I wonder what the clauses/stipulations are for maintenance contracts in locations like these. And is quarterly PM (preventive maintenance?) enough here?
@@Navi_xoohe says in the first 3 minutes that the owner pays a monthly fee for regular maintenance to be done, but it’s regular quarterly maintenance which does not cover this type of work.
When I first started out I was getting BEAT DOWN by the sun and I'm faired skin. I put on long sleeves bust still couldn't get over how hot and exhausted I got in a short amount to time. I finally had the wherewithal to purchase a Camelpak drink holder that straps over your back and feeds with a rubber straw you bite. I filled that thing to the top with ice, put have a power aid in it and topped it off with water. I won't say it was like being in AC, but with that cool ice pack on your spine and constant flow of cold fluids, it was night and day difference.
Here's the OG trick. I carry a second half gallon hand sprayer that gets used for clean water only. I also wear a heavy twill long sleeve shirt. As soon as I get hot the shirt chest and back get soaked with the sprayer. It turns me into a walking swamp cooler and I'm good to about 115° ambient.
@@happinessiskey2858I've been told to empty it totally and store it in the freezer when not in use. This at least works great if you only use water in it
@@TheFreeBro personally, I feel like it’s more professional if someone is so dedicated to their craft that they’re willing to film educational videos and help others.
Showing us the compressor cut open was awesome, like a super pro bonus! You could've just tossed it, said whatever, but tearing it down to see what's going on with the customer's system - that's top notch.
I like your compressor teardowns. I watch an awful lot of HVAC content for someone not in the industry, and I've picked up a pretty good idea of how floodback happens and it's effects in both air conditioning and refrigeration.
@@lordjaashin Flood back. Where unvaporized liquid refrigerant makes it all the way back to the compressor. You can't compress a liquid, so the compressor becomes damaged by this condition. It can also wash the lubrication out of the compressor.
@@eeeeweeezeeeyeah, the biggest issue is refrigerant causing oil dilution, the oil gets suspended in the liquid refrigerant and pumps out of the compressor quickly and is slow to return due to short cycling and lower flow velocity in the coils, so that traps all the oil outside of the compressor and no lube = death. equivalent of running a vehicle engine out of oil.
Hey Chris... great videos as always. I reside in South Africa and I do satellite dish installations and maintenance. I can for sure agree with you that working in extreme heats is dangerous. We get hot summers (40°C+) with higher humidity. Now a TV isn't a lifeline like AC when hot, but I always tried to negotiate with customers to come the next day early morning whilst cooler. Some agreed, some wanted their tv fixed now, and starts to bash your business if you don't want to come the same day. Our rooftops are mostly 30 degree or 45 degree angles and they're hot as hell, especially the corrugated plate ones. Then you have to get inside the loft to do wiring, and its easily 10°C hotter in there than outside. Heatstroke is immanent.... I like your business ethics where you and your workers health and safety is 1st priority.... wish more business owners would think of their workers conditions like you. Keep up with great educational content...
@@PatrickKQ4HBD the threat of a negative review isn't going to make me risk my life. Which is why the owners reply to those reviews is always hilarious.
I used to live in Phoenix before I moved to Houston. I remember that the temp was always taken in the shade. So, 110 degrees reported is in the shade, not uncovered. Those units are exposed to such high temps that I'm amazed they keep running! I learn SO much from you, Chris. Can I go work for you for six months FREE? Just teach me! Don't pay me!!!!!
Taking breaks when you need to is the best thing. Getting into air conditioning and out of the sun is essential to not getting heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Unfortunately, the busiest times are the worst to work in.
I can’t count the number of people that make comments like “must be nice to always be able to work in AC”. I wouldn’t know; it’s broken when I get there and when I do get it running it’s time to leave
37:00 i work in facility maintenance and I always try to preach preventative maintenance. All my coworkers always preach to everyone one at work please tell us before when you notice the smallest thing. And we have a huge sign above our shop that reads “ your lack of communication and planning doesn’t constitute an emergency to me.
Most of the oil is back in the compressor now. It is nice to see that you install the ball valve for the dryers, most tech do not think about that. If you wire the low pressure switch in line with the high pressure switch the control board will lock out the system, when it trips.
My first time watching your channel. Do I see a Simpson 260 in the background? Brings back some memories. Cool video I have worked on many rooftop HVAC units in my day, but not at your outdoor temps, but our humidity was more in the range of 60 to low 80%, and when it got too high 80 to low 90 temps it could really suck on the roof. Great video. Be safe.
I definitely enjoyed this video, especially because I'm a maintenance tech at a building where we have about 39 of these Lenox units we handle the basic maintenance on.
In my early years, when I got too hot, I made some very stupid mistakes, and didn't recognize my mistakes until the cool of the next early morning. I quickly learned my brain's heat tolerance, and I stood my ground!
Great info (photos and narration). Seems like you and your company takes the right approach to repair. Preventive maintenance is always a key to long term reliability. Customer feedback to you, or a lack there of was costly.
