I got lucky that this was the first video I found. I've never worked on an HVAC system, and this saved me hours and hundreds of dollars. Thought it was my thermostat till I went upstairs and all the lights in the unit were off.
Ted thanks for the upload. I was hoping to retire from my job of 42 years this Nov and try to go back to HAVC if my body will let me but seems as my 401k is in such bad shape now I may have to stay at my current job for a couple of more years. ( I can work along besides you in my mind at least through these videos.) I have worked helping family and folks who cannot afford with their HVAC issues just to keep my self active. My stepfather had a HVAC contractors company in the late 70s that I worked for him.
Ted I have recently found your videos and I am enjoying watching them. Sure, wish you were located in my area. I do take except with your comments about home inspectors. You are an expert, you have been in this business 20 years or more, you service and install HVAC equipment every day. A Home Inspector is a generalist, he conducts VISUAL Inspections, he looks for red flags, when red flags are present he recommends a specialist to assess, repair or replace. THAT is his job. If all you professionals would read home inspectors Standards of Practice you might understand better our limitations, and what a home inspection entails. Even if we knew what you knew, we are not allowed or supposed to try to fix an issue. Ted I have heard you more than once on your videos commenting how you DO NOT understand why another HVAC company: installed, service, or repaired the way they did. So if you do not know why an installed added a Y or changed duct size how would we as inspectors know anything about installation when there is no standard way even amongst HVAC contractors. My standard advice on a report if I find 1 thing wrong with a system is to have a professional contractor address the issue I found and inspect the entire system, you guys will most likely find more things wrong, so do not blame us not finding or even looking beyond the 1 defect.. Agents think home inspectors should advise on the repair, instead of calling for a professional like you., The agents want to know how and what to repair so they can have Uncle Bubba ( a none professional) make the repair and call it good. So when you get called to inspect don't always bad mouth the inspector for following their SOP's . It would be much worse if an inspector tried to act as an expert recommend how a repair was to be made, and then the agents Uncle Bubba made things worse. David M3 Real Estate Inspection www.m3inspect.com
Great video, Ted. I don't care what brand you're loyal to. everything is built down to a cost. If the design and BOM cost doesn't agree with the bean counters.... you're getting the Shenzhen Equivalent Special.
How young are you Ted? I had up to 4 employees when I started my company about 10 years ago. I got tired of babysitting them and them not listening to what I was telling them and the quality of work wasn't up to my standards. So I fired everybody went to a one-man shop. Now I take what I want to do and leave the rest for somebody else. The job became more physically taxing but has decreased my mental strain. And now I get less call backs and I make more money. What I did isn't for everybody but I absolutely love waking up and going to work not having to babysit 4 grown men. I appreciate your clips I always try to learn something on every one of them. See you on the next one.
Your just like me. I actually had a helper hit me, and break my wrist. over me asking if I was studdering, Because he didn't understand how I wanted to eliminate a branch duct, and run a new duct, from the machine. He was 45. Then he called the police and blamed it all on me, and then signed a waiver, not to press charges against me. All while I'm driving myself to the hospital. I've always mostly done it alone. But once I hoped to have a couple guys, I was ignored and fixing things behind them, all the time.
Contactor was my issue too. Thank you. Tech Tip- Get a large magnet, Take your socket put it on the magnet and repeatedly bang on the socket with a hammer to magnetize it. I have done this with screw and Philips head drivers to help hold the screws to the head so they don't drop.
Lol, the second you mentioned that magnetic tool comment... 80% of my tools are magnetic, when I have to use one that isn’t and the screw falls into the blower, condenser or to the floor I get unreasonably pissed the F off 😆😂, I love my magnets. I’d pay any price $$ for any magnetic tool. They’re so worth it
I think People gotta stop saying " it must be made in China" for a fact americans are hiring the chinese manufactures to produce cheap stuff. so who is really to blame! the people that make it or the people that pay other people to make it.
I have changed a bunch of trane heat strip contactors. I rarely see their outdoor contactors fail though. I totally understand ghe part you mentioned if you want it done right you gotta do it yourself. For sure.
You can magnetize/demagnetize the bits really easily. Stanley have a tool for that which is very handy for screwdrivers. Especially when you have very fine screws, being magnetic makes it difficult
I really like the short pro tool. I see now Harbor Freight is selling a stubby ratcheting nut driver for less than half the price of the Klein . No more than I would use it ,it would probably do just fine. Glad to see the virus hasn't got you locked down. Be Safe!
