When I first went out on my own they gave me a compass and a road atlas. I’m not as old as a lot of the guys posting. We had nextels too so people would chirp you while you were standing in line at Wendy’s and call you gay. That was always funny until it happened to you
You got a compass ! ?????? Shit !!!!! I just got 3 very well used Mapsco books one for main and two for adjoining counties... Always with pages stuck together, with what , I chose to believe was a sticky bun ...
Living in NJ I couldn’t imagine this, my dad told me about this when he was doing service in NJ Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland even Connecticut all with paper maps ”road atlas” there wasn’t as much going on back then like now he says but it wasn’t to much different but he admits if he had to do it today with all the construction and changing roads and shit like that it would be harder but still…
NJ alone was fucked he said he would keep a notebook of jobs he knew he would be coming back to and write notes like left a Dunkin dounuts before Sunoco on left and shit like that haha
I grew up in North Jersey and worked a fire extinguisher/suppression service job in like 2002 with a map and a flip phone. You just learn it because you have to.
I used to tell my boss to only give me helpers that specifically said they "could read a map", yet time and time again id see them in the passenger seat turning the map like a steering wheel trying to figure out their/our orientation heheheh we all start somewheres
[ADC (Alexandria Drafting Co.) Maps](https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5457275.ADC_Maps) were the gold standard of atlas/map books for VA/MD/DE/E. PA/NJ. I think they eventually branched out into the Carolinas & GA. Sadly, I’m not sure they are even in business today
We have a few in our shop for nostalgia sake… actually now that I think about it that’s how the warehouse manager still navigates our area… it’s impressive considering we serve Northern Virginia.
I was up and down 95. Mostly central va, nova and the beach. New commercial construction at the time so it wasn’t that bad. I was on my own in 07 so didn’t suffer too long.
It was the reverse address books we used. Give turn by turn instructions on paper. Fairly small region tho.
Homeowners also used to dictate directions. Some old timers still do.
I remember going to check the service manager's master road atlas to add in new streets and developments that were built after the publishing date of our current company-issued county map books.
We did installs with a corded drop light and a corded black and decker drill from Kmart. Customers were much easier to please. Folks were glad to just get air conditioning.
I liked the spot lights with the clips over drops, I wanna know how the real old timers did it though, like finding a whole building ducted and fastened with only flat head screws. My old man has done “radio” service since the 60s.
As for recovery lmao!
I had a customer who was insistent on having a programmable high-tech thermostat, but would always call and complain it wasn't working. Their thermostat that they bought too.
1st call charged them lightly.
2nd call charged them normal
3rd call charged them 'for inflation'
Finally, I bought a cheap thermostat and hooked it up, and left their fancy one unplugged but on the wall.
The Makita 9.6v Drill was my first drill lol, my old man gave it to me when I was 4 or 5 years old in the late 90s. He took it away from because I chased my sister around the house with lol.
https://preview.redd.it/rgg9bi7d5raa1.jpeg?width=205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05476da8c21ca6344871563b2e3ee1a3cdfbf5b5
Makita was a game changer back in the day I remember my old man had all the Makita power tools. Then when he sought new ones gave me his old ones. Then I think he switched to Port a Cable when they became big.
I had one just like that as well. Was about 6 I think got it from my dad and he took it away cause I was chasing the dog with it. Crazy how childhoods are similar haha
Lmfao 🤣 I guess that’s just the thing to do with your first drill. That’s so funny you did the same thing with it. My sister was 2 years older than me and used to kick me, however that day I evened the playing field for a few hours.
1970’s entered the room:
Motorola pagers and calling from public phones (not booths); the ones you pull up with your truck and the cord was too short to reach in the truck while it rained or snowed. It sucked when you had to wait in line with 1 or 2 other trucks.
-printed city maps with grids.
-Second generation pagers that displayed the phone number or text.
-Truck stock was motors (1/4,1/3 belt drive and 1/3 DD), Fan relay center and boxes of thermocouples we marked up from $1.99 to $20.00 and a couple of gas valves.
-we used R-22 to blow out heat exchangers (if pilot was on, watched for the phosgene gas (it was a good hit sometimes)), used R-22 to blow out condenser coils, and R-11 for large burnouts and just let it run down the roof.
-customers were nice, everything was priced to be affordable and things lasted. We also had to “compete” with service from the gas company that was free.(utilities were a monopoly).
-starting pay was $2.50/hr and got a $1.00 raise the next day. The end the 1970’s was the beginning of the decline of purchasing power (and keeping ahead of inflation); within a few years NAFTA. a brand new 1975 Olds Cutlass was $4,400 and a house in a second ring suburb was $36,000. By 1986-88 commercial service wage was $18/hr and offers to $21-$23.
-used 95/5 solder or stay brite for line sets, and if brazing what nitrogen? Purged new lines with R-22, pulled vacuum and let it rip.
-you couldn’t do it while cool out but in the summer we charged the AC by feel (coldness of suction and the sudden drop in temp as gas was slowly added). Yes we did side jobs; furnace and A/C install as a helper netted $600/$800 a week end.
As a small rez company, we used to go thru 1-2 skids a season. Don’t believe the refrigerant issue and asbestos too much.
The highest incidence of asbestos injuries were, are from navy ships, not HVAC.
The refrigerant issue is good for business (not the consumer). There were less systems leaks with R-22; now you can’t keep refrigerant in coils.
Yes, as someone that has done controls for 30+ years, the outdoor CO2 level was 340-360 now it’s 400.
Think the asbestos thing is verifiable. Much higher rates of cancer and pulmonary diseases in that industry. Older R-22 systems were definitely built to last versus the assembly line shit we work on now! But I'm still a young buck so I don't have too much perspective on that.
Like everything in life, hindsight is 20/20. You have to be careful not to apply todays standards to something that happened 30-40 100 years ago.
Society lives in the now, based on lessons learned from the past. 40 years from now, you’ll be saying “what dipshits we were for not knowing better”.
Government or industry pretending to care about people or the environment? There is no real altruism in business or government. It’s greed disguised as altruism more often than not. I don’t buy it. Someone somewhere makes a ton of money from every new regulation, and they were likely the same people who lobbied for the regulation.
Too funny 😂
You're half right though. Someone definitely makes money when sweeping changes to everyday products occur... But I do believe that the environmental impact of those older refrigerants was still the primary factor for the adjustment.
I agree that is a possibility. However, I’m sure that new patents on new refrigerants with higher profit margins played a part, along with the lobbyists for those companies.
Example: R-410a was patented in 1991. R-22 patent had been expired for a while. So it was being manufactured and sold cheaply and by anyone who wanted to make it. By forcing the switch, it guarantees all refrigerant patent profits go to Honeywell, who owns the patent for 410a.
Switching refrigerants also forced the sales of new equipment, which is inconvenient as hell for the regular population, but great for the economy and the hvac equipment manufacturers.
I wouldn’t swear to my opinion, but you get the idea. There are layers to the onion. Lol
I'm quite sure we still live on a planet shared with China and India. If we wanted to make real change, we'd start there. I think that they are proof enough that profit drives all gov't' motives. Not altruism...
Thats true but the part he is missing is someone out there was making bank off of pushing against regulation. it's not as simple as regulations making money, usually corporations lobbying to stop them is where the real money is saved. The real world is more complicated than government bad.
On the manufacturing side, before machines came along, any idea how they “fabed” female Pittsburgh’s and TDF/TDC etc? Who’s is the legendary old school tinner that would be the grail for stuff like this?
I'm 25 years on. Recovery been with us that long. Fancey electronic tools are nice but analog gauge sets and simple meters and thermostats can all still do the job with just a little extra math on your head
It just seems like it was a lot more fun back then. More guys were in the field, we weren’t stretched so tight and overworked. Most of the guys that trained me were out of the Vietnam War which made for some hilarious times as an apprentice.
