PennSilverTaco's HVAC BS MegaThread!

If the customer is happy and I can make a buck is the bottom line.

 

What brand do you primarily install?

 

Lately down here in Houston, TX all you can find are Goodman’s or carriers

 

Carrier is better in my opinion, or at least quieter; I believe Goodmans are actually built in Houston...?

 

Yeah we got the new daikin factory here

 

My friend Jeff's parents' house was built in either 1987 or 1988, and it still has the original Carrier "Round One" unit (installed when the house was built) that works great and is so incredibly quiet that you can barely hear the compressor running; My Grandma bought a large condo in 2006...

The condo was built in either 1993 or 1994 and the original York heat pump failed in 2004; The second owner of the condo (before my Grandma) was extraordinarily wealthy but extraordinarily cheap. He bought literally the cheapest heat pump you could get at the time, a Goodman 10 SEER with a reciprocating compressor; I'd never even heard of Goodman until my Grandma bought that house! The Goodman worked well enough, but it was incredibly noisy; In the summer, the Goodman did a great job of keeping the house cool, though on the second floor it was noticeably warmer. I remember the air coming out of the floor vents being finger-numbingly cold relative to other air-conditioners and heat pumps I'd experienced; In terms of heating performance, the Goodman worked no worse than you'd expect any other heat pump installed in the Lehigh Valley area (In the far north reaches of Southeast PA).

The run cap in the Goodman failed in like 2012...? Other than that, the Goodman was pretty much trouble-free until the compressor went in the summer of 2015; The Goodman was a 3.5-ton which I believe was slightly undersized. My Grandma ended up picking a Carrier Performance Series 16 SEER 2-stage unit, with a little help from me, and the contractor was originally going to install another 3.5-ton unit, but I'd sold my grandma on getting a 2-stage heat pump with a variable-speed air handler; They don't make 2-stage condensers in "half-ton" sizes (1.5, 2.5, 3.5), so the contractor did a load calculation and determined that a 4-ton unit would obviously be better than a 3-ton.

The condo is at least 3,000 square feet if the finished basement is included (size-wise, it's bigger than many typical single-family homes, but legally it's considered a condo because it part of a 3-unit building and the land is common area owned by the HOA), and while it is still noticeably warmer on the second floor than on the first floor, the difference in performance between the 3.5-ton and the 4-ton is amazing!

 

I am pretty sure my old furnace/AC units l had replaced last year were Lennox. The Propane Guy was here today and looks like l will finish the season about $225 less despite it being colder this winter!

 

The A/C was a 1993 Lennox; You sent me pictures...

 

Take off the fan and do it right. But who cares that condenser already pretty much dead

 

That was back in 2011; My aunt bought the house in 2006 and it was still working great when she sold it in 2016!

 

That was what l thought, the furnace was Lennox too then, lasted a long time.

 

Dropped off a DoorDash order at this McMansion today...

 

It had FOUR (4) air-conditioners!

 

You seem truly interested in HVAC work... Why don’t you get a job in it?

 

Trust me, it's been on the menu for years; I was all set to start taking classes while working at my current job (My dad is the vice president at a defense contractor and I work here too), but then, well, COVID...

I am currently looking into taking online classes at Penn-Foster and getting my EPA cert that way; How long did it take you to complete your training?

 

Didn’t do any training when I started, got a job as a helper 11 years ago. Worked my way up to master tech

I would not suggest going to those trade schools. Better off getting the field experience

 

When I was still detailing cars at a dealership (a job I hated with a passion due to shitty hours and low pay), I attempted to get a job at a huge local HVAC contract delivering parts to technicians; I went in expecting an interview and ended up a getting a very unwelcoming 3-on-1 interrogation about my driving history. Unfortunately, I'd been involved in one very minor at-fault accident less than a year prior, so I didn't get the job. I've never lost my license or gotten any points. Before that interview, I was actually set to go in for another interview at another company; The guy who was supposed to be interviewing me (who happened to be the owner's son) died suddenly over the weekend (I'd talked with him via email on Thursday or Friday and called their main office the following Monday and found out that he'd died; I was instructed to let them grieve for a while and never got a call back. After the "3-on-1" interrogation incident, I stopped trying to get an entry-level job in HVAC...

What I'm finding is that a lot of these companies are very tightknit and come across as hostile to outsiders who aren't blood relatives or in-laws, and the ones who aren't nepotistic want experience that I don't have for even the most menial of positions. Then, COVID hit and I had a steady job with a 401K and paid vacations so I kept that.

How did you get your EPA certs? Did you pay for it yourself, or did your employer?

 

Companies are tight knit because I know they see a lot of new guys coming and going. This work isn’t for everybody. It’s a war zone. You got to be a hustler. It’s always changing and evolving. You have to work like you’re poor and starving to death. You will get service calls in the middle of the night, don’t expect anything less. And it’s okay if it’s not for you. It’s overwhelming, technical, tedious, and will consume your mind/body and spirit. It’s not a job or a career, it’s a lifestyle. However it can be very rewarding.

 

When I had my system installed last year it was right after a heatwave, the guys told me that service calls had been pouring in and they were all basically going nonstop.

 

Sounds like my grandma trying to get the propane-powered generator at her house in Maine replaced in a timely manner...