All right, good morning, everybody morning. All right. We're going to talk more maintenance stuff. We ended with talking about uh, cleaning out the bottom of the condenser.

And so now we're getting into washing the condenser coil. and this is one of these. Um, this is one of these topics that it's It's almost like you contradict yourself. uh, when you teach it because I I'm a really big advocate for washing condenser coils.

They do need to be washed. It's one of the things that's on the list. It's a very important step, but we absolutely do not want to make anything worse by washing a condenser coil so you have a brand new system. It's 6 months old.

You're probably just going to rinse the thing right. It's not like you don't a year old you. you don't want to add cleaners to it. Um, but the philosophy is still clean it till it's clean.

So when we talk about drains, I was actually just Rel listening to Burton I podcast I Know that sounds weird. Um, but I hadn't actually listened to it before and uh, that was one of the things that we talked about a lot there is. you know, cleaning a a a drain line. clean it until you can physically see that the pan is clean, that you can look down the tea and you can see it's clean.

The same thing is true of your condenser coil. There are some cases so like you'll have um uh, trained spine fin coils. uh where you'll get like pine needles in them or you'll get you know lint in them and it's like almost impossible to get out in some cases. and so there are some cases where you're not going to physically get every single piece of everything out.

I Mean the only way to do it would be like tweezers. you know, one at a time. Um, which is why our our standard procedure would be pull the top Top's already off, you're rinsing it from the inside out, and you're using properly diluted cleaners when it requires properly diluted cleaners. And when is that? Well, it's when you can see that there's uh, enough soil that that makes sense I'm going to kind of turn that over to Bert quickly.

what would you? What would you add to that bird? As far car is, when it's appropriate to use more than water. Um, you can usually tell that when something is Loosely on there like it GLW against it or it's not growing. it doesn't have mildew on it, it doesn't have, it's not crusty and hard like it's caked on. Then you know you can just rinse it right out.

whereas if it looks like it's been there a while, um, it's caked on, then let's use water or cleaner. the other. The other thing would be that if you use water and you don't see that, you're getting it clean and you know. Okay I need to slow down here.

Start over. Let's put some cleaner. let it sit for a little bit. I'll go do something else while the cleaner sits for a bit.

Come back to this and again we talk about uh, washing it from the inside out. Um, that's a good best practice. But you also know those of you who are obsessed with cleaning things which I certainly am that that's not all you do. It's not like you just go from the inside out and then you're done right.

You go from the inside out, you do the outside, and if you have even cases where um, say there is a dryer vent that's a little too close or somebody has a dog that lays up next to the condenser or whatever like my stupid dog does, it gets so dirty. um, you should really almost pull the entire outside casing off with some Brands some Brands you really just can't get to it. Um, and that is just something we should do. And yes, it will probably take an extra 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes.

That's okay. not every maintenance should take exactly the same amount of time. In fact, if every maintenance takes exactly the same amount of time, then you're probably not doing a really thorough maintenance. You're going to have some that's like super clean.

You get in and out in 45 minutes in some cases, right? You just super basic and you're going to have some that you're going to be there an hour and a half. And that's because it's really dirty and it needs to be cleaned. Uh, and here at least we we're never going to hassle you for taking the time to do a maintenance. Well now if every single maintenance is taking you 90 100 minutes, Well okay, you know, like let's look at why that's happening, but some of them are going to take make that long and this is one of the examples.

If you've got a you know you got an old train or something and uh, you're just not able to kind of wash it from both sides, you have to pull that whole thing off. The same thing is true with splitting coils. Okay, this is something that you've probably most of you have probably never done, but it's something you really need to be aware of if you have multi row condensers and there's a lot of them out there where you look and there's actually two condensers one inside the other if it's been really dirty. So you have one of those cases where there's a dryer vent or it's a dog or it's a whatever.

It's just really filthy. You'll get stuff that builds up in between those two coils because the fins don't line up exactly. and if you just wash, you're just going to pack. What's what you wash in this direction is just going to pack in that Gap And if you wash the other direction, it's going to pack the other side.

Um, you have to actually split them which is just uh, it's I'm not even going to go into what you have to do necessarily, but you have to like cut the the end tube Like usually they'll have something that connects the end tubes. You're definitely going to have to take everything apart and you just kind of peel them apart a little bit so you can get a gap and kind of wash everything out of that. Gap In commercial that is very important. You'll run into some cases where you're running High head pressure and it doesn't make any sense and sure enough, you'll pay attention and you'll see that it's a that it's a multi row condenser.

