Great video Chris, I can't believe the ambient temperatures u guys have to deal with here in England if it goes above 30c (98f) we just pass out our phones overheat and the ac isn't adequate to cope with the demand. With the corporate issuse we have worked with a nationwide company for over 25 years and there is a bit of loyalty but not alot due to staff changes and the old it's who you know Please don't ever change your ethics it's a joy to watch your videos if you need cheering up I send you one of mine (u can use it to show your techs what not to do )
Chris those York SE Smart Equipment can use a device called Johnson Controls Map Gateway 1810 module which can plug to the board with the LED display and all parameters and settings will be shown and very easily navagated through. Yes you can do the toggle on the board but the Map 1810 just opens every thing up for you to see so you can see how the unit was set up or set up wrong. Hope that helps in the future
Don't stop all the things you do because you are doing the right thing, and i know sometimes life is not fair enough with all your work but that's what separate you from the rest....thank you for always teach me the right way to do things
Not an HVAC tech, but I am a generator tech based in Texas. The storms since May have been exhausting. First the large storm that hit Houston, and Temple, then Hurricane Beryl hitting Houston. Me and the guys I work with didn't sleep for about three days straight during the hurricane, and the last two days we had to sleep in our trucks because hotels didn't have power/were booked full. It's rough, but oh so rewarding when you get power back to a nursing home. I feel your pain, but hang in their man.
I agree with so much actually everything you’re saying. I used to be my own worst enemy and still I am at times. I always worry about everybody else and end up cutting my own throat. I know what you mean. I try so hard to be honest with people I go behind so many people trying to sell somebody a new unit that doesn’t need a new unit. They have a bad thermostat or something like that. I could easily swoop in there and sell them a unit myself, but I got to sleep at night, I see these little companies popping up everywhere and they’re selling stuff like crazy I could too if I wanted to go out and tell 75% of my calls they need a new unit probably I’m not gonna do it
You should contact the app vendor asking to show all the gauges on the iPad instead of swiping back and forth. There's plenty of screen room. Thanks for the video.
It is the same app for full size and mini tablets, large and small phones, etc.. It would be quite a bit of extra work to develop and maintain custom layouts for every size display.
You might want to take a long look at those curb adapters. When I was still working, retired now, I had several issues with curbs being incorrectly ordered or manufactured for the new HVAC to the old HVAC. IE supply and return airs not continuous through the curb or openings oversized and bypassing a percentage of supply air into the return air. We actually had to lift units off and either change the curb or revamp the internal dividers to ensure there was no bypass. Another thing to check while unit is on the crane is the internal duct insulation loose. I loved the trade but I don’t miss all of the BS. Good luck with your life decisions.🇨🇦
It's a shame that loyalty to a service is going, but in some ways I understand. A company like yours is getting harder to find, where you want to do right by the customer, and not just your wallet. So many companies want to quick cash grab and don't give a toss about the result. It starts a snowball that becomes a boulder with time, as the quality goes down, companies start going for a lower bidder because "Why spend big money on low quality", and those few companies out there that still try to do good by the customer have a harder time competing with that. I admire your stance on being loyal to the customer, even if they are not always loyal to you. That takes guts. I think that's going to be an increasingly important trait as things go on, and I hope you can pass that on to all of your techs.
It isn't even so much about loyalty as it is about scale. If a company want to have 400 units installed at 100 restaurant locations, they will not contract 100 different local companies. If the manager of one restaurant needs a tech to fix an issue, they will contact the local company of their choice. At both stages, there could be a 100-year-long loyalty to one supplier, but an overlap would be pure chance.
I went after a new install where 2 of those your units were running of return air temp instead of thermostat. Funny part was the install was not complete, they were on the ground discharging out of the side and had card board for temporary return duct. Installers left them running on return air temp and the church called the next morning and said the space in the building was at like 62 degrees.
At one point I was thinking of starting my own HVAC business. A major back injury forced me to step away from field work before I could act on those plans. While my back has largely recovered now, being out of commission for months gave me a chance to reflect that I'd never had before. I suffered from the same frustrations that you voiced in this video. "One last easy call" almost always turned into a nightmare and me getting home well past midnight, bordering unsafe to drive by the end. Sloppy work by the cheapest bidder was preferred, yet the same customers would call us in later to clean up the mess left by hackjobs. I learned a lot and did feel I started earning respect, even as the job burned me out. Only once I could look back did I realize the extent of damage to my mental health, alongside the constant reminder of the physical injuries which may follow me the rest of my life. Take care, Chris! The world needs people like you.
I’m the foreman of an apartment complex and we’ve been replacing air handlers and condensers left and right. I say we but just me. They have 1984 r22 Trane 1.5 tons. it’s exhausting. The amount of neglect is insane. The amount of angry residents are insane. Not even replacing all of them. Most of them they really expect me to service. Doing the best I can to the best of my ability. What sucks is I’m a licensed journeyman and I’m being paid $27 an hour to replace all these units, service and run the property simultaneously. 256 units. Contract ends in October. I’ll just be bustin @$$ in this heat until then. Appreciate your videos. I strive to be a better technician and these videos help dial that in 💯 thanks Chris
I am instantly in love with that circuit board. FULL TEXT ERROR MESSAGE?!?!?! My car has two giant screens directly hooked to the ECU and it can't even display codes, all ACs I've worked on need some ancient tome to decipher blinking LEDs.
Also funny that this display is like a 1999 Nokia display which isn't even full dot matrix. Meanwhile I can buy a whole smartwatch with a color lcd display, touchscreen and a cpu that supports bluetooth for ~$10 shipped. Or a a lillygo/ttgo esp32 devboard which has a fast cpu, wifi, bluetooth, a bunch of input and output pins and a small color screen also for $10.
@@tschuuuls486 The displays need to be clear in sunlight, very tough, wide temperature ranges, low cost, and have good long term reliability in harsh conditions (HVAC units have a 10-20 year life expectancy.) Color LCDs offer none of that.
