This is the HVACR Videos Q and A livestream originally aired 9/9/19 @ 5:PM (west coast time) where I discuss my most recent uploads and answer questions from emails and the chat.
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Yo how y'all doing, hopefully, you guys are doing well, it's cooling down a little bit here in SoCal, nothing crazy! I mean today. I think it was in the 90s, so it's better than 110. So that's cool, but I hope you guys are doing okay. I know that they that hurricane didn't quite hit the us as bad as they thought it was gon na be, but I'm sure some people are still getting some crazy rains and stuff up there, so hopefully everybody's safe.
I know I saw Alexandra in here. I think you guys dodged a bullet on that. One, didn't you Alexander, but I know it hit the Bahamas really bad. So I don't know if I don't think anybody from the Bahamas watches but yeah, hopefully they're all okay down there.
I know that's a kind of a pain but got a bunch of stuff. I want to cover today and definitely try to get to you guys's questions. So hopefully we can get to as much as possible. So how's it going Alexander, see you there, but haha good job Gabriel.
I was wondering if anybody would get any of those quotes, so I like the throw silly little quotes inside there so Gabriel seem to get it pretty quick with space balls. So there's a couple other movies every once in a while. I show a few in there so right on. Well, I'm still super humbled by all you guys that are coming in here.
It's kind of crazy. I still don't understand. I mean I get it, but you know it's just it's still kind of weird for me to think that you guys come in here to listen to me, talk for an hour so but I'll try to do my best to give you guys some good information, I For the guys that are just coming in here right now, I'm sure everybody knows what I do here, but I try to answer the questions from my live streams and then I mean sorry from my previous videos and then I also when you guys send me emails. I go through them if I can't answer it through the email and a couple sentences, then I'll usually do it in here too.
So I got a little list of questions here that I'll try to get to and see what we can do. I'm just checking out the chat hear what's going on all right cool, so the first thing I want to start off with is something that mr. Johnny boy dude. Thank you very much.
When will I work on a chiller honestly, I don't work on chillers and you know one of the things about running a business. Is it that you, I can't necessarily go and work on all the stuff that I want to try to work on. I don't you know I, I don't doubt that I could figure out with some education how chillers work and how to work on them. Honestly, I could probably get my fingers on them and kind of move my way around, but I'm not confident enough to do that, but it also has to do with my employees and it's not that my employees can't work on that stuff.
But you know I can't take on a client and then expect my guys to start being able to work on that stuff too. You know, so you have to have a group of people behind you that are comfortable and working on, chillers and confident and capable. For me to be able to even start working on them, so it's just one of those things where I really don't want to delve away from what I already do, which is just like commercial refrigeration and air conditioning with restaurants and stuff. Like that, that's what we do well, so we just try to stick to that and let the other companies take care of the the chillers and the the you know stuff that I don't do vrf vrv, that kind of stuff. Okay, so you know I'd love to try it. I really am interested in learning new stuff, but it's just one of those things. I just it's hard. It's hard, you know you, you get comfortable and you like the way things are going.
So alright, let's see yeah. Alright, so first thing I want to start with is I got a question a couple weeks ago and I wanted to answer it. I realized I forgot to answer it in the stream and it has to do with motor pulleys. I call them pulleys.
I know I'm gon na get the police on me here by calling them sheaves. Okay, because I know you guys want to call them sheets, but I've always called these motor pulleys, okay, but whatever you call them sheaves or motor pulleys. These things are, you know, on our air conditioning on our exhaust fans, and I just want to stress something: okay number one is that we don't ever adjust belt tension by adjusting the sheave or the motor pulley. Okay, you do not open and close the pulley or the sheave to try and adjust belt tension.
That is not how it works. Okay, belt tension is adjusted by moving the motor in and out or the tension, rod or whatever. There is on there. Okay or the tensioner, you do not adjust these to adjust tension, because when you adjust a motor pulley or a motor sheave, you adjust the airflow that the fan it is moving puts out.
Okay, the next thing is: is that overtime, motor, pulleys and sheaves they go bad. Okay, so, let's say, for instance, this is actually how the question happened. I think I had mentioned that the pulley was going bad and the belt was getting stuck in it or something like that and the person on my comments. They had asked me well why don't you just open the pulley or close the pulley and that's not how it works once a pulley has gone bad okay, you can tell when they go bad by using a pulley gauge.
I've showed these before. Okay, you can get these from this one's from browning HVAC our North. Thank you very much. Rex.
That's awesome! Thank you very much ma'am, but um. You basically take this gauge tool right here. Okay and you find out how big the pulley is, or the I'll show you right here, so you basically insert it in there and when the flat edge of the the sheave of the pulley doesn't sit on that anymore. Then it's worn out and it's time to replace the sheave okay, you don't just open it or close it to compensate all right.
These things naturally go bad, so when they get worn out it's time to change them. Okay, you do not want to adjust those. So when you're doing your preventative maintenance as guys the PM, techs and stuff, don't ever touch the pulleys or sheaves, okay, don't adjust them. I should say, unless you really really know what you're doing all right, because you can mess up a lot of stuff, you can mess up the building balance. You know and cause all kinds of problems with that. Okay, what I want to yeah exactly okay, what I want to do too is I'm going to address another question that I had in here, and this was a question that was sent to me. Let me find it on my sheet right here and let me see where is it at here? Did you did you to do so? I'm reading through this here real quick, okay cool. So the question was with the Honeywell Jade controller, the w72.