Now obviously that is not something that you do every time and again. This is where people get super dogmatic. It's like if it's a split condenser you need to do it every single time. It's like yeah, if you do that every time you do a maintenance, eventually you're going to cause a leak or something by the time you you know you.

moving that thing around all the time. But clean it till it's clean is the main philosophy and always clean it if you're there for a maintenance and again, it depends on. like because there are some commercial contracts where you do only wash it uh in one season and not the other season. Um, but do clean it.

If if it says that you're supposed to clean it this time, then clean it. Uh, and the simplest way would just be to use water. um I'm not a fan actually of this picture where we're just using the end of a hose. Um, and the reason just is is that there's C certain things that are difficult.

like like when you're using a proper hose nozzle, it's easier to kind of get down down in whereas here if you're kind of blocking off of your thumb and you're inconsistent with your flow. so I'm not a super big fan of that. I don't know whose hand that is, that's a proper nozzle. Um, oh, it is a proper nozzle.

It's one of those little nozzles I Think Okay, all right, well you know I'm sorry that I wrongly accused whoever's hand that is and here it mentions. you know if you do have to split a condenser, that would that would be something we would probably charge more for. It doesn't happen very often, but I want you to be aware of it because now that you are aware of it, especially if you see a system that's running High head and it doesn't make any sense, pay attention for that. Jacob splitting Aren't they normally capped on both ends with the capillary tubes with a metal sheet metal? Do you pop that off to split the? It's uh, it depends on the brand.

um and again, it's been a really long time since I've done one in residential so you're just going to have to look at the individual. In some cases, you may not be able to do it. In some cases, it may not be possible for sure. You're going to have to pull the entire cage off though before you can even see what has to happen.

Usually usually one end obviously is all connected with the capillary tubes and everything and the other end is free. but usually there's some sort of there's something that's holding it together on that end and you just have to get that separated and then you can kind of get it peeled apart a little bit. but but at the end that it's connected, you're still not going to get so you're kind of just taking. You're taking the end that it's connected and you're just separating it a little bit and and uh, kind of working your way down.

It's still not going to be easy. A little metal clip in between the the two, um, sides. It's holding it together so you can pop it off with like a screwdriver or something if you really go at it. We were destroying them at the junkyard.

We came across those all the time and they were fun to. All right. Additional condensing unit checks. Um I would actually like to turn this over to you guys.

So what are some things that you're watching for? I Mean we got this list here and it's very small letters so I'm going to make you strain your eyes. but what are some things that you're looking for When you're inside that condenser? When you've washed it, you've cleaned out the bottom. What are some other things you're looking for? Rust? Quiet: R Rust it? Rust right? Corrosion rub out. Like wires rubb.

Yes, wires rubbing out. That's you. Know that. That's the thing I Love to talk about I Always get Flack for using that particular term.

but um, but yeah. anything. that's anything that's going to cause abrasion inside the condenser. whether it's tube on tube or wire on tube.

What else? Deteriorating coils? What's that? Deteriorating coils? Deteriorating coils is a big one. And actually, you see this a lot. Um, in cases where you've had people misusing cleaners The one thing. and so I'm not going to give this whole speech again.

Um, anybody remember that. Um, so abusing coil abusing cleaners, uh, by using them too concentrated or using them outside of their design is absolutely something you just have to go away from. And when coils deteriorate abnormally, it's usually because somebody was consistently using overc concentrated. A lot of people don't realize this.

like Brown clean the the Brown Cleaners Um, like triple D typically the brown ones. Um Are Alkaline. Uh, and some of them are highly alkaline. and whether something is highly alkaline or whether it's highly acidic.

and both cases, it's going to cause corrosion and deterioration. But for different materials, more than others, right? So when you feel that when you get the brown cleaner on you fully concentrated and you feel that slippery, it's not actually an acid, it's just highly alkaline And that's actually the reason. So when we I didn't actually know was um, so when you got it in your eyes, thank God it's just highly alkaline. It's not a if it was actually an acid.

uh, you know Heaven Help Us it would have been a lot worse than it was. um, and so we've really gone away from acidic cleaners, but there are still some out there. um, new. Calgon makes some uh, and it's it's just pink stuff or the bright blue stuff.

sometimes the really bright blue Stu Burns and that is an asset. um, those we just don't use and there's just no reason to mess with it. It's just too risky. It's not because it doesn't work if properly applied, it's just because all it takes is a little mistake.

and uh, and we've got a major issue. What are some other things You guys pay attention for The line dryers. They tend to rush out a lot time. Line dryers are a big one.

