Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 333. Training and Troubleshooting Tips to Level Up Your Career

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Episode 333. Training and Troubleshooting Tips to Level Up Your Career · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: What's up everyone? Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. Hope you're doing great. Trainings are just balling right now. We're coming into the fall, so the seasons are changing. Starting to, to book out sessions. What? This year's been a crazy year. Usually the summer slow down quite a bit because, , technicians are busy, contactors are busy.
• 0:01
  Newer people people that have been doing it for years who want upscale people coming from commercial HVAC into. The supermarket or commercial refrigeration, which is amazing. I was doing a session last night with a company that they put like 30 or 40 people in the last month in the supermarket academy.
• 0:02
  I went and applied some of it in the field, then I started reading the manuals. And the manuals is not exactly like the videos. There's just more content in there, more quizzes, more service scenarios, which, which, which is awesome to see that watching the videos. Listening to some of the audio, going out and actually doing some of the stuff and, and, and just putting all that together.
• 0:03
  , I went to zero zone training. So it was out at Zero Zone after I took the supermarket, a academy, and they did this assignment in their in their lab. So it's walking through the system and the PNID we like I think when the first time I've done that was me and Andre Patau back in 2015.
• 0:04
  And we walked through that I think it was Keep Wright that built that. That system. Yeah, they did, did build that system or that trainer. And then we, we started walking through that. That was the first time, and I'm like, this man, this man is starting to make more sense to me. Like, and , that was me 10 years into the industry and I was, , like I was still learning.
• 0:05
  They have ejectors on here. They have different hut gas dump and different sole oil solenoid set up. What I mean? Different low temp bypass, what I mean? Have an actual bypass valve from the, the DUP reader. So the, , and I, I look at these constantly. So if it's zero zone, hill, Phoenix, advancers, all the different, different meaning you have a Bitzer, like all these different rack main, I'm looking at.
• 0:06
  And that's why I talk about it so much. Getting into that, that piping and instrumentation, drawing it, it helps you and it while you're troubleshooting in the field. Like if you pull this up, like I was talking to my friend Aiden today. And he was like, Trevor, , before I took one of your trainings, I never looked at a p and I, I've seen them, I think, but I, I never knew the value, but until I went into your first CO2 training the intro to CO2, and he was like.
• 0:07
  Well, where does that go? Or do I have, what I mean? And then you can just look right on the map. That's what it is on a map. And so many technicians, I mean. I've, I've trained a lot of technicians over the last 10 years, thousands and thousands. And most of the time they come into a session and they've seen A-P-N-I-D maybe and they have lots of guys, like, I've been doing this for 20 years.
• 0:08
  Take some pictures and just do it. 'cause I do this with my programs anyway. I'm giving you, I'm giving you the stuff. Now go out and do that. And that's where. They start to learn, like anybody starts to learn. Even me, I go to a new startup and hanging out with the contractors and the manufacturers. The first thing I'm doing is I'm grabbing that PNID and I'm grabbing the electrical wire d I'm looking at the IO and the, the refrigeration schedule.
• 0:09
  The different maps from the electrical map to the p and i, the piping map to the IO schedule. And that's where you start to put things together. And I think this is where if the more you learn that way, the quicker you're, you're going to understand how the system works. 'cause this is, this is it. I want, and today this is my goal is helping technicians be more engineers.
• 0:10
  And then looking at the, the map itself and just understanding when, when you see the, the component and, , okay. For example, it's a, maybe a temp, right? A, a temp right. Oil separator. Okay. Well. What's the size gonna be? So you look on, on the map itself, this is, this says the size of O Oil separator.
• 0:11
  And this was a couple years ago now. And he did the PNID example. He went out to, it was a Hussman, Hussman rack. I think it was a low temp, medium temp. What else was on there? It had hu heat reclaim on there. I remember. And he spent literally, I know, I know for sure hours on drawing it out. He went and drew it out rough, Dr.
• 0:12
  I did years not even looking at a p and ID just like, okay, well what does that, where does that go? And kind of understand, trying to figure it out when the map was there the whole time. And I could have fast tracked and not peeling back insulation. And don't get me wrong, you might have to do that at some point to see if there's a check valve underneath the insulation and a spot or something.
