Same here not enough time in the day, I can hear my boss now ( you just now getting on that next call) I agree more thorough method like this is best and More preventative just not practical
Most companies allot 1hr for maintenance. There is no way to do all this in 1hr. He even said 20 minutes to allow coil to dry to get accurate refrigerant readings. I work on some houses where there are 5,6,7,8 systems.
In forty years, I have not found one a/c tech that act or works like the teachings i read about in Bryan Orr's school, 1500 dollars to change out a warrantied Compressor. Keep up the good work.
That's funny... You guys inadvertently solved a problem I had as a maintenance tech. I had a unit on a Nest thermostat earlier today and was wondering why the heat strips weren't on. Had no clue there was a lockout function like that.
This is a great starting point for residential heat and ac maintenances. I just want to tell everybody out there that you can really take the maintenance to the next level. And become very profitable. I love this video. And I would challenge any and everyone out there that number one if you don’t know everything about the system by time you finish your maintenance visit. Can you really say that you looked at it and did a thorough evaluation? And then Number two is after you have learned everything about the system, can you communicate with the customer in the way that is easy for them to understand and also they see the importance, of the preventative maintenance. Remember this a monkey can change the lightbulb. But to see the breakdown before it happened is true skill in the craft.
I do all of the above and I am highly rated on my Residential Tune up’s by my company customers . Is very important to be through and detail oriented because customer love that and is also your Perfomance winning chip. Really Good Tips. Thanks a lot for such great pointers.
Always enjoy the BertLife videos! So, a long running debate question here. Can you or can you not safely and effectively clean a micro channel outdoor condenser with a Viper type cleaning product? I’ve heard both sides of the argument here but any thoughts?
I only get 2 hours per call (including drive time) for 1 or 2 system maintenances. Comes out to 60-90 minutes of work. I'll tell you right now, I only take the top off of a condenser if it's really bad.
I'm glad I found your comment. Could you please throw down some examples of things that you believe could be migrated over to residential? I'm not an HVAC person but I think it would be very interesting at worst.
@@InsideOfMyOwnMind the issue with residental is just going above and beyond like its a dog and pony show. The boot covers, the vacuuming condensers, wiping the cabinet, and other thing they don't show behind the scenes. A lot of companies do flat rate pricing which I found to be a burden to discuss with homeowners. In commerical I'm by myself. I do what I want to do. I tell the customer I'm here, I do my thing, fix it and I let the office bill out. So much less stressful. Although Kalos is in Florida and I'm in NY. I dont know how much different people are down there but up here people are very nasty and rude. I just couldn't deal with all the bullshit anymore.
@@TheGhettoLobster Thank you. I hadn't thought of that angle. And I should have given a lifetime of dealing with the public on other types of service work. The thing is, you can have ten techs, all very competent, clean, courteous and professional on the same job with the same diagnosis at the same price and get ten different reactions from the same customer. You can't fix that. That said, in my experience if the tech expresses a bit of empathy, (something I'm lousy at) they tend to get a better response from the customer. Problem is a well experienced tech who knows all of that but has heard all the customer angles thousands of times and is just counting down the days to retirement they are more likely to skip over the little customer relations bullet points without even realizing it. The struggle is real whether you're HVAC, automotive or whatever and either it's your kind of gig or it's not. Some people like the very thing that you escaped to commercial over. There is that moment of thrill when you see the consumer realizes that you just made their problem go away even if it's at a high cost. That's what keeps me going tbh.
I'm in western North Carolina and it's attics or a crawlspace. 75% crawls with red dirt, no vapor barrier, and like 3 block high. Tons of oil furnaces as far away from the crawl door as possible. We get filthy over here.
BUY A BELT FLASHLIGHT / And I can only hope you ran the system to dry after all the water before getting your #. GET you some (triple D cleaner) FYI 25 years Yacht HVACR / 7 years resid/comm HVACR.
