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 thank you Foreign! This live stream is brought to you by Heatcraft Refrigeration find out more about them at Heatcraftrpd.com and what is up? How are you guys? I Hope you guys are doing well I'm doing all right over here I'm alive I woke up so I guess there's that I Gotta say though, I am bored out of my mind. My wife and my youngest daughter went on vacation and uh, it's been rough I realize like I need my wife at home to make my normal life work and it's not the same. It's chaos over here.

These animals that we have like oh my gosh, they drive me bonkers and I don't know what person in their right mind would get an Australian Shepherd I mean they're amazing dogs. but what the heck were we thinking? The hair. There is hair everywhere I feel like Homer Simpson in The Simpsons when he shaves and then like two seconds later just goes boom right back right? Yeah! I'll sweep and I'll do the robot vacuum and sweep and sweep and then you wake up the next morning and it's like you didn't do anything. It's just hair everywhere.

like what the heck man. true. but uh I'm uh yeah I'm ready for my wife to come back. She's not gonna be back for a whole nother week.

Brian Sanders Thank you very much for that. Super Chat man I really really do appreciate that you didn't have to do that, but that is very kind of you. I Gotta tell you what. I am sick of fast food I'm sick of eating out.

uh it's myself and my uh, oldest I have a 17 year old and uh, we've been just going out doing stuff, but the crazy thing about 17 year old is she's never home. She's off doing her life right just so it's like it's usually just me and the dogs. like what do I do I'm bored. it's funny.

My wife does this every year and I think I go through the same feeling every year too. like I was just talking about this. look at that, it's my buddy Ryan uh from uh The Misfits of HVAC podcast Houston in the chat right now I was just on their podcast over the weekend and I was telling them that like you know, my teenager is just not just not there and I always encourage my wife just because she's being a normal kid like I want her to be a kid and have fun but um I always encourage my wife to go out of town during like the busy time of the summer. but I still like it sucks after like two three days.

I'm just like. all right I'm done I'm ready for my family back like I need the crazy back for sure. So now that I'm done complaining, but what is up everybody? Uh, welcome to the Hvacr videos live stream. So um, you know for the new people that are in here right now, we're on a bunch of different social media platforms.

I say this every time. it's just kind of like a broken record. It's all good if you're watching this from LinkedIn Facebook um Twitter whatever it may be. just understand that there's a whole group of people in the YouTube chat.

so if I'm interacting with the chat a lot, usually you can only see that chat on YouTube now on LinkedIn and Facebook you guys have the ability to chat too, but you don't necessarily see the entire chat from YouTube so just keep that in mind. It doesn't benefit me any differently for you guys to watch it on whatever platform you like. but there's a whole community in the YouTube chat, so if you're interested, just HVAC our videos on YouTube But the whole point of these live streams is just to consolidate questions I get a lot of repetitive or some very interesting questions and I like to answer them in the live format. it's it's kind of difficult for me to stare at my phone all the time like I really don't? uh besides work and you know do making video content like I I can't stare at my phone all day long to answer comments so you know every once in a while I go through I find some good ones and I just answer them on these streams.

So um, thank you very much for that. Super Chat Gabriel Which brand of AC is best? Uh, the way that I'm going to answer that is whatever you know you're more comfortable working on if you're not a technician. Whatever, your service company that you regularly use is more comfortable working on my favorite air conditioner. For what I do I like to work on Carrier and Linux package units, but I'm really comfortable working on those I'm not a huge fan of the train units, but you know some people like my buddy Jason Johnson in the chat would probably say that you know he works on the train units a lot, you know, and so he's more comfortable so he might like those more.

So it's not that I think train is bad. It's not that I think York is bad. Well, yeah, York is bad. There's just no ifs, ands, or buts about that.

But it's not that I think most of the brands out there are bad. Um, it's just that I'm not comfortable working on them, you know, so it is what it is. But um, yeah, just whatever you're comfortable working on is the best thing. So uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now.

Um, anyone else notice the Wasps are bad this year? Yeah? I honestly can't haven't had a lot of wasps out here yet. So um no I haven't really noticed that. I there's a very, very small little uh Nest or whatever starting on one of the eaves of my house that I actually need to go knock down. but last I looked there was only two wasps in there.

So I'll go knock it down and be done with it. Um, so got a couple things I want to talk about as usual. Um, had a little mishap this last weekend. If you guys tuned into the Misfits of HVAC show, you guys might know I was doing some housework I've been working on my house project replacing the air conditioner in my house and guys I just want you to know something like I am in no hurry to get this air conditioner changed at my house.

okay I'm I'm answering to no one on it. It's at my own pace I Know it's been taking me a long time, but that's cool. like I have no expectations of being done. My existing system was working until this weekend and uh, but I got it back up and running so all was well.

but um I was walking down my hallway getting ready to go run some errands and get some food by myself because my daughter was at the beach for the day and uh I noticed this funny sound coming from my my uh evaporator and furnace in my closet because the air conditioner was running and I was like it was this weird noise and it just didn't sound right and I was like man, you know what I need to go change the filter so ran up to my office um which is around the corner from my house that's where I store the filters I grabbed the filter, came back down, pulled the filter out. when I pulled the filter out, the filter was wet and I was like oh man I've been dreading this day I knew this was gonna come I have ever once opened up the a coil on my uh system and I've been here for over 10 years I've never once opened it up and uh I just I knew that I was going to have to pull it apart to blow drains out or clean something I was kind of avoiding it and yeah this happens. so let me go ahead and share my screen and you guys can see here. Um it was pretty bad.

So this right here is my a coil and uh let me go ahead and zoom in on that a little bit and you guys can see that thing is a blanket. Pure blanket of hair. Nothing but hair. disgusting look at that.

that is gross that came out of my egg coil, a wire brush, and some scrubbing and I decided that when my wife gets home from North Carolina we're going to Institute a new rule in my house and there will be hair nets or no shower caps on everybody that has long hair including the dogs. We will be wrapping them in bubble wrap. So I do not have to clean an evaporator like that again. That was pretty nasty, right? Pretty bad.

