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.

Oh foreign, thank you Foreign foreign. What is up everybody? Welcome To the Hvacr videos live stream: Hello to everybody in the chat. Lots of familiar screen names in there and some new people. some people that I haven't seen in a while so it's really cool to catch up with everybody.

Um, my name is Chris Uh, I'm an HVAC service technician here in Southern California for the new people and I just make videos showing the stuff that I run into on a daily. uh I don't think I'm anything special I don't you know I'm just a service technician that happens to film the stuff that I do okay I try to be as honest as possible filming The Good the Bad the Ugly all that in between? Um, yeah, and that's me. Uh, if you guys have questions during this live stream that you want me to answer or topics that you want me to address, your best bet is to put the questions or Topics in the YouTube chat in caps lock. Okay, if you're watching on another streaming service, that's fine.

It's all good. Uh, just put the questions in caps lock. That'll help you to see them. I'm not going to be able to get to everything as usual so you can feel free to shoot me an email at Hvacrvideos Gmail.com if I miss anything.

Okay, I try, but you know there's a lot of stuff going on in this chats and then oftentimes too the uh, the comments. The people in the comments will help out too. If you're watching on Facebook or LinkedIn, that's fine. It doesn't benefit me either way.

what streaming platform or what you know platform you watch this on. but there is a huge group in the YouTube chat and there's a great Community going on in there. So if you want to have a conversation with everybody, your best bet is to jump into the YouTube live stream. If you want to find my channel, it's just Hvacr videos on YouTube and it should pop up with the live stream.

Uh, that gamer boy. thank you very much for that Super Chat and again thank you Brian for the Super Chat that you sent uh right before the stream started. so it's really awesome. So got a couple things I Want to cover as usual.

let me have a look in here and uh, let's see what else we got going on. Room Mic: Is there a problem with the microphone? Am I underwater? What is going on? Do we have a mic problem that is not good? Let me adjust some things and see if I'm missing something here. Okay, yeah, let me play with it here. That's why.

Hold on just one second. Hopefully this doesn't screw everything up. Hold on one sec and hopefully that's a little bit better. Let's see if the audio is any better.

I don't know. Let's hope it comes back and everything is working like it's supposed to let me know in the chat. Okay, cool, Right on. Uh, let me see a couple more confirmations to make sure that the audio is doing good better.

Yeah, it's really good. Okay, all right. Uh, that's why I there's something about when you're streaming. It is a pain in the butt.

Uh I use a mixer and sometimes things get changed on the mixer and it just destroys everything. So what it was doing was my mixer and the streaming software for some reason was using the microphone from my web camera. Don't know why? Uh, so yeah, it is what it is. All right.

Yep. always got problems, right? Let's see. Uh Jason Johnson Said During this intermission, feel free to refill your beverages, grab your popcorn, use the restroom, and we're back. So uh yeah, I apologize to everybody, but let's get on with it.

Okay, so um I had a couple videos in the last couple weeks. I'll get into those in a minute. Uh, and I want to go ahead and talk about my home system? Okay, so a lot of questions a lot of people ask me about my home system, the design that I'm doing, so what it is is I'm replacing the air conditioner in my home now I've always known that the air conditioner is oversized in my home, but um, myself and my friend Adam uh, Adam muffins from the HVAC overtime show. He helped me to do a load calculation on my house and we delved deep into it and we really went into the deep end doing the proper load calculation with duck Design and everything on my home and what we found was I was correct.

My house is massively oversized now. Why in the heck am I going from a four ton system all the way down to a two-ton system? Okay, here's what it is. The original air conditioning system that was installed in this house in the night the late 80s early 90s before I lived here was a three ton system. Okay, even at a three ton, it was probably marginally sized like right in the ballpark, but the house had a lot of infiltration at the time.

Since then, this house, over the last however many years it is has been upgraded, renovated I moved into the house. oh shoot, 12 years ago or something and I knew there was a lot of problems, but the house already had a lot of upgrades done to it. Okay, some major upgrades that were done to my house that really, really significantly decrease the infiltration of this home was double pane windows we put in or the house had double pane vinyl windows put in all the way throughout the house. Then the house had a large patio cover installed on the entire back of the house, completely shading all the windows on the back of the house from getting any afternoon sun or any morning to afternoon sun.

Okay, so the sun comes up over the back of my house, sets over the front of my house. Other things that were done was I upgraded. uh, you know the air I fixed a lot of the air leakage in the house and we, um, have, uh, what else have we done I think that's it for the time being I Know there's a couple other things that we did too. but anyways, So what we did was we were able to reduce the load on the house over the years all the way down to a two-ton system.

Now I Know a lot of people think that's insane installing a two-ton system on a 1800 square foot single story house in Southern California But the math doesn't lie. The load calculation after we double checked it, triple checked it is accurate. Okay, so we are installing a two-ton system in my house. Okay I Know a lot of people I keep getting comments from people saying that like I'm nuts I'm crazy.

Uh, you know, never go down that low. It needs to be oversized. All this different stuff and it's all good. Guess what if I made a mistake? If things are incorrect, the cool thing is is that it's all going to be caught on camera.

Okay, but I'm pretty confident that uh, we're gonna be just fine. Okay, so we are installing a two-ton heat pump in the house. Um I am not installing resistance heat now. The heating load was slightly higher than what the standard heat pump can output with the two ton heat pump.