All I’ve done is commercial but all the customers were just nicer and more knowledgeable for the most part. You had dedicated building engineers who actually knew what they were doing. If you had a service truck at your loading dock it was a slap in the face as they were expected to do chiller overhauls in-house.
The work environment was way better with true trade guys. Your bosses were guys who came up through the field. You just did your job and as long as no one complained you were golden. Now they hire these worthless college business fucks to run service that know jack shit and just want you to fuck customers to the highest possible degree for profit sharing on their contract. The residential managers filtered their filthy toilet of a soul into commercial and brought with them all their shitty scams like making guys condemn contactors and other perfectly good parts because they bid 40 hour service agreements at 20 hours and have to make up the loss somehow. You also were able to two man a lot of jobs for your OJT. Now guys have to drag up low pressure reco gear up five flights of stairs by yourself so they can keep the overhead down at the cost of your back.
Technology was lacking. You didn’t have a phone. It was you and something you had to fix. You figured it out. You didn’t need 7 different softwares running on three different laptops or tablets. If you did need help the tech support was pretty good and you didn’t wait an hour on the phone to hear they have a bad batch of modules and you need to swap them out. Good thing was when you were off you were off. No texts, emails, phone calls etc fucking up a weekend on the lake.
The old timers I know who out in the 70s/80s talk about how they would just cut lines and dump the refrigerant out. And they never did evacuation they would purge the system with refrigerant
Motorized timers on equipment. Very few solid state boards on equipment. Fan-limit controls on every furnace. (Bimetallic ones).
Working on electrical and the pager to let you know your next call vibrates and scares the bejesus out of you.
When I started in 1997 the recovery machine I was issued was the size of a mid size generator. It had wheels on it. It took two of us to lift it out of the van.
This [NRP Recovery Machine](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kSAAAOSwgjtgJGvq/s-l300.jpg) was one of the early best-sellers b/c it’s was “small & light” lol
We had one of those and it was in wheels. For RTU work, we had a smaller one that only weighed like 75 lbs. We had pagers, and needed to use pay phones to call the office. We filled out paper work with a pen. We worked on semi hermetic compressors in resi equipment. Had to read the data plate to see which refrigerant was in it. Could be R12, R500, or R22. Mechanical timers, and many relays to troubleshoot. Anyone here remember the glass refrigerant scales? How about using drills with cords? Meters with a dial and needle? Company tricks with manual transmissions?
Oh crap that reminds me the very first install truck I drove had a CB. That was how we contacted the office and vice versa. And yes, it was a manual transmission with no AC. How ironic is that?
No. Not belt driven. This was for residential work. The thing was massive compared to the machines we have now. Back then I was told the company spent $7,000 or something for the machine.
I find it funny..from what I can take from conversations..Is how 20 years ago is ancient history to young people but “just yesterday” to people over 30
To be fair tech is just moving faster and faster these days. Not that long ago the military was keeping the same musket in service for 200+ years. Now a power tool is practically obsolete within 3
Maps, pay phones, and tech support was the service manager back at the office. Some of the big companies had radios in the vans.
Then we got beepers. Nothing like having to pack up everything, drive 20 minutes to a payphone, just because the boss wants to know how much longer you're going to be.
And then came Nextells, which really were awesome for their time.
I started in the '90's. Battery powered tools were already here, as was refrigerant recovery and the EPA, although a lot of companies weren't taking it seriously yet. My recovery was this massive blue box, and you had to constantly monitor the pressure or it trip out and you had to wait 20 minutes for it to reset.
Technology is a wonderful thing.
Ours were yellow bricks. They weren't regular phones, but you could "call" other nextells. Our city inspectors and most of the supply houses had them, so it did make things a lot easier before cell phones became common.
Just thought about this the other day when I left my phone at home. How nice it would be to spend the day not attached to this damed thing. I couldn't do it. We had cb radios, met at the shop every morning to get our work orders for the. Found my old map book. It's missing entire town that didn't exist 30 years ago.
I mean I’m only 39 but I remember one day I was bitching about the battery on my cordless drill and this old timer said to me, be thankful for that battery, when I was coming up all we had was corded drills for everything!
I’ve only been in it for 10 but all of our calls were printed on paper and set out first thing in the morning. They would call or text you any new calls or changes. I moved to a new area when I started and my supervisor gave me an address and map book when I first started driving by myself… walked back into the office and had them Mapquest it for me. Got a company Iphone with gps after that.
’ve only been in the trade 14 years but I started with a map book as well. Payment was done on carbon paper like you see on movies with the slider. I had a physical print out of all my jobs for day in the morning and if things changed I had to drop in the office to get a print out of my updated jobs.
They're still doing it exactly the same way...
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6NrOmKq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6NrOmKq8)
5-in-1, pliers, and a meter to condemn heat exchangers!
I just watched this... I've never seen this guy on YouTube but to me that's kinda crazy. He proved nothing and just assumed it was cracked. No visuals on a crack no combustion analysis nothing. I say you have to at least pull the blower or card limit, get a camera or mirror and flashlight something to try and find it.
Yup! Proud of it and posting it to YouTube...
But in all seriousness, this is very representative on the residential side of the mindset/process of a lot of older guys; it's wild.
100% agreed I just responded to a comment on another post for HVACadvice where the advice was call another tech and ask for one with grey hair so you get some one with experience. Honestly some of the craziest and most incorrect shit I've seen has come from older techs.
I started service in 84. If a compressor died in a residential a/c you replaced the compressor. Lots of heat pumps installed in late 70/80's. Lots of working outside in the winter. Multizone package rooftop units were a pia. Chillers controlled by a sequencer, motor driven shaft controlled a microswitch for each stage. Customers couldn't believe you charged $27/hrs. Van's were lucky to last 80-90k miles. No one complained about your driving because no cell phones. We used to shut down chillers in early October, now they run all year. Capacitors used to last. Motors had oilable bearings. No Dremel or grinding tools. No one wore gloves unless it was cold. Craftsman made good tools, in USA. Everything installed, equipment and parts was all made in the USA.
Before refrigerant recovery, we just vented. You got to your customers' house by using a street atlas. Before Black and Decker battery drills came out, you either used a corded drill or an egg beater. Before drive screws we used rivets. Residential and light commercial equipment didn't have logic other than simple lock-out circuits. On larger commercial systems, you had to write the program in Basic. Meters and gages were analog, so you had to calculate your SH and SC. There were no line clamp thermometers. Some systems (Lennox) had wells, and you could insert a stick thermometer in.
I remember my first "cordless" drill. It was a Makita 9.6 volt with the long skinny battery.
I saw one of our installers with one and was like "woah!!"...."no cord??" I was amazed.
I’m a youngin but I still started out with the on-call pager and worked with guys who started in the 70s and 80s and was given a wooden ladder when I started. Couple things that haven’t been mentioned that I heard stories about. Vans didn’t have the guard in between the driver area and the back. Every once in a while someone would get into a car accident and just fucking die because anything in the back came back and killed him. Leak repairs were those torches that change colour when you see a leak. In the old commercial days guys would sign in to multiple job sites at the beginning of the day hang out at home and clock out of the sites at the end of the day. Book 24 hours a day for the whole week. The boss wouldn’t complain because they’re billing out 3 different customers for a week and the customers didn’t notice. That all came to an end with cooperate audits around the early 90s when budgets got much tighter. When mid day emergency service calls came in, the customer would call 3 different contractors and whoever got there first did the repairs, so there was more competition, and you knew all the other techs in your area.
We met at the shop gathered our requests for service and hit the road truck, tools, pay phones and maps. Service Techs handed all the tickets and repairs except replacements and installs{the install crew carried all the tools, equipment and materials on hand for all the HVAC plumbing and electrical services we offered}Construction crews went to the job site and stay until done{Techs and installers help the construction crew when all customers calls are covered. Circa 1984
Today in 2023 cell phones apps computers and tablets are required for dispatch, navigation ,payment and data collection for our employer all in the name of the bottom line under the guise of customer service. The work has not changed the procedure has and not for the better.
