Hey this is the HVAC hv hv ACN. I don't know how to stage VSA hvac scoop hot gas. This is Brian, and this is a short episode. This is short episode.

Number 20. We finally made it to number 20 on the short episodes and what you think about these short episodes. I haven't heard much on and I started doing these a while back, because if it's just gon na mean me talking, they shouldn't be that long. In my opinion, just hit the topic and go, but I would be interested in you emailing me and telling me what you think of these.

You can email me, as always, at brian b, ry, a n at hvac, our school comm, and today's episode is about some tips for service valves. Service files may seem pretty simple, but there are some things to think about, especially if you're newer to the trade. Some things to consider before you work with service valves, but before we do that, let's thank our sponsors, great sponsors that make this podcast possible. First of all, big thanks to carrier carrier comm for making this possible.

We, our carrier factory, authorized dealers. We have been since day, one of Kalos or maybe day two something like that and it's all we've ever dealt as a company, but I've certainly worked on every different type of equipment and appreciate a lot of things about a lot of different types of equipment. But what I appreciate most about carrier is the support that we get from our local staff from carrier enterprises, our territory manager, Greg Schmid, Bower takes really good care of us day in and day out making sure we have what we need and if heaven forbid, a Problem ever comes up, he always takes care of it quickly, which I definitely appreciate. So that's carrier and carrier comm also want to thank youi.

I you me, I makers, of the hub kit, the hub to hub for and hub six air probes, temperature, clamps and refrigerant probes for testing equipment. There's a lot to like about them great range, nice application and the air probes have some really nice features, including the fact that they're only a quarter inch wide, which is nice for taking measurements inside of vents or inside docks, either way. That is the uei hub kit that you can find those at UVI test comm or by going to true tech tools. Comm and using the offer code gets cooled, but i always happen to mention here also: refrigeration, technologies, at refridge, tech, comm makers of dialogue, and I was actually just reading an old article that I wrote that about my log and there's a lot to like about nylon.

We use it as an assembly lubricant as a thread sealant, it's great stuff. It's not going to get into the system and cause contamination which I really appreciate, and then we also want to mention air, laces, air, Oasis makers of the Nano and bipolar you can find out more information specifically about how you can sell a product price point where You can buy it from all that by going to air Oasis comm /go, that's arrow, Asus, comm /go, so we're gon na talk a little bit about service valves here, first of all, before you connect your gauges. Think about whether or not you need to connect your gauges, and I know that's heresy in a lot of old-school circles. In fact, I would have been one several years ago, who would have said you always need to connect every system, but as I've started to think about it, there's a lot of ways to check out piece of equipment using temperatures line temperatures.

We talked about that a lot with Jim Bergman without needing to always connect gauges, especially once you've done some benchmarking on the equipment and you kind of know what to expect from it. So first off, do you really need to connect the gauges? Are there other ways that you can check the systems operation without connecting gauges? But if you are going to connect gauges, then make sure that you look around the port's before you connect your gauges every time, because if you have a leaking cap or a leaking Schrader and there's a little bit of oil or whatever, you want to make sure That you don't cover up that leak with your gauge, because then you're gon na connect to it and you're gon na say well things low and then you're gon na do electronically detection you're gon na do all this, maybe potentially it was just leaking Schrader. Now again, I'm not saying that you should see a leaking trader just say: well, that's where the leak is like a lot of guys. Do I mean if you have a system, that's low you're gon na probably want to do it electronically detection anyway.

But if you see that leaking potential cap there, where you see the oil there, then I'm going to tell you to go ahead and get out your big blue soap bubbles bubble. That thing up before you connect your gauges, so that that way you know for sure whether or not there's a leak there. The next thing is that you want to be gentle with service valves. I see guys get really crazy with him.

I actually saw a guy wants to nap off a service valve on an old train because he didn't put a backing wrench on it and he just took a giant wrench and stuck it on that nut and just broke the whole thing off. So you want to be really gentle with your service valves when you're, taking caps off when you're putting caps on you don't need to be crazy, don't crank down so hard again. Generally speaking, the sealing of a cap on a service valve happens with either a rubber o-ring or if it's a flare type cap, then it's the meeting surfaces of that flare type cap. So you don't need to overdo it.