Okay, I decided to opt for not putting heat strips in my system. but what I did do okay and I haven't shown it on film yet was I sized the new electrical Run for the indoor fan coil as if it was to have heat strips already because I'm changing from an existing air conditioning with a furnace okay air conditioner with the furnace to a two-ton heat pump. so we are no longer going to be needing a 115 volt fan coil. we will now be required to have a 208 volt fan coil or 240 volt.

I guess I should say um and so what I did was I sized I had to pull new wire, new breaker and everything for the Ender fan coil. I've already done that. So what I've been doing with this process on my house project is I'm super busy at work right? running a normal business, working every day, family life, all that stuff and this this house project has really really taken me a while to to finish and complete just because I've been so busy. So I've been just kind of doing it on my own on the weekends, a little bit here, a little bit there and I'm getting closer and closer actually very close to the final installation.

So went ahead this last weekend. Um, ran a good majority of the line set. Now we haven't finished it completely I still got to do some more and hopefully I'll get it done I don't I don't know. That's a little a little bit of a push to say.

I'm going to get it done next week in the line set I don't think I will, but I'm going to get some of it done next weekend and then uh, just a few more things to do, some ductwork stuff to tie up and then I'm going to be ready to make the final switch over now. I'm replacing my existing furnace with a new fan coil and putting it into the same location. so I want to reduce the downtime on my existing system and that's why I'm just doing everything that I can up until the final point where I have to shut my system down for a weekend or so and do the swap over. do the install and that's where we're at.

Okay, so um I'm let me see what we got going on in the chat. What am I missing? uh I'm trying to think if it's a 26 VNA I don't think it's the 26. hold on. Uh, it's the 25 Vna4 um I didn't go with the the new fancy whatever I just what they had I just got a standard two ton.

so um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh yeah I shut the garage door. That was a big big thing. Uh, you gotta go watch the videos on my channel.

Um I don't know the title of the video but it's house project, Hvacr videos, house project or something like that's the name of the title. There's two or three of them where it shows me working through the process. so if you haven't seen them, definitely go check them out. Uh, why heat pump? I Just wanted to try a heat pump in my house and see what was up I really have no preference I don't have any political agendas or anything like that I know that I'm gonna probably consume a little more electricity running a heat pump but I just wanted to try it out and see what happened.

um and also you got to understand too. like I went with a super fancy Carrier Infinity system I Realized that you know I could have bought just a um you know something else and it would have been a lot cheaper. but I figured you know what this will make for. good content and if we have issues, we have issues.

I'll film it all. It'll be fun, right? All right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Uh, replacing my ductwork? Yes, we are doing a full system replacement. So duct work registers, supply, duct boots.

Um, we're adding returns to the system. We are fixing everything we're putting. Uh, transfer grills from every room? uh to alleviate the the pressure that builds up in the rooms because the undercuts under the doors? Aren't Enough like we're going? Um, yeah, we're going crazy on this. Okay, and uh, and the cool thing is is that I'm in no rush I I have no obligations to anybody other than myself to get this project done.

So I've just been taking my time having fun with it, learning through the process. That's another thing. I'm learning through this. I'm learning about air leakage and things that solve air leakage.

I made some mistakes. If you go, watch the first couple videos, you know you'll see a mistake where I spend eight hundred dollars buying cam light covers and realize they weren't going to do with what I thought they would do. Now they still did something in the end, but I didn't need to spend 800 on those things like that was a waste of my money. Um, all right.

Uh, I probably don't use a lot of heat though. I You know. Surprisingly, I think my design temperature is 37 degrees for heating? uh and my design temperature for cooling is 96 degrees I believe Fahrenheit So uh is my cooling design temperature. but right now we're going through a heat wave.

It's currently 103 at my house. It was 108 today so it was pretty warm day. All right. what kind of walk-in freezer cooler combo or walk-in freezer or cooler do I Mainly work on lots of coal pack equipment RDI equipment Lots of heatcraft equipment and lots of rustle equipment is a lot of the walking equipment I'm doing Brian thank you very much for that Super Chat earlier again I really do appreciate that and then also thank you to uh Downs Brio I don't know how to say that screen name for that super chat I Really do appreciate it.

Okay, why does it seem like every Tech hates Mini Splits Is there an actual? Is there actually a good brand? Um, Okay, so first and foremost. Mini Splits Almost every mini split out there. a good majority of them are made by the same company First and foremost. Okay, so you know when you differentiate between a lot of different brands of Mini Splits they're actually all made majority of the time by the same companies.

There's a few manufacturers out there. if I was, you know if money wasn't an issue and I was to buy mini split and I really wanted to go top the line I'd probably go with a Mitsubishi system myself, but I have no, you know no reason other than everything good that I've heard about them. Okay, um but yeah, there's just a lot of Manufacturers out there. um Okay So I kind of wanted to talk about the channel where the Channel's at right now because I've been getting a lot of comments.

Quite a few people commenting uh Benjamin thank you very much Brandon Again, thank you very much for that super chat. um that's awesome Guys these are really really cool. You guys don't have to do these but thank you very very much much appreciated. Okay um so you know the channel in general wears this channel out.

Where's it going? Okay I do not have grand plans for the channel I'm just having fun with this. The the videos that I make you know it started as me filming for my own employees and of course I still do that. They get benefits from watching my videos but I realized that there was some benefit to other people and entertainment value. So I made them public and here we are Now right? the Channel's taken off but I'm trying not to let any of that stuff get to me.

