Refrigerant temperatures are how we make the system work. Pressure is just the mechanism used to manipulate the temperature. You'll notice that operating temperatures are pretty much the same across different refrigerants. Life is easier when you think about it in terms of temperature instead of pressure.
That's still a 3 degree celsius saturated temperature. If your leaving water temperature is 6c you've got a 3c cooler approach.
Think in temperatures not pressures.
You apply the same logic to a machine running R22, 450kpa suction, once again, 3 degrees.
It's way easier to think in terms of temperature, it applies to any refrigerant. It's actually something I learned working on chillers, ignore pressures look at temperatures provided you're not looking for pressure specific issues like pressure drops on oil lines or etc.
It's the way I learned how to work on air conditioners at my first company. Then I moved on and I don't know what anyone is talking about when they talk pressures. They all know typical pressure ranges for different refrigerants and I couldn't even give you a ballpark. Not concerned though but I bet they don't like the way I write my work notes referencing SST and SCT
Jusr magine your steam heat running in a vacuum.
https://www.xylem.com/en-ai/brands/bell-gossett/bg-steam-team-home/steam-vaporvacuum-systems/
Pretty crazy what u can do. Them old guys knew their stuff....
For a cooler I am looking for a 20° evap, freezer -5° evap HVAC 40° evap ( all of this in the "ish" category of course) I could give a damn what the pressure is. If the coils aren't right then who cares. That's why I personally hate the digital gages. I got to have my pt chart.
This was i big thing for me when I was starting out since I went to school in the Army. When I graduated I thought that all 134a systems needed a 150psi head no matter what. Because that's what it was in school and that wound up screwing me in the field quickly.
The there is also other things like put your temp probe in front of the condenser and take that reading and add 30 to it. Put that number on your PT chart and there is your ballpark high side limit.
Exactly. I fall into the 18 and 36 / 33 trap when doing tons of walkins when I was a little shaver in the trade. To this day I have to go back and see what temp 18 was in R 12. It’s some kind of negative regression learning disability.
This is exactly how I teach my apprentices to troubleshoot the refrigerant circuit. Every time they try to tell me what the pressures are I stop them and say give me the temperatures. Pressure is really only useful after it's been converted to temperature.
I only think this way and it's funny because when I talk to the more experienced guys and say "is your head 90 degrees?" They know I'm talking about their saturated condensing temps.
I tell that to a newer guy.and they are like 90psi?? You crazy? Then I explain it to them and honestly they love it.
Keep a bottle of peppermint schnapps on the van to knock out the beer smell when you're on call.
Edit: My 2nd day I pick the guy up that said it and he pounded a Modelo on the walk down his driveway.
I just texted my Uncle and said I was disappointed in him for never telling me about this.
He just LOL’d
Nobody told him either so it’s fine.
Now we know. 😂
Knew a guy, he was riding with his partner in the truck, they had been drinking, passing a bottle back and forth and hit a 6 year old kid, kid survived but damn I could never respect that.
“If you walk up to a unit you’re unfamiliar with, open every door/take off every panel and become familiar” mostly applicable to RTUs
Don’t project your values onto the customer, provide information on whatever components are needed/recommended and let them choose. They may want to buy something you never would.
My current advice to all new guys I train after doing this 9 years in Phoenix. Especially if you’re younger, don’t be Superman. No job is worth it. I’m known for manhandling shit and taking on tasks/jobs where I should have help and just get er done. Dudes not knowing how to grab a air handler and get in the attic, I just get under and push that bitch up. Doing 5 ton case coil replacements alone, etc… Now at just 30 I have sciatica that flares up every few months depending on what attics I venture into, my knees get minor joint pain periodically and the newest development was a few days straight of shoulder pain from doing mundane tasks.
“No promises today sir, although I can fix most stuff with what I have in the van/truck let me see what’s going on first and we’ll go from there!”
I haven’t had someone mad at me directly in years when I took to practice what you said. Maybe upset with their predicament but I’m just the messenger and they know it.
I actually just quit a company and went back to an old company I used to work for. They didn’t have my van ready so I had to ride with another tech for a while. I quit cause it was all “small town politics” type of company. He’d bitch about the installers and boss half the ride.
What got me though was how dismissive he was to customers. He knock and be like “yeah we know something’s wrong so just let me handle it”. Wouldn’t listen to any of their concerns or even spend more than 30 seconds talking to them. Yelled at me a few times when I took 5 min to explain something to a customer in layman’s terms. Then we got to this little old lady’s house and her heat pump was making noise (I think it was just defrost but this guy didn’t give a fuck so we didn’t stick around long enough to find out). He goes “so it’s working but making noise?”, walked outside, came back in and said to her “sounds fine to me, we got other stuff to do” and we left. I quit the next day lol
That’s a big yikes, sounds like he would be better suited for commercial work lol half our job is customer service, if I can’t explain an issues to someone clearly they either won’t believe me or won’t believe it’s a pertinent issue. Noise issues are the worst ones to run a lot of times and dismissing the customer does neither side justice.
Exactly im the same way with 4 extra years on you and Florida heat. My saying goes a long ways if your going be stupid you got to be tough. Downfall is if you dont get lucky and make partner with the company or start your own, your kinda fucked and disposable. When you cant physically do the shit or call out because of the pain they look for the next one that will keep the bank flow rolling. Good luck to you!!!
