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 ceue up the intro music. Oh welcome to the Hvacr videos Live stream Hello to everybody! Welcome to the show! You know it's funny because I was playing the intro music and uh this the the theme of this day is not enough time and what I mean by that is when I woke up this morning I was not ready to wake up.

the day was just moving along way too fast and then I'm like playing the intro music and then I realize that it's like it's ending and it's like I'm not ready for this like I I just I want everything to slow down. It seems like everything in my life is going crazy right now. Side note: Nothing to do with HVAC My oldest teenage daughter is about to embark on the whole College journey and all that stuff and of course she picks the college that is furthest away from Southern California My gosh, my child, my child. Good grief.

So yes, guess what? I get to do this week my my daughter and I are going to be going on a road trip to go tour said College a 16-hour drive so that's going to be a nice drive. There was no convenient flights or anything, but should be a good time. My daughter and I going on a road trip together so that'll be kind of fun and get to tour the college together and see if it's a good fit for her or not so we will have to see. but these certainly are some first world problems.

but uh, it's one of those things that I never even thought about struggling with your teenagers going off to school, but it's something that I have to deal with right? Obviously let them do their thing, but it's a rough one. Hey, Brian Sanders thank you very much for that! Super Chat My good friend Again, you do those all the time and you are so generous with those so thank you so very much I very much appreciate it. Bud Um, let's see what else we got going on in here. Uh, we got all kinds of great normal people in here.

It's really awesome. You know this whole community that we've created. uh, amongst all the different social media creators. There's a lot of people in the chat right now and those regulars Bounce from channel to channel channel to channel and it's really awesome.

You know what's really neat about the HVAC space I Would say that 95% of the creators that make HVAC content are all friendly to each other. They all know each other. We all recommend each other. You know we try to help each other.

out. Uh, there's a few people that are kind of pain in the butts, but for the most part everybody's really cool and it's a really great community so it's really awesome. And I think you all of you that are watching or all of you that are listening because you are the ones that make this possible by listening and consuming our content. You give us this platform so thank you very much and you know my hopes with what I do here is literally just to share the little bit of knowledge that I have I acknowledge that I'm not an expert I acknowledge that I'm I'm fumbling my way through this process of being an Hvacr service technician.

I've certainly made a lot of mistakes over my career and I'm just trying to share that little bit of knowledge and hopes that you guys maybe don't make the same mistakes as I did. So let's scroll through here see what else we got going on in here. Um, oh yeah, so many great people people from Facebook Instagram all that stuff uh YouTube uh LinkedIn this is really cool. Lots of great people in here.

so hello to everybody my good buddy. Ty Brandman's in here. Yeah, it's really awesome. So many great people, so many great creators.

Dustin Cole's in here. Yeah, it is really awesome. So uh Jeff Harrison says we create HVAC and plumbing content. That's really great Man that's really really great.

I I Encourage everybody out there to share the little bit of knowledge that you all have because this industry needs the help truly does. Okay, so let's discuss uh, a question that I had gotten from a viewer and then we'll get to the questions from the chat and everything. If you guys have topics that you want me to cover, please put the comments in the chat and put them in caps lock so all capital letters. It helps myself and the moderators to see your questions.

uh I can promise you that I'm not going to get to everything and there's going to be some questions that just scroll by because I just don't see them. The chat moves way too fast for me to be able to get to every question. If I miss your question, feel free to keep reposting it or shoot me an email. HVAC Rideos Gmail.com Okay, um I had a question from a commenter and they were commenting on an older video where I had a failed uh uh, indoor blower motor.

Well actually the blower motor didn't failed, the variable frequency drive that controlled the motor failed. it was on a carrier package unit and IID showed process of temporarily bypassing the drive, getting it up and running. so that way the customer was operational until we could get a warranty drive. So the question that came from that is the person said hey, that's great You showed the process of bypassing the Vfd for the indoor blower motor, but the person's co question was, what about bypassing a compressor Vfd? Okay, if you didn't know this, uh, majority of Copeland scroll compressors, not all of them.

You definitely want to look into the Tech data for each scroll compressor. Go to Copeland Mobile. search up the AE bulletins, but several of the three-phase Copeland scroll compressors or good majority of them can handle a variable frequency drive, but there's certain parameters that you have to operate it within. Uh.

But there's also other compressors uh that require Vfds also to operate. And so the question is, how would you go about bypassing a Vfd for a compressor? I Would tell you that I would not suggest you bu pass a compressor Vfd whatsoever. There's too many things that go into play: Is the compressor truly a uh, a normal compressor that takes 2083 phase coming into it. Does it actually work off a DC voltage? There's so many different variables that you don't want to be bypassing Vfds if you don't know exactly what you're doing.

Something to understand. Oftentimes, uh, same with like a Vfd for an indoor blower motor, Vfd is a variable frequency drive. It's going to change the frequency, slow down the motor, speed it up at different parameters for different situations, right? Um, you know Vfds often times can actually slow down a motor and we can control the motor's speed. Uh, based on a couple different factors.

but sometimes we may be trying to control the motor, the compressor from operating outside of its operating envelope. If you bypass a variable frequency drive on a normal motor, that's just a motor, um, what you are doing is you running that motor at the frequency at which it's being supplied. The power, right? So for here in the United States it's 60. HZ So if you bypass a drive and you're running a motor just off of the the power coming in, it's going to run at full speed all the time.

Uh, so you got to be careful about that because sometimes the motor can overload. Maybe the equipment wasn't designed for that motor to run at full speed right now? When you get into compressors, it gets really, really tricky. And I Highly suggest that you don't bypass any compressor. Vfds.

Uh, you want to lean on the manufacturer. Now, If the manufacturer of that equipment gives you detailed instructions on how to bypass a Vfd temporarily, then go for it. But I'm not going to jump out on a limb and tell you to bypass something. Okay, um, let's see what else we got going on here.

What else do we have? Hello to everybody! It's really awesome to see everybody in here so it is really, really cool. Uh, let's see. Uh B Milwood says that sometimes a Vfd that drives a motor can be rated to run at full load at 80 Htz. Possibly if you bypass it, it only runs at part load and that is 100% true.