I'm trying to just still be myself and just still film content. If you look from the beginning of the channel to now, the only thing that's really changed on the channel is the quality of the video. um I Recently was surprised to go back and watch one of my very very old videos and I mean my troubleshooting style? The personality. For the most part everything's the same.

Like you know I mean I Really haven't changed a whole lot? Yeah, I've brought on a few sponsors, but as far as the channel goes, I don't really plan to change anything. Everything's going to keep going the way that it is. As far as my upload schedule right now, I'm currently on a two video a week upload schedule. My normal video days are Thursdays at 11 45 a.m Pacific time and Sundays at 4 45 a.m Pacific Time Those are my two upload days in the beginning of the channel like very very beginning November of 2017 I was actually doing three to four videos a week because I was super excited.

but also the editing was very very minimal. But yes, I have changed it down to two videos a week and one live stream Monday evenings, 5 p.m Pacific uh Christopher Clark Again, thank you very much for that. Super Chat He's asking when will my online store at Hvacrvideos.com have 2XL shirts in stock? That's a good question bud. I am in limbo on whether or not I want to order any more shirts.

Okay, because the shirts, to be honest with you, don't sell. Neither do the sweaters. Um, the hats seem to sell themselves without me really having to push too difficult or too hard personally. I don't like to push the merchandise very much I do it every once in a blue moon where I'll mention something in a video.

but I really don't like to like shove it down people's throats. Um, but anyways, as far as the shirts like, they don't really sell that well. So I'm still kind of in limbo on whether or not I want to order any more, so stay tuned I'll I'll keep everybody updated as we move on. I Thought about changing the shirt design too because I've had a design in my head for many, many years that I really want to make.

but designing shirts is like with the way that my brain works. It's going to take me months to come up with a design and to work through samples and all this different stuff. so that's not coming anytime soon either. Uh, CM says make a video of the dehumidify mode on the infinity.

it runs the compressor faster and slower. Very interesting I'll definitely. uh, you want to hear a pizza joke? uh yeah I got you never mind, it's too cheesy. um Brian Sanders says he was surprised to see me using a Fluke meter.

So Brian I have um, a field piece sc480 that I carry in my tool bag with me every day that I use for my go-to That's kind of like my main meter. I also carry a backup fluke 902 I think uh, clamp meter. in my van that I don't use that often but it's there if I need it and then I also have a Fluke 1587 insulation tester that I keep in my vehicle so that one is also a Vom. but I use it mainly for insulation testing.

but yeah, I have no preference. Like you know, fluke works just fine. like I just the field piece. one does a lot of stuff that I like so see what else.

um, opinion of pineapple on Pizza Pineapple 100 belongs on Pizza Okay, you give me a pizza with pepperonis, red onions, pineapples. that is my jam. You can maybe throw in some artichokes on there too. uh, maybe some olives or some mushrooms and that's a pretty darn good pizza too.

So yes, I do like pineapple on Pizza Um, let me see reading through the chat right now. Okay, have I ever seen a heat pump installed backwards inside unit mounted outside and vice versa? No. I've seen it on the internet but never seen it in real life. No.

um okay. so I want to talk about YouTube comments Okay, uh I for the most part I really don't um, censor or edit the comments on my YouTube channel. Okay, but there's a few things that I do censor and or delete. Um, when it comes to comments.

Number one: when I'm in my videos. please please please do not try to guess the name of the restaurants that I'm working at even if you guys know them. because if you're an Hvacr service tech that does restaurant, Refrigeration you probably recognize some of the places that I work at. But I do a very, very thorough job of trying to sanitize my videos in a way that you people cannot find the locations.

Okay, because I'm trying to protect my customers. Not that it's like insane What? I see because trust me? Um, I don't work in really really bad places. Okay, yes, they have some mistakes sometimes and there's some issues sometimes with cleanliness and stuff like that. But for the most part, trust me, the general public does not understand what dirty really is.

Okay, so sometimes people see things in my video and they're just astonished because they think that thing was the disgusting region and it's like I go back and watch it I'm like that thing's not even dirty, you know. But I try to protect the customers. So if people are trying to guess restaurant names whether they're incorrect or correct I delete all those comments that I come across and I know there's still some that slip through the cracks. but I try to delete them as much as possible.

so please don't try to guess that in my comments. Okay, um, the other thing is when people are hating on each other I have no problem if someone posts a negative comment about me. I'll leave those in all day long. Okay, if someone wants to post something that says they don't like me, they think I'm ugly, they don't whatever I don't care I'll leave that in.

Okay, the things that I delete is when people start disrespecting each other and they start just saying crap to each other. That's vile I delete those comments. Okay, so I try to leave everything in there. but please don't try to guess the the you know the restaurant names.

Okay, we're trying to protect the customers so that way I can continue to make these videos. Um, let me see what else we got going on in here. Okay, um. reading through the chat right now.

Uh, let's see. Okay, uh M just want to say love your channel gets me my troubleshoot fix not at work. Oh right on man. so mm uh says he really enjoys the channel I guess I can put that up there so people can see it.

That is a very nice comment my friend. so thank you very much. Um, okay, cool, uh let me just call out of here. All right.

so let's see what else we got going on in here. Um, okay, so Brian emailed me a question about a Data Logger Okay, and Brian had sent me an email or just trending data right? and he was asking my opinion on some uh, information or some data that a data logging program basically, um, pulled out of the restaurant's operation. So basically the report said something along the lines of a walk-in cooler door uh, that had been opened. Let's just say 350 times throughout a day.