@@tschuuuls486Those fast microprocessors with tiny solder balls don’t do very well for reliability in a rough-and-tumble environment. They tend to be sensitive to cracking solder joints when you have to do outdoor temperature cycles from -40C to +85C or +125C, combined with the vibration of the compressors and blowers. I design automotive ECMs for a living and we have to be pretty careful in reliability engineering.
I had a similar problem with a smaller york rtu where it would lock out on low pressure. After resetting, the pressures seemed fine. Unit would cycle on and off from the thermostat as expected - and only seemed to lock out on low pressure hours after leaving the site. Ended up changing both the MCB and the low pressure switch and was not called back :)
Man, this is exactly how I have been feeling lately. We do AV & IT install and service, and these are the same questions I've been asking myself. I have been debating dropping one of our larger clients. You're completely right about customer loyalty being scarce these days.
Dolly Parton has said, “It Costs a Lot of Money to Look this Cheap”. In the Case of Contractor that Installed New Units, “It Costs a Lot of Money to Size so Poorly”.
Was a senior service tech at a large contractor who had no regard for our personall lives. After years of go go and them not caring for us tech's being overworked I made a life choice and left. There was no replacement for me as our area is short of quality tech's. Shortly after that 6 more left, yet they still don't care. Wasn't financial, made awesome money, but not going to be overworked by a company that can't say no to new customers when we can't get to existing ones. All about the money for them, unfortunatly most contractors here are similar.
I've been going through issues with a daiken chiller faulting out on low evap pressure for circuit one and finally narrowed it down to the electronic XV sticking. As far as service loyalty goes I just spent most of my day waiting on a fire safety team and contractor as well as an electrician just so I could light pilots after a new ansul system was installed and tested. At the same time I was talking to a building controls contractor who was installing and updating VAV controllers, then monitoring a freezer in the same kitchen to see if it got below 0. Constant use on the freezer and i may have a sticking defrost timer and faulty temp sensor. If you're ever worried about being overwhelmed let people know you can only be in one place at one time
Last year was txv issues all summer, the year before was compressors, this year is airflow issues. Lots cool cleanings, lots of blower cleanings. Do you ever notice you get similar component problems in runs and then it will switch to something else for a little
God bless you my friend I own a construction company I live in. Nyc but after i get off work I always watch your videos are very interesting Sooner than later I will be a HVAC technician.....because I'm learning from you.
I've been watching your videos since a few years. I'm not a HVAC tech, but I love the walking through of troubleshooting and how pedagogical you are! If I had a business in SOCAL I'd hire you all day long just for how thorough you are in wanting to do things right. I was wondering, could you maybe sell a maintenance subscription? It'd have to have stringent things that would be taken care of in it and what isn't part of the maintenance. It'd have to fit the business you're selling to of course. Take care man, nothing is worth the headache and everything is worth your time with family.
You're a legend. 6 o'clock doesn't have anything to with the end of the day and there's plenty of work that needs to be done. This summer has been a mess.
you are correct on the zone sensor. you connect a JCI netstat to the SA Bus terminals. its the 4 wire male spade connectors below the screen. when the unit is operating on its own you can connect a netstat and also noticed it has a BAS network card on it. which can also be used to get information from the unit and write to the space temp if you had a bas that is using its own space temp sensor you can then use that to write the space to the unit. and we havent heard much on the sell of the res and light commercial stuff as of yet where the cut off on the equipment is. as far as renaming. they started doing that back in 2020 when they retired what we called the J or J20 series or the sunline. there is also a core line which is closer to a carrier unit for direct replacement. there are also select which replaced the J series and there is a select series and premier units which replace the YPAL. core normally runs up to 7.5 ton, select and choice overlap each other. select units run up to 40 tons and premier runs from 25 to 80 tons with variable speed compressor options and direct drive fans.
If your sensing bulb was causing that low of a superheat and the unit wasn’t running on the thermostat. You might have had a situation where in low loads, you would be over feeding and flooding. Which would eventually cause low pressure. Or something wonky. Yorks can be a pain with low pressure issues I’ve found. If it’s not setup right
We have those walk way mats on our roof and they get water under them all the time. The roofer is passionate about the fact it’s supposed to be that way
Low pressure reminds me of a trouble we had with our Freeze/thaw chamber. Was struggling to freeze, adjusted position/tightness of sensing bulb and haven't had a problem since.
Good show brother, I understand what you mean about losing the GAF with cheapskate customers, it's the same story on the East Coast with the hack installers. Hang in there bro, summer is almost over, then we get to go find the rest of the gas valves that were left off!😂😂😂
Even tho I'm coming from the other side of the world, I'm so glad there's people like you Chris. We all need people looking INTO things and not just going by the tiny service handbook telling them "Oh after installation if it does a hummmm it's working!"
Totally get it!!! It’s a struggle to want to care and want to do the right thing for a customer and yet another contract gets brought in to Lower the bar. Such a challenge to maintain caring.
Your comment about enjoying the business but thinking about going back to working for others struck a note with me. My commitment to my business cost me my first marriage. When I married again I did exactly that. This marriage has lasted 45 years, so far. I recommend it .
It's been a crazy summer. We finally got another guy, thinking it would take some burden off of myself and the other service tech, and we're farther behind than before. Every A/C unit in the country is breaking it seems like!
I'm just a service tech. I simply don't have the mind for business, I couldn't handle doing both. I'm sure I would make more money, but I enjoy my free time and having less stress than my boss. I do stress about the customers I deal with, mainly heavy commercial and industrial, I take it home with me, much to the chagrin of my wife. Summer has thankfully been pretty moderate 😅 but you take care of yourself Chris! Ever since I came across your videos years ago, it's been a joy watching everything you upload. Try to stay sane!
Keep fighting the good fight Chris, as long as you’re busy. If you need to, charge more not less. At least the customers who appreciate your value will be willing to pay for your quality work. Thanks again for the excellent video, it’s a pleasure to watch you work. 👍
Service tech here. Of course I stress over the job sometimes. But not because I’m worried about the customer, usually only when a job get hard and I genuinely don’t know wtf is going on. Only been in the trade for 3 years, so I’m seeing new crap every single day still. Fortunately I work for a company who only does commercial work, and we have something like 70 techs now so a majority of the time once someone hits 8 hours they can go home if they want. We can always take calls on overtime if we like, we can always work weekends if we arnt on call as well. Couldn’t imagine working for a company and being forced to work 12+ hours everyday. I usually stop around 10 hours, gotta get my job done AND spend time with my family.