Sometimes depending on the equipment, we can actually go higher than the S the normally supplied 60 hertz and you can speed it up even higher depending on how the equipment was designed. So again, I highly suggest that you don't bypass anything unless you really, really know what you're doing. And even that? Okay, I've gotten uh, some questions the last time. uh from people they were commenting.

Someone had commented on a video where I had to temporarily bypass an indoor blower motor Vfd for a package unit. This one was for a lenux unit and they were curious. um, oh, shoot. I totally lost my train of thought on that one.

Um, where was I going to go with that? Yeah, I'll think about it here in just a minute. So let's get to the chat and see what I'm missing in here. Uh, how do I find technicians when I can't find the online ads? Oh okay, so how do I find service technicians? All right? So that is a really, really difficult process because uh, service technicians are getting harder and harder to find. Okay now I have an unfair advantage and I make content on YouTube So I actually just put information out there and say I'm hiring and oftentimes I'll get resums.

Um I've got a couple rums in my inbox right now that people will send me. um so I'm kind of at a an unfair Advantage because I can post and say hey I'm looking for a service technician. In fact my the last technician that I hired came from one of those posts you know? um so yeah, that's my way. But I'm going to tell you right now that the job finding websites I have never had any luck with any of the job finding websites um I I actually hired technicians off of Craigslist I've gotten like posted job wanted or you know, hiring ads on Craigslist way back in the day.

but even that you just get a million different things, the best way in my opinion to have a technician is to bring them up from the ground up, hire an inexperienced technician going to school, train him and build him up in the way that you want him to be. um, you know, operating. Teach him the ways that you want him to do things right. Uh, that I've had the most success in hiring technicians that did not have experience in building them up.

I have hired experienced technicians too and it it's you. You tend to go through a few more and I'm GNA come out there right on a limb if I was to go work for someone and trust me I've thought about it a million times daily. Okay, going to work for someone else, but if I was going To Go Work for someone. I would probably be the most difficult person that they would want to hire because I'm older, right and I'm set in my ways.

So I would have to compromise. The company would have to compromise and it would be a much bigger battle for the company to have to deal with me as a technician versus dealing with an apprentice and building him up. The important thing about hiring an apprentice and building him up or her up is you need to pay them well. You need to pay them well and train them well.

Don't be afraid to tell someone that you don't know. When they ask you a question, there is nothing wrong with telling you know an apprentice or someone that's learning from you that you don't know the answer. In fact, there's more benefit that comes out of you telling them that you don't know the answer than with you just coming up with some BS answer that isn't true. Okay, because if you tell someone hey, I don't know the answer to this.

But guess what? We're going to figure this out together. Research it. Give that technician a a task when they go home and you take it and you guys both do some research and figure it out together. Okay, all right, let's see what else we got going on in here.

Could I look for texts in other areas for my viewers? That's a good question. I don't know how well that would really, really work, but I guess there's a possibility for that in some sort of fashion. Uh, feel free if you guys, um, have anything you want me to try to remember like for instance, that question Patrick shoot me an email Hvacr videos Gmail.com I'll try to respond to it um I'm not promising I will, but I'll try to. uh, let's see what else we got going on in here.

Um, reading through here Engineers need to consider designing systems with changing climate with 131 degree Fahrenheit in mind Sparky Tech Uh, that is a good Fair assessment and what he's saying I Believe uh I don't know about 131 degrees? Um, that's a pretty high temperature? um the depending I mean are you working in Death Valley Uh, you working in the Middle East or you I mean the 131 degrees? That's a pretty high temp and I don't think uh in any Metro areas, we're going to be hitting that anytime soon. I Know in the Phoenix area they hit into the 120s, but they're not pushing 130 quite yet. Now on the rooftops, it is arguable that it is a little bit hotter on the roofs. Sometimes it can be 5 to 10 degrees warmer than it is outdoor ambient.

So I guess there is an argument to be made about that. But really, that comes into design often times with a lot of Manufacturers Um, you know they or with a lot of customers, they will lean on the equipment, purchase the the equipment suppliers to size their equipment. I deal with a lot of chain restaurants that buy their own equipment. They order it from an equipment supplier and then the equipment supplier just asks me some information and then they'll ship out equipment right.

And often times I will have to go in and I will ask them what equipment are you shipping. Then I'll go do my own own load calculation because I don't even want to install something that's incorrect, even if it's someone else's problem. The equipment supplier supplied it and it's going to be their thing. I Still got to fix the problem.

So I like to run my own load calculations. make sure it's sized appropriately, but it's getting really, really important that we're not oversizing our equipment. See, this is something that's kind of getting forgotten about in refrigeration and it's creating a lot of problems. Okay, let's just go with this real quick.

If you think about a refrigeration condensing unit. Okay, Refrigeration condensing unit. Um, delivers a certain capacity, right? Or it will red. You know, remove it.

It basically only moves so much heat. Okay, and but that capacity that it delivers changes based on the conditions in which the condensed units operating. As the outdoor ambient temperature goes up, the delivered capacity from that condensed unit goes down. But as the ambient temperature goes goes down.

the delivered capacity goes up. This is what happens when you used fixed speed equipment when we're not using any SI any sort of variable frequency drive or um, hot gas Bypass or anything like that that could, um, basically reduce loads. Okay, uh, you run into these issues and oversizing equipment is going to amplify those issues by 100. Okay, so let's just say that you've got a condensing unit and you know, as far as the evaporator size, it's a 13,000 BTU evaporator.

So you go and you find the ambient temperatures, the average ambient temperatures at which that equipment operates. Look at the ashray data and you find out that your design temperature for outter ambient in that area is 110 degrees. Fahrenheit Okay, so you find your specific condensing unit, you find out what it delivers at, you know the outdoor ambient conditions, and you try to match a condensing unit that can meet that capacity at that outdoor ambient temperature, right? Because that's going to be the typical operating conditions. But something to remember is you don't necessarily want to design a piece of refrigeration or even air conditioning equipment for an extreme High Okay, so my house, four years ago we had 120 degrees ambient at my house.