• 0:13
  So, so much easier. I was doing a meetup earlier today and I had my friend Jose here he is at Chicago, and he's taken like three or four of my programs. He didn't he take, he took the supermarket academy. He doesn't even work in supermarket, he just does refrigeration. But he is like, Trevor, , I've taken these programs because it just super fast tracked me in what I'm doing.
• 0:14
  So what he did, he was like, okay, I need to learn this. 'cause if nobody else can come work on it, maybe I can learn working on it. So what he did, he went to, he went to Georgia. He went to Heatcraft and he was, he went and learned the, the stuff in the Quebec, and he was like. Man, when I go out there now, it's that I, I know the steps and, , from the, the, the academy, from doing the heat craft training and from doing these other trainings, it's just putting all that together because that's what we dive into is like, how do you troubleshoot a transducer and a temperature probe and a board, and, and, and you can do this stuff.
• 0:15
  They're looking up in the ceiling at the pipes. Is there traps up there? If they're inverted traps, where are they coming down? Do they go under the ground? Is there any pits? They're, they're looking, , kind of getting an idea of like, who's been working on this? Are all the lights out or are they on.
• 0:16
  But you can just hear it from the video and he is not even working on that piece of equipment. It looks like it's on a different roof, ? But he can just hear it and sense that stuff. But walking into a machine room and when you, with an experienced person and they're like, man, that, that compressor there sounds like the bearings might be going, or that could be the ri the wrist pin on, on one of those, or man, they're.
• 0:17
  Getting that good, good understanding of it. And I think coming back to that is, , I'm, I'm really proud of these technicians that come into these programs and put the work in. That's, that's what I'm really proud of because they're investing their time. They don't have to come to the training program, but .
• 0:18
  Good technicians are very resourceful. Like you can find the information and, and not get trapped in the the rabbit hole. 'cause I know that happens. It happens to me before and even happens to me on social media when. I'm trying to go through my content. Okay, did I get this out? Did out, and I'm looking at all these different videos trying to, and then all of a sudden, 15 minutes go by and I'm like, man, I totally lost track of what I was supposed to be doing.
• 0:19
  You get some people that are just reading out a book or you get some people that are just rude and cranky all the time. And this happens. But there are people, and I've said this dozens of times on the podcast before, there are people at these companies. That do care, that probably were a technician before they know how you, how you feel out on the roof in minus 40 out on the roof.
• 0:20
  , I, I do so many trainings. I ask, what's your checklist? Your just your mental checklist. And most people will name off like , a good 5, 10, 10 things that they, they're gonna check. They definitely miss five or six. I say, I say this one like I say, okay, amps or volts or, , oil temperature, and they're like, oh yeah, I checked those.
• 0:21
  And they're like, oh, well we don't have that. Well some I hear it. Oh, it's somewhere. No, it's in the heads of some of the field startup guys or the commissioning guys from the manufacturers, and they don't have it written down. It's in, in their head. And that's, that's the thing like. We need to get more of that information out there.
• 0:22
  And he was like, oh, well, I, I wanna start a business at some point, but what I wanna find, make sure that I'm always finding the root cause of an issue. Well, one of the things about finding the root cause of an issue or making sure that you solve the problem in a timely manner, in an efficient manner, is two things.
• 0:23
  And so he went out to the call again and he is like, what is going on? 'cause it was the ca the walk-in box was too cold. That's why he got the call. It was just freezing the product, the walk-in box. And then I think it was a walk-in box. And then he said, this call in the morning was, it was too warm now.
• 0:24
  So sometimes you have to fix a problem to find the other problem. And, and that, and sometimes it's quick and sometimes it takes a while. So it wasn't, , it wasn't his fault that the, the so no fail, it wasn't his fault that he missed the TX valve. 'cause it pulled, it worked and it pulled down, , you don't know that.
• 0:25
  And he's like, dude, I'm just trying to get off the tools. , I'm at the point where I got some some technician out there. The problem is, is that. They're taking just so long. The journeyman that's been doing it for you has taking so long. Like, I got a call and he said that he was on, the technician was on there for an hour and a half and he had to call him and then he's on, he was like, did you check the capacitor?
• 0:26
  What to do. You're efficient. You're putting the gauges on the right place, you're putting the temperature pros on the right place. You're Thur. You got the thin thermal imaging gun going on. You're touching the stuff with your hand. You're checking the air flow. You're just being efficient your time, you're not dragging your feet, you're crushing it.