Please help... my ac keeps freezing if I set below 76degree. I have had 2 top rated ac professionals come out run multiple tests on my handler and compressor each said every test yields perfect results. I live in south Florida and 76 is just too hot given the humidity. Today it froze again. I read online to turn the unit off at the thermostat but, leave the fan running to help it defrost. I did, the temperature in the house dropped from 77 to 69 in 1.5 hours. Unit off, fan on. So then I turned the off the fan when it hit 69 degrees but the compressor kept runningfor 30 mins after turning the fan off. So I then turned off compressor at the breaker fearing it might get burnt out or something. Idk lol. I feel like maybe its an electrical problem? Or bad thermostat? I'm having a hard time understanding the logic that my ac is "testing like a new system" and that "its recommmended to replace the whole system" ...at the same time. Any suggestions appreciated.
@@jasondematos9314 Not necessarily. They said the outdoor unit kept running after the fan shut off. If the AC is running with no airflow the inside coil will freeze up. It could be a thermostat issue or a stuck contactor. Those don’t sound like top rated AC professionals to me.
2 dead lizards in the electrical panel. Might wanna put some conduit on that low voltage so theres not a 3/4 '' knock out punched out for lizards to get into on the bottom of hte electrical panel :)
That is not your typical low-baller’s $39 PM. That is the way they are supposed to be accomplished. They should take 2 hrs minimum and cost $200 minimum. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make a living doing them. Make sure you stock plenty of contactors and capacitors. Add algaecide tablets to the pan. Always remove those horizontal drain pans on upflow AH’s. Avoid selling that brand unless you like filling out their warranty forms often. Of course, it’s not going to be seen by their friends like those big 2500+ sqft houses, jacked up 4wd $80K trucks or $10K vacations.
I know the condenser coil is micro channel so you were able to go side to side with the water hose but any other coil you would have bent the fins and even though that's a "No sh** Sherlock" comment of me to make this is a training video and DIY home owners will mess their unit up washing it that way.
You did not check the bearings on either the indoor blower motor or the condenser fan motor, you did not clean the blades on the outdoor fan motor, you did not check wiring connections on the outdoor unit, what about the capacitors? you did not check the defrost cycle. why? Instead you poured four gallons of water down the drain and checked the condensate float switch in December...Very disappointed. You did not ask the customer if there were ay issues with the system i.e; thermostat, etc.
From the looks of it approx 3 hours LMAO 🤣 Im to pressed for time to do maintenance calls like this, imagine if they had 2 systems upstairs and downstairs... Yeah that's gonna be an expensive bill for a maintenance call
Joel don’t like cameras 😂😂😂😂, great video Bert!
Lol stick with it Joel!
All fine and well if a company gives you the time. Companies seem to load calls up and expect this type of maintenance done
For real, the company I work for expects me to do 8 a day with no helper.
Same here not enough time in the day, I can hear my boss now ( you just now getting on that next call) I agree more thorough method like this is best and More preventative just not practical
Most companies allot 1hr for maintenance. There is no way to do all this in 1hr. He even said 20 minutes to allow coil to dry to get accurate refrigerant readings. I work on some houses where there are 5,6,7,8 systems.
@@ddcws1maintainence charges should be by system
It is so amazing to see how different the hvac is in the states and Barbados but yet the same principles apply loving it
In forty years, I have not found one a/c tech that act or works like the teachings i read about in Bryan Orr's school, 1500 dollars to change out a warrantied Compressor. Keep up the good work.
That's funny... You guys inadvertently solved a problem I had as a maintenance tech. I had a unit on a Nest thermostat earlier today and was wondering why the heat strips weren't on. Had no clue there was a lockout function like that.
Cause nest are junk. Throw it in the trash.
This is a great starting point for residential heat and ac maintenances. I just want to tell everybody out there that you can really take the maintenance to the next level. And become very profitable. I love this video. And I would challenge any and everyone out there that number one if you don’t know everything about the system by time you finish your maintenance visit. Can you really say that you looked at it and did a thorough evaluation? And then Number two is after you have learned everything about the system, can you communicate with the customer in the way that is easy for them to understand and also they see the importance, of the preventative maintenance. Remember this a monkey can change the lightbulb. But to see the breakdown before it happened is true skill in the craft.
Florida Pro tip for plugging the hole from the temp split.......... golf tee
Glad to see another Bertlife video, it has been a while!