It's never happened as far as I can remember. That was the first time and that was four years ago. we have not hit 120 degrees. Okay, so your Refrigeration equipment doesn't need to be sized for the maximum extreme Ambience unless it's going to be operating at that maximum extreme ambient for extended periods of time.

Okay, understand something that most Refrigeration equipment. You know once it gets past its initial pull down, it's never going to require uh, that full load that you design the equipment for. Most of the time, it's going to require just a little bit. It's not going to run for very long and that's going to affect things.

So if you massively oversize your equipment, what you're going to do is you're going to change your balanced TD your evaporator TD It's going to create a problem and you're going to run into issues okay, especially with expansion valve sizing and different things like that. So those are all important things to keep in mind. We want to make sure that we're properly doing load calculations when we're sizing our Refrigeration equipment, and we want to make sure we're sizing it appropriately and not oversizing it. Let's see what the chat has to say right now: Ian Uh, thank you very much for that.

Super Chat You're from Canada You just want to say that you really appreciate the videos. Oh thank you very much. Ian I I Very much appreciate that. Okay, um, let's see.

Jason Johnson says that his design conditions went from 98 to 105 this year. That's very interesting. So Ashray changed the actual design conditions from 98 to 105. That's a pretty big extreme.

Uh, usually they do like average numbers and but but still, you know. Yeah, I mean temperatures. It is getting warmer so that is important to remember. Okay, but you still don't want to massively oversize equipment.

Um, let's see what else we got going on here. Um, what technology in the near future excites me within our trade? Um, as far. Oh I See what you're saying there? Patrick about uh, the the resums? Um, yeah, there's possibility shoot me an email Hvacr videos at Gmail.com Okay, so NC what technology in the near future excites me? Uh with our trade? Well, I mean we are kind of in the midst of it, right? We're in the midst of Technology now. I'm excited to see more inverter driven compressors in refrigeration equipment.

Okay, and the Light commercial stuff that I deal with. uh, the five horsepower and under I'm excited to see more inverter equipment. uh, more Vfds on compressors and more technology coming in. That's going to help with um, reducing delivered capacity when it doesn't need to be as high.

Okay, so I'm excited about that. but we're in the midst of a huge this is the most technological advances that have come into our industry. um in the last 10 years. I mean in in the the 20 years that I've been in the industry basically has been happening within the last 10 years.

I mean we've got so much new technology coming in. Um, and it's it's. definitely an exciting time. Lots of great tools that make our jobs easier.

Okay, remember something, Tools are there to help you perform your job. They're not there to do your job for you. Okay, we have digital technology. We have digital tools.

Uh, digital. Uh, manifold gauge sets. We can use apps applications that help us to troubleshoot systems. They're not there to do our jobs for us.

They're there to help us and make our jobs easier. And I really enjoy that. That's really awesome. Um, so that's all been good stuff All right.

let's see what else we got going on in here. Um, as far as like new technology though, I mean you know more or less just probably electronic stuff. You know, with the the microprocessors getting smaller and smaller, the the types of electronics they can put into our systems to make them more efficient and operate more smoothly, that's a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to that getting better. Um, let's see, in my home project, you notice when I open my breaker panel, there were ring things around each one of the wires coming off the breakers.

What are these for So in my home? HVAC Replacement Video series I've been doing a series over the last year, changing the air conditioner in my house, I put in a heat pump, got rid of my gas furnace, and I've been showing you the process of load calculations, building balance, building tightness, testing all the process right? So in the very first video I've gotten a bunch of comments because I open up my breaker panel and there's these little white devices that are on all the load wires coming out of my breaker panel that is an energy monitoring system from Emporia Energy I believe is what it is. So basically I can pull up on my computer or my smartphone and look at my energy consumption on each one of The Breakers Coming off of my breaker panel and see where the most of my electricity is being consumed. So previous step back to when I started my home HVAC project I have trending electrical data from before I replaced my air conditioner all the way through the process and now I have it after I've replace my air conditioner. So come this upcoming summer, I'm going to be able to compare my energy consumption from last year to this year.

I'm also going to be able to compare or look at my energy consumption through the winter time too because I got a heat pump so I can see it all and it's really cool to have all that data. Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. uh R134a has gone and went oh wild Cats asking okay um oh okay. so you have a a four-door refrigerator in your workplace, the kitchen area you have R134a Can you get licensed for it? Yeah.

R134a is in the process of being phased out I still still carry it I still use it I actually use some today. Um, but it is in the process of being phased out. See what else we got going on in here? Uh, let's see. Jason Johnson says that he had makeup airs this Summer that were struggling badly Rtu air cooled.

It's a struggle for some of this equipment. makes maintenance that much more important and consistent. or constant monitoring it does. Now something that I'm going to say in Southern California It's safe to say that these are my estimates: 95% of our duct work that we have on commercial and residential is undersized, is very leaky, is really messed up I Think that the answer to a lot of our issues when it comes to the outdoor temperatures Rising slightly is literally not necessarily changing our equipment unless it's time to replace it or it's massively oversized or massively undersized, but more so I Think that people are going to be able to maintain the existing equipment if they start fixing their duct work and sizing it and adjusting it and setting it up properly.

Okay, a bunch of people were giving me Shades saying that you know when I was getting ready to do my home HVAC project that it wasn't going to work because I was using Flex Duct on my entire project right? and I have a duct to pus up in my attic right? I have duct work going to all the different areas um and everybody was I would make videos and people are like it's never going to work. You're going to have high static pressure. You're going to have all these issues I don't have any of those issues right? Because we th thought this out before we. We made sure that we sized my system, designed it properly, the duct work sizes, and everything, and we did it all as best as possible.

and I don't have any issues right? I barely even had to Air Balance my system my total external static on test when it's running at full Max Capacity which it hardly ever does is 32 Ines of total external static I mean we're way under? Um, it? yeah, it. we're not. If you install flex duct properly, it works just fine. Okay, same thing goes for rigid duct duct board.

all that stuff. It can all be done properly and it can all be done improperly. A good majority of our duck work is done improperly around the country, and I think that's going to be a lot of solutions to our problems is fixing that, duct work, tightening up our envelopes, commercial and residential, reducing infiltration, and I feel like we're going to solve a lot of our problems. Um, let's see what else we got going on in here.