Hey Chris, I absolutely feel the lack of sympathy, you're not the only one. I'm much less forgiving these days as it would cost me financially and emotionally. Never stop doing it the right way though, you can't control their integrity, but you can control yours. Do make them pay appropriately for your expertise though!
The good news is there is a whole world of service calls stacking up in the years ahead.. Customer will pay in the end. Sometimes not getting the install job is the most profitable job out of the two options. Bang in your report which covers you going forward and wait for the calls to come in. I (sad as I am) watch a fair few HVAC channels and with some of them I'm cringing at how poor their skills are and how they approach work (because of how poor their skills are) . Worse how many other techs writing in the comments how amazing their work is, and how they learn from them.. I can only assume there is a huge amount of very poorly (un)trained techs out there learning on the customers dollar. .It's scary Your work by far is the most consistent, well thought out, skilled approach to work I've seen on YT. I 100% recommend any new or even seasoned tech to follow your channel.
Had our biggest customer have a bean counter replace the Head of Maintenance who thought we charged too much. The people who did their new installs put a 10 ton unit just sitting on the roof that’s not on top of any beams. When you walked on the roof the whole thing bounced. That’s not including all the other things not up to code. I worked near the coast in the South Bay of Los Angeles so we didn’t get much dirt, but we did have a lot of bee hives in units. Keep doing it right. The customer may not know it because they don’t see it, but it will save them loads later.
I feel you brother! I did service and repair for years as a manufacturers rep for a large company. My area covered parts of 4 states. I eventually accepted a lead engineers position overseeing 5 bldgs. Never had to leave the area. I was always on call but knew I didn't have to pack an overnight bag or find a hotel, just to handle an emergency. That alone was worth the change.
Love your videos man. You have a great work ethic and know how to get along in the corporate world. Not an HVAC guy here but still interested in what you do.
Fully understand it’s like a slap in the face with those situations. But we just push forward and do the best we can. Like always great work and appreciate the videos Chris ty
Absolutely love your channel, I’ve fallowed it for years and have loved watching it this whole time you’ll be ok man I have faith that you’ll be more than ok regardless of ur stress levels bro everything’s gonna work out for u positive of it
Australian service tech here I know there's pros and cons with running a business down here. Has a service tech on the books for a small business, I can say that the biggest fight I have outside of onsite work is proving the method you chose to work by depending on what kind of person/people your employers are. Once proven you can continue what you do best... Fix problems. Caring about the customer and the aftermath of some repairs and jobs comes from the nature of the technician. I myself truly have a high care factor around doing the right thing by the customer and business, doing what you can if you have the means and approval. Best part is if asking for approval is that someone else takes liability and the fault doesn't fall on you. As well as having the ability to call it a day and highly recommending a follow up because the time and money spent on a job may outweigh the issue at hand and is best to do another visit and maintain a reasonable cost
Chris those Low Side pressure safety switches can have intermittent issues where the resistance through them increases enough for the board to recognize it as open.
Yes, I’m going crazy in this trade. I’m not an owner but I am the service manager where I work and it is exhausting. I play tech support, quote things that are off the beaten path, and rarely get a day off without a phone call, dilemma, or upset customer. Sometimes, I’m fed up with this trade lol. I feel your pain. Great video as always!
It could have had a lower set point at settings when system was running on return sensor and that made the coil temperature get below what it should. Setting it to thermostat only it should be ok
Word of the day is gratitude. Yea it might suck but I’m always thankful that I get to go to work and provide for my family. Not everybody can say that.
In telecom; Everyday I deal with installers who don't give a flying fk, and will also attempt to justify their attitude when I give them a failing grade on inspection. I've heard it all; "the equipment won't last more than a few years, why bother" "nobody will see it" "makes no difference".. having pride in workmanship might be less common nowadays but that does not make it any less valuable. And the idea that more money will be made quickly fades when you have to return to the install either due to equipment failure or an inspection fail.
What I found on the York Units is when they get out of the configuration and start using return temp sensor instead of the thermostat that I get coil freeze alarms due to the unit over working causing the space to be really cold, that could be be why you tripped on low pressure. Also the units board send DC voltage to the VFD for the blower, they sometimes don’t send the full voltage on full speed, causing the blower to run slower, resulting in the Low Pressure fault.
I've worked for the same company for 12 years and have been offered upper management positions. I turn them down. I want to get off at a certain point and not worry about anyone else. Maybe that's being selfish but I have enough stress in my day to day to worry about the whole departments problems for an extra couple hundred dollars a week. Love what you do brother. Keep it up!
As to the curb adapters, there meant to fit over the existing curb and under the rail of the new unit because the new unit is larger than the old. As long as supply and return are right that’s how they are. Now as to unit following return air, your right the unit is in stand alone mode because they never checked the unit by t-stat they were cheep, just like not turning the gas on ! HELLO. Hopefully you told them about this! And yes BEING ON CALL SUCKS, for any shop!!!
Good work ain’t cheap and cheap work ain’t good. I’m glad you take care of your customers and make sure that whatever you do is done right regardless of what the customer thinks. Take care and don’t work too hard!!
Good techs never knock off Chris thats why i decided to change my life choices as well gladly just doing maintenance at a local caravan park now should have do it 10 years ago,im 53 now still love ya videos but yeah to much stress my friend.
Hey Chris , there is a diagnostic module available for those simplicity boards that York is using for everything. The map gateway gives you access to everything that the board is capable of for a few hundred bucks.
Never underestimate the weird symptoms that irregular electricity can cause in anything with an IC. Spikes, sags, dropouts, nearby lightning strike, even someone talking on a portable radio too close to the control panel.
I just put in a $10,000 mini split system. And it kicks ASS my old unit was from 2003 installed in 04 and the compressor sounded like a misfireing engine
I wonder who put in these units the units are way off the curb, what the hell, they are wasting energy, no offense to company who installed it! NICE WORK!🎉 that condenser was really dirthy!