Like your videos, fun to watch. How many wannabe techs are online telling you how you did everything wrong, and that's not the way they would have done it? Keep it up. Peace
Chris, since the oil is not returning to the compressor there has to be a design flaw in the system. Since the suction line goes almost to the deck, turns basically 180 degrees to go up into the compressor, I wonder if there is a lot of oil in that trap. Then there is not enough velocity to carry the oil back to the compressor. Some reason not enough velocity to carry the oil through the condensing coils. I wonder if it would help to cut out that big uturn out and make a more direct line into the compressor. What is your thoughts?
@daleborg clogged air filters will do it in a fixed orificed system like this. The low side will still flash but without load there's no superheat back to the compressor causing flood back. With the lack of vapor in the evaporator there will be low velocity (since a good chunk of mass flow is dense liquid) and thus oil will not make it through the evap coil and likely will just accumulate in the low coil turns.
Running more direct could actually cause flood back since there is no direct superheat control with the fixed orifice. The extra line gives a little more pressure drop and ambient heat to help protect the compressor. Not a ton, but the closer coupled the compressor is to the evap the better superheat controller you need
I'm retired now but spent many years in the AC industry here in Australia. Why isn't there a central plant room with a larger system serving this building ?...it all seems to be under powdered. It's like the AC system was a after thought during construction . Take care out there !
I am no HVAC tech, but I do work in a chemical industry. If I ran into a problem where I needed to remove oil from a condenser I would circulate acetone through it (after removing the drier). That will flush away the oil and will be easy to remove. Can blow it out with nitrogen, then can really be dried with a vacuum pump with a small nitrogen sweep on the far end of the loop. Keep up the good work. Also, on still days you should bring up an umbrella and some kind of mist fan system to help keep you cool.
that compressor sounds like a portable tire inflator, haha my best idea to get the oil out of the evaporator: Evacuate the charge, install a self piercing braze on saddle valve on the lowest return tube of the evaporator, then either push it out with nitrogen or use your vacuum pump to pull it out, through a liquid separator (like a brake bleeder)
Few work jobs sent me out to the desert (Indio, for an example). Recall pulling wire while it was 125 F (degrees) in the shade. (That job was in the month of June, not August). Seemed to have tolerated the higher temps. better during those youthful years. (Prob. will not survive it well these days). ☀️😓
Hello my friend!! Thanks a lot for sharing your work with us and even under theses killing work conditions!!! I want to make a suggestion if I may, take a nice big outdoor battery unit and make 2-3 nice stands with 2 led lights and work after 12 at night without sun on you, I know... Late work its tricky and asking yourself why to lose my sleep... I know... Its just a thought... Love your vids please be safe!!
I do like the brain challenge. Keep on challenging me. I love it! I like exercising my experience. Check your low pressure control. The unit probably lose some gas. The filter was dirty on the evaporator the low pressure was not working then you have icing on the evaporator and you know how the story goes. We all been there dealing with customers
I didn’t know Appion had new core depressor tools that are vacuum rated, so I just spent money getting 4 of them. I’ve ran into situations where a regular core tool isn’t an option, so this is great. Glad you showed those in the video. Stay cool, man, heat is no joke. Great repair!
In Florida too, those were the worst summer conditions I’ve ever experienced here. Hoping next year gets better otherwise it might be more prudent to move, pretty intolerable conditions when you’re at a Feels Like of “130F”.
Gotta love the high desert. We had to change a breaker for one of our ACs at my church last week. Took it apart and it was all corroded and full of sand. It's nuts.
I know nothing about HVAC but I found myself watching this entire video. Very interesting. I also find it interesting that you guys wear long sleeve shirts out there in the heat. I guess it keeps you protected from the Sun and actually keeps you cooler? Here on the East Coast where we have such high humidity it is just unbearable to wear long sleeves like that when it's hot and humid.
It is very important. I know for a fact a couple of friends in the industry had skin cancer. Make sure you put sunblocker this is first priority of protection in my company in summertime. Do not take this likely if it's one thing to take from me is is to put on sun blocking lotion or where a long sleeve shirt me. Personally, I wear long sleeve shirt in the summer. When I'm up on the roof it is mandatory for my guys even if you have the put the water on your clothing to work to cause evaporation to keep you cool but your skins need to be protected
On the condenser I remember this. I was one of the engineering design to solve a problem for caterpillar and what I came up with with a timer allowing the unit to shut down and reversing the condensing fan to clean the condenser. This will work. I know this from experience with the big machinery in the mine mining equipment. This can be solved
Enjoyed watching this. Am impressed with your work ethic, and, in particular, your concern for your co-workers. I'm retired and worked as a programmer for NASA..live in Metro Phoenix. I've had baseball/softball umpires drop in the heat even with them hydrating all day.
I've unsoldered the bottom turn around tubes to relieve oil from a logged evaporator in the past. Don't know if you want to go through that much trouble. Also had to drill out low spots on the Suction line, but it worked.
put large port ball valves on the line ends, pressurize with nitrogen from the other end, open the ball valve rapidly and repeat, opening them fast and close slowly letting it build high pressure again. the high pressure to sudden drop will cause the oil to move at high speeds and somewhat atomize. it's not as good as chemical flushing and purging, but it's hard to beat sudden high pressure being high volume discharged.