What will replace 134a in cars? Well, currently right now it's YZ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 28 3264 I Don't know there's some weird flavor of refrigerant. Uh, look at here. here's the most important thing. Take any refrigerant that we use today.

it will be gone in 15 years and there'll be a new refrigerant. So stop focusing on types of refrigerants and how much you like that refrigerant. Start understanding in, uh, the the slightest way, the physics behind those refrigerants, right and understand the pressure temperature charts. Start looking at temperatures as opposed to pressures.

Okay, uh. we just had um Jason OBU from the Esco Institute come on the sh the HVAC overtime show this last. Friday If you guys haven't seen that show, go watch it. I'm gonna promise you I'm gonna promise you that it is going to be the most interesting A2l seminar that you will ever watch If you go watch that.

Just if you've never seen the HVAC overtime show, remember something. If you don't like bad words, you don't want to watch that show. Okay, very uncensored, very raw. The best way to describe the HVAC overtime show which myself Adam Bill and Joe from Canada do on Friday evening 6:05 PM Pacific Um, we do a show and it's literally imagine four guys hanging out at the bar after work and they're already three beers into their conversation.

That's the easiest way to explain the HVAC overtime show. We do education. We do a lot of BS a lot of talking and a lot of stories. Okay, but uh.

go listen to that A2l episode. Um Jason Dropped some really cool information, some great knowledge. We had a good fun conversation about it. But what we need to understand is the Atls are the new refrigerants that are being pushed out into the industry right now.

R32 Um, there's a couple other ones too. R32 is probably the most popular famous one, right? Everybody thinks that they're going to blow up because they're dealing with Atls guys. Just like Jason said. R22 Burns really well too.

r41 A Burns Really well too. Okay, in the right condition, almost all those refrigerants do have a point at which they will burn okay. The A2l refrigerants. if they do ignite it, it, it won't consistently stay ignited, right? It's just going to.

There's some fancy words for it, propagation, and all kinds of weird crap like that. Way too big for my vocabulary. Um, but just understand the Atls. There's more fearmongering and hype going into those right now.

Basic Common Sense Basic best practices. Follow those and you're going to be just fine. Don't worry about blowing up. Okay I Work with E3 Refrigerants.

My company, at least someone at my company is working on an A3 refrigerant that is a hydrocarbon refrigerant. 90% 100% of the time we're dealing with R290, which is UN odorized propane Highly flammable. We use it, compressors, run it, we braze on lines with it. As long as you follow the safety practices, you're going to be just fine.

The A2l refrigerants. It's not going to be that big of a deal. Another really, really important takeaway: Understand: supply houses can give you good information, but supply houses can also give you really bad information. Okay, you guys can't just take information because you heard it from the supply house counter when the guy at the supply house tells you that, yeah, that refrigerant has lots of propane in it, you're going to blow up.

A2l do not have propane in them. Okay, they don't guess what else about A2l. You will not be retrofitting any systems out there with A2l refrigerants. A2l refrigerants are going to be for new installations, only the components and the they they're They're taking extra precautions that are insane.

Spark proof components and everything. Okay, I Understand that with the A3s, but with the A2l, they're even doing that. They're talking about refrigerant monitoring, refrigerant, leak detection, and home systems. All kinds of crazy stuff.

Okay, so trust me, follow the installation best practices and you're going to be just fine. Don't be afraid of it. Also, the Atls those are already being phased out in Europe You realize how backwards we are as a country. Our country is driven by money more than it's driven.

Uh, more than anything. Sometimes too much. Our countes driven by money. That's my opinion.

Okay, but regardless, the European countries are already phasing out the A2l refrigerants. They're already on the road map and they're already in Phase down. Okay, um, we're just getting started using them. They're doing it because they're bad for the environment.

Everybody's trying to make things healthier for the environment because we can't. And I mean what? Whatever you believe, politically, all that good stuff. We're not going to get into that, but we do have to agree that things are changing right. Things are changing, and we have to be careful.

the stuff that we're releasing into the environment. You know, we can't be having the catastrophic ruptures of systems and all these nasty, harmful refrigerant are just being dumped out into the atmosphere. Okay, so we got to do better. As an industry, we need to accept the changes.

and we need to get used to them. And guess what? Here's the thing. There's a lot of new changes coming. right? Technology? All this different stuff.

Hey, the way that I see it? Yeah, it can be frustrating. Yeah, you know what it. We've been doing things this certain way for so long, we're kind of in cruise control. Yeah, things are changing.

But guess what? There's money to be made. Honest. money to be made with all these changes. So just jump on board.

We're all learning together and we're all going to get through this together. The things are changing. so stop getting used to a certain type of refrigerant and start paying attention to saturation temperatures. Reading manufacturers installation instructions.

All right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Um, our refrigerant scales are going A2 All compliant? Yeah, yeah, a lot of them hasn't Europe done this for at least 10 years with A2 and A3s? Yeah. Europe's been way ahead of the game when it comes to the refrigerants. So yes, definitely.

Uh, it seems like we developed leaks in new 0 to fiveyear 41A units with micr Channel coils all the dang time while older 20-year-old low pressure R22 units keep on ticking. Well, let's anyone else see this trend. Okay, so let's say this. First and foremost: manufacturers Now I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to say that manufacturers are not out to just make our jobs difficult.

Okay Manufactur, The sole purpose of their business is to manufacture a product to be able to sell it to be able to make fun money. So that way they can continue to sell those products and continue to make money. Okay, there is good manufacturers out there. There's a very small fraction of bad manufacturers, but for the most part, everybody's out there to do good.

Okay manufacturers. You know these A2l refrigerants. Trust me. trust me.

Financially, they didn't want to do this. They didn't want to deal with the A2 refrigerants. Okay, it's not their decision. Okay, they're being driven by policy policy, is being driven by you know, government rules, and and people that come together and say hey, we need to change things right? So there's new laws, new different things, and these manufacturers are doing the best that they can to keep up.

