Chris, your diagnosis and temporary repair were brilliant. It doesn't matter how that piece of cardboard looked. It fixed the problem and the beer lines didn't freeze up. Give yourself some credit bro.
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
The beerlines were already frosting up near the end of the video (you can see the chunky beerslush forming when that air bubble was moving around in the line)
Telling a customer the installer broke the controller by accident because the installer is incompetent is throwing someone under the bus, pointing out literal gross incompetence is stemming a potential workplace fatality. If I were the customer I would expect you to tell me why what they did is wrong and chargeback the GC that allowed that crap to happen. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight Chris.
I love your rants! It gives me the opportunity to understand what my Dad always complained about on job sites! I spent many of my weekends in my pre-teen and early teen years going to sites with my Dad and being a gopher (go for) and I remember him muttering to himself about this being done wrong or that being done half-assed but I was too young to understand it. Watching you do your thing opens up the memory banks for me and sheds a lot of light on many situations I've seen before. Watching your videos also makes me wish I listenied to my old man and followed in his footsteps to become an HVAC tech. Keep doing what you're doing and telling it like it is brother. You do excellent work!
They come in every industry. I once watched a crew unloading a piece of electronic equipment the size of a residential refrigerator that was delivered on a pallet and wrapped in cardboard. The equipment was bolted to the pallet, and had a custom made ramp for wheeling it off the pallet - had they read the instructions on the cardboard, it would have been obvious. But this crew chucked the ramp and the cardboard without looking, and then decided they had to partially dismantle the base of the equipment to remove the four bolts holding it to the pallet (it was simply open front door, remove two bolts, open back door, remove two bolts). I had to shut them down (I wasn't there when they started this the day prior, thus not able to retrieve the trashed ramp and cardboard with the instructions), and called the installer, the installer had to go to another job and find one of the custom made ramps, and bring it over to our site to easily wheel the equipment off the palette.
That is absolutely insane!! I know nothing of these bar coolers, but I'm pretty sure my first thought wouldn't be "I think I'll remove a giant sheet of metal, drill holes into a sealed/refrigerated area, and run a bunch of hoses in a place with no visible indication that they're supposed to be there." I've mentioned before, I come from the automotive sector. Very specifically, I do diagnostics and repairs of critical vehicle safety systems. Highly specialized niche work. The number of times I find problems that could result in severe injury or fatality, and the shops think it's perfectly okay, is dumbfounding. Hammering out bent brackets for collision-predicting radar modules, butt-crimp wire repairs on airbag lines, resistors twisted around exposed wires to trick the car into not turning on a warning light... Stupid permeates our planet to a painful degree. People like you are the reason we, as a species, aren't entirely wiped out. Thank you for caring, thank you for working hard, thank you for putting "doing the right thing" at the top of your priorities list, and thank you for sharing your experience and teaching others who want to learn. :)
Yeah and you wonder why the manufacturer put that big yellow 'flammable refrigerant' warning label on the back wall... but we all know, idiots don't RTFM...
You are blessed if you have 3-4 employees that work with you and also are competent enough for you not to throw them off the roof. I had 3 employees up to 2018. Worst deal i had. Always following behind them fixing stupid. Spent more time trying to educate and repairs than actually making money. Now it is my son and myself since 2020. Making money, spending more time per job making sure things are right. We still have callbacks once in a while but none are major problems anymore. Thanks for all your wisdom and insights.
It happens in every field. I see it all the time, be it automotive repairs or anything mechanical related - someone is doing some work and decides that manufacturer just slapped some parts without reason. They don't seem to realise that each and every part costs money and manufacturers most of the time don't do unnecessary things. Each part is typically designed to do something, even if it isn't obvious. Granted, some parts serve just decorative purpose, but it should be really thought out if removing it won't affect other.
So familiar; same situation here…we are smaller company and haven’t been doing installs for our customer. Just got called to a WIC that “hasn’t run right since the install” about 9-months ago. We discovered the TXV bulb laying in the drain pan. Never fastened to the suction line, no insulation, just laying in the bottom of the pan. I got the call this week, my customer will still purchase the equipment through the construction company but we will be doing the installs. We too are a 4-man crew, we will figure out the logistics to get things done we don’t typically do. Great find, great video! I have a saying, “you can’t fix stupid, but; you can certainly charge for it!” I too own the business, and I too am out in the field working….
It’s Monday morning on the 21st here in oz. And I just love watching your videos because you have show. And taught me quite a bit about HVAC. So thank you
My uncle owns a hvac test and balance company, and that job is the epitome of Maguyver-ing things sometimes. The things he has done with cardboard and foil tape...
Have been watching your videos all throughout my apprenticeship, getting licensed shortly. Your educational on site diagnostics have helped me greatly, not to mention your professionalism. If every "boss" of a HVACR company was a leader like you we would be much better off. Your awesome man keep the good content rolling!
I am retired from the coffee/Espresso install and service industry. I have seen a lot of botched up installs by other installers who never knew how to use a screwdriver. The time spent fixing what they did was twice the time it would take to do the install from scratch.
Thank God that you had the knowledge from working on these previously and caught that and also being the type of professional that goes that extra mile. Most average techs would say "Not my fault, Not my problem" and pass the buck but you are dedicated to keeping the customers running and it shows. Thanks so much for this video and for being the type of manager that doesn't micro-manage and lets his tech's try their best while being there in the end to check everything and if things need to be changed doing it in a way that teaches and gets the job done right. Thanks so much Chris and have a great day.
Wait, wouldn‘t it be quite dumb to ignore this problem? They would just call him again and again and waste their time until it‘s fixed and working properly 🤔
I'm Glad that you are one of the few bosses that rather be working on the front lines than pushing paper/office worker. If Anything you should hire an office worker to do your books, write the necessary emails etc therefore giving you more time to be out in the field catching the crap work of others and good for you telling the Naysayers to Pound Sand. There are too many people out there now that cut too many corners so they can earn a buck on razor thin margins because they priced their services too low.