Um, there's only a couple brands that have line dryers or at least typical types of line dryers inside the condensing. Goodman is one. uh Lennox can have one Yes, the heat mode one. Uh, inside.

what's that? Mufflers Mufflers are another big one and a lot of times Mufflers look exactly like Liquid line dryers, but how can you tell the difference? They C Muffler a Muffler's in the discharge line right? But and in many cases and you'll actually find these in some older units, you'll look at a muffler and it'll actually say Liquid Line Dryer on it. It's actually literally a liquid line dryer shell that has no insides and it makes it. a muffler, Just gives it room for the gases to expand and contract. If there's one inside, making sure there's also not one outside, you'll see.

correct? Yeah, Duplicate Line Dryers. That's actually a really good point. So if you're there doing a maintenance, look for duplicate line dryers. What should you do if you find duplicate Liquid Line dryers? When you're there for a maintenance, you should quote to remove it.

At that point, the clients very well might decline it because it's not going to be cheap to do. But what did we do? We let them know, right? We let them know. Hey, there really shouldn't be two of these now. Can you check to see if it is a problem? Mhm? Yeah, right.

You just check for temperature drop now. Does that confirm 100% that there's no problem? Uhuh, no it does not. And we proved that in the Symposium. We did this whole thing here where we proved that you can have a restriction in your liquid line and not have a tempature difference.

So that's why we quot it. Anyway, it's not going to be a major problem in almost every case if there isn't a temperature drop, but you can't prove that it's not slightly restricted in impacting the operation of the system. So it's something that we should quote. Cut Out.

Everybody understand that. What? I'm saying There more than one liquid line dryer or a suction? Well yeah, a suction dryer being in place is that? that one gets, uh, trickier. Now, with suction dryer being in place, how can you confirm if a suction dryer that was left in is a problem or not? Depends on what kind it is you check across it or if it has the ports. Check for a pressure drop across.

Almost every suction dryer uh has pressure ports. Not all of them have them on both sides, but you have one on the other side that if it was installed in the right direction that you can already check. What are you doing this for? What about? if it was? Well, obviously if it wasn't installed in the right direction, then you definitely should assum the right Dire? Yeah, right. And there's no such thing as a bif suction dryer, right? So um, there is a bow suction dryer.

We we have n of them in the shop right now. Go get one. Why would you want a bow suction dryer? I Have no idea. So that way having this conversation application where there would be Su going in two different directions I don't I don't you would want discharge flying through that? yeah that's but.

but the these are all really good points. and again, like for those of you who get bored by maintenance, anybody here ever get bored by maintenance of course I definitely do. Um, you never do Okay, Well, good for you I'm proud of you. Uh, but if you ever find yourself getting bored, uh, make it a challenge to find real things with the equipment.

um and again we're not talking about like you a lot of people like, well you know sell up. I'm not talking about selling upgrades I'm saying finding real things that you can prevent with the equipment and wires rubbing out is a big one. Tube on tube. That's a big one.

What are some things you can do in those cases when wires are rubbing out or tube on tube, what are some things you can do to prevent it? Zip ties and insulation I Like to put foam insulation around whatever line it's rubbing on and then zip tie. That's good one. That's a good one. Foam insulation though.

keep in mind depending on what it is. um Can deteriorate over time if it's exposed to sunlight that kind of thing. So think about that. um a lot of times that that like white insulation.

that's uh, the the more foamy stuff. If you have any of that, That's handy. The that we use on. um, all of a sudden I'm forgetting the name of the actual product.

the Duckus line sets. of course. that also may cause it to corrode. so that's a whole another question.

Um, but another one is sealtight. You can actually take sealtight. Um, and if you can get the end off, you can actually route it through sealtight. Like if it's compressor wires.

You can. You know what I'm talking about by seal tight Carflex. The yeah. The stuff we use for whips.

