EP.1 Buy DIGITAL gauges as HVAC Tech?

You have asked for a long time and I have found a solution. Episode one of the hvac podcast is covering whether to buy analog gauges in modern hvac or just buy a digital set. I go into my thoughts and a balance I believe is necessary for technician growth. 

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Transcript

 Let's talk about Bluetooth gauges and having a regular manifold and what that really means anymore in the modern age. Is it really even worth it for technicians to bother with it? And yeah, just, just share my thoughts. You know, y'all been asking for a podcast like series for a while now. Well, I can't do a legit podcast, but I can do this and we'll, We'll figure it out as we go.

So I've had this conversation come up several times recently. One of the more notable ones was I was in the supply house and talking to the guys behind the counter. They had been having conversations with different guys and apprentices come in all the time, or entry level text, and they're always wanting to look at the fancy, you know, Bluetooth gauges.

And a good counter guy is always gonna help try to engage in that convers. Share his thoughts, share his opinion, and just help guide that tech from other tech's perspectives that they've worked with. You know, those guys, especially the experienced ones, they've been around for a while from a service technician's perspective.

You know, the Bluetooth setup has done a lot to really simplify and help a lot of our troubleshooting process and what we want to do and what we need to do on a day-to-day basis. And it, and it has improved. General ability to service things better. And one of the other things that is done is it has created more universal tools where we don't have to have such a wide assortment.

And we still, I mean, there's still a lot, you know, you still have your Cter or Cter. A manometer is a manometer, but. Kind of what like the multimeters have done over time is multimeters have evolved into more and more tools into one, and that has done a lot to help a technician really reduce what he has to one purchase.

Granted, everything's more expensive nowadays, but two, uh, what he has to carry on a regular basis, and if he's got more tools built into one cause we can't carry everything and we shouldn't carry everything in just one bag, then that's trips you have to make now. And that's, that's time wasted what Bluetooth has done, especially as we've gotten deeper into glide refrigerants, it simplifies that.

Now I understand, you know, some of the guys who maybe are less tech savvy, you know, you would question, okay, well it, how's it really simplifying things? Well, for those who are fairly savvy around their phone and how to use tech and that sort of, , it's not a big deal. Connecting the Bluetooth gauge and go was, is fairly straightforward.

Not an knock against you guys. You just have a different set of experiences. There's a ton of things. I know you guys can do that. Some of the guys who are more tech savvy typically can't. When it comes down to it, I don't think anybody should start with a, uh, Bluetooth set of any kind. I think that should be something you work your way into.

You know, a good starting point for people would actually be having a true set of manifolds. So my apprentices that come on board with us, you know, that's one of my expectations is you're gonna have an actual mani. First, and you know, as you're working through our PMs and as you're helping and doing what you do, you know, eventually as you begin to develop those skills, then you can work at, you know, spending the money to upgrade.

So we do have tool account for our guys, and that's, that's one of the ways that we help encourage that, helping guide them through their tool account of, I don't really want to approve. Set of Bluetooth gauges, you know, despite the brand. For somebody who's a a, an apprentice, just a couple of months in, especially when they don't even have a proper manifold set.

Now when I talk about a manifold set, you have the three manifold or the three port manifolds and all that, and those are fine. It's not what I actually re. What I really recommend is don't ever bother with those three ports, those small quarter inches. They just don't, they, they hardly ever truly hold up.

And I mean, and your, the limitations you have around them are pretty severe compared to, say, are four ports. So the, the par, the set of manifolds, which is the, the Titan, uh, series by yellow jacket, they also have the brute series. It is a much better set of manifolds that is gonna last you a lot longer and having that fourth.

You know, it's great for doing vacuums and such and with the way that our vacuum technology has advanced today and just, well, not, maybe not even the technology fine, maybe. Maybe it's not a technology thing. Our practices at minimum, have gotten so much better. We really should be using it minimum of four port.

If we're gonna do vacuums of any kind or just that kind of stuff, it's worth the money. Cause I think I. Regular three ports are what, a hundred bucks maybe? And you could get a good set of four ports for somewhere around one 50 to 200, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe I am, you know, maybe it's more than I remember it being.