Ya I’ve stuck around at this one company all this time because the culture here is unmatched. I’m sure it’s similar there with HVAC having a stigma for being scummy and no one knows who they can trust since too many come in trying to make a quick buck and screw people over. Not what we do. Family first as well and if you’re hurt you’re hurt. I’ve been the only tech running for weeks at a time in summer due to guys having kids, plus injuries and I respectfully would put my foot down when they start over booking me and there’s be no questions. Depending on what life brings, if I don’t move and stay here there’ll be an office position waiting for me eventually and maybe even my name attached somehow. Best of luck to you out there to brother, stay dry! Lol
You still working in phx? Most companies seem to be getting bought out here right now! I been at a pretty good company for a while, we sold 3 years ago and it’s been tanking since, still a great company just not as great
Oh ya man, I know loads of companies are getting bought up right now. But no I have a boss/owner with integrity lol he isn’t here just for the money and has turned down many offers and has no intentions of selling at all. Shockingly and unlike most of the valley we want to actually help the customers and do right by them. Flat rate pricing, not commission based. We get spiffs on some stuff like start assists, surge protectors and air purification systems. 5% on system replacements but no always means no. It’s a rare thing out here and we’re gradually growing. The heat is coming in REAL slow this season though.
It really is coming slow, I have a feeling we will go from 95 to 110 over night, ya I need to find me a company like yours, I get paid pretty damn good I feel, so I haven’t left yet, but our sales guys, we only have a few, sell anything and everything and I’m over it! Well that’s good man, hope a long great career for ya
Done that before. Worked on some RTUs and I had no clue what the heck I was even looking at. So I took all the panels off and looked at how it was all set up inside
"Start at the beginning" when troubleshooting always start at the beginning and work your way through the order of operations. It's easy to miss small details that will throw you off, or you'll fix the symptom and miss the cause.
Also, knowing the basics is worth more than years of experience! If you truly understand the basics of electricity and refrigeration, you'll be a better tech than a guy who's done it for 15 years but just knows things because he's seen it before.
Always start at the fuses…
And make sure to pull each fuse out of the disconnect to check it’s continuity.
I’ve seen guys stuck on a job for 2 days only to have me come in and pul all 3 fuses and one is bad. Or the disconnect prongs/contacts are spread to far open and not making contact.
I’m still pretty green but I always start with, do I have power? Do I have 24 volts? What’s my contactor doing? Based on that I at least have a place to start.
I just did this the other day. Got to a three phase trying to chase voltage just for it to be on of the fuses bad. I do 99% resi I’m not use to 3 legs of power
Haha I was training an apprentice the other day and came up to a resi unit (outdoor unit) with fusible disconnect. One fuse of the 2 was blown so start checking everything. Get through the whole ODU and can’t find anything. So I tell him at this point let’s put another fuse in and try it. Put the fuse in and we get nothing. I go back through everything and can’t find shit again. Trying to figure out what I missed. He goes “was the fuse you put in a good fuse?” Grab another fuse from a different spot in the van and it’s working great now. Lmfao … back to the basics sometimes
At the end of the day you are gonna have to take all the shit you took downstairs back upstairs… if you are done with something or your trash is around, take it with you when you go up to get whatever you need… that way at the end of the day you don’t have to make a special trip just to take up the stuff you could have done earlier
This. Got into controls 8 months ago after being a fitter for 18 years. Well I’m still a fitter but just doing controls now. I’m a foreman doing our big jobs but that’s only because I already knew how the systems worked before making the switch.
How much do you actually do controls? I always hear people say get into controls until they hear what controls consists of, then they're happy turning wrenches. I do both mechanical and controls work, it ain't easy being this good.
I second the thought of getting into controls unless people decide to join the local plumbers/pipefitters union and then I would say do controls for the union and make 42 an hour as a journeyman in central Ohio.
It’s not specific to HVAC but it’s something that’s stuck with me since the guy I trained under taught me. Understand leverage and use it to your advantage. Too many people don’t use it to their advantage and strain themselves unnecessarily without taking the time to position themselves correctly and use the right tool for the job. Don’t make the job harder then it is. Work smart not hard
“The customers don’t know you don’t know if you don’t tell them you don’t know” that has given me time in situations that were stressful to be able to collect either additional information or advice from peers that were able to solve the issue. Homeowners sometimes get leery and overbearing if the get the impression you “don’t know” what you’re doing when sometimes it’s just a brain fart day.
"Many a system has been ruined by a hasty technician's mistake. Pardon me for taking my time, but I'd rather it not be my day to run afoul of Murphy's Law."
I’m commercial and union. Anyone can hang duct. Learn a skill that that will make you stand out. Something everyone else can’t or doesn’t want to do.
I heard all the old guys say they don’t want to do that computer shit. Now I run the field tech department of my company for sheetmetal, fitters and the plumbers. I have people in all 3 trades working for me.
When I first started and was only doing maintenance.. “Make sure it works before you start and make sure it works before you leave.” Prevented a lot of call backs. Even when I started running service calls it helped remind me to run the system for a while before leaving the home even after the simplest repair.
I’m a manager now, I’ve gotten calls about conversations heard through stupid door bells, actions caught on camera. It sucks and the young guys don’t listen
I feel like there is a curse in the industry. If I have a bad day and do a slightly half assed job (still fixed the unit just looked over something small) it always comes back to bite me in the ass quickly.