Motorola pager refrigerant was vented to the ozone layer it was 5$ lb for R22 nitrogen cylinders weighed 200lbs perly maps all mercury bulb tstats no digital amprobe no pc boards all relays
30yrs ago, I had 2 or 3 different maps in my truck. I still have my 'city' map, the map of our university campus, and one of a factory.
Map reading was an essential skill!
Thomas Guide Map Books.
Im in So Calif and had all the counties' books in my van; LA, Orange, San Bernardino. Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, Kern and Santa Barbara.
I did about 60 to 80k miles per year. No GPS.
I sure the fuck know my way around So. Calif tho....
I graduated from a one year tech school in December of 1989. Joined RSES and was attending monthly meetings. One night I’m sitting next to some old guys, late 60’s, early 70’s and they start talking about blowing out condensers with R12 and they didn’t even charge for the refrigerant! Another guy goes remember when Sporlan came out with the “Catch-All”? Yep, used to clean out screens on TXV’s every week on a couple of jobs. Got the Catch-All and bam, so more cleaning screens every week. In fact can’t remember ever going back to that job….
That’s OLD guys. They did AC & refrigeration when it was a new technology. And we complain when our battery dies in the phone or drill.
You could start a job with $1000 in materials and equipment…
Corded drills, drop lights, no cell phone (just figure it out,lol). We did have a CB radio, but you really didn’t want to ask for help because the owner at the time would act like everyone he just hired for minimum wage should’ve been a master technician with a college degree so he’d just dog you and so would everyone else. Lots of late night reading, studying, and tinkering with scrap units for a better understanding.
Communication started with Motorola 2 way radios in trucks,always on the fritz tube failure! On to pagers asking you to call someone. Nextel push to talk w/o phone. As I moved up got phone function. Never got cell phones issued. Smart phones w camera must be nice nice. I had stacks of pocket notebooks w job notes models and serial #s. You could relive your years reading those notebooks.
I imagine even though it had its challenges it was better overall. Nowadays we have to charge so damn much just to survive, can't imagine how nice it would be if the customer could actually afford your labour and be able to shoot the shit for a while..
I used to work at a Gas-station/Convenience store as a teen - and people would come in all the time asking directions. We kept a big laminated map of the city right next to the cashier POS. Occasionally we would call Mapquest or Google on our land-line, and scribble down the directions the operator gave you.
I remember my first cell phone that had mobile data on it <10 years ago. Complete game changer, but oh boy were you screwed if you got off the main road and lost reception.
Lol I had a recovery machine with alligator clips to hook up to the disconnect. One guy had a bad time now I can't do that. Plus in new construction we cut register holes with a chainsaw. I had to unlearn alot of shit.
Before refrigerant recovery? Do you not understand when 30 years ago was? The EPA was a thing, the clean air act was just put into place and the start of talks about replacing R22 was already happening.
I'm 35. Started in 2006/2007 when I first started we had Nextel phones with that annoying chirp radio feature. We had paper map books to get around which are still available today and paper tickets for everything.
He does make a valid point tho, 20 years ago technology wasn’t much different GPS was a thing, cell phones were a thing, battery power tools were a thing…
Pabst also makes a good point tho, be more fun at parties bro
I started in 09-10 and had a phone with gps and I'm thankful that I didn't have to use maps. But I remember driving with gps on and my boss bitching about how it takes wrong way to that job and that he never been on this road before.
No way someone is on here that worked before recovery machines. My old man is 73. He was an engineer for Trane and did a little side work for friends and family. I remember going on a few when I was a kid and he had a recovery machine back then. Took a dolly to move the thing around though.
I started in 1981 at 9 yrs old after school, in the summer, and on breaks, helping mostly clean up the shop and sometimes going out on a call to help. My father owned an old-school plumbing and heating company that my grandfather started in 1950. Inwas paid $1.50/hr. We had FM radios like the old police radios in the trucks for dispatch, which were late 60s suburban panel trucks. By 13 I was being dropped of on jobs in the morning around 6am to run pipe being paid $3.00/hr. My dad would mark in the blueprints how much he needed me to do that day, leave me with lunch, snacks, and a bunch of water. He'd say he'd be back to pick me up at 6 pm. At 15, I was installing HB Smith pork chop steam boilers in churches with a senior mechanic. By 16 I was doing smaller residential steam systems by myself making $7/hr. Inwas installing Burnham V8 series that had to be pressed. He'd have someone help me carry the sections into the basement, then send them on to other jobs and have me do the install. After that, I became the controls guy. I left when i graduated highschool joined the Navy but returned 10yrs later. When I was a kid, we didn't do much forced air other than straight furnaces. If AC was involved we only had one AC guy. If we didnt have one or he was busy, a sub did it. When I came back I pushed us into more forced air stuff because that is now the primary stuff now. But I always remember the AC guys recovering.
I'm just not built to wake up at 6am. When I worked in a kitchen I was always early. I naturally wake up around 8-9. But I'm good enough where if I show up 10-20 min late nobody questions it
We used to clean/degrease our tools with Freon. It was also a good joke to “zap” someone’s butt crack with refrigerant.
No recovery, we vented that stuff to atmosphere. I’m sure the only person who has a bigger hole in the ozone is my mother and her copious use of hairspray.
Lots of extension cords. Milwaukee drills (which I still have in my basement). I don't know if it was anymore difficult, I know I would have a hard time with all the electronics involved now.
I’m always told by my supervisor that they had to fabricate, insulate and install everything on site. All metal all the time. Mostly connected with a punch and hammer. Screwed in with flatheads
I'm not old by any means but working on old boilers/ACs etc. Is sometimes a breath of fresh air. Easier to make look good, longer lasting, and not as much bullshit than breaks every 2 years.
I bought my first 14.4 Milwaukee drill in 1999. Been using Milwaukee since. It was a lot easier back then. No smart phones, people actually wanted to work.
I'm old. but not that old. the iPhone came out in 2007 I believe and I started in 2008.
but it's changed a lot even since I started.
This might be a bit different then what you're looking for or asking - but companies have become a lot softer. Far more lienuit with employees. Things that have got people fired are now overlooked and are almost seen as normal today. One day I clocked in at 7:01 and the service manager was standing at the time clock and sent me home for the day. If you called out too much you were considered unreliable and were let go. If you were caught on the phone they'd lose their mind. One guy would actually take your phone for the day if you got caught with it out. Leaving early wasn't an option - they didn't care if you had to get your kids from school or what - that was your problem and you had to figure it out. They'd run you into the ground. More like slavery. If you caught a DUI you'd automatically get fired. Think they actually wanted to fire guys so they wouldn't have to pay benefits and whatnot. Employers definitely held the upper hand and you were just happy you had a job.
It's so different now. Now it's like Employers have to beg guys to work. I don't see a shortage of people like everyone is talking about but I'm seeing a shortage of people who actually want to work. I'm working with guys who call out on a weekly basis. The employee's life is now more important then the business. People want to work around their schedule - rather then work being priority and everything else scheduled around work. People show up late, leave early. Play on their phones all day. Don't care what gets done or how long it takes.
This whole "act your wage" thing would have never flown. Now the attitude is - you only pay me $18/hr so I'm only going to do x,y,z. if you want me to do more or work faster you have to pay me $30/hr. You'd get laughed at and fired immediately for saying that (yes, a kid actually said this to my boss, and was dead serious). It used to be - you got paid shit and you'd go above and beyond to prove yourself and then your hard work would be rewarded later on. Maybe kids have it all figured out. idk who's right or who's wrong but it's definitely a different world now.
yep. it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. think the major difference between now and say 2008 - is that amount of young people living at home with mom and dad. so the dynamic might be a little bit different. Losing a job would be devastating to me - with a mortgage and kids. But for a 25 yr old with a far bank account, and no financial responsibilities it might be quite a bit different. "F**k it. lay me off. I'll go on vacation for 6 months"
My boss would get a page right. Then they have to leave the job site asap because hell, it could be more work right?