Just had a construction company install all new used equipment in a restaurant. Put regulators on every price of equipment. Including the fryers. Which use combo gas valves. They completely removed the adjustment screw out of one of the regulators too. They wondered why the pilot wouldn't light. Pipe dope was everywhere, inside of every single fitting. People shouldn't touch things when they don't know what their doing.
You didn't say anything wrong you simply spoke your mind I have to agree with you. The days of common-sense erlong going it's almost like now you have to hold grown adults hands on every little thing. I often question management at my job they make decisions are just completely irrational and I sometimes wonder how did they even become manager.
some managers act so irrationally, they create an attitude of "don't care about the job, just do whatever to survive". Those businesses usually fold, but the employees take that experience with them.
Great find that’s a hard one to figure out amazing the shit you find in this industry the lack of quality work and caring is a big problem. Well done as usual way to set the standard
When I owned a small business (in a different field), I was exactly the same way as far as wanting to be at each job myself and keeping our numbers small to ensure quality. Understand completely.
Just ordered a Veto Pro Pac OT-MC with your discount code 🎉 This video hits home for me. I work as lead tech for a small low voltage company. We are constantly fighting poor workmanship and corner-cutters in my field. In fact, the last guy quit because he didn’t like how I “nit-picked” all his work. He claimed he was being bullied. In reality, I was doing basic quality control to ensure our equipment wasn’t going to fail upon install and especially during programming. I don’t want to show up to someone’s brand new home and tell them I’m going to have to cut holes in their drywall. We do the work right the first time and don’t cut corners. If you can’t take constructive criticism and learn to do things the right way, we don’t want you working for our company. Love the content you’re putting out! Keep it up and always look at the big picture!
I donno.. looking at the condition of that install, I think the box DID go boom! believe it or not, what you describe (rather, more than HOW you've described it) is called "professional conceit" no, it not a bad thing- it just shows that you are VERY knowledgeable and that you actually CARE about your craftsmanship! WAY TO GO! keep up the great work!
Hi that is the worst fault to find is a man-made fault caused by unqualified people or people that do not care and now the customer had to pay for them to install and now the customer must pay for the repairs needed to fix what they broke and destroyed, another great video thanks.
One word regarding that install...INCOMPETENT. As usual, you performed that work with imagination, integrity and most of all professionalism. You Chris, are why the good guys win most of the time. Stay up and stay positive. Great job.
a cooler running at 34 degrees will probably not freeze the beer lines, they are trying to use the cooler like a glycol keg cooling system which runs at 25degrees for beer.
If the install went like some others that I've seen, there was one "tech", and eight other guys who might have had construction experience, or might have been day laborers. The "tech" (no way to know how qualified they actually are) advised, but only really got involved at the end. They didn't want to be there overnight either, so it was "eff it, we'll use what we've got".
You are right, these type of calls are the ones that give you the most satisfaction. It just sucks that is has to be at the expense of the customer getting hacked by install contractors.
I could be wrong but that channel on the top should run 3/4 the way down the top to shoot the cold air to the far side of the box and also prevent air recirculation.
I don't do the work you do far from it, but it just shines light on what you have to do to get or keep things running, like you say some times you Polish a turd to get items running till the correct part, or new unit replaced. any installer has to keep customers happy to to install ready if a business is planned to open on time and tweek out any problem's.
One small part of my engineering profession is that I sometimes write/edit part of the Installation, Operations, and Maintenance manuals for our custom process equipment. We write those manuals such that an 8th grader with ADHD should be able to follow the procedures and do the tasks safely and correctly. We do this for multimillion dollar chemical processing facilities... And we still worry that the installers, operators, and maintainers cannot be bothered to read the manuals and follow the procedures...
Your video will be the evidence to their questions. That is why I like taking photos of before and after I have done work. Also having a photo or video of how a piece of equipment is built so it can be referenced if questions arise down the road. I have developed a tough skin to stupidity and just start throwing people under their own bus they made. I agree that common sense ain't so common anymore. Really the store should take your bill and send it to the beer company to get it paid for since they are the ones that had hosed that new unit. Installers did nothing wrong it was the beer people unless it was left up to the installers. Thankfully you got it resolved. I get to have my own level of fun with equipment that was installed in '87 and was manufactured in '86. A lot of R22 systems and a lot of hacking the equipment back together. Previous company did not know how to work on a Chiller for the main cooling and I have been making progress at figuring out what has happened and getting it fixed. Talk about cleaning up after other companies that would hire who ever they could get off the street that barely passed their trade school programs by the seat of their pants. These guys were also supposed to be service techs too but it was the same at my previous company I was working for. I am gone now and much happier. There will be more to come when it all clears.
"Some peoples children" and "These people are allowed to breed" are now my two favorite sayings. Ive been saying the former for a long time and the latter is now added to my vernacular. as for the email I wouldnt attempted to specify who did what, I would just state the facts, "During install a critical piece of equipment for cooling was removed and beer lines were ran in a way that they are prone to freezing. Also holes were drilled right into the space where refrigerant propane lines are at and at this time no leaks are detected, but critical damage to coolant lines and an explosive leak could have occurred."
What if, instead of supervising the installation jobs, you offer some sort of training/certiifcation course to these construction companies. Then in the future, you can provide a list of these certified installers to your customers.
When I worked with a small residential landscaping company, we would do something similar for lawncare. Customers would hire us to maintain their gardens, and we had a lawncare company that we'd recommend. Since we had trained them on our operations, and vice versa, we wouldn't be fighting each other on "the right way" to do things. I never dealt with the billings, but I believe we also offered a discount of some sort if they were used, since it saved us considerable amount of clean-up time on the job site.
@@jimmyssnowremoval1075 I'm guessing you didn't watch the whole video. Like where he describes needing a much larger crew than his to move the equipment, and it being a night operation which costs him the next day's work.