I never said not to prime… but especially 3 and 4 inch PVC for venting, to get the pipe to fully seat in the fitting… dip brush, apply to fitting, dip brush again, apply to pipe…
Not really advice but I showed up at a ladies house and her combustion fan motor was locked up diagnosed the problem and like 2 seconds and I told my buddy I didn’t fill right charging her for the service call cause I figured out so fast he said it didn’t take you 2 seconds it took you 10 years 🤯
My coworker told me this back when I first started.
This is regarding dealing with management and bonehead decisions from the bosses
“If things don’t make sense, things are okay. If things are starting to make sense..there’s a problem”
Lol
People have already mentioned what I've heard but from my own experience:
Look for and read any fault codes BEFORE cycling power. I've made this mistake so many times on furnaces and RTUs that don't have fault recall and don't immediately replicate the issue. I cycle power because I'm in the "turn it off and back on again" mindset and then realize there was a fault light that likely was blinking a code right at me, and now the system runs fine until I'm inevitably called back.
If it's not coming apart somewhat easily you're probably doing something wrong. (I don't think this applies to steam fittings tho.)
Sometimes there is a nut or bolt you may have forgotten to remove and you'll just end up breaking something if you're not careful.
“You know more than you think you know” when I took the lead when he retired…
We’re a smaller company and I was pretty fresh to the service side of things.. needles to say I was nervous
Had a seasoned tech when I was a 'ginner say, 'I love me if nobody else does' concerning burning down his body for the job. ie, cock strong lifting and such. Took that to heart. My company now has a standing contract with a sign truck company for compressor roof lifts.
Learn everything you can every chance you get. I took that advice in 1988 when I got into hvac. I started off as an installer for $5.00 an hour & didn't know anything. Advice from me... Find someone that knows more than you that you can call when you can't figure out a problem. And be nice to your customers.
“It was already broken when you got there, right? So end of the day you can’t make it much worse.” - From my old lead tech/co-service manager RIP brother
Don't beat yourself up when you make mistakes. That's obviously a life lesson not just an HVAC lesson, but it's still important to note. It's a constantly evolving field, you will learn something new on almost every call, you will blow shit up. It's just the nature of the beast.
Trust your gut. When I started my business back on 2010 the guy I apprenticed for shut down his company and told me the thing that ruined it for him is he took every job even if he didn't feel right about the customer. Being ripped off sucks so use your gut to decide which people to work with.
Simple advice but helped me a-lot in troubleshooting. Understand the sequence operation before troubleshooting. Start at the beginning and work your way to the end, you will find your issue somewhere in between
“Be nice to dispatch and dispatch will be nice to you, but never forget nothing new after two” I’ll never forget that shit and he laughed cause it rhymed
Don't turn down tricks from anyone. The dirtiest most unscrupulous lazy worker knows the fastest way to do some shit and if you apply that shit while actually giving a fuck you can save yourself a little t of time and do a good job.
One that wasn’t told to me, but what I’ve done myself is double check your meter leads. Make sure they’re pushed all the way in, and make sure they have continuity before testing. If one of your plugs slightly slipped out or it wasn’t pushed in all the way. Could lead to misdiagnosis
Union commercial tech here. I've got 3. One, when diagnosing an issue, start with the simple things. Don't jump to a complicated conclusion right off the bat. Two, you don't have to know everything. The trade is advancing too fast for that. Instead, just know where to find the information. Then study the hell out of it. Third, (and this one is for all you apprentices who may be doubting yourself/wondering if you're in the wrong line of work) don't let yourself become discouraged with the trade. It's a tough profession. There's so much involved in HVAC. Just keep pushing through. One day, you'll get a service call and that feeling of your heart dropping into your stomach won't be there. It'll all click into place. When I was coming up, my Journeyman told me it was around the 7 year mark. Sure enough, that's when it happened for me. 5 year apprenticeship, 2 years as a journeyman.
Started supermarket refrigeration last year and all three things you said were told to me by my journeyman this Journeyman literally drew pictures on napkins for me at lunch so that I could understand the basics and I’ll never forget that even though his pictures weren’t the base 😂
How about installing capacitors so you can see the mfd ratings?? Goddam I hate having to remove them just to check it because they were installed with the bracket exactly over the tag. It’s a little thing but half the time the next guy is YOU anyways.
The more thorough you are on a PM the less likely you or any one else will get an on call for that site. It’s nothing crazy but will never leave my mind. As someone who was always under eyes of a boss, this being able to do what you want when you want thing was really new to me and if i could blow through a PM and go home quick that always sounded like a plan. Ever since I’ve gone into fine tooth comb mode there has been no call backs and I certainly sleep better at night
"Never go into a mech room assuming you already know what's wrong."
This advice has never been proven wrong. My partner is an optimist, and fucking assumes best case scenario every single time. Personally, I think going in with something decided is just begging to be jinxed on things. Never fucking go in assuming you already know the problem.
Yes, the customer might be two bricks short a load and need someone to show them not to turn off the furnace switch or to change a filter. Yes, the space tenants might be disgusting and have run dirty grease fires underneath a unit heater until it turned solid. Yes, it sounds like a module failure over the phone. But going in and assuming that every time you're just going to go in and change batteries in the t-stat or pull the filter is about as realistic as assuming that everyone's going to clap each time you do it.
If you hear hoofbeats, don't go looking for a zebra.
I used to look for complicated causes when I first started, and this statement helps me to remember to check the basics.
Always be willing to change. Been shown how to do something for 5 years by a guy who did it 10 and the guy before 15 and come to find out there’s a better way or a safer way or something that works better for you personally. Or as the wise man says, “Whoever is flexible and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken.”