When I lived in Arizona between the Juniper pollen in the wind and the dry air and the dust, I had nothing but sinus problems, I constantly had to rinse with saline solution.
You have sandstorms we had a thing called Cottonwood that would clog all the coils up and man what a pain in the butt to get everything cleaned out can't count how many pressures we replace and cooling fans
Has the economizer been opening? The sand is outdoor air contaminants, unless the ductwork is compromised , I would check econo cycling. And condensor, evaporator coils for crud..TIP. silicone aerosol helps keep condensor coils clean by making fins slick and less tendency to hold dirt like you just experienced. My In law lives in southwest Az, and with every dust storm needs the roof unit washed. One tech suggested spraying door rubber seal silicone on a portion of it to twst his theory..which turned out it worked very well.
The desert is definitely a harsh environment for HVAC equipment indeed. I'm a tech in Arizona and can relate with your endeavor in keeping these machines running.
How about keeping a small (50w ?) step down transformer in the truck in case you need 120v and all you have is 208 ? Couple of alligator clips on the primary side so you can steal power off a breaker or fuse ?
This summer has been brutal here in TX. I think we are 40+ days straight of 100°+. It has worn me out. Im looking forward to cooler weather. Im still curious where all that oil came from in the RTU....it was everywhere. Thanks for sharing the video Chris
I think we know where at least part of the 1.7 liters of oil went. As to how it got there? Given how it was literally everywhere, I feel like a leaking Schrader wouldn't make that much of a mess. It didn't blow the charge, so it's not a leak there, but I'm wondering if maybe it got so hammered by floodback that the oil blew out of a plug or something. You'd expect to find something that obvious, but weirder things happen. While it would require a lot of re-engineering, I wonder how a Wankel Rotary compressor would sound. Be up there on the roof and get deafened by a dorito with no oil.
@@EnderMalcolm A leaking Schrader might cause a very fine oil mist under the right circumstances. That will cover everything over time, what a mess. But then also I would expect to see more obvious traces of oil on there, like some dripping or oil running down the line. Really strange.
It was brutal here in Canada too. (I live in Québec, province, so I don't really know about the rest of the country.) Summers are usually tolerable here, but this year, it was heatwave after heatwave
when it did run and was drawing 60+ amps, i noticed it quickly hit 466PSI discharge pressure and that was after he cleaned it! I'd say it it's restricted, running very hot, burnt all the oil, going off on thermal endlessly, making the oil and some charge blow out a seal or switch when extremely hot. thermal expansion is always a catch 22, sometimes things leak when cold, others only when very overheated. that likely also helped cooked the contactor.
You can do it how I just did it on the 2 compresses. I had with terminal venting, because of low power. So for that unit, if you take out the trap on the suction right before the compressor and you isolate right before the evaporator you can blow nitrogen straight through blowing out majority of that oil, then you're gonna have to install some acid scavenger to clean up anything that might have been left behind from that thing. Cooking itself
So Cal doesn't have enough rest areas, they're frequently full from truckers, and passer-by's who are tired. If it weren't for the stupid laws, they could actually put in some more truck stops as well to help alleviate some of it...Hi from a semi driver by the way! Glad you are able to help out all these businesses with their hvac!
@HVACR VIDEOS absolutely agree about the desert. No matter how dry it is once you hit triple digits it's hot and uncomfortable. I've been to the Mojave and Owen's Valley many times and I won't go there during summer months due to how hot it gets.
G’day Chris , As a mining equipment electrician and air-conditioning Tech, having a two pole in an insulator with a rare earth magnet - ‘ contaminating ‘ sensor added after the discharge would catch and short out the sensor and help with self - destructing compressor , and pressure switches and sitting on ‘ threshold ‘ of not tripping to help with pressure warnings , I’ve had including , blockages , but I’m surprised even with a sump Reed switch level switch would help , even on a budget system , but even adding a contaminant sensor would shut the system down before condemning the condenser and having to flush meters - feet of lines and time added , with the fluid and nitrogen , etc,,, By the way , your a Extremely intelligent, very experienced Tech and I’ve learn’t sooooo much , and I’m very thankful for your post , Godbless you and I’ve Subscribed and looking forward to your tool post suggested, take care and Merry Christmas 🎄🎄 have a safe thanksgiving, from Australia 🇦🇺.
You might have a fail, low pressure switch for the oil to leave the compressor. Let's say the filter get clogged. It turn into a solid ice pressure drop. Really low run for a long time or leaving the compressor. Compressor went lower on oil to dangerous levels so my recommendation check the low pressure control on the unit. Make sure it's working. Make sure it have a time delay in case the unit go low on gas or the filter plug on the evaporator pressure drop low, the unit will short cycle
I know what it's like to work on the roof in high heat, I start as the sun comes up [means driving to the job in the dark] and stop by 11-12 noon done for the day. I just had a thought to bring a garden hose up there and maybe a pedestal fan and then keep drenching yourself to stay cool. [I know that you would have to run the hose a bit every time you use it to get the cool water from below.]
saw a place in the middle east that put up many vertical poles around the edge of the roof then hung strips of canvas that blocked a lot of sand from blowing on the roof
This last weekend on call in AL was 99+ with 80% humidity. I feel for ya. I could tell by your speech that it was rough up there. I love all the videos. Keep it up. We all learn from you.