I believe yeah. It was the Honeywell, but let's just talk about economizers in general, okay, with the economizers in general. A lot of times - and I know some of you other guys in other parts of the country - are gon na say what the heck, but here in California, we use packaged units or rtu units. We will pull fresh air through the outside air dampers or the economizer dampers okay, and we will the unit yeah when I'm talking about restaurants, even when you're dealing with occupied buildings.
Okay, we do that a lot of times to satisfy fresh air requirements, because we do have bicode fresh air requirements that we have to bring fresh air into the building. So that way, the co2 levels don't get too high in the building. Okay, remember that when you're in an occupied building the easiest way to picture, it is working in an office space that has no exhaust fans and you have a lot of people working in there and they're breathing out co2. And then everybody else is then breathing that co2 in and then what you start to get a sick building syndrome.
That's one thing: they call it. Okay and basically people start to get sleepy. They start to get tired and it's because the oxygen levels are going down and the co2 levels are rising and they're just breathe in n co2. So anyways we have fresh air requirements now.
I believe it probably affects most of the country, but we have fresh air requirements. That say we have to put fresh air into the building. So sometimes you'll have a dedicated outside air unit that just brings fresh air and it filters it tempers it. Whatever often times we'll have a/c units or HVAC package units that will have economizers on them and we'll have a minimum outside air position on the economizer.
Basically, when there's a minimum position, it usually doesn't adjust at all it's set at the minimum period. Okay, so it's always going to be open that much and then we will have demand control ventilation. A lot of times where you have a co2 sensor downstairs and as the co2 levels rise, the outside air dampers might open more to bring in more fresh air. So, basically, as the building becomes more and more occupied, the outside air will come in more and more ok. Buildings have to be sized for this. You can't just throw any Cana miser on an existing building or in an existing package unit that wasn't sized for it, because obviously the package unit has to be able to cool down that fresh air. That's coming in one of my recent videos that I just showed. I showed that I got a service call that a restaurant had a dining room like a room off of their dining room, and it was out like 90 degrees, and I was blown away with how hot it was in that room.
Ok - and it was simply because the thermostat was bad and the fan was calling and the outside air damper was open to the minimum position, but cooling wouldn't call so it was bringing in that, whatever it was, 10 % - or I don't even know you know, just Whatever they had set it for when they balance the building, it was bringing in that outside air and just dumping that in the building and wasn't cooling it so that room got up to 90 degrees and it was insanely hot okay. So here we will constantly set our minimum position at a set point. Okay now I know when you guys get to the more crazy climates where you get super cold and stuff, you guys might not be able to do that. You have low, lock settings and different things where they'll shut the economizers when it gets too cold and stuff like that.
But that's where dedicated outside air units come in when you're dealing with restaurants and stuff like that, but on here on the west coast. A lot of times we don't have that so we run into these problems. Okay, so I covered a couple questions inside there kind of covered the co2 sensors, so the co2 sensors basically are there to sense the co2 in the building, it's kind of like a it's. Probably not the best way to do it and I've see problems with the co2 sensors like where they install them.
They'll, install them and then like by a host stand, and so the host will be standing there breathing on it. And then you know they'll get outside air like crazy and they'll. Freeze the customers out of the building or something like that: okay, but I'm gon na try to do some videos as time comes up or as the summer type. You know summer kind of slows down.
I'll try to do like my trainer board behind there with the duck detector on it I'll try to set that up with some economizer components and we'll try to simulate, and you know, show you guys how the economizer modules and different things work. Recently. We have new codes where we have to at least here in California and I'm pretty sure, they're sweeping around the rest of the country too, because we're always the first here, but we have our title 24 codes and one of the things in our title 24 code Is that economizers have to be simple? Essentially, okay, that's I mean that's in a nutshell, what it is, and so they have to be a lot easier, because it's been proven that we as technicians sometimes cannot be the greatest people. So when we make complicated things to work on, it makes it basically just get bypassed. That's what's happened in the past when he called a misers when bad people would just bypass him so Rex. Thank you very much man. I really appreciate it so I'll try to do that where I set up a board and we'll talk about economizer, some more hopefully soon. So let me look at the chat hands.
Mr. Johnny boy have I seen easy start capacitors. That sounds familiar, but I don't know. I'm not a fan of, I don't know who makes easy start, I'm assuming that's like a is it a hard start kit or something or I don't know, give me some more information there.
Mr. Johnny boy, I don't know the easy start. How do you clean an enthalpy will Gabriel Brown honestly I've never had to clean an enthalpy will. So that's a really good question honestly.
I would think to be honest with you, because of the material that an enthalpy wheel is made of if it doesn't brush off. I would think you just got to change the pads and I know you can order the pads so I've seen a few enthalpy wheels heat recovery, ventilator heat recovery wheels on some like a on units. I don't work on a lot of those, but I've seen them before, and I know that the pads were basically replaceable. You pop them out and pop a new pad in after so much time, but that's also why it's very important when we have economizers outside air dampers and different things like that that we're filtering the outside air before it gets to our heat recovery, wheel or different Things like that so, but I know it's inevitable, eventually they're gon na get dirty.
So, let's see what else I missed in here: real quick yeah guys for those of you. What's the most common problem you have on AC units, mr. Holden sirens and more most common problem would be dirty units, loose belts, poor preventative maintenance, not maintaining your equipment causes big failures, okay and that's one of the biggest things you know. I was just on a package unit today that has a plugged up.
