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 queue up.

the intro music a Oh hey everybody Welcome To the Hvacr videos Live stream: I am your host Chris and I realize that my chair that I usually hide from the screen is in the view. That bothers me. Just knowing that that chair is there is driving me insane. I'm not concerned about the rest of my messy office or the chaos that's going on everywhere but that that single chair right there if I do not move it I I will just go insane.

so excuse EXC me for a moment, pretend you saw nothing there. we go I Feel much better now. So uh I am back from nice, sunny, warm Chicago Illinois My goodness gracious, those of you that warned me about Chicago Boy you guys, uh, you weren't lying. It was a bit chilly there so uh, just got back from the Ahr Expo in Chicago and it was a pretty pretty good time.

Uh, pretty good time. I'm definitely going to cover a few things, but uh, let's let's tell some fun stories real quick. So one of the really interesting things when I had left for Chicago was when I left. Southern California I Flew out of my local commuter airport and it was raining and I happened to notice uh and I don't have the pictures to show but I'll make a post about it or something.

but I happened to notice that there was a bunch of guys working on the tarmac and it was just kind of funny cuz I felt a little bad for the guys. kind of felt a little guilty as I was sitting in the airport lounge looking at out you know on the tarmac and I see these guys out there just standing out in the rain. But what I noticed was one of the guys was wearing shorts. Okay, fast forward to all my connecting flights and by the time I actually landed in Chicago later that evening, people weren't dressed in shorts.

Okay, there was about yeah, three to four inches of snow on the ground. Uh, of course they don't have it on the runway, but all around everywhere there was about three to four inches of snow at the airport and uh, it was a bit chilly I'm walking from the Skyway into the airport itself and I was like whoa, Okay, yeah, this is a little bit different. uh I definitely traveled like a uh, typical person from California probably would because I was wearing sweats and Crocs and big sweatshirt and uh, then I had to uh, bundle up. you know to leave the airport.

Um, but uh, it was definitely a a contrasting experience to see the difference between leaving Ontario California and landing in Chicago Now I landed last Saturday and wait last Saturday no I don't know whenever I landed I can't even remember how long I was there. But anyways, regardless, when I landed, it was about -45 outside. uh and then over the next day and a half it warmed up for the show Monday through Wednesday it was in the 40 so it was actually really nice for the show. But one really interesting factoid was I had to go into the Expo where the show's at before any of the public got to go in there because I had to set up a bunch of live streaming stuff at the Parker Borland Booth who thank you very much Parker spand for hosting me in the way that they did because it was an awesome event.

But um, if you go into the Ahr Expo in Chicago two days before the actual show opens, they have all the giant dock doors open into the Expo and uh, I was bundled up. it was uh, somewhere in the 30s to 40s in there. uh and it was pretty darn cold and I was told by the people uh that I was at the Parker spoiling Booth with the day before that it was so cold in there that they had bottles of water that were freezing like it's insane. And then of course once the Expo started the doors all shut, the heaters you know, really started to warm the area up and it was much nicer.

Once you got you know, 30 something thousand people in there. Um I Haven't heard the exact uh numbers yet, but I would have to estimate that the show totals are going to be somewhere around 60,000 people, if not a little bit more. I would say probably on the first day there was probably 30 to 40,000 people there in two giant Expo halls. There was a lot of people and it was, uh, a bit overwhelming to say the least.

So welcome to the show! All right, I'm going to see what's going on in the chat right now. If you guys have any questions or comments or things that you want me to cover, please put your questions in caps lock and I will try to get to them. Also, if you guys uh, have any questions, things that I can't cover or don't cover, feel free to shoot me an email to HVAC Rvideos atgmailcom Okay, uh, let's see what else we got going on in here. Uh, reading through here did Adam try and run a heat load calc? No, not on the Expo Center he definitely didn't try to do that.

Have I ever worked on Southern Case Arts equipment? No. I can't say that I have Adam I'm reading through here right now. All right. Cool.

So um, you know everybody that's just getting in here right now. my name is Chris I'm an Hvacr service technician I would assume that you know who I am but I'm sure we got some new people in here too. So you know I do these live streams to kind of consolidate questions uh from the videos that I post uh to try to save my sanity a little bit and just consolidate questions into one place and try to answer some of the repetitive questions that I see and then also cover a couple other things and talk about a few things and then clearly I want to get to your guys's points and questions that you want me to cover too. So um, let's see it says: thank you for sharing I am new to the profession and have learned a lot from my videos.

well thank you I don't know how to pronounce your name is it t uh T Tran I I don't know if I'm you know butchering that and I apologize if I am but right on. that's really awesome. I really appreciate that you like the video. so uh oh, it was really cool too.

So uh, everything Hvacr Steve's in here and uh so I have to say Steve I don't know if I got to tell you the story or not but I don't know if I knew you were coming to the show or not, but I was actually really looking forward to meeting you I know we didn't get to really hang out very much I wish we would have could of you know had a little more time but I was just super busy. but I saw some pictures of Steve and Ryan and Rick um all sitting down having dinner and I was like oh man I didn't know Steve was here and it just so happened that I was able to connect with Rick the next day and Steve was still there and it was really cool to get to shake your hand finally. So you know just as much as um, you know another person that consumes content. you know there's other creators that I haven't met yet Steve obviously makes his own content and it was really neat to be able to go shake his hand and talk to him for a minute.

So it was really cool and you know my wife had to remind me because I told her that story. um you know and it's kind of the same way. like I didn't understand and I still to this day don't understand why people want to come up and shake my hand. It just doesn't make sense to me yet here.

I am wanting to go Shake Steve's hand so go figure right? My brain is so odd, the way that it works and sometimes I can't process things the way that probably I would assume other people can I don't know, it's just kind of bizarre, but uh yeah, it is what it is. So I'm a human being and I'm unique, right? All right, let's see what else. Um, can I go over the operating pressures? Yeah, definitely. Ron I will.