99°F with 80% relative humidity in AL?! Wow! That is a dew point of 91.7°F. (So therefore your morning low temps was in the low 90s?!?) I live in neighboring Florida and it’s never been nearly that humid. To put this into perspective, the highest humidity ever recorded on Earth was on July 8, 2003 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The dew point was 95°F. It was 108°F with 68% humidity. The heat index under these conditions was 178°F. With the 99°F temps you experienced along with 80% humidity made it feel like 153°F. With ACs not working, there would have been mass fatalities.
You need to do a deal where you own the air-conditioning and you charge a monthly rental fee. That way you can fix what ever you like when ever you want. Also you can service them properly in time making you money.
just subed.... watched one of your vids some how and you started poping up here and there... love the breakdown of the things you do weather its what your working on or talking to the customer. what sold me was you literally cutting up the compressors and finding the problem.. you obviously love this stuff man.. and thats ba af.. and im learning something new....fd
Dude, nice job! This summer has been a hot, humid pain in the ass. I work on the east coast and July was a record setting month. Way worse than last year... It sucks you installed new compressors and you might have to re do the entire evaporator... At first I thought the building lost a phase when you said the units went down at the same time. Great entertaining video. Keep it up!
Great video ! appreciate U working in these high ambient conditions. Normally when I watch ur videos and u have a problem with the compressor U usually check the oil level at the sight,by measuring the amount.
You got over 100° in your house? Come on, you're one of the most famous AC technicians here on YT 😂 Besides that, your videos are really oddly satisfying even for viewers like me who will never see one of those units up close in real life. The skills to analyse such a malfunction on kit that someone else has installed and you don't have any record on how (and if at all) that stuff has seen any maintenance is just beyond me but really great to see there's people like you whose default answer is not 'yeah, that stuff is toast I would buy it all new'. Keep the videos coming, love them!
Im just a laymen that like watching your videos and learning about different things. Can someone explain to me what usually keeps the oil in the compressor vs what happened here. I know he tries to explain it at 43:30 but I dont quite get what changed to allow oil to leave the compressor.
Sometimes a couple of soaked terry cloth rags will pull that heat off the compressor like I heat sink. Had to do that when I had no access to a hose bibb
Random Joe with random question. There's a college behind my place and their AC and similar equipment has this high-pitch noise all the time, almost like a flat-line high pitch noise. Is that normal, what can those people check to reduce this sound which goes on for days and makes my life miserable? Is that an electrical issue? They have equipment similar to what I see in this video, except longer and bigger, plus a huge shiny metal duct with an pump on top. Any clue appreciated. This has been going on for years now.
I feel ya on being beat down, and worn out this summer. We've had a help wanted ad online for 6 months, and not one applicant, so we've been working overtime, plus 2 weeks on call, 2 weeks off call, all summer.
I'm in Connecticut and we just had our first heat wave,,,,,,95 but our humidity is around 80+ % so I was melting but I do hydrate. Lots of luck to you.
As soon as you said "I hate sand" I was like "DAMN YOU MAKING ME SAY ITS COARSE AND GETS EVERYWHERE!" and I even did it outloud I'm kinda triggered by that lol
Induction motor for the condenser. Three-phase put in a timer reversing the polarity removing the sand. Let's say every 4 hours or every 6 hours you still going to be able to do your service allowing the customer to save out of the money
Not going to go through all the comments to see if this is brought up, but just make it a practice after you pull out a compressor to simply roll it over and pour the remaining oil left in the compressor out of the suction port into a small bucket on your refer scale. Here, by weight, you can determine what is left in the compressor and make an educated guess what is out in the system. Then you can do the same with your new compressor (if it is shipped with oil), gently pour out the difference in weight from your new compressor and you can be fairly confident you are not going to over log the system. Crappy part is when you show up and find someone has already replaced the compressor once or twice before and you are the sloppy third or fourth guy in line and if you're not thinking oil management and the guys before were not, then you can only imagine the nightmare you are getting married with in that system. Just what I do on everything from small recips to multi-cylinder semi's when it comes to replacing a compressor.
