Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 348. These Tips Will Make You a Better Refrigeration Pro

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Episode 348. These Tips Will Make You a Better Refrigeration Pro · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: What's up everyone? Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast, where we're going to learn and learn and learn some more. What I love about refrigeration, this week I was down in California hanging out with a bunch of contractors, manufacturers, end users, and diving into some pretty. Big deal topics for the industry.
• 0:01
  But some of the things, like I talked about before, hitting up events. This, this event is not really for technicians, I guess for the manufacturer's party. It would be for the technicians. It's mostly for maybe service managers, directors business owners. Because it is for retailers. So retailers is learning about new trends in the refrigeration industry, a good place to connect.
• 0:02
  I would really like to see the actual numbers 'cause one section in there as we break down the numbers in that course. Like how do you know how efficient that system's gonna run over the lifetime of the system? Not only just today, but over the years. How well is that going to perform? 'cause that's very important if you're a designer, an engineer, as well as it's also important as a.
• 0:03
  The big thing is, I, I hear this all the time. Well, my, my customer doesn't wanna change their oil. Well, you gotta show them the results. Like you gotta go in and do a lab analysis test and show them that this oil is not looking that great. You'll see in the Bitzer manual, they say 10,000 hours or three years, you'll see another manufacturer manual.
• 0:04
  Never overheat it, running perfectly inside the condition 100% of the time. Okay? You probably don't have to change it every three years or 100 or 10,000 hour. But you need to test it. And this is where I really talk about when you're doing, like, if you're trying to sell a preventative maintenance package, you really want to take a look at that.
• 0:05
  These controllers are more intuitive than when they first began as well. It is taking a little bit of time and I see the technicians in the program that is spending the time to learn this stuff and they're crushing it out there. Steven a, a guy that was just, he took my super first supermarket program and then he took, the Compressor Masterclass, the Advanced Surface Compressor Masterclass is gonna take the intro to CO2, but. He's invested in himself, like every day he's putting 20, 30 minutes in and he's doing, he's crushing it out there, like he's working at some really crappy stores and he's getting them up to healthy stores.
• 0:06
  Not complaining that there's lots of controls, like I hear lots of people talking about when I go tove, skills shortage, technician shortage. Everything's more complex. It's anything can be complex. You know, buying a new computer, going from a Mac to a Windows and windows to a Mac, that can be complex, but you know what?
• 0:07
  'cause for sure, things are hard. Every industry, when I first learned how to drive a car, it was hard. When I learned, first, learned how to ski, it was hard when I first. Learn how to ride a bike. It was hard, but you know what? I kept doing it and it got easier. Just like refrigeration, it's not rocket science, it's refrigeration, thermodynamics.
• 0:08
  If you go to a training program and if it's, if it's a online course or if it's in person, course it doesn't matter, take one or two, write one or two things down in your notepad and say, this is what I'm going to try. Over the next week or two and make sure you have it in front of you and say, listen, I've never checked the net oil pressure, whatever it is.
• 0:09
  And what was really great was getting to meet some of the people afterwards, you know, saying, Hey, I was listening to the podcast, or, I really like the training that I've taken, or it's, I just really happy to, to get an opportunity to chat with you because you're helping so many people and like that's really what we do here at refrigeration matter and all the people that I'm hanging around with, all the people that I'm learning from.
• 0:10
  He's been in the industry for decades and decades. And he, we were talking about, about this, and he was like, Trevor, you know what? Back in the eighties, you know what the conversation was? It was, there's not enough skilled technicians. There's not enough refrigeration in professionals. Back in the nineties, same thing.
• 0:11
  And maybe they'll get into, in into the industry and. It's just for the money at at the beginning. But if we help them and we guide them and we teach them and we train them and we educate them and we help them along their journey, they're gonna start to like it. And most likely, not all, but most likely start to like it and have a passion for it.
• 0:12
  You know, you do a full week, there's different opper options. Now it could be once every two days, once every three weeks. It all depends on, on who you're working with. And I really think if we change the way we talk about the industry. And we stop complaining that there's not enough technicians and stop complaining about that it's hard, or the controllers and start talking about, man, it's so amazing that we have these new technologies that are really helping shape the future of refrigeration, really helping technicians diagnose problems quicker, really.
• 0:13
  Maybe not where you're working today, maybe not in the country you're in. Maybe not the province or the state, but you can somewhere around the world, especially if you're really good. Especially if you're really good. And the big thing is, is like how do we encourage more people, first generation people just like me to get into this in.
• 0:14
  To ourselves, you know, internally, like refrigeration people, we all, you know, we have, we all know each other and we're, you know, we're all all friends, we we're competitors. Sure, there's nothing wrong with that. Competition is good, but we're a small industry. Refrigeration is a 10th of hvac, even even smaller than that.