And that is my own house guys. my own house. like I Just you know, it's just out of sight, out of mind. it works.

and I don't really focus too much on it. Good grief, that thing was dirty. So Mike B says it might be the C-clamp that's bouncing. So the funny thing about that, if you guys don't know, my system is just massively oversized and I have a C-clamp holding the filter down because I don't have a filter slot and I just have the filter shoved in below the blower and so the pressure differential pulls the filter up.

so I have a giant like C-clamp sitting on it so it keeps the filter from being sucked up. I think I need to get a bigger C-clamp Huh? because I think it's sucking around the filter. Good gosh, yeah, that's pretty gross man. Um, so hello to everybody so let me see what else.

Um, exactly. Only at HVAC guy's houses do you see that kind of stuff? Exactly? Yeah. I could have. Um, it was pretty pretty nasty.

So I'm reading through the chat right now. That's pretty funny. Ceiling returns are better. Well, in the case on my house, the ceiling return would be much smarter.

but I'm not gonna put in a ceiling return because of the orientation of my system and how difficult it's going to be to run ductwork for the return. So we have a closet uh, utility closet with a return on the bottom of the utility closet. So I'm going to go ahead and keep that existing setup. but yeah, if the return was on the ceiling, I'd probably have a lot less hair in my system.

But with the new design of what I'm going in with, we're going to have a media filter. You're not going to be able to really go around the filter anymore, the air or anything like that. so it's going to be designed properly. So um, I was uh, talking with my buddy Adam and he was helping me.

Um, come up because what we're trying to figure out on my house project right now is um I've got all the the supply registers and Boots cut in and placed and cocked and everything ready to go. We're ready to start attaching ductwork, but what we're doing right now is some calculations for the uh the the return path right because as we're dumping air into a room, you have to have a return path for that air to escape the room. And what I've known is we've had pressurization issues in my house for a very long time. We have very poor return paths.

Basically, they're relying on the undercuts in the doors to be the return path. Um, and some of the rooms are pretty ridiculous. Like my master bedroom. You know, um, if you leave the door slightly, uh, open, it will slam shut basically.

but the room is so pressurized that before the cleaning, right? I was actually measuring room pressures. Before the cleaning, my room was measuring at 11 pascals and uh, that's pretty pretty. Uh, over pressurized essentially right? So with the door shut, uh, with reference to the rest of the house, if we put a manometer underneath the door, we'd have 11 Pascals of pressure pushing out on the bedroom right trying to escape the room. The air is trying to make its way back to the air handler and it just can't make it back fast enough.

Well, after I clean the coil, we got all the way up to 20 pascals. So there's a ridiculous amount of air being driven into that room. That also got me thinking, of course I go down rabbit holes when I started doing those pressurization tests and then it started making me wonder like, you know what, how much is the airflow going to change when you over pressurize a room if you don't have a return path. Eventually that room, the air going in is going to slow down more and more and more and it's going to be reduced.

And I'm not going to reveal the numbers yet because there will be a video about it, but it was significant. I Got my uh my Um flow Hood out and measured the air uh with the higher pressure and then also measured the air after and it was a significant increase significant in uh, air being delivered to that room again. um, with the door open with the door closed. It changed too, so it was a pretty interesting thing.

But yeah, I just go down these rabbit holes of of all kinds of stuff. Am I going to cut add a grill into the living room side doubling the area? Uh, yes for my return, I'm going to add a second return Grill And then we are. Also, we are not running returns to the bedroom. we are doing uh, transfer grills, jumper ducts into the main hallway is what we're going to be doing.

but we're actually going to have to, uh, add two um, transfer ducts into my master bedroom to relieve the pressure in the room and try to help equalize out the house. Essentially right. So uh, it's definitely been fun and again, I'm just taking again I Have no expectation of getting done anytime soon I'm just taking my time and having fun I'm learning along the way. I'm not under any significant pressure because my existing system is working.

However, I am starting to calculate in my head how this is this changeover is going to work out when I finally get to the point where I want to change over to the new equipment I'm probably going to be down for a day or two with the changeover and what I got to do because I still have to do some work inside the utility closet too. I'm going back and forth because they have popcorn walls and popcorn ceiling and I'd really like to get that popcorn scraped off so we'll have to see it'll be an interesting process. Um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, what else? Um, yeah, there is gonna be a plenum so uh, let's see what else.

How did the hair get past the filter? Um, well, because I have a C-clamp holding my filter down. There was a period of time when I didn't have a C-clamp there, so I'm sure it was lifting up the filter again. Some of that might have been from before I moved into the house because I have never opened up that evaporator and I've lived here for over 10 years. so I have no idea.

So I'm sure there's times that I left it without a filter during periodic times too. So um, super tech! Thank you very much for that. Super Chat No Coke knows as of today quite yet, haven't had that in a while. So um, so I wanted to talk about something.

There was a social media post. That kind of got me a little bit thinking about some things. and the social media post was essentially asking about standards. um, membership organizations.

I'm not going to name one particular membership organization, but if you go find that social media post, you can see who they were talking about in general. but it was talking about membership organizations and some of these standards that we have in the industry. For the type of service work that we do, standards I think are a great idea. It's it's a reference point for people to try to achieve.

When you have a standard, you know someone sets a standard saying this is the proper way to do something, then you're always trying to do it that way. So that way you can make sure you do it to the best of your ability, right? But when it comes to some of these standards, when it comes to some of the things that we have to do, um, in this industry, when it comes to, you know, learning about load calculations, learning about airflow, learning about, uh, what is it Manual Q Adam was explaining to me. my buddy Adam Muffet from the overtime show. He was explaining manual Q to me because that's what he used to reference and to help to size the transfer grills from my bedrooms.

Um, when it comes to that thing, you know. One thing that I notice is that a lot of these organizations that write these standards are completely out of touch with the HVAC service technicians and the business owners. And I'd be willing to bet that a good majority of these membership organizations that businesses join the businesses don't even follow their standards nor Implement their policies that the membership organizations recommend. I Would argue that a good majority of businesses that join these membership organizations and technicians that join them are literally just joining them to have a badge that says they're part of something kind of like a marketing thing.