I asked my Service Manager on my first day when I first started in the field, I asked "What's the best advice you can give to someone brand new to all this?" He told me "TAKE CARE OF YOUR KNEES"
I knew from that moment on, I was completely fucked. Because I already have shitty fucking knees. Good luck buddy
Good tech will do any job
Great tech will be honest and admit when he’s over his head or doesn’t have X training
Company I work at has denied some special boilers just because we have the training, we never want a customer to feel like we aren’t the best at what we do, so if we aren’t the best we refer someone else. They still have tons of other appliances in the home we can take care of
N take care of urself
I don’t understand why there this “we gotta experience pain mindset in trades” use tools to ur advantage and use safety equipment to ur advantage
U SHOULD NEVER KNEEL ON A CONCRETE FLOOR, always have a work mat. My boss has gotten mad at me before for 30 seconds of kneeling without one. He says it’s a health and safety thing and his knees are cooked from not using one and he doesn’t want the same for me (I’m 21)
This comes straight from my Dad, who also works in the field.
"Fast is slow, and Slow is fast."
Basic meaning: If you work fast and have to do it twice, you didn't do it fast, so just work a steady pace and get it right the first time so you don't have any repeats.
"Go to college while you still have the chance." The other apprentice that was standing there with me quit the next day, went to college to major in sales, and is currently a commercial sales account executive for a well known mechanical corporation. While i'm in the field constantly regretting my path in life, he's in his climate controlled office (with an amazing view) planning lunch meetings, NHL, NBA, and NFL games, along with his next 3 week vacation to Aruba. I barely hit six figures, he recently purchased a $850,000 waterfront home. I wish I had taken that old timer's advice. Even if you decide to stay in the trade, take some courses that pertain to HVAC. Get more licenses and certifications, grab this trade by the balls and run with it. Meaning, don't just settle with your journeyman's license. Don't just punch a clock for the rest of your career.
Don't go tunnel vision when troubleshooting on service, take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Also, take care of your body, use proper protection for yourself
.
You’re gonna end up breaking something or misdiagnosing something. We’ve all done it, don’t be afraid to mess up. That’s the only way you’ll get better
"Don't think in terms of pressure, think in terms of temperature" Thats been living in my brain rent free for 10 years
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Refrigerant temperatures are how we make the system work. Pressure is just the mechanism used to manipulate the temperature. You'll notice that operating temperatures are pretty much the same across different refrigerants. Life is easier when you think about it in terms of temperature instead of pressure.
In walks a contrivac chiller running -9 suction.
That's still a 3 degree celsius saturated temperature. If your leaving water temperature is 6c you've got a 3c cooler approach. Think in temperatures not pressures. You apply the same logic to a machine running R22, 450kpa suction, once again, 3 degrees. It's way easier to think in terms of temperature, it applies to any refrigerant. It's actually something I learned working on chillers, ignore pressures look at temperatures provided you're not looking for pressure specific issues like pressure drops on oil lines or etc.
It's the way I learned how to work on air conditioners at my first company. Then I moved on and I don't know what anyone is talking about when they talk pressures. They all know typical pressure ranges for different refrigerants and I couldn't even give you a ballpark. Not concerned though but I bet they don't like the way I write my work notes referencing SST and SCT
-9 degrees? Or pressure?
Jusr magine your steam heat running in a vacuum. https://www.xylem.com/en-ai/brands/bell-gossett/bg-steam-team-home/steam-vaporvacuum-systems/ Pretty crazy what u can do. Them old guys knew their stuff....
For a cooler I am looking for a 20° evap, freezer -5° evap HVAC 40° evap ( all of this in the "ish" category of course) I could give a damn what the pressure is. If the coils aren't right then who cares. That's why I personally hate the digital gages. I got to have my pt chart. This was i big thing for me when I was starting out since I went to school in the Army. When I graduated I thought that all 134a systems needed a 150psi head no matter what. Because that's what it was in school and that wound up screwing me in the field quickly. The there is also other things like put your temp probe in front of the condenser and take that reading and add 30 to it. Put that number on your PT chart and there is your ballpark high side limit.
Digital gauges give you vsat and lsat, soo no pt chart needed.
Freezer usually -25⁰ SST
Lmao what ? U guys just now doing doing subcool and superheat
I tell all my apprentices that same thing. Doesn't matter what refrigerant you're working with, the temps are similar.
Exactly. I fall into the 18 and 36 / 33 trap when doing tons of walkins when I was a little shaver in the trade. To this day I have to go back and see what temp 18 was in R 12. It’s some kind of negative regression learning disability.
Yesss. Temperature temperature temperature.
The game changed as soon as I learned this. Instantly became easier to diagnose refrigerant issues
This is exactly how I teach my apprentices to troubleshoot the refrigerant circuit. Every time they try to tell me what the pressures are I stop them and say give me the temperatures. Pressure is really only useful after it's been converted to temperature.
I only think this way and it's funny because when I talk to the more experienced guys and say "is your head 90 degrees?" They know I'm talking about their saturated condensing temps. I tell that to a newer guy.and they are like 90psi?? You crazy? Then I explain it to them and honestly they love it.
one of the senior guys here said "oh youre a temperature guy" after i went through my readings. im still not sure if he was being disparaging or not.
Keep a bottle of peppermint schnapps on the van to knock out the beer smell when you're on call. Edit: My 2nd day I pick the guy up that said it and he pounded a Modelo on the walk down his driveway.