Okay, and so he was asking me if I thought that was excessive and you know it Just kind of got me thinking when you're working in fast food when you're working in Light commercial restaurants things like that, you're gonna find that almost every restaurant out there uses their walk-in cooler as a reaching cooler. Okay, the improperly used their equipment. So while I am very, um, adamant about designing my home system to the exact Heating and Cooling load and trying to be as precise and accurate as possible when it comes time to doing load calculations for refrigeration equipment in a restaurant environment, you have to understand and you know, know the kitchen staff when you're designing equipment. So that way you know how to size the equipment.

Okay, so you have to make some educated guesses and you also have to have you know an understanding of where the restaurant's going and what I mean by that in the future do they plan on making really big changes? That kind of stuff? So these are all questions that you want to ask restaurant management with the corporate offices. When you are designing new equipment for existing locations, you want to ask them like what's the plans for the future So that way we can design this appropriately when I Design equipment I Take that into account that they are going to open and close those walk-in doors all the time. Okay, I Also, take into account that cost. Customers are going to try to use walk-in coolers as blast freezers.

Okay, so what customers are going to do is they're going to uh or or walk-in freezers too for that matter. But they're going to bring hot food into that box on giant carts and they're going to try to rapidly cool it inside the walk-in cooler. Yes, older equipment was not designed to handle that. But Modern Day restaurants.

They're all doing this. So when we do a heat load calculation on the refrigeration equipment, we have to take that into account. So when you are doing a proper heat load calc for a refrigeration equipment, let's just say walk-in cooler. Okay, you you will factor in electrical light bulbs that are inside the Box are the incandescents.

Are they fluorescence? You're going to take into account air curtains that are mounted on the doors. You're going to take into account forklifts that might drive in the industrial coolers or diesel trucks, or who knows what. Okay, when you do a load calculation, you really need to take into account everything and you're going to size accordingly. So that way the equipment will run in the peak design times, right? So residential, When you're doing a load calculation, you're basically going to take temperature averages.

You're going to look for an average. You're going to find a common set point, you're going to measure infiltration, measure the outside of the house, all that stuff, and you're going to come up with a load calculation. And what you're going to try to do in residential is you're going to try to match your load with the equipment runtime. and you want to make sure that you get the longest run times possible basically while still maintaining temperature and satisfying.

Indoor Comfort Conditions like humidity and things like that. Okay, but in refrigeration, you have to design for the most extreme conditions. Okay, because you got to make sure that that equipment is going to perform when they run into those extreme conditions. So design temperature in my area might be 95 degrees.

Okay, but those extreme days I'm gonna hit 115 degrees. So my design temperature is probably going to be 115 degrees. When it comes to outside design and then inside design, you're going to aim for whatever product you're keeping Inside the Box Okay, so keep that in mind when you are doing load calculations. But as far as Brian kind of emailing me, asking me about the doors opening and closing all day 350 times a day I mean that I That doesn't surprise me at all when you have a restaurant that's open from.

let's say 8 A.M until 2 A.M Yeah, that doesn't surprise me one bit. Clint Thanks for being a Channel supporter I Really do appreciate you. It's been a while since I've seen you. You may have been here Clint but it's just you know people scroll by all the time.

so thank you for coming in again. Bud Thank you for being a Channel supporter. That is awesome! I Also see my good buddy or or social media What do you want to say? Um, social media acquaintance right? and hopefully I consider him to be a good friend, right? Uh, Jason Latimer in here right? hey? Jason How you doing Bud? All right? Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, yes, Bungee cords.

When you were doing a heat load calculation, you have to take into account that bungee cords do exist. Okay, bungee cords are used by restaurant staff to prop doors open and guess what? I get the utmost satisfaction I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you my guilty pleasure when I go into restaurants. Okay, my guilty pleasure is when when I'm at one of my restaurants and I walk in and I see a bungee bungee cord or a string tied on the wall. Okay, because I love cutting them.

That's I that's the first thing I Do I go grab that bungee cord, snap with my knife, snap the string. whatever it is, throw it and I'll usually take it in pieces to the manager and say you need to make sure your Cooks don't use this. You know that's just dumb I Love cutting bungee cords and strings apart. That's one of my favorite things.

Oh no. and as Sean says, we don't leave doors open. That's what every restaurant says they all do. Okay all I love that we don't leave doors open and I say, would you mind walking into the back kitchen with me really quick? Well sure and we walk in there and oh the walking.

oh what, they don't do that. That's just this is that's just this time. it's like no, this is all the time like you know it's nuts. All right.

Um, so that was a great question. I don't think that that's too many times. but still, you know. Uh I mean I do think that's pretty excessive.

So um, Kevin asked about using piercing valves. So mechanical piercing valves when you are working on R290 hydrocarbon systems. Okay, R290 is unotorized propane refrigerant. It is highly purified.

Um, so it's not the same propane that you use in your barbecues. Okay, and it is being very common. One of the more common, if not the most common refrigerant in New uh, reaching cooler designs. Okay, R290 is the refrigerant they're using now.

Okay, R290 is highly flammable and it's unotorized. So his question was. when he's getting ready to charge a refrigeration system that has R290, he's asking me if I think it would be okay to use mechanical piercing valves or bullet piercing valves to charge the system, avoiding having to braise a service port onto the system. So am I okay with using bullet piercing valves as opposed to brazing on fittings? Um, no.