That's the kind of things we see here 😂 double it and give it to the next guy, we literally had someone double a curb and that thing is sky high now. Also had another newly done roof bubble up when it gets windy
working mostly with grocery store refrigeration, just regular service tech, here it's hot and really high humidity so lot's of water-leak jobs :D . mostly no stress until on-call week, most places got remote access (danfoss/carel ) so easy to check on night if i need to go on-site or is it someting guys can deal on normal working hours .
Just tell the customer when you come across someone’s questionable install that you will have to go over the entire system and charge them accordingly. Either they’ll get the message to have let you do the install or you’ll walk away with more satisfaction and $$ knowing the system is running the best it ever will.
It wouldn't surprise me if the 'low pressure' condition was actually a 'ghost in the machine' caused by a software or hardware issue that's either hard to replicate or never properly tested, diagnosed and remedied. Sadly, it's becoming more common that electronics and the software that runs on any computers just is not tested properly or there is a very slight chance of a freak combination of events that causes an error that makes no sense and seemingly comes from nowhere. New equipment seems to have much lower quality components and parts due to 'cost savings' (for the manufacturer, not end user) and so a working electronic design gets reduced to something that 'only just works' because part of it is cost-compromised. In my experience there are three main reasons for hardware computer glitches and they are improper handling of components resulting in ESD damage, for which there is a LOT of ignorance about, 'dirty power' caused by poor quality power supplies either going bad prematurely or built badly from the outset and these days we now have parts running too close to edge of their thermal limits and causing a myriad of issues and drastic shortening of lifespan. I've come a cross all of these issues as a service tech, with bad power supplies and ESD damage issues being top of the list for causing random problems and failures, A lot of stuff runs hot these days and much hotter ever before, which while the hot components themselves may take the heat, a lot of surrounding components won't or not for very long.
I wish I had someone in my area as good as you. HVAC technicians are terrible in my area just north of Sacramento. I’m going through a nightmare with a carrier unit that’s not 3 years old
I have no idea how things are done i America, but maybe some other company far away contacted that mold redemption company and paid them a small fee to have them be the recipient of deliveries, and then just picked the stuff up (or maybe the mold redemption company owns a crane and whatnot and did the last mile delivery and removal of the old equipment)? Over here in Europe things like this at least used to happen for example when installing cable TV systems where someone traveled around a larger area and wasn't really keen on hauling loads of equipment around.
Congestion surcharge? It's busy this week, the rate is 2x Could even have an exception for customers who do preventative maintenance with you. All the best to you and family!
Yeah, did 10 years of residential service/installs and, within the last 3 years, moved to a building maintenance department for a local company. We've got about 40 buildings that me and 6 others take care of, anything from drywall/paint, plumbing to hvac. Im the main/only hvac tech in the group. My schedule can get hectic, but i start at 630-7 and get off at around 4-5 everyday and only have one on call week every 6 weeks. We have a good group though, and people step up when needed and understand days can go long. But coming from residential hvac to building maintenance has given me a much better work-life balance. Could i use more money on the hour? Yes, but hard to justify more money with the added stress. Residential hvac really messed me up mentally and physically. I wasnt taking care of myself in either of those aspects. But now im slowly getting back to me, and i feel good about it. Oncemore about the money, overtime is encouraged and always available to us if we want more, but never forced. We have no idea what you are going through, but i think a lot of us can understand and sympathize. I hope you can figure out what it is you need/want out of life.
Who designed that PCB? They must have a special kind of hate for installers and maintenance techs. There's no reason to put an LCD on there that's way smaller than the messages to be shown. Or make the messages so much larger than the display. A bigger display literally just costs less than a dollar more (if at all, I can get a 40x2 text LCD for $5 ... single unit, delivered---imagine what it costs in boxes of 1000...), and a sticker for the inside of the door that maps short error codes to descriptions is even cheaper.
Don't ever stop doing it the right way Chris, you are my shining example of integrity in the face of sub standard work.
I appreciate that
100% I recommend you to guys coming up in the hvacr field. You are my example of who to try to be. You're one of the best of us.
Agree with that, you do things right way, not just some way like most do. Without people like you world would colapse.
Great video Chris, I can't believe the ambient temperatures u guys have to deal with here in England if it goes above 30c (98f) we just pass out our phones overheat and the ac isn't adequate to cope with the demand.
With the corporate issuse we have worked with a nationwide company for over 25 years and there is a bit of loyalty but not alot due to staff changes and the old it's who you know
Please don't ever change your ethics it's a joy to watch your videos if you need cheering up I send you one of mine (u can use it to show your techs what not to do )
Chris those York SE Smart Equipment can use a device called Johnson Controls Map Gateway 1810 module which can plug to the board with the LED display and all parameters and settings will be shown and very easily navagated through. Yes you can do the toggle on the board but the Map 1810 just opens every thing up for you to see so you can see how the unit was set up or set up wrong. Hope that helps in the future
Don't stop all the things you do because you are doing the right thing, and i know sometimes life is not fair enough with all your work but that's what separate you from the rest....thank you for always teach me the right way to do things
"Apparently I charge too much to do it right" is so sad but true. It's like people forget "Durability, Quality, Cost - Pick Two."
Not an HVAC tech, but I am a generator tech based in Texas. The storms since May have been exhausting. First the large storm that hit Houston, and Temple, then Hurricane Beryl hitting Houston. Me and the guys I work with didn't sleep for about three days straight during the hurricane, and the last two days we had to sleep in our trucks because hotels didn't have power/were booked full. It's rough, but oh so rewarding when you get power back to a nursing home. I feel your pain, but hang in their man.
I agree with so much actually everything you’re saying. I used to be my own worst enemy and still I am at times. I always worry about everybody else and end up cutting my own throat. I know what you mean. I try so hard to be honest with people I go behind so many people trying to sell somebody a new unit that doesn’t need a new unit. They have a bad thermostat or something like that. I could easily swoop in there and sell them a unit myself, but I got to sleep at night, I see these little companies popping up everywhere and they’re selling stuff like crazy I could too if I wanted to go out and tell 75% of my calls they need a new unit probably I’m not gonna do it
You should contact the app vendor asking to show all the gauges on the iPad instead of swiping back and forth. There's plenty of screen room. Thanks for the video.