Okay, uh and Ron had actually asked me a question about that, so let me cross this off the list. Um, before I forget just before I was getting ready for the live stream I stumbled across something and I have to say I just don't know how much I like it or not. Okay I'm sure I'll enjoy the movie, but they are recreating a Timeless classic that it's almost sacrilege to recreate like it's kind of a bummer that they're recreating this. although I do have to say that I do like Jake Gyllenhaal he's a cool actor, really neat dude.

But they're recreating Patrick s's Roadhouse and I Happened to see it just before the stream started and I watched the trailer and I was like oh it was a maybe the movie's gonna be better I'm a big movie buff if you guys don't know it. Okay, um, but Patrick Sw's Roadhouse has to be one of my all-time favorite movies. like absolutely all time. As corny as it is, as horrible as the acting is, it's just a great movie.

Uh, and then to see them remake it I Just don't know if I'm going to like it or not. I'm definitely going to watch it though I think it's going to be an Amazon movie too. So interesting point that I happened to see just before the stream. so um so Ron had sent me a message and he was curious if I would talk about operating pressures as far as 404 and 134a.

Refrigeration Equipment goes okay. so Ron what? I'm going to tell you first and foremost is you always want to lean on the manufacturers of the equipment. If you're trying to work on a reachin refrigerator, you always want to call the manufacturer and ask them how their units operate because what you will find is that there's not just one set way for a unit to operate. There's not just one unit that's going to operate with these exact pressures and it's not going to be cookie cutter cookie cutter all across the board.

Each manufacturer beats to the tune of Their Own Drum each manufacturer and how how is that possible, right? Because Refrigeration is Refrigeration Well, some manufacturers design their boxes differently, right? They might design the box to have a different overall uh, evaporator to condenser TD match. Okay, so if you oversize the condenser and then have an evaporator that's a little bit smaller then the the the the overall combined TD of the equipment that is going to be different. Okay, so you always want to lean on the manufacturer first. but the one thing that I want to point out is your question was what are the operating pressures of 404 what are the operating pressures of 134a I Would highly suggest that you start looking at the temperatures as opposed to the pressures.

Okay, really pressures are. It's kind of hard to follow pressures because again, you're going to have issues with every manufacturer doing something different with the way that they design their equipment. If you're working on a walk-in cooler, your combined TDS are typically going to be a lot lower than if you're working on a reaching cooler where they tend to design the system for the combined TDS to be much bigger. So it's really important that you reach out to the manufacturer.

so say you're working on a true reach and cooler, call True and ask them some things. Now some other things that I want you to understand for everybody out there that works on reach and coolers I challenge you to call a manufacturer tomorrow and ask them okay uh, what? the evaporator superheat should be what the you know condenser sub cooling should be. And they're going to say we don't publish that reaching cooler manufacturers hardly ever pay attention to subcooling or superheat. Most of the time they will tell you just pressures.

Okay, now I know I said don't pay ATT mention to pressures. but what I'm going to challenge you to do is call and ask a series of questions. So if I'm going to call true Refrigeration tomorrow there are major refrigerator manufacturer I'm going to call them and I'm GNA say hey, I'm working on a Tssu 48 whatever right? That's a 48 inch wide um prep table. Okay and I'm going to say hey, the units uh running and I'd like to know what your operating pressures are and what TR is going to tell me is they're going to say at a set ambient temperature typically about 75 degre, they want suction pressure to be this you know discharge pressure to be that and they want the Box temperature to be this.

Okay, with those four data points right there, you can actually figure out backwards, calculate what their TD on that equipment should be. and with that information you can actually do a lot of of valuable stuff. And you can start to understand how the Box operates under different load conditions. So you see the manufacturers, they will tell you pressures, but they'll only tell you pressures at a set temperature inside the box, at a set temperature outside of the box and then they expect the pressures to be in line.

So if I take the you know the ambient conditions that they say 75 to 80 degrees. Okay, then I take the condenser pressure I can backwards convert that pressure to a saturation temperature right and then take the ambient temperature and the saturation temperature and I can figure out the condenser TD and then do the same thing for the evaporator TD And with that information I can now go to that same refrigerator and I can say hey, if I know the condenser TD is 10 de and I know the evaporator TD is 35 degrees, then I can look and figure out what the manufacturer would want the pressures to be at different operating conditions and not just at their published 75 degree ambient. you know, 34 degree box temp. Okay, so I don't know what the pressure should be on a 404a cooler for true, don't Okay, but um, I can call the manufacturer and again figure out the TD and then I can backwards calculate it for the varying conditions and I hope that kind of makes sense to you.

Another thing that I would highly suggest you do is start paying attention to. you know that kind of valuable information, and start writing it down, logging it somewhere. Okay, so that way you know the next time you go work on a Tssu 48 or whatever inert name model number whatever it is of whatever cooler you're working on, you can store that in, have that data to share with the next guy. Okay, so um, you know.

and also there's a lot of things that change too. Does the Box have capillary tube? Does it have you know, a a expansion valve now? I will say also you're asking about 404 and 134a. You're actually not going to run into very much 404 and 134a when it comes to prep tables. The only 404 and 134a.

equipment you're going to run into when it comes to prep tables is stuff that is typically 15, 20 years and older. Everything thing that has been made within the last 5 to 10 years is going to be hydrocarbon refrigerants. When it comes to reaching coolers, you're going to be dealing with R290. If you're working on domestic appliances and homes and different things, it's going to be R600 Isobutane.

Okay, so there's a lot of different stuff happening in the industry and it seems like every single day there's a new flavor of refrigerant. Okay, so I hope that that kind of gives you a general idea um, and some troubleshooting information and and help you a little bit more. Okay, um, and if you have any more question questions, feel free to you know your best bet actually is to send me an email. Hvacr videos gmail.com Okay, um, now for the most part, the only time that I'm really, really concerned with pressures is when I'm trying to backwards calculate how the manufacturer designed that equipment and when I'm setting pressure controls.

Okay, because pressure controls operate based off of pressures. Okay, um, and so that's really important too. All right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now. See what I'm missing in here? Um, okay yeah, how does a solenoid valve on a split system AC unit stop oil migration and what controls the valve? Human Rights Revolution It's actually not stopping oil migration.

it's stopping refrigerant migration. Okay, because when you have refrigerant migration, let's say that you have an off cycle. You have a system that does not have a liquid line solenoid valve on a residential air conditioning system. We're making it as simple as possible.

