Don Gillis Archives

Don Gillis

Company name: The Chemours Company

Position: Technical Trainer

Don Gillis is a technical trainer at Chemours. Prior to his work with Chemours, he was a training specialist and HVACR instructor for Copeland. He has over 30 years of experience in the industry, having been an installer, sales and service manager, and service technician. Don has written several tech tips for HVAC School and is a familiar face at the HVACR Training Symposium.

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The “Bad” Contactor That Wasn’t

I wanted to share a recent “rediscovery” with you out of pure humility. I call it a rediscovery because it’s a basic fundamental I already knew, but it just hadn't come up recently enough to be top of mind until the other day. I found myself troubleshooting a single-pole Mars 91311 contactor. I had voltage […]

How Private Equity Has Been Shaping the Industry (and How to Navigate It)

My family tries to live as holistically as possible. We make a lot of our own food and stay away from things that are heavily processed and have a lot of additives, preservatives, and common allergens. That means we like to buy snacks from independent brands that are transparent about their recipes, and one of […]

So You Want to Be a Space HVAC Tech

“It sounds very fancy, but it's really the HVAC of the spacecraft — controlling humidity, temperature and the whole atmosphere onboard.” — Manuel Retana, NASA Project Manager, ECLSS Artemis II | University of Nevada, Reno, April 2026 A NASA engineer who spent five years building the life support system on the Artemis II spacecraft name-dropped […]

What You Need to Know About Future A2Ls

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Flammable Refrigerant Update

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What You Need to Know About Feature A2Ls with Don Gillis & Christian Pyles

Easy As ABC with Don Gillis at the Chemours Booth

Flammable Refrigerant Update

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A2L Update With Chemours Live from AHR

Don Gillis and Dr. Chuck Allgood from Chemours join the show to discuss their new easy as “1,2,3” branding around the A2L refrigerants R454A, R454B, and R454C. They explain that A2Ls are not actually flammable like hydrocarbons; they are just mildly combustible with much lower burning velocity and energy than propane or butane. The […]

Intro to CO2 w/ Don Gillis

Don Gillis with Emerson joins us on the podcast to teach us the basics of CO2 as a refrigerant. He explains how it works and its applications. Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is becoming an important refrigerant for commercial refrigeration (R-744). It is desirable because it has a low critical point and […]