Because some of these laws and these changes are happening really fast for manufacturers for a manufacturer to change over to a facility that now manufactures equipment for with A2l refrigerants. It's not just like a a quick change over in their Factory right. they have to retool machines. They have to change things.

Some of the things that happen with new efficiency requirements with a lot of equipment is manufacturers have had to step down in the quality and the thickness. They have to go to thinner copper to try to get better heat transfer out of it. So those are some things they're doing uh there. Also, some manufacturers have chose to go to microchannel coils because microchannel coils, when designed and set up properly, are highly efficient.

They really are great. Great equipment. Um, uh, when it comes to Micr channels, but they're susceptible to other problems, right? They're susceptible to refrigerant leaks due to contaminants depending on where the the Micr channel coils at and different stuff like that. Okay, and of course, there's a small percentage of failures with all these manufacturers because you know times are tight, they're not able to pay as much for technicians and different things like that, and the quality's gone down with some manufacturers, but for the most part, manufacturers want to do better.

I Can vouch I Personally just went to Georgia Uh, two months ago and went to the Heatcraft Refrigeration facility and I got to see firsthand like they truly are trying their best to make the highest quality product. Um, they really are and they they're doing their best. But they also understand and admit that you know there's a reason why they have quality control Specialists that are trying to oversee several people to make sure they're doing their job too. You know they they they.

there's always going to be, um, errors. There's always going to be mistakes whether it be in manufacturing, whatever, because they're using humans and humans are flawed, right? Um, but you know it's just something we have to learn to deal with and you know these manufactures are trying their best. They really are all right. Let's see what else we got going on in here.

Um J.R Smith says yes, but quality is not a priority. Cheap is the issue. I Mean there is an argument to be made that you know the quality definitely has gone down with a lot of stuff It it definitely has I will say that. Okay, so um what part of the C Oh, they're answering questions? Okay, um all right.

so lots of great stuff going on in the chat again. Thanks everyone. Okay, uh Michael says Michael Foder says any tips or advice for a new Supermarket Refrigeration Tech Getting started? Yeah? Michael Uh, What I'm going to do is tell you to go check out the Advanced Refrigeration podcast Brett Wetzell and Kevin Compass do that podcast together. They have a YouTube channel and if you're a supermarket Tech Getting into the industry? Trust me, you need to listen to that show.

Brett and Kevin Brett's a good friend of mine. Uh, Kevin's a cool dude too and they have lots of knowledge and they give it away for free on their platform, through their podcast and through their videos. So definitely go check it out. Um, and Brett should be uh with me I believe I haven't confirmed this with Brett but I I guess I should.

but I'll just go ahead and go out on a limb and say that he's probably going to be at the Ahr trade show with me at the Parker spoiling Booth this year, uh, I will be at Ahr I'll be spending time at Heatcraft Spoilin Refrigeration Technologies and then uh, you know, just walking around hanging out with people. I'll be there for the full show and I'm also going to the HVAC tactical Awards before. Um, so yeah, all right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Uh, Jordan says what do I think about AI advances increasing access to intelligence regarding diagnostic decisions Okay, um Jordan I I Do believe that AI is awesome.

Honestly, right now I think AI is a little bit more frustrating for me because the most that I am seeing AI being used is in stupid marketing ways and it's really dumb I do not support nor understand AI replacing real people when it comes to marketing because AI you know it just I don't know it, just there's it, just doesn't feel feel genuine and I just don't like it I'm sure my mind will be changed as time comes on. but I don't like AI being used for marketing. but I can tell you right now that every major Home Service Company out there has changed their telephone calls. Uh, their lead generation is all AI driven stuff right? So they're just using AI to to cold call people and half the time you're not talking to a real person, you're talking to a machine that's going to schedule a sales call for them to come out and try to sell you on this new fandangled blue light emitting air cleaning BS stuff they want to sell you So there I went off on a tangent as usual.

All right. Um, but yeah, AI is definitely changing the industry. Um I I Can kind of say that you know I don't I see some benefits from AI but it's not quite there yet. Uh, there's there's a a manufacturer that has an app that's going to use AI to try to help you troubleshoot things.

Honestly, there's not an AI out there that I have personally used that can really honestly give you correct answers. When it comes to troubleshooting, you're never going to replace your senses and your ability to take past experience um, you know and and relate it to the call that you're on right now. Um, that's what a lot of the AI is trying to do right now is it's basing a lot of their decisions and um, you know advice that they're going to give for technical troubleshooting based off of like you know, past service calls. but I still don't think it's there and I don't think it's going to be revolutionary for the industry anytime soon.

My personal opinion and I could be completely wrong. So um, see what else we got going on in here? Um Ty Brandman says there is more marketing and sales training than Technical Training In this industry that is 110% true and I agree with that. there is more marketing and sales training than there is. Um Technical Training valuable Technical Training Okay, now keep in mind that there is marketing buil in built into Technical Training too.

Um, you know some of we don't need to go down this Rabbit Hole too deep. but there's some companies out there that that you know call their sales training classes technical training classes because they they're saying that they're going to educate you and in really, they're just teaching you ways to sell. Now let me let me be clear here: I run a business and I have to sell things to make money. But there's ethical ways to sell and there's a lot of unethical people out there that are doing bad things and it's it's.

giving the industry a black eye because it's just kind of sad. But anyways, let's get off that topic all right. let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Uh, Patrick says the biggest question is if you have a new unit with new refrigerant, have I seen the same longevity from these units or is this a work in progress? Patrick I mean personally, I've seen the longevity as long as the equipment's installed correctly.

I'm going to argue that 99 % of it is going to work and last a long time, but what I will say that is reducing the longevity of equipment is equipment not being installed and customers not maintaining it now. I'm not talking residential I'm talking more on the commercial side, but even this applies to the residential side too. If they had true technicians coming out to the residential side and the commercial side and truly clean the equipment, I'm not talking a 4our PM for an entire restaurant with seven package units and 22 refrigerators. Okay, because four hours is not enough time for that.