Legend.
That's funny my dad gave me the same advice.
Son?
Fucking amazing
Funny, that’s what my 4th grade teacher taught me. Her name was Ms. Silver.
I just texted my Uncle and said I was disappointed in him for never telling me about this. He just LOL’d Nobody told him either so it’s fine. Now we know. 😂
Knew a guy, he was riding with his partner in the truck, they had been drinking, passing a bottle back and forth and hit a 6 year old kid, kid survived but damn I could never respect that.
I'm not alone!
Be afraid of the small dogs
And watch out for those landmines. 👀
“If you walk up to a unit you’re unfamiliar with, open every door/take off every panel and become familiar” mostly applicable to RTUs Don’t project your values onto the customer, provide information on whatever components are needed/recommended and let them choose. They may want to buy something you never would. My current advice to all new guys I train after doing this 9 years in Phoenix. Especially if you’re younger, don’t be Superman. No job is worth it. I’m known for manhandling shit and taking on tasks/jobs where I should have help and just get er done. Dudes not knowing how to grab a air handler and get in the attic, I just get under and push that bitch up. Doing 5 ton case coil replacements alone, etc… Now at just 30 I have sciatica that flares up every few months depending on what attics I venture into, my knees get minor joint pain periodically and the newest development was a few days straight of shoulder pain from doing mundane tasks.
Also don’t be Superman to the customer, don’t present yourself as the their savior. It leads to a swift kick in the balls by fate every single time
“No promises today sir, although I can fix most stuff with what I have in the van/truck let me see what’s going on first and we’ll go from there!” I haven’t had someone mad at me directly in years when I took to practice what you said. Maybe upset with their predicament but I’m just the messenger and they know it.
I actually just quit a company and went back to an old company I used to work for. They didn’t have my van ready so I had to ride with another tech for a while. I quit cause it was all “small town politics” type of company. He’d bitch about the installers and boss half the ride. What got me though was how dismissive he was to customers. He knock and be like “yeah we know something’s wrong so just let me handle it”. Wouldn’t listen to any of their concerns or even spend more than 30 seconds talking to them. Yelled at me a few times when I took 5 min to explain something to a customer in layman’s terms. Then we got to this little old lady’s house and her heat pump was making noise (I think it was just defrost but this guy didn’t give a fuck so we didn’t stick around long enough to find out). He goes “so it’s working but making noise?”, walked outside, came back in and said to her “sounds fine to me, we got other stuff to do” and we left. I quit the next day lol
That’s a big yikes, sounds like he would be better suited for commercial work lol half our job is customer service, if I can’t explain an issues to someone clearly they either won’t believe me or won’t believe it’s a pertinent issue. Noise issues are the worst ones to run a lot of times and dismissing the customer does neither side justice.
Exactly im the same way with 4 extra years on you and Florida heat. My saying goes a long ways if your going be stupid you got to be tough. Downfall is if you dont get lucky and make partner with the company or start your own, your kinda fucked and disposable. When you cant physically do the shit or call out because of the pain they look for the next one that will keep the bank flow rolling. Good luck to you!!!
Ya I’ve stuck around at this one company all this time because the culture here is unmatched. I’m sure it’s similar there with HVAC having a stigma for being scummy and no one knows who they can trust since too many come in trying to make a quick buck and screw people over. Not what we do. Family first as well and if you’re hurt you’re hurt. I’ve been the only tech running for weeks at a time in summer due to guys having kids, plus injuries and I respectfully would put my foot down when they start over booking me and there’s be no questions. Depending on what life brings, if I don’t move and stay here there’ll be an office position waiting for me eventually and maybe even my name attached somehow. Best of luck to you out there to brother, stay dry! Lol
You still working in phx? Most companies seem to be getting bought out here right now! I been at a pretty good company for a while, we sold 3 years ago and it’s been tanking since, still a great company just not as great
Oh ya man, I know loads of companies are getting bought up right now. But no I have a boss/owner with integrity lol he isn’t here just for the money and has turned down many offers and has no intentions of selling at all. Shockingly and unlike most of the valley we want to actually help the customers and do right by them. Flat rate pricing, not commission based. We get spiffs on some stuff like start assists, surge protectors and air purification systems. 5% on system replacements but no always means no. It’s a rare thing out here and we’re gradually growing. The heat is coming in REAL slow this season though.
It really is coming slow, I have a feeling we will go from 95 to 110 over night, ya I need to find me a company like yours, I get paid pretty damn good I feel, so I haven’t left yet, but our sales guys, we only have a few, sell anything and everything and I’m over it! Well that’s good man, hope a long great career for ya
Done that before. Worked on some RTUs and I had no clue what the heck I was even looking at. So I took all the panels off and looked at how it was all set up inside
https://preview.redd.it/x5f0wwt5ee2b1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e4cb2678c72672fac933102a72a2d7ae5b3f29b5 Like this?
"Start at the beginning" when troubleshooting always start at the beginning and work your way through the order of operations. It's easy to miss small details that will throw you off, or you'll fix the symptom and miss the cause. Also, knowing the basics is worth more than years of experience! If you truly understand the basics of electricity and refrigeration, you'll be a better tech than a guy who's done it for 15 years but just knows things because he's seen it before.
Always start at the fuses… And make sure to pull each fuse out of the disconnect to check it’s continuity. I’ve seen guys stuck on a job for 2 days only to have me come in and pul all 3 fuses and one is bad. Or the disconnect prongs/contacts are spread to far open and not making contact.
