We all see a lot of questions about dyes, leak stoppers, lubricants, inhibitors, and snake oil. All of those were designed to go into the refrigerant circuit and “improve” something. I just go back to what Ray Johnson always said. (Ray is one of my early heroes in the biz, and he taught me a […]

I've been reading a book called Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything, and it got me interested once again in the history of air conditioning and refrigeration. Like many things, the people who are credited with “inventing” are the ones dogged enough to make an idea commercially successful, not the idealists forever tucked away in the […]

When I started in the trade, the idea of flowing nitrogen while brazing was nothing more than the punchline of a joke. Like pulling a vacuum with a micron gauge or proper recovery, it was a wink and nod proposition rather than a real practice. I've had to unlearn many bad habits since those early […]