Now there's a small percentage of people that are interested in the knowledge and wanting to learn. But if we want this industry to be better as a whole, if we want this industry to be easier to do our jobs, we don't need to make it more difficult. Okay, and I think that is possible with softwares and artificial intelligence and different things like that, we have the ability to make certain tasks a little bit easier. Now, one of the caveats to that is that if you make doing load calculations so easy that anybody can do it well, then you're not necessarily going to have a business model for the specialist contractors that that's all they do is load calculations right? Because if anybody can do it, then why are you going to pay extra to have a specialist do it? So that is one caveat and we got to figure that out.

But in general, we need to make training better. Schools need to do a better job of educating proper practices. I Can't tell you how many school teachers email me and tell me that I did something wrong and then what? They try to tell me that I did wrong. They're actually wrong, right? And don't get me wrong, I do stuff wrong all the time.

But I'm just saying. in general, schools in general aren't up to date on best practices. They aren't up to date on modern tools, they are teaching incorrect information and we need to get better at teaching this trade. If we want the industry as a whole to get better, and I gotta be honest, right now, this industry is going down the drain.

It really is. It's getting bad and we need to build it up. We need to stand together. We need to make education easier and we need to make training easier.

Um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, is the printer being annoying? No. Why I don't know what you mean by that. All right.

Reading through the chat, let's see what else is going on in here. Uh, what am I missing? If you guys do have questions, it's best if you put them in a caps lock. It helps me to kind of differentiate between just comments and questions. Uh, the industry? As in what? HVAC 100 Yeah, HVAC are the industry? So um, let's see.

I Got a question for everybody in the chat right now and I'm really kind of curious. Are you guys like, uh, a dill pickle kind of person? or are you like a bread and butter sweet pickle kind of person? I'm just kind of curious. Let me know in the chat. are you more for dill? Are you more for sweet? Kind of curious? Let me know.

Um. I know that everybody is experiencing the summertime heat in the United States right now and it is absolutely ridiculous out here. I am done with the triple digits and we've only been in the triple digits for like three weeks. So um, so that's interesting Some people I can't I can't fathom anybody that likes sweet pickles.

I Really can't I do not like sweet pickles. They are like my kryptonite. That and black licorice. my absolute.

Kryptonite I cannot handle black licorice and I cannot handle sweet pickles. So what is up my buddy? Brett Brett Wetzel from the Advanced Refrigeration podcast is in here. Hello my friend. um I don't know what you think you see me doing there Jennifer Manzo but um, did I ask that question I don't know.

Yeah Anyways, but yeah, no I don't like dill pickle. I mean I don't like bread and butter? those are Ugh. no no no no no no no, no. Um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now.

So hello to everybody! Um, let me see. So uh, let's talk about some A2l refrigerants. I know those are a Hot Topic Right now A Lot of people are freaking out. there are no or there is no beauty.

or there is no propane in the A2l refrigerants. Okay, that's that's like the number one thing that people think. Okay, there is no propane in it. Yes, it does have a flammable, mildly flammable component to the A2l refrigerants.

Guys, it's not that big of a deal. Um, it really isn't. Honestly, I I Do agree that there needs to be training for certain things, but I Also think that there's training organizations that are trying to capitalize on some of these trainings and some of these trainings are kind of silly. Okay, now there is basic Common Sense training that you need to understand when you have a flammable component to a refrigerant.

But I Don't know if you need to go through all these fancy seven eight hour classes just to get trained to know that there's a a mildly flammable issue with some of these refrigerants. I Think a pamphlet can kind of help out with that? Um, but you know that's just my two cents. Maybe people want to go to an eight-hour training just to know that you have to use a special vacuum pump and you have to use. You know, Common Sense when you're cutting components out or unbrasing things and stuff.

So um, let's see what else we got going on in there. All you know is charging these R290 and other units sucks with a scale. Uh, so when it comes to r290, that's an A3 refrigerant, right? The A2ls are the hot topic one right now because in the in the Light commercial refrigeration side and the industrial Refrigeration side, they have been working with r290, industrial and some of the the heavy industrial stuff they've used R290 for many, many years and chemical plants and different things like that. but it's being implemented in the United States in the Light commercial side, All the bottle coolers reaching coolers, even some of the smaller ice machines there are 290 that is an A3 or a hydrocarbon refrigerant.

Those ones are some basic common sense You have to use It's A flammable refrigerant. Be careful, you can read the pamphlet, it's not that big of a deal. Okay, sweep the system with nitrogen. Um, but you know just I don't know I I Guess the industry needs the trainings, but it's just sometimes seems kind of silly.

like I can guarantee you that almost 99 of the people that go to one of these training classes, you're going to want to fall asleep in them. Like, and so I mean if you're going to fall asleep in a class, what's the point of going like it? just I don't know. It just seems silly. Again, if you get someone like Ty Branaman teaching the class, then you're not going to fall asleep because Ty Brennaman's probably one of the better Educators I've ever met as far as animating and making people understand topics and things.

So uh, maybe Ty Branneman needs to be doing some of these classes, so that way we can better educate people. But I'm sorry. but I don't mean to offend people, but almost everything that I watch is just like okay, I'm falling asleep trying to watch it. So um, let's see.

Uh yeah, the critically charged r290? Yeah, you just gotta have a fancy scale. And I Gotta say one thing about the r290 refrigerants I don't care I have yet to find a scale that really is on it when it comes to charging these very, very small refrigerant amounts, right? Um, I had a Yellow Jacket scale. It does all right. It wasn't my favorite.

my favorite right now. I have a JB from Just Better Industries Uh, that is a really good scale, but even that the increments in which it changes aren't they're not small enough. Uh, when you do it in the grams I think it changes for every uh, it's like five grams at a time or something like that. And it's It's a little difficult to charge some of those when you're getting into these really really minute charges, so we definitely need to come up with some better scales that can handle the smaller increments or grade.

