodel in the restaurant and they were doing some work on the roof and we had to move a condensing unit for a day. Okay, so we pumped the condensing unit down, We disconnected the liquid line after the receiver and we disconnected the suction line. We pipped out the condensing unit and when we went to go pick it up, my dad was a little bit upset with me because when I pumped down the system I put my high side gauge on the receiver in my low side gauge on the service port, right? Well, this particular system, maybe some of you are going to know what I'm going to say right now, but this particular system didn't have a an access port on the receiver that had a Schrader in it.

so my high side gauge and my hoses were now attached to that system until we were ready to put it back into operation. Very important. So if and when possible when you are pumping down a system, it's actually best to put it on a high side port on something with a Schrader especially if you're going to be walking away from it to where you needed your gauges. In my situation.

we ended up having to take the hose because we had a ball valve on our hose off of our gauges and leave it at the restaurant the entire time until we were back the next day to fix it. So we didn't have our gauge hose and it was just a process. Okay, but it's all about safety. everybody? All right? let's read through the chat real quick.

Uh, look at that. My buddy Gill is in here HVAC HVAC Uncensored. What is up my friend? Gil Gil We need to do something together too because we've been talking about it forever. I need to get you on my stream and then I'll come on your thing and let's do it Man, we got to figure that out.

Okay, um, all right. reading through the chat right now. Um, all right. cool.

We are good. All right. Uh, Wyatt wants to get into HVAC This is a very interesting question. so why it? I Don't think you're gonna like my answer but I'm gonna be honest about this.

Okay, so Wyatt wants to get into HVAC His dad actually happens to run a plumbing company, so His idea is that he wants to go to HVAC School get certified and then open up an HVAC division within his dad's company. Hey, that sounds like a great idea. now. where I think you're not going to like what I have to say is that in all honesty I think and and again I'm sure you're a really smart dude, but you need at least five at least five, probably closer to ten years experience in my opinion before you can open an HVAC company and actually operate it.

The reason why I say that there's lots of people that don't have five to ten years experience and they open businesses and they're successful. Good for them. Okay, but for a good majority of the people, you're not going to have business understanding. You're not going to have technical understanding.

For you to be a an owner, especially of a small company, you need to be involved and you need to understand and you need to have experience. So I'd encourage you to have minimum five, probably more so 10 years experience before you try to open your own company. So I would suggest that you find local companies within your area and go work for a couple different local companies. obviously go to school, get on the job training, put in your time, then I think it would be a great idea if you opened up a division within your dad's company.

Now that's my opinion. I have I'm sure there's people on the chat right now screaming at me. That's horrible advice. I give a lot of bad advice all the time.

so take it as it is. Okay, All right. I'm reading through the chat. Uh, how do I feel about Aeon units? Uh, Randy Williamson I've only had my hands on maybe five or six basic basic Aeon package units I'm not talking.

They didn't even have digital controls at all. Okay, they were super basic. They were just package units. Um, didn't really have any bad experiences with them.

Uh, other than not knowing who my distributor was for Aeon at the time, I've since learned that out. but yeah, I don't really have anything bad to say about them. but I don't have a lot of experience. Okay, so um, but it looks like Jason's knocking it out and some other people are knocking it out.

Um, Gill says he agrees. uh Ryan the owner of Gill's company didn't but he's different and uh, he would recommend. Wouldn't recommend what his owner Ryan did okay and again. So the point that Gill's making is the point that I started that rant off with.

I'm sure there's some people that are very successful and it'll work for some, but majority of the people it's not going to work for it. Okay, so you need some experience, you need business training. Then you open up your company again. I am not a big big risk taker.