What'll happen is the the liquid refrigerant in the system will migrate to different spots in the system if that liquid refrigerant migrates to the compressor and it sits there in the crank case of the compressor because it's super cold when that compressor turns on. Uh I they that oil will start to mix with the liquid refrigerant, the liquid refrigerant will become like entrapped in the oil. and when the compressor starts that first you know movement of whether it be a scroll compressor or piston driven compressor is going to take that liquid refrigerant and it's going to foam it up like crazy and it's going to grab the oil with the liquid refrigerant and it's going to throw it out of that compressor out the discharge line. And if the system's not properly piped.

okay, that oil is going to get stuck and logged somewhere else in the system. Uh, and then a lot of bad things can happen when that happens. So it's not so much about oil migration as it is about liquid refrigerant migration that is going to mix with the oil and then take the oil with it when the compressor starts up. that's the biggest concern.

And so when you have a liquid line solenoid valve there in the off cycle, it helps to prevent refrigerant migration. Okay, uh, very important thing. All right. let's see what else we got going on in the chat right now.

Um, reading through the chat I am blurry as heck on the stream. All Network equipment on your end is okay. Well that's a bummer. Let me see what's going on here.

Let me uh, let's see. um Internet speed test I'm pretty ugly anyway, so it's probably not a big deal if I'm blurry right? I mean my my download speed is extremely well. Let's see what my my upload speed is 40 megabits per second at the moment. So I don't know why.

maybe there's a problem with YouTube It seems like my internet speed is perfect, so who knows. As someone says, it's fine now. huh? Who knows? Yeah? I don't know. All right.

Um, got a couple other things I Want to cover? Oh, let's talk about the elephant in the room. You guys ever do a drunk test a drunk text. You guys ever text someone when you're drunk, You ever send a message out that uh, maybe doesn't have the right context and people misunderstand it in different ways. Huh? I did that the other day.

but there was a lot of factual and truthful information in my post that I made the other day. So if you don't know if you don't follow my my social media feeds on Facebook and on YouTube and it wasn't a drunk text I'm joking when I say that being sarcastic but um I made a post uh I called it. um what did I what did I call my observations of my travels or something like that? Okay, and I made a post kind of talking about what I experienced when I went to the Ahr Expo and I'll kind of recap it a little bit. I encourage you guys to go read it.

Okay, first and foremost, you need to understand something that I'm a human okay and I don't regret anything that I wrote in the post I don't take back anything that I wrote in the post. that is 100% how I felt okay. we all feel differently I just got back from the Ahr Expo I was you know, feeling a little like overwhelmed from the whole experience and I wrote a post just with my observations and what I observed when I when I landed in Chicago was uh, you know that there was a lot of homeless people in the airport and then when and I don't don't take nobody that's watching this right now. Please don't take this political.

If people start taking a political and posting political stuff in the chat, moderators plead deleted. Okay, we don't need to get political I'm observing as a human. Okay and uh, what? I observed was that there was a lot of homeless people in the airport and then I observed that there was homeless people on the streets with little children. It was ne4 neg5 degrees outside and it made me feel bad because I saw little children and then when I got home right I you know, just kind of had this surreal feeling as I was sitting in my home with my kids in their bedrooms and it was 72 73 degrees outside and I'm sitting there thinking man I kind of felt guilty because my kids aren't cold C but some other people's kids are cold.

There's a lot of circumstances that lead to that we don't need to get into that. Bottom line: it was sad, it was sad seeing people and I felt bad. Now there's a lot of things that I can do and there's a lot of things that I do already do that I don't talk about because I don't talk about everything about my personal life. But the one bottom line is, you have to admit it was sad that there was little children and I'm talking toddlers that were out in the streets when it was Nega 4 de outside like that's a bummer.

Okay again, there's a lot of reasons as to why, but it was just an observation that I noticed and I kind of wrote up this big old opinion piece about it and it's just kind of a bummer, you know? Um, so you know again. I Don't regret putting the post out there I Realized that without context a lot of people don't understand my intent with the post I wasn't virtue signaling okay I I made some Some people were saying that I was virtue signaling. Yeah, I'm not even going to get into that, but that was just silly. But it was just an observation of mine and it was just kind of a bummer to see that kind of stuff right.

There's homeless people everywhere and I also mentioned that in my thing I Even thought for a moment that the homeless people in California were better off than the homeless people in Chicago Okay, now we're going to get on to something else, but I do just wanted to address it right. I'm not going to retract anything that I said. It was just a just kind of a moving moment to be able to see something like that and it's just kind of crazy and surreal. Okay, um, but one thing I will say and again, we'll move on to the next subject was that was before the show and this is where this really hits home.

Okay, that was before the show and that was uh, Saturday and Sunday that I saw those people on the streets. They were not on the streets, Those families were not on the streets. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday when the show went on. Okay, just think about that for a minute, they weren't there and it was warmer.

Monday Tuesday and Wednesday but they were out when it was super cold so go figure right? All right? So um, as far as Ahr goes, you know what was my overall thoughts of Ahr? It was an amazing show. If you guys go back to the beginning of the stream and you watch the beginning of this, um you will see that I did kind of like a a photo share photo dump where I showed all the photos that I had taken with people. That was a very humbling experience to have people want to come up and talk to me and share with me and uh I Hope that if you experienced coming up and talking to me, you understood that every person that came up and talked with me I gave them every ounce of my time that they wanted I wanted to make sure because that's what those shows are about right? It's a it's a show for me to go and hang out at a booth and get to, you know, interact with people and talk with them. and I try my best to give every person that wanted to come up and talk to me every single moment of my time that they wanted, right? So you know some person I might have spent 20 minutes talking to one person I might have spent a minute talking to it was.

however they wanted the conversation to go and I try to do that when I can right and it was a good experience. I got to hear some interesting stories I got to talk with some people from all around the world and that blew my mind literally talking to people coming from the Islands below Florida and you know people coming from all over the place. Uh, on the way home I talked to a gentleman that was traveling back to Shanghai that works for bits or compressors. It was an interesting amazing conversation that I had with this gentleman and it was really really cool.