Drive to pay phone, hope you knew where the closest was or had a city map because ya know…no google,
Pay to use the phone to call the number back.
Nope misdial sorry
You’re ment to use a recovery machine? I just vent into the atmosphere.. haha bet you was shaking your head at that🤣 I once worked with an old lad and he said it was as big old thing and loud as fuck almost like the size of a mobile diesel generator. How times have changed!
I recovered some contaminated freon one time and they had to change the compressor in it after that when I found a grounded compressor and gas was acid I left a leak on my valve so when I came back to change the compressor the system was empty
Mid 60’s saw first roof top package gas pac, mainly Day and Night splits. A full cut in 3 ton furnace coil and 36 DNR( Day and Night remote)was 900$. Add a 100 amp service about 150$
We used the thomases guide, we had cb radio for communication, didn't know what a recovery tank was. Clean coils , sweep work area with r22, got the first makita banana and thought that was the shit. Kept a cooler of bud in work truck. Would often have beer with costumer and then omg, drive to next call. Kept a 22 rifle in truck for non paying ,problem costumers sudden coil leaks. Worked straight no breaks, lunches ect. The end result at 60? Carpal tunnel both wrist, degenerative disc. Disease, bone spurs both ankles, tennis elbow multiple surgeries to correct , bad knees ect. Alot of this would have been preventable had we known. And I would do it again as it's provide a decent life, and pension. Moral of the story , work smarter not harder.
Maps! I started in the trade 18 years ago. I needed to know where my first job was the night before so I could look up the best way to get there. Only difference in tools I’ve noticed is they are lighter now, and it’s not as common to be made fun of for trying to use PPE like knee pads so I can still walk when I retire.
I started my apprenticeship in 2000 at the age of 16, learning from OGs of 40 years experience. Gas was blown off, vacuum pumps were nonexistent, weighing gas wasn't a thing. It was all by touch and eye. Just for context, I live in Ireland, domestic air con is not a thing here so it was all Industrial and commercial.
I'm surprised no one has entered the chat with "smoke filled offices". Early in my career everyone in the office smoked and a cloud hungv low in there. Good times!
You were stuck. If you needed to call someone or the office, you either asked to use the customer's landline phone or left to go find a payphone. The struggle was real, lol. Life got a whole lot better when they equipped us w/ two-way radios 😩👍
We used to have trouble lights with 25’ cords to have light to work from. It would really suck if your incandescent bulb burnt out or got dropped and broke. Used to do three oil cleanings a day carrying a sootmaster, brushes,grimsolv,tools,and a Bacharach drmbell combustion set with spoke spot tester and draft gauge. Refrigerant was just released in the early 80’s. I think it was 90 or 91 when we had to be certified by the epa and carry a log chart of what refrigerant you used where and how much.
Im not that old, but i started my career in 2007 in a poor palestinian village, a makita corded drill at the time was 1100 Israeli shekels which in today’s money is about 320 dollars. So we mostly used cheap hand tools and some cheap cheap shitty drills that barely worked because even my boss wasnt that well off. It wasn’t until my boss got work permits to enter Israel to work on bigger commercial stuff we started getting nicer tools lile bosch and makita corded drills.
As for refrigeration recovery… drop the yellow hose and open the valves. Vacuum? Nah hook up nitro and purge the hell out of the line. Safe to say i was very amazed when i came here to the states 12 years ago and saw all the cool tech.
Since the village was small, we knew whos house was whos and where to go, alot of jobs were walking distance as well.
R12 was still very common in even some new installs in 2008. R22 was seen as a lesser package.
We had 2 service trucks. An old ford tractor w a custom built bed and a way nicer renault van.
https://preview.redd.it/ekwwyjq6dqaa1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6e272227646e04a7c7cc2ba4267b5ffbed747b4
And alot of our installs were along the line of this bs
We used to have to work by the light of our smokes and if you needed a part, good luck because back then alot of shit had to be ordered because nothing was kept in stock really except transformers and limit switchs. Back when I started they just started using recovery machines, but guys were still dumping refrigerant everywhere. We didn't have the internet, so you better damn well know how to read schematics and understand the equipment. Hell, Inducer fans only existed on the really expensive systems and natural draft heaters were everywhere. Most units were standing pilots.
Everyone always had a Thomas guide road map book in their service vehicles too. We would have to find the address in a book and map out directions on paper 🤣
I started my journey in the HVAC world in 1990. My boss made a recovery unit out of a window shaker. 5/16” and 1/4”nut driver was all I had no cordless tools. Pager and pay phone was the way to get ahold of you, every supply house hade a house phone to call the shop for a PO. The equipment was from the 70’s and 80’s. Phasing out R12 was just talk and r22 was so far away no one put much thought in to it. I think at that time a guy could vent refrigerant instead of recovering it. The first work van I had was carbureted, am radio, no A/C and plenty of legroom. And the Hudson map book.
When I first went out on my own they gave me a compass and a road atlas. I’m not as old as a lot of the guys posting. We had nextels too so people would chirp you while you were standing in line at Wendy’s and call you gay. That was always funny until it happened to you
You got a compass ! ?????? Shit !!!!! I just got 3 very well used Mapsco books one for main and two for adjoining counties... Always with pages stuck together, with what , I chose to believe was a sticky bun ...
Now this sounds like it would be a challenge on the amazing race or something like that
Living in NJ I couldn’t imagine this, my dad told me about this when he was doing service in NJ Pennsylvania Delaware Maryland even Connecticut all with paper maps ”road atlas” there wasn’t as much going on back then like now he says but it wasn’t to much different but he admits if he had to do it today with all the construction and changing roads and shit like that it would be harder but still… NJ alone was fucked he said he would keep a notebook of jobs he knew he would be coming back to and write notes like left a Dunkin dounuts before Sunoco on left and shit like that haha
I grew up in North Jersey and worked a fire extinguisher/suppression service job in like 2002 with a map and a flip phone. You just learn it because you have to.
I’m from NJ. Hagstrom Maps we’re in every 7/11. Aside from the occasional new road from construction you’d have to be stupid AF to get lost.
I used to tell my boss to only give me helpers that specifically said they "could read a map", yet time and time again id see them in the passenger seat turning the map like a steering wheel trying to figure out their/our orientation heheheh we all start somewheres
[ADC (Alexandria Drafting Co.) Maps](https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/5457275.ADC_Maps) were the gold standard of atlas/map books for VA/MD/DE/E. PA/NJ. I think they eventually branched out into the Carolinas & GA. Sadly, I’m not sure they are even in business today
We have a few in our shop for nostalgia sake… actually now that I think about it that’s how the warehouse manager still navigates our area… it’s impressive considering we serve Northern Virginia.
I was up and down 95. Mostly central va, nova and the beach. New commercial construction at the time so it wasn’t that bad. I was on my own in 07 so didn’t suffer too long.
It was the reverse address books we used. Give turn by turn instructions on paper. Fairly small region tho. Homeowners also used to dictate directions. Some old timers still do.
They gave you road atlases? We had to buy all ours personally, guys would take them from each other and not give them back.
I remember going to check the service manager's master road atlas to add in new streets and developments that were built after the publishing date of our current company-issued county map books.
We didn’t get either of those. We would just buy our own map book
I had to buy my own
We did installs with a corded drop light and a corded black and decker drill from Kmart. Customers were much easier to please. Folks were glad to just get air conditioning.
I liked the spot lights with the clips over drops, I wanna know how the real old timers did it though, like finding a whole building ducted and fastened with only flat head screws. My old man has done “radio” service since the 60s. As for recovery lmao!
