In this video, with craig from acservicetech.com we're riding around talking about tools and in general, what does it take to be really successful with tools? Should you invest in the biggest and best tools? What is most important when you're choosing tools and procedures to do your job day in and day out? I think craig has a great perspective on it. As always, if you want to find more of his perspectives, go to his website acservicetech.com or subscribe to him on youtube, he has a great channel over there. So here we go talking about know, thy tools with craig miguel, we're going to talk about tools and why you should stop buying new ones all the time. The thing is, you need to get extremely well versed and have confidence in the tools that you are using on a daily basis, and so what that's going to do, for you is that's going to decrease the time in which it's going to take you to perform A task which is going to make you more valuable, so if you're jumping from tool to tool to tools, remember that there's always going to be some type of learning curve you got to get used to it.

It may change the procedure a little bit right and you're just going to have to to practice that yeah and it's not just the doing of a particular procedure. It's also the maintenance of the tool, it's the storage of the tool, it's the setup and teardown of the tool. There's a lot just so many different factors, and i say this kicking and screaming, as you know, based on just hanging out with me for a short period of time. I like tools and i like toys - and i like i like new things and new processes and i get bored very easily.

That's basically the point i get bored very easily and i think a lot of texts are that way, even good text, but we limit ourselves if we're changing things just for the sake of changing, but i want to throw out there on the other side. Sometimes we also limit ourselves if we don't change when change would be a significant time saver so, like an example, would be, i was very resistant initially to pulling cores for almost anything like i wasn't. I just i just didn't pull cores early in the trade and when i first started hearing um people talk about that like jim or whoever for speed of vacuum or speed of recovery. I just didn't think that it was going to be that significant of a change and it was actually much more significant than i would have thought and once you get that procedure down now you got your tools.

You got your process now, don't keep messing with it. I guess it's kind of part of what we're saying here: yeah and i started out in the in the field not pulling coors like like yourself. I just had the senior tech show me what i was supposed to be doing in reference to pulling a vacuum, but there's so many levels that you go through in your knowledge of what's going on, and i remember something in the epa 608, where it said: hey, You know if you pull a vacuum too quickly, you might uh freeze water in the lines and stuff and that's something one of these just misconceptions: that's out there uh or things that people struggle with, and so they say no, i'm going to leave the cores in Because i want to pull it for pull the vacuum for a longer period of time. I need to make sure they get that i get a 20 or 30 minute vacuum and i'm saying well, no, you know your vacuum should be anywhere from say three minutes to 12 minutes on any type of like residential system.

Right, that's out there you know say 10 and a half five tons. So what are some other examples of uh of procedures that maybe people change too much on, rather than just finding a good process and just sticking with it? Vacuum and recovery are certainly two big steps. Uh two big procedures that we tend to focus on the most because it's a multi-step process, and so, if you mess one of those steps up, you kind of have to work backwards and fix everything and it's a big pain in the neck. I will say that when i started in the trade i know we were just talking about vacuum, but at the same time it's something that i kind of stressed about you know uh man.

I hope i'm gon na get down to 500 microns this time. I hope you know it's going to work out for me right and those types of things once you get past those things and you realize what's going on and the tools that you're using and you pull your valve cores out, you have short hoses you're, not pulling Through a manifold set, you get confidence in your tools and you stop worrying as much about getting the job done. What it's going to do for you is it's going to decrease your time. It's going to make you more efficient, more valuable.

It's always a matter of making yourself more valuable and getting the job done well and correctly. But to answer your question, another thing that i think about where a tool really makes a big difference is when doing a uh a test on a furnace gas furnace pressure switch so that field piece, sdm n6, that one it gives me the ability to isolate the Pressure switch and test it, regardless of whether i have the furnace on or not right. So if you're not 100 sure if it's pressure, switch is at fault or not, that tool can make a difference. But you may before that you may just be relying on the inducer motor and just using your multimeter, and you have another water, column, manometer and you're.

Checking and you're there's really no way to to slow down or to lower the water column pressure from the inducer motor to really test that switch out appropriately. That's actually a really good one, and it's something that i haven't spent as much time training on. But it's a great tool for that purpose and it's such a common purpose, whether you're working on you know a gas furnace or potentially, maybe even a boiler or a um or in the case of what we work. A lot on is gas pool heaters anytime.

You have those pressure switches, it's it's critical that you test them not only because they can fail completely, but especially when they become intermittent. You know where it's like. Is this thing really? You know it seems like i've got a code that makes it look like. I could have a problem, but you know: let's get it a little closer to that point before we condemn it or before we you know, do something drastic.

So that's a great example. I think another really good example, and we talked about this. A little bit is gauges, manifolds pressure testing equipment, a lot of guys want to jump for the new set of digital tools, but you have a very particular take on that, especially when you're learning and you're new to the trade. I would prefer a new technician learn on compound gauges and the reason for that is it's my analogy.