@@BleuSquid so many people comment without watching the whole video lol, they get 5 minutes in and ask a question that gets answered somewhere in the middle FacePalm
Maaan, these beer guys, it’s the same in Northern Ireland, I’ve seen thee worst work from the beer fridge guys, we fit the walk-ins then the beer guys come in and shove in the multi circ beer coolers moving drains, un-sealed holes… I also relate to you a lot with what you’re saying about doing too much and diluting the quality of work, I run a 5 man company over here, I work the most hours also, early mornings etc. absolutely love working, probably more than my wife wants me to 😂
keep us updated on what the client decided what to do with this equipment and when and if you get the parts that you will need to order great job thats why i follow and watch your videos big fan
I would say Chris I believe the Construction Company is liable for two cooler units plus your labor to install the new units. Plus all legal court cost if applicable. Your thoughts?
as someone who wants to open a restaurant your "complaining" gives me so much insight into what to expect and watch for with people installing things that are beyond my skill set.. complain away, you have a valid opinion versus someone not having an opinion that leads to installs like that
Don’t point any fingers just facts, let the customer workout who did what when. Nice fix to swap the units around. Did not think of that. Thank for sharing
Great video, Chris, and thanks for posting it. This is where your attention to detail really shines. It is said that when a teacher teaches it clarifies and reinforces their own knowledge, something I think happened here when you were saying about you talking to the camera and remembering the baffle from the previous video. You weren't whining - you were expressing real and genuine concerns which is quite different. It truly beggars belief how some people never consider that something was done for a reason and how little self-respect these people seem to have turning in such cluster**** of a job! I think that these days people are too used to the modern 'style over substance' or 'form over function' and never consider there might be a functional or substantial reason for something. It's very sad and I think it's one reason things are of such poor quality these days. My own expression describing this phenomenon or 'cluster***ery' is 'crap is the new good' (or, I suppose 'garbage is the new good' as a more polite version) as a variant along the lines of 'shabby to chic' (or 'shabby to sh!t' as I call it, given what I've seen of it).
You are awesome, I wouldn't have see the baffle is missing, I was see similar things people drilling holes in electrical cabinet's and hitting grounding wires, and just leave it, like the ground wire is not important. However, I do admit to also have done some sketchy things in my life, I'm not proud of it and I have learned to do better.
Yeah I've done sketchy stuff too that I'm not proud of, but i learned my lesson.. However these days these unit contain un odorized propane as a refrigerant... there silly mistake could have hurt someone .... I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
@@HVACRVIDEOS I was watching it 👍, I have to say that here in the Europe almost all domestic refrigerators use R600a as the working medium, and all new mini split systems use R32 they are both flammable. I do some refrigeration tech for a hobby so I know how dangerous it can be. I always enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing.
Chris I just had one that made me shake my head too had service tech replace a ECM fan motor but the new fan motor came with the wrong plug instead of mating a male plug to a female plug the tech connected two different style male plugs then he or she taped them together and was sparking with R290refrigerant and coil was freezing up
I wish I can work for yah I used to live in Florida and now I’m in Las Vegas Nevada and not going to lie I’ve always thought about working with you and for you because why not your a legend and inspiring so much peeps like me to do the good quality work and have integrity doing it but yeah love your work and the way I work I follow everything I’ve learned from the hundreds of videos I watch just so I can become a great tech like yah love your vids and always big picture diagnoses
I would talk to management and explain what you have found. You have the evidence of what was done and how it has compromised the equipment. How the electrical was done by them for the units. Which in itself is dangerous and could cause a serious fire hazard. Also it put both the employees and customers at risk to.
Reminds me of the time I was working for a small natural gas utility. Enter one of those “doesn’t know what he doesn’t know” contractors that scare the bejeebers out of competent people. The fellow decided he needed to flush out a water line in a new house, so he hooked it up to the gas line. What could go wrong? For some reason when the 40 psi water met the 1/2 psi gas, it didn’t flush the water pipe, but instead caused the gas appliances in a large neighborhood to become indoor sprinklers. There was no joy in Mudville that night and the bill for drying out the gas lines and replacing the corroded gas jets was awesome to behold. Pity the contractor. You can’t fix stupid. And Chris, you’re still a good egg. Don’t ever sell yourself short. A man with a brain, a heart, and a soul is a rare combination these days.
Great video. I feel your pain. At my company, we go through a lot of the same things on start-up. Great idea making the baffle and switching the boxes BTW. 🖕🏾 Shout to the TH-cam Police. You know a better way, heres an idea, you gondo it. I was always told that there is more than one way to your house. Pick the route you like best. You run YOUR company the way YOU want to. I do not envy you. Alot of people have been great techs thinking they can run a company. Many have failed. You run a thriving company and TH-cam channel that is respected around the WORLD. In my little slice of life we tell the greenhorns to watch your channel. Start from the old stuff and move forward. I have watched all of your videos thanx to the Pandemic.
Chris, I say the EXACT thing about what people do. The “decisions” they make, and what the heck goes on in their brain hole? It’s beyond my way of reasoning. I just want to sit them down at a table and ask them, “ Tell me…run me through your reasoning as to why you decided to remove a piece of the equipment and drill giant holes in the evap?” It hurts my head. Thank you for your videos as always.
Which subcontractor is in charge of running the beer lines? Who specified those coolers in the first place? Jobs with multiple subs turn into a circular firing squad in a heartbeat. In this case nobody was in charge of the whole project. You have a market for consulting for these customers on project management, not necessarily doing the grunt work.
You don't have a word for it? Oh, I have words for it, but as you have a great channel and you're a loving loving man, I will defer and just say, "Thanks Chris for your consideration!"
As an engineer, when we design and manufacture stuff, extremely rarely do we ever include parts that aren't critical to the design in some way. There is a reason for every component a device is shipped with. At a place I worked we would have meetings twice a week to discuss opportunities to reduce cost. We don't include uneccesary stuff or manufacture inefficient designs 99% of the time.