Um, if you just take a piece of that, you can unhook and then route it through. In some cases, or you can slit it. Now again, when you're slitting it, that stuff's pretty thick, so just be really careful not to cut yourself. Um, when you're slitting it with a razor knife, but then you can wrap that around.

that works pretty good. Um, in some cases you don't really need anything. you just if you zip tie it together properly, then it won't be touching anymore. you know? So a lot of different strategies you can use.

Um, if it has a crank case heater in the system, pay close attention to that. crank case. Heaters often fail. Um, those wires can often become.

um, they can. They can rub out in different places. Uh, always make sure to check all of your connections. One of the really best things to do is just kind of move stuff around.

You know when you're when you're looking, uh, inside the quarter panel on a condenser. Um, just kind of moving the wires around just feeling them, making sure nothing's loose. That that alone is really handy on capacitors over time. Especially your if you're testing the capacitors, not underload.

Make sure that when you put them back on every Spade is super snug and we're talking about. you know, a second of just test test, test, test, move stuff around. make sure nothing's loose. that kind of thing.

Um, same thing is true I I I I Do also like, um, where possible for you to inspect compressor terminals I Do not want you pulling plugs off though. Okay, so this is a key distinction. Um, when you pull a plug off, especially if you kind of pitch it, you're putting stressed on those compressor. Terminals And if you ever heard guys say like man, I had a I had a compressor blow out a terminal right when I was there I was there troubleshooting it and it blow a terminal off right in my face.

Um, that happens because something in the process of taking that plug off weakened one of those terminals. Keep in mind those terminals, they're just pieces of metal. um that go through glass fusite. It's a type of glass and and that is a fairly fragile um, substance and so you can crack it and that will cause that problem.

So be careful whenever you're doing that. But but if it's regular Terminals and it just has a cover I would say pop that cover off. Now some of you like that's crazy. Those covers are really hard to get off.

Yeah, but that's also kind of a like if once you get good at it, uh, you can get those covers off pretty easy. Um, and so it's you know it's a it's a skill to a master. Um, would you agree with that? Bert Yeah, once you get good at it, you can get it off really easy. Yeah, they'll see a lot of you.

Just repeated what I just said. You asked to put a oh good that is good. You do um, but more or it's plugs to Birch Point and I don't want you pulling plugs off cuz you're likely to do. You understand why? Why? What the difference that I'm saying there, When you're pulling the plug off, you're actually directly putting force on the terminals.

If you're pulling a cap off, you're not putting force on anything. you're just taking a cap off and you're looking. So there's a big difference there. Again, in maintenance.

The number one rule is Do no harm. We don't want to break anything in the process. Um, so anything that requires a lot of force or whatever you know, we, we have to be really careful with that. Yeah, checking all the checking for rust, corrosion, all that stuff, accumulators.

If there's there's any accumulator in place, we want to try to get down and look at the bottom of it. That's where an inspection mirror comes in. really handy for those of you again. and I said this last time.

For those of you who have gone away from mirrors and flashlights, I would encourage you to to rethink that. a phone is a really nice thing and you can get pictures of things in a lot of cases. but there are some things that's just really hard to see unless you have an inspection mirror. Uh, especially for things like brazing like you don't want to be using your phone for that.

uh you you, you'll eventually damage. you'll do something dumb and damage your phone. so I would I would definitely suggest having inspection mirrors. Having a U flashlight and for things like getting down underneath and looking at the bottom of the of an accumulator is another good example of that.

Observe for oil spotting, this is really big. Like, um, you'll catch a lot of things by just paying attention and looking for oil. Even cases, like with the vaporator coils. a lot of times you'll find like a residue um, that will indicate an evapora coil leak.

but especially with Micr channel condensers. Does every anybody know what? anybody? Okay, go ahead describe a microchannel condenser. how how can you tell the difference? I Mean it's just to set up of the fence because the fence aren't pushing outwards, they're going up in between. You actually see the tubes a little bit more.

Yeah, so when you look at a Micr channel coil, you're actually seeing like you see this flat surface and you see these little little triangles in between. right? that that little Edge that you see has refrigerant flowing right at the edge. There's these little tiny tubes that go in there and so any little ding, any little. any little um, damage can cause a leak.

but the thing is when it when you do that, it's a tiny leak normally in a in a regular condenser coil. Fin and Tube condenser. If you are leaking, you're going to know it and you're going to be flat like that, right? But in a microchannel condenser, you're still. the leaks are still going.