So one thing about these events that I genuinely like is the community, the the ability to be able to put a face to face with these people that may or may not consume my content right and then also new people and get to have discussions and talk about different problems that we have as far as the HVAC industry goes and that is really really awesome. So if you did come up to me and shake my hand and take a picture with me, thank you very much I enjoyed it just as much as you did. Okay, all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, reading through here right now see what I got? Uh, reading through.

Have I had an issue? Oh no, that's a different that's for someone else. How do I feel about soft start compressor units? Worth the money? Uh Dale Mar Is there actually a piece of a tool out there or a piece of equipment out there that is a true soft starter? Um, my research says that most of the devices out there that people call soft starters aren't truly a soft starter? Um so I would do your research to find out. Okay, uh, if you truly want to do something like soft starting something I mean what's the point? Just put in a Vfd if you need to get to that point I mean I guess I don't know. You know I would do some research because I've heard some some information and read some information I don't I'm not educated enough on the subject to know which one's the best and which one works the best.

Um so I don't know, you know you. You have to do some research. but I will say that one of the major manufacturers out there that makes soft starters from what I've been told, it's not a true soft starter. So all right, let's see what else we got going on in the chat.

What Am I missing? What product or equipment interested me the most at Ahr? I Do have to tell you a funny story about a manufacturer that I went up and talked to. Um so I usually don't get like this too much and I'm not going to say the entire manufacturer is a horrible company because they're not okay. I know they have good people that work at their company, but I will say I had some genuine questions about the carrier equipment that I installed in my house I just installed a new heat pump in my house and I've been commissioning it and there was some things that just didn't make sense to me. So I went up to the carrier Booth I found the residential side and I went up and I asked them I talked to a a rep from the company and I said hey, I got some questions I just installed a piece of equipment in my house and I gave him the rundown and uh, first off which which just dumbfounded me absolutely dumbfounded me.

The first question that I asked him, he said well, we usually don't give that information to homeowners and I said homeowners, what homeowner is going to come to the Ahr trade show and ask really in-depth technical questions about the equipment that they said they just installed like I did and then get blown off to say we don't give that information to homeowners? What? So then I told the guy I'm not a homeowner dude I installed my equipment like come on and I'm not name dropping I'm not saying that I'm from Hvr videos or any of that crap I just said I installed some equipment and then I told them I said you know I'm having a hard time getting information from tech support and I said uh, you know I uh bought my equipment from a certain distributor I mean I'll say it, it's Russell Sigler right? because that's my distributor. it's not too hard to find that out. and uh, when I told him that I said you know, do you have someone that I can ask these hard-hitting questions to because they're pretty technical is there's someone at the booth that I can talk to and he says well, you know you got to go through Russell Sigler and I said come on man like you're here can you not answer these questions and he's like no, I can't you need to go through Russell Sigler and I'm like you really GNA be like that and he's like yeah, yeah, no, we can't help you with that I'm like okay, so that representative I'm not blaming the entire company but that representative or their policy that they have that he wouldn't answer my questions about certain things within my system. That was kind of lame, right? That really was.

And and I'm not saying that I would never install carrier I mean so far, I'm extremely happy with the system in my house. but I do got to say these manufacturers that put up these walls and these barriers between the technicians that are installing them and the people that design them, it's a bit silly. They should be a little bit more forthcoming with the information. So that's one observation that I got from the the show that was a little bit disturbed with was like for real you guys can't give me some genuine information um I will say you know not just a knock on them my buddy Adam you know same thing he went up to Uh Am Mana and asked some hard-hitting questions from The Amanda booth and he hit a brick wall too like and it's like for real like you know you would think that we would have an opportunity to ask.

you know to have these questions answered about our equipment. um and you know to have the manufacturers not give us really good answers about the equipment uh is a bit silly. actually it wasn't a Mana equipment, it was dyin equipment. well Dy and a Mana same thing right? Yeah so but anyways yeah still still a bit silly so yeah it'll definitely lose some customers.

uh and it was just a bit silly with that one. So it it's funny because then Adam my buddy Adam Muffet from the overtime show you know he happened to say you know just like and I didn't say anything and then Adam said you know that like he like filmed this whole process and explained who I was and I was like that that's irrelevant. they don't need need to know that I film this process and and I'm a content creator I was going up just asking as a technician and a business owner that purchased and installed their equipment I was trying to ask some hard-hitting questions and I just couldn't get the questions answered I don't like to go out and name drop or anything like that. That's a bit silly.

but yeah, um and then J.R Smith says maybe that rep was not a tech rep exactly. Maybe he wasn't But again, what I said, is there someone else that I can talk to? he says no, you need to talk to your distributor and it's like come on man. But he did answer some other questions which implied that he had some knowledge about my equipment. So it was a bit silly to be fair too.

I was asking him some questions as to why uh, I was having a few issues like for instance: um, you know my my airflow that's you know, shown on my uh my Infinity thermostat or Infinity wall control is not accurate Now I assume it's not accurate because my total external static pressure on my system is so low I'm running like 37 total external Jal static and I've read some information that says when you run under 0.5 Uh, the the the Cfms that's you know displayed on the wall control can be a little skewed and okay, that kind of makes sense but I was just kind of genuinely asking them some questions about that and setting some airf flow and different things and I don't know I was just a little disappointed in that. But overall what did I find amazing about the show? Well to be fair I really didn't get to see much of the show because I spent a lot of my times the entire day on Monday the entire day on Tuesday at different booths interacting with people. uh my only time to really walk the show and see the show was for a couple hours on Wednesday that my my good friend Adam and I kind of walked the show and to be honest it was a little overwhelming. Like that show is just insane how big it is.

it's it's so insane. um what was really neat I will say really funny thing is that uh you know we had just had the Blue on rep and we'll talk about it on the overtime show a little bit more but we had just had the blue on reps. uh the the president of the company and then um a gentleman named oh shoot I can't think of his name right now. Dang it! it's slip in my mind that the Oh Shoot I can't think of the a really cool dude from Blon anyways but we had the two of them on and uh so Adam and I on Wednesday When we were walking the show we went over to the blue on Booth to say hi to them and shake their hands and they had left.