Is you should learn by driving a stick shift car first before you get the automatic and the reality is what i want a new technician, a student to to be able to think about, as i want them to literally think about the measurements think about the pressures Converting them to saturated temperature right and what happens is - and i've seen this quite a bit quite a lot where somebody's handed a digital manifold set. They learn how to use it and it's one of the first that they that they get okay, everything's fine. As long as they're checking the charge and everything's working properly same thing with like a slide ruler or something like that that somebody uses to check the charge, you take that away from them a digital set. Now the batteries are gone or something like that or oh no, that now they don't have their slide calculator or something like that.

They are completely stuck. They have no confidence and no ability to check the charge. Let alone do some troubleshooting. So i really want the new technicians to think about and spend some time with, compound gauge sets and doing that conversion from pressure to saturated temperature and to know superheat and subcoin, and not just have those calculations done for you, like literally go through the math and Of course, you know anytime you're doing that, there's room for error and, and you can check yourself with a digital set if you would like to uh, but i think it's huge, i think it's it's really uh taking for granted.

So i have been you know. This is actually an area that i've waffled on i've been somebody who was a analog only it's funny, because i remember when the eye manifold first came out and just laughing and thinking like. Oh my gosh. This is so such overkill.

You know when, when jim made the announcement - and it was all on social media, but then, as i started, seeing the accuracy of some of the sensor technologies, especially when you started to couple together, you know good quality, thermistors or thermocouples with the accuracy that you can Get from in-duct psychrometers now digital index hycrometers in comparison to you, know doing the kind of the old wet sock over the bead probe style, and i just had so much trouble with that. And now, when you take all that information, you put it together, you can get pretty advanced and the trick now is is knowing when you need that level of advance versus when that really isn't necessary. But i definitely do stand now on the kind of where you stand of like still teach with some analogs. It's not that i honestly go back and forth with this, because i have some of my friends who i like and respect a lot who take your stance.

I have some who are like well the reason why you like it is because it's what you learned on do you really need to see a needle on a gauge, or is it okay to show a pressure readout and a temperature readout, and is it really advantageous As i've taught at the apprentice school, though, i still feel like there's something to the analog, and i can't really describe exactly what it is. It feels more like a direct connection to the equipment. Okay, you know, there's there's less opportunity for like you've mentioned batteries or something to to be a problem, or even the zeroing is more tactile. You know you're zeroing it out on the screw on the analog gauge.

So there is a lot more room for error when the compound gauge set as far as the percentage of it being on or off and tapping the gauge and the needle moving a little bit right. I like digital equipment, and i would not say to stay with compound gauges forever and i would say that really it's just it's one of those first steps. I think about the the county technical schools across the country. You know, are they going to have 12 or 20 digital manifold sets, you know or sensors, or are they going to start out with 75 dollar compound gauge sets yeah, and so i really think it's just hey start there and also have a couple in the truck And then, after you get a few years under your belt or a year or whatever that may be, you switch to the digital sets, because the reality is, we've talked about it before when you're doing pressure, testing or something like that, you can see the incremental changes Quickly, yeah, and so you don't have to put the pressure up as high, you can have it at us at a lower pressure.

But then you can see the incremental changes and you can see that in a quick manner and that allows you to perform the procedure. Very quickly as well, once you know all these, these things, which which are your saturated temperature for your high side and low side. Your super heat, your sub cooling, once you know all that stuff and you are connecting your your your gauges or you know: temp, sensors and uh probes to a system. You know, and you can start to picture what's going on in that system.

Yeah, maybe switch to your to your digital sets right and now you're going to be able to do that even faster yeah and you're going to have a lot of insight real quickly. You don't even have to wait and pause and do the calculations, but you know them yeah and that's going to make you just really efficient and quick with your diagnosis and, like i said it's not just about checking the charge when everything's fine, you need to to Get past that and see the the troubleshooting problem that's occurring in front of you, whatever the error is, and you need to be able to see it without adding refrigerant in to see it. I found like in our own company kalos, we've started using a lot more probes, and the reason for that is is several things. One is like.

You mentioned the accuracy on pressure, testing, the accuracy of super heat and sub cool, and just all those things, the accuracy of combining them together in an app like measure, quick in order to do delivered capacity. Those are all really nice things and our technicians are starting to use that and like it, also the the reduction in losses. But you make a good point. You know you're in a trade school environment, for example, um or you're, just starting out in the trade.

It may be prohibitive for you to get an entire set of probes and that's where i would maybe even say you know maybe start off with some stubbies. You know just regular analog gauges, uh with stubbies and learn there. That's what i've been teaching a lot with. You so out of the at the school.