Can be pretty small even though it's high pressure even though it's liquid because it's just a tiny little channel. So and those can be repaired. Actually, if you if you didn't know that you can, you can repair those. and and they're actually fairly easy because the leak is always on the surface.

Now it's ugly when you're done with it, but that's where you can use um. alloy Sal from solderweld the stuff that we use and it's actually pretty easy to do so. Just a quick tip there, but you will see oil spotting if you do have one that's uh, that's leaking in that way and I've actually found that a couple times. Um, when you are.

We talked about this before, but when you are replacing the top, you take it really, really seriously. Take that action very seriously. Where the wires are routed, how they're routed into the top and it's one of those things that, um, when the first times you do it, it feels impossible. It's like, how do I get all of these? You just get good with it over time and only practice will make it make you good at it.

Go ahead. Can I say that number 11 should be done before number 10 because you want to spot for oil before you start cleaning the coil and wash it off. You can say that okay, um, you're completely wrong. I'm kidding I don't Yes, you're right.

Obviously, yes, you should check for the oil spotting beforehand, rewire everything. Make sure that again, if you're If you're inexperienced with uh, wiring where you don't know where every wire goes, just take pictures. pictures are the best way to go. Um, and don't use.

You know, don't use the excuse of well I'm not going to again this. I'm going to talk about pulling tops again. Um, are there times when you don't have to pull tops? Sure. But in general, when maintenance I like you, pulling tops don't use the excuse of well.

but I might miswire it. Just take a picture and then don't miswire it. right. or I might pinch the wire.

Well, just don't pinch the wire right. Get good at I I No. I'm like I'm not kidding. This is what happens in a lot of cases and I understand it because you're new.

when you're brand new. everybody's trying to protect you from yourself. But that's not how you want to be right. Like you don't want to be afraid of the machine that you're that you professionally work on every day.

You just need to know how to do it and sometimes they are very challenging. You get on some of those Brands and it's like oh gez, this is going to be a pain in the butt right? and again when I'm talking. remember I'm talking like 15 years ago. So everything I'm saying you're probably like this guy's an idiot.

That's not true. Like yes. I The equipment is different than it was when I was doing it for sure. Check Contactor points.

Really big. Um, and this is something that you can easily overdo or underdo so you can easily start to become. That guy is like every contactor is pitted right and that's not what we do. You can tell the difference between a contactor where it's just the contact points look a little rough.

They all do almost universally look a little rough. Um, after they've run for a couple years, that's not what we're saying. It's when you can see that the heat that's been caused is starting to extend right. Like, like, you can see that it's starting to damage the actual contacts.

and when they get to that point, it is a good idea to quote a replacement. Um, do we see a lot of systems fail because of contact or failure? Do you have a lot of cases where systems fail because of contact or failure? It's a trick question, Because yes, for a while we did see that a lot and maybe we still are. but that was the coil shorting out. Not the same thing as issues with the high voltage contacts.

And again, that's not what we're looking for anyway. so we can't really prevent that other than just replacing those crap contactors when we see them. Um, the points: The actual contacts failing does happen on occasion, but it's not that common of a problem. We don't want to overstate that to clients because then we become Parts Changers But we do need to look at it because there are cases where they could be adding resistance.

Uh, and that affects the operation of the system, but not necessarily to failure. right? If the contacts are adding resistance, it can cause. Um, it can cause the motors to run hotter, You, it causes voltage drop so it's not a good thing. You can also cause an AR in the contact, have the contact melt.

I've seen that with the actual sure right it can. it can melt and that's what I was saying. But but very rarely. how many service calls are you going out? It's like oh it's the contactor failed again trick question coil yes, contacts themselves.

the part that we can look at not not necessarily anything to add there Bert or Dre when when it is a problem it's really big. When it's a problem, you could have potentially some systems you'll be stuck running in heat cuz the contactor is stuck in. uh or you will have a failed compressor as a result. So right it's a when it's starting to get bad.

It has a potential to be a monster problem which is why we quot it all right we move inside. um again be very observant. Don't say okay. the supply duct looks like you know looks terrible but that not part of a maintenance.

