Technicians have to make flare fittings in the field every day. Most of the time, the application is for mini-split/ductless installs. However, you may encounter certain situations where flared fittings are more practical than a braze joint. Regardless of the reason, flared connections are notorious in our trade for being popular leak areas. Either the flare […]

When we say that there is “flash gas” at a particular point in the system, it can either be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on where it is occurring. Flash gas is just another term for boiling. It is perfectly normal (and required) that refrigerant “flashes” or begins boiling directly after the […]

Thought Experiment #3 – The Start Winding Has No “Inrush” with a run capacitor only  The name “start winding” is an antiquated term for the single-phase residential industry. It came from the days when CSIR (capacitor start, induction run) motors were still used commonly. In a CSIR motor, the start relay removes the start winding […]