This article was written by Christopher Stephens. He is a commercial HVAC/R service manager in the greater Los Angeles area. Thanks, Chris. Let’s start by covering the three elements needed for a fire: fuel, air, and heat (spark). With those three elements in the right condition, you can start a fire. So, if we reduce […]

We all understand that vacuum pump oil is the lifeblood of our vacuum pumps. We know what the function of vacuum pump oil is and how it functions. But how do we apply that knowledge when choosing the oil best suited for our pumps? Many of us simply pick up what’s in the stock room […]

Belly band crankcase heater When I first started in the trade as an apprentice, we worked on many Trane heat pumps that used crankcase heaters. These crankcase heaters slid into the compressor sump on the big orange Tyler reciprocating compressors, like the one below. It was very common for these heaters to break off where […]