Is it gradients or increments when it comes to fluids? I think it's increments, right? Anyways, I think gradients as dry stuff, is it not? Um, let me see what else we got going in here. Uh, people tend to fall asleep in classes because the CO2 levels rises in the space and then snooze I Agree, that's the thing too. But even if I watch a class on my computer I fall asleep. Uh, but you know what? I can go watch a YouTube video on uh, you know the the it's History Channel That's one of my favorite YouTube channels right now and I love that.

and I can watch those things and I never fall asleep because they're interesting and they're they're They're captivating. They they get your attention and they leave you wanting more, right? So we got to figure out a way to make HVAC training like that. Um, you know it's interesting because I can have a conversation with my buddy Adam right? and Adam can go read these crazy books and then he can explain it to me and I'm interested in everything that Adam's saying. But if I sat down and read the book, I'd be bored out of my mind.

so there's something there. There's something about that, like because he's like one of my best friends or something like I don't I don't know what it is, but I can listen to him talk about airflow and explain airflow to me and and it totally make makes sense. But if I try to open up the book I'm like, well I just wanted to fall asleep. How's the Hvacr industry dying? It's always going to break.

No I don't mean the industry I mean the industry as a whole. the the, the, the, the sales people we have coming into this industry right now. Private Equity buying up all the small businesses and consolidating businesses and private Equity companies buying up major manufacturers and consolidating and cutting corners and cutting costs. That's what I mean by the industry as a whole.

Technicians in general, not wanting to do their best, not wanting to try. um, the amount of people that still don't want to help each other. That's what I mean by the industry is going down the drain. Okay, I don't mean that the industry is going away.

it's going to be here forever. This industry is never going to die. This industry is critical to sustaining life, but it's just a bummer. the direction that it's going, the toxicity of it.

at least. let's see, sales don't represent the trade entirely. No, but the deceptive marketing from sales and the bad sour taste in people's mouths that the sales technicians leave hurt the industry far more. They destroy the industry.

They they give it a bad reputation. It's like the sales in this industry, especially on the residential side, is starting to make those technicians like car salesmen. Okay, I don't know about you, but I despise buying a new car because of the process because of the salesman I'm an part of my French but I really am when it comes to salesmen I'm more educated than the salesman trying to sell me anything. so that way I can say no I don't want that I only want this and I only want to pay this price and it's sad that it has to be that way.

and it's getting that way in the HVAC side too. So that's what I'm talking about about going down the drain and the fact that schools in general are not doing a great job at teaching the industry. so let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, so uh.

one thing too when we're dealing with these A2ls and these, uh, A3 refrigerants. Another thing you need to understand if we need specialized tools to work with A2ls as a business owner, I'm going to charge more money for that. Okay, if we need to take extra time when we're working with A2ls and A3s hydrocarbon refrigerants, our technicians need to be given more time and we need to charge for more time. Okay, with this new stuff coming out with these new regulations, these new energy codes, and and all this different stuff, as business owners, we need to remember that we need to Bill accordingly.

Okay, we need to bill for our time. We need to make money. We're not going to let people undercut us. Okay, we got to go out there and we got to stand our ground.

Our price is our price and we need to Bill accordingly. So that way our technicians can be compensated properly and they can feel good and feel like they're part of a team and feel like they're not just a lemming going out and collecting a paycheck. Okay, um, uh. in a recent video, I was working on a Linux package unit there because the Coke knows too.

I Was working on a Linux package unit and I installed some ball valves before the dryer and someone was commending me for installing ball valves. I Want to make it clear: I Do Not install ball valves on every one of my dryers out there I Will typically install ball valves before and after a liquid line filter dryer. If I think there's a potential problem for contamination. Okay, ball valves in general are another leak point in my experience.

They tend to leak over time. Okay, especially if people are actuating them alive, you're not actuating as much. As long as the packings aren't over tightened, then you should probably be good for a while. But I'm not in the habit of going and installing ball valves on everything just because they're a potential leak point.

So um, let's see what else we got going on in here. We can't charge 400 for a capacitor. I'd see that that whole thing. the 400 for a capacitor thing that just drives me nuts like that that the whole concept of customers getting upset because a company wants to charge 400 for a capacitor.

It's unfortunate. but the reason why that's happening is because of their pricing structure. They're not breaking down their pricing. Now if I go and install a capacitor at a restaurant, it's probably going to cost more than 400 because I'm going to be thorough I'm going to have travel time to the job and I'm going to do this.

But my invoices are broken down in the way that when the customer sees that they're only paying, you know, 42 dollars for the capacitor or whatever the the marked up price is. Well, then they're like, oh, I'm only paying 42. So the residential people. they're getting crap for charging 400 for a capacitor if they simply change their invoicing strategy and got away from the flat rate.

Now I realize that's not practical and I realize there's a reason for flat rate. but if they got away from the flat rate pricing and just did hourly and time of materials well, then it would be a lot easier to to justify why your invoices are so hard because then a customer would only be complaining about your labor prices or your materials prices or whatever it may be. Okay, um, so you know. Now, while I agree, sometimes it's kind of silly what some of these people charge like.

You know the the cool thing about what you charge for an invoice is if the customer chooses not to approve your quoted amount, then they move on to another company like there's I Really don't care what other companies charge I Just don't like deceptive marketing and deceptive practices I'm not a big fan of changing wording on invoices like it's just that smells dirty to me. So all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, let me see what else we have in here. Super tech, thank you very much for that.

Super Chat Man with Coke knows that's funny. Uh what else am I missing in here? Um, all right. Uh. I already covered that question.