It's a carrier. Six ton package unit has a plugged up fixed orifice metering device, the little a curators and honestly. This is a restaurant that I took over this last year, so the preventive maintenance before I took it over was very poor, and that probably is what led to all the problems they've been having the fixed orifice metering devices getting plugged up, because the oil had been Overheating for a long time, because the unit ran with a dirty condenser that kind of stuff, so it's poor preventative maintenance that causes majority of our problems. In my opinion, at least that's what I run into so, let's see what else all right so try it guys, if you do put questions in here, try to put them in caps, lock and I'll try to get to them. So what do you do if a unit is Rusted? Should you replace everything, that's a hard one. That's by draging games, um, that's a hard one. You know I mean customers, you know it depends. I mean if I come up on a something that's fairly inexpensive.
You know like a evaporative cooler or something like that. It's completely rusted out heck yeah, if you're by the ocean and you've got a split system, condenser or even a package unit, that's completely deteriorated by salt and stuff. Like that yeah I mean you have no choice. So sometimes you just got to do that stuff, but you know just make sure that if you're gon na quote a repair or replacement, don't ever try to rip the customers off.
Okay, that's a very important thing and remember the way that I look at it is. I'm gon na quote this package unit, whatever it is okay, but with the understanding that they're gon na call someone else after me to get a second quote. So I'm not always gon na be the lowest, but I'm gon na make sure that the price that I give them is the fair price and the lowest that I'm gon na go and that way I can get the job done completely and I'm gon na make Sure I try to cover my basis in there and document everything so that way when they try to compare my quote to someone else's. Obviously they compare apples to apples and not just some guys quote that says I'll replace your unit, but mine is gon na, say I'm gon na replace your unit.
I'm gon na get coded coils, I'm gon na get economizers. You know all this different stuff and I'm gon na break it down. So that way they know what they're getting from me. So if they choose to go with the cheaper guy, I've done everything I can do you know so.
Alright. Do me a favor guys. I think I just said this, but try to put your questions in caps, lock, so um gotcha, Gabriel Brown, so you've got a train tomorrow with an enthalpy wheel, yeah. I don't think there's much you can do besides brushing those things off.
So me myself and I farmer economizers, use temp and not humidity. You know it just depends on the area you're in see here in Southern California. We really don't use enthalpy controls on our economizers, at least in my area, the Inland Empire. It's dry enough that we don't have high humidity, so we can control our economizers just on outside air temperature and not really pay attention to the humidity of the air.
Okay, because we don't have very humid air, so it's safe for us to come. You know control off a temperature, but if you go to a place like Florida, you can't have an economizer, that's controlled off a temperature because you know, let's say in the middle of the winter. You know, for whatever reason, a restaurant needs to run their air conditioner. Well, I guess I can see them running it because they have a building full of people.
You know in Florida doesn't really get super cold winters, but I mean they have really high humidity still. So, even if the temperature outside meets that demand, they could still have 60 70 80 percent humidity. You can't be bringing that air into the building. That would just destroy everybody's comfort level, so you know you got to be careful about just using enthalpy. Let's see what else all right! Well, there's a lot of questions coming through here. So, okay have I worked on a space pack or a único high velocity system? No, I'm sorry! I haven't I'm sure that there's some guys in here that have so maybe they'll answer. You in the chat here, what sort of effects can you get if you use an oversized hard start kit red, oh well, eventually, what you're gon na do is you're gon na burn out your start winding. I would imagine if you used an oversized hard start kit, because if the capacitors too big it's applying that to the start winding again, I'm not super smart off.
The top of my head with the electrical stuff, but that's my first thought is - is that you might potentially burn out the start winding or potentially overheat, the compressor so yeah. You want to make sure that starting components are correct. I'm not a fan of 3in ones. For like refrigeration units, you know like the little sub Co 3 in ones, I'm not a fan of them.
I'll use them for Diagnostics. Just to see if starting components are bad, I'm not a fan of hardstark it's either, but I there's a place to use them. Ok, so on a residential package unit or air conditioner, whatever you know, the compressor won't start anymore. Sure you put a hard start kit on it and it may start up, but the customer is going to understand that this is a temporary solution.
Their compressor is going bad and they need to consider replacements sooner than later. You know if you have to, if you have issues with compressor, starting on a regular, I prefer to go with the factory starting components, a lot of times manufacturers, if you have like the Copeland mobile app they'll, actually list what starting components they want you to put On the compressor, if it actually has a hard time starting - and I would prefer to starting there before putting on just a generic hard start kit, but you know, there's probably people out there that are going to say differently and that's fine, I'm not a genius when It comes to the electrical side of you, know, hard, start kits and stuff like that. So oh say: okay, so Brian you said, would I recommend someone getting into shape before joining the trade? If they're overweight, you know it's hard to say, it really depends on what area you're gon na be working in. I'm gon na tell you right now.
If you get into restaurant refrigeration, it's gon na be really hard to be a big guy. It's gon na be hard you're gon na be in the way and you're gon na have a hard time working. But if you're doing industrial air conditioning you know you'll probably get away just fine, but you also got to remember: you've got to be able to climb up some small roof hatches roof ladder, so I mean, of course you need to be in the best shape as Possible, but do I think you need to be skinny as a twig? No, but I mean you know yeah the best shape is possible because this is a very strenuous job, so this is going to kind of segue me into another question that I got and let's see right here. Let me see, try I'm sorry, I'm reading through these questions trying to get. I know there's one in here that I wanted to answer. That's right in here and they're with me, for whatever reason I don't see it here, but yeah. So okay, yeah Omar Omar, had asked me what youths in the trade in trade school should expect when being ready for the trade. So basically Omar, says he's in trade school and he's curious about what he should expect and how he should mentally get prepared.