I suspect this is an RTFM failure. The installers didn't read the installation manual that, likely, had the line routing information in it. Another scenario, that is even worse in brain power lacking, is they completely ignored the manual and routed things for their convenience. (Convenience in not having to move the original cooler?)
Wow just wow, i had one almost that good the other day ordered a new prep cooler for a customer they insisted they could bring it in and plug it up i had checked clearances on the doors and box and knew they could get the cooler in without having to do anything major except tilt it back a little to get the the 1/4" wider then the door top to clear and slide right in. Well they decided they had to remove the top, when they removed the top they cut the seal with a chefs knife and cut the temp control wire harness in half and didn't even realize it called me and said hey the temp control isn't working. Like sheesh i was only going to charge them a hour labor to be there and roll it into place. But no then it cost them 3 hours and a harness I did not warranty it....
Hey! Can you show us the finished after they switchted the coolers and you made a new channel for the bier lines. Find it interesting, to see the end result
Would it be possible to revere the fan direction to blow out? I realize it’s not designed for that operation but just for a temp solution? Plus it wouldn’t freeze the beer lines
Your NOT whining!! You’re telling the truth it was beyond stupid an shitty installing… Tools in the hands of untrained installer is bloody dangerous!!!❤
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
We are having issues with the installers of one of our big customers. They give the install team 2 days to take out all the reach ins and put the new ones in. Proper vacuum is not being done so failures are happening left and right. Oh well job security for me. Lol
Idea for a fix for the beer line routing: Have them mount a 2“x2“ channel between the top of their stainless steel surface and the wall, in which they can then route the cables to their tap station… Don‘t you think that‘s easier done than changing the freezers around?
Well... these are the people that are still showing up... and that seems to be what it has degraded to.... quality people have moved on ... actually ... the install company probably ows them a new box... as it is almost totally fubared. and it is unfortunate that you have to come behind and put out this dumpster fire... kudos to you to have integrity and wanting to provide your customers the service that they are paying for.
its a shame that people that just want more money for less work or they want to do it for as cheap as they can and make big bucks isnt right. if you make a mistake or find that there is something different then you should know to make changes. your right in the fact they should have swapped the units around but failed to do so and tried to follow what the old unit did. they fugged up the whole entire unit by doing what they did. if they did it right the first time you wouldnt have to come out and have to order parts that didnt have to be ordered but now have to be. with not being a tech on doing this stuff i have learned so much from you and have learned how to do most stuff on my own when needed. also preventative maintenance. its a good thing you caught stuff when you did cause they dont need the same issues happening over and over. sure your the little guy and a small company but you do the best work possible. there should be more people and companies like yours around.
people should keep two things in mind when thinking about removing parts from a system (unless you know what you are doing and a manual or whatever describes an option to remove something for a specific purpose) 1. If something that is engineered has a part somewhere, it usually serves a purpose and thus should be there. 2. if something was not absolutely necessary to be there, you can bet the maker would have thrown that piece out already to save a dollar or so.
Crass negligence is the word. Way back tradecraft was guild thing, your work reflected on the guild. We have trade school and state licenses, but there is no onus on quality or loyalty to proper trade craft onve you have papers in hand. It becomes your personal brand. Awesome brand BTW!
It's not about throwing people under the bus or how ugly your temporary fix is. You can show your customer the footage of the damages and documentation of the missing pieces, and even get into your old footage of similar units. They're going to look at it and go wow, how much warm beer were we wasting before, now add 2 weeks of no draft sales and/or discounted bottles, but you got us up and running so we can make some money. Ultimately I agree with the other comments that the customer needs to back charge this to the installer including labor, maybe even some money for lost product, because at the end of the day, the installer provided damaged goods.
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
Chris, your diagnosis and temporary repair were brilliant. It doesn't matter how that piece of cardboard looked. It fixed the problem and the beer lines didn't freeze up. Give yourself some credit bro.
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
The beerlines were already frosting up near the end of the video (you can see the chunky beerslush forming when that air bubble was moving around in the line)
Telling a customer the installer broke the controller by accident because the installer is incompetent is throwing someone under the bus, pointing out literal gross incompetence is stemming a potential workplace fatality. If I were the customer I would expect you to tell me why what they did is wrong and chargeback the GC that allowed that crap to happen. Keep up the good work and fight the good fight Chris.
Construction companies have the biggest hacks u will ever see. Any and all codes go out the window. 😅
As a former superintendent, this is absolutely true. After final inspection and CO, nobody cares at all.
Good on you Chris for being honest and hardworking. Such a rare combination these days, unfortunately.
Sad but true
I love your rants! It gives me the opportunity to understand what my Dad always complained about on job sites! I spent many of my weekends in my pre-teen and early teen years going to sites with my Dad and being a gopher (go for) and I remember him muttering to himself about this being done wrong or that being done half-assed but I was too young to understand it. Watching you do your thing opens up the memory banks for me and sheds a lot of light on many situations I've seen before. Watching your videos also makes me wish I listenied to my old man and followed in his footsteps to become an HVAC tech. Keep doing what you're doing and telling it like it is brother. You do excellent work!
They come in every industry.
I once watched a crew unloading a piece of electronic equipment the size of a residential refrigerator that was delivered on a pallet and wrapped in cardboard. The equipment was bolted to the pallet, and had a custom made ramp for wheeling it off the pallet - had they read the instructions on the cardboard, it would have been obvious. But this crew chucked the ramp and the cardboard without looking, and then decided they had to partially dismantle the base of the equipment to remove the four bolts holding it to the pallet (it was simply open front door, remove two bolts, open back door, remove two bolts). I had to shut them down (I wasn't there when they started this the day prior, thus not able to retrieve the trashed ramp and cardboard with the instructions), and called the installer, the installer had to go to another job and find one of the custom made ramps, and bring it over to our site to easily wheel the equipment off the palette.