You don't need to over tighten things and then also be careful with service valves if you ever are working with them and you're braising, a man or you're braising around a service valve, say you're installing a new system. I always want you to protect that service valve with a wet rag or maybe wet rag from refrigeration technology. Something to prevent that service valve from being damaged, be really gentle with it, and also whenever you are brazing, make sure you have the Schrader's out. Don't leave the Schrader's inside of a service valve when you're brazing, because you can damage those Schrader's and then they're gon na be more likely to leak or they're gon na be more likely to get stuck in there.

So, whenever you're brazing on a service valve make sure the Schrader's are out and make sure the valve is protected with something that's gon na help, keep it from burning up, and I know a lot of you guys, you're big heroes. You're, like I, don't get the thing hot enough well for those of you who are real fancy brazzers, who don't get things hot enough, you're likely not getting the actual joint hot enough to pull solder into it. I see a lot of guys who have done it for I've done this 20 years. I can braise in my sleep yeah and you don't get the thing hot enough to pull the solder into the joint, so don't teach it that way.

You're gon na teach guys to make really poor solder connections. You've got to get the whole joint hot enough to draw that solder in via capillary action, and in order to do that, you could damage the valves so protect the valve. Remove your Schrader's, don't be a goof, so that's the be gentle, be really careful, don't crank down too hard make sure not to overheat the valves and then also check your seals every time I pull caps off of a service valve, I'm always looking inside those caps To see if they have those rubber seals or if it's a flare type of connection, obviously you don't need seals in those types, but just make sure that there is a seal that it's in good shape, because you don't want to put that thing on there and Potentially have a small leak in that Schrader, of course. Thus traders are not supposed to leak and if you find a Schrader leaking, then you should replace it, but sometimes those leaks are very small and sometimes just that seal on that cap is gon na save you.

I can't stand seeing equipment or technicians leave the caps off just drives me insane, let alone the fact that little spiders and crap gets inside that thing and then, when you put your hose on, then it goes into the system. Of course the spiders not gon na go past a straighter, but it's gon na go in your hoses. You get the point. You don't want that.

You don't want crap in your system, so keep those caps on there make sure to look at the seals every time you pull them off. Nothing drives me more crazy than newbie Tech's, who forget to put the caps on and don't pay attention to them, and also this was pointed out by Brad Hicks. While back is that some of these caps, the ones that come on the tanks, they'll actually go in far enough, that they actually depress the Schrader themselves, and so you want to make sure you're using the right type of cap using cap. That's designed for service valves, not one that you took off of an older foreign tank, be careful with that and then finally, I'm a big fan, and again I just mentioned this, but I'm a big fan of nylon and nylon.

It's gon na be very helpful to you if you have any sort of connections to service caps. I'm gon na recommend that when you put those top caps on your service valves after you're finished setting up a piece of equipment or doing a pump down whatever I'm gon na suggest that you put a little bit of nylon on those threads again. I know that packing inside the service file shouldn't leak and those threads aren't really what seals it. But if you put a little bit of nylon on there, it's gon na prevent some very small low-level leaks.

That could happen and even when you're pulling a vacuum, you want to make sure that you have everything as tight as possible, and sometimes a little bit of nylon on that cap will make the difference if you have a small leak in that service valve packing. So I'm a big fan of putting a little nylon threads and a lot of different applications. That's basically it I'm just wanting to review. Here's make sure you don't over.

Tighten stuff, don't be crazy. With your wrench, I see a lot of guys using these gigantic wrenches. In fact, I would say: keeping a 9/16 wrench on your truck box. End wrench for those hex caps is a good idea anyway.

So you're not using these giant Crescent wrenches and you shouldn't need to use a wrench or I've seen guys use needle nose pliers to take a regular oring service valve cap on and off. If you have to do that, somebody was being crazy with how tight they were getting it. You don't need to put it on that tight. You said it snug them up finger tight, that's what you need be really gentle with your heat, make sure that you're protecting the valves make sure you're pulling out Schrader's check your seals every time and when, in doubt, use a little bit of nylon and also, if You do ever run into a leaking Schrader for gosh sakes, replace it use your core remover tool and replace that Schrader.

Don't just leave it leaking. I just put a cap down over it. I can't stand that so there you go newbie stuff there, but important stuff things that will save a lot of callbacks. Thanks for listening.

We will talk to you next time on the HVAC school podcast.