So that was kind of funny. There was nobody at the booth, it was empty. They went home early so I was all hey, blon, where you at? That was kind of funny. uh Dylan Dylan was his name I think was the gentleman Yeah anyways, but yeah, that was kind of funny.

Uh, let's see what else we got going on in the chat. Um, where was the overtime show last week? Oh, we were just tired. Uh, we had all just got home from Ahr. Adam's computer wasn't working I wasn't feeling good I'm getting over a cold right now that I'd caught at Ahr.

So yeah, it's just silly. um see what else we we got going on in here? Uh, all right. cool. Um, so I made a short form video where I was uh, going up on the roof and I had mentioned that I had a backpack tool bag and I mentioned that it would be a smart idea to put the backpack on as opposed to just climbing the ladder and one handing it.

Okay, um, you know Common Sense comes into play when you have a backpack or when you're going up a roof ladder, but your safety really needs to be important. and I can't stress this enough. and I'm going to tell a little story real quick and some of you may have heard this story, but I don't know. it probably close to 10 years ago Now, maybe eight years ago I fell off a ladder at a restaurant.

Okay, I was one-h handing it I had a pretty sure I had a bucket in one hand and I was climbing up a ladder where you you go one two three and then you pull and then you reach and one two three and then you pull and you reach I had a bucket in my other hand and I missed the top rung of the ladder. literally missed it and I fell I fell backwards and as I fell backwards I remember a lot of thoughts went through my head, but the most prevalent thought that went through my head was I don't have enough money saved up for this to happen. Okay, and I knew that I was going to fall down right? I'm falling backwards and next thing you know I landed on a chain link fence safety cage that was over the back dock in the short form video that I posted just the other day. that was not the same one, but it was a similar one.

This restaurant has an enclosed in safety cage. Um, over the the back dock so that way they can be down there and be safe and then have stuff and nobody can steal it right? So I landed on a safety cage instead of falling all the way down to the concrete. It was very, very lucky on my part because I didn't land on any of the metal Beams I landed literally on the chain link fence like a hammock and just laid there and stared as my co-workers were up on the roof looking down at me and I was like holy moly right and then ALS so there was a giant steel beam sticking up that caught the the the the roof hatch ladder access that folded back and that landed like right next to my head. so I could have hit that too but I didn't.

Okay and that moment changed a lot of things about what I do when I work. I could have been severely injured I mean I don't know if it would have been that extreme but I guess I could have died right if I'd have fallen down and hit my head in the right way or something like that and I was very lucky and fortunate we in this trade I think for a long time you know it was drilled into our heads me included that you know you got to hurry, you got to get it done. all this stuff but your safety needs to come first and you need to make sure you take care of yourself. So I made a post the other day saying hey, I was about to climb a roof hatch I put a backpack on climbed up.

got a lot of people saying well you know their companies don't allow you to wear backpacks then that's fine. If they don't know why you're back allow you to wear a backpack. And then I got a lot of people saying those backpacks can be too heavy. Yeah, if you're an idiot and you put way too much stuff in your backpack, sure it can get way too heavy.

Common Sense comes into play here, right? If my backpack is way overloaded, then yeah, I'm going to rope it up. but if I don't have a lot of weight in my backpack, I'm going to put it on I'm going to strap it on and I'm going to climb up the ladder. You know, having a three points of contact at all time like I'm supposed to. Okay, this industry has depending on where you're at, regulations that govern our safety, but then at the same time Common Sense needs to Trump the regulations when it comes to certain things, right? You need to make sure that you're looking out for yourself.

And just because there's a regulation doesn't mean that you still can't do things that are dangerous. So that's where Common Sense comes into play. If you don't feel safe at work, don't do it all right now. Your company may have a discussion about why you.

You don't feel safe doing something that's perfectly acceptable. But bottom line is, you know your body and you know what your capabilities are. And if you don't feel safe, don't ever put yourself in a position where you don't feel comfortable, right? Just say no. and uh, you know, talk to your boss and figure out a better way to do things.

Okay, so just remember that you always want to stay safe. See what else we got going on in the chat right now? What am I missing here? Um yeah, you can't do your job on your back. That's right. 100 per.

Um yeah. I was a very, very lucky person and I didn't get hurt I was extremely lucky and uh, you know it's funny though. the things that go through your head: I Literally remember I don't have enough money saved up for this to happen. You know that's what I thought when I fell so pretty crazy.

Um, remember, no matter how much the company says you're the one, you will be replaced I mean there is truth in that J.R Smith And but also understand I'm a business owner right? So you know I have employees that work for me and those employees are part of my team. Okay, my team consists of multiple people. If one person gets hurt and they can't come to work, yes, work must go on. And yes, we would have to replace them because the rest of the team still needs to be able to work 100% So yes, you do need to look out for your I'm sorry you do need to look out for yourself.

But also, don't forget that you need to be able to work on a team too. And part of working with the company is being part of a team. So always protect yourself. Don't let people put you in a position where you have to get hurt, but you also need to look out for the rest of your team and keep that in mind.

You know, uh, being a jerk to PE to customers at work is going to affect the team because you might lose a customer. There's a lot of different things that go on, right? So yes, it is true that if someone got hurt and couldn't work anymore, they would have to be replaced right? because there's more people on that team that still need to be able to provide for their family. So it's not just like a really, there's a lot of truth and people say that all the time you'll be replaced the moment that you die. and there is truth in that.

But also I mean there's other people that need to continue to be employed, right? So it's not just like this negative thing, like a company's just out to get you. Um, but there is companies out there like that. so you always need to find a good company that you feel like, um, you know, treats you like part of the team. Um, when was the last time Scott HVAC rookie.