That is absolutely insane!! I know nothing of these bar coolers, but I'm pretty sure my first thought wouldn't be "I think I'll remove a giant sheet of metal, drill holes into a sealed/refrigerated area, and run a bunch of hoses in a place with no visible indication that they're supposed to be there."
I've mentioned before, I come from the automotive sector. Very specifically, I do diagnostics and repairs of critical vehicle safety systems. Highly specialized niche work. The number of times I find problems that could result in severe injury or fatality, and the shops think it's perfectly okay, is dumbfounding. Hammering out bent brackets for collision-predicting radar modules, butt-crimp wire repairs on airbag lines, resistors twisted around exposed wires to trick the car into not turning on a warning light...
Stupid permeates our planet to a painful degree. People like you are the reason we, as a species, aren't entirely wiped out. Thank you for caring, thank you for working hard, thank you for putting "doing the right thing" at the top of your priorities list, and thank you for sharing your experience and teaching others who want to learn. :)
Amen. Working in IT/Telecommunications. Saw banks and even government structures from the inside and yes. Stupid is everywhere nowadays.
stupid or cost cutting measures.... basically the same thing
Yeah and you wonder why the manufacturer put that big yellow 'flammable refrigerant' warning label on the back wall... but we all know, idiots don't RTFM...
You are blessed if you have 3-4 employees that work with you and also are competent enough for you not to throw them off the roof.
I had 3 employees up to 2018. Worst deal i had. Always following behind them fixing stupid.
Spent more time trying to educate and repairs than actually making money.
Now it is my son and myself since 2020. Making money, spending more time per job making sure things are right.
We still have callbacks once in a while but none are major problems anymore.
Thanks for all your wisdom and insights.
It happens in every field. I see it all the time, be it automotive repairs or anything mechanical related - someone is doing some work and decides that manufacturer just slapped some parts without reason. They don't seem to realise that each and every part costs money and manufacturers most of the time don't do unnecessary things. Each part is typically designed to do something, even if it isn't obvious. Granted, some parts serve just decorative purpose, but it should be really thought out if removing it won't affect other.
9:45 “and to think, these people are legally allowed to breed!” LOL
Great find and attitude to have. You're a true role model for this industry. Proud of you.
So familiar; same situation here…we are smaller company and haven’t been doing installs for our customer. Just got called to a WIC that “hasn’t run right since the install” about 9-months ago. We discovered the TXV bulb laying in the drain pan. Never fastened to the suction line, no insulation, just laying in the bottom of the pan.
I got the call this week, my customer will still purchase the equipment through the construction company but we will be doing the installs.
We too are a 4-man crew, we will figure out the logistics to get things done we don’t typically do.
Great find, great video!
I have a saying, “you can’t fix stupid, but; you can certainly charge for it!”
I too own the business, and I too am out in the field working….
Your videos are great. I don’t work in the industry but I enjoy the way you explain and troubleshoot. Keep up the good work.
It’s Monday morning on the 21st here in oz. And I just love watching your videos because you have show. And taught me quite a bit about HVAC. So thank you
As a mechanic, "how hard could this possibly be?" are very infamous last words.
Being a McGyver myself, I loved, LOVED this video.
My uncle owns a hvac test and balance company, and that job is the epitome of Maguyver-ing things sometimes. The things he has done with cardboard and foil tape...
Have been watching your videos all throughout my apprenticeship, getting licensed shortly. Your educational on site diagnostics have helped me greatly, not to mention your professionalism. If every "boss" of a HVACR company was a leader like you we would be much better off. Your awesome man keep the good content rolling!
Nice work Chris. It's amazing how some of these trades stay in business.please be careful out there with the hurricane.
I am retired from the coffee/Espresso install and service industry. I have seen a lot of botched up installs by other installers who never knew how to use a screwdriver. The time spent fixing what they did was twice the time it would take to do the install from scratch.
Thank God that you had the knowledge from working on these previously and caught that and also being the type of professional that goes that extra mile. Most average techs would say "Not my fault, Not my problem" and pass the buck but you are dedicated to keeping the customers running and it shows. Thanks so much for this video and for being the type of manager that doesn't micro-manage and lets his tech's try their best while being there in the end to check everything and if things need to be changed doing it in a way that teaches and gets the job done right. Thanks so much Chris and have a great day.
Wait, wouldn‘t it be quite dumb to ignore this problem? They would just call him again and again and waste their time until it‘s fixed and working properly 🤔
I'm Glad that you are one of the few bosses that rather be working on the front lines than pushing paper/office worker. If Anything you should hire an office worker to do your books, write the necessary emails etc therefore giving you more time to be out in the field catching the crap work of others and good for you telling the Naysayers to Pound Sand. There are too many people out there now that cut too many corners so they can earn a buck on razor thin margins because they priced their services too low.
Just had a construction company install all new used equipment in a restaurant. Put regulators on every price of equipment. Including the fryers. Which use combo gas valves. They completely removed the adjustment screw out of one of the regulators too. They wondered why the pilot wouldn't light. Pipe dope was everywhere, inside of every single fitting. People shouldn't touch things when they don't know what their doing.
You didn't say anything wrong you simply spoke your mind I have to agree with you. The days of common-sense erlong going it's almost like now you have to hold grown adults hands on every little thing. I often question management at my job they make decisions are just completely irrational and I sometimes wonder how did they even become manager.
some managers act so irrationally, they create an attitude of "don't care about the job, just do whatever to survive". Those businesses usually fold, but the employees take that experience with them.
They're managers because they can't handle doing real work 😂
Great find that’s a hard one to figure out amazing the shit you find in this industry the lack of quality work and caring is a big problem. Well done as usual way to set the standard
When I owned a small business (in a different field), I was exactly the same way as far as wanting to be at each job myself and keeping our numbers small to ensure quality. Understand completely.