Let's go up here and do I ever rebuild my Motors I Get this question about once every two three months someone asks me, why don't I just rebuild a motor instead of changing an indoor blower motor that has bad bearings. why don't I just pull the blower motor apart, rebuild it, throw some new bearings in it, and call it a day. Or when I have a motor that's burnt up, why don't I just take it to the motor rebuilding shop and have them rewind it because it's not practical and it's not cost effective for the type of equipment that I'm working on. If you're working on 500 horsepower motors Big giant industrial Motors Sure, it might be cost effective to have a motor rebuild or rewind that thing and Pat you know, put new bearings on it and do you know maintenance on it.

but when you're working on five horsepower motors and below, for the most part, they're trash and it's more cost effective to buy a new one. I Realize that sucks, but yeah, I Realize that some people think that it takes five minutes to change a bearing on a condenser fan motor, but you got have the bearing. You got to make sure that your technician installs it in the right direction. You got to make sure that you put the right bearing in there like there's too many factors and you're adding too much complexity to this to at least for the stuff that I do, it'd be adding too much complexity to my job and it's just easier just to replace the motor and it's still probably going to be cheaper and they're going to end up with a warranty on it.

So uh, why do I do restaurants? I Worked at one for a walk-in cooler recently and it was gross. Why do I do restaurants? That's just what we've always done. Um I Grew up working in restaurants and they really don't phase me too much. Um, it's just been the thing.

I mean I wouldn't mind doing other work I have done other work in the past, but I've just always done restaurants I've become very accustomed to them and uh I know what to expect and I feel very comfortable working on them so it is what it is to each their own. If people don't like them, see what the general population like non-restaurant service tax which you guys think is gross I mean I'm just used to it. You know, ice machines don't even really bother me. Of course there's that occasional one that's disgusting when I see maggots crawling or something like that.

but you know when I go to Subway which I don't even go to Subway that often. but I'll get ice I don't care I know their ice machines are going to be all full of like build up and you know crap. but I mean it's the same stuff. you're breathing.

it's I just I don't know. that stuff just doesn't bother me too much. Uh, Howard Sharp says there's no reason to rip off customers. He itemizes everything separate line items.

Your favorite line item is the aggravation fee in 25 and up. I Just want to be clear, like I'm not saying just because you're charging flat rate, you're ripping someone off. What I'm saying is you're making it hard for yourself. You're setting it when I see these posts on social media? How do we get these customers to stop complaining about a 400 charge 400 charge for a capacitor? Well start by breaking down your invoice and it'll make more sense to them.

instead of trying to justify that. it's the cost of business is too high I Get it, You know, but charge for time and materials like I Know there's an argument for flat rate pricing too, because then the customer knows what it's going to cost them before you start doing the work with time and materials. I'm here I can give you and it'll probably take me like four hours. I can get it done, but we might run into problems and then I have to charge them accordingly if I go over that four hours, you know.

But that's just life. that's just the world I've lived in and worked in so I'm just used to it that way. Um, what else did I see here? Uh, doing these videos. Do I feel like a teacher? No, absolutely not.

I Do Not feel like a teacher. Um, people have asked me why don't I go get a job as a teacher? Well, number one: the reason why I don't get a job as a teacher is because the pay is just disgusting. The teaching does not pay good money. Period.

Okay, it's disgusting how much teaching. and I've been approached and I've talked to people about how much they're willing to pay and it's like no, okay. if you go to a trade school right where a student comes in sometimes up to a, you know, six months to a year after that student leaves that school, he could be making more money than the teacher and that student is still an entry-level service technician. That's disgusting.

Okay, it's just wrong. What they're paying these teachers because the the education programs. you know it's hard to make a profit because again, we're demanding cheaper, cheaper, cheaper. So you know they don't have the funds to pay these teachers and it's just a thing.

But um, what else we got going on in the chat right now? Uh Advanced Refrigeration Podcast says a hundred and ten thousand dollars for a teacher I would like to know where that hundred and ten thousand dollars is. Are they a what kind of uh education is that teacher gonna have to have? um do they have to have a master's degree? Um, you know I was approached to go work at a community college and uh, but first they showed me the pay and I was like that's ridiculous and then they're like oh, and you have to have an associate's degree and I'm like sorry I don't have an associate's degree I Guess I'm not going to work for you, you know? Um, but uh Brett First off, 110 000 is not what it used to be. A hundred and ten thousand dollars is low income in California Period. Okay, you go.

and I'm sorry, but that's becoming low income in Texas too. And low income in some of the bigger, more populated states. A hundred thousand dollars is not as much as it used to be 25 years ago. Okay, um, but the next thing is, hundred and ten thousand dollars is low for what they pay.

Most of the teachers here in California I'm sorry is uh, high. You're lucky if you're going to make 60 to 80 grand as a a teacher here in California It's just disturbing. So you're even lucky if you're going to make that much. So, how much did a commercial service technician earn per hour? That's all dependent on the area that you live in.

It really is and the kind of work that you're doing. it's going to change from Light commercial all the way up to heavy industrial. Um, you know and I don't Uh, and these are my opinions here. They really are okay.

I'm not judging anybody if you don't do things the way that I do. but I mean honestly? I don't mind hard work but at the same time I Feel bad for the guys that do Supermarket work because you know their their hours are just ridiculous. Like the amount of ridiculous overtime that they get is insane. Like, don't get me wrong, it's great for the pocketbook, but you can't be a 60 year old and be entering the supermarket trade.

It's just not going to happen. Period. You do not have the energy as a 60 year old to be entering. and if you do, you're a unicorn.

I Mean you're not normal because you know? Superman Supermarket Work is a young men's game to enter. Uh, definitely there's older people and Brett can attest to that. You know guys that have put in their time. But I mean their bodies are broken down and stuff.

so nah, that's that's crazy. Man wages need to go up, hours need to go down, and uh, you know. but we also as technicians to need to bring something to the table too. We can't just expect businesses to pay us a bunch of money.

We have to be willing to bring our our knowledge and share our knowledge and put in an effort. You know you can't show up to work and expect a super high wage and then just want to kick back and relax and not do much work. That's a bit silly. that's only hurting you.

Um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Uh yeah. uh. what else we got in here? Uh, pay is determined by knowledge 100 And what about a residential? Tech Right out of school? I mean Aaron G Again, it just depends on regionally where you're gonna go. you know? uh.

but I will say you know as a residential Tech Uh, be careful because you know there's don't get me wrong, sales I Get it that sales are a necessary part of this industry. But sales also hurt this industry too because if you're a residential Tech and you know 18 months into the trade, you're making a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Uh, guess what? That's hurting you because that's not gonna last forever and that's a commission-based job right? And your knowledge isn't there. So if something happens in In and your sales numbers aren't up and you know you can't constantly keep growing and the company lets you go, you're gonna think you're a service technician, but you're not because all you've been doing is selling.