I've had mine for quite some time. But the point is that little bit extra investment is going to be worth it for you. And that's really, really where you should start. Then when you get comfortable with those and you get a set of temperature clamps and you can start actually getting those readings and doing a manual calculation, in my opinion, where that really helps you is having to do that calculation yourself constantly allows your.

To continue to work through what's actually happening. And I've worked with guys who, you know, not, not that work for me, but just talking to guys online and, and trying to help mentor some people. They get so used to the Bluetooth setup and it reading everything for 'em and them not having to apply those practices manually.

It's automated so much to the point that they actually start to lose focus. No, maybe not focus, but they don't grasp the concept the same way that I, what I ex, what I think that they would, if they would practice it the other way, because I have my other guys who I've made to it the other way and they grasp those concepts a lot better.

So fine. Maybe that's the individual. I personally don't think so. I think it truly comes back to how you're being taught and what you're practicing as you're getting. . I think a lot of guys would be really surprised when they recognize just how much having to do those calculations can really push your mind to think about what's happening in the refrigeration cycle and the process.

And helping give you a better understanding. And I know things like measure quick, you know, they give a, uh, recommendation on what they think is the problem and I think it's a great feature. I think that they've, were very smart and it helps a lot of guys who have absolute. Absolutely no direction. At the same time, I've had some of my guys who have used that kind of stuff and they've gotten hung up through that.

And maybe this is more of a commercial thing, maybe on the, that app is more tailored to the residential side, not a hundred percent sure, but there's some of those recommendations where the problem wasn't. Hard or complicated, just it was an inexperienced tech and he was utilizing the tool that he had at his disposal, which was like the measure quick, for example, with a set of Testo probes that the recommendation that the measure quick gave him, led him down some rabbit trails that had him chasing his tail for hours, not realizing just how far off track he had gotten from the original problem.

That's not a measure Quick problem, by the way.  that is a training problem on the technician. So I'm not harping on measure quick at all. I think that what they have done through their app has helped a lot of people who have even less training. Now, at the end of the day, if you're not, like if you are an experienced tech and you have gone through a lot of these things and hey, I'm talking and you have some of this background already and you're not currently using a Bluetooth set to really.

Streamline your process or make things simpler for you? I'm not sure as to why the technology and everything around it has gotten really good. And, you know, I'm gonna be doing some review videos. You know, I, I posted that poll the other day and y'all made it pretty clear that it's definitely something y'all got a heavy interest in.

And so I'm gonna see what I can do to fulfill that. You know, I think. Something I have an interest in creating content around, I think it'd be pretty neat, uh, be looking for those things coming out in the future. Well, maybe that's it. Maybe you're struggling hesitation to using them in the first place is you're not confident or comfortable with the technology.

And I mean, I think that's a very valid reason. You know, if, if you've got something, I do genuinely believe if it ain't broke, don't fix it. At the end of the day, you got a process that works for you, you like it and it's fast enough. It's not. Impeding your process, then fine. Cuz there is, there is a point of diminishing return where you end up putting so much energy into learning something that is gonna be only marginally better.

And that's something I think we all struggle with. I think it's part of our natural tendency to want to invest in these great things and we have these grand ideas, but at the end of the day, the thing that we're focusing so much into, it's only gonna improve very margin. Our original problem that we set out to solve to begin with.

So it has, it makes, you could just, it makes you question the investment at the end of the day. And is that investment really what we hoped it was gonna be, what we thought it would be. So I think my main summarizing thought would be Bluetooth gauges worth it. Yes. In the right time. Should an apprentice buy them if, especially if they don't have a proper set up without 'em.

No, and, and in fact, you know, you should. Get to, you should become proficient in the more analog style, the more traditional style. First. This technology is not going away, right? I know that the industry is advanced and we have more advanced practices today and, and I'm not a proponent for just holding things back for the sake of holding them back.

But at the end of the day, not everything is gonna get left behind. And even digital gauge. Do too much of the work for you? You know, I know that we're in a age where we want everything to be easier and more convenient, you know, and, and that is, that is true. That is fact. But there is a real value in certain things, having to go through periods of trial and challenge to produce something pure.

You know, if, if, uh, I come from a blacksmith,  background back home and we have draws, right? So when you are trying to purify a metal, you have to pull the draws out of the. Which is you bring it up to his molten point and then all the impurities are gonna rise to the top. Hey, I am talking here. All the impurities are gonna rise to the top, and then you can scoop those impurities out and eventually through a, through that process, you get a more purified material that you can then mold and shape and work with later.

