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The 1/7 (or 1/10) Rule for Oxy-Acetylene Torch Tips
Evaluating HVAC Tape Performance Under High Heat and Static Load (Part 1)
Oxy-Acetylene Torch Tips and BTUs
Using the Socratic Method to Meet Trainees Where They’re At
Stay On Your Game During Summer Service Calls
When Fear Gets On the Truck With You
Techs are Under Pressure
The “Bad” Contactor That Wasn’t
How Private Equity Has Been Shaping the Industry (and How to Navigate It)
Does AI Belong in Trades Education w/ Ty
Q&A System Oversizing – Short #291
Filters – MERV 13, Myths & More
From High Performance Medicine to High Performance HVAC – Short #290
Training The Next Generation of HVACR Technicians w/ Lenny Diaddario (Copeland)
Communications Might Be Your Best Tool – Short #289
All About Airflow Testing w/ Eric Kaiser
The Deep End with Roman Baugh: Live Call, Grounded Compressor, Mitsubishi Mini-Split
Add Duct Renovations to Your Product Offerings
#hvac
Tech Tips:
We already know that oxy-acetylene torches have a lot of safety considerations attached: don’t oil regulator threads, bubble-test your hoses, you get the picture. But there’s one more we haven’t really covered: the 1/7 rule (or 1/10 rule, based on the latest industry guidance). This commonly cited rule reduces the likelihood of flammable acetone coming […]
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When sealing ductwork or repairing HVAC insulation, the tape you choose dictates the long-term integrity of the system. Temperatures fluctuate wildly in attics and mechanical rooms, and the tape must be able to withstand these environments without degrading. To better understand how different professional-grade adhesives actually perform under elevated temperatures, we decided to put them […]
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Oxy-acetylene torch tip manufacturers publish charts that tell us the ideal applications for each tip size, which is quite useful on its own. After all, a small tip may be great for a ⅜” liquid line but would hardly make a dent in 2” commercial refrigeration piping. But we can also take the information from […]
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We’ve all probably been in this situation before (maybe in both people’s shoes at different points of our careers): A technician is on the job with their apprentice. The technician tells the apprentice where the probes go on the service ports and exactly what the superheat and subcooling are. The apprentice’s eyes glaze over, and […]
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The summer is a season of opportunity for HVAC technicians, and by opportunity, I mean a super high volume of service calls with a greater chance of callbacks. We’re based in Florida, so our techs have to deal with the combination of blistering heat and higher humidity. That combo can cause all sorts of problems: […]
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You know the feeling that sets in your chest before you finish reading that nine-word text: Hey you got a minute? I need some help. No details. No system description. Just that, from someone who doesn’t send that text unless they’ve already exhausted everything else. Let’s talk about that feeling. What’s Actually Happening to You […]
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The amount of pressure you're under depends on where you live. I live in Florida, so I'm very close to sea level. Therefore, the weight of the atmosphere is exerting exactly 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSIA) of pressure on every surface in every direction. There is no such thing as negative pressure—only pressure lower […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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Videos:
Podcasts:
Bryan opens this conversation with Ty Branaman, Head of Training at the GRIT Foundation, by digging into a question that anchors everything else in the episode: what is trades education actually for? Ty’s answer is unambiguous — it’s about people, not information. He describes his own struggle with traditional, reading-heavy instruction and explains how […]
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In this short Q&A podcast episode, Bryan answers a question from Evan, a licensed mold assessment consultant, about system oversizing: What can be done to control humidity and keep occupants comfortable when an HVAC system is oversized? The extent of the problem will depend on how badly the equipment is oversized, whether it has any turn-down […]
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In this episode of the HVAC School Podcast, Bryan sits down with Kelsey Hei and Andy Fox from 3M Filtrete to pull back the curtain on what really goes into a quality air filter. Most homeowners — and even some contractors — think of air filters as simple screens that catch dust, but as […]
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In this short podcast from the 7th HVACR Training Symposium's Bry-X stage, Ken Davis shares his experience as an HVAC contractor who has brought vital experience from high-performance medicine to High-Performance HVAC. Ken's experience comes from developing high-reliability organizations (HROs). An HRO has a low fail rate in an industry where high fail rates […]
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In this episode of the HVAC School Podcast, host Bryan sits down with Lenny from Copeland to explore how one of the most respected names in HVAC and refrigeration is actively investing in the next generation of technicians. Lenny leads Copeland’s aftermarket demand creation efforts, which includes everything from working with wholesale networks and […]
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This short episode is Andy Holt's session from the Bry-X stage of the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium: Communications Might Be Your Best Tool. In this session, Andy covers some key communication and customer service principles that can help you become a better technician. In the end, customers won't remember your technical knowledge; they […]
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In this session from the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium in Florida, Eric “Elk” Kaiser delivers a comprehensive workshop on airflow testing and measurement. Eric opens by challenging technicians to think beyond simply pointing an instrument at a duct and reading a number. Before selecting any tool, he argues, professionals must understand exactly what […]
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In this short podcast, Roman Baugh takes over with his new series, “The Deep End,” where he shares tech support conversations. This time, Roman is on the other end of a live tech support call about a grounded compressor with an existing Mitsubishi mini-split (Mr. Slim heat pump). The unit in this case had […]
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In this episode, HVAC veteran Adam Mufich of National Comfort Institute (NCI) pulls back the curtain on one of the industry's most overlooked problems: the majority of residential HVAC systems in the United States are not delivering the correct amount of airflow. Drawing on decades of hands-on experience, Adam opens up about his own […]
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