Unfortunately, every customer that I have that has ever done a PM with me wants me to do a preventive maintenance in four hours, right? So even they are pushing it to the edge. We need more time to properly install equipment. We need more time to properly clean it. I Can't tell you how many comments I got from my home Series Where someone said I was insane because of how crazy I went with my install and how meticulous I was at drilling the holes and making sure that everything was perfect and and that person said multiple people actually said there's no way my boss would give me enough time to do that.

There's no way that a customer would pay for the job there's and I'll go out on a limit. Agree with the person, there is no way that the system that I installed in my house I Estimate the system that I installed the equipment cost me nine grand. Okay, that's how much I paid for the equipment and then I have all the duct work and you know all that included in there, right? So I'm nine grand into it if I had to sell that job to a customer with all the labor and all the thought process and time that I put into this job, I estimate that that would be a $50,000 job to install a two-ton heat pump in a 1,00 square foot home that's asinine. There's no way a customer can afford that, you know? So all right, let's see.

Um, but you know, is the longevity going to be there? Yeah, if it's installed right, I'm going to argue that it is going to last if it's installed right now. We have a lot a very high failure rate. and I'm going to give an example. We have a very high failure rate on variable frequency drives when it comes to Light commercial package units 20 tons and below the the Vfds are failing left and right.

Okay, and uh, a good majority of them are because the manufacturers are installing them in the wrong area of the package unit. Okay, those Vfds would not fail I would argue in the same rate if they were installed in a air conditioned electrical room downstairs that had air filtration to keep the dust out of there. and they were able to properly deliver and run that equipment in that Vfd. Yeah, they would last a lot longer.

So a good majority of the equipment failures we have today, in my opinion, is because new technology is being crammed into the unit and it's not being really, really thought up. Right? Because a manufacturer wants to sell a package unit, the government says that they have to have Energy Efficiency stuff built into it. so they put two-speed blower motors on it that are controlled by a Vfd. Well, they don't really.

You know, the manufacturer knows that the perfect place to install that V FD is downstairs in the electrical room. But the customer demands Cheap, cheapap, Cheap. efficient, efficient, efficient, right? So the customer is driving the manufacturer to make lower quality units. These are all just my opinions.

Okay, but they're driving the manufacturer to make a better unit. Um, you know that's that's cheaper and and has these bells and whistles that are just not possible at the price point that they're selling it at, right? So you know they're trying their best. There's there's a lot of variables that come into the equipment issues that we're having these days. All right.

Um, Okay, so uh. I already talked about the A2l refrigerants again. I Can't stress enough? go to the HVAC Overtime show on YouTube Look up last week's show with Jason OBU. It was a great, great A2l discussion and I have you know an opinion with that show? That was one of my favorite shows Because of the vibe that we all had, we were just having a great time talking.

Um Jason had a great time too I Want more trainings to be like that I Want more trainings to be a conversation, a get together, a hangout where people are talking and genuinely collaborating versus just someone standing up at a PowerPoint pushing the button saying next, click, next, click next like you know, nobody wants to go to those PowerPoint presentations? Um, they just don't people. And Ty Brandan who's in the chat is an advocate for that too. And Tai's you know, an educator and he helps Educators to learn how better to to to to understand people. You know something that Tai says is that you know everybody's different and there's so many different ways that people learn so you have to be able to.

You can't just uh, you know and this is my opinion. You can't just apply a cookie cutter approach to every single person when it comes to their education. so we need to change the way that we're dealing with that. Um, see what else do I have an opinion on Co2? Patrick I mean CO2 is huge in the commercial side in the supermarket side.

That is the next best thing. I Can guarantee you that CO2 will be slowly getting pushed out shortly too. I mean you know they're GNA They're always wanting to try to do better. but CO2 right now I mean they're getting the hang of it.

They're getting better at it. A lot of technology. I mean really really high tech when it comes to the CO2 Now here's something that I worry about. Um I have a little grocery store.

It's like a little Asian grocery store that they just built near me and I was watching them build the restaurant and uh, they um, you know they were. This was like a small mom and pop place. Okay, it's not a very big, it's a small chain. But I mean it's not a very big thing right? and you know they're dropping in some really high efficient CO2 equipment on top of this place and I'm like that's going to be a problem because we need more technicians and this is why earlier in the Stream I was saying that you know, um the the we have a problem in this industry and we need more technicians.

but then on top of that I said that we have the most new technology coming into the trade. all this new CO2 stuff coming in. it's completely dominating and changing the supermarket side and there's not enough training. Uh you know there needs to be more people out there doing the training videos like Brett and Kevin are doing.

you know with the CO2 stuff and there needs to be more. So all right, Uh hello to everybody that's coming in here. that's really awesome. So uh I do want to share that coming up soon I'm waiting for some approvals and different things but coming up soon.

I've got a new video which I'm just going to give you a little teaser. two rather expensive circuit boards that are both bad. Both these circuit boards are bad. they're no longer functioning.

They run some really really awesome Refrigeration equipment you know, but uh, these things failed and uh, it was all because of the customer. Like aund and like there's no question about it, the customer caused both of these circuit boards to go bad. I mean physically caused it. Pretty cool video coming out I'm not going to give any more details, but uh, stay tuned I Don't know if it'll be this week I Don't think it will be this week.

It'll probably be something like next week or something like that. but two brand new circuit? no two circuit boards that were caused from the customer? Pretty cool thing, All right. Um Simon Harvey How often am I going to do Pm on my own unit? You feel like not letting that machine get dirty at all. Simon Um I mean no I I Can already tell you that my outdoor condenser needs to be cleaned I Live in an area right now where they're doing a lot of construction.

There's a lot of dirt blowing around my truck when I park it out front I can wash it and the next day it's covered in dirt. Uh, because they're building warehouses and everything near me right now. Um, so my condenser outside or outdoor coil since it's a heat pump is uh, um, dirty. It needs to be cleaned already and it's only been installed for two months.