So - and this goes for everybody - okay guys remember - this is a very demanding trade. There's a lot of demanding work. We have it's physically difficult, sometimes, okay, not all the time, but and it can be stressful, it can be hot, it can be cold. There's all kinds of different things, so bottom line try to keep your cool okay, try to pay attention to what you're doing, try to focus on what you're doing and try not to bring your home life to work with you.
That's a very important thing that I can give people advice. Okay, you got stuff going on at home, it's hard! If, if you can't leave it at home, then maybe it's best that you stay at home for the day. Okay and I'm not trying to be a punk, I'm just saying like you can hurt yourself and you don't want to get hurt. Okay, if you're distracted when you're working on you know or you're braising, something in or something like that, because you're having a stressful time at home, maybe you should take the day off.
Okay, try to relax and collect your thoughts and whatever, because - and this is kind of getting to his question too, but at the same time, what should young people that are coming into the trade be ready for? You should be ready for a very stressful environment. Okay understand this is not gon na be a cakewalk you're gon na have to earn your dollars. Okay, you can earn a lot of money working in this trade, but you're gon na have to earn it. Okay.
Also, when you're coming into the trade new, you know, there's there's no excuse for people belittling you and abusing you and treating you like a piece of crap because you're new be okay. That's not that's! That's old school crap! We don't do that anymore. So don't let anybody treat you like crap, but at the same time you can't be an too you know your boss or something like that. Okay, you can't come in with an attitude all right.
You have to be ready to work and understand that, even if you think something is wrong, don't don't be a jerk about it. Ask questions, politely, don't go in there and say I learned differently in school, or I saw a YouTube video where this person said that's wrong. Don't do that be respectful, okay, maybe there's a reason they're doing things, the way that they're doing it, okay or maybe the person just doesn't know, but you don't need to be a jerk about it. Okay, at the same time as a new guy. Nobody needs to be a jerk to you. Okay now, do you understand that as an apprentice or something like that coming into the trade, it is gon na be expected that hey, you know. If I have an apprentice working with me, his job is to learn, but at the same time his job is to make my job easier. Okay, and by that I mean I'm gon na, have an apprentice with me and I'm working on something, and I may ask him to go get me some tools.
Okay, go down to my van please and get me this okay, that's part of the job and believe it or not, you're, actually learning when you're getting that stuff. Okay, you know as an apprentice, don't think that you're all high and mighty and you get to just stand there and do nothing. I mean there's nothing worse for me, as you know, when I'm working to see people standing around that drives me nuts. Okay, let's be: let's move? Okay, let's keep the customers happy, because the way that I think about it is is, if I see a guy standing around that's working with me, I'm afraid that the customer is gon na walk up on the roof and say what the heck of my opinion that Guy to stand around for so I'm gon na keep him busy, okay, whether it be going to get stuff down at my van or coming over here and starting to clean something okay.
So, as a new guy coming into the trade, you just need to understand that it's gon na take a long time. You're gon na have to learn. You're gon na have to earn your keep. Basically, and you know you should not be abused by anybody.
That's that's employing you, but at the same time you got to be respectful and polite to them. You know and you've got to earn your keep. Basically, okay, hopefully that answers that. So, let's see what else we got.
Okay, how pumped am I to speak at kalos? Okay, so for those of you guys, oh okay, I'll be nice and I'll go ahead and give you your wrench back gesture Adam there you go all right. You can be part of the cool Club now Adam okay. So for those of you guys that don't know I've mentioned on social media, I may have mentioned this last week. I am going to the HR Show in Orlando this coming the end of January, beginning of February, okay, at the same time, Brian or with HVAC, our school is hosting an event at his office at kalos, which is his service company and he's gon na have a Big training event, I'm super blown away that Brian invited me.
I'm gon na be a speaker there. Honestly. When I see the list of people that are gon na be there. I don't know why he invited me, but I'm super stoked, because I get to go and at least get to hear the other people speak. But, yes, I will be speaking the topic that I'm going to be talking about is at this time. Tentatively, things can change, but it's refrigeration, best practices, and you know I'm gon na I'm gon na. Have I don't know whether it's gon na be video or pictures and then I'm gon na have a discussion. So, yes, I am gon na be at his event.
I know that the tickets are going pretty quick, so if people are interested in going, you should get your stuff going now and there's gon na be all kinds of cool stuff going on. Besides that, but the people that are gon na be a Brian's event. I mean just to name a few dick words with commercial refrigeration for air conditioning technicians, the author of that book, Jim Bergman. I believe, Bill's bones going to be there.
There's I mean I there's a whole bunch more people, so those are the people that pop in the my head right now, so I'm blown away just to be invited to be there. But, yes, I will be speaking so. Okay, all right. Let's see what else yeah! I really really appreciate you guys that are in here right now, if you could smash that like button, it really really helps my stream.
Okay, really appreciate it. If you could please you know, I want to address something else too. I know that this isn't general on my channel right now, but this is on the stream and I want to address something on my channel. So you know my channel is getting bigger and bigger and I do have a sponsor on my channel.
Obviously, you guys probably know that's Portland. Okay, spoilin is a great sponsor and the reason why they say they're, a great sponsor is because they don't demand a lot of me and they're really cool in you know, they're really easy to work with, and I really appreciate that one of the things about my Channel that when I started it in the beginning, is that I want this to be my channel. I do not want to be owned by any sponsors. I do not want any crazy requirements and I'm not judging anybody else for what they're doing? Okay, not judging any of the other channels, but the way that I do my things is is that I don't want this to be a tool review channel.