So just be cautious. If you're going to get into the sales side of things, make sure you have knowledge too. You always need something to fall back on, so you can't just expect to be a Salesman forever. Okay, because I Can 100 guarantee you? Right now, there's a private Equity buyout, right? All these different private Equity companies are buying up all these residential companies, right? Okay, eventually they're going to push the salesman out because that's a lot of money that those companies have to pay out and all they want is money.

They don't care about reputations they don't care about Brands They don't care about doing things right. All they want is money. So yes, sales technicians to those big giant residential companies right now they are necessary. but they are phasing them out.

Okay. guarantee you they will phase out the sales technicians. They will figure out how to do it online. They will figure out a new way.

So that way they don't have to pay out that money. So if you're going out there and thinking that you're going to be a sales technician for the rest of your life, I bet you in the next 10 15 years sales technicians are not going to be needed as much. and I bet you anything. And this is just my opinions, they're going to be phased out and if they don't have technical knowledge, they're not going to be in the HVAC trade anymore.

Period. So uh, what else And again, those are just my opinions. I'm sure someone will yell at me for what I had to say. How do I deal with customers who don't want to pay? How do I pick the right customers? There's a lot of things and it's all about for me.

I've been through a lot of experiences where I've had bad experiences and customers not pay. So I have a pretty good ability to walk into a job site if it's a new customer and no, first and foremost, if they if they're a giant National company and they're a big Corporation get over the fact they're not going to pay cash on demand. Cod Okay, they're just not going to do it. but if they're a small mom and pop and they're not willing to pay, Cod You need to question whether or not they're a customer that you want to work with.

Okay, when you work with the big giant National chains. that's just they don't pay Cod The managers on General aren't allowed to pull cash out. it's just a whole process with the corporation. But if you're working for small Mom and Pops and that customer's not willing to pay, you know for the M for the repair.

When the moment you leave with cash, if they push against it, then that's something you need to think about. Okay, that's one red flag. The other thing is is just the type of business that they're running. You know you can just kind of tell things by by going into the job site and make sure you quote things.

Don't just do things because they say yeah, just get it done. No, you quote it, make sure you quote it and and get it in writing. That way they understand and make sure you cover your butt when you quote things when I quote things and I have good customers. but even to this day, I never get them an absolute guarantee that this is going to fix a problem.

I'll give them facts and say these are the symptoms and we need to replace this part before we can further diagnose. That's a good majority of my wording in most of my quotes. Look, you have a bad compressor. Here's the cost to replace the compressor.

Then we got to figure out why, but I'm not quoting the time to figure out why I'm quoting the time to replace the compressor and then I need time and materials. From that point to further diagnose to figure out why this compressor went bad so it doesn't go bad again in a week. And if I have a custom customer and see I do a lot to cover my butt, right? I have a warranty I cover my labor for 90 days and I honor manufacturers part warranties, right? But I don't honor manufacturers part warranties and I don't warranty my labor if the customer is not willing to let me figure out why something failed. So if a customer wants me to quote a compressor and I quote it, but then I say I need time to figure out why it failed after we're done fixing it and they say no, they don't want to do that, then they get no warranty.

period. I'm not warranting that I'm not going through the hassle and I'm not making the manufacturer eat their materials because the customer wasn't willing to try to figure out why it failed. period. So maybe I'm wrong for that.

I Don't know. what do you guys think in the chat am I a jerk for doing that kind of stuff Or do you think that's a fair thing for me to do? Um, what else do we got going on here? That one guy says he works for a small family business company who both does residential and Light commercial and he loves it. but he's always getting recruited by other residential companies. They always brag about their money and that money is short-lived Let me ask you this.

You see residential sales technicians bragging online about how much money they make, but I'd be very curious to know if they're still employed by that same company a year later. two years later, three years later. Okay, I'm sure there's some that are, but I get I bet a good majority of them are not. so.

um, and that money can be very, very dangerous for young people getting into this trade when they're making that big money. and then they think they can go out and buy boats and they don't want to plan for the future and buy race cars and all this different stuff. and then it's like hey, they're not being smart with their money and that's just devastating when they realize that they can't continue to live this lifestyle. So um, let me see what else we got going on in the chat.

I'm definitely nicer than Joe there. Brett Uh, so I already answered that question. Oh, this is a funny one. but I had a bunch of questions.

Uh, people saw a book that I post or that I had in the background of one of my videos. They saw this one right here I'm sure a bunch of people will go ahead and guess what it's from. Uh, this book. To give context, it has absolutely nothing in it.

It's blank. It's a prop. It's a movie prop. What movie is this from? it has three pages.

That's it. Like three pages of writing and then that's it. This is from a movie with Michael Keaton that is a hundred percent right. it is from Beetlejuice that's right.

Um I just bought that because I I was watching Beetlejuice with my youngest daughter about a week and a half ago and uh before she left and um I saw that and for some reason right when I saw the book they opened it up and it said the name of the book and I was like I wonder if they sell that on Amazon I went looked and it was five bucks. I was like that's cool coffee table piece right there. um yeah, that is a fun one I like that kind of stuff I like movie stuff I like interesting, weird quirky stuff like that. Um so someone had a really good question in a I show.

quite often in videos that I'll use thermal imaging cameras for diagnosing things and I will oftentimes find failure points electrical failure points using thermal imaging cameras. But the question that he had and he said hey, thermal imaging cameras are great he's like, but how do you diagnose a bad contactor or a bad disconnect switch without a thermal imaging camera And that was a really good questions because obviously I didn't have thermal imaging cameras 20 years ago. They weren't affordable, right? Um, so I can take a little bit longer, but there's some basic tests that you can do. You can do voltage drop tests across contactors and disconnects, but voltage drop Will usually only be present when you have a severe problem if you have a voltage drop from the line side to the load side of a contactor when it's energized when it's pulled in.