So I'm not going to say anything or it looks terrible. and I don't say anything because it's going to be a giant pain to have to deal with this with the client right? What? What should we do? For example, if a system that we installed and the supply duct looks like garbage, we should have it taken care of right and again. if you're qualified to take care of it and you got time to take care of it, you take care of it. If not, we get it scheduled and we get it taken care of.

That's what we do. We don't ever workmanship. we warranty forever. If it was a workmanship problem, it's something we did that we should have done differently.

then we always take care of it. Which means that if you go back on any jobs of any systems that I installed uh, 15 years ago, we should probably just reinstall it because the workmanship is probably horrible. Um, so yeah, we we should always take care of anything that anything that, um like that. But if it's something we didn't install and you see that it's you know it's got all kinds of growth on it, looks really bad.

Um, what are some of the ways that you can confirm the actual cause though? Well, could you do to confirm why it looks the way it does? Cut a you could cut a hole in the duct. Um, the easier way would be to look from the inside and that would generally be pulling the blower or pulling the heat strip kit. Um, depends on the unit which one's going to be easier to do. Um, but getting up in there and actually looking like is this you know, are there big gaps on the inside here? Um, because in some cases it's actually the conditions that the unit is placed in.

If you've ever, if you've ever worked on an air handler that's in a garage, but in an enclosed Closet in a garage, have you ever seen one like this? Have you ever notice how much of a Cess pool it is inside a lot of those? Um, and the reason is is because there's no dehumidification in there. But it also is able to kind of cool everything radiantly so because the cabinet obviously of an air handler is insulated. but it's not perfectly insulated so it actually does kind of cool the area around it. When it's in a big room, a big garage, there's still air flow.

Uh, and it's not like close to everything inside of an enclosed closet. It just starts to cool everything in that closet and everything in that closet starts to condensate. And so sometimes those problems with growth aren't necessarily because the Ducks were improperly installed. That's the point that I'm making.

So you do have to kind of observe. and if you're going to tell somebody, for example, that an entire four piece needs to be replaced, you need to look at it from the inside to I. Sometimes you can tell from the outside, sometimes you can just see touch it, sometimes. Yeah, you can just feel it bouncing and all that.

But but if you're not sure, look at it from the inside because that's when you can see. are there a bunch of gaps? Um, that you know is this thing inrec concil bad because in some cases if it's not too bad, you can actually seal it from the inside. uh and prevent some of those problems. Um, and that's a much less expensive, much easier fix.

How do you feel about sealing things from the inside? Bert I'm fine with it as long as it's not really extreme. You can't use mastic as insulation. So right, mastic does not insulate. it's going to seal but not insulate one of the things that we don't do that we really should be doing.

and like I feel okay about it because nobody does. It is having starter callers on air handlers. so like you know how we just kind of like take duckboard and just sort of like set it there and then we just sort of like seal it. That's actually not the right way.

it isn't even actually code code is that we have to mechanically fasten the duct work to the air handler. Did you know that? No fun fact. Um, so the right way to do that would be to have um, a starter collar which would be like a piece of metal that goes around and you know just has like a flange and you see you know, like some of these Air Handlers have these tiny little Dopey flanges you couldn't do anything with. um but you could attach to that or attach to the unit and bring it up and then you would attach your duck work to that and then you would screw through with like washers or something so that it actually like attached physically.

Now again, that's not the attachment part is not the big deal cuz we don't have uh, four pieces or plums falling off of units all the time. at least not in uh, vertical applications. But a lot of the reason why we get these problems that we have this is a long explanation to say is because we actually have air leaks. Like we have gaps.

It's not an insulation problem, it's a gaps problem. And so that's one of the ways that we could potentially really solve. it is having this kind of blocking that Gap where it hits the unit and interfaces with the unit. So anyway, that's just a hey you guys, if you ever want to mess with that, that would be a fun thing to do.

Um, and literally it would just just be a piece of sheet metal. It just be part of the process you would. You would cut and bend a piece of sheet metal and and flange it up and attach it to the unit before you put your four piece on. Anyway, manufacturers supposedly make these things and I've never seen them.

They're like this. They're like the yeti. You know we're told it exists, but but we never see it for fan coils. Let's just finish here.