You didn't need to do that super chat but uh, he said when was the last time I sanitized my phone? That's a good question Scott I don't think I've sanitized my phone since I got home from Ahr. So good point. good point and that's Scott saying that because I made a joke talking to them or something when when he was walking away I was like when's the last time you sanitized your phone I asked him that and then yet here I am grabbing my phone without sanitizing it. So pretty good.

Pretty good point you made there. So while I was at the Parker spoing Booth I did a lot of live streams from their booth and one of the things we were discussing A2l refrigerants a lot because Atls are super hot right now and I came to this realization when we were having one of the discussions about A2l refrigerants and it was kind of like Epiphany mind explosion I'm going to ask you guys in the chat. Have you heard a lot of people? A lot of training organizations, a lot of Manufacturers talking about A2l refrigerants? Okay, I have I've been hearing a lot. but let me ask you this before the A2l refrigerants were coming.

Really popular. Did you hear a lot of people talking about A3 refrigerants? For the most part, A3s are propane, r600, Isobutane, you know R 290s propane. You know? there was a lot of hype, but not as much as the A2l. And it is kind of funny because I just came to this: Epiphany In refrigeration, we've been working with A3 refrigerants, which are highly flammable refrigerants, propane, unored propane.

That's what we work with in most of the small refrigerators out there. There's a lot of safety things to be concerned about with it, but once you get working on it, it's not that big of a deal. You just kind of follow the safety practices like it's second nature. But with the A2l refrigerants I mean they're legitimately putting Leak Detectors in A2l refrigerant equipment.

Okay, okay, so that way if there's a leak coming, if it senses a leak in the equipment, it's going to close valves to isolate that particular piece of equipment. So that way only minimal amounts of refrigerant are going to vent. Atls are mildly flammable refrigerants. Okay, um, let me ask the chat right now: what's one of the most popular A2l refrigerants that you guys can name right now? Okay, I'm going to give you guys a second to name it in the chat.

what's one of the most popular A2l refrigerants I'm going to give you a hint. Dykin using it. Okay, Dyens adopted it as their A2l of choice. Um, let's see what the chat has to say.

Uh, Joey and Al Anonymous says R32 Okay, that's the exact refrigerant I was looking for. So R32 is an A2l refrigerant. If any of you guys do air conditioning you guys have been working with R32 for probably the last 10 to 15 years and you just didn't know it. Okay, because R32 is the one of the main ingredients in 410A Okay, 410A consists of two refrigerants I think it's r15a and R32 that consist the two refrigerants and that makes up 410A Okay, we've already been working with A2l refrigerants, just not as a pure A2l.

So R32 um is now being used as a standalone refrigerant without the 125 mixed into it. Forgive my numbers I'm not an expert when it comes to those, but we've already been working with it for a very long time. There is some safety practices and I understand And it has been pointed out to me that you know the refrigeration industry. you know we.

We're not putting that well, we are putting it in consumers homes, but there's just a little bit more regulation and hype about residential type applications with the Atls, so that's why they're talking about this. But it still just kind of makes me laugh because there was not this much of an uproar in training and different stuff when it came to the A3 refrigerants. Okay, but with the A2l that are mildly flammable, they're just like oh my gosh, the world is ending. It's kind of silly.

So um, r290 is an A3 No, that's what I'm saying. Did I say r290 was an A3 No, there is and that's no R that's yeah, that's what I said A2l contain absolutely no r290? That's another point of contention. There's a lot of people out there and I will say I will say I Hate to throw people under the bus, but supply houses are one of the biggest you know sources of incorrect information. Okay, um, supply houses and I've heard this from a lot of people have been spreading a lot of false information.

There is no propane in A2l refrigerants and for the foreseeable future right now, you are not going to be retrofitting existing operating systems to A2l Refriger Refriger. Meaning, you're not going to go over to your mom's and take out the 410A and put in R32 into an operating system. That's not going to happen at this point in time right now. Okay, you're only going to be using A2l refrigerants in brand new, properly designed systems that are, you know, set up for the A2l refrigerant.

So understand that too. A2l refrigerants at this point in time are not a drop in for 410A. They're not going to be just, you know, going up on a roof, recovering the gas, and putting in an A2l. That's not how it's going to be.

You're only going to have A2l and systems that were designed for it. Okay, so keep that in mind and again, I Can't stress it in enough. There is no propane in an A2l system. Okay, there is not right.

Um, Aon is going to 454b. Yeah, 454b is another one of the most popular A2l refrigerants right now. R32 and 454b are the two big wig ones, but there's definitely going to be some more coming down the pipeline. so there's a lot of misinformation.

Um, yeah, got you. I hear what you're saying? Greg Austin There you go. All right? Um, let me see what else we got going on here. There you go.

Yeah, So uh, J.R Smith says 410A is 50% R32 and 50% 125. And guess what? here's another thing. R32 and 454b. They're already on the chopping block to and we haven't even started really using them in mass quantities yet.

Okay, every flavor of refrigerant that we are using in one way or form or another is going to be replaced in the near future. Okay, so this is a Perpetual machine that's just going to keep going and going and going. There's going to be a new flavor of refrigerant every single day. If the hippies have their way, we won't be having any Refrigeration or air conditioning period.

Okay, so all right. um, see what else we got going on in the chat? Uh, anyone feel like a science experiment on an old 410A system? Hey, be careful if you do any of that stuff stuff. So that's all I can say. All right.

Um, so I did a install video where I had a walk-in cooler that I had to do a retrofit replacement on and I did a load calculation on the box and then I replaced the equipment and I put a new evaporator and condenser on the roof. that was a video from like a week ago or something like that and I used heat. Craft's new Ifm uh, which is the Intelligent Field Mount controller that mounts it on the outside of the box and I got a lot of questions from those videos. If you watch the video to the end and watch my closing words on that video, you'll probably get a lot of your questions answered.

But one of the biggest points of contention is that system had a Corell Eev All right electronic expansion valve. Why in the heck did I install a liquid line solinoid valve on that system? Excuse me. Why did I install a liquid line solenoid valve if it had an electronic expansion valve. First and foremost, I did not have to install the liquid line solenoid valve.

The Intelligence system. With the Corell Eev. it closes the Corell Eev. It has a capacitor on there, so that way, if there was a a power outage or something like that, it would still close the valve down.