Probably memory or processor limitations prevent all indicators on one screen
@@grandinosourIn this day and age, not really. It's more likely a UI decision. Having a dozen gauges on screen doesn't exactly look pretty
@grandinosour there is plenty of both to display couple of thousands of gauges. Probably just to keep layout similar between different screen sizes
It is the same app for full size and mini tablets, large and small phones, etc..
It would be quite a bit of extra work to develop and maintain custom layouts for every size display.
It's like TH-cam where is better if people interact with the screen more. Swiping uses time that produces data that makes money
You might want to take a long look at those curb adapters. When I was still working, retired now, I had several issues with curbs being incorrectly ordered or manufactured for the new HVAC to the old HVAC. IE supply and return airs not continuous through the curb or openings oversized and bypassing a percentage of supply air into the return air. We actually had to lift units off and either change the curb or revamp the internal dividers to ensure there was no bypass. Another thing to check while unit is on the crane is the internal duct insulation loose.
I loved the trade but I don’t miss all of the BS. Good luck with your life decisions.🇨🇦
It's a shame that loyalty to a service is going, but in some ways I understand. A company like yours is getting harder to find, where you want to do right by the customer, and not just your wallet. So many companies want to quick cash grab and don't give a toss about the result. It starts a snowball that becomes a boulder with time, as the quality goes down, companies start going for a lower bidder because "Why spend big money on low quality", and those few companies out there that still try to do good by the customer have a harder time competing with that.
I admire your stance on being loyal to the customer, even if they are not always loyal to you. That takes guts. I think that's going to be an increasingly important trait as things go on, and I hope you can pass that on to all of your techs.
Your right %100
It isn't even so much about loyalty as it is about scale. If a company want to have 400 units installed at 100 restaurant locations, they will not contract 100 different local companies. If the manager of one restaurant needs a tech to fix an issue, they will contact the local company of their choice. At both stages, there could be a 100-year-long loyalty to one supplier, but an overlap would be pure chance.
I went after a new install where 2 of those your units were running of return air temp instead of thermostat. Funny part was the install was not complete, they were on the ground discharging out of the side and had card board for temporary return duct. Installers left them running on return air temp and the church called the next morning and said the space in the building was at like 62 degrees.
At one point I was thinking of starting my own HVAC business. A major back injury forced me to step away from field work before I could act on those plans. While my back has largely recovered now, being out of commission for months gave me a chance to reflect that I'd never had before. I suffered from the same frustrations that you voiced in this video.
"One last easy call" almost always turned into a nightmare and me getting home well past midnight, bordering unsafe to drive by the end. Sloppy work by the cheapest bidder was preferred, yet the same customers would call us in later to clean up the mess left by hackjobs. I learned a lot and did feel I started earning respect, even as the job burned me out.
Only once I could look back did I realize the extent of damage to my mental health, alongside the constant reminder of the physical injuries which may follow me the rest of my life.
Take care, Chris! The world needs people like you.
I’m the foreman of an apartment complex and we’ve been replacing air handlers and condensers left and right. I say we but just me. They have 1984 r22 Trane 1.5 tons. it’s exhausting. The amount of neglect is insane. The amount of angry residents are insane. Not even replacing all of them. Most of them they really expect me to service. Doing the best I can to the best of my ability. What sucks is I’m a licensed journeyman and I’m being paid $27 an hour to replace all these units, service and run the property simultaneously. 256 units. Contract ends in October. I’ll just be bustin @$$ in this heat until then. Appreciate your videos. I strive to be a better technician and these videos help dial that in 💯 thanks Chris
Chris I have a bunch of those Yorks now. Those curb adapters and gas lines are a joke! Quality cries once and Cheap cries forever ! 😂
I am instantly in love with that circuit board.
FULL TEXT ERROR MESSAGE?!?!?!
My car has two giant screens directly hooked to the ECU and it can't even display codes, all ACs I've worked on need some ancient tome to decipher blinking LEDs.
@FerdinandFake it's nice, but there's a ton of options. It takes time to figure it out, but once you do it's pretty cool.
binary code leds? Those can get pretty confusing if it has nested menus like that
Also funny that this display is like a 1999 Nokia display which isn't even full dot matrix. Meanwhile I can buy a whole smartwatch with a color lcd display, touchscreen and a cpu that supports bluetooth for ~$10 shipped. Or a a lillygo/ttgo esp32 devboard which has a fast cpu, wifi, bluetooth, a bunch of input and output pins and a small color screen also for $10.
@@tschuuuls486 The displays need to be clear in sunlight, very tough, wide temperature ranges, low cost, and have good long term reliability in harsh conditions (HVAC units have a 10-20 year life expectancy.) Color LCDs offer none of that.
@@tschuuuls486Those fast microprocessors with tiny solder balls don’t do very well for reliability in a rough-and-tumble environment. They tend to be sensitive to cracking solder joints when you have to do outdoor temperature cycles from -40C to +85C or +125C, combined with the vibration of the compressors and blowers. I design automotive ECMs for a living and we have to be pretty careful in reliability engineering.
I had a similar problem with a smaller york rtu where it would lock out on low pressure. After resetting, the pressures seemed fine. Unit would cycle on and off from the thermostat as expected - and only seemed to lock out on low pressure hours after leaving the site. Ended up changing both the MCB and the low pressure switch and was not called back :)
Chris you're amazing. It's so heartwarming to see someone who actually cares. Hire me!
Man, this is exactly how I have been feeling lately.
We do AV & IT install and service, and these are the same questions I've been asking myself. I have been debating dropping one of our larger clients.
You're completely right about customer loyalty being scarce these days.
If think a great tech costs a lot, a bad one costs more.
yeah but the bad tech submitted a lower quote for repairs so they'll end up getting the job
Dolly Parton has said, “It Costs a Lot of Money to Look this Cheap”. In the Case of Contractor that Installed New Units, “It Costs a Lot of Money to Size so Poorly”.