Okay, there's lots of great channels that reviews tools, that's just not my style, okay, the reason why I'm bringing that up is I've been getting a lot of emails from people. As my channel gets bigger and bigger vendors and different things, people asking me hey: can I send you this tool bag to review? You know, and I I've made a choice and maybe I'll change my mind later, but at this point right now I've made a choice that even because I won't do review videos, but even in my channel, I'm not accepting any free tools from anybody period. Okay, the only time I will even begin to think about a free tool as if I'm a beta, tester, okay and what that is. Is I usually put in months of work working with the manufacturer trying to refine the tool until, at the end, I'm rewarded with the tool for free, okay? So in and there's a lot of work that goes into that now, I have, in the past, been a beta tester for a couple different companies and I'm currently a beta tester for field piece. I do not have any products with me right now, but I do like, for instance, my sman 480 manifold. That was a beta tester for that. So, at the end of the the beta testing process after we sent it back and there's a bunch of other guys that do it too, I got to keep the tool okay, so I just want to make it known that my Chan not gon na, be I'm Not gon na sell out okay and again, I'm not judging other people that do that, it's just they have different styles and that's just not how I want to do things. So the reason why I'm bringing that up is you know it's a touchy subject about YouTube.
Okay, YouTube. We honestly, I make these videos, I never intended on my channel becoming what it is. Okay, but I'm not gon na lie to you guys and say that I don't get ad revenue from YouTube. I do I get some ad revenue from YouTube and it's cool.
It helps me out. I put a lot of time into these and YouTube at the end of the month when you guys watch my videos, it helps me out, you know cuz. It gives me a little bit of money for for my channel okay and that's really cool, because it helps me to be able to have this gear and do this stuff that I do, and you know all the time that I spend in it. It does help me and other creators, okay - and I know sometimes it's difficult, but it does help me if you guys watch the commercials on the video.
So, okay, that's the biggest thing. I know that you know YouTube can have some weird commercials sometimes, but I know they're, usually not very long. So if, if it's not the end of the world, it really does help when you guys watch the commercials, because it basically you know, helps me to earn a little bit of extra income and helps me to continue doing what I'm doing. Okay, I don't want to be going to you guys asking for money and different things like that.
That's not what my channel is about, but I'm not gon na lie like I said and say that you know I do make some money from this okay, but you know so if you guys could it does help but hey you know it is what it is. If you guys don't watch the commercials, I'm gon na be honest with you guys. I don't watch commercials on YouTube videos, because I have a YouTube red account or whatever, like a premium, YouTube account. I think it paid 20 bucks a month or 10 bucks a month or something like that.
So when I watch a youtube, video commercials don't even pop up, but that's because I pay a monthly fee whatever it is, because my house, we don't have normal TV, we literally watch YouTube and Netflix. So I watch all kinds of there's so many cool channels on YouTube. I watch channels of people that live in an RV and different things like that. So anyways I'm going down the wrong path, but anyways I'd appreciate if you guys watch the commercials, if you can, but if not, it's not the end of the world. Okay. So let's get back to the stream. What else we got Zach. Thank you very much for the super chat.
I really appreciate that. Okay, all right um, let's see some YouTube. Commercials are scam, be careful! Oh, I got you yeah, so I have no idea, but alright, let's see what else wait wait. Did I create a channel about tool review mr.
Johnny boy? No, yes, I I don't know where that questions coming from mr. Johnny boy. I do have a channel, but I don't post any videos on it. I have thought about doing a tool review channel, but yeah yeah not right now.
So alright, let's see what part of Southern California do. I service, Gwen or Glen Inland Empire, so San Bernardino, Riverside in South Orange County is my general service area. So we specialize in commercial restaurants. So when is the next video with my wife, you know my wife and I've been talking about it.
We just honestly have been my wife's been busy, but we need to. We we've been talking about it, so we're gon na. Do it hopefully soon so, let's see what else okay, cool, I'm gon na go ahead and it to my other questions inside here, so um, alright, so okay bill bill had asked me why we ground the low voltage side of the transformer okay, and I was doing A little bit of research on this, and because I've always thought safety too, and basically the best. The best thing that I can come up with is is is just safety.
Okay, we ground the low side voltage for safety reasons, because if you think about the way, the transformer works on the low side, when there's no there's no continuity to ground. Basically, unless you ground the transformer or you ground, the common side of the low side voltage transformer right. But I will say that when you're grounding the transformer that can become a little difficult when you're trying to trace out a direct short on the low voltage side. So oftentimes what I will do on the transformer is also remove the ground.
If you can, if there's only sometimes they do multiple grounds, which I don't think they're technically supposed to do that, but sometimes you'll find multiple grounds on the low-voltage side. But if you can find the ground, sometimes I'll, take them off when I'm trying to find a low voltage short. Because when you power down the unit and then you go to own out the low voltage side to find out where the short is a lot of times, if you hit on the common side, you'll you'll see continuity ground right. But if you disconnect that ground, you can actually eliminate that so oftentimes do that, but at the same time one of the benefits of having a grounded, low-voltage side of your transformer, like a 24 volt transformer right, is that when you're troubleshooting sometimes downstairs, if you want To know if you have voltage and you don't have a common wire, this is the key question on the old school systems. We didn't hold school thermostats a lot of times. We didn't have a common wire, so it became difficult to troubleshoot right. So it was very beneficial when we had a grounded transformer up on the roof, because then we could check our to ground to verify. We had 24 volts and then troubleshoot the rest of our thermostats.