Um, when you talk about uh, cleaning of Africa coils I do not want us to be bashful when it comes to cleaning things we can clean I don't like us making excuses for like oh, you got to pull and clean it if it's literally just surface soil. In a lot of cases, we can get it off. Sometimes we can't, sometimes we can't, but sometimes we can. Especially when there's direct returns and things like that.

Um, and if you can, because a lot of times if you've ever cleaned a coil where it's like animal hair or whatever, you can just literally like peel it off. You know, like you can kind of get it started and get it rolling off and and get that off and again. We just don't want to be babies about cleaning. We want to be.

If we can clean it, we're going to clean it. And if it's reasonable for us to clean, we're we're going to clean it. Pulling and cleaning an evaporator coil is a pretty invasive procedure, and if it's an older system, we really don't want to do it anyway. Like if it's a 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 year old system with the way that evaporator coils leak you, by the time you pull that thing out and wash it with cleaner and put it back in, it's probably leaking, right? So you're going to be kind of like acting the act in the client's best interest.

Again, remember they're paying us. They trust us. One of the main things that they trust us to do is clean the unit. If it's an aoil and as really can't get to the underside of it, there's no way to get that.

You know to get that triangle piece off. there's just nothing you can do Well, Then there's nothing you can do. But if you can clean it, clean it to the best of your ability. Um, we'll talk about drains.

Uh, next week. Obviously, drains are drains. We talk about it all the time. but obviously it's a huge part of a maintenance.

um, anything anything anyone wants to add as it relates to any of the stuff we've talked about. or specifically cleaning evaporators. Specifically, cleaning evaporators. Um, if if you find something that you can quickly do on a maintenance, that's a part of the maintenance, Uh, when it becomes a project, then it needs to be quoted.

Uh, and take the time that you need there. Don't rush through a cleaning. If you do a half cleaning, you can make the problem worse. You can Lodge stuff into the coil and then it hardens and you leave.

And it's worse than when you got there, right? Um, so and then the other thing is is that if they have a cleaning, uh, that needs to be done, there's a problem that's deeper that needs to be addressed. We have a filtration issue with our system, so we need to upgrade their filter system. However, whatever that looks like, um, ideally like in the application you see right here we can put a media filter, there's an overhead coming down overhead, return right there. We can install media filter so use this opportunity, not just to you know, dampen the immediate system.

Let's take care of the root issue as well, right? And that requires client conversations, right? You know? Hey, here's what here's We're in this position. your VAP to Cool's dirty. There's a lot of reasons that can happen and clients will often. It's just like just like when you go to the dentist and you have cavities right? Like, you're never happy about that and and the dentist berating you about the fact that you don't brush and floss properly doesn't help.

I mean you can bring it, They can bring it up but like and the client going be like I change my filter every month I don't know why that's happening. Well we you know it could be filter quality challenge. It could filter bypass. You know, Sometimes you know if it's not in exactly right air can get around and that can cause it.

There's a lot of different factors. There's no need to berate the client, but media filters solve this problem. You know they do if they're installed properly and reuse the right filter. So um, yeah, all those are very, very good points.

We want to solve the root problem with the client as much as possible. But again, what I'm saying is um, it can become We do not want to be a company that does one of two things or or an individual. You don't want to be a giant showoff where you're throwing everybody else under the bus who's ever done a maintenance on that unit that's not helpful, right? Do a good job, but don't do the whole like cuz you run this What clients will say is nobody else has ever done that right and then how you handle that tells you a lot about yourself. right? If you're the person who says you know it's hard to say, you know, maybe you know, maybe you just never noticed it before it is.

it's part of the list. Or you could say something like yeah, it's actually not part of the list but it's just something a little extra that I noticed that I'm taking care of for you. That's one way of handling it or the other way is I don't know Ma Why nobody's ever done this. We've supposed to be doing this the whole time.

you know, like that kind of thing. It's like don't don't be a hero, don't make other people else look bad to make you look good because you don't know the whole story. You don't know if that's true or not necessarily. Um, sometimes you do and sometimes it is like man, why haven't we been doing a better job on this And that's something to talk to those people about.

Try to solve the root problem. Don't throw anybody under the bus But the next thing is, do a good maintenance right. Do a maintenance that makes a difference to the equipment. If you don't believe believe in maintenance, it's usually because you're not doing a good maintenance.

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