So um, definitely. I mean how often am I g to clean it? I mean let's be honest, dude, it's my own house I'm probably going to neglect it just like I neglected my previous system for nine years before I actually changed it. Uh, isn't that the majority of warranty calls? Um, yeah, yeah, all right, let's see what else we got going on in here. Let's see: Jordan says it's really easy to find an HVAC guy, but not or but it it is really easy to find an HVAC guy, but really hard to find an HVAC technician.

And that is true And you know this industry's got some struggles. It's got some struggles. I Just got an email from someone I was reading through my email and they said that you know they've only been in the industry for so much time. I've heard this story countless times and they work for one of my local competitors actually and he said that you know they the the owners of the company.

They'd never even come out to help him. They just tell him that he'll learn, you know, by breaking things and get his way through. And there's some aspect of this industry where you do have to make mistakes to learn, but companies shouldn't be doing that. They shouldn't be hiring technicians and just throwing them in trucks and expecting them to solve the world because they're just hurting the industry.

They really are. Um Can The Inficon Stratus detect A2l refrigerant leaks. Yes, it can. John Dear Fan: The normal.

Uh, Inficon? Stratus Uh, it is uh capable. Well, they let me step back and say I'm 99% sure that the normal sensors will pick up the A2l refrigerants. Yes, yeah, because they pick up 410 and hey, crazy thing like Jason said Jason we were. we had Jason OBU on the show on Friday right the overtime show and he was saying you know 410A is just R32 with a uh, another refrigerant added to reduce the flame potential so you know you think about it I mean we've already been dealing with these A2l refrigerants well, the main components of them, right? So now to have R32 just as a refrigerant, right? Well, R32 has been in 410A for the last 15 years since we've been using it.

It's a mixture of fora is is R32 and some other thing so that was interesting to hear Jason say that because it's like why are we so overhyped about R R32 when you know I mean there's just some basic safety practices we have to follow. Um, all right Pennsylvania HVAC Productions thank you very much for that super sticker Everybody that has the Super chats and the stickers and stuff. this has been really cool so thank you very much. Um I someone had asked me about a van tour.

Would I be doing a van tour anytime soon? Yeah, you guys also have to understand that I get very uncomfortable with some of these social media things. So to be honest with you van tours and toolbag tools tours, they don't make sense to me, right? They seem silly to me. my mind works differently than most people. Um, there's some sort of mental diagnosis there I'm sure some sort of real issue, but tool videos.

They make me uncomfortable. Um, unless it's a tool channel, right? because I do have a tool Channel that I haven't been posting on Hvacr tools? I I haven't posted on it. so I'm not looking for subscribers. Really? Maybe one day I'll start I don't mind doing tool videos on that, but on my main channel, it's more like service calls.

tool videos just don't really. Vibe for me or whatever, right? But I I realize that some people want them. So yes, I will do like a new van tour I I did one like three years ago two years ago. I'll do another one here.

probably this next year sometime because I'm currently building out another van that I'll be getting into and I'll I'll do a tour once I get it all put together and everything. but yeah, it just I just don't do the tool stuff as much. Okay, so um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, put a bunch of return filters all around it, then just change them. uh I don't know what you were talking about out there.

D Um, you hate that seminars that are sales pitches and then ends up being a waste of time when you're trying to get training on the equipment. And isn't that the truth? John Uh, insert yourself into almost every ice machine. the regional ice machine training classes that you go to that are at supply houses. majority of them are just giant sales pitches.

Okay, Manat does a really good ice machine class with very minimal sales pitch. I Do appreciate that one. Pazakis is kind of okay. um, but a lot of them are big sales pitches and that's kind of a bummer.

But you know you can pay a couple bucks and go to the the factory trainings of all those ice machine manufacturers and I can guarantee you get your socks knocked off if you can actually go to the factory training. Now one thing I would like to see is manufacturers do more Regional training because as a service technician, it's hard for me to leave and go to a training class for a week. Right to fly to? Wisconsin To go to Manat Toalk or you know, fly to wherever to go to different trainings, right? You want to go to Georgia To go to Hosaki? Georgia Go to Heatcraft. That's kind of difficult for most technicians I Feel like more manufacturers need to be doing more Regional trainings but on a factory level.

high quality trainings that aren't really there, just as a sales-driven thing. um I Hope that they'll start to do that. there's some that are doing them. Heatcraft does it now.

Um, there's a few other manufacturers that are doing Regional trainings. Um, you know most of the time they're a small which I'm fine I don't mind paying for a class. So all right. um oh my outdoor unit for keeping it clean I got you? Yeah, no I'll just clean it off All right? Um okay.

so uh I had jury duty last week so I just want to rant about that one. That was a bit frustrating. So I had uh jury duty all week and I'd already put it off once so I had to do it whatever and uh I had to be on Callin Duty So Sunday night Monday night Tuesday night all all the way into Thursday and then Friday morning I had forgot to call Friday or Thursday night Friday morning they called me in and uh I had to go into jury duty and it was kind of a pain in the butt. I even posted on social media about it I got a bunch of push back because some people made some very valid comments that jury duty is kind of an important thing and it is it is.

It just never comes as a convenient time and uh, it. I I Honestly am very interested in being on a jury. It sounds like a really interesting process and I would very much like to be part of that process. proc it's just always at An Inconvenient time and I feel like the selection process is a little bit flawed and skewed.

Um, my thing felt more like a control issue than it did for me actually doing something. So they called me in on Friday and like this is how it went, they called me in on Friday I Went in, checked in. we went through the check-in process to go into the Jury Room uh. judge came in and talked to us about how privileged we were and how much of an honor it was to be on a jury.

All that stuff right? And then the judge left and the clerk stood up and said said okay, we don't need you guys, you're all excused So then why did we come in like we were in there for literally 45 minutes like that was just silly. But anyways, that's just my first world problems. and I realize these are totally first world problems. So all right, let's see what the chat has to say here real quick.