So I see benefits to having a grounded, thermostat or a grounded transformer, but the my research basically has always said that it's just because the safety is the reason why we do it. I dunno in some of my research that I find out that there's some controls. Manufacturers that actually don't want you to have a grounded transformer because it can mess up some of the low voltage controls. So that's another interesting thing, but I implore you guys to Google search that and start reading some of the electrical forms.
When people ask me questions - and I don't know the answer to them - I just google, it ask the Google write and learn all kinds of great information. Ok, please, fellow mechanics, if you don't know how to use a p-trap, please don't use one. That's a good point! Prime time, because sometimes people install p-traps where they shouldn't be yeah, it can definitely be a problem. Did I ever work on mode ein & resinar heaters? Nope.
I've never worked on mode and I think I've worked on a resinar once or twice, but do I have a video on compressor unloaders? No, once, unfortunately, I don't so alright, let's see what else K thermostat chris cooley. What about the K thermostat? I really liked Akita therm thermostats. Those are very nice, but I don't know why you said that Chris you're answering someone else's. Are you saying something about that? Have I seen cool breeze hats best thing you've used in a long time knows.
I have an AC fridge tech is that one of the ones floating around on Facebook or something like that that you get wet? I know there's a bunch of Facebook ads for different different cooling, hats and different things. So alright, let's see what else I'm missing just have a handful of 5 amp fuses yeah. You could have that too. So, what's my opinion on Parker's zoom, lock tool, George Olmo, so honestly, I've never used the zoom lock and I'm gon na say that when the zoom lock first came out, I was a big skeptic, just like everybody else, because I was thinking it was gon na.
Be something that was just gon na leak or something like that. I honestly have never used one, but I've seen lots of testimonials about people using the zoom lock and they love it. Now I have seen the the bad comments about the zoom lock too, but I'm gon na tell you that everything that I've read about zoom, lock and problems with it have to do with the improper procedures of installing the components in to use a zoom lock fitting. It's not just to cut the pipe put it on and crimp it shut. That's not how it works. There's a process. You have a gauge, you have to. You know clean the pipe you have to there's all captain.
If you don't follow that process, it's gon na lead to things. If you're not deburring your pipe different things like that, you can damage or ings you can cause issues. So I think the Zoom lock is a cool tool. I think it's great and where it shines - and I don't do any any work where I have to pull hot work permits.
But if you had to pull a hot work, permit man that zoom lock would be awesome. That would set you apart from the next guy, because, if you're going to do a job and you're quoting it and the other person has to pull hot work permits and have fire watches and different things. That's a lot of Labor involved in that. And if you could go in there with the zoom lock and solve the problem and knock it out of the park, man you could you can make some good money with that? Okay, so I think it serves its purpose.
It has some good places for it. I've contemplated using it when I'm working with like our 290 systems, because they do make quarter-inch fittings for the zoom lock. The only problem I have with working with some of the small, our 290 systems and using zoom lock is, is they're, usually in tight places, and that is kind of difficult to get a big tool inside there. But I really would like to get my hands on one, probably just to kind of just a see one to see if I can get it in some tight places.
So I'm interested in it. You know - and I I think it could be a good thing eventually. Okay, but never put my hands on one, never used one personally so um all right: okay, cool yeah, chris cooley yeah. I like the key to therm.
I've been using them a lot. Lately the temp + defrost controllers. I have one walkin out there that the customer had it installed from new install with a key to therm evap efficiency controller on it. So I service that unit.
I haven't really had any problems besides sensors failing, but as far as for like reaching coolers and walkins. Just like basic installations, yeah the key to therm, temp + defrost controller - is pretty cool. Ok, it's got some cool features built into it. I would say the one downside to the the key to therm temp +, defrost controller.
Is that so, basically it's a digital temperature controller that has like an anti short cycle delay in it, and it also has built-in defrost. Ok, the downside that I find with the Keita therm 10-plus defrost is that the defrost has to be the same duration every single time so sometimes with restaurants. On like a walk-in cooler, I like to do an hour defrost from 2:00 to 3:00 in the morning when nobody's in the building, ok and then 15 minute defrost throughout the day. You cannot do that with the key to therm, tent + defrost controller. If you set the duration of the defrost, it has to be that duration for every defrost. Now what you can do is you can offset the times so that way it doesn't defrost at this time or it doesn't defrost at that time. But you cannot from my understanding as best as I can tell you cannot and I could be wrong, but you cannot have an hour-long defrost in the middle of the night, a 15 minute defrost at one point, a half an hour D for us. So that's one thing I do like about like the grassland clock still is that you can have an hour long, defrost, the middle the night in 15 minutes throughout the day, but I do see the the potential for some cool stuff with the key to therm controls.
A lot of manufacturers are making them on surprise. Ronco hasn't jumped on the bandwagon yet, but I know that pan Johnson they have their a 19 digital control and a has built-in defrost. So you know there's lots of cool stuff out there, but I like them. Yeah George Kate, Colo ci, you will ultimately still have to braise some joints.
No matter what yeah you that's true! Ok, because when you're braising in compressors and different things like that, you're still going to have to do something. Ok, so alright, let's see what else do I own a snow shovel? No, I do not, let's see what type of stepladder do I use. Mr. Johnny boy, I I don't know dude whatever four-foot ladder that I got from Home Depot Werner or something like that.