• 0:15
  Talk more about refrigeration and talk about what we do. We're providing service to the global food chain. We keep people healthy. We live longer because of refrigeration, the medicines that we do. This is, this is what we need to talk about because it's like, I, I was saying, I was getting on earlier about it's not all about the money for people.
• 0:16
  There's a lot of distractions out there, but I really know those of you that take a little bit of time to invest in yourself. To think about those goals. You know, I talk about goals all the time. Setting those goals, writing them down, looking at them, reading them out loud, and just pushing and striving towards that.
• 0:17
  But I think when I go to these events, for me it's to build that relationship with the different people, the technicians or the contractors or the. Designers, engineers, many other professionals who, who want to see this industry thrive, who wanna make it better. And really, you gotta figure out how to crack the code on us spreading the word outside the refrigeration industry, spreading the word that this is a, a great industry.
• 0:18
  At four o'clock or whatever, you're done a lot of the times. And there in the refrigeration tech, you know, as a refrigerator, it's like, we gotta finish this job. No, no, no. We'll finish tomorrow. It'll be fine. Where that's not the case in refrigeration, we, we gotta finish the job. And the big thing is, is that's where you can make a lot more money.
• 0:19
  And it's, it is just being curious as well. I think that's another thing that we, I, I try to strive in the, the students that come into the program is be curious about the things you're learning. If you're, if you just want to go out and change change fan motors and, and wash out cases, you can do that if you want and that's totally fine.
• 0:20
  And start looking at the different components that I didn't really ever do before. And he says like, I seen this, this component in here took a bunch of pictures. It's in the main, and you know, he's like, I just feel a little bit more confident that I did that. And I'm like, that's a huge win. Like that there in the whole program that he just did that, that that made the program for me, for him.
• 0:21
  What's the password to get in? And when you get in, start looking around. Don't change anything, but take a picture of it, look around, and then go look at it in the book or in the manual. This is how you're gonna get better and then share that. So when you find something out, so you find the, the username or password or how to back up a file, go and explain how you did it to someone else in the step-by-step order.
• 0:22
  And this is how we get better and whatever. I love that stuff and I love seeing these technicians putting that work in. And these are virtual programs and you know, a lot of technicians, they're not, they're not used to that. They're used to out there and just fixing the stuff. But when you give them that spark and you give them that idea of the things to do and they get the, the more confidence to go out there, it's so amazing.
• 0:23
  You, we, we, I did talk about like parallel compression and atic cooling and any injectors which I really believe we need to start looking at those solutions a lot more. And these more advanced solutions, do they cost more money? Yes. Anything new? Costs more money. That's, that's it. But when I, when I go to, to Europe, I see all these manufacturers just, there's ejectors on them all the time, or, or they're using parallel compression or, you know, all these different solutions they're doing flooded evaporators that, you know, these different, that's not a high ambient strategy, but it is a strategy or, you know, mechanical sub cooling or a type of sub cooling.
• 0:24
  That's about what we had for a conversation, and he just explained the, the research that he is doing and how passionate he, he was talking about phase change materials and how to. Do refrigeration in a different way. So I thought it was really cool and just listening to him and asking questions and him asking questions in the back and just diving in deep on how do you come up with this new innovative solution to help the industry out, especially with COC O2.
• 0:25
  Man, I really believe is when we come out with these new and innovative solutions, it's gonna, it's gonna make it even better for the industry, and it's going to help the, the price of the, and there's more competitors in there and which is great, and this is what we need for the industry. And working together.
• 0:26
  And I really, I really think that's, that's where the value you'll get if you're. A technician, you want a transition into more of that, the role of a manager or a, a leader. And I've seen quite a few technicians there, which was great to see, which it was great to see. But one of the big things is, is getting to different events, getting to events and learning and growing.
• 0:27
  So. The ones that I know that are coming up that I'm gonna be attending, there's a bunch. If you're in North America, depending on what part of the, the country in the us there's NS A C events. These are great events for technicians to learn. They're fantastic. They got a bunch going on this year, so, so look those up.
• 0:28
  But that's another one where you're going to learn and grow us more in the industrial technician side, but once again, going meeting and growing and, and, developing networking with people. The other ones I'm going to will be a HR. That's another one. That is a, a great event. There's tons of technicians, tons of manufacturers, so you can go and lead meet people there.
• 0:29
  There's chill Venta, and it's another one that, it's gonna be next October, so it's a one year away. But start saving up now that, that is by far one of my favorite ones to go to. Just because there's all equipment there and technicians and experts from all around the world. Yeah, if you can make it there.
• 0:30
  We're doing the same thing. We're trying to protect the food supply chain around the world. That's what we do. We're trying to protect the people around the world by supplying them this food and, and pharmaceuticals and keeping. Us comfortable. This is what we do, and this is what I love about this industry, uplifting the industry together with you.