I got a nasty Shock, on a call, due to a Co-worker jumping out the fuse, and not finding the problem. The 277 to 24 volt transformer had shorted across the windings. It was very obvious the transformer had got wet. You ought to up sell them Copper Condensate drains, to limit the drain clogging. And sell them Sanuvox UV, this was the best thing I ever did on my American Standard unit. Absolutely no mold in the unit and no odors in the house.
I like the short pro, but at $38.00 it a bit pricey for a 24 volt bulb with two wires. Being a cheap skate I bought a 24 volt bulb and socket. I attached banana jacks to the wire ends. And put together a number of attachments with different ends allowing me to swap between spade lugs, alligators clips and back probes depending where I need to make the connection. I've been using the same setup with 12 volt bulbs in automotive troubleshooting. I was wondering why you don't use your multi meter's current jaws to confirm where the short is coming from? To me it would seem a lot faster than pulling wires apart before the location of the short is confirmed.
When I watched the contractor getting reinstalled I didn't see you land the coil connection on the right side. I saw you land the two whites on the left however you said you heard it click and confirmed it was pulled in. Upon further review it appears you edited that out and the blue isn't hanging in the breeze. As Rosanne Rosana Dana would say, nevermind, LOL! Thanks for the video and be safe!
When I look for a Low Voltage short it's almost always on a low or high pressure switch laying on copper, every now and then contactor is the culprit.. nice tester, made one out of low voltage reset on a transformer, works like a charm..
Every trane unit with a contactor for a heat strip ends up dying. Doesn't matter where it is made. We always replaced them with a delay style heat control.
Depending on the voltage coming in I believe a 50 amp resistive load contactor should have been used. 10kw plus fan amp usually is over 40 amps, somewhere around 43 amps
You can make a tool magnetic. Although it may be a weak magnetic pull, but you don't need much for them tiny screws. Just get your self one of them magnetic parts trays or anything with a decently strong magnet and run your tool over the magnet a few times turning it a 1/4 turn each time you run the tool over the magnet. And then you have a magnetic tool for a few months.
Time to bring manufacturing back to America,,I don’t know what kind of metal they use in Mexico .But it makes me ill to find coils and other things go bad on new installs . Trane 10 year warranty is my favorite.
Ted you’re great . But it’s concerning that installers don’t do the right thing, like moving the plastic piece on the coil to prevent that moisture. Are they improperly trained or just too lazy to do the right thing? RH
Those heat pumps sure run a lot even in the winter up here in Minnesota. Had to help a buddy of mine put a roof over the top of his to prevent ice from falling onto the fan and freezing which would make the fan unbalanced and cause vibration
i see those contactors on the tem4 and tem6 short out all the time on the em heat, funny how the new tem4 and tem6 have little black box relays instead of contactors now.
Trane spec’d a cheap part and they got a cheap part. But they have to do that because we as consumers say we want quality but in reality aren’t willing to pay for it. I remember my parents having to get a loan to replace their system in the early nineties, the cost was about $5,000 and it was a mid level system. That same price tag today is about $10,000. No body is willing to pay that now for a mid level system even if the pay off is 20 years of trouble free service due to the high quality parts.
Did you ever put the other screw in the bracket holding the primary electric service lines? I wish I lived closer to your service area so you could properly setup the fan speeds on my American Standard unit.
They are pretty silly to me.... when system is idle they can kill germs in the plenum or duct area they are mounted in... but when it is running the air travels by quickly. Just a gimmick in my opinion.
You're good but did you ever hook up that blue thermostat wire to the back of the relay switch you put in your GoPro skipped or you cut out that portion of your video
The power of editing... I caught that too and was wondering why not connect it prior to mounting the relay, especially since its a blind connection after mounting. Ha,ha... keep em' coming Ted love what you're doing!
Prob. should have used a 40 FLA w/ "50 RES" since that unit was 10 kw (apprx. 40 amps). Whatever a contactor is used for electric resistance heat go by the "RES" rating. 👍 I did not know that about the black strip having to be moved on the coil, I'll have to keep that in mind. Short pro tool is a lot better than the little pooper 💩