Couple things.. 1)from engineering standpoint, when is a filter change needed? when the pressure drop across it exceeds a spec, or if the media itself has reached a degradation point. What you point out is correct, that every time there is a dust or sandstorm, the filters need immediate change. The 60 day or 180 day filter-change-as-PM is just a generally safe catchall, where the media degradation might be more like 4 years, and can generally be ignored. It usually comes up only if a system is offline for many years. In this case, from an engineer's perspective, I suggest a visual inspection no less than every 60 days of the filter and condensers, plus after every noticeable sand or dust storm. A better solution would be a system that monitors high/low pressure values and has warning LEDs on the control, but this isn't NASA. 2) That oil might have 90% leaked out. Its being misted and over a month could have dissipated much more than you would think. It would hinge more on the design than I can tell from this video. Think about how many quarts of oil a car can leak when there is only a ounce left on the car to see. It may all be below, but maybe not. Also a compressor can be designed to handle this much excess, but I have no idea if it is here. In this particular, your "expertise" is growing. 3) Expertise imho, has two parts: experience, and relational structure of componential wisdom. Notably, academic study builds the second, and allows someone to recognize things on first encounter. However experience in practice provides the leaves of a tree of wisdom. Becoming an expert then, requires a measure of both, so you "don't know what you don't know", and so you have branches of understanding for those leaves to bud on. Only the right kind of person can ever become an expert. Many people get school and life experience and still aren't very good at what they do. They overcome and achieve anyway through soft/people skills. 4) Finally, within any HVAC system, the low side pressure is related to the load at the moment, meaning the temperature of the evaporator itself. I can't remember why that came up. If you absolutely must get the low side down to move to the next step, or prevent some imminent failure, or to test some high-low trip switch, slow the airflow over the evaporator by blocking the intake partly with cardboard. Less air, less load, colder evap, lower pressure. Usually a dead system comes on to 200-500% normal demand, and sometimes that is outside design specs (shouldn't be but lots of bad techs/dying systems out there). I loved this video and cringe at people with RW skill saying "I'm no expert". That's how we have another silent generation here, and fools running for congress. Anyone could claim with modest experience to be an expert at something, and
I just had 2 thoughts that may help with keeping your body temp in check. Makita makes fan cooling jackets, I have one that had titanium in the fabric to block UV, granted I live near Buffalo and it's a completely different climate, at least with a wicking shirt under the fan coat I get some benefit from evaporative cooling. Or maybe some kind of liquid cooling vest using a bucket with ice water circulating to aid in recovery. Being in the extreme elements like that and on a roof top is so much more taxing than most people will ever know. Stay safe.
those fan jackets are super popular in Japan, you see construction workers and contractors wear them everywhere in the summer. they really do work to a point.
@@Nyarly_Relyeh that's what I thought at first but it inflates the entire jacket and vents around the waste neck and wrists, so it's more like wearing a 5mph breeze all over. And with wicking shirts it does a good job of evaporating sweat all over. I found that the version with the ice packs on the shoulder blades just felt weird pressure always sliding around, so I haven't used it with the ice packs. Granted the environment where I use it is near Buffalo so 80-90°F and high humidity. So the relative milage in Arizona or Texas may be different.
I am in NW Arkansas and I wish we had humidity like yours. Humidity is a greater factor than heat when working outdoors. We visited White Sands and it was 96. It felt like 76 back home. It was comfortable. I had a job starting at 9:00am. By 12 it was 96, but humidity is double yours. I don't do afternoons and evenings when it gets this bad. I'm a farrier, not HVAC.
I have a feeling the building owner never changes the filters or does any kind of preventive maintenance until it breaks
He said in the beginning the owner has a maintenance contract
I wonder what the clauses/stipulations are for maintenance contracts in locations like these. And is quarterly PM (preventive maintenance?) enough here?
You didn't even watch the first 3 minutes of the video, did you?
@@Navi_xoohe says in the first 3 minutes that the owner pays a monthly fee for regular maintenance to be done, but it’s regular quarterly maintenance which does not cover this type of work.
doing it like the smaller sawmills
When I first started out I was getting BEAT DOWN by the sun and I'm faired skin. I put on long sleeves bust still couldn't get over how hot and exhausted I got in a short amount to time. I finally had the wherewithal to purchase a Camelpak drink holder that straps over your back and feeds with a rubber straw you bite. I filled that thing to the top with ice, put have a power aid in it and topped it off with water. I won't say it was like being in AC, but with that cool ice pack on your spine and constant flow of cold fluids, it was night and day difference.
Yeah, that’s smart. Just make sure you keep it clean and dry it out after use on your off days when you won’t use it as those things can get nasty.
Great tip. Thanks for sharing.
Thats really smart dude
Here's the OG trick. I carry a second half gallon hand sprayer that gets used for clean water only. I also wear a heavy twill long sleeve shirt. As soon as I get hot the shirt chest and back get soaked with the sprayer.
It turns me into a walking swamp cooler and I'm good to about 115° ambient.
@@happinessiskey2858I've been told to empty it totally and store it in the freezer when not in use. This at least works great if you only use water in it
This is an “ All Hands on the Roof” call. Grab every apprentice / trainee you have and use them. This will be a great training experience .
Wonder how many would quit the job next day...
@@alexanderkupke920 the ones that quit,good riddance , the ones who finish the job, ask questions and show up the next morning are the “ keepers”. 👍
@@alexanderkupke920if they’re quitters then go 😂 no room for losers
It’s even better when they’re not trying to film everything at the same time. More professional
@@TheFreeBro personally, I feel like it’s more professional if someone is so dedicated to their craft that they’re willing to film educational videos and help others.
Showing us the compressor cut open was awesome, like a super pro bonus! You could've just tossed it, said whatever, but tearing it down to see what's going on with the customer's system - that's top notch.
I like your compressor teardowns. I watch an awful lot of HVAC content for someone not in the industry, and I've picked up a pretty good idea of how floodback happens and it's effects in both air conditioning and refrigeration.
what is flowback?
@@lordjaashin Flood back. Where unvaporized liquid refrigerant makes it all the way back to the compressor. You can't compress a liquid, so the compressor becomes damaged by this condition. It can also wash the lubrication out of the compressor.