Was a senior service tech at a large contractor who had no regard for our personall lives. After years of go go and them not caring for us tech's being overworked I made a life choice and left. There was no replacement for me as our area is short of quality tech's. Shortly after that 6 more left, yet they still don't care. Wasn't financial, made awesome money, but not going to be overworked by a company that can't say no to new customers when we can't get to existing ones. All about the money for them, unfortunatly most contractors here are similar.
Missed "stonks" opportunity? It's easy to say. But you where in perfect spot to kickstart new business with almost guaranteed customers.
I've been going through issues with a daiken chiller faulting out on low evap pressure for circuit one and finally narrowed it down to the electronic XV sticking. As far as service loyalty goes I just spent most of my day waiting on a fire safety team and contractor as well as an electrician just so I could light pilots after a new ansul system was installed and tested. At the same time I was talking to a building controls contractor who was installing and updating VAV controllers, then monitoring a freezer in the same kitchen to see if it got below 0. Constant use on the freezer and i may have a sticking defrost timer and faulty temp sensor. If you're ever worried about being overwhelmed let people know you can only be in one place at one time
Last year was txv issues all summer, the year before was compressors, this year is airflow issues. Lots cool cleanings, lots of blower cleanings. Do you ever notice you get similar component problems in runs and then it will switch to something else for a little
God bless you my friend I own a construction company I live in. Nyc but after i get off work I always watch your videos are very interesting Sooner than later I will be a HVAC technician.....because I'm learning from you.
I've been watching your videos since a few years. I'm not a HVAC tech, but I love the walking through of troubleshooting and how pedagogical you are! If I had a business in SOCAL I'd hire you all day long just for how thorough you are in wanting to do things right.
I was wondering, could you maybe sell a maintenance subscription? It'd have to have stringent things that would be taken care of in it and what isn't part of the maintenance. It'd have to fit the business you're selling to of course.
Take care man, nothing is worth the headache and everything is worth your time with family.
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words
I have only a passing interest in HVAC, but am here for the troubleshooting.
You're a legend. 6 o'clock doesn't have anything to with the end of the day and there's plenty of work that needs to be done. This summer has been a mess.
Over 50 years in the trade and I totally agree with you on the "curbs sizing" !! It looks like they just went for the lowest bid.
I work in IT and after last Friday, I've been reconsidering my life choices! 🤣
I'll bet
I Retired from IT after 35+ years so I feel your Pain. 🙏
You’d reconsider once u get on those roofs
Server admin here as well. I feel that!
you are correct on the zone sensor. you connect a JCI netstat to the SA Bus terminals. its the 4 wire male spade connectors below the screen. when the unit is operating on its own you can connect a netstat and also noticed it has a BAS network card on it. which can also be used to get information from the unit and write to the space temp if you had a bas that is using its own space temp sensor you can then use that to write the space to the unit. and we havent heard much on the sell of the res and light commercial stuff as of yet where the cut off on the equipment is. as far as renaming. they started doing that back in 2020 when they retired what we called the J or J20 series or the sunline. there is also a core line which is closer to a carrier unit for direct replacement. there are also select which replaced the J series and there is a select series and premier units which replace the YPAL. core normally runs up to 7.5 ton, select and choice overlap each other. select units run up to 40 tons and premier runs from 25 to 80 tons with variable speed compressor options and direct drive fans.
If your sensing bulb was causing that low of a superheat and the unit wasn’t running on the thermostat. You might have had a situation where in low loads, you would be over feeding and flooding. Which would eventually cause low pressure. Or something wonky. Yorks can be a pain with low pressure issues I’ve found. If it’s not setup right
We have those walk way mats on our roof and they get water under them all the time. The roofer is passionate about the fact it’s supposed to be that way
Someone needs to insert the “brother, eww, brother” meme thats some crazy curbs
What’s that brother??
crazy hot in Florida, dehydrated a few times this year... currently taking singing and guitar lessons in order to get out of the trade ; )
Never stop doing things the right way! You are the hero they don't deserve!
with those York simplicity boards you can also program it to control the unit for cool/heat from R/A sensor only
Please don't stop doing things the right way. Don't worry about the other guys, they're not important.
Low pressure reminds me of a trouble we had with our Freeze/thaw chamber. Was struggling to freeze, adjusted position/tightness of sensing bulb and haven't had a problem since.
Good show brother, I understand what you mean about losing the GAF with cheapskate customers, it's the same story on the East Coast with the hack installers. Hang in there bro, summer is almost over, then we get to go find the rest of the gas valves that were left off!😂😂😂
How nice, they never tested the gas to make sure it burns properly. Top notch!
Even tho I'm coming from the other side of the world, I'm so glad there's people like you Chris. We all need people looking INTO things and not just going by the tiny service handbook telling them "Oh after installation if it does a hummmm it's working!"
Thanks
Totally get it!!! It’s a struggle to want to care and want to do the right thing for a customer and yet another contract gets brought in to Lower the bar. Such a challenge to maintain caring.
Your comment about enjoying the business but thinking about going back to working for others struck a note with me. My commitment to my business cost me my first marriage. When I married again I did exactly that. This marriage has lasted 45 years, so far. I recommend it .
I appreciate that
It's been a crazy summer. We finally got another guy, thinking it would take some burden off of myself and the other service tech, and we're farther behind than before. Every A/C unit in the country is breaking it seems like!
I'm just a service tech. I simply don't have the mind for business, I couldn't handle doing both. I'm sure I would make more money, but I enjoy my free time and having less stress than my boss. I do stress about the customers I deal with, mainly heavy commercial and industrial, I take it home with me, much to the chagrin of my wife. Summer has thankfully been pretty moderate 😅 but you take care of yourself Chris! Ever since I came across your videos years ago, it's been a joy watching everything you upload. Try to stay sane!
