Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 370. Training Technicians Who Think, Not Just Fix with Billy Carlson

Transcript

Episode 370. Training Technicians Who Think, Not Just Fix with Billy Carlson · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Trevor: Hey, welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Trevor Matthews. Imma here with Billy Carlson and. We're gonna be talking about some supermarket refrigeration. We're here at the seventh annual HVAC school training symposium. We made it here the last couple years we've been chatting because there's a we bring the refrigeration to this event.
• 0:01
  Billy: Moved to a commercial, started doing small refrigeration like most guys do in, in, reach ins and stuff like that, walk-ins.
• 0:02
  Trevor: And so now you've been doing it for about four or five years. Mm-hmm. So you learned along, along the way. What are some of the things that you like about doing rack work and supermarket work? Versus like maybe the HVAC side of it.
• 0:03
  I, I've been doing it for 10 years and I'm still learning. So let's talk about some of that. 'Cause I think that's kind of important too.
• 0:04
  Billy: But, but we do, we, we kind of, yeah. Isolate, not, not isolate, liquid. 'cause you don't isol, you don't isolate liquid. Isolate the, the, the core, the liquid core, and then maybe feed the core with, with hot gas, try to warm the core up, let the store continue to run off of the receiver.
• 0:05
  Trevor: Yeah. Yeah. PSI. So, so, so that, that's kind of a learning curve there. You've been on some startups, you've been on service calls for them. You added CO2.
• 0:06
  If you don't, if you've never done it before, you just open up a liquid tank. Yeah. Fully. You're gonna get dry ice and that because you always want, like I tell all the technicians when they're coming into the CO2 program.
• 0:07
  Trevor: Yeah. I believe that
• 0:08
  Billy: All the tanks are antique. I mean, we get, our we keep on, on our sites.
• 0:09
  Billy: Phil Phoenix. Like you said, Dave Yoder actually answered the phone one day and I had no idea it was was him.
• 0:10
  Billy: And they sent him, they flew him down and trying to figure out why
• 0:11
  They, they probably know and seen it, but it's only because they have so many, there's so many reps in at the startups are commissioning jobs and, and they want to help, they wanna make the equipment look good. All the manufacturer reps that I know that I work with, they w they believe in the product and they don't want it to, to, to have issues.
• 0:12
  And, and I've had people like I called and they weren't helpful. That's gonna happen too. You know what I mean? You can't always get the, the top expert from the company. 'cause they're very, they're demanded that, that people, people want them even inside their company. So that's. That's pretty cool. So, so you, you've been doing supermarket for quite a while, you're building a team.
• 0:13
  Billy: And I, I have to make a decision. So there are days I've, I've brought the guys to the, to the job site.
• 0:14
  Yeah. Back in, yeah. Before I did this yeah. I worked, yeah. So I got, I got the experience. That's the reason the, the racks didn't freak me out.
• 0:15
  Trevor: Yeah, and that's the big thing is when you start to learn some of the, the topics and start training your team, like we were talking about, like a chiller. You don't have a holdback valve buddy, own supermarket. Oh, you can have it.
• 0:16
  You need to know this as a startup, but service technicians should understand where all those IO inputs and outputs go and why they go there.
• 0:17
  Trevor: They give out some, but you don't understand like, like, and I, I, and I do a lot of CO2 training and for a lot of manufacturers, and I still, there's no one process. They can give it to you if you call 'em up.
• 0:18
  Trevor: if you're doing a startup yourself, you need to know all that stuff.
• 0:19
  Billy: Didn't know it was right there. You're gonna spend a lot of time. That's the, I guess that's the big difference between air condition guys. I mean, and I'm not saying industrial air condition guys, those guys, you can stay on a chiller for weeks.
• 0:20
  Billy: That is. When I first was beginning to learn it, it was like, Hey, we need these, I remember they were talking about the refresh rate on, on an E two, not being fast enough. We need to move this valve quicker. We need to move this faster. I remember that It, it's like, it's like the, the industry is learning as well.
• 0:21
  I see, I'm watching a graph and it's, it looks like a saw tooth, yeah. It's up and down. It's, it's chasing itself, and then all of a sudden it'll flat flatten out a lot. I see. Our, our part is when the weather changes, when we get into the cold. I'm not, obviously you can hear me, I'm not from up north, but it still gets cold.
• 0:22
  work on. We use Adio on, on all of our gas coolers. Except one, and it's a news store. And I think I mentioned this to you, I don't even know if I did. This store is basically almost in Florida.
• 0:23
  Billy: Right.
• 0:24
  Billy: But yeah, no, it's, well it's, it's like I've seen on the the gunner I've seen where. I had a problem with humidity sensor.
• 0:25
  Billy: Yeah. I, I've, that actually helps a lot reading the refrigerant schedule. I'm not gonna lie. It does you, you think it wouldn't, but yeah.
• 0:26
  Ejectors we're we're stepping into Ejectors and they're getting rid of the HPV on some systems.
• 0:27
  Billy: I think it only has one bank of batteries. I think it, from what I read in it, it'll run eight hours and try to save the charge. I'd love to see the industry go to higher standstill pressure, so we didn't have to worry about
• 0:28
  Billy: But no, I mean, you come to help them, so. They're, they're appreciative of you and I'm appreciative of everyone. I'm appreciative of you talking to me, and and getting to go to your class and it's gonna help.
• 0:29
  I, I don't, I don't know why. I just, I, I like to start with components because, not the fact that I'm gonna tell him to go to the truck and get me a contact or something like that, but you learn the components and then we'll, we'll learn the refrigeration cycle. We'll split it up, we'll break it down into a diamond and try to figure out high side, low side electrically, I think it's still a trick to teach everyone, I think electrical.
• 0:30
  Trevor: Or focus on a lot because their focus on, okay, a frozen up case or a plug TXV or. You controller burnout or a fan burnout, that communication it goes a long way. Like there's a lot of people that are like I need controls.
• 0:31
  Trevor: Yeah, that's okay. But. But it does help.
• 0:32
  Billy: that Yeah, that is different. That's the one thing, actually my son Scotty, went over to one the other day and they were looking at it for a, for a walkthrough and they were wanting to get into the system manager and, and I gave him the password, and I told him, I said, I said, don't change anything.
• 0:33
  Billy: Yeah. You don't get to tune it. And, and that's what I'm seeing with one. I mean, the rack's been running a while, but I, but I just see that it's never.
• 0:34
  Trevor: Exactly, yeah. It's so it has to be changed
• 0:35
  Billy: So I just struggled with it all night, but. No, it's still a good industry. It really is. Yeah. Love
• 0:36
  Trevor: It's like you working on that valve, were you confident enough to open it up or not? But you spend all night, but at the end of it, you opened it up where Ron
• 0:37
  I really appreciate you guys taking the time to listen to this. Thank you so much, Billy, for having be easy on