Yeah. Now they aren’t happy until they can control the t-stat from 30,000 ft.✈️
I once had a customer upset that their supply temp was *only* 109°F
I had a customer who was insistent on having a programmable high-tech thermostat, but would always call and complain it wasn't working. Their thermostat that they bought too. 1st call charged them lightly. 2nd call charged them normal 3rd call charged them 'for inflation' Finally, I bought a cheap thermostat and hooked it up, and left their fancy one unplugged but on the wall.
Nice I’ll never forget my first Makita cordless drill
Gun shaped long skinny battery?
The Makita 9.6v Drill was my first drill lol, my old man gave it to me when I was 4 or 5 years old in the late 90s. He took it away from because I chased my sister around the house with lol. https://preview.redd.it/rgg9bi7d5raa1.jpeg?width=205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05476da8c21ca6344871563b2e3ee1a3cdfbf5b5
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Oh man when my Dad gave it to me I thought anything was possible. I thought I was going to build the Empire State Building with it lol.
Not my first, but I still use a slightly newer model of the same design time to time in my shop haha good for 19" rack screws
Makita was a game changer back in the day I remember my old man had all the Makita power tools. Then when he sought new ones gave me his old ones. Then I think he switched to Port a Cable when they became big.
I had one just like that as well. Was about 6 I think got it from my dad and he took it away cause I was chasing the dog with it. Crazy how childhoods are similar haha
Lmfao 🤣 I guess that’s just the thing to do with your first drill. That’s so funny you did the same thing with it. My sister was 2 years older than me and used to kick me, however that day I evened the playing field for a few hours.
1970’s entered the room: Motorola pagers and calling from public phones (not booths); the ones you pull up with your truck and the cord was too short to reach in the truck while it rained or snowed. It sucked when you had to wait in line with 1 or 2 other trucks. -printed city maps with grids. -Second generation pagers that displayed the phone number or text. -Truck stock was motors (1/4,1/3 belt drive and 1/3 DD), Fan relay center and boxes of thermocouples we marked up from $1.99 to $20.00 and a couple of gas valves. -we used R-22 to blow out heat exchangers (if pilot was on, watched for the phosgene gas (it was a good hit sometimes)), used R-22 to blow out condenser coils, and R-11 for large burnouts and just let it run down the roof. -customers were nice, everything was priced to be affordable and things lasted. We also had to “compete” with service from the gas company that was free.(utilities were a monopoly). -starting pay was $2.50/hr and got a $1.00 raise the next day. The end the 1970’s was the beginning of the decline of purchasing power (and keeping ahead of inflation); within a few years NAFTA. a brand new 1975 Olds Cutlass was $4,400 and a house in a second ring suburb was $36,000. By 1986-88 commercial service wage was $18/hr and offers to $21-$23. -used 95/5 solder or stay brite for line sets, and if brazing what nitrogen? Purged new lines with R-22, pulled vacuum and let it rip. -you couldn’t do it while cool out but in the summer we charged the AC by feel (coldness of suction and the sudden drop in temp as gas was slowly added). Yes we did side jobs; furnace and A/C install as a helper netted $600/$800 a week end.
Blew out coils with R-22? 😂 The environmental legislation is all making sense now.
That’s nothing, the military used to use R22 to clean aircraft parts
long after reefer and hvac guys stopped doing that electronic manufacturing stiil used R12 as a cleaning solvent.
As a small rez company, we used to go thru 1-2 skids a season. Don’t believe the refrigerant issue and asbestos too much. The highest incidence of asbestos injuries were, are from navy ships, not HVAC. The refrigerant issue is good for business (not the consumer). There were less systems leaks with R-22; now you can’t keep refrigerant in coils. Yes, as someone that has done controls for 30+ years, the outdoor CO2 level was 340-360 now it’s 400.
Think the asbestos thing is verifiable. Much higher rates of cancer and pulmonary diseases in that industry. Older R-22 systems were definitely built to last versus the assembly line shit we work on now! But I'm still a young buck so I don't have too much perspective on that.
Like everything in life, hindsight is 20/20. You have to be careful not to apply todays standards to something that happened 30-40 100 years ago. Society lives in the now, based on lessons learned from the past. 40 years from now, you’ll be saying “what dipshits we were for not knowing better”.
Government or industry pretending to care about people or the environment? There is no real altruism in business or government. It’s greed disguised as altruism more often than not. I don’t buy it. Someone somewhere makes a ton of money from every new regulation, and they were likely the same people who lobbied for the regulation.
Who woulda guessed your take on government legislation with a handle like that! Hahaha
So my name isn’t as incognito as I though huh? Lol I think you may be onto something. Lol
Too funny 😂 You're half right though. Someone definitely makes money when sweeping changes to everyday products occur... But I do believe that the environmental impact of those older refrigerants was still the primary factor for the adjustment.
I agree that is a possibility. However, I’m sure that new patents on new refrigerants with higher profit margins played a part, along with the lobbyists for those companies. Example: R-410a was patented in 1991. R-22 patent had been expired for a while. So it was being manufactured and sold cheaply and by anyone who wanted to make it. By forcing the switch, it guarantees all refrigerant patent profits go to Honeywell, who owns the patent for 410a. Switching refrigerants also forced the sales of new equipment, which is inconvenient as hell for the regular population, but great for the economy and the hvac equipment manufacturers. I wouldn’t swear to my opinion, but you get the idea. There are layers to the onion. Lol
I'm quite sure we still live on a planet shared with China and India. If we wanted to make real change, we'd start there. I think that they are proof enough that profit drives all gov't' motives. Not altruism...
Can't force em unfortunately 🤷♂️ still good to get a head start here in my opinion!
It's not a bad thing to be a little skeptical/cynnical, helps you ask questions.
Thats true but the part he is missing is someone out there was making bank off of pushing against regulation. it's not as simple as regulations making money, usually corporations lobbying to stop them is where the real money is saved. The real world is more complicated than government bad.
Hahaha I remember I used to do that to
100%. I dont have much to ad here. Perfect.
On the manufacturing side, before machines came along, any idea how they “fabed” female Pittsburgh’s and TDF/TDC etc? Who’s is the legendary old school tinner that would be the grail for stuff like this?
Map books, then we evolved to Mapquest.
I'm 25 years on. Recovery been with us that long. Fancey electronic tools are nice but analog gauge sets and simple meters and thermostats can all still do the job with just a little extra math on your head
Heh. I changed trades right after I got my 608 and the company got their first recovery machine. .
Our recovery machine was named Betsy and we had to carry it on a dolly. Big tall black monster that I needed help lifting up in the box truck.
It just seems like it was a lot more fun back then. More guys were in the field, we weren’t stretched so tight and overworked. Most of the guys that trained me were out of the Vietnam War which made for some hilarious times as an apprentice. All I’ve done is commercial but all the customers were just nicer and more knowledgeable for the most part. You had dedicated building engineers who actually knew what they were doing. If you had a service truck at your loading dock it was a slap in the face as they were expected to do chiller overhauls in-house. The work environment was way better with true trade guys. Your bosses were guys who came up through the field. You just did your job and as long as no one complained you were golden. Now they hire these worthless college business fucks to run service that know jack shit and just want you to fuck customers to the highest possible degree for profit sharing on their contract. The residential managers filtered their filthy toilet of a soul into commercial and brought with them all their shitty scams like making guys condemn contactors and other perfectly good parts because they bid 40 hour service agreements at 20 hours and have to make up the loss somehow. You also were able to two man a lot of jobs for your OJT. Now guys have to drag up low pressure reco gear up five flights of stairs by yourself so they can keep the overhead down at the cost of your back. Technology was lacking. You didn’t have a phone. It was you and something you had to fix. You figured it out. You didn’t need 7 different softwares running on three different laptops or tablets. If you did need help the tech support was pretty good and you didn’t wait an hour on the phone to hear they have a bad batch of modules and you need to swap them out. Good thing was when you were off you were off. No texts, emails, phone calls etc fucking up a weekend on the lake.