I really don't pay attention to the brand, which do I like, better r22 or 410 eh. I, like r22, it's easier and just it's out there, but for today I don't have a problem with 410 a I just I like our 22, but alright, let's see what else okay answered that, how long do units last due to salt and moisture on the coast? They do not last very long at all rava. I could imagine that if you have harsh environments, you might not last a year or two with really bad salt in the air. There's some things you can do to try to prevent it a little bit.
You can coat your equipment with protective coatings, there's aftermarket coatings too. So I imagine if someone really really wanted to save their equipment, they could do a protective coating from the factory or before you install the equipment, you can have a dipped or coated and then I know refrigeration technologies. This, the company that makes big, blue and you know, Viper wet rag and all that stuff. They also have an aerosol coating that you can spray on things too.
So I would imagine that you could make it part of your preventative maintenance to coat that thing. You know once a month or something like that when you come to do a preventive maintenance on that equipment. That'd be a pretty cool idea and you can make stuff last a lot longer, but the guys I'm sure people on the chat can say. Sometimes things can just deteriorate instantly, so alright, there are a lot of them in Chicagoland, with not too many people skilled with them. Or are you talking about George, the zoom lock? Oh, oh I'm sorry, George you're talking about the a on systems. Yeah. I've only worked on a few a on systems. I do not have a lot of experience in all of the a on systems that I've worked on, have been the dumbed down version, so they don't have the fancy controllers or anything like that.
They've just been basic package units, so I got nothing bad to say about those ones, they're just basic units, but I have heard a lot of people that say the complaints of you know then, being over engineered and different things like that, all right. What's the most common problem, I come across on walk-in freezers. The most common problem I come across on a walk-in freezer is that the walk-in freezer is iced up either due to a bad defrost clock, a mechanical defrost clock or someone leaving the door open or, for instance, and that means like when restaurants do product deliveries. Okay, a lot of times what they'll do is they'll have the food delivery company come in, they'll drop the food off overnight when nobody's in the building and what they'll do is they'll open the walk-in freezer and they'll.
Try to put all the frozen food they'll stack. It on the floor all the way to the door. Then they'll shut the walk-in freezer door. If you're lucky then they'll continue to stack the food in the walk-in cooler and then shut the walk-in cooler door.
So then, when the restaurant gets there a lot of times, they call it a key drop delivery. So a lot of times when the restaurant gets there, they have to go and take all that food out of the cooler and out of the freezer, put it in the hallway and then put it away where it needs to go oftentimes when they do that. The cooks will leave and prop the doors open and leave the equipment running the evaporator fan motors running and stuff, and then the walk-in freezers will full ice up the evaporator coil as well, and so that'll result in usually a Friday night at 4 o'clock. In the afternoon, not that I'm getting pissed off or not that I'm trying to make a point now, I'm just kidding, but you know, usually ends up in an overtime service call where you have to go out there and defrost a walk-in freezer and either you find A bad defrost clock, or typically it's someone leaving a door open.
That's the most common thing now, there's always other problems too, but all right! Ok, hello to everybody! That's coming in! Ok! Ok! So you said I don't chiz insane. Three are six hundred are 290? Why you will never use explosive stuff in your house about the safe? Are seven one? Seven: how safe do you feel with these refrigerants? Okay? So here's the deal? Okay, you don't like our 290, because it's flammable, I get it. You don't like our 600 because it's flammable okay, you don't like co2, because it has extremely high pressures and people are afraid. It's gon na blow up cool, but you do like and I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just saying. But what people don't think about you do like the refrigerants that are hazardous to your health to all these refrigerants. I'm sure it's not good to breathe, propane or anything like that, but I'm just saying: there's always a downside to everything. Okay, so, but how often in residential, because you said your home, how often in residential, do you have a leak on your refrigerator? It's not very often, okay, it's very rare one of the most untouched items on our at our home is the refrigerator oftentimes. They hardly ever get cleaned, they hardly ever get serviced, yet they run for years.
Okay. But someone made a point. I think it was Jim Bergman had said something about this, and he said you know they hardly have problems because people don't touch them, they don't service them, they don't put service gauges on them. Am I afraid of flammable refrigerants? No, I'm not afraid of them.
I'm not trying to say that they're not dangerous, they are dangerous, okay, but in controlled environments. I don't think that bad. What I am afraid of is technicians not following proper practices and hurting themselves. That's what I'm afraid of okay.
If you pay a qualified technician, someone that really knows what they're doing the chances of something bad happening are very, very, very like so my new okay, so I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If you think that you don't want to have flammable refrigerants in your house, I have something else to say: is that you really aren't gon na, have a choice because try to go find a refrigerator that doesn't have a flammable refrigerant right now, for a home I Mean I think they all have flammable refrigerants anything new that you buy is gon na, have flammable refrigerants, and it's hard it's very there. They're phasing out all those other refrigerants okay. So it's very rare that you're gon na find our 134a in a refrigerator anymore.
