My friend Ami Slavin requested that I write about this important topic in response to the horrifying videos showing up online of death and gore associated with compressors exploding. He pointed out that the “diesel effect” can be the cause, so let's explore what may be—and likely is—leading to these horrible incidents. In a diesel […]

The photo above is of a real condenser coil we cleaned. The outer fins looked OK, but dirt and lint were packed deep inside. We also had sky-high head pressure and condensing temperature; those are telltale signs of an impacted condenser. That situation illustrates that a coil can sometimes look OK at first glance but […]

  As with most other trades, HVAC/R technicians need to have a solid set of hard skills to make it in the industry. Whether we pick up those hard skills by working on cars as teenagers, learning them in a trade school, or acquiring them on the job, we’ll have to rely on our hard […]