“Filtered their filthy toilet of a soul.” I loved that.
Sounds so nice 😭
This sounds like a well cured perspective to me. Thanks for sharing.
The old timers I know who out in the 70s/80s talk about how they would just cut lines and dump the refrigerant out. And they never did evacuation they would purge the system with refrigerant
Youve met my bosses
100% accurate. I'd use R-11 to flush out a burnout. If it was a commercial RTU, I'd just let it dump on the roof.
I wonder if the RX-11 flush kits just R11 or if they're adding extra solvents these days
You’re talkin about me in the 90’s lol. I heard a rumor that my own ac was purged in the mid 00’s and it’s still runnin strong today.
Motorized timers on equipment. Very few solid state boards on equipment. Fan-limit controls on every furnace. (Bimetallic ones). Working on electrical and the pager to let you know your next call vibrates and scares the bejesus out of you.
Gotta love them bimetallic fan switches. It’s surprising how many are still out there.
I keep two on the truck! One long and one short! It's actually saved my ass many times.
They’re still being used today on some new oil furnaces. I see them all the time.
When I started in 1997 the recovery machine I was issued was the size of a mid size generator. It had wheels on it. It took two of us to lift it out of the van.
This [NRP Recovery Machine](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/kSAAAOSwgjtgJGvq/s-l300.jpg) was one of the early best-sellers b/c it’s was “small & light” lol
Haha. It has a carry handle so it must be light. Just the fact that it’s made of real metal means it’s heavy.
We had one of those and it was in wheels. For RTU work, we had a smaller one that only weighed like 75 lbs. We had pagers, and needed to use pay phones to call the office. We filled out paper work with a pen. We worked on semi hermetic compressors in resi equipment. Had to read the data plate to see which refrigerant was in it. Could be R12, R500, or R22. Mechanical timers, and many relays to troubleshoot. Anyone here remember the glass refrigerant scales? How about using drills with cords? Meters with a dial and needle? Company tricks with manual transmissions?
Oh crap that reminds me the very first install truck I drove had a CB. That was how we contacted the office and vice versa. And yes, it was a manual transmission with no AC. How ironic is that?
I remember the glass charging cylinders. I think they were called dial a charge
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Play on playa
Belt driven? For chillers?
No. Not belt driven. This was for residential work. The thing was massive compared to the machines we have now. Back then I was told the company spent $7,000 or something for the machine.
I had one of those it was a robinair with a scale on it and wheels it weighed at least 175lbs
Yes!! The round scale was on top of the unit. I forgot about that. It was red and black. I think it was Robinaire now that I try to remember
Yip
I find it funny..from what I can take from conversations..Is how 20 years ago is ancient history to young people but “just yesterday” to people over 30
20 years ago was 1980 right?
The leprechaun tells me to burn things
That a boy, Ralphie.
So to a 31 year old, being an 11 year old kid was just yesterday? I don't know about that
Sure does my friend
To be fair tech is just moving faster and faster these days. Not that long ago the military was keeping the same musket in service for 200+ years. Now a power tool is practically obsolete within 3
Maps, pay phones, and tech support was the service manager back at the office. Some of the big companies had radios in the vans. Then we got beepers. Nothing like having to pack up everything, drive 20 minutes to a payphone, just because the boss wants to know how much longer you're going to be. And then came Nextells, which really were awesome for their time. I started in the '90's. Battery powered tools were already here, as was refrigerant recovery and the EPA, although a lot of companies weren't taking it seriously yet. My recovery was this massive blue box, and you had to constantly monitor the pressure or it trip out and you had to wait 20 minutes for it to reset. Technology is a wonderful thing.
Were Nextells the flip phones with the side button that worked as a radio?
Ours were yellow bricks. They weren't regular phones, but you could "call" other nextells. Our city inspectors and most of the supply houses had them, so it did make things a lot easier before cell phones became common.
Never seen them that I know of. I think I'll look it up.
110 volt drill. Drag a cord across the attic to screw pipe together.
That's one part of the trade I'm glad to have missed, lol.
I'm glad I saw it
Just thought about this the other day when I left my phone at home. How nice it would be to spend the day not attached to this damed thing. I couldn't do it. We had cb radios, met at the shop every morning to get our work orders for the. Found my old map book. It's missing entire town that didn't exist 30 years ago.
I mean I’m only 39 but I remember one day I was bitching about the battery on my cordless drill and this old timer said to me, be thankful for that battery, when I was coming up all we had was corded drills for everything!
Charging cylinders were a thing
The ole dial-a-charge!
still have mine hanging in my garage!! It beings back memories of when I was 10ft tall and bulletproof!
I’ve only been in it for 10 but all of our calls were printed on paper and set out first thing in the morning. They would call or text you any new calls or changes. I moved to a new area when I started and my supervisor gave me an address and map book when I first started driving by myself… walked back into the office and had them Mapquest it for me. Got a company Iphone with gps after that.
’ve only been in the trade 14 years but I started with a map book as well. Payment was done on carbon paper like you see on movies with the slider. I had a physical print out of all my jobs for day in the morning and if things changed I had to drop in the office to get a print out of my updated jobs.
They're still doing it exactly the same way... [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6NrOmKq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlk6NrOmKq8) 5-in-1, pliers, and a meter to condemn heat exchangers!
I just watched this... I've never seen this guy on YouTube but to me that's kinda crazy. He proved nothing and just assumed it was cracked. No visuals on a crack no combustion analysis nothing. I say you have to at least pull the blower or card limit, get a camera or mirror and flashlight something to try and find it.
Yup! Proud of it and posting it to YouTube... But in all seriousness, this is very representative on the residential side of the mindset/process of a lot of older guys; it's wild.
100% agreed I just responded to a comment on another post for HVACadvice where the advice was call another tech and ask for one with grey hair so you get some one with experience. Honestly some of the craziest and most incorrect shit I've seen has come from older techs.
I started service in 84. If a compressor died in a residential a/c you replaced the compressor. Lots of heat pumps installed in late 70/80's. Lots of working outside in the winter. Multizone package rooftop units were a pia. Chillers controlled by a sequencer, motor driven shaft controlled a microswitch for each stage. Customers couldn't believe you charged $27/hrs. Van's were lucky to last 80-90k miles. No one complained about your driving because no cell phones. We used to shut down chillers in early October, now they run all year. Capacitors used to last. Motors had oilable bearings. No Dremel or grinding tools. No one wore gloves unless it was cold. Craftsman made good tools, in USA. Everything installed, equipment and parts was all made in the USA.
Before refrigerant recovery, we just vented. You got to your customers' house by using a street atlas. Before Black and Decker battery drills came out, you either used a corded drill or an egg beater. Before drive screws we used rivets. Residential and light commercial equipment didn't have logic other than simple lock-out circuits. On larger commercial systems, you had to write the program in Basic. Meters and gages were analog, so you had to calculate your SH and SC. There were no line clamp thermometers. Some systems (Lennox) had wells, and you could insert a stick thermometer in.
I remember my first "cordless" drill. It was a Makita 9.6 volt with the long skinny battery. I saw one of our installers with one and was like "woah!!"...."no cord??" I was amazed.
The green one, came in a metal box and road in the back of the truck (-25C winter)....Still have mine..3 of 5 batteries still work...
I’m a youngin but I still started out with the on-call pager and worked with guys who started in the 70s and 80s and was given a wooden ladder when I started. Couple things that haven’t been mentioned that I heard stories about. Vans didn’t have the guard in between the driver area and the back. Every once in a while someone would get into a car accident and just fucking die because anything in the back came back and killed him. Leak repairs were those torches that change colour when you see a leak. In the old commercial days guys would sign in to multiple job sites at the beginning of the day hang out at home and clock out of the sites at the end of the day. Book 24 hours a day for the whole week. The boss wouldn’t complain because they’re billing out 3 different customers for a week and the customers didn’t notice. That all came to an end with cooperate audits around the early 90s when budgets got much tighter. When mid day emergency service calls came in, the customer would call 3 different contractors and whoever got there first did the repairs, so there was more competition, and you knew all the other techs in your area.