I'm not okay with it. Bullet piercing Personal preference? Okay, you do you? Whatever works for you. That's fine. Bullet piercing valves, in my opinion, are just a waste of my time.

Okay, bullet piercing valves cannot be used for evacuations. They cannot be used for charging very much. I mean you can charge little bits of vapor at a time, but you don't want to use those things. they.

They are not good. They leak refrigerant. They cannot be left on the systems, especially with hydrocarbon refrigerants. There's too many potential dangers.

so maybe you know I've seen people put them on a system if they think there's a problem. Okay, to me, it's just a wasted step and this is my personal preference. Again, not judging you if you guys do things. but for me I'm just going to braise on a fitting and leave a fitting on.

See Oh my gosh Spoiler alert Guess what? I don't cut fittings off of R290 systems anymore I'm done okay in the very beginning when it first came out. I've got some videos where I did my repairs, then I cut them off and I welded them shut no more. Okay, I'm not doing that anymore I Did not run into any problems. but what I think about as an employer is my technicians and you know, let's be let's be frank, right when you are brazing on service fittings onto an R290 system, there is a very small element of danger.

And that very small element of danger is not worth it to me as an employer to have my guys potentially get hurt because of some silly Step at the end. Okay, the idea. There is no law out there that says that R290 systems cannot have service fittings on it. Okay, it's just manufacturers.

There's a couple reasons behind it: Number one: Manufacturers want you to think before you apply service gauges because it's flammable refrigerant. They don't want you to be a dodo head and hurt yourself. Okay, number two, the charge in the systems are 150 grams or less in the United States right now. So 150 grams is like 5.6 ounces of refrigerant or something.

Okay or less. So applying service gauges with four foot hoses and you put that on a system that has 150 grams in it, you've just lost damn near the entire refrigerant charge of that system. Okay, so back to the question: Do I like using piercing valves? No. I don't.

Okay, have I used them. Yes, there's some occasions that I do use them, but they just seem like a waste of time for me And they leak so I don't like them. Um, all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. If you guys haven't already, please smash the Thumbs Up Button Okay, um and I'm gonna ask of you guys something too, you know if and I really don't talk about this stuff very often.

If you guys like the content on this channel, okay, please share it with people, share it with your friends. Okay, let them know about the channel, share it with people that you think might be interested in HVAC help the channel to get some traction, but then also Let's help to try to bring more people into the industry I Can't tell you you know when I first I've been talking about this a little bit lately, but when I first started doing this Channel and I started looking at the comments and I started to realize that some people that watch my videos are not in. HVAC That kind of bothered me. Okay, um, because I felt like I wanted HVAC people to be watching this channel.

but then I started getting emails from people a couple years later that got intrigued by something they saw. they weren't in the trade and they changed careers and that makes it really cool. So I'm really starting to like the idea of people um, having a mixture of HVAC techs and non-hvac text. Chip watching this channel because there's potential that we can help someone to be intrigued to pick up something mechanical and to learn and to become a Tradesman or woman, right? So um, I enjoy that now.

so that's something cool. Um, let me see what I got going on in the chat that I'm missing. Uh I Really do appreciate that. CM Thank you.

Any tips for your dad? He works in residential? Um, no, just just if he works in residential. As any residential service technician out there. Um, I mean for this matter, Any technician, commercial, residential, industrial, whatever it is, Be honest and you know, be thorough in your diagnoses. Okay, when you're working on things, be honest to the customer and be thorough in your diagnoses and do the best you can.

That would be the best advice I can give to any technician, residential or commercial. Okay, just do your best and constantly try to grow. Remember, you know you're never going to stop learning. Okay, and you're always going to be in demand as a competent Hvacr service technician.

so you've got to keep upping your game. New new stuff's coming into this industry right now. You really need to be studying it and learning it so better yourself by education. Any education is better than no education and the same applies to certifications too.

Any certification is better than no certification. Okay, so just do your best See what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, don't replace Parts without knowing why it failed? Uh, that's a really good one. Jennifer Anybody else have any cool pieces of advice for residential, commercial service tech technicians in general. Go ahead and put them into the chat.

Whatever your advice is, try to put them in caps lock so that way I can see them. Okay, don't replace Parts without knowing why it failed. that is from Jennifer Monzo from The Misfit of Each. That's Monzo.

Is that right? Yeah, from The Misfits of HVAC podcast. Um, do I have a video on how to check the charge? Uh, with refrigeration system with no connections? No. Steve I'm sure I have talked about that in my video. So okay, let's let me answer this really quick.

First and foremost: I'm a service technician I am not a proper educator I'm not a a classroom teacher. Okay, my content is not meant for that. Okay, that's not what I am. Um, but I realize um, you know that I share some good stuff with you guys so you probably hear more education on my channel in a different way.

It's not a traditional way of teaching. it's literally the way that my brain works and people just tend to pick up on that. Okay, so I'm sure that in a video somewhere Stephen I've got myself. you know, taking temperature readings and using deductive reasoning and figuring out what's going on.

But I don't know that I have a video specifically on that topic. My videos mainly are service call videos unless um, education Like you know, proper education. Basically Okay, I would love to be able to do that kind of content, but unfortunately on my channel these are: I I work every day in the field. Okay, I don't come in the office and sit in the office all day long.

In fact I despise being in the office. but um, in a month I probably spend two days in an office. okay, the rest of the entire month I am out working Um, as much as my other technicians if not more than my technicians. and there's I'm not upset with anybody for that at all.

