Out On The HVAC Trail

Short Pieces On Learning About Air Conditioning

(I will add more new short related pieces - newer items float to the top "blog style" and separated by "-----")

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As I was getting out of my vehicle there was a small Russian thistle that I almost stepped on with my left foot, and I thought, "wow, that was close!" But then one and a half steps later my wrong foot was headed for a medium sized tarantula. Luckily I avoided him/her as well, and this pair was far away from my home where nothing bad ever happens.

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Today was a GREAT day to NOT go to work. I was glad I wasn't there to eXperience TWO rattlesnakes under a house. My friend had to fight them off with a piece of PVC pipe. Do you realize how difficult it is to KILL a charging rattlesnake with just a piece of small diameter PVC pipe underneath a house where there is little room to swing anything?

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"Wrong" - is the One thing common for the last three job sites that I had been to Thursday. Something was either already wired incorrectly or in one case, the wrong type of fuse was installed.

Also, if your air filter has started to resemble shag carpeting, and weighs considerably more than the new one, you have "weigh"-ted TOO long between filter changes.

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Today was free beer day, two different kinds!

First A&W and then Barq's.

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Jealousy is such a weird beast.

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I spent about 20 difficult minutes in a warm attic today removing a fan blower unit with a faulty motor. As soon as I got down from the attic my mentor Eddie let me know the rest of the story.

I knew that Eddie had tried to get the bad motor but it was in just too difficult spot in the attic for him with his knees. So he had asked me to help the next day, today. But what I didn't know was that after Eddie had not been able to remove it, the homeowner had called in another local HVAC guy, and it just happened to be the same person that had told me a few months ago that my entire system on Main Street needed replaced, which of course, with Eddie's help that wasn't the case, and it was the very impetus to get me started in HVAC work. So with this bad motor situation this other HVAC guy had told the homeowner it would be too difficult to fix, and that he would need to buy a complete new unit. So that boosted my ego and made us laugh hard and long.

(2nd Day on the Project - Had to wait for a new motor) We got the new motor back in place today, but it was rough and took a *little* too long, more warM aTTic TiMe. But I learned some good lessons and I'll be able to do it faster next time. Next time I'll shoot photos of the things I plan to take apart.

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I solved the riddle for what is causing the release of refrigerants ruining the ozone layer. Answer: Dogs urinating on the condenser coils of central air conditioners. The chemicals eat away at the aluminum fins eventually totally destroying sections of the outdoor unit. The first confirmed case day before yesterday was a very large dog appropriately named Boomer.

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I asked where we were going next.

"To Stinnett to fix a window AC unit that has a 'dingling' noise"

My question: "So this is a 'de-dingling' process, and when we get finished it will be 'de-dingle-ed'?"

Eddie responded with laughter and a yes.

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Today a client gave me a glass of tea. After drinking the tea I returned the glass to her kitchen. My mentor Eddie told me that the glass was a gift, and she said, "it's one less thing I'll have to move" (when going to her new home soon). So now I'm the (proud?) possessor of a Santa-Snowman-Gingerbread Man Glass, thanks to The Turtle Woman of Fritch Texas.

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I saw this box at a customer's house. So what do you think? Why, of course I touched it!

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I learned today that Albert Einstein did research and had patents for a refrigeration process with no moving mechanical parts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E​instein_refrigerator

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Today a customer, that I have known for about 30 years, told my mentor Eddie this about me in a loud whisper so I could hear, "You have to watch out for him, he's smarter than he looks"

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We just got directions to a rural customer: "He's out in the middle of nowhere, on the left"

I was greeted by a very nice cow dog. He was quiet and friendly, until right when we were leaving he started barking! We were already IN the vehicle AND the pickup was already in gear.

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