For a residential one, okay, the the flammable refrigerants have been around in the residential side longer than they've been around well in the United States, they've been they're more prevalent in the residential side than they are in the commercial side, they're just rolling into the commercial side. Right now so, are they dangerous? Yes, but am i afraid of them now? I wouldn't. I would have no problem buying a refrigerator that has flammable refrigerants and putting it in my house with my family, and I have no problem at all, but you know they do need to be clean. They do need to be maintained, people don't need to be putting their service gauges, but you know you've got a vacuum out at the bottom and different things like that to make sure that they don't overheat, but the chances the amount of refrigerant in your residential ones Is very slim now you know the talk is: is that eventually they're pushing for natural refrigerants and eliminating a lot of the the hazardous chemical refrigerants? Again they say hazardous, but I mean they're all hazardous. If you think about it, but they're there, you know eventually they're going to get rid of them all and they're talking about having pushing for our 290 in residential air conditioning systems. Now that's a little bit of a different story, because that's a more service piece of equipment, it runs a little bit harder. We abuse it by running our air conditioners and not maintaining them. There's some interesting stuff to be talked about with that.
Okay, that's a whole new thing, but that's that's not gon na come in in the near future, but you know in the next 20 years. I would imagine that you're gon na start to see some residential air conditioning systems using some alternative refrigerants, whether it be co2, whether they be chiller type systems. I in my head, I think that's the perfect system. Why not have the flammable refrigerants in a package unit outside having a chiller, essentially pumping fluid into your house like a glycol or something like that and having a heat exchanger as your evaporator coil inside you know, and the the refrigerants stay outside? I think that's the best case in you know now there's some downsides to that too, but I think that's the safest way because then you can have you know a small amount outside and then not have to pump refrigerant lines.
We'd have to have less refrigerant outside because we wouldn't have the length of the line set go into the evaporator coil. So that's just my thought, but I'm not some genius about that stuff. So, alright, let's see what else we got on here. Okay, so I'm gon na go ahead and make sure you guys, please please, please hit the like button.
I'd really appreciate it and I'm gon na go and get some more questions here. Those of you that put the super' chats and I think I missed a few. Thank you so very much you guys are awesome. I really appreciate it.
Okay, so Alan had asked me and I'm reading this question kind of verbatim. Okay, I might have to condense. Some of it but he's saying that he works on marine air conditioning systems and he's just curious about my thoughts on what he was told by a senior service technician on how to properly remove Moy sure from a marine air conditioner. So here's the hypothetical situation that he gave me he has a he says.
Let's say we have a centralized air-conditioning unit where the salt, water cooled heat, exchanger or the condenser has a leak inside and the refrigerant is contaminated with salt, water. Okay, he's asking: how do you, what is my opinion on how you would fix that system, so an experienced tech that he works with had told him that the best way is to drill multiple holes in the lowest point of the system. I'm assuming that the system can be buried shut once you drill these holes, so the the senior technician told him to drill as many holes as possible in the lowest point of the system drain out as much of the water then go ahead and close up those Holes purge the system with nitrogen vacuum, the system, down, change, filter, dryers and repeat over and over again until your system gets below 500 microns then charge the system with new refrigerant, again we're talking about a marine system.
to address the marine a/c. unless you're in a 3rd world country you're not going to repair a condenser heat echanger in a marine. the main cause for leaks in the heat exchanger is from sand eroding the inner tube all the way through. I'm replacing an a/c unit in september with this very problem i'll try to remember to send you pictures. the unit is filled with salt water to the point that its coming out through the service port. Are you in Nepean ?
Hey man! sorry to just jump in and add a comment totally unrelated to your video, but I'm so excited and just HAD to tell someone, but I talked to our HVAC teacher at school today and he's gonna let me take my 608 test! Not too shabby for someone in industrial electricity class 😀 And I can be one less electrician for all you hvac guys to cuss haha! I just wanted to be able to do emergency repairs for people as kind of a side gig, the outfits around here stay completely booked during the summer and at minimum take a few days to get to you, so I figure maybe I could help ease the strain there, I have no intentions of trying to install new units or anything. But yeah, Guess its time to find me a study guide and get to 'crackin! Cheers from the east coast my friend!
The easy start prevents a compressor from a hard start it makes it easier to start without to much amp draw
Like it would trip a breaker if there is to much surge watts
It’s not for compressors going bad. What it actually it is for is compressor hard start. You know the start amps that are very high when they spike
Missed the livestream but I see in the chat replay that I am not the only Dutch guy here anymore! Rex Markesteijn is the other Dutch guy
I sent a email about a capacitor review. Check it out!
its kind of funny when he got interrupted by me lol!
Chris. An Easy Start is better than a hard start. It lowers the start up amps by 50 to 60 percent. I use it on boats, it helps when the generator isn't big enough to start the ac. Also, its made by Microair
Hey Chris i enjoy watching ur videos and it inspire me to go to the commercial side been doing installs for residential, just had a question for u what’s consider light commercial and where should I start
I'll catch the stream live here soon lol. But it's always a good stream. Great questions and content. I love the community your building chris. Keep it up man! 💪 Service area Barrhaven??
We plumb natural gas right into our house and have tanks of propane/gasoline in our garage along with a host of other flammable/toxic chemicals but r290 is a problem
Chillers are another ball game. I work hotel maintenance and we had our guy there till 3AM in the morning trying to get it going. I watch him when he comes on property it is interesting but can get complicated. Cooling towers are like the condensers so we have to look at those too.
Would you ever recommend something like a Nest/Ecobee over a TH8321WF1001/TH8320R1003 for a business with multiple package units that share common open drop ceiling air return but ducted supply?
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Great stream as always Chris. I keep missing the live show brother sorry. Keep Rocking bro!!
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Can I use two 1.5 ton condenser coil for three ton unit?? Great work sir… Are you in Orleans ?
Shame missed this. Was busy watching ur vids. Good problem to have I suppose. I work FL package unites. 5t and under. Mobile home stuff. You got a lot of info I can use. Thanks man.