Okay, I am a uh uh, you know Dave Ramsey Save your money person. Okay, lots of cash reserves I Realize people say that's not the greatest, but I I'm a little bit I take little risks here and there, financially and in life. but for the most part I'm a pretty conservative person. I'm pretty.

um, you know, basic with the kind of stuff. So I'm not jumping out on a limb and saying that. you know I'm gonna open this business like this. I'm going to be more conservative about the things I do so you know.

hence why you see my videos. I'm very thorough I go through a process, you know and I'm not just boom boom boom knocking it out. So all right, reading through the chat. Um so Steve Rooker says that he just started a company and he has nine years experience and it's rough and 100 I'm I've been in the process of of taking over the company that I own right because my dad started it and he's been since semi retired for many years now and and I've taken more and more of a role and I mean pretty much you know my my dad's probably going to be gone in a year and a half or two years completely from the industry like he's not going to be running and so I have been doing more and more.

but I've been lucky in the way that my running of this company has been in increments. It wasn't just an all or nothing. So Steve says that he just started a company. so he's all or nothing man.

he hit the wall and he's like boom I was fortunate that I did it over time and I'm still not an expert. I'll admit that right now there's lots of mistakes that I make all the time. Okay, um, all right. so uh Mike Rogers what's up man, how you doing? Um, that is awesome.

All right. Uh, reading through the chat. uh, seen what? I'm missing? Um, okay. so Mike B r448a is awesome for walk-in freezers.

gotta watch low pressure settings. Oh and you know what? I need to go see something here real quick. Hold on because there was a question earlier about 448a that I think I missed. So let me read through here.

Oh man, uh. hold on. hold on viewer, let me see this. There we go.

Okay, so stack it up. Is R448a as bad as some safer freezers with scroll compressors and requiring liquid injection? Or should you just stick with 404a if available? r448a from my experience, has worked and I'm sorry I I started to answer your question earlier and then I forgot. So um, 448a is not a bad refrigerant. Okay, but 448a is a high Glide refrigerant.

Okay, that is the separation between the different saturation temperatures within the the refrigerant, right? There's a big temperature difference there. So um, with 448a, it does tend to run higher discharge temperatures. Okay, and when you run higher discharge temperatures, you have compressor cooling issues. So with Copeland they recommend a liquid injection valve.

Now Copeland has a patented you know, a special one that they have made called a DTC valve. It's a discharge temperature control and what it does is it has a sensing bulb that goes in the head of the compressor for their Scrolls and then it it. It's a basically an expansion valve. It's a temperature changing expansion valve just like a, you know, a typical one, but it uses a temperature well right and it opens and closes the expansion valve in meters refrigerant into the head of the compressor to cool it off.

So with 448a because of the high discharge temps, yes, you do have to have other considerations starting the stream out. Clifton has talked about E2l's and we were talking about them a little bit. There's a lot of change coming in this industry. Okay, you need to be okay with change.

If you're not okay with change, you better start making your plans to get out of the industry. Okay, so one of the things that we had to do is we had to learn how to deal with these high Glide refrigerants and we had to learn about the ramifications. 448a is a good refrigerant if used correctly if sized correctly. The best advice I can give you for 448a, You will have the best success with 448a if you follow the installation instructions to a T.

Okay, don't try to convert I I Shouldn't say that 448a will work as a conversion refrigerant too. If you want to take a 404a system and just put 448a, you may have to change some things within the system. Okay, a true conversion, but the best and the easiest way to be able to use it is to to do everything right and not do a conversion, but change the system over so change the valves, change the nozzles, and make sure that the system capacities are correct with the 448a and you will have the best success. You can use it in a system and convert it.

They've done it many times in supermarkets and all many other people have used 448a. After making some minor adjustments to the system, expansion, valve adjustments, nozzle changes, and different things, you can take an existing system and use 404a, but I mean 448a, but it's just a little bit more difficult so it's easiest to operate and work with. When it's a new install and you do everything by the book, you'll be just fine. Okay reading through the chat, seeing what I'm missing.

Um, so and there you go Clifton's already seen too. and again when I'm talking about changes the Hfcs like 448 air phasing down. Be careful with any Hfcs and and that is a point to be to listen to. As Hfcs are phasing down, you're going to see more changes.

So the point I'm making is you need to be okay with change because there's all kinds of change the way I see it. all these crazy changes, it's opportunity. It's it's opportunity for me to make more money. That's the way that I see it? Um, yeah, some of them can be frustrating.

You know, some of them. it's like, you know, oh man, that's a lot of work to change over to this refrigerant. It is. It Is it, you know.