We use those a lot, especially for just the basics of like you know, looking at figuring out what refrigerants, in a tank, for example. But then i think ultimately, what we're saying here is less about pros and cons of one technology versus another, because we all agree that ultimately, digital is more accurate and for advanced technicians, probably a better way to go. But once you get your set, then don't change. Unless there's a real necessity to change, i think is kind of what you're saying, because it's going to make you less efficient once you say, switch from a maybe using a manifold set.

A lot to probes. You're gon na also see some uh decrease in time with you know the refrigerant in the hoses or charging refrigerant back into a system. It's gon na be better for the system. Maybe in your hoses, you have old oil in in the hoses.

You don't want to contaminate the system, so a probes are real good. In that essence, you know as well, and maybe if you don't have the probes, yet maybe you just have the stubbies those work well in that instance too uh, where you don't have to do the the purging of the air or the you don't have to worry About stealing refrigerant out of the system, when you disconnect as a step to get into all, i'm really trying to say and all we're really trying to say it's just having confidence in those tools and and knowing that they continually are operating correctly. And you got to make sure that they're calibrated first and that you have confidence in them. You know you know how to connect them.

You know how to check to verify that they are calibrated and that you're using them and they can continually, are working properly and doing the job that they need to do. You know how to maintain them. You know how to get repair parts for them. You know where you bought them from you know what the warranty is on them.

Yeah i like that and um and frankly i stink at everything that you're advising here i i would advise it to somebody else just the way you are, but i get uh bored and i like trying out new tools and i like trying out new processes and That is not an efficient way to be a technician, though. That's a fine way to be a weird owner of a company who's kind of a technician who also talks about things on the internet. Maybe, but it's not a good way to teach people how to make a living. Frankly in this front, you might want to listen to craig and not me, that's, i think, that's the message here.

Yeah! Well, wait! A second! Don't push this on me now, i'm not the one saying, don't buy my tools, i'm not saying that right! No, you want to find the tools that work for you yeah, not just because they're fancy or because of whatever, but just because uh brian told you that you can get a great discount by using the offer code. Get schooled at truetech tools. Is that what you're saying? Oh? No, it's not enough to do that, not enough of a reason yeah! No, i i completely agree and because also another big thing is, you know the the way they're set up too, like once you get a kit, that's organized in a certain way, based on the size and form factor of your tools, your you know, whatever they are Instruments, multimeter is a great another. Great example, like you know the features on your multimeter.

You know how to get to those features: you're going to be far safer, working with a multimeter that you're comfortable with that you've used a lot and you know how it works, and maybe you even know the quirks of it. You know you know you got to jiggle the the wire every once while on it you know whatever. Okay, maybe that's a bad example, but but you know the tool, it's actually going to be safer, uh because you're going to be less likely to make a mistake. You're going to be less likely to have it on the wrong scale and accidentally injure yourself potentially, so that's true of a lot of things, it's true of even even things like ladders, you know using the same ladder over and over.

So you know how to set it up. You know how to get it on and off your truck properly. Those are all things that you learn through experience: tactilely you build up that muscle memory so that you can repeatably do that motion safely uh, rather than having to like rethink it and potentially make a mental error. That's true! Even in my instance, coming down to see you, you know, like hey, leave all your tools behind and i feel like.

Oh no, no, no! You know because you depends on what tool you know. Somebody else has that you're trying to work with or or whatever and there's a not a huge learning curve, but what it really comes down to is you're just so used to the tools that you use and using you've already invested so much time in using those Tools, you can do stuff so so quickly and you tend to maybe fumble around the first time or whatever, with a new tool. Until you understand how that tool works and it's important to check out new tools. And you can't just be in a box and just think.

Oh, this tool has worked forever, so i'm just going to keep using this method. There's tools out there that change our procedures, constantly, there's new innovations that come out and that change the procedure in which you're doing in order to make your job much more efficient and better for the customer better. For you, it cuts time off which makes you more valuable, whether you're, the owner of the company or you're, an employee of the company. You want to be able to provide better for your family right.

You know you want to be able to get the raise. You want to be able to make more on the job and not not sacrifice the quality of your job. You know your installation or your change out or whatever or your service call you you want to do the best you possibly can and a lot of the new tools are are able to to help you to do that. It's a decision that you make thoughtfully.

It's a decision that you make uh knowing what this thing is going to do for you versus just throwing money at it and then getting it, and it makes things worse because you haven't. Maybe it isn't the right tool for the application, and that's actually a key thing too, is like almost every product out there. Almost every tool out there has a strong ideal application, but that doesn't mean that it's good for everything and it really depends on the type of work you do. You know if you are in a gas furnace market, where you have metal duct work, it's going to be very different than if you're in a heat pump market, where you're, primarily working on ductless systems.