@@eeeeweeezeeeyeah, the biggest issue is refrigerant causing oil dilution, the oil gets suspended in the liquid refrigerant and pumps out of the compressor quickly and is slow to return due to short cycling and lower flow velocity in the coils, so that traps all the oil outside of the compressor and no lube = death. equivalent of running a vehicle engine out of oil.
There’s a lot of different reasons for a compressor flooding back
Hey Chris... great videos as always. I reside in South Africa and I do satellite dish installations and maintenance. I can for sure agree with you that working in extreme heats is dangerous. We get hot summers (40°C+) with higher humidity. Now a TV isn't a lifeline like AC when hot, but I always tried to negotiate with customers to come the next day early morning whilst cooler. Some agreed, some wanted their tv fixed now, and starts to bash your business if you don't want to come the same day. Our rooftops are mostly 30 degree or 45 degree angles and they're hot as hell, especially the corrugated plate ones. Then you have to get inside the loft to do wiring, and its easily 10°C hotter in there than outside. Heatstroke is immanent....
I like your business ethics where you and your workers health and safety is 1st priority.... wish more business owners would think of their workers conditions like you.
Keep up with great educational content...
I didn't know that DSTV guys worked in such harsh environments 😮
Your life isn't worth their convenience. Tell them to dust off some books or board games.
@@RyfiniusThat might have worked before the Internet made online reviews a thing to be concerned about.
@@PatrickKQ4HBD the threat of a negative review isn't going to make me risk my life. Which is why the owners reply to those reviews is always hilarious.
40c?!! (had to google that lol) that is wild. Big props for yall who work outside to help keep us all living cool.
I used to live in Phoenix before I moved to Houston. I remember that the temp was always taken in the shade. So, 110 degrees reported is in the shade, not uncovered. Those units are exposed to such high temps that I'm amazed they keep running! I learn SO much from you, Chris. Can I go work for you for six months FREE? Just teach me! Don't pay me!!!!!
Me too!
I didn’t understand 99.9% of what all this involves but what great skill sets you have. Experience and expertise shows here. Very interesting!!
I’m sure that if you could, you’d hoist your whole truck onto the roof 😂😂
Didn't you know Chris has a flying van. ☺
@@adamdnewmanI seen it it once and I was 🤯when it flew by.😂🤣
Lol
🎵Transformers... Putting trucks on the roof 🎵
It's getting to the point where the air conditioners need air conditoners 😆 Need a Move-n-Cool and a tent for the roof when it's 120 in the sun.
Taking breaks when you need to is the best thing. Getting into air conditioning and out of the sun is essential to not getting heat stroke or heat exhaustion. Unfortunately, the busiest times are the worst to work in.
I can’t count the number of people that make comments like “must be nice to always be able to work in AC”. I wouldn’t know; it’s broken when I get there and when I do get it running it’s time to leave
37:00 i work in facility maintenance and I always try to preach preventative maintenance.
All my coworkers always preach to everyone one at work please tell us before when you notice the smallest thing. And we have a huge sign above our shop that reads “ your lack of communication and planning doesn’t constitute an emergency to me.
Most of the oil is back in the compressor now. It is nice to see that you install the ball valve for the dryers, most tech do not think about that. If you wire the low pressure switch in line with the high pressure switch the control board will lock out the system, when it trips.
Best HVAC videos on the tube… hands down! Thank you for taking the time and making your videos 🇺🇸
Dude you know alot, all appreciated, thank you
My first time watching your channel. Do I see a Simpson 260 in the background? Brings back some memories. Cool video I have worked on many rooftop HVAC units in my day, but not at your outdoor temps, but our humidity was more in the range of 60 to low 80%, and when it got too high 80 to low 90 temps it could really suck on the roof. Great video. Be safe.
I definitely enjoyed this video, especially because I'm a maintenance tech at a building where we have about 39 of these Lenox units we handle the basic maintenance on.
Lack of oil return will definitely cause compressor failure! Great video Chris!
As a Tech, who works in the Desert, I feel your pain😂😂
At least it's not humid I envy you
The dry desert eats air conditioners if not maintained. But agree you can have the humidity, I’m happy at 10% humidity 😅
@@KingofDoubleBogey lol, thanks
In my early years, when I got too hot, I made some very stupid mistakes, and didn't recognize my mistakes until the cool of the next early morning. I quickly learned my brain's heat tolerance, and I stood my ground!
Great info (photos and narration). Seems like you and your company takes the right approach to repair. Preventive maintenance is always a key to long term reliability. Customer feedback to you, or a lack there of was costly.
I love those Lennox units, I have a few at work and they are my favorite to maintain. Just super simple and modular.
Like your videos, fun to watch.
How many wannabe techs are online telling you how you did everything wrong, and that's not the way they would have done it?
Keep it up.