Okay, Um, I love working and I work my butt off. So the only kind of content I can really film right now that I actually have the time to film is content. that happens while I'm doing my normal job. Okay, Um, so I just film what I do on a service call on a daily basis and I would love to do more educational content.

but I just don't have the time right now. I'd probably need people to help me like a partner or something that can do content with me that we can tag team something. Yeah, I need to find someone that can do that because I think that would be the only way I can do educational content on my channel. So um, if you guys have ideas of people that you think would work well that I could work with and do educational content like that, link us up.

Email them. Email me. whatever. let me know.

let me know in the chat too. Let me know. if you think people that you think I should work with that we can do educational content I would love to So, but it's just hard for me because I have to focus on my normal job. So um, what? Uh so um yeah to answer your question no I don't have a video like that.

Okay, uh so I want to ask the chat another question. What are your guys's policies on overtime when in the chat right now? when you are running an overtime service call? Is the customer being billed for travel time there and back? Or just there or what? Okay, my overtime policy and this was a comment that little comment group of people talking about in one of the YouTube chats. um basically. uh, they wanted to know.

You know if that was common the way that I run my overtime like you know they? They were just having a good discussion about that. So I'm curious what you guys in the chat have to say. Um, they should be charged to and from on overtime. Okay, Sean I I would love to be able to charge to and from on normal calls too, but that's a losing battle.

So uh. overtime port to port Okay Cool. So it's pretty common. It seems like because that's what I do too Porto to Porto Yep, um, all right.

uh and we do time and a half too. Yes, so um I would love to be able to start doing double time on Sundays that would be something that I would be very much interested in doing or double time after a certain hour Someone had said in my chat and I thought that was a really good one. So basically someone in my chat had said their company does port to port. Um, but like let's just say a Saturday certain hours of the day are time and a half but then after like 11 p.m uh, it goes to double time and that's during the week too and I thought that was a really good one I like that.

I like that idea. After a certain hour, things go to double time. Um, because I don't want to be working that late if I you know? So all right, let's see what the chat has to say right now. Um, Jennifer says they charge anything over 30 minutes there and back for service calls during the week too? Well, that's good.

I Want to get there and back on normal service calls too? Uh, two-hour minimum travel time there and at least one hour back unless going to another call. Jeff's HVAC Adventures That's pretty much my policy right there, dude. Um, we have a two hour minimum, one hour minimum on regular calls, two hour minimum on overtime calls. Um, and then yeah.

Port to Port? Um, you know we charge travel time to the customer. We try to keep it under an hour if we can, depending on the customer. Um, but yeah. pretty much the same thing.

Let's see. Um Kelly Leach says my education is less classroom, much more sharing Real World experience and I think yeah I agree that is more of my content. It's like real. You know it's more real and not saying.

you know the book stuff is not the right way to do it like it's just my stuff's a little more real. It's try I'm trying to be as practical as possible. Um, all right. Uh What uh.

what do I think if I could make a a Data Logger would you like it about the door opening thing? Um I don't know. but uh, send me an email to Hvacrvideos.gmail.com I don't really understand your thing right now, but we can have a conversation through email. So um, all right. Uh no.

Whole House Fan at home? No I Do not have a Whole House Fan Now on my home system I am going to be including fresh air, but the fresh air that I'm bringing in is probably going to be optimized after the fact. I may bring in a fresh air duct right now or I may just pipe it in and cap it in the attic and that might be something that happens in the future. My focus right now is just getting my system started up and then we'll start doing the fresh air and things like that after. this is not going to be something where I just finished this and it's going to be done.

I'm going to be constantly improving this system over the years I have all kinds of grand plans um I said it in my first couple videos on my house project. that's what we're talking about right now is my home HVAC upgrade that I've been working on um but uh I have grand plans to have all the insulation taken out of my attic to spray foam the top plate, just the top plate to air seal it and then also to uh we're about ready to get new floors in my house and when I do the new floors I'm gonna go and when they because they have we have hardwood floors I'm going to have them pull and clean everything and then I'm going to seal the concrete to the to the wall or you know, connections and stuff, air seal those too with caulking and things before we put down new floors because I want to try to make my house super air tight within reason right for a track built home from the 1980s So Currently right now my lower door number is just under a thousand at Uh Cfm50 and I anticipate getting lower um as we proceed so for sure? um okay so why not in a recent video that I had I used a Ke2 controller as a digital replacement on a Ronco control, right? And why didn't I use the built-in defrost that the Ke2 controller had in it? Well, because I used a digital temperature controller in a walk-in freezer. walk-in freezers typically in my area use electric defrost. Okay, the Ke2 Temp plus defrost controller only has air defrost.

Okay, so all it does is shut off the liquid line, solenoid valve, or the compressor and um, the equipment defrost just from the natural air movement through the box right with the fan motors running. So um, in that situation, I would have needed a special Ke2 controller called the Ke2. Um, low temp. Okay, that is the Budget model temperature controller that Ke2 makes for low temp lock-in freezers.

Interestingly enough, I actually had the low temp controller because I carry one in my truck I had it in my van that night that I did that service call. But and I for instant I Thought: you know what? I'll install that Ke2 controller, but it requires some extensive rewiring of the evaporator coil and it was a late night call and I was already irritated. so I wasn't about to spend six hours installing a Ke2 Low Temp control on an overtime call. Okay, so I just threw in uh, you know, just a standard Ke2 air temp controller and then just turned off the defrost and used it just as a digital temperature control.