Thanks
Keep fighting the good fight Chris, as long as you’re busy. If you need to, charge more not less. At least the customers who appreciate your value will be willing to pay for your quality work. Thanks again for the excellent video, it’s a pleasure to watch you work. 👍
Thanks
Service tech here. Of course I stress over the job sometimes. But not because I’m worried about the customer, usually only when a job get hard and I genuinely don’t know wtf is going on. Only been in the trade for 3 years, so I’m seeing new crap every single day still. Fortunately I work for a company who only does commercial work, and we have something like 70 techs now so a majority of the time once someone hits 8 hours they can go home if they want. We can always take calls on overtime if we like, we can always work weekends if we arnt on call as well. Couldn’t imagine working for a company and being forced to work 12+ hours everyday. I usually stop around 10 hours, gotta get my job done AND spend time with my family.
Ratman Roden @ Teco would love to talk about those curbs. Looks like his competition that can do things for cheaper made them.
When you think you're saving money by useing someone cheaper and it comes back and bites you 😂😂😂
Exactly right
Hey Chris, I absolutely feel the lack of sympathy, you're not the only one. I'm much less forgiving these days as it would cost me financially and emotionally. Never stop doing it the right way though, you can't control their integrity, but you can control yours. Do make them pay appropriately for your expertise though!
The good news is there is a whole world of service calls stacking up in the years ahead.. Customer will pay in the end. Sometimes not getting the install job is the most profitable job out of the two options. Bang in your report which covers you going forward and wait for the calls to come in.
I (sad as I am) watch a fair few HVAC channels and with some of them I'm cringing at how poor their skills are and how they approach work (because of how poor their skills are) .
Worse how many other techs writing in the comments how amazing their work is, and how they learn from them.. I can only assume there is a huge amount of very poorly (un)trained techs out there learning on the customers dollar. .It's scary
Your work by far is the most consistent, well thought out, skilled approach to work I've seen on YT. I 100% recommend any new or even seasoned tech to follow your channel.
I appreciate that
Had our biggest customer have a bean counter replace the Head of Maintenance who thought we charged too much. The people who did their new installs put a 10 ton unit just sitting on the roof that’s not on top of any beams. When you walked on the roof the whole thing bounced. That’s not including all the other things not up to code. I worked near the coast in the South Bay of Los Angeles so we didn’t get much dirt, but we did have a lot of bee hives in units. Keep doing it right. The customer may not know it because they don’t see it, but it will save them loads later.
I feel you brother! I did service and repair for years as a manufacturers rep for a large company. My area covered parts of 4 states. I eventually accepted a lead engineers position overseeing 5 bldgs. Never had to leave the area. I was always on call but knew I didn't have to pack an overnight bag or find a hotel, just to handle an emergency. That alone was worth the change.
You always do a good job, you deserve to take a few days to recuperate, dodge the phone,hide your van😎
Maybe my boss will let me have a day or two off
It’s funny I just got done working on one of these today. Bad VFD then I get home pop open TH-cam and I’m looking at identical unit lol
Love your videos man. You have a great work ethic and know how to get along in the corporate world. Not an HVAC guy here but still interested in what you do.
Fully understand it’s like a slap in the face with those situations. But we just push forward and do the best we can. Like always great work and appreciate the videos Chris ty
I appreciate that
Low pressure maybe coil the evap coil froze at some point .
Keep going buddy. "When the going gets tough the tough get going"~Somebody.
It's also a 1986 hit from Billy Ocean. 😁
Lol
Absolutely love your channel, I’ve fallowed it for years and have loved watching it this whole time you’ll be ok man I have faith that you’ll be more than ok regardless of ur stress levels bro everything’s gonna work out for u positive of it
Thanks
glad to finally see an update on this place after so long, but not at all satisfied at the way they installed these new units
Australian service tech here
I know there's pros and cons with running a business down here. Has a service tech on the books for a small business, I can say that the biggest fight I have outside of onsite work is proving the method you chose to work by depending on what kind of person/people your employers are. Once proven you can continue what you do best... Fix problems.
Caring about the customer and the aftermath of some repairs and jobs comes from the nature of the technician. I myself truly have a high care factor around doing the right thing by the customer and business, doing what you can if you have the means and approval.
Best part is if asking for approval is that someone else takes liability and the fault doesn't fall on you. As well as having the ability to call it a day and highly recommending a follow up because the time and money spent on a job may outweigh the issue at hand and is best to do another visit and maintain a reasonable cost
As usual , good work. Thank you, Chris.
Really interesting to hear how some of that corporate side works and how this even happens.
I’ve had curbs too small where the unit was blowing on the roof and they left it that way from the star up …shits unreal what you find in the wild
Chris those Low Side pressure safety switches can have intermittent issues where the resistance through them increases enough for the board to recognize it as open.
Yes, I’m going crazy in this trade. I’m not an owner but I am the service manager where I work and it is exhausting. I play tech support, quote things that are off the beaten path, and rarely get a day off without a phone call, dilemma, or upset customer. Sometimes, I’m fed up with this trade lol. I feel your pain. Great video as always!
Yeah, the stress level isn't worth the burnout you experience
We've been stupid busy too. Its just not stopping. Ive also reconsidered life choices lately.
Where in the world are you located?
It could have had a lower set point at settings when system was running on return sensor and that made the coil temperature get below what it should. Setting it to thermostat only it should be ok
I tip ALL my hats to you. Without A/C this region would be unbearable.
Word of the day is gratitude. Yea it might suck but I’m always thankful that I get to go to work and provide for my family. Not everybody can say that.
In telecom; Everyday I deal with installers who don't give a flying fk, and will also attempt to justify their attitude when I give them a failing grade on inspection. I've heard it all; "the equipment won't last more than a few years, why bother" "nobody will see it" "makes no difference".. having pride in workmanship might be less common nowadays but that does not make it any less valuable. And the idea that more money will be made quickly fades when you have to return to the install either due to equipment failure or an inspection fail.
What I found on the York Units is when they get out of the configuration and start using return temp sensor instead of the thermostat that I get coil freeze alarms due to the unit over working causing the space to be really cold, that could be be why you tripped on low pressure. Also the units board send DC voltage to the VFD for the blower, they sometimes don’t send the full voltage on full speed, causing the blower to run slower, resulting in the Low Pressure fault.
I've worked for the same company for 12 years and have been offered upper management positions. I turn them down. I want to get off at a certain point and not worry about anyone else. Maybe that's being selfish but I have enough stress in my day to day to worry about the whole departments problems for an extra couple hundred dollars a week. Love what you do brother. Keep it up!