Peace
We don’t have this kinda negativity here 😀
Your customers are very fortunate to have to you I hope you charge the Hell of them your are the bomb 💣
Chris, since the oil is not returning to the compressor there has to be a design flaw in the system. Since the suction line goes almost to the deck, turns basically 180 degrees to go up into the compressor, I wonder if there is a lot of oil in that trap. Then there is not enough velocity to carry the oil back to the compressor. Some reason not enough velocity to carry the oil through the condensing coils. I wonder if it would help to cut out that big uturn out and make a more direct line into the compressor. What is your thoughts?
@daleborg clogged air filters will do it in a fixed orificed system like this. The low side will still flash but without load there's no superheat back to the compressor causing flood back. With the lack of vapor in the evaporator there will be low velocity (since a good chunk of mass flow is dense liquid) and thus oil will not make it through the evap coil and likely will just accumulate in the low coil turns.
Running more direct could actually cause flood back since there is no direct superheat control with the fixed orifice. The extra line gives a little more pressure drop and ambient heat to help protect the compressor. Not a ton, but the closer coupled the compressor is to the evap the better superheat controller you need
@@miamisasquatch i appreciate your input
I love you, that fan spun slow and u said “probably a bad cap” faking beautiful
windy and sand blowing everywhere, "safety squints engaged" 🤣🤣
I'm retired now but spent many years in the AC industry here in Australia.
Why isn't there a central plant room with a larger system serving this building ?...it all seems to be under powdered.
It's like the AC system was a after thought during construction .
Take care out there !
That makes total since to make a drain run up hill so will not drain properly, sometimes you wander what people are thinking when they do stuff.
Awesome job guy's I work one automotive system and we have a closed lope flushing system that get's almost all the oil out of the evaporator.
I am no HVAC tech, but I do work in a chemical industry. If I ran into a problem where I needed to remove oil from a condenser I would circulate acetone through it (after removing the drier). That will flush away the oil and will be easy to remove. Can blow it out with nitrogen, then can really be dried with a vacuum pump with a small nitrogen sweep on the far end of the loop. Keep up the good work.
Also, on still days you should bring up an umbrella and some kind of mist fan system to help keep you cool.
Sane here in norcal. Hot and way humid. It's usually dry in the central valley but 105 with 43 percent humidity is killer.
that compressor sounds like a portable tire inflator, haha
my best idea to get the oil out of the evaporator:
Evacuate the charge, install a self piercing braze on saddle valve on the lowest return tube of the evaporator, then either push it out with nitrogen or use your vacuum pump to pull it out, through a liquid separator (like a brake bleeder)
Few work jobs sent me out to the desert (Indio, for an example). Recall pulling wire while it was 125 F (degrees) in the shade. (That job was in the month of June, not August). Seemed to have tolerated the higher temps. better during those youthful years. (Prob. will not survive it well these days). ☀️😓
Hello my friend!! Thanks a lot for sharing your work with us and even under theses killing work conditions!!! I want to make a suggestion if I may, take a nice big outdoor battery unit and make 2-3 nice stands with 2 led lights and work after 12 at night without sun on you, I know... Late work its tricky and asking yourself why to lose my sleep... I know... Its just a thought... Love your vids please be safe!!
I do like the brain challenge. Keep on challenging me. I love it! I like exercising my experience. Check your low pressure control. The unit probably lose some gas. The filter was dirty on the evaporator the low pressure was not working then you have icing on the evaporator and you know how the story goes. We all been there dealing with customers
I didn’t know Appion had new core depressor tools that are vacuum rated, so I just spent money getting 4 of them. I’ve ran into situations where a regular core tool isn’t an option, so this is great. Glad you showed those in the video. Stay cool, man, heat is no joke. Great repair!
U really are taking ur sweet time showing and explaining everything, Meanwhile the building is burning up inside.
This summer is brutal I’m in Florida we have like 90% humidity here love your content I’m a sheet metal mechanic
In Florida too, those were the worst summer conditions I’ve ever experienced here. Hoping next year gets better otherwise it might be more prudent to move, pretty intolerable conditions when you’re at a Feels Like of “130F”.
Gotta love the high desert. We had to change a breaker for one of our ACs at my church last week. Took it apart and it was all corroded and full of sand. It's nuts.
Great job Chris, The heat is beating down lots of people, go easy on yourself on the roof.
Awesome video I enjoy when you take compressors apart stay cool out there
Chris I agree it’s been very brutal here in Louisiana. We are two weeks into 100 degrees with 80percent humidity. Good luck and be safe buddy
He’s only at 40% humidity 😂 he needs to learn how to drink more water or something
I know nothing about HVAC but I found myself watching this entire video. Very interesting. I also find it interesting that you guys wear long sleeve shirts out there in the heat. I guess it keeps you protected from the Sun and actually keeps you cooler? Here on the East Coast where we have such high humidity it is just unbearable to wear long sleeves like that when it's hot and humid.