In that same way, you know this concept is very similar to that. Having that old school analog feel as antiquated as it may. Most of the time, if you learn there, get confident there, and then switch to a either digital manifolds if you prefer, or a full blown Bluetooth. In my personal opinion, I think you would be surprised at how much it can really help you understand this industry better and understand the, the theories behind what we're doing to create what we.

You know, in the, in the refrigeration process, because I think ultimately, I think that's the, the, the primary thing, the digital stuff takes some of the mental thought process out of it for us so that we end up, uh, having to understand the process a little bit less because it's calculating what we need to know for us, which at least in my experience, me and.

Most of the guys that I, I've worked with when we're doing those calculations and we're thinking through it, and a lot of the conversations we have on site while that is happening revolves around us trying to think through and talk through the actual. Refrigeration process and cycle. And I get to a point where when I'm working with guys who don't have a strong grasp of that, and then we start talking through what they're trying to troubleshoot, they have a much harder time explaining that process and cycle to me, because, you know, we're trying to discuss super heat and subcool, and many times the answers I've gotten from some guys is, well, honestly, at the end of the day, I'm not sure.

It's just what my, it's what my digital gauges are telling. That's a bad answer. That answer is what has brought me to, uh, thinker or believe the way that I. About digital versus an analog setup. Anyway, obviously I could just, I could talk for a long time on just about anything, but end of the day, I gotta cut something off somewhere.

In terms of podcast and blog and all the stuff, you know, we've, we've, we've talked about this for a long time. It's been an open discussion for quite a while. You know, I've always had a thought or an interest in a podcast ultimately. Um, there's a lot that goes into that, and even the blog thing. So if you noticed, you know, blog.

Completely fallen off the wagon. Don't know what to say about it. Ultimately, I think I'm, I'm, this is, this is my alternative. Okay? So I've been trying to figure this out. I've wanted to do something more than just my regular videos, which ultimately I try not to overproduce them, but I can't hide from the fact that they are produced and they're less raw, if you will.

And, and I know that, but that's what I enjoy creating, you know, I, I, I enjoy creating, A kind of a storyline thing of what happened, yada, yada. So this is a method where, you know, when I, I watch and I interact with a lot of podcasts. Uh, two of the, what, two of the great ones we have right now. Is H V A C School, podcast, and, uh, HVAC Building Science with Bill Spoon.

Those two podcasts are phenomenal and I highly recommend them to anybody. I also watch a lot of other stuff and like tech stuff and things. I'm just, I'm into a variety of stuff. Point is a theme that I see and like video podcasts have become a legitimate thing, is a podcast is just, it's, it's more of a time to sit down and just provide more of a raw thought than a produced, uh, Segment thing, however you wanna look at that.

So that's what this is. This is gonna be a very raw, you know, obviously I'm moving around and I'm trying to do stuff as I go here, but it's gonna be a very raw conversation. It's gonna be a very raw presentation of my thoughts, and I think that was part of the goal here. And so, Things that I had planned to put into a blog, probably won't go into a blog.

Going forward, moving forward, you're gonna see these types of videos come out. Uh, these, I don't expect to replace my, uh, regular videos. They'll come alongside it in the same week, so you might start seeing multiple videos in a, in a single week. I'm probably gonna call this the HVAC time podcast. I, I don't know.

To do it, it can evolve on its own. I'm not gonna have it as just like the blog thing. There's a ton of work that goes into posting a podcast and sending it out to all the podcast sites and doing all the stuff. And people that are familiar with that world I know would probably tell me it's not that big a deal.

And that's true, but I don't know that world well enough. And again, that goes back to that conversation of diminishing return. Um, how much time would I have to put into getting comfortable with that? Where I can just do a format like this, we can get the same thing accomplished and then let it naturally grow on its own.

If it sticks, it sticks. If y'all hate it, then just tell me to shut up. That's fine. Either way, we got the, everybody taken care of out here. Hope you enjoyed episode one, HVAC Time podcast. We'll see where it goes. I honestly don't know. I would love you feedback. Um, I'm just trying to figure this out. Like everybody else out here, I am nothing nor anybody special, I promise.

I'll see you later.