Dry humor is the best! 😂
How much time do you give your guys to complete these maintenances?
If they are doing all that extra stuff probably 2 hours
2 hours per system so that’s almost a whole day to complete a single call for a 3 system pm….
@@bradleyberry1762 a maintenance that thorough would take 4 hours in total
It's all about doing the best job for the customer both now and spotting any potential problems in the future.
And Bert still has 6 more calls to get done lol
I do all of the above and I am highly rated on my Residential Tune up’s by my company customers . Is very important to be through and detail oriented because customer love that and is also your Perfomance winning chip. Really Good Tips. Thanks a lot for such great pointers.
Good to see you Bert!
Happy new year guys.
Wishing you guys a year full of blessings and filled with new adventures.
Like always thank you for your videos.
Great video I just wish air handlers and furnaces where that easy to access in California attics 😬
HAHA the scene with the mouse outside at the condenser..
Very professional MasterClass
Bert seems like in other life he is a stand up comedian lol
Excellent video !
Great tips. Thank you.
How long does it take to do a maintenance like this? This looks good for the customer, but terrible for dealing with call volume.
amazing learning
Always enjoy the BertLife videos! So, a long running debate question here. Can you or can you not safely and effectively clean a micro channel outdoor condenser with a Viper type cleaning product? I’ve heard both sides of the argument here but any thoughts?
Love me some Bert
How many hours does your company expect a maintenance like this to take?
My company expects an A/C or heat pump maintenance to take about 2hrs. And for a gas furnace maintenance 1.5hr. For oil maintenance 2.5 hrs.
I only get 2 hours per call (including drive time) for 1 or 2 system maintenances. Comes out to 60-90 minutes of work. I'll tell you right now, I only take the top off of a condenser if it's really bad.
Same
That was really good, and a great positive outlook on maintenance visits…. You check that static pressure though?
Very important
Ah, I dont miss how ridiculous residential is lol. You guys do good work don't get me wrong but the way we do things commerically is so much better
I'm glad I found your comment. Could you please throw down some examples of things that you believe could be migrated over to residential? I'm not an HVAC person but I think it would be very interesting at worst.
@@InsideOfMyOwnMind the issue with residental is just going above and beyond like its a dog and pony show. The boot covers, the vacuuming condensers, wiping the cabinet, and other thing they don't show behind the scenes. A lot of companies do flat rate pricing which I found to be a burden to discuss with homeowners. In commerical I'm by myself. I do what I want to do. I tell the customer I'm here, I do my thing, fix it and I let the office bill out. So much less stressful. Although Kalos is in Florida and I'm in NY. I dont know how much different people are down there but up here people are very nasty and rude. I just couldn't deal with all the bullshit anymore.
@@TheGhettoLobster Thank you. I hadn't thought of that angle. And I should have given a lifetime of dealing with the public on other types of service work. The thing is, you can have ten techs, all very competent, clean, courteous and professional on the same job with the same diagnosis at the same price and get ten different reactions from the same customer. You can't fix that. That said, in my experience if the tech expresses a bit of empathy, (something I'm lousy at) they tend to get a better response from the customer. Problem is a well experienced tech who knows all of that but has heard all the customer angles thousands of times and is just counting down the days to retirement they are more likely to skip over the little customer relations bullet points without even realizing it. The struggle is real whether you're HVAC, automotive or whatever and either it's your kind of gig or it's not. Some people like the very thing that you escaped to commercial over. There is that moment of thrill when you see the consumer realizes that you just made their problem go away even if it's at a high cost. That's what keeps me going tbh.
Test capacitors while it’s running, under load
What do u guys charge for a maintenance over 100 or what...
I'd say he's correct on all of that
Joel seems like a good FNG
Must be nice in USA to have evap units on ground level. In Australia they’re all pretty much in sweltering hot roof spaces.
That can be misleading! In Texas we get about a 50/50 split between Upflow and Horizontal.
I'm in western North Carolina and it's attics or a crawlspace. 75% crawls with red dirt, no vapor barrier, and like 3 block high. Tons of oil furnaces as far away from the crawl door as possible. We get filthy over here.