Usually that means that's a catastrophic failure. So how do you catch a contactor failing on its way out? Well a thermal imaging camera is a great tool that we can use to do so. but you can do things with temperatures that would be the best way to. you can laser thermometers.

Those are another great way. You know it's not necessarily A thermal imaging camera They're fairly inexpensive. They're not good for like precise measurements but you can take a laser thermometer and you can just you know a foot away safely. You can shoot the line side of the lug going into the disconnect and you can shoot the load side of the lug going out of the disconnect and you can measure voltage differences.

That was a good way to do it too. Um, that's that's those are some of the more common ways that I would do it. Or you would just measure for voltage drop and then you would start to see things. You can kind of start to notice coloration or discoloration of fuses and different things like that.

Um, so yeah, that's my two cents on that. Uh Freon Leon Sand Surface Temp. That's right. Um Jason Johnson Saying SSRS are better than contactors Solid State Relays I Totally agree.

but finding a solid state relay? Uh Jason Johnson Had a really good conversation thread because someone had asked me I get a lot of questions from people that are not necessarily in the Hvacr trade. I'm sure some of them are but asking about why we don't use solid-state relays instead of contactors because I had a contactor that was full of sand. Um, it's really about cost and cost. Effectiveness You know, solid state relays.

they got to be sized for the inrush current and that can tend to be a lot bigger, right? Because the inrush current of a lot of our equipment is rather high. So you got to be careful about that kind of stuff. And there's a lot more that goes into that too. So it's just not cost effective for those situations.

But you know and again, it's all in the customers. when I tell the customers hey, we can find another solution, but it's going to be a hundred times more expensive than this. You know, 70 contact or whatever it cost, you know, and all together, you know, 800 repair? Um, you know they're just like yeah. just let's see if we have another issue with it.

You know? So it's just all up to the customer. Uh do I think if we ignore Jen she would notice. What do you mean by that? I I don't know why I see I need to be careful about reading comments I'm not getting involved in that Jen's my friend. come on Brett I Know you're just picking on her though.

Um, what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, so I already talked about that. So I got a question for you guys in the chat right now. Do you guys like taking umbrellas onto the roof? There's a couple different manufacturers that make like magnetic umbrellas. me personally and someone was asking me why don't use a magnetic umbrella I think I've showed one in a video many years ago I I Just think, honestly, the magnetic umbrellas they sell in the supply houses just suck.

They really do. They don't last, the magnets aren't strong enough, they get taken away by the wind. Um, it just becomes a problem. They rip, they break.

I Know there's some really high-end umbrellas that you can buy that are super heavy and very ridiculously big. I I Don't know I Just put a big giant floppy hat on right? I have a ridiculously stupid floppy hat I think I've shown it. it's it's giant right I wear that and um, it just keeps the sun off my neck and I wear long sleeve shirts now I'm in an area where we don't have a lot of humidity. um, so you know, long sleeve shirts all day long? It's no big deal and then just a big giant hat covering my head.

So I don't get sunburned and I'm good to go. Uh, you know, of course you still got to be careful. So um, we had, uh, some interesting, uh uh, humidity, um going on. We have a little bit higher humidity than usual where we're pushing like at our Max like 60 but for the most part we're hanging between 40 and 60 relative humidity outside right now.

Uh, we have some probably some monosunal moisture going over or something, but um, so it's kind of affecting some things. I Did a a condensation call today where we had you know, uninsulated spiral exposed duct that was sweating. uh and you know I don't know if I'll make a video I did shoot some footage but I'll have to see if the footage will work or not. but basically uh, dew point was too high really is what it is, you know? And they had some other issues leading up to this problem too.

Uh, thermostat was set way too cold bringing the building temperatures down and then you know the relative humidity was just way too high and dew point was high and we were meeting dew points. So you're just getting condensation and that's just a problem. And what it is is, our buildings in general aren't really designed for a lot of humidity and this this one's relatively close to the coast. So you know they tend to run into this problem once, you know, a couple times a year.

Basically when the humidity gets high enough and the outside air temperature gets high enough. but you know we, we struggle with that. So I Know you know some people in the Midwest and in the South You know they deal with humidity on a regular basis and so they you know have to deal with this kind of stuff, but you know we're not too used to it. So um, oh uh, I got stuck on a roof today like I Legit.

I went up onto the roof I'll have some content on it later coming out soon too but I've shot some content. but I went up onto a roof and it was really humid and hot outside and the building was negative. That was another problem with this building that had the condensation issues was it had a negative air pressure balance so we had to repair that too. But um, this building was negative.

So when I went on the roof I closed the roof hatch behind me and then when I was all done doing my work I I couldn't get the roof hatch open. Luckily they had a walk-in cooler that was six foot below the parapet wall. so I was able to just hop down on the walk-in cooler and then they had a ladder leaning next to it. So I hopped down the ladder.

but yeah, I got my ass stuck on the roof today. That was pretty interesting. Um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, let's see. Jason Johnson says his pop-up tent case has a backpack.

Um so I have a easy up that I keep in my van permanently for when it rains or for when it's really, really hot. So if I'm doing an eight hour compressor change in the Dead Heat Of Summer Yeah, I'll put my easy up up. For the most part, if I'm doing a four to you know, four hour repair, I'm probably not going to put the easy up up unless it's just ridiculously hot outside. So um, let's see that one guy says it's finally cloudy in Phoenix right now.

Uh, there's clouds. Yep, so if there's clouds in Phoenix what that means uh, is that the monsoonal moisture is starting to come. We get this uh, Phoenix is very accustomed to Arizona Nevada um I Don't know if it goes as far as Utah but we'll get this monsoonal moisture come through. We'll get thunderstorms, monsoons will come through, and then that monsoonal moisture will raise humidity levels.

Um, it'll come into Southern California and then you know humidity is just going to go up and it's a pretty common thing that we have to do deal with. So um, let's see. I used to be cool now I'm cold. That's right, that's right.