You know and the tools you're going to need are going to be very different as well, and you should find the very best tools to do the things that you do all the time and then stick with them and then know how to maintain them. And then know the manual on that tool in and out, and maybe sometimes the inclination or the knee-jerk reaction to always want the biggest and best and brightest can sometimes actually get in your way. For me, it's the best example of that is a vacuum procedure, but way back when i always was concerned, you know about, oh, i hope the vacuum's going to go well, i hope all the hoses are going to be sealed up. Well, i hope my manifold isn't leaking today right.

You know, and i hope i hope i hope well, if you have a dedicated set, that you use specifically for vacuums. You know it worked last time. You know you have confidence in it and it just continues to work you you don't have that fear. You don't have that whatever trepidation uh, you know you're.

You know the time it's going to take to do the job right. I know some people are refusing to uh change their vacuum setup because they like to take lunch time during their vacuum. I mean that's it i mean really. That's what i hear i'm like.

Oh gosh, like man, that's not a good reason, not a good reason, especially because you're not always going to be doing your vacuum at lunch right and sometimes you're going to be late on a you know, job took a little longer and now you're trying to get Home to your family and the thing that's holding it up is vacuum, and you know what happens when that circumstance happens in your vacuum, still not coming down guys just send it. They just go ahead and charge it. That's what happens, and so you end up giving your customer a bad result, having tools that do the job repeatably and also like we talked about when we're talking about recovery like if you have a good setup and you use it the same way. Every time you're going to know how long it takes to recover and if something is not quite right, you're going to know it, because you have experience doing the same thing so many times you hit on a great point.

I don't think we talked about this that much this is huge for a vacuum right, so a vacuum procedure if you are taking an hour to do a vacuum procedure. When are you finding that there's a problem with that vacuum right, it's usually a half an hour in, or you know, 40 minutes in or something like 20 minutes in with a shorter vacuum period of time. If you know it's only going to take you five minutes to do this vacuum procedure, and you know that there's no air, no nitrogen, no water in that system. You know that you're doing the best for the customer - and you know you can do that in three or five minutes or something like that.

You'll know within the first 30 seconds to minute. If there's a problem right, why would you wait 30 minutes to then realize? Oh, i should have got this other hose from my truck or whatever or or my my pump's not pulling down this time. You know what there's a the the gasket is leaking on. This hose you're gon na know that, if you're consistently using the same setup and that setup is a very fast and efficient setup, absolutely yeah optimizing for efficiency, but then also keeping it consistent.

That's really what we're saying here, we're saying any additional tools that are resulting in inconsistency is going to cause you trouble. You want consistency and efficiency and proper outcomes for your customers and, if you hit on all three of those well then great and a lot of times that will be having you know: costly high quality tools, but a lot of times. It won't. You know and that's where you just have to know exactly what you're doing yeah and some people buy brand new tools and, and they want to throw away the instructions and they're only using the tool to half of what it actually can do.

So it's really worth investing in yourself by reading the manual - and i we've talked about this several times - reading the manuals of the systems that you're installing, so you know how they operate like setting the blower speeds, you know, and things like that that are just just Not set you know, and then the service tech comes out there and checks it, but all i'm saying is use the things to your full advantage. Invest in yourself spend some time know how your tools operate, and once you have confidence in your tools, if they're working for you, you know you take small steps in optimizing, your workflow, by introducing new tools that you know why you're purchasing them or why you're getting Them and it's to to make you more productive and give you more confidence on your job and ultimately, you probably make some more money too, yes and and waste less of it. So that's also good penny saved, as a penny earned all right. If people want to find your books and your website and all that, how do they do that? You can head to acservicetech.com and we have a bunch of articles quick tips.

We have a podcast there, our calculators, and so you can test your knowledge in the quizzes. We've got our ac book, so it's a refrigerant charging and service procedures for air conditioning, and so that goes over. The preparation of a system for refrigerant checking the charge troubleshooting and it's it goes over the components and how the refrigerant moves through the system. In order to be able to lower the temperature of the building by rejecting the heat outside, so that's right there over at ac, servicestick.com and also over at amazon.com.

We also have a thousand question workbook and that's there to test your knowledge and it comes with a self-study answer key and the full outline for the book is over at ac ac book very nice all right. Well, hey good talking to you! Thank you. Thanks for watching our video, if you enjoyed it and got something out of it, if you wouldn't mind hitting the thumbs up button to like the video subscribe to the channel and click, the notifications bell to be notified when new videos come out, hvac school is far More than a youtube channel, you can find out more by going to hvacrschool.com, which is our website and hub for all of our content, including tech tips, videos, podcasts and so much more. You can also subscribe to the podcast on any podcast app of your choosing.

You can also join our facebook group if you want to weigh in on the conversation yourself thanks again for watching you.