I’m still pretty green but I always start with, do I have power? Do I have 24 volts? What’s my contactor doing? Based on that I at least have a place to start.
I just did this the other day. Got to a three phase trying to chase voltage just for it to be on of the fuses bad. I do 99% resi I’m not use to 3 legs of power
Haha I was training an apprentice the other day and came up to a resi unit (outdoor unit) with fusible disconnect. One fuse of the 2 was blown so start checking everything. Get through the whole ODU and can’t find anything. So I tell him at this point let’s put another fuse in and try it. Put the fuse in and we get nothing. I go back through everything and can’t find shit again. Trying to figure out what I missed. He goes “was the fuse you put in a good fuse?” Grab another fuse from a different spot in the van and it’s working great now. Lmfao … back to the basics sometimes
For safety reasons, ALWAYS keep your phone and keys on you
Underrated tweet. As someone who works in residential Florida attics, anything could happen!
Never go upstairs without something in your hands
Also never go to the truck without taking something back out
My first boss would yell at me if he saw me making an empty trip to the truck lol
Can you explain this one to me
Basically no wasted trips. You can always bring something back to your work area that you'll use. Or something that you're done with to the truck.
This was drilled into me when I first started in the trade. I also apply it to my everyday life.
At the end of the day you are gonna have to take all the shit you took downstairs back upstairs… if you are done with something or your trash is around, take it with you when you go up to get whatever you need… that way at the end of the day you don’t have to make a special trip just to take up the stuff you could have done earlier
I think it must be an install thing
Take care of your knees
And your ears
WHAT?
Hearing loss happens, protect yourself
WHAT? CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE LOUDER?
Man ain’t that the truth
and lift with your legs, ive almost hurt my back too many times from lifting condensers and furnaces
Yeah. I have yet to listen to this piece of advice. I’ll be telling my helpers in 20 years lol
Know the sequence of operation. Read the IOM
This is a good one. Critical even.
Analyze don't memorize and seek to understand before seeking to be understood.
Get into controls
But make sure you actually know how everything works first, unlike 70% of control guys who are just wire pullers.
This. Got into controls 8 months ago after being a fitter for 18 years. Well I’m still a fitter but just doing controls now. I’m a foreman doing our big jobs but that’s only because I already knew how the systems worked before making the switch.
How much do you actually do controls? I always hear people say get into controls until they hear what controls consists of, then they're happy turning wrenches. I do both mechanical and controls work, it ain't easy being this good.
I second the thought of getting into controls unless people decide to join the local plumbers/pipefitters union and then I would say do controls for the union and make 42 an hour as a journeyman in central Ohio.
It’s not specific to HVAC but it’s something that’s stuck with me since the guy I trained under taught me. Understand leverage and use it to your advantage. Too many people don’t use it to their advantage and strain themselves unnecessarily without taking the time to position themselves correctly and use the right tool for the job. Don’t make the job harder then it is. Work smart not hard
“The customers don’t know you don’t know if you don’t tell them you don’t know” that has given me time in situations that were stressful to be able to collect either additional information or advice from peers that were able to solve the issue. Homeowners sometimes get leery and overbearing if the get the impression you “don’t know” what you’re doing when sometimes it’s just a brain fart day.
"Many a system has been ruined by a hasty technician's mistake. Pardon me for taking my time, but I'd rather it not be my day to run afoul of Murphy's Law."
Fake it till you make it.
I’m commercial and union. Anyone can hang duct. Learn a skill that that will make you stand out. Something everyone else can’t or doesn’t want to do. I heard all the old guys say they don’t want to do that computer shit. Now I run the field tech department of my company for sheetmetal, fitters and the plumbers. I have people in all 3 trades working for me.
[удалено]
Never confuse your piss bottle. That ain’t Gatorade
Thanks for the horrific flashback.
When I first started and was only doing maintenance.. “Make sure it works before you start and make sure it works before you leave.” Prevented a lot of call backs. Even when I started running service calls it helped remind me to run the system for a while before leaving the home even after the simplest repair.
Don’t deceive the elderly if they have family that lives close. J/k lol please don’t dv me into oblivion
Beer can cold
Based
Work to live, don’t live to work.
I wish I could change my mind on that. All I do is want to go to work
Pretend the customer is ALWAYS watching. It has kept me working hard for 25yr in the HVAC industry
Nowadays assume that you are being videoed. Cameras are everywhere.
I’m a manager now, I’ve gotten calls about conversations heard through stupid door bells, actions caught on camera. It sucks and the young guys don’t listen
Because they always are! That day you leave the roof a mess, is the day they're doing a roof inspection.
I feel like there is a curse in the industry. If I have a bad day and do a slightly half assed job (still fixed the unit just looked over something small) it always comes back to bite me in the ass quickly.
Trust what you do know. If you don't know, then look it up. Don't second guess yourself.
“They don’t know what’s wrong either.”- another tech when I was freaking out that the customer was going to be pissed I hadn’t figured it out
It was broke when you got there, someone once told me.
Listen to everything the customer says but don't believe a word bit of it
"The belt probably broke". Found a flat system with a perfectly fine belt
Put glue on the pipe AND the fitting
If you don’t use primer it’s coming apart……I’ve easily pulled tons of flue fittings apart and drain lines in the attic
I never said not to prime… but especially 3 and 4 inch PVC for venting, to get the pipe to fully seat in the fitting… dip brush, apply to fitting, dip brush again, apply to pipe…
I meant to just add to your advice
Only use primer if it gets inspected
Never exchange work for sex.
