HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

In this live podcast episode, Bryan talks through real home IAQ solutions with Jim Bergmann and others. They also answer audience questions. Indoor air quality is a place where the HVAC and building …

Craig of AC Service Tech on YouTube joins Bryan on the podcast to explain how to charge an A/C unit. He also discusses his excellent new book.

Before you start charging a unit, you must know about su…

In this short and nerdy science podcast, Bryan discusses how electromagnetism impacts every part of our lives. Electromagnetism refers to the movement of electrically charged particles.

From transfor…

In this first live podcast episode, Bryan responds to audience questions and discusses moisture and humidity issues in HVAC.

Moisture leads to other problems, including fungal growth. We often see mo…

Eric Mele and Joe Shearer join Bryan to discuss the challenging issue of diagnosing and rectifying non-condensibles in the circuit.

Non-condensibles are gases that don't condense, including nitrogen.…

In this short podcast episode, Bryan quickly covers defrost termination and failsafe. He also explains what they mean in refrigeration systems.

We need to defrost evaporator coils anytime they drop b…

John Pastorello from Refrigeration Technologies joins us to talk about testing oil and refrigerant for contamination. He also explains what each test is good for. John developed the Checkmate testing…

In this short podcast episode, Bryan explains what to do when you get water in your tools. (Hint: the answer is NOT to panic!)

Some technicians try not to get water in their tools at all. Depending o…

Mike Hardy from SpeedClean joins us to talk about how SpeedClean got started. He also explains why all contractors should consider engineered solutions.

SpeedClean emerged from the need to make coil-…

Eric and Bryan talk through some non-standard ways of thinking about filter drier usage. They also discuss how to install these non-conventional filter drier ideas.

The humble filter drier helps us p…

In this short podcast, Bryan discusses the recent ads and news articles claiming that homeowners are in trouble and that R22 is becoming illegal.

The R22 phaseout has been on the agenda for a long ti…

My buddy Eric Kaiser from the ETS Group comes on to discuss a common problem we see in both students and techs as they study. We talk about issues with how they think about the trade and how to progr…

Balancing complaints are common in the HVAC industry. In this short podcast, Bryan explains how diagnostic duct design solves those issues.

"Diagnostic duct design" refers to using the duct system to…

Eric really likes ceiling cassette air handlers, so much so that he put them in his own home. We discuss ceiling cassettes vs. highwall and other ductless-related topics.

A cassette air handler looks…

In this short podcast episode, Bryan breaks down the most common defense for bad practices: time in the industry. He also explains how to STOP USING IT as an excuse.

When technicians communicate with…

Devin Skipper comes on the podcast to give you an introduction to make-up air systems and explain their purpose. This time, we pull out all of the initials: MAU, MUA, DOAS, and MHGRV.

Make-up air is …

In this short podcast episode, Bryan covers multi-stage or variable-speed compressors. He also explains the impacts of staged compression. Multi-stage (or variable-capacity) compressors can come in m…

Jim Bergmann is back on the podcast to talk about the effects of dew point on coil TD. He also gives us a full rundown on recent MeasureQuick updates and what to expect in the future.

When you see fl…

Bryan talks about EPR and CDS valves. We consider both to be evaporator pressure regulators, but they really function quite differently. CDS are Sporlan components that appear to be quite similar to …

Jim talks about dew point, bubble point, and midpoint in refrigerant blends. He also covers the purpose of each and why MeasureQuick displays midpoint on the gauges.

We've formerly used mostly pure r…