• 0:27
  Like how come. Well, I didn't spend any time in it, so, well, what do I need? Well, okay, maybe I need a program. So let's put the program on the computer then. Now what do I, oh, well now I need a a cable to hook it up. Okay? I need a ethernet cable to hook it up to this specific drive. Okay? Now what do I need to do?
• 0:28
  And it just makes a world of different, 'cause the computer's small, I can type faster now on, on a computer. I got a mouse. And it makes a difference. And this is the same thing. If you're setting up , say an E three or you're setting up a drive or you're setting up a Danfoss controller, like you have a service tool, like whatever it is, it just makes it so, so much easier than trying to do it on the phone.
• 0:29
  They're troubleshooting. Quick. Take that kid out to dinner. Ask 'em, say, Hey, listen. I'd love to talk to you about how you, how you tackle your troubleshooting calls. I've been doing this longer than you. And I, I see the way you're moving through. Can we just sit down, I'll buy you lunch and I'll have a conversation with you.
• 0:30
  I didn't know what mentors were. I didn't know what coaches were like I do today. And that this is what I do is I find coaches and mentors from, from different industry, from business coaches to technical coaches that, and that's really going and learning from all the different experts in the field that I work with.
• 0:31
  I know all about it. The thing is, is that in that investing in yourself, and some people come for that, some people come for personal development, , having those conversations with other technicians. Some people just really want to get a pay raise and so they know. To get a pay raise, they gotta be better.
• 0:32
  And that's what it's about. That is what it's about. I love. I love when I see technicians who just consistently do that when they see something, and I'll go back to Andrew again. When he sees something that he's never seen before, he dies right into that. He tackles that. He doesn't walk, run away. 'cause that's what I used to do.
• 0:33
  , That's a great place to, to see pictures and images and, and learn from different people. And same with other refrigeration groups. , Getting out there and just learning about learning about the different problems that you can see or components that you could different see to really invest in yourself.
• 0:34
  And there's no embarrassing questions in refrigeration. This is not the easiest easiest industry, right? It is not rocket science, but it's not the easiest because you do it. You have to put the work in. It is easy if you put the work in, honestly, the information's out there, and then you just gotta go apply it, and then that's it.
• 0:35
  Fans, compressor failure TX valve plugged, , like they're the same 10 or 20 calls usually. And the, or the majority of your calls, I'm assuming versus like everything, it is always different and. The big thing is, is that sometimes we get pigeonholed and all. It's been always the same. For last, I forgot, talk to guys, it was like just the same service calls for the last year, two years, and so all of a sudden this other service call came in.
• 0:36
  And we're gonna see an explosion of things happen over the next decade in refrigeration. Just with all the servers that are gonna be, have to, with all this AI stuff, there's gonna be so much, it takes so much power to run all these boards and stuff. So for sure if you, you got, you gotta start looking at energy something you wanna learn.
• 0:37
  But anything really that's refrigerant and we're removing heat we're gonna see different ones. I, I know that's, there's, there's so many cool things happening out there in refrigeration, , and I love, I love seeing it. Hopefully you took a few things away. , We talked about p and IDs.
• 0:38
  And that's what you can do at your company in inside your organization. Just share and help. It's like Andrew, like I talked with Andrew, just a, he's a, he's a rock star out there. It's like when he goes to a, a company, he's teaching the Apprentice, he's teaching other mechanics, he's trying to share knowledge, he's trying to build a culture, .
• 0:39
  You think was valuable? Share it with someone. Talk about it. Talk about, oh man, maybe we should make a checklist for, for the company, for this specific store. Well, we know we have an ice machine and this one here, lots of guys have run into issues on it. We get a lot of service call in there. Let, let's build a little plan for that when someone new has to go there or we have this rack here and that we know there's a, there's a ton of problems and only Tom knows how to work.
• 0:40
  I want to hear the success story. 'cause there's so many success stories that are not talked about. One of the things that I do in a few of my programs and try to, I try to do it more and more, is talk about celebrate wins. Let's celebrate these wins. , And that's another thing that you guys should do.
• 0:41
  They, they said they needed someone there for eight. I was there at 7 55 and that's a win. What I mean? Those things, just a little wins. They don't have to be big wins. Just little wins and you should do this at the toolbox talk. Or if someone who did something, give them a shout out. Like, man, Tim and he crush it.