Thanks, and your right sometimes more stress, even if it comes with more money just isn't worth it
Dude I feel you on this summer and life choices 1 million percent.
i wanna do this for work, seeing this is nice insight
Thank you 🙏🙏
As to the curb adapters, there meant to fit over the existing curb and under the rail of the new unit because the new unit is larger than the old. As long as supply and return are right that’s how they are. Now as to unit following return air, your right the unit is in stand alone mode because they never checked the unit by t-stat they were cheep, just like not turning the gas on ! HELLO. Hopefully you told them about this! And yes BEING ON CALL SUCKS, for any shop!!!
Good work ain’t cheap and cheap work ain’t good. I’m glad you take care of your customers and make sure that whatever you do is done right regardless of what the customer thinks. Take care and don’t work too hard!!
When you are absolutely exhausted, up your price 5%-15%.
Good techs never knock off Chris thats why i decided to change my life choices as well gladly just doing maintenance at a local caravan park now should have do it 10 years ago,im 53 now still love ya videos but yeah to much stress my friend.
Hey Chris , there is a diagnostic module available for those simplicity boards that York is using for everything. The map gateway gives you access to everything that the board is capable of for a few hundred bucks.
Never underestimate the weird symptoms that irregular electricity can cause in anything with an IC. Spikes, sags, dropouts, nearby lightning strike, even someone talking on a portable radio too close to the control panel.
I just put in a $10,000 mini split system. And it kicks ASS my old unit was from 2003 installed in 04 and the compressor sounded like a misfireing engine
I wonder who put in these units the units are way off the curb, what the hell, they are wasting energy, no offense to company who installed it! NICE WORK!🎉 that condenser was really dirthy!
That's the kind of things we see here 😂 double it and give it to the next guy, we literally had someone double a curb and that thing is sky high now. Also had another newly done roof bubble up when it gets windy
I’ve never seen a double stacked curb adapter …. At least not yet
working mostly with grocery store refrigeration, just regular service tech, here it's hot and really high humidity so lot's of water-leak jobs :D . mostly no stress until on-call week, most places got remote access (danfoss/carel ) so easy to check on night if i need to go on-site or is it someting guys can deal on normal working hours .
Looking forward to future videos where you get to deal with R-32, R-454B, and R-513A units.
Just tell the customer when you come across someone’s questionable install that you will have to go over the entire system and charge them accordingly. Either they’ll get the message to have let you do the install or you’ll walk away with more satisfaction and $$ knowing the system is running the best it ever will.
York Simplicity boards are notorious for crazy codes and most need reflashing to work right. Just my experience.......
It wouldn't surprise me if the 'low pressure' condition was actually a 'ghost in the machine' caused by a software or hardware issue that's either hard to replicate or never properly tested, diagnosed and remedied. Sadly, it's becoming more common that electronics and the software that runs on any computers just is not tested properly or there is a very slight chance of a freak combination of events that causes an error that makes no sense and seemingly comes from nowhere.
New equipment seems to have much lower quality components and parts due to 'cost savings' (for the manufacturer, not end user) and so a working electronic design gets reduced to something that 'only just works' because part of it is cost-compromised. In my experience there are three main reasons for hardware computer glitches and they are improper handling of components resulting in ESD damage, for which there is a LOT of ignorance about, 'dirty power' caused by poor quality power supplies either going bad prematurely or built badly from the outset and these days we now have parts running too close to edge of their thermal limits and causing a myriad of issues and drastic shortening of lifespan. I've come a cross all of these issues as a service tech, with bad power supplies and ESD damage issues being top of the list for causing random problems and failures, A lot of stuff runs hot these days and much hotter ever before, which while the hot components themselves may take the heat, a lot of surrounding components won't or not for very long.
I wish I had someone in my area as good as you. HVAC technicians are terrible in my area just north of Sacramento. I’m going through a nightmare with a carrier unit that’s not 3 years old
Good job Chris,.......You'll find your way with age..........
I have no idea how things are done i America, but maybe some other company far away contacted that mold redemption company and paid them a small fee to have them be the recipient of deliveries, and then just picked the stuff up (or maybe the mold redemption company owns a crane and whatnot and did the last mile delivery and removal of the old equipment)?
Over here in Europe things like this at least used to happen for example when installing cable TV systems where someone traveled around a larger area and wasn't really keen on hauling loads of equipment around.
Congestion surcharge? It's busy this week, the rate is 2x
Could even have an exception for customers who do preventative maintenance with you.
All the best to you and family!
Not a bad idea
We have been slow in Kansas
Yeah, did 10 years of residential service/installs and, within the last 3 years, moved to a building maintenance department for a local company. We've got about 40 buildings that me and 6 others take care of, anything from drywall/paint, plumbing to hvac. Im the main/only hvac tech in the group. My schedule can get hectic, but i start at 630-7 and get off at around 4-5 everyday and only have one on call week every 6 weeks. We have a good group though, and people step up when needed and understand days can go long. But coming from residential hvac to building maintenance has given me a much better work-life balance. Could i use more money on the hour? Yes, but
hard to justify more money with the added stress. Residential hvac really messed me up mentally and physically. I wasnt taking care of myself in either of those aspects. But now im slowly getting back to me, and i feel good about it. Oncemore about the money, overtime is encouraged and always available to us if we want more, but never forced. We have no idea what you are going through, but i think a lot of us can understand and sympathize. I hope you can figure out what it is you need/want out of life.
Thanks
Who designed that PCB? They must have a special kind of hate for installers and maintenance techs.
There's no reason to put an LCD on there that's way smaller than the messages to be shown. Or make the messages so much larger than the display. A bigger display literally just costs less than a dollar more (if at all, I can get a 40x2 text LCD for $5 ... single unit, delivered---imagine what it costs in boxes of 1000...), and a sticker for the inside of the door that maps short error codes to descriptions is even cheaper.
I work on those Yorks a lot and have ran into the low pressure cutout problem twice. I Couldn't figure out why either.
I been rethinking life choices this year myself being a very hot summer
Well you and I know who installed them! 😅