So um, why is it that we Mount our temperature controllers in the boxes? I Get that question from a lot of European viewers. Uh, they're surprised that we Mount our controls in the event you know in the cooled space, that's just something common in a perfect world. to be honest with you. I would love to start installing temperature controllers outside of the box.

Unfortunately, when you have an existing building that wasn't designed to have that, you would be surprised the amount of damage that's going to happen by mounting temperature controllers on the outside of the boxes in the restaurants that I work in. Because the locations they're designed to be really tight, they're moving hand carts, pallet jacks, and things like that through the restaurants all the time. There's lots of moving parts and things going around and controls in the tiny hallways that they have in the restaurants that I work in. Just that little bit of sticking out of the box is just going to cause a problem.

so we typically install them inside the Box Um, you know, in a perfect world I'd Love to have some of the if you've ever seen some of the industrial and ammonia system well in the Industrial Systems You know sometimes they'll have their temperature controllers and everything up installed in the condensing units and then they just run sensors down to the boxes like I'd Love that too. That'd be really cool but just has to be designed for it so see what else we got going on things. Um, zero fun! Wants to know what I think of the new Linux I series controllers? Which one are the I series are the I series residential or commercial because I know they have a new control system for their commercial equipment that is all programmed. Instead of using The Prodigy control, it's using your phone.

Well, it uses your phone to program it. Um, but I don't remember what the name of that is. but I don't know if that's that's the commercial one. So I don't know.

Maybe are you talking about resi or commercial? Um Perry asked if I have a video. Oh, that's a great question. So Harry wants to know if I have a video showing step by step, how to defrost an evaporator that's iced up including taking the fan motors out and everything. Um, and Perry nothing against anybody that does DIY content.

Okay, my channel is not a DIY channel. Now if you are an intuitive person, you can watch my channel and you can probably learn and pick things up. But um I the last thing I want is to be a standard just DIY channel. Okay, I Understand, there's some elements that people do learn from my channel, right? but I don't want to take anybody's job with this channel.

Okay, so these are meant more for service technicians and I have no problem with people that are not service technicians watching. That's fine, but you know these are meant for service tax and I do have to have some values in in me myself in ways that I have to stay true to myself with this channel. So um, yeah, hopefully that makes sense to you. Um, let's see what else we got going on here.

Uh, but yeah, I just can't make DIY content on here. So uh, when charging and having to change drums mid charging. Okay, so let's say you're charging a walk-in cooler. You've got 10 pounds in it.

You need another. You know, 10 pounds. It's a 20 pound system, right? And you only have 10 pounds in one drum. So you go back down to your van, you grab another drum, you bring it up.

but oh no, you know the charging hose got air in it. Okay, so what do I do in those situations in those situations I'm gonna Purge my hoses before I open my gauges up. That's why I Like modern three port and four port manifolds. Okay, um, the modern ones typically have ball valves for charging ports and the digital ones.

I Guess I Should say they typically have multiple valves so you have a valve for the high side, valve for the low side valve for the charging port, and sometimes valve for the micron gauge. Okay, when you have those kind of valves, you're able to shut the gauges off and isolate them and you know a little bit better. You know, remove any contaminants before you enter. you know, uh, introduce it back into the system, right? and you can to an extent do that with a standard analog manifold too, like a compound gauge set.

But um, basically you just always got to purge your hoses before you open them up a bunch of different ways that you can do it. So hopefully that answers your question for you, bud. Um, Oh guys. so um I don't know if there's gonna be content from this video, but I am going to go ahead and talk about this really quick or content from this service call.

I Did film some aspects of it but I haven't decided if I want to release it on the channel. Okay, but I'm going to give you guys some teasers about it. So I did a We had an emergency package unit replacement that we had to do. Okay, so we had a customer that lost an air conditioner and we were scrambling to find a 10 ton unit because it was a 2003 Linux L Series unit and it had a grounded compressor and the unit was just beat down in really bad shape so the customer didn't want to repair it.

They wanted a replacement piece of equipment and we scrambled to find one. We finally got it. It was all just kind of 9-1-1 But long story short, we installed it new carrier. 10 ton in place of the Linux fit perfect.

Everything was good. We started it up it's running all as well and then I started commissioning the unit. Okay, and what I found is that the unit was running over two inches of total external static pressure. So that system had some massive duct work problems.

Okay, now I dug into this and it was very interesting. So what I found is that the existing equipment at that location was originally a seven and a half ton unit. Okay, that unit was replaced, you know in 2002 and someone upsized the equipment in 2002. Okay, now um, we went out to replace the equipment so this will now be the what.

Third time we replaced the equipment with a new carrier package unit and on Startup I'm having some severe air flow restrictions. Okay, so now I've come to this conclusion and we've got to find a solution for this because we have a 10 ton unit that was replaced that should have been a seven and a half ton unit. Not our fault because we replaced what was there that wasn't working right. So we replaced it and then found the problems assuming that the equipment was sized right so that'll be a fun one we've got to fix.

I Gotta, it's not dire emergency. The equipment's running right now and it's it's doing it. but we're gonna have to basically figure it out. Um, what do we got going on here? Yeah, let's just go ahead and uh, get rid of that because that comment's kind of bugging me there.