The capacitor stores enough that it can shut the entire valve on shutdown. But why did I install a Liquid Line Solenoid valve Redundancy. That's exactly why there's no other reason why than just pure redundancy. There is a dry contact on the Uh Ifm or the Intelligent Board and it has a spot for a liquid line solenoid valve.

So all I did was find a common leg, power the dry contact and then sent power to the liquid line solenoid valve whenever it gets a call for cool. So it happens inside the intelligent board and it's just part of the setup. So anytime there's a call for cool, it opens the liquid line solenoid valve and then modulates the Eev for the operation. and I just installed that for redundancy just in case something ever happened with the liquid line solenoid valve.

So that's the exact reason why I did. Uh Ike Thanks for being a continued Channel supporter for 42 months. You are a good friend my friend and I appreciate that. Okay, uh, let's see, did the software have a selection for the floor type? and yes, I kind of I know I I kind of glanced or you know, kind of breezed through the software when I was sizing the equipment.

But yes, if you go back to my equipment sizing I mentioned I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I actually increased the floor temperature slightly because I set it as concrete but because it was out in the Chella Valley where they have extremely high temperatures I think I raised the floor temperature by 5 to like 65 or 70 degrees I think it was Fe factory set for 60 degrees and it's very rare that we have a 60 degree ground temperature at that location so I raised it I think up to 70 or 75 degrees for the ground temperature. So yes, you do have selection in there. It asks you what kind of floor you have. Another really big question that I got and I actually brought this up to Heatcraft and I've brought it up to other manufacturers too and they are currently working on a quick fix was there's a lot of people, even myself included that can get a little confused when you're going through the load calculation software when it's concerned to a or when it's concerning ambient temperature because inside the load calculation software it asks you a few question: where's the Box located inside or outside and I selected inside but then it still says ambient temperature So when you put the ambient temperature when you really start thinking about it, what does it mean by ambient temperature So I want to ask the chat right now if I'm doing a load calculation on a reach on a walk-in cooler and it asks me is the Box located inside the building or outside the building but then it still asks for the ambient temperature? okay in the load calculation software? Um, what is it asking for when it comes to that ambient temperature and I'll I'll give you a hint, ambient doesn't always have to mean outside.

okay outside meaning outside and you know, up on the roof. So keep that in mind. So in the chat right now Yes Johnny uh says that it's the kitchen temperature and that is correct. So what it's asking for is the temperature where the doors at when you open the door.

What's the ambient temperature outside of the box? and I think I put 75 or 80 I think or something like that because that's the temperature in that kitchen. It's not a very good air kitchen, so it's a little bit warm. Okay, now when you're doing a load calculation in your software, as long as you select the box is inside the building. The only time that the actual outside air temperature on the roof comes into play is, uh, if you're putting your equipment up there and that's with the derating of the condens unit itself.

Okay, excuse me. Um, my nose is kind of congested right now, so I apologize about that. Um, so with the condensing unit on the roof in the summertime, they actually have to drate. The Btu output on that condens unit is actually going to drop based on the ambient conditions outside wherever the condensed unit is located.

So if it is located on the roof, that doesn't factor into the actual load calculation. but in the condensing unit selection. When you're matching the equipment, when you're doing the equipment selection, that's when the outside air temperature is going to come into play. But the ambient temperature around the Box in front of the door is definitely going to come into play when you're figuring out the required heat load to maintain the proper temperatures inside the box.

So hopefully that makes sense. So um, all right. uh, reading through the chat right now, where is the box located? that is correct. Okay, so um in my video I think it was Sunday I released a video where I was working on an air conditioner that had a grounded compressor and boy sometimes the comments are just kind of silly.

Now first and foremost when I say this in in these streams I'm not comp like the comments don't affect me. it just kind of makes me laugh sometimes because some of these comments are just so silly. I mean so many keyboard Warriors out there posting because I posted a video where went up to a piece of equipment. it had no power.

so the first thing I did was checked power at the unit. it had no power. We found out it had a tripped breaker before I reset the breaker I was trying to find out why the breaker was tripped. So I was checking the unit to ground and I found out that there was a potential or there was a path to ground from the compressor terminal.

but it was weird because there was a path to ground from both compressor terminals two separate compressors. It wasn't a parallel system, they were two independent compressors. It was one circuit and two circuits. They were not piped together or anything like that.

One of the compressors, well, both of them were testing. They had a path to ground from the meter, right. but the point I was making with the video I certainly knew. Um, that whenever you want to test a compressor to ground, you, you want to pull the wires off the compressor.

Because if you test a compressor to ground and just assume that it's bad because there's a path to ground, when the wires are connected, you know you could have a bad wire. The wire could be grounded. Maybe the compressor itself isn't grounded. It just means that there's a path to ground.

So in my troubleshooting you remove the the three-phase wires from the compressor and you continue to troubleshoot. And I found out that actually both compressors did not have a to ground. When I pulled the wires off, only one compressor did. So one of the compressors was bad, it was grounded, the other one was actually back feeding and it was back feeding because it was a 15-ton Carrier split system that had two pole contactors on a three-phase system and then the internet's like oh my gosh, Like that's against the law.

No, it's not. It's a really common thing that carrier units do. and it's not just carrier. other manufacturers do it too.

They're sharing a leg right to reduce having to have a three pull contactor inside there. Um, and it's just one of those things that they do. So the point that I was making in the video is if you just assume because the wires are connected that both compressors were bad, Well, you'd assume incorrectly because only one was bad. Now there was some good points made in the comments where people were saying I should have used a mega a mega Ohm meter insulation tester.

Yeah, there's a valid point there. Um, but I will say that when you have a direct short to ground my normal field piece, Sc480 does just fine. Where an insulation tester would have been. a decent thing would have been to test the other compressor to see if there was any damage in it.

Um, I didn't do that. But also using an insulation tester on a scroll compressor can give you some skewed information, especially a scroll compressor that's been off for a very long time and that potentially has moisture in the system. You can get skewed information in there. So um, there's a whole conversation.