See what I'm missing? Um I like Jerry Duty the movie with Paulie Shaw Yes, that was a huge awesome hit for me when I was a kid. probably wouldn't hold up well if I tried to watch it now but uh, back when I was a kid, jury duty was an awesome movie and so was uh uh son, what is it son-in-law where he was the farmer and then in the Army now where he was in the military. Oh those were great movies but I guarantee they wouldn't hold up today. So um let's see Regional training.

you're not uh Patrick's saying uh you're not in Midwest or east coast and it would cost you more than the trip. Yeah, Exactly exactly. So um to be honored? Yes, exactly Uh Refrigeration or HVAC which one is my favorite I like Refrigeration better I Like working on walk-in coolers, walk-in freezers. um I like installing them.

They're a lot of fun doing retrofit Replacements and stuff uh, you know. but I I equally like working on package units. Um, but yeah Refrigeration I guess would probably be the first thing that I enjoy doing I do like working on ice machines too. Ice machines are fun.

Um, it's just always when you're in restaurants. It can get a little tedious though because it just gets kind of silly because the the Hoops you have to jump through to get things fixed properly without getting in their way. It's just kind of silly. Um, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

uh oh I Wanted to talk about duck detectors so I released a video a while back on a duck detector install. Um, and uh, you know something that I find. There's a lot of issues within the industry and a lot of weak failure points that people are making a lot. Uh, but duck detectors in my opinion in my area are one of the things that are the least understood and most improperly installed things.

The controls for duct detectors are always messed up and I understand that they can be confusing, but once you understand how a duct detector works, it's so easy. It really is. It's so easy. It's silly, but they're just because people just don't understand them because they got to do research.

I Will say there is not a lot of training on Duck detectors I Feel like that needs to be something that's taught a little bit more. but a duct detector is literally just a smoke alarm. Okay, but it energizes a set of relays actually multiple sets of relays and they can do all sorts of things right. So we have a duct detector with a bunch of dry contacts in them, so that's an important thing.

Uh I Don't think I have any duct detectors that have wet contacts that already have voltage. The difference between the wet contacts and the dry contacts is you have a contact with a normally open, a normally closed, and a common terminal. Okay, on a dry contact, there is no power delivered from the detector to that contact. If it was a wet contact, there would be power being delivered to the common terminal of which the relay would energize and tell your power to go wherever it needs to, right? But duct detectors just have a bunch of dry contacts.

So you got to bring 24 volts to the common and then send it to wherever you need to. or break it from whatever you need to. But most common manufacturers out there when it comes to package units, they have spots in the package units for duct detectors to De Energize and energize certain things so many people are improperly wiring up I have restaurants that I still go to to this day where the duct detector just breaks the indoor blower motor gwire for the unit and the the equipment doesn't have low pressure controls or anything so if a duck detector trips, it just floods the compressor back until it ruins a compressor or someone resets the duct detector. Okay, so many people are doing the incorrect installs on those things and all you have to do is look into the manufacturer and figure out how you tie in duct detectors.

the old school method of disconnecting the indoor blower murder or just breaking the red wire going to the unit going to the R terminal. those are Antiquated because there's much better ways to do it. We can get the equipment installed properly. it's easier to troubleshoot if you just look into the manufacturer's installation instructions.

So um, what's my first name? my first name is Chris and I uh for those that are just tuning in, my name is Chris and I am an Hvacr service technician here in Southern California You know the reason why I started making these videos was for my employees. Uh, they were a training aid for them and then someone told me to hit public. It kind of became a thing. I realized there's value that come from them.

You guys watch my videos and you say that guy's an idiot I'm never going to do what he just did. Okay, you learned in one way. or maybe I did something and you're like, hey, that was pretty cool idea I'm gonna try that next time and maybe it works for you too, right? So there's good and bad to come from my channel. but I just put my stuff out there to try to help the next guy.

So um, most manufacturers now have a duck smoke terminal location that is 100% true JR Smith 100% true. You're just going to differentiate from manufacturer to manufacturer on whether or not you want to break a signal or make a signal to the unit on a Linux package unit. they want you to make a signal and deliver 24 volts to a certain terminal on the board. on you know, train units.

they want you to break a signal you know on Carrier package units they want you to break a signal so couple different ways you can do it with duct detectors. So you just got to read the installation instructions and understand the difference between a normally open and a normally closed contact. So all right, um, what else do we got going on in here I'm reading through the chat already answered that one. Um, see best van or truck for HVAC work.

You know that's a very subjective question I guess I don't know if that's the right word, but um, basically I like the Chevy vans the Chevy Express Vans but I've been in those for forever. I'm so used to them. a lot of people swear by the Fords the Dodge whatever. I'm not a huge fan of the Dodge just because the simple fact that it's it's front-wheel drive and I just I don't know I just don't really see that in a van.

uh, going up hills and icy roads occasionally like I do. that's just a recipe for disaster. Um, so yeah. but um, I'm a Chevy van person right now.

but Chevy's about I think in the next year or two, they're changing their Vans to like a Euro style van like the transit or the ProMaster. So I don't know what's going to come from Chevy I Haven't really seen the concept vehicles yet, but they're changing their whole Express setup. My understanding. So uh, it's how the van is set up.

Yeah, it exactly is true. You know it's how you have the van set up and you know it. It's it's going to depend on the technician and and what they do Being what's the best setup for a van, you know? So um, right on. Have I ever worked on a regular home fridge? Are they the same like what I usually work on in the field? home refrigerators I mean I've worked on families and my refrigerator before, but more modern home refrigerators nowadays are very similar to the equipment that we're working.

They're inverter driven compressors. Uh, they have inverter boards, inverter evaporator, fan motors, condenser, fan motors and they're going to vary different things. Um, so I mean it's still a basic refrigerator that has a compressor evaporator? Um, you know, uh, expansion valve condenser coil I mean it's just going to have an inverter setup running it typically these days and uh, you know that's how it's going to work. Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

Uh, front-wheel drive is actually better for ice because all the weight of the engine is on the drive tires. Yeah, but when you're going uphill and uh, you can tend to run into some problems there and that's kind of what worries me about that. But I I do see what you're saying. So um, been in Forge forever and now have a ProMaster it's junk.

Yeah, it's it's all subjective. So um, yeah. Jordan we haul a lot of mass. That's the thing.

So but yeah, right on. Well, it is time for me to wrap this up because it