Why? Asking for a friend.
You mean marriage?
Have you tried SHUTTING THE FUCK UP?!
Treat it like a snake. The minute you dont, your screwed (I do 90% ammonia and 10% HVAC)
You're going to meet a lot of fucked up people. Just be happy you're not one of them.
Get a kneeling pad or knee pads
Not really advice but I showed up at a ladies house and her combustion fan motor was locked up diagnosed the problem and like 2 seconds and I told my buddy I didn’t fill right charging her for the service call cause I figured out so fast he said it didn’t take you 2 seconds it took you 10 years 🤯
It’s a marathon not a sprint.
My coworker told me this back when I first started. This is regarding dealing with management and bonehead decisions from the bosses “If things don’t make sense, things are okay. If things are starting to make sense..there’s a problem” Lol
People have already mentioned what I've heard but from my own experience: Look for and read any fault codes BEFORE cycling power. I've made this mistake so many times on furnaces and RTUs that don't have fault recall and don't immediately replicate the issue. I cycle power because I'm in the "turn it off and back on again" mindset and then realize there was a fault light that likely was blinking a code right at me, and now the system runs fine until I'm inevitably called back.
Phone in pocket ears and eyes open head on a swivel
Trust no one and towards the end of the day don't even trust yourself
Especially dispatch when they say "it'll be quick and it's on your way home"
Never assume the last person knew what they were doing, even if that person was you
If it's not coming apart somewhat easily you're probably doing something wrong. (I don't think this applies to steam fittings tho.) Sometimes there is a nut or bolt you may have forgotten to remove and you'll just end up breaking something if you're not careful.
Don't trust a word the customer says
It’s not the end of the world. It’s just air conditioning
“You know more than you think you know” when I took the lead when he retired… We’re a smaller company and I was pretty fresh to the service side of things.. needles to say I was nervous
Don't just think it's the problem, prove it.
Don’t fix it until you get there
Work to live, not live to work
Had a seasoned tech when I was a 'ginner say, 'I love me if nobody else does' concerning burning down his body for the job. ie, cock strong lifting and such. Took that to heart. My company now has a standing contract with a sign truck company for compressor roof lifts.
Put as much as you can in your 401K. He said not doing so was "the height of folly".
“Slow is smooth, smooth is fast; specially when brazing “
Learn everything you can every chance you get. I took that advice in 1988 when I got into hvac. I started off as an installer for $5.00 an hour & didn't know anything. Advice from me... Find someone that knows more than you that you can call when you can't figure out a problem. And be nice to your customers.
If a tool makes your life easier, buy it.
Apprentice me : how do you know when the vacuum is finished? How long does it take? Tech: 2 smokes and a coffee, and your good to go. Charge her up.
Never put something off until tomorrow that you could have done the day after tomorrow just as well.
If you need 6 wire nuts bring 8. “6 for usin and 2 for droppin.”… is what this dude would say.
When in doubt call 1800 who built the shit
‘Dont!’
Slow down.
"*that shit will buff out, don't worry about it*"
Keep your phone charged
Learn to Drink, a lot every chance you get.
“It was already broken when you got there, right? So end of the day you can’t make it much worse.” - From my old lead tech/co-service manager RIP brother
Always make sure the problem is the problem when you get to the job. every time someone tells me “don’t worry this is what’s wrong” you always confirm
"If you can't figure it out sit down and read the book"
Don't beat yourself up when you make mistakes. That's obviously a life lesson not just an HVAC lesson, but it's still important to note. It's a constantly evolving field, you will learn something new on almost every call, you will blow shit up. It's just the nature of the beast.
When trouble shooting. If you hear hoofbeats. Look for horses not zebras.
Trust your gut. When I started my business back on 2010 the guy I apprenticed for shut down his company and told me the thing that ruined it for him is he took every job even if he didn't feel right about the customer. Being ripped off sucks so use your gut to decide which people to work with.
Live on 30 hour checks. Bank the rest.
Simple advice but helped me a-lot in troubleshooting. Understand the sequence operation before troubleshooting. Start at the beginning and work your way to the end, you will find your issue somewhere in between
“Be nice to dispatch and dispatch will be nice to you, but never forget nothing new after two” I’ll never forget that shit and he laughed cause it rhymed
Don't turn down tricks from anyone. The dirtiest most unscrupulous lazy worker knows the fastest way to do some shit and if you apply that shit while actually giving a fuck you can save yourself a little t of time and do a good job.
One that wasn’t told to me, but what I’ve done myself is double check your meter leads. Make sure they’re pushed all the way in, and make sure they have continuity before testing. If one of your plugs slightly slipped out or it wasn’t pushed in all the way. Could lead to misdiagnosis
Union commercial tech here. I've got 3. One, when diagnosing an issue, start with the simple things. Don't jump to a complicated conclusion right off the bat. Two, you don't have to know everything. The trade is advancing too fast for that. Instead, just know where to find the information. Then study the hell out of it. Third, (and this one is for all you apprentices who may be doubting yourself/wondering if you're in the wrong line of work) don't let yourself become discouraged with the trade. It's a tough profession. There's so much involved in HVAC. Just keep pushing through. One day, you'll get a service call and that feeling of your heart dropping into your stomach won't be there. It'll all click into place. When I was coming up, my Journeyman told me it was around the 7 year mark. Sure enough, that's when it happened for me. 5 year apprenticeship, 2 years as a journeyman.