Uh, there's a tech bulletin from Copeland if you just Google Copeland Scroll Compress Ressor Insulation testing I think it's like 1294 I Think it's like in the Tws as their Tech bulletin and it kind of talks about why using an insulation tester on a scroll compressor for a one-time use is not the greatest idea and that if you are going to use insulation testers or Mega Ohm meters on a scroll compressor, it should be done as trending data over a long period of time where you can take different variables because if you take the insulation resistance if you want to break it down and make it even easier, if you take the the the resistance across the the terminals, you got three terminals right? A to B. Let's just say it's five, you know and it's a three-phase so it should be five across all three terminals. But if you change the temperature at which that compressor is sitting in, that resistance value is going to change based on the temperature. Um, so that's another thing to understand too.

So that's why they say it's best to do insulation tests over a long period of time. So now that I'm going off on a rant about that, will again Thanks so much for being a member for so long too. That is really awesome of you my friend. Um, see what else we got going on in the chat? All right? Uh, I already covered that one I Already talked about the load calculation software so that's good.

Uh oh so a lot. I I did have not a lot of people but one person asked this question and I think it's very imperative there is still people out there and if if you think this way, just just know that it's not that you're a bad person. but you need to understand a little bit more about Refrigeration Okay because there is some incorrect information out there. So when you are installing a walk-in cooler evaporator, there is a restrictor or an orice that goes in after the expansion valve before the distributor.

It's called a nozzle. Okay, it is not a metering device. Okay, it is a nozzle and that nozzle is there to help to evenly distribute the refrigerant across the distribution tubes. You you'll see them.

And there's specific nozzle sizes that you have to select based on the tonnage and the temperature of the liquid refrigerant of the equipment. Okay, so that nozzle is not a metering device. There was someone in my comments that said hey, why are you installing a fixed orice metering device after an expansion valve and that's because it's supposed to be there. It's a A A A device that's there in the system to make sure that the flow of refrigerant is distributed evenly amongst all the different, uh, feeder tubes that are coming out of that distributor.

Um, after the TXV Okay, so that nozzle is supposed to be there with the expansion valve. Whether it be an electronic or a thermostatically controlled expansion valve. Um, see what else we got going on there? All right. Uh, why did I go? Oh, that's a really good question.

So on that same video where I installed the heatcraft equipment, why in the heck I mentioned in the video and this was a really good catch by someone. Someone said because in the video I went and I I hung the coil with tech screws and then I said oh, I got to go to the hardware store and get bolts. Okay, so if I was so prepared for that job, why didn't I bring the bolts with me to that job. Okay, so I live in a very urban area where we have Home Depots and supply houses everywhere.

So often times in that parking lot of that restaurant is a Home Depot So often times I don't sweat the small things. like if I got to go get a 4x4 for the condens unit on the roof or I got to go get some roof Mas I don't mind running over to Home Depot while we're doing the job. Okay, now if I'm going out to a location that's way out in the boonies of course I'm going to try to take everything out there with me, but it's pretty common that I'm working in an area oftentimes where Home Depot are in the parking lots of the restaurants that I'm working in where I'm not going to sweat trying to bring every single item that I need for the entire job when I can just run over to Home Depot and get what I need on site So that was the case. Uh, in the middle of the job I left a couple other techs doing other things and I ran over to Home Depot to go get some electrical fittings and you know, some bolts to hang the coil with.

And that's just because it was in the same parking lot as the restaurant. So all right, I already talked about that. Uh, I had another really good question from a viewer of mine and uh, they brought up a really good point. They said hey, when I you because I've always preaching that I love using the refrigeration Technologies Ice Machine Cleaner, right? So it's called the Viper Ice Machine Cleaner from Refrigeration Technologies it's a nickel safe ice machine cleaner and I love using it on the Mana talk ice machines when I'm working on them because I do a lot of Mana talk ice machines So the gentleman reached out to me and said, hey, he's been using the ice machine cleaner and he's noticing that the ice machine cleaner is foaming up like crazy and it's wreaking havoc on a system and so at first it didn't make sense to me.

I'm like it's foaming up like crazy. So then I ask the gentleman and and and again I'm not criticizing you if you're watching right now. Okay, I'm not criticizing I'm just explaining to everybody so they can have an understanding. So and I'll explain where I'm 99% sure your problem is okay.

Um, and it's not not your fault. Okay, I'll I'll tell you it's the manufacturer's fault, not Refrigeration Technologies It's the ice machine manufacturer's fault but the gentleman says that he pours in the cleaner into the ice machine sump and then when he's all done he notices that there's a lot of foam happening and it's causing issues with like probes and water level probes and different things like that and it's just creating havoc and he's noticing that it's been foaming up a lot and he's just kind of curious about that. So at first I couldn't understand I'm like foaming up ice machine cleaner now I certainly get szer that Foams up and that can be a headache right? But then I started thinking well, why on Earth would the ice machine cleaner foam up and why would that be a problem? Okay, but 99% sure I know what is happening here. So if you follow the manufacturer's instructions for cleaning the ice machine, Okay on a Manat Toalk Ice machine, Manat Toalk says put the machine into Ice mode and then when the displays tells you to add ice machine cleaner, you add the Ice machine cleaner and then the machine proceeds to rinse itself five times after it's done cleaning the machine and then Manat says you can put the machine back into normal operation.

Manat Toalk is dead wrong about that. They are 100% wrong and Manat talk lets their marketing department help them to set up their installation instructions and their ice machine cleaning instructions. If you take Ice machine cleaner and you pour it into that machine and then you think that because Manat Toalk says you can that you can put it into the Ice mode after you're done cleaning that ice machine, they're incorrect because every time you pour Ice Machine cleaner in that machine, you need to, Then after the Ice Machine cleaner has circulated through machine, you need to take all the Ice Machine cleaner out, take all the parts out, go take them to the dishwasher, scrub them down, and clean them, and then put it all back together. So I'm pretty confident that the gentleman that ask me this question is following Manak's instructions of simply just pouring the cleaner in there and then letting it rinse, and starting the machine back up.

And that is incorrect. And that's Manak's fault for pu