Just ordered a Veto Pro Pac OT-MC with your discount code 🎉
This video hits home for me. I work as lead tech for a small low voltage company. We are constantly fighting poor workmanship and corner-cutters in my field. In fact, the last guy quit because he didn’t like how I “nit-picked” all his work. He claimed he was being bullied. In reality, I was doing basic quality control to ensure our equipment wasn’t going to fail upon install and especially during programming. I don’t want to show up to someone’s brand new home and tell them I’m going to have to cut holes in their drywall. We do the work right the first time and don’t cut corners. If you can’t take constructive criticism and learn to do things the right way, we don’t want you working for our company.
Love the content you’re putting out! Keep it up and always look at the big picture!
Thanks for the support and the nice words bud!
It always amazes me how THEY always fuck it up but WE are the ones there on Saturday trying to fix it.
That's normal.... I have seen numerous fuck ups from other people, sometimes they even try to hide the evidence but you always find out what happened.
Nice find. I would've missed that myself over and over.
I donno.. looking at the condition of that install, I think the box DID go boom! believe it or not, what you describe (rather, more than HOW you've described it) is called "professional conceit" no, it not a bad thing- it just shows that you are VERY knowledgeable and that you actually CARE about your craftsmanship! WAY TO GO! keep up the great work!
Hi that is the worst fault to find is a man-made fault caused by unqualified people or people that do not care and now the customer had to pay for them to install and now the customer must pay for the repairs needed to fix what they broke and destroyed, another great video thanks.
One word regarding that install...INCOMPETENT. As usual, you performed that work with imagination, integrity and most of all professionalism. You Chris, are why the good guys win most of the time. Stay up and stay positive. Great job.
I've had construction companies grab saw sawls and saw the crap out of refrigerant lines because the unit was in their way to pour concrete
a cooler running at 34 degrees will probably not freeze the beer lines, they are trying to use the cooler like a glycol keg cooling system which runs at 25degrees for beer.
If the install went like some others that I've seen, there was one "tech", and eight other guys who might have had construction experience, or might have been day laborers. The "tech" (no way to know how qualified they actually are) advised, but only really got involved at the end. They didn't want to be there overnight either, so it was "eff it, we'll use what we've got".
"Day laborers" Is that the code for them now? SMH
Sorry for your woes. Many different industries feel ya. Best of luck, great video as usual!!
“Here’s your sign” love the bill engvall reference!!!
Need to see a flowup video for this epic issue.
Keep up the great work!
Yet another outstanding video! I can relate to your common sense. I fully understand. Your great work is not unnoticed!
Good on you man. Way to be diligent
You are right, these type of calls are the ones that give you the most satisfaction. It just sucks that is has to be at the expense of the customer getting hacked by install contractors.
The amount of installs I've seen that I wanted to be present for to slap the stupid out of the installers. Best of luck man and great catch.
I could be wrong but that channel on the top should run 3/4 the way down the top to shoot the cold air to the far side of the box and also prevent air recirculation.
I don't do the work you do far from it, but it just shines light on what you have to do to get or keep things running, like you say some times you Polish a turd to get items running till the correct part, or new unit replaced.
any installer has to keep customers happy to to install ready if a business is planned to open on time and tweek out any problem's.
One small part of my engineering profession is that I sometimes write/edit part of the Installation, Operations, and Maintenance manuals for our custom process equipment.
We write those manuals such that an 8th grader with ADHD should be able to follow the procedures and do the tasks safely and correctly. We do this for multimillion dollar chemical processing facilities...
And we still worry that the installers, operators, and maintainers cannot be bothered to read the manuals and follow the procedures...
Pictograms like IKEA? Probably not gonna be looked at but a red circle with a slash through it definitely says don't do that in my book.
This brings to mind a saying that I heard years ago, " If at first you don't succeed........ read the instructions " ! ! !
Your video will be the evidence to their questions. That is why I like taking photos of before and after I have done work. Also having a photo or video of how a piece of equipment is built so it can be referenced if questions arise down the road. I have developed a tough skin to stupidity and just start throwing people under their own bus they made. I agree that common sense ain't so common anymore. Really the store should take your bill and send it to the beer company to get it paid for since they are the ones that had hosed that new unit. Installers did nothing wrong it was the beer people unless it was left up to the installers. Thankfully you got it resolved. I get to have my own level of fun with equipment that was installed in '87 and was manufactured in '86. A lot of R22 systems and a lot of hacking the equipment back together. Previous company did not know how to work on a Chiller for the main cooling and I have been making progress at figuring out what has happened and getting it fixed. Talk about cleaning up after other companies that would hire who ever they could get off the street that barely passed their trade school programs by the seat of their pants. These guys were also supposed to be service techs too but it was the same at my previous company I was working for. I am gone now and much happier. There will be more to come when it all clears.
100 percent on the diagnosis keep up the good work. It has to be done right. And thinking outside the box to get them up and going ❤
"Some peoples children" and "These people are allowed to breed" are now my two favorite sayings. Ive been saying the former for a long time and the latter is now added to my vernacular.
as for the email I wouldnt attempted to specify who did what, I would just state the facts, "During install a critical piece of equipment for cooling was removed and beer lines were ran in a way that they are prone to freezing. Also holes were drilled right into the space where refrigerant propane lines are at and at this time no leaks are detected, but critical damage to coolant lines and an explosive leak could have occurred."
What if, instead of supervising the installation jobs, you offer some sort of training/certiifcation course to these construction companies. Then in the future, you can provide a list of these certified installers to your customers.
When I worked with a small residential landscaping company, we would do something similar for lawncare. Customers would hire us to maintain their gardens, and we had a lawncare company that we'd recommend. Since we had trained them on our operations, and vice versa, we wouldn't be fighting each other on "the right way" to do things. I never dealt with the billings, but I believe we also offered a discount of some sort if they were used, since it saved us considerable amount of clean-up time on the job site.
Doesn’t he do installations too. So why not just hire him to do the installation and service?