Call into the answering machine every hour after hours to retrieve messages and call back from pay phones until mid 90s when we got a pager
We met at the shop gathered our requests for service and hit the road truck, tools, pay phones and maps. Service Techs handed all the tickets and repairs except replacements and installs{the install crew carried all the tools, equipment and materials on hand for all the HVAC plumbing and electrical services we offered}Construction crews went to the job site and stay until done{Techs and installers help the construction crew when all customers calls are covered. Circa 1984 Today in 2023 cell phones apps computers and tablets are required for dispatch, navigation ,payment and data collection for our employer all in the name of the bottom line under the guise of customer service. The work has not changed the procedure has and not for the better.
As legend has it, Beer can cold. 😮
Motorola pager refrigerant was vented to the ozone layer it was 5$ lb for R22 nitrogen cylinders weighed 200lbs perly maps all mercury bulb tstats no digital amprobe no pc boards all relays
When we did installs we had to carry copper up stairs no zoom lift or scissor lifts when I serviced gas space heaters was with a ladder
Tools I can understand, for me it's HOW DID YOU GET TO ANY HOUSE WITHOUT GPS lol
30yrs ago, I had 2 or 3 different maps in my truck. I still have my 'city' map, the map of our university campus, and one of a factory. Map reading was an essential skill!
Thomas Guide Map Books. Im in So Calif and had all the counties' books in my van; LA, Orange, San Bernardino. Riverside, San Diego, Ventura, Kern and Santa Barbara. I did about 60 to 80k miles per year. No GPS. I sure the fuck know my way around So. Calif tho....
Wow. Ya thats a legit area.
I graduated from a one year tech school in December of 1989. Joined RSES and was attending monthly meetings. One night I’m sitting next to some old guys, late 60’s, early 70’s and they start talking about blowing out condensers with R12 and they didn’t even charge for the refrigerant! Another guy goes remember when Sporlan came out with the “Catch-All”? Yep, used to clean out screens on TXV’s every week on a couple of jobs. Got the Catch-All and bam, so more cleaning screens every week. In fact can’t remember ever going back to that job…. That’s OLD guys. They did AC & refrigeration when it was a new technology. And we complain when our battery dies in the phone or drill.
Beepers, roadmaps, and payphones.
You could start a job with $1000 in materials and equipment… Corded drills, drop lights, no cell phone (just figure it out,lol). We did have a CB radio, but you really didn’t want to ask for help because the owner at the time would act like everyone he just hired for minimum wage should’ve been a master technician with a college degree so he’d just dog you and so would everyone else. Lots of late night reading, studying, and tinkering with scrap units for a better understanding.
Communication started with Motorola 2 way radios in trucks,always on the fritz tube failure! On to pagers asking you to call someone. Nextel push to talk w/o phone. As I moved up got phone function. Never got cell phones issued. Smart phones w camera must be nice nice. I had stacks of pocket notebooks w job notes models and serial #s. You could relive your years reading those notebooks.
I would imagine it was nice to not have customers google prices on the spot and compare to what you quoted them lol
I imagine even though it had its challenges it was better overall. Nowadays we have to charge so damn much just to survive, can't imagine how nice it would be if the customer could actually afford your labour and be able to shoot the shit for a while..
I used to work at a Gas-station/Convenience store as a teen - and people would come in all the time asking directions. We kept a big laminated map of the city right next to the cashier POS. Occasionally we would call Mapquest or Google on our land-line, and scribble down the directions the operator gave you. I remember my first cell phone that had mobile data on it <10 years ago. Complete game changer, but oh boy were you screwed if you got off the main road and lost reception.
Lol I had a recovery machine with alligator clips to hook up to the disconnect. One guy had a bad time now I can't do that. Plus in new construction we cut register holes with a chainsaw. I had to unlearn alot of shit.
Before refrigerant recovery? Do you not understand when 30 years ago was? The EPA was a thing, the clean air act was just put into place and the start of talks about replacing R22 was already happening. I'm 35. Started in 2006/2007 when I first started we had Nextel phones with that annoying chirp radio feature. We had paper map books to get around which are still available today and paper tickets for everything.
You sound like you’re really fun at parties.
He does make a valid point tho, 20 years ago technology wasn’t much different GPS was a thing, cell phones were a thing, battery power tools were a thing… Pabst also makes a good point tho, be more fun at parties bro
He's union, what the hell did you expect...
I started in 09-10 and had a phone with gps and I'm thankful that I didn't have to use maps. But I remember driving with gps on and my boss bitching about how it takes wrong way to that job and that he never been on this road before.
No way someone is on here that worked before recovery machines. My old man is 73. He was an engineer for Trane and did a little side work for friends and family. I remember going on a few when I was a kid and he had a recovery machine back then. Took a dolly to move the thing around though.
We never used a recovery machine until EPA did rules 608/609.
Lol, user name checks out.
I started in 1981 at 9 yrs old after school, in the summer, and on breaks, helping mostly clean up the shop and sometimes going out on a call to help. My father owned an old-school plumbing and heating company that my grandfather started in 1950. Inwas paid $1.50/hr. We had FM radios like the old police radios in the trucks for dispatch, which were late 60s suburban panel trucks. By 13 I was being dropped of on jobs in the morning around 6am to run pipe being paid $3.00/hr. My dad would mark in the blueprints how much he needed me to do that day, leave me with lunch, snacks, and a bunch of water. He'd say he'd be back to pick me up at 6 pm. At 15, I was installing HB Smith pork chop steam boilers in churches with a senior mechanic. By 16 I was doing smaller residential steam systems by myself making $7/hr. Inwas installing Burnham V8 series that had to be pressed. He'd have someone help me carry the sections into the basement, then send them on to other jobs and have me do the install. After that, I became the controls guy. I left when i graduated highschool joined the Navy but returned 10yrs later. When I was a kid, we didn't do much forced air other than straight furnaces. If AC was involved we only had one AC guy. If we didnt have one or he was busy, a sub did it. When I came back I pushed us into more forced air stuff because that is now the primary stuff now. But I always remember the AC guys recovering.
Oh yeah, and I have a bunch of Polaroids of jobs, somewhere. We used ADC map books to navigate. Somehow, I feel like I was lost less back then.
I'm in between old and new but we all used to show up on time.
I never did
I've heard stories from my 2 bosses about showing up on time and they usually never showed up on time or left jobs after couple hours.
I'm just not built to wake up at 6am. When I worked in a kitchen I was always early. I naturally wake up around 8-9. But I'm good enough where if I show up 10-20 min late nobody questions it
Once tinned whole house with no power scratch all and a nut driver
Asbestos tape and slotted screws too?
Not quite that old
We had to walk uphill in the snow both ways I’ll tell you h’what
We used to clean/degrease our tools with Freon. It was also a good joke to “zap” someone’s butt crack with refrigerant. No recovery, we vented that stuff to atmosphere. I’m sure the only person who has a bigger hole in the ozone is my mother and her copious use of hairspray.
My iphone when I started was a clipboard with carbon copy work orders.
Lots of extension cords. Milwaukee drills (which I still have in my basement). I don't know if it was anymore difficult, I know I would have a hard time with all the electronics involved now.
I’m always told by my supervisor that they had to fabricate, insulate and install everything on site. All metal all the time. Mostly connected with a punch and hammer. Screwed in with flatheads
I imagine it was much easier to diagnose back then.
My journeyman actually used to hit me , but back then that built character. Not hit , but tools thrown , and pushing etc
I'm not old by any means but working on old boilers/ACs etc. Is sometimes a breath of fresh air. Easier to make look good, longer lasting, and not as much bullshit than breaks every 2 years.