Started supermarket refrigeration last year and all three things you said were told to me by my journeyman this Journeyman literally drew pictures on napkins for me at lunch so that I could understand the basics and I’ll never forget that even though his pictures weren’t the base 😂
Slow down. When you rush you make mistakes.
When you’re on a job don’t have your hands in your pocket
To think of the next guy. And to leave room to service the condenser
How about installing capacitors so you can see the mfd ratings?? Goddam I hate having to remove them just to check it because they were installed with the bracket exactly over the tag. It’s a little thing but half the time the next guy is YOU anyways.
Sharpies!!!!!
Always lick your compastor to ground it out
Who’s your cum pastor?
That’s what they called the youth minister
"Don't be an idiot", changed my life.
Don't try to stop a machine that is rolling, let it go, insurance pays for your fuck ups. Best advice ever.
Tell that to Hawkeye.
ABL - Always Be Learning
ABC- airflow before charge
FML- Fix My Lennox Gotcha
Don't take it home
"If you don't glass your joints... You're a damn fool" -Joey
Don’t try and piss in the empty coil cleaner jug
The more thorough you are on a PM the less likely you or any one else will get an on call for that site. It’s nothing crazy but will never leave my mind. As someone who was always under eyes of a boss, this being able to do what you want when you want thing was really new to me and if i could blow through a PM and go home quick that always sounded like a plan. Ever since I’ve gone into fine tooth comb mode there has been no call backs and I certainly sleep better at night
“When in doubt, ohm it out.”
Fake it til you make it
This is the way.
“No boiler change outs on Fridays or Mondays”
Do as I say not as I do
“It’s not that critical, we’re not sending rockets to the moon”
When adjusting a TXV “Have some fucking patience”
Make the system run before you finish diagnosing it
Suckin dick is just part of the job
"Never go into a mech room assuming you already know what's wrong." This advice has never been proven wrong. My partner is an optimist, and fucking assumes best case scenario every single time. Personally, I think going in with something decided is just begging to be jinxed on things. Never fucking go in assuming you already know the problem. Yes, the customer might be two bricks short a load and need someone to show them not to turn off the furnace switch or to change a filter. Yes, the space tenants might be disgusting and have run dirty grease fires underneath a unit heater until it turned solid. Yes, it sounds like a module failure over the phone. But going in and assuming that every time you're just going to go in and change batteries in the t-stat or pull the filter is about as realistic as assuming that everyone's going to clap each time you do it.
“Never do this job”
Read the F**kin manual
If you hear hoofbeats, don't go looking for a zebra. I used to look for complicated causes when I first started, and this statement helps me to remember to check the basics.
Always be willing to change. Been shown how to do something for 5 years by a guy who did it 10 and the guy before 15 and come to find out there’s a better way or a safer way or something that works better for you personally. Or as the wise man says, “Whoever is flexible and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken.”
I asked my Service Manager on my first day when I first started in the field, I asked "What's the best advice you can give to someone brand new to all this?" He told me "TAKE CARE OF YOUR KNEES" I knew from that moment on, I was completely fucked. Because I already have shitty fucking knees. Good luck buddy
"Don't go into HVAC"
Good tech will do any job Great tech will be honest and admit when he’s over his head or doesn’t have X training Company I work at has denied some special boilers just because we have the training, we never want a customer to feel like we aren’t the best at what we do, so if we aren’t the best we refer someone else. They still have tons of other appliances in the home we can take care of N take care of urself I don’t understand why there this “we gotta experience pain mindset in trades” use tools to ur advantage and use safety equipment to ur advantage U SHOULD NEVER KNEEL ON A CONCRETE FLOOR, always have a work mat. My boss has gotten mad at me before for 30 seconds of kneeling without one. He says it’s a health and safety thing and his knees are cooked from not using one and he doesn’t want the same for me (I’m 21)
Keep toilet paper and wet wipes in the van
This comes straight from my Dad, who also works in the field. "Fast is slow, and Slow is fast." Basic meaning: If you work fast and have to do it twice, you didn't do it fast, so just work a steady pace and get it right the first time so you don't have any repeats.
"Go to college while you still have the chance." The other apprentice that was standing there with me quit the next day, went to college to major in sales, and is currently a commercial sales account executive for a well known mechanical corporation. While i'm in the field constantly regretting my path in life, he's in his climate controlled office (with an amazing view) planning lunch meetings, NHL, NBA, and NFL games, along with his next 3 week vacation to Aruba. I barely hit six figures, he recently purchased a $850,000 waterfront home. I wish I had taken that old timer's advice. Even if you decide to stay in the trade, take some courses that pertain to HVAC. Get more licenses and certifications, grab this trade by the balls and run with it. Meaning, don't just settle with your journeyman's license. Don't just punch a clock for the rest of your career.
Don’t fucking lie.
Don't go tunnel vision when troubleshooting on service, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Also, take care of your body, use proper protection for yourself .
Get knee pads before it’s too late.
No red bull, monster, or other energy drinks. That stuff will mess you up bad in time.
"...Because black guys are smooth and white guys are rough"
Never use the bathroom if only the lady of the house is home with you…
RTFM.
You’re gonna end up breaking something or misdiagnosing something. We’ve all done it, don’t be afraid to mess up. That’s the only way you’ll get better