Okay, um, so yeah. I don't know if I'll get content out of that or not I do have some though. but um so I had a recent video this last week where I had a trained package unit that when I walked up to it, it was stuck in a weird what I call to be like a boot loop right where it was trying to boot up and it was just doing this persistent thing over and over and over again. I I think it had been happening for a couple days and what it was doing was the unit was on the Rtrm board.

It was showing a diagnostic right? so you'd get a diagnostic error on it, but then, um, you know, 45 seconds later the diagnostic error would go away, the heartbeat on the Rtrm would flash like normal opera or do whatever for normal operation. Whatever it did, and then um, it would go back into a test mode and then like constantly start this because it was starting the heater for a minute and then it was just this weird boot loop, right? So um, someone had asked, you know how come I didn't test for Diagnostics because the correct thing to do on that unit when it's locked out is the test for Diagnostics and the Rtrm board is going to tell you and give you a general idea of where to look. As far as the Diagnostics go right, you know it's going to tell you cooling failure, heating failure, whatever failure right and give you some general idea. Um, so why didn't I test for that? Because the unit was stuck in a boot loop and it wouldn't give you enough time.

It was. It was like every 45 seconds like there was no time to test for anything. You know I assumed it was going to be a bad Rtrm, but then once I power cycled it, it worked. So it still may be a bad Rtrm.

who knows. But right now it's working. So that was an interesting one. but I just didn't have time.

So uh, let's see what else the chat says. Reading through the chat, uh, you're saying that you're a hobby. Electronics you could make oh a Data Logger just to try. Oh I see what you're saying? Interesting? Um, yeah, just shoot me an email.

Bud Let's talk. Okay, uh did I do my load calculation? Uh, we did a load calculation I did not personally do it my buddy Adam Adam Muffet From the HVAC overtime show, he did the load calculation for me with my input so I was his eyes and ears I was measuring, investigating, figuring out you know failure places, doing air about or doing a blower door tests you know, finding all the stuff. And we came up to a load calculation. but he inputted all the information into Quick model and did it on Quick Model on his computer.

So um, see what else? Uh, what does the chat have to say? When do I know if my vacuum pump is getting weak and needs be replaced? Uh, personally. what I do is my equipment's pretty modern. Okay I have some older Jb8 CFM pumps. Um, you know, but those even have uh, you know, certified Micron ratings or whatever.

So all that I suggest you do is put your micron gauge on your vacuum pump and run it and it should pull down. You know, rather quickly to the actual Micron rating that the equipment is set up for. Okay, that the vacuum pump is made for. So you should be able to test your vacuum pump by simply putting a micron gauge on it, turning it on, see how low it goes, and comparing it to what the manufacturer says it should go to.

That's how I roll it. Um, is quick Model user friendly. Quick model is challenging to say the least. Okay, but um, Quick Model is very interesting.

They use uh, video gamer hotkeys. Okay, so if my understanding is correct, they use the Minecraft hotkeys. So when I have problems with Quick Model I just go ask my daughter and my daughter will come in and tell me because I always forget because I'm a dummy and I forget what the hotkeys are. Hotkeys are like if you push certain letters while holding down a certain letter or something or just even sometimes certain letters.

It has an action on your keyboard. but it's not just like I Don't understand why Quick Model can't be the left, right, up and down arrow because there's literally a left, right, up and down arrow on our keyboards. we're not playing. So that's one thing that's kind of odd.

but as far as the accuracy and the the the features that Quick Model has, it's an amazing program. Okay, so the navigation is kind of hard for me to learn, but I'm also a weirdo, right? Um, but it is an amazing Um app. as far as the calculator it does and stuff, and a lot of very, very reputable people that I uh, admire and look up to agree that Quick Model is probably one of the best, if not the best, load calculation software at the moment. So um, see what else we got going on in here and I got no affiliation with Quick Model either.

But if you want to talk Russ let me know. Um or Connor All right, Have you raised my rates in the last year or so like everyone else? If not, I should? Um, it's about time to raise our rates again. Um, we definitely are lower than we should be. We're lower than.

it's probably disturbing how low we are on our rates, so we definitely need to raise them. But we also have to be careful because these restaurants are really Under Fire right now so we don't want to push um, the wrong buttons and poke the wrong bear. So if you know what I mean, you know what I mean Burn All right? Well, it is time to wrap this up. I need to uh, go eat some dinner with my family.

My family is uh uh, that wasn't supposed to pop up yet. but yeah, my family is waiting for me for dinner. so I really do appreciate you guys making it to the stream. Um, if you guys don't already know, the HVAC Overtime show is a show that myself, uh, my buddy Adam Joe and Bill do on Friday evenings on the HVAC overtime YouTube channel.

It's a great time. It is not safe for work. What that means is is that it is vulgar. It is rude.

It is offensive. Um, and it's educational at times. But it's more offensive, rude and vulgar than it is educational. Okay, but it's a good time.

The way I could describe the overtime show is it's like four guys going to the bar after work and they're about four beers deep into the conversation they're having. Okay, that's the overtime show. That's the attitude. Um, it is funny though.

a lot of us don't drink anymore. Um, we've been doing the show long enough that a lot of us have stopped drinking. so that's an interesting thing too. But it is a great show on the HVAC Overtime YouTube channel Friday evenings.

Definitely check it out! I Really do appreciate you guys I'm gonna queue up my outro music again. Thank you so very much and uh we will catch you on the next one. Thank you thank you thank you thank you Foreign foreign.