@@jimmyssnowremoval1075 I'm guessing you didn't watch the whole video. Like where he describes needing a much larger crew than his to move the equipment, and it being a night operation which costs him the next day's work.
@@BleuSquid so many people comment without watching the whole video lol, they get 5 minutes in and ask a question that gets answered somewhere in the middle FacePalm
Maaan, these beer guys, it’s the same in Northern Ireland, I’ve seen thee worst work from the beer fridge guys, we fit the walk-ins then the beer guys come in and shove in the multi circ beer coolers moving drains, un-sealed holes…
I also relate to you a lot with what you’re saying about doing too much and diluting the quality of work, I run a 5 man company over here, I work the most hours also, early mornings etc. absolutely love working, probably more than my wife wants me to 😂
keep us updated on what the client decided what to do with this equipment and when and if you get the parts that you will need to order great job thats why i follow and watch your videos big fan
I would say Chris I believe the Construction Company is liable for two cooler units plus your labor to install the new units. Plus all legal court cost if applicable. Your thoughts?
Chris you are one smart guy great job👍🏽
as someone who wants to open a restaurant your "complaining" gives me so much insight into what to expect and watch for with people installing things that are beyond my skill set.. complain away, you have a valid opinion versus someone not having an opinion that leads to installs like that
Don’t point any fingers just facts, let the customer workout who did what when. Nice fix to swap the units around. Did not think of that. Thank for sharing
Great video, Chris, and thanks for posting it. This is where your attention to detail really shines. It is said that when a teacher teaches it clarifies and reinforces their own knowledge, something I think happened here when you were saying about you talking to the camera and remembering the baffle from the previous video. You weren't whining - you were expressing real and genuine concerns which is quite different.
It truly beggars belief how some people never consider that something was done for a reason and how little self-respect these people seem to have turning in such cluster**** of a job! I think that these days people are too used to the modern 'style over substance' or 'form over function' and never consider there might be a functional or substantial reason for something. It's very sad and I think it's one reason things are of such poor quality these days. My own expression describing this phenomenon or 'cluster***ery' is 'crap is the new good' (or, I suppose 'garbage is the new good' as a more polite version) as a variant along the lines of 'shabby to chic' (or 'shabby to sh!t' as I call it, given what I've seen of it).
The most complex and unusual service calls are the ones which feel the most rewarding at the end.
You are awesome, I wouldn't have see the baffle is missing, I was see similar things people drilling holes in electrical cabinet's and hitting grounding wires, and just leave it, like the ground wire is not important. However, I do admit to also have done some sketchy things in my life, I'm not proud of it and I have learned to do better.
Yeah I've done sketchy stuff too that I'm not proud of, but i learned my lesson.. However these days these unit contain un odorized propane as a refrigerant... there silly mistake could have hurt someone .... I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
@@HVACRVIDEOS I was watching it 👍, I have to say that here in the Europe almost all domestic refrigerators use R600a as the working medium, and all new mini split systems use R32 they are both flammable. I do some refrigeration tech for a hobby so I know how dangerous it can be. I always enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing.
Chris I just had one that made me shake my head too had service tech replace a ECM fan motor but the new fan motor came with the wrong plug instead of mating a male plug to a female plug the tech connected two different style male plugs then he or she taped them together and was sparking with R290refrigerant and coil was freezing up
Keep us posted !!!
I tried doing the "Hire the best people, kick back and coast". It's a pipe dream.
Good. Stuff Chris
Small things. Makes a big. Difference
For sure
I wish I can work for yah I used to live in Florida and now I’m in Las Vegas Nevada and not going to lie I’ve always thought about working with you and for you because why not your a legend and inspiring so much peeps like me to do the good quality work and have integrity doing it but yeah love your work and the way I work I follow everything I’ve learned from the hundreds of videos I watch just so I can become a great tech like yah love your vids and always big picture diagnoses
I would talk to management and explain what you have found. You have the evidence of what was done and how it has compromised the equipment. How the electrical was done by them for the units. Which in itself is dangerous and could cause a serious fire hazard. Also it put both the employees and customers at risk to.
5 seconds into the video and I can already see what the problem is, there's a Bud Light handle at the right end there 😝😜
Reminds me of the time I was working for a small natural gas utility. Enter one of those “doesn’t know what he doesn’t know” contractors that scare the bejeebers out of competent people. The fellow decided he needed to flush out a water line in a new house, so he hooked it up to the gas line. What could go wrong? For some reason when the 40 psi water met the 1/2 psi gas, it didn’t flush the water pipe, but instead caused the gas appliances in a large neighborhood to become indoor sprinklers. There was no joy in Mudville that night and the bill for drying out the gas lines and replacing the corroded gas jets was awesome to behold. Pity the contractor.
You can’t fix stupid. And Chris, you’re still a good egg. Don’t ever sell yourself short. A man with a brain, a heart, and a soul is a rare combination these days.
Great video. I feel your pain. At my company, we go through a lot of the same things on start-up. Great idea making the baffle and switching the boxes BTW.
🖕🏾 Shout to the TH-cam Police. You know a better way, heres an idea, you gondo it.
I was always told that there is more than one way to your house. Pick the route you like best. You run YOUR company the way YOU want to. I do not envy you. Alot of people have been great techs thinking they can run a company. Many have failed. You run a thriving company and TH-cam channel that is respected around the WORLD. In my little slice of life we tell the greenhorns to watch your channel. Start from the old stuff and move forward. I have watched all of your videos thanx to the Pandemic.
Chris, I say the EXACT thing about what people do. The “decisions” they make, and what the heck goes on in their brain hole? It’s beyond my way of reasoning. I just want to sit them down at a table and ask them, “ Tell me…run me through your reasoning as to why you decided to remove a piece of the equipment and drill giant holes in the evap?” It hurts my head. Thank you for your videos as always.