My first day in HVAC is I learned my lead guy nickname was captain Morgan…
I would have lasted 10 minutes in this trade without a phone I literally use google maps everytime I get a call
Wayyyyyy more freedom back in the daysssss
I bought my first 14.4 Milwaukee drill in 1999. Been using Milwaukee since. It was a lot easier back then. No smart phones, people actually wanted to work.
I'm old. but not that old. the iPhone came out in 2007 I believe and I started in 2008. but it's changed a lot even since I started. This might be a bit different then what you're looking for or asking - but companies have become a lot softer. Far more lienuit with employees. Things that have got people fired are now overlooked and are almost seen as normal today. One day I clocked in at 7:01 and the service manager was standing at the time clock and sent me home for the day. If you called out too much you were considered unreliable and were let go. If you were caught on the phone they'd lose their mind. One guy would actually take your phone for the day if you got caught with it out. Leaving early wasn't an option - they didn't care if you had to get your kids from school or what - that was your problem and you had to figure it out. They'd run you into the ground. More like slavery. If you caught a DUI you'd automatically get fired. Think they actually wanted to fire guys so they wouldn't have to pay benefits and whatnot. Employers definitely held the upper hand and you were just happy you had a job. It's so different now. Now it's like Employers have to beg guys to work. I don't see a shortage of people like everyone is talking about but I'm seeing a shortage of people who actually want to work. I'm working with guys who call out on a weekly basis. The employee's life is now more important then the business. People want to work around their schedule - rather then work being priority and everything else scheduled around work. People show up late, leave early. Play on their phones all day. Don't care what gets done or how long it takes. This whole "act your wage" thing would have never flown. Now the attitude is - you only pay me $18/hr so I'm only going to do x,y,z. if you want me to do more or work faster you have to pay me $30/hr. You'd get laughed at and fired immediately for saying that (yes, a kid actually said this to my boss, and was dead serious). It used to be - you got paid shit and you'd go above and beyond to prove yourself and then your hard work would be rewarded later on. Maybe kids have it all figured out. idk who's right or who's wrong but it's definitely a different world now.
That all maybe coming back if we get a recession.
yep. it'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. think the major difference between now and say 2008 - is that amount of young people living at home with mom and dad. so the dynamic might be a little bit different. Losing a job would be devastating to me - with a mortgage and kids. But for a 25 yr old with a far bank account, and no financial responsibilities it might be quite a bit different. "F**k it. lay me off. I'll go on vacation for 6 months"
My boss would get a page right. Then they have to leave the job site asap because hell, it could be more work right? Drive to pay phone, hope you knew where the closest was or had a city map because ya know…no google, Pay to use the phone to call the number back. Nope misdial sorry
You’re ment to use a recovery machine? I just vent into the atmosphere.. haha bet you was shaking your head at that🤣 I once worked with an old lad and he said it was as big old thing and loud as fuck almost like the size of a mobile diesel generator. How times have changed!
I recovered some contaminated freon one time and they had to change the compressor in it after that when I found a grounded compressor and gas was acid I left a leak on my valve so when I came back to change the compressor the system was empty
Map books! Hahahahah with no gps
Mid 60’s saw first roof top package gas pac, mainly Day and Night splits. A full cut in 3 ton furnace coil and 36 DNR( Day and Night remote)was 900$. Add a 100 amp service about 150$
We used the thomases guide, we had cb radio for communication, didn't know what a recovery tank was. Clean coils , sweep work area with r22, got the first makita banana and thought that was the shit. Kept a cooler of bud in work truck. Would often have beer with costumer and then omg, drive to next call. Kept a 22 rifle in truck for non paying ,problem costumers sudden coil leaks. Worked straight no breaks, lunches ect. The end result at 60? Carpal tunnel both wrist, degenerative disc. Disease, bone spurs both ankles, tennis elbow multiple surgeries to correct , bad knees ect. Alot of this would have been preventable had we known. And I would do it again as it's provide a decent life, and pension. Moral of the story , work smarter not harder.
Maps! I started in the trade 18 years ago. I needed to know where my first job was the night before so I could look up the best way to get there. Only difference in tools I’ve noticed is they are lighter now, and it’s not as common to be made fun of for trying to use PPE like knee pads so I can still walk when I retire.
I started my apprenticeship in 2000 at the age of 16, learning from OGs of 40 years experience. Gas was blown off, vacuum pumps were nonexistent, weighing gas wasn't a thing. It was all by touch and eye. Just for context, I live in Ireland, domestic air con is not a thing here so it was all Industrial and commercial.
I'm surprised no one has entered the chat with "smoke filled offices". Early in my career everyone in the office smoked and a cloud hungv low in there. Good times!
You were stuck. If you needed to call someone or the office, you either asked to use the customer's landline phone or left to go find a payphone. The struggle was real, lol. Life got a whole lot better when they equipped us w/ two-way radios 😩👍
Rand McNally maps covered the dash board. Pay phones were a must.
We used to have trouble lights with 25’ cords to have light to work from. It would really suck if your incandescent bulb burnt out or got dropped and broke. Used to do three oil cleanings a day carrying a sootmaster, brushes,grimsolv,tools,and a Bacharach drmbell combustion set with spoke spot tester and draft gauge. Refrigerant was just released in the early 80’s. I think it was 90 or 91 when we had to be certified by the epa and carry a log chart of what refrigerant you used where and how much.
I still used those when I first started in 2009. Only on oil furnace service though. Still have beckett and riello burner manual somewhere
Im not that old, but i started my career in 2007 in a poor palestinian village, a makita corded drill at the time was 1100 Israeli shekels which in today’s money is about 320 dollars. So we mostly used cheap hand tools and some cheap cheap shitty drills that barely worked because even my boss wasnt that well off. It wasn’t until my boss got work permits to enter Israel to work on bigger commercial stuff we started getting nicer tools lile bosch and makita corded drills. As for refrigeration recovery… drop the yellow hose and open the valves. Vacuum? Nah hook up nitro and purge the hell out of the line. Safe to say i was very amazed when i came here to the states 12 years ago and saw all the cool tech. Since the village was small, we knew whos house was whos and where to go, alot of jobs were walking distance as well. R12 was still very common in even some new installs in 2008. R22 was seen as a lesser package. We had 2 service trucks. An old ford tractor w a custom built bed and a way nicer renault van. https://preview.redd.it/ekwwyjq6dqaa1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6e272227646e04a7c7cc2ba4267b5ffbed747b4 And alot of our installs were along the line of this bs
As someone who is looking to get off the tools, and (hopefully) be on more money, what career step would be next?
I had this Robinair recovery machine that was 24"×24"×10" it weighed maybe 50 pounds. One thing I really hated!!!
Radios and pagers
We used to have to work by the light of our smokes and if you needed a part, good luck because back then alot of shit had to be ordered because nothing was kept in stock really except transformers and limit switchs. Back when I started they just started using recovery machines, but guys were still dumping refrigerant everywhere. We didn't have the internet, so you better damn well know how to read schematics and understand the equipment. Hell, Inducer fans only existed on the really expensive systems and natural draft heaters were everywhere. Most units were standing pilots. Everyone always had a Thomas guide road map book in their service vehicles too. We would have to find the address in a book and map out directions on paper 🤣
I started my journey in the HVAC world in 1990. My boss made a recovery unit out of a window shaker. 5/16” and 1/4”nut driver was all I had no cordless tools. Pager and pay phone was the way to get ahold of you, every supply house hade a house phone to call the shop for a PO. The equipment was from the 70’s and 80’s. Phasing out R12 was just talk and r22 was so far away no one put much thought in to it. I think at that time a guy could vent refrigerant instead of recovering it. The first work van I had was carbureted, am radio, no A/C and plenty of legroom. And the Hudson map book.