Um, all right. cool. Well let's see what else we got going on in here. Um I uh if I I said at the beginning of the stream if you guys haven't seen it already I was on the Misfits of HVAC podcast this last week and on Saturday it was a good time with Ryan and Jennifer that was cool.

Good hangout. got to talk to Jennifer a little bit. got to talk to Ryan a little bit. it was kind of neat.

It's neat to be on someone else's content where I don't have to push the buttons and run the show and I get to just go and just hang out. although that's what I do on the overtime show. but I tend to be the second in running things on the overtime show Adam usually does it and I'll be there just in case. But um, it is kind of nice to be on someone else's show and actually be a guest, so that was kind of cool.

It was pretty neat to be asked to be on that show too, so you guys definitely should go check it out. Uh Jason Johnson says that uh, he turns into a lobster when he goes out in the sun. yeah that's crazy I'm afraid of skin cancer and stuff. so yeah I try to keep my arms I used to have the I mean I still have a farmer's tan but it's not as bad.

but yeah I still have a farmer's tan but um uh, this is more or less just from personal like. but when I when I used to wear short sleeves worked at short sleeve shirts at work yeah my farmer's tan was like serious. it was bad and uh yeah I try not to be out in the Sun every day like I do at work and not have some sort of protection I hate sunscreen. so that's why I like wearing long sleeve shirts and having big floppy hats on.

so uh, since I'm bored, do a marathon show. No I'm not doing a marathon show for sure. Uh let's see what else we got going on in here. um what am I missing? uh that's funny you know I do have to say thank you to again for all the support from all of you guys.

You know the the all the feedback you guys leave, the comments um the interactions you guys have on all the different social media platforms. It is really awesome if you guys don't know too these these uh live streams are turned into podcast format and they get posted on uh every couple weeks. I go and post a bunch of them on all the different podcast platforms. If you search for the podcast it's Hvacr podcast and I also do some other ones too where it's not this kind of content.

I do just some recorded content I posted one recently and my buddy Bill Russell and I having a great conversation so stay tuned for that and then on all social media platforms I'm on uh, all of them pretty much under Hvacr videos. So and I try to interact as much as possible on there. Uh, let's see, you're looking for a Bluetooth pressure and temperature sensor. He's seen me using the field piece ones.

What's my opinion? Cool Alien? Uh, the field piece? Uh. pressure probes and temperature probes. The Job Link probes is what they call them. In my personal opinion, this is my personal opinion.

they're the best ones out there for the money and the versatility of them. Of course. I'm sure there's something that's more accurate on the temperature side, but versatility as an overall package. the Job Link probes in my opinion, is the best bang for your buck.

But I'm looking forward to someone coming up and knocking them off their pedestal. I mean I Love Field Peace. But competition is healthy and if we get a competitor to field piece right, Testo's right there. but they're They're Bluetooth range and some other things.

Just their app just doesn't jive um with me. But uh, you know I'm looking forward to a high quality Field Piece competitor because then that means Field Piece will continue to improve and grow. their product line. make it better too.

So but for now now, the Field Piece Job Link probes if you're interested in purchasing any of those tools or anything else that you see me using. If you go to Truetechtools.com I have an offer code. Big Picture: If you use my offer code on almost all the items on their website, you get an eight percent discount. Now there's a few things that you don't get a discount on um, contractually that Truetech Tools can't lower the prices on and can't give discounts on.

But for the most part, almost all the items they sell you can get a discount by using my offer code. Big picture Again, one word. and when you use that I get a small commission so it helps to support the channel. So um, let's see.

So it's interesting that I had a service technician I had an old Um Per or someone that used to work for me reach out to me and he mentioned that uh he started his own company and he's doing really well. We still communicate we good relationship and everything. um but uh his name was Bryce uh name is Bryce But anyways Bryce started his own company and he was telling me that um he has a new guy working for him that's an apprentice for him and he's teaching him the ropes and uh, you know his Apprentice went to school showing his school his new manifold gauge set and he was getting criticism from students and I heard from the teacher too because he didn't buy a four port manifold gauge set that he could vacuum through and the student then told the teacher and the students hey, I I vacuum without a manifold, right? and he kind of got criticism for that. to each their own.

Okay, I will vacuum with the manifold and without a manifold I Prefer to vacuum without a manifold when I'm evacuating systems or dehydrating them right? I prefer to use a vacuum pump my true through blue hoses and just a standalone micron gauge. but sometimes it's not always practical. So for someone to criticize someone simply because they they didn't buy a manifold that they wanted to pull an evacuation through like that's kind of silly. And it's sad that the education system the teachers in general aren't up to date on proper practices and that's what I was talking about at the beginning of the stream when I was saying that I have a problem with some of the ways the industry is going in the education system.

You know the like: I wish we had better I don't know I wish we had better training Maybe I mean I Hate I hate government intervention I Really do I genuinely hate government intervention, but there's an argument to be made for better licensing right here in: California You do not have to have any licensing to be a service technician. The only thing you have to have is a federally mandated EPA certification saying that you know that it's bad to spray refrigerant into the atmosphere. That's the only thing to be a service technician in California you have to have and again I'm not a fan of government intervention, but at the same time like I do see a need for some sort of Licensing in this trade. but then again, there'd be the argument that the lysacine tests are too easy, you know, and there's there's problems everywhere.

but I just I really wish that this industry can get better as far as the training goes. So um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um I'm the odd guy. he's team Testo never had an issue yet.

his field piece stuff breaks. He takes care of my tools too. Yeah and you know what? to each their own Jason like and that's the cool thing. like I don't care if you like your Testo stuff you know like I don't understand where people will go in the comments and say like you're stupid because you're using field peace.

that's all junk. Throw that junk away like I mean to each their own. If someone wants to use it, they want to use it. let them be.

You know, like social media sometimes gets a bit silly and toxic. So interesting. Bill says he's been watching on mute. curious HVAC Guy that sounds very interesting sounds like you're just watching me lip sync or something like I'm a mime What's going on here buddy? Oh, he's imagining me just telling him nice thi