Which subcontractor is in charge of running the beer lines? Who specified those coolers in the first place? Jobs with multiple subs turn into a circular firing squad in a heartbeat. In this case nobody was in charge of the whole project. You have a market for consulting for these customers on project management, not necessarily doing the grunt work.
You don't have a word for it? Oh, I have words for it, but as you have a great channel and you're a loving loving man, I will defer and just say, "Thanks Chris for your consideration!"
Great Video. Have a nice weekend. Thank you for sharing
We demand to follow up episode!
I hope you do a follow up on how this turned out.
They actually closed the restaurant so we never got to fix it
As an engineer, when we design and manufacture stuff, extremely rarely do we ever include parts that aren't critical to the design in some way. There is a reason for every component a device is shipped with. At a place I worked we would have meetings twice a week to discuss opportunities to reduce cost. We don't include uneccesary stuff or manufacture inefficient designs 99% of the time.
Had a Trane 15 ton package unit with airflow problems. Blower wheel was installed upside down from the factory.
I suspect this is an RTFM failure. The installers didn't read the installation manual that, likely, had the line routing information in it.
Another scenario, that is even worse in brain power lacking, is they completely ignored the manual and routed things for their convenience. (Convenience in not having to move the original cooler?)
Good work Chris. I really love your work man. Keep it up. From Houston tx.
Wow just wow, i had one almost that good the other day ordered a new prep cooler for a customer they insisted they could bring it in and plug it up i had checked clearances on the doors and box and knew they could get the cooler in without having to do anything major except tilt it back a little to get the the 1/4" wider then the door top to clear and slide right in. Well they decided they had to remove the top, when they removed the top they cut the seal with a chefs knife and cut the temp control wire harness in half and didn't even realize it called me and said hey the temp control isn't working. Like sheesh i was only going to charge them a hour labor to be there and roll it into place. But no then it cost them 3 hours and a harness I did not warranty it....
Great video, see stuff like that way to often
Hey! Can you show us the finished after they switchted the coolers and you made a new channel for the bier lines. Find it interesting, to see the end result
Thank you very much
Would it be possible to revere the fan direction to blow out? I realize it’s not designed for that operation but just for a temp solution? Plus it wouldn’t freeze the beer lines
Your NOT whining!! You’re telling the truth it was beyond stupid an shitty installing… Tools in the hands of untrained installer is bloody dangerous!!!❤
I'd be worried about hidden damage on the propane unit in areas you can't see.
What could possibly go wrong?
Sarc
@@jerrykorman7770 Fire, Fire, and even more Fire. :)
@@TheJosephegould 😹
@@jerrykorman7770 Hot Stuff :P
Having a boss that preaches by example is the best when you're starting up
GOOD JOB BUDDY
Man you had me on the floor "And just think these people are legally able to breed." But hey, at the end of the day, the hacks bring us the stacks.
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
Just a thought could you use your hvac lift that you used outside to move units to the rooftop or a mini crane if you wanted to do the full job
We are having issues with the installers of one of our big customers. They give the install team 2 days to take out all the reach ins and put the new ones in. Proper vacuum is not being done so failures are happening left and right. Oh well job security for me. Lol
Idea for a fix for the beer line routing: Have them mount a 2“x2“ channel between the top of their stainless steel surface and the wall, in which they can then route the cables to their tap station… Don‘t you think that‘s easier done than changing the freezers around?
Well... these are the people that are still showing up... and that seems to be what it has degraded to.... quality people have moved on ... actually ... the install company probably ows them a new box... as it is almost totally fubared. and it is unfortunate that you have to come behind and put out this dumpster fire... kudos to you to have integrity and wanting to provide your customers the service that they are paying for.
Was dealing with the same unit this past week, Beverage company ruined the the units.
Man that was crazy. I agree with you some people you just have to wonder lol
its a shame that people that just want more money for less work or they want to do it for as cheap as they can and make big bucks isnt right. if you make a mistake or find that there is something different then you should know to make changes. your right in the fact they should have swapped the units around but failed to do so and tried to follow what the old unit did. they fugged up the whole entire unit by doing what they did. if they did it right the first time you wouldnt have to come out and have to order parts that didnt have to be ordered but now have to be. with not being a tech on doing this stuff i have learned so much from you and have learned how to do most stuff on my own when needed. also preventative maintenance. its a good thing you caught stuff when you did cause they dont need the same issues happening over and over. sure your the little guy and a small company but you do the best work possible. there should be more people and companies like yours around.
Youre a hero. I woulda walked away
people should keep two things in mind when thinking about removing parts from a system (unless you know what you are doing and a manual or whatever describes an option to remove something for a specific purpose)
1. If something that is engineered has a part somewhere, it usually serves a purpose and thus should be there.
2. if something was not absolutely necessary to be there, you can bet the maker would have thrown that piece out already to save a dollar or so.
Crass negligence is the word. Way back tradecraft was guild thing, your work reflected on the guild. We have trade school and state licenses, but there is no onus on quality or loyalty to proper trade craft onve you have papers in hand. It becomes your personal brand. Awesome brand BTW!
On site engineering, love it!
i'd love to see the finished unit and maybe some footage of the install / reconfiguration of the mess
They closed that particular location a few weeks ago and never fixed the mess up
Expect the unexpected, that is just amazing. Not too common that parts are missing.
It's not about throwing people under the bus or how ugly your temporary fix is. You can show your customer the footage of the damages and documentation of the missing pieces, and even get into your old footage of similar units. They're going to look at it and go wow, how much warm beer were we wasting before, now add 2 weeks of no draft sales and/or discounted bottles, but you got us up and running so we can make some money. Ultimately I agree with the other comments that the customer needs to back charge this to the installer including labor, maybe even some money for lost product, because at the end of the day, the installer provided damaged goods.
I will discuss this live tonight 8/21/23 @ 5:PM (pacific) on my TH-cam livestream come on over and check it out th-cam.com/users/livedwwis62-KTo?feature=share
Great video. I like your opinions and enjoy watching your videos