BUY A BELT FLASHLIGHT / And I can only hope you ran the system to dry after all the water before getting your #. GET you some (triple D cleaner) FYI 25 years Yacht HVACR / 7 years resid/comm HVACR.
My a/c was working great 2 hours ago, now I need $3000 worth of shit..., get the hell off my property...lol
Please help... my ac keeps freezing if I set below 76degree. I have had 2 top rated ac professionals come out run multiple tests on my handler and compressor each said every test yields perfect results. I live in south Florida and 76 is just too hot given the humidity. Today it froze again. I read online to turn the unit off at the thermostat but, leave the fan running to help it defrost. I did, the temperature in the house dropped from 77 to 69 in 1.5 hours. Unit off, fan on. So then I turned the off the fan when it hit 69 degrees but the compressor kept runningfor 30 mins after turning the fan off. So I then turned off compressor at the breaker fearing it might get burnt out or something. Idk lol. I feel like maybe its an electrical problem? Or bad thermostat? I'm having a hard time understanding the logic that my ac is "testing like a new system" and that "its recommmended to replace the whole system" ...at the same time. Any suggestions appreciated.
if its freezing you have a low pressure problem, a tech should have been able to come up with some sort of solution
@@jasondematos9314
Not necessarily. They said the outdoor unit kept running after the fan shut off. If the AC is running with no airflow the inside coil will freeze up. It could be a thermostat issue or a stuck contactor.
Those don’t sound like top rated AC professionals to me.
2 dead lizards in the electrical panel. Might wanna put some conduit on that low voltage so theres not a 3/4 '' knock out punched out for lizards to get into on the bottom of hte electrical panel :)
If only they were all that easy to work on
yeah too bad commercial customers give you an alloted maintenane time of 10min per rtu
My work give me about 45 minutes for a single maintenance
Dude looks like Mark Pellegrino (Lucifer) from the show "Supernatural".
Wiping down old crusty condenser and making them shine will make your customer feel like you must have them new life
That is not your typical low-baller’s $39 PM. That is the way they are supposed to be accomplished. They should take 2 hrs minimum and cost $200 minimum. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make a living doing them. Make sure you stock plenty of contactors and capacitors. Add algaecide tablets to the pan. Always remove those horizontal drain pans on upflow AH’s. Avoid selling that brand unless you like filling out their warranty forms often. Of course, it’s not going to be seen by their friends like those big 2500+ sqft houses, jacked up 4wd $80K trucks or $10K vacations.
Even at 200 and 2 hours thats not profitable.
Sounds good!
Thanks again for the videos.
🍺🍺🍺🥃🥃🏌🏻♀️🎯
Stay safe.
Retired (werk'n)keyboard super tech. Wear your safety glasses!
Bro really said mold
I know the condenser coil is micro channel so you were able to go side to side with the water hose but any other coil you would have bent the fins and even though that's a "No sh** Sherlock" comment of me to make this is a training video and DIY home owners will mess their unit up washing it that way.
5kw on 5 tons?! Yall must never need defrost.
👍
I love it..they all walk that slow! Its annoying as heck!
You did not check the bearings on either the indoor blower motor or the condenser fan motor, you did not clean the blades on the outdoor fan motor, you did not check wiring connections on the outdoor unit, what about the capacitors? you did not check the defrost cycle. why? Instead you poured four gallons of water down the drain and checked the condensate float switch in December...Very disappointed.
You did not ask the customer if there were ay issues with the system i.e; thermostat, etc.
You do you super tech
@@HVACS, Nice. Good answer.
@@michaelthomson5101 just listen to the motors, you are a crappy tech if you cant determine good motor bearings from bad by just using your ears.
Lol 😂 (“ if you ever see me walking that slow shoot me”)
How long does it take for you guys to do a AC maintenance?
From the looks of it approx 3 hours LMAO 🤣 Im to pressed for time to do maintenance calls like this, imagine if they had 2 systems upstairs and downstairs... Yeah that's gonna be an expensive bill for a maintenance call
about 1.5 hours if u really being detailed and involving the customer thru the call