Danfoss controls

be paranoid always bros

Alright fellers. Last week I think? I made a post about my company being shut off from all supply houses in the area and the gas card was shut off for a while. A couple of you guys figured out not only the area I work in, but the actual company I work for lmao. Well. As of today we are going on 2.5 weeks of being shut off from every supply house, more guys are leaving/getting fired. Company is more than likely going to shut down in the next few months. My question is to the techs on here that are in the Plymouth/Cape Cod area. Any of you know any shops looking for techs? I know it’s starting to get into slow season, ive been looking around but not having much luck. Really don’t want to go to these bigger PE companies.

E*: MODS REMOVED A COMMENT…. Idrr, but it said something about talking to a customer through the smells of cat piss and black mold…. The REALIST SHIT I EVER READ NGL

I went through last season with a fieldpiece DR58 and had mixed results. Sometimes it would pick up everything, sometimes water would get on the tip, sometimes it wouldn't get anything. I replaced the diode half way through summer and it helped, but still had some mixed results.

I'm looking into an ultrasonic leak detector, but I don't want to have to pressurize with nitrogen every time I need it. If I were to see low pressures and equalize the system by dunking the TXV in warm water, would the equalized system be enough pressure to find a leak without jacking up nitrogen? I only do residential, so leak searching the back side of an evap coil is out of the question. I can remove the delta plate on some coils, but it seems rare.

Please let me know experiences and how difficult they are to use. I like that they don't seem to be as finnicky as a heated diode.

In the Midwest here, got a couple overnights that will reach around 32 F temperature this weekend. It will be my first year being on call during the heating season. Curious what yall would reccomend for van stock for Universal parts whether be white Rodgers, honeywell, robertshaw, etc.

Hey everyone, looking for advice from people in the trade.

My husband (39) got hit by a massive tech layoff in May and hasn’t been able to find a thing since. The tech sector feels like a sinking ship with the constant layoffs and AI, so we want out.

He has 12+ years in technical/product support. He's great with people, troubleshooting, and is very reliable. Because of his background, we are looking heavily into commercial service or controls. He’s almost 40, so we want to avoid super labor-intensive trades like carpentry to protect his body.

Long term, the dream is a family business. I work in marketing for a trades CRM software company, so I can easily run the backend/operations side if it comes to that in 5-10+ years.

The Plan: We are in BC, Canada. He qualifies for a government program that will fund 100% of tuition and extend his employment insurance income to cover a 30-week HVAC Foundation course starting Feb 2027. He’ll graduate with Level 1 done, 425 hours credited, and all his safety tickets.

With a mortgage and plans for kids, we need to know the real risks before jumping off this cliff:

• Job prospects right out of the course: Are commercial shops actually hiring foundation grads who have zero on-the-job hours? Or will he struggle to find work all over again?

• Age factor: Does a corporate tech support background mean anything at 39, or will employers just bin his resume because he's not young?

• The catch: What are the biggest warnings or gatekeeping things he should expect in the first couple of years? Is the job security actually stable long-term? Anything else you wish you knew going into this career?

Appreciate any advice you can give us! And please be nice, this shit's stressful and we're just trying to make the "right" call amidst a lot of uncertainty.

I’m tired of doing duct takeoffs on paper and the bluebeam app is the drizzling shits.

Installed by Mr Lee King....

[Edit: I'm kinda disappointed that no one has noticed the angle that the 1/4 is to the flare. It's not leaking at the moment, but that angle surely shows that they didn't have a lot of expertise when they put it together. That and the smurf cum....]

Leak search and repair

Two brands in particular have given me trouble

Trane units from 2015-2020. I always check the u-bend in the condenser on these. I never get any hits with my heated diode, anywhere, inside or out. Not the pressure switches. I'll top up and be back a few weeks later because low again. Put nitro in behind the refrig. Still can't find anything. Check all the Schraders incl the discharge and true suction port, nothing.

Lennox units from 2019-2021. I know it's likely the evap but leak detector again doesn't hit anything. Two instances where something weird was going on with Odu.

One time the homeowner put a tarp over the top (lol) to block leaves and their 5 yr old unit was totally empty.

Other time was a 2019 and the Hps on the condenser was bypassed. So my guess was similar issues happening (high pressure springing pinholes).

In the case of the bypassed hps there was still charge so I put my sniffer down the drain line at the evap and got a hit but couldn't pin point to exactly where on the evap

Hate to come back to the homeowner without a conclusive answer.

Y'all know any spots to check for sure on Lennox or Trane systems? Any spots you've seen repeatedly on other brands?

Anyone else find online hvac influencers kind of annoying? It’s usually some 20 something year old with 3-5 years field experience trying to “teach” you the trade in the most condescending manner possible, or it’s someone trying to build a business by “helping techs grow their career in hvac”.

Wondering what a busy profitable month looks like for my fellow 1 man or 2 man counterparts in the industry. What is your mix of business, and how do you typically get the calls to come in.

Edit: to provide personal details as requested. My annual gross is right around $450k-600k. Had one $550k running completely solo. This year I'm likely to bust my record. All resi retro and service. I've done maybe 7 new construction jobs the last 12 years, all by personal requests from existing customers who were building. This summer my son graduated high school and worked for me full time. We grossed right around $320-350k in 3 months. Biggest month was $160k. We did a ton of mini splits this summer and got in a groove (40-50 indoor heads). Still running one truck, although I have a second from years ago when I was running with an employee. My son will get this trick set up and running himself shortly.

I used to advertise, newspaper, website, Facebook, yard signs, networking groups, but almost all the paid stuff went away after 3 years. Calls just come in from google searches and referrals and existing customers.

FYI, the guy who claims $85-95k/ week almost has to be private equity, or at least private equity pricing... or lying. No one can run a truck with those numbers consistantly.

I wanted to convert this window heat pump into a water source heat pump I want to know best way to join to the stainless steel thread for refrigerant or find a braze on heat exchanger

Anybody out there have experience with this unitrane fan coil?

The complaint was that the fan motor is only blowing in one speed. The Zone controller has three speeds.

The old board was diagnosed by another tech as only outputting power to one speed setting. I replaced the board the ice cube relays and the zone controller.

The new board lit up green but after over 15 minutes it didn’t respond to the inputs from the controller.

I did use the test function on the board however. And the it went through cool heat fan low medium and high. But the fan speeds all still sounded the same. And the amperage draw would move between the three motor leads 1.1amp, 6 amp, 3 amp.

I suspect we need a new motor but I’m still curious if anyone has successfully changed out the board.

Here is the manual I was reading:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1451617/Trane-Unitrane-Fan-Coil.html

Eg shop vac, pumps/recovery machines etc

Today at 430 my boss asked if we could do a mini split install on our way, home. I’m not an installer and it’s a commercial kitchen at a resort during dinner service. What The Frick!

I just bought a press tool with RLS jaws and was going to start trying it out with linesets with buying ⅜ and ¾ couplings only. But then i remembered evaps and condensers are pre-swaged to let you slide in the nominal sizes and braze in. So if i was going to buy a press fitting for the ¾ connection, does that mean i should use a ⅞ to ¾ reducing fitting? What do you guys do?