But it's it's just part of everything and it's an opportunity to make more money. So that's bottom line, right? All right? Uh, reading through here. Um, okay. so uh.

I started again I mentioned earlier. You know when I'm making my videos I'm just rambling off in my head I'm talking about different things, right? I'm going crazy so sometimes stuff gets spewed out of my mouth without going through a filter. Okay, and and I can laugh about it because I think I even addressed it in the video I made a comment that I was irritated because that economizer actuator the set screw for it was a 10 millimeter and it's like for real this stupid metric junk. Gosh man, you know, so it's it's because I don't have the filter I I can laugh about it because I know I'm an idiot for saying that because I even addressed it in the video I mean if you really think about it, the metric system is actually super smart Okay because you're not dealing with all these stupid decimal places and oh my gosh, you know I mean try to do the mathematical calculations of 7 16 and 5, 8 and 3 16 and add those together on a calculator.

You know it's It's a little silly trying to figure that out, but with the Metric system, it's super easy, right? So I get it. but more or less the point and the reason why I laugh about that was because I was just irritated with the fact that I had to walk down to my van to go find a 10 millimeter and I didn't have it because I keep a 7 16 in my bag and it's like why couldn't it be 7 16. it's just because I'm lazy and I didn't want to walk down to my van so I kind of had a good laugh about that. Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

Um, who still has a 10 millimeter wrench? Isn't that the first one we lose? Yeah, uh well. I same thing I Went downstairs and I went to go get my quarter inch sockets and I couldn't find my 10 millimeter of course because I'll tell you if any of you guys Refrigeration guys Uh, ice machine guys, let's let's even be easier if you guys are ice machine technicians. where is the one place that you need to use? Uh, what ice machine manufacturer is the one ice machine manufacturer that everything is metric and what do you need A 10 millimeter for that is changed at least once every three years on that particular brand of ice machine? What's the 10 millimeter for? That's why I lost my quarter inch 10 millimeters because I was using them for that. So I'm asking the chat right now.

Um, what do we got? Uh, seeing if anybody will answer? um while I'm waiting for that one I wanted to see what they answered. uh, people were a little discouraged because in my recent video I said uh that when I work on R290 systems I no longer cut off the service ports when I leave. The reason why is I know that I can cut service ports off when you work on R290. A lot of the manufacturers want you to have no service ports on the system.

so I want to see if anybody answered that question real quick. Hoshizaki? That's right. Uh, Hoshizaki. So the Ice machine guys get it.

The Hoshizaki. Uh, the 10 millimeters for the water pumps. Uh, you would use a 10 millimeter deep socket on the water pumps all the time. and then everything else on a Hoshizaki's Metric too.

But for the most part, you don't have to deal with much more on those machines that you're using a wrench for. So it is Hoshizaki all right. Um, Anyway, so let's get back to this. So uh, working on R290 in my recent video Someone A couple people commented and I knew that I was going to get heat for this.

but as a business owner I made an executive decision at my company. If we go up to an R290 system majority of the time, it's not going to have service ports on it. Okay, so you have to cut in service ports while the system is full of refrigerant, non-oterized flammable refrigerant. So you gotta pinch off the the copper pipe, cut it off weld on an access fitting, then open up the pinch.

Port Then you have to access the system. Okay, so I made an uh executive decision at my company that when we are done working on that system, we no longer cut off the ports. Okay, uh, for for the the safety of my employees I decided that I don't want them cutting off the service ports with R290 in the system, We're going to go ahead and leave the service ports on now. A lot of people are a little frustrated and they're confused because I'm in.

Some of the comments and questions that I have is: isn't that the law from the EPA that it can't have service ports? Isn't that the law from the fire department that it can't have service ports? Uh, isn't that the manufacturer that says you can't have service ports? Uh, The only true answer right there is the manufacturer. Um, I Should be careful because maybe there's some weird fire department. But the reason why you're not supposed to have service ports on there is because it's a critically charged system and the manufacturer. For two.

Two points to the manufacturer. Number one, it's a flammable refrigerant. They want you to know that it's flammable before you try to put your gauges on it. If there's no service ports on there, it makes you think a little bit harder and look a little bit harder.

