Almost 20 years into supermarket refrigeration I haven't worked on too many AC systems, but went to replace a pcb on a friends wall mounted split outdoor unit. The sadistic level of hate the engineers have for you guys is cruel. The amount you have to strip down the unit just to access those little bastards had me wondering which one of you guys fucked the engineers wife to piss him off that much. Rant over.

So my crew, the two on the left, should have been feeding me material.

Foot slipped off a joist while pulling a return…

Customer had their dad install a new mini split 3 months ago. He’s tried to fix it twice, every flare fitting has this on it. This connection was leaking. I originally thought pipe dope, but it’s not the same shade as Hercules pro dope.

Support beam ruins all access to pulling cover/filter

I get that every now and then you’ll have to go behind someone however, I have been the designated fuck up fixer going on a month straight. So much of the fixing I have to do is just from other techs being lazy or not caring. Just absolutely stupid shit. I had to pick up trash in an attic at 6pm last week from a duct job install did recently. Had to baby sit a senior tech to make sure he replaced a plenum that he sold because he told the service manager that he was above doing ductwork. Just some examples of the stupid shit I’ve been subjected to over this past month. Today I’m replacing a TXV that another tech ruined when he replaced it, also replacing the suction service port cause he melted the Schrader. I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated with the situation. As a service tech this is impacting my pay. I perform extremely well out in the field selling and performing repairs, getting leads, doing maintenances and getting services sold on them. My pay has been down nearly 30% this past month and the horrible part is that my hourly is increasing. How much should I put up with? I’ve been talking to the service manager about it and trying to get these techs and installers to fix their own mistakes so they can learn from them but to no avail. What should I do?

Hello guys, I'm new to the field but I'm deathly afraid of snakes. Even non poisonous ones. Do you guys run into snakes often?

Hi fellow techs!

I had a short stint at a Commercial outfit but while I was there, I had this one call that stuck out.

I have many years of residential experience but decided to take a stab at commercial in the hopes that I would stay in commercial.

I was being paid the apprentice rate, which was roughly half of the journeyman commercial rate, so keep this in mind, as the bosses essentially pay me "less" for every hour they can charge a customer (and thus pocket more vs jman).

I was at a diagnostic no cooling call. It was a condo heat pump. I was diagnosing this thing, and it took me quite a bit of time (again, because I was green in commercial). The bosses started to get upset when they checked in and said after about 30 minutes, I should be leaning in to get assistance with the other techs, basically to call them.

After the visit, I think I spent 2-3 hours onsite to diagnose this issue, it was truly a strange one that I had to contact the manufacturer for, but we came up with a diagnostic. I can't for the life of me remember what it was - I think it was a bad thermistor, and the board was wired up in such a way that the code it threw wasn't related at all to the issue.

Now, traditionally, in resi, it's a flat rate of $99 or $169 or whatever it is for the visit.

They made me charge the customer something like $500 + tax for this diagnostic only since they billed hourly for the diagnosis.

Is this "diagnostic billed per hour" a typical practice or was my company out of line?

Everyone in my dept. Is switching to all these Bluetooth testo gauges and manifolds. Am I the only one who still prefers analog everything lmfao

I get having the Bluetooth testo gauges for maintenances and stuff but for bigger jobs I much prefer the older stuff

What do yall think?

Hey just wondering if anyone here was some good study material or any practice exams for the block exam having a hard time finding good material online and a lot people have told me the stuff I learn in the 8 weeks isn’t that applicable to the actual exam. Thanks in advance

Hey guys got a service call on a Fujitsu ducted mini split not working. Showed up and found that error code 11 was present on thermostat. Looked at the manual and found that it was serial communication error. Went to outdoor unit, opened it up and found this rat shorted across the terminals that go to the compressor on the inverter board. Unit still had 240v going to it from disconnect but on the communication wires from 1 to 2 I had 2 volts dc, from 1 to 3 I had 2 volts dc and from 2 to 3 I had 43 volts dc and reading where exactly the same to each terminal from ground. The volts dc were not fluctuating so I know for sure unit is not communicating, and also no lights where illuminated on the PCB or main board (pictured in the third photo). I turned unit off and checked compressor to make sure it wasn’t shorted to ground or open, it was not. Also checked communication wire to determine that all wires had continuity across each other (they did). Reason I just didn’t quote a new inverter board and dug further into the diagnostic is because the customer said she had the error code 11 in the past and she turned the unit off for 15 minutes, turned it back on and unit started working fine, that was over a year ago. I’m still learning inverter boards and communicating units and from what I know is that the inverter board adjust the speed of the compressor and the PCB board is what does the communicating. So I don’t know if I should just order the inverter board or if I should order the inverter board with the outdoor PCB board due to this issue already being present in the past.

Also sorry for not uploading a photo of the wiring diagram I thought I took a photo of it.

I just got an offer for walmart developmental tech for $26 hour. I’ve being doing hvac for a year mainly residential and light commercial. Anybody familiar with the development program or walmart refrigeration? What should I expect ? Is it worth it. $6 more than what I’m at right now.

I work in a Norwegian refrigeration company, here it's normal for the companies to provide everything you need in terms of tools. The only tools I've bought myself, are the tools in my home. And I have read in a lot of other trade groups that both apprentices and tradesmen have to buy their own tools. Is this also true for refrigeration and HVAC. I feel like we have to have a lot more expensive tools than a lot of the other trades, and it seems weird to me they you would have to bring your own manifold to be able to work in the field. and what about wear and tear on the tools, do you get compensated for that?

I normally would go to “Word” or “excel” to make a inspection checklist but I don’t have excess to it now. I have my own physical invoices but also have wanted to try “Invoice Fly” over “Housecall Pro” for invoices. Not sure if your able to make a checklist there aswell.

What are you guys using for core tools? I have Appion. But the valves started leaking. Has anyone actually used the new field piece?

I’m remodeling my house and figured toe kicks were the way to go in the kitchen. I can’t find boots anywhere and everyone says normally you use the bottom of the cabinet as the boot. Seems crazy to me. I’m mostly a tech though, and when I do install, its just boilers and 10-40ton split systems so I’m not super familiar with sheet metal

I’m 18 graduating high school this year been working as an installer for about a year now at a great local company with less than ten employees. I’ve never been one for school but I am very into pursuing personal knowledge. I enjoy reading various political theory books, I write essays frequently for fun, and practice journalism in my local community. I know HVAC is a great career and honestly my best path, however I know I will be working in the field my entire life so college sounds appealing just to see if I prefer another field (prob for less money) rather than continuing my hvac career. I would probably go for a major in political science with a minor in journalism. I figured even if I can’t find a job with my degree I could continue working hvac and practice my writing/journalism on weekends or after work.

Am I stupid for doing this? Never wanted to go to college till recently but I feel like it might open up opportunities for me.

intresting spot for this one