Along the path to becoming a great HVAC technician lies the dreaded wiring diagram. It's meant to be a helpful map of the equipment's electrical system, but with its crisscrossing lines and cryptic symbols, it often feels more like a barrier than a guide. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. But what if you […]

Industry data shows that up to 40% of compressors returned under warranty have no fault found. Technicians often blame the compressor when another component is the root cause. This checklist is designed to help you definitively confirm compressor failure, saving time, money, and unnecessary replacements. Let's make sure it's truly bad before we cut it […]

This tech tip was written by Eric Kaiser from TruTech Tools. Thanks, Eric! Filling refrigerant recovery cylinders is a task HVACR technicians perform regularly, but figuring out how much refrigerant to safely put into a cylinder can still be confusing. The challenge almost always comes back to refrigerant density or specific gravity. Specific gravity, also […]

Eric Mele, Eric Kaiser, and John Oaks come on the podcast to talk about commercial PM best practices and what matters most. Drain cleaning is a critical part of the standard commercial PM. You must assess the drainage situation (pitch, length, location, etc.) to plan your cleaning strategy and arrive at the best result: the […]

In today's podcast, I talk to John Oaks about his experience as a VRF tech in the field, including branch boxes and two-pipe vs. three-pipe technology. John primarily works on the troubleshooting and service side rather than the installation and programming side of the field. Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems, also called VRV systems when […]