Maybe you'll see all the dang stickers all over the unit telling you that it's R290? Okay, but the other thing is is that it's a critically charged system. So sometimes you're talking about charges. You know, three ounces, two ounces of refrigerant in it, right? So if you put your service gauges on there, you, you've lost the refrigerant charge into your stubbies or whatever it is because it's such a minute amount. But at my company, I decided that when I am working on an R290 system and I am done.

uh, as long as it's one of my normal customers. Um, I am leaving the service fittings on I am marking them and we are making sure that people know that it's still R290. but I'm no longer cutting the service ports off. So I got a little bit of heat about that.

You know people saying you can't do that at the EPA law? It's not an EPA law. it's just the manufacturers. They get two bangs with their Buck there right safety and the fact that, um, it's critical charge so you know they don't want to have to lose the charge. All right.

reading through here. Um George says he hasn't had a chance, but he would put locking caps I did that I there's a system. There's an R290 system out there that has locking caps that I put on it because I keep locking caps in my van and I don't even know where that system is. So some I don't even think I do that store anymore I don't know I have no idea I don't remember I know I put it on a system out there.

But yeah. All right. Um, all right. Uh, can you use when you're working on uh, r290 systems hydrocarbon systems? someone? I mean these are legitimate questions.

Why am I buying a leak detector for R290 when you can just use a lighter? Okay, that's what someone asked me. I'm going to be clear: you do not use a lighter as a leak detector for r290 I Do not advise you to use a lighter as a leak detector for natural gas. Okay I realize Old Timers probably do it all the time I realize that there's Old Timer gas technicians. Actually, you guys want to go down a rabbit hole, go to YouTube and watch uh, gas technicians working on high pressure lines live and Welding on them with gas in them.

That'll blow your mind. That's some pretty crazy stuff when you see those dudes. Those old timers were nuts. But anyways, back to what I was talking about: Don't use a lighter to do a leak detection on a flammable refrigerant okay, or or natural gas.

It's just not a good idea. Yes, there are a lot of people who asked me about my freaking itchy nose earlier because it's hitting me now. Okay, thank you, Um, you. You started me on that one.

But just don't use a lighter guys. It's just not smart. The bad things can happen. Okay Let's read through the chat.

Um, Jason says he'd be a liar, say he didn't use a lighter for checking gas and you know again, most of the time nothing bad is going to happen. But I mean something bad happens that's not what you want, right? So let's not. Let's not hurt anybody. Let's not hurt yourself, right? All right? Uh Brandon asks why This was a funny question.

It was a really good one, but it's kind of funny understanding. So my recent video I worked on an air conditioner and I mentioned in the video that uh, super tech Again, thank you very much. That was you. You did that.

Thanks for that super chat, but that was you that started the coke nose thing. Man, that's funny. That made me laugh. So Brandon asked in my recent video why in the heck did they remodel the inside of the restaurant but they didn't touch the roof.

We have 20 plus year old package units on the roof, but they remodeled the inside. What the heck? It's a valid question when you deal with commercial restaurants, especially chains. They are less concerned with equipment, more concerned with the customer's image of the restaurant. So they want the customers to see pretty.

They want the customers to see nice new paint jobs. They want equipment working on the roof, but they don't need it to be super efficient. Unfortunately, that's how restaurants work and um, that's just the main chain. They they put more priority on paint colors in the building and new new booths than they do replacing air conditioning systems.

That's just how it is. So um, it's all down to money. So Paul asked me how well the zoom lock Max works I got a lot of heat because I posted about my Press Box because I put all my press tools into a box that I have and I have the zoom lock Max jaws and then they have the Water Press jaws and I put them into a box and took a picture and posted it on social media because I'm looking for new storage ideas for the box and I just got a bunch of heat from me talking about using press tools. Guys, there's a place for using press tools.

There's a place for brazing. I'm never going to do just one. I'm gonna do one or the other based on how well it'll benefit me at my company and my customers. Okay So if I use press, it's okay.

Gill Thank you very much for that. Super Chat Man, you didn't have to do tha