Yeah we don't know what humidity is here in my area of Southern California, long sleeves protect my skin from the sun
It is very important. I know for a fact a couple of friends in the industry had skin cancer. Make sure you put sunblocker this is first priority of protection in my company in summertime. Do not take this likely if it's one thing to take from me is is to put on sun blocking lotion or where a long sleeve shirt me. Personally, I wear long sleeve shirt in the summer. When I'm up on the roof it is mandatory for my guys even if you have the put the water on your clothing to work to cause evaporation to keep you cool but your skins need to be protected
On the condenser I remember this. I was one of the engineering design to solve a problem for caterpillar and what I came up with with a timer allowing the unit to shut down and reversing the condensing fan to clean the condenser. This will work. I know this from experience with the big machinery in the mine mining equipment. This can be solved
Enjoyed watching this. Am impressed with your work ethic, and, in particular, your concern for your co-workers. I'm retired and worked as a programmer for NASA..live in Metro Phoenix. I've had baseball/softball umpires drop in the heat even with them hydrating all day.
I've unsoldered the bottom turn around tubes to relieve oil from a logged evaporator in the past. Don't know if you want to go through that much trouble. Also had to drill out low spots on the Suction line, but it worked.
put large port ball valves on the line ends, pressurize with nitrogen from the other end, open the ball valve rapidly and repeat, opening them fast and close slowly letting it build high pressure again. the high pressure to sudden drop will cause the oil to move at high speeds and somewhat atomize. it's not as good as chemical flushing and purging, but it's hard to beat sudden high pressure being high volume discharged.
hell yeah new RTU diagnostic video!!! Been jonesing for one and rewatching all the 3 year old stuff to get my fix
When I lived in Arizona between the Juniper pollen in the wind and the dry air and the dust, I had nothing but sinus problems, I constantly had to rinse with saline solution.
Los Angeles tech here, first year in the trade it’s my first summer and yeah hanging in there thanks to ur videos Chris thanks for the knowledge 😁😁😁
This is awsome I am so happy I found this channel
You have sandstorms we had a thing called Cottonwood that would clog all the coils up and man what a pain in the butt to get everything cleaned out can't count how many pressures we replace and cooling fans
Has the economizer been opening? The sand is outdoor air contaminants, unless the ductwork is compromised , I would check econo cycling. And condensor, evaporator coils for crud..TIP. silicone aerosol helps keep condensor coils clean by making fins slick and less tendency to hold dirt like you just experienced. My In law lives in southwest Az, and with every dust storm needs the roof unit washed. One tech suggested spraying door rubber seal silicone on a portion of it to twst his theory..which turned out it worked very well.
The desert is definitely a harsh environment for HVAC equipment indeed. I'm a tech in Arizona and can relate with your endeavor in keeping these machines running.
How about keeping a small (50w ?) step down transformer in the truck in case you need 120v and all you have is 208 ? Couple of alligator clips on the primary side so you can steal power off a breaker or fuse ?
The point of 208v 3 phase is you get 120v to ground/neutral on all legs.
This summer has been brutal here in TX. I think we are 40+ days straight of 100°+. It has worn me out. Im looking forward to cooler weather.
Im still curious where all that oil came from in the RTU....it was everywhere.
Thanks for sharing the video Chris
I think we know where at least part of the 1.7 liters of oil went. As to how it got there? Given how it was literally everywhere, I feel like a leaking Schrader wouldn't make that much of a mess. It didn't blow the charge, so it's not a leak there, but I'm wondering if maybe it got so hammered by floodback that the oil blew out of a plug or something. You'd expect to find something that obvious, but weirder things happen.
While it would require a lot of re-engineering, I wonder how a Wankel Rotary compressor would sound. Be up there on the roof and get deafened by a dorito with no oil.
@@EnderMalcolm A leaking Schrader might cause a very fine oil mist under the right circumstances. That will cover everything over time, what a mess. But then also I would expect to see more obvious traces of oil on there, like some dripping or oil running down the line. Really strange.
It was brutal here in Canada too. (I live in Québec, province, so I don't really know about the rest of the country.) Summers are usually tolerable here, but this year, it was heatwave after heatwave
when it did run and was drawing 60+ amps, i noticed it quickly hit 466PSI discharge pressure and that was after he cleaned it! I'd say it it's restricted, running very hot, burnt all the oil, going off on thermal endlessly, making the oil and some charge blow out a seal or switch when extremely hot. thermal expansion is always a catch 22, sometimes things leak when cold, others only when very overheated. that likely also helped cooked the contactor.
are you ready for multi-week long snow and ice storms and all that comes with it?
You can do it how I just did it on the 2 compresses. I had with terminal venting, because of low power. So for that unit, if you take out the trap on the suction right before the compressor and you isolate right before the evaporator you can blow nitrogen straight through blowing out majority of that oil, then you're gonna have to install some acid scavenger to clean up anything that might have been left behind from that thing. Cooking itself
So Cal doesn't have enough rest areas, they're frequently full from truckers, and passer-by's who are tired. If it weren't for the stupid laws, they could actually put in some more truck stops as well to help alleviate some of it...Hi from a semi driver by the way! Glad you are able to help out all these businesses with their hvac!
@HVACR VIDEOS absolutely agree about the desert. No matter how dry it is once you hit triple digits it's hot and uncomfortable.
I've been to the Mojave and Owen's Valley many times and I won't go there during summer months due to how hot it gets.
May be worth investing in an EZ-Cooldown vest as it seems like summers are just gonna keep getting worse for a bit. Stay safe out there.
Another fantastic and educational video!!! I look forward to your next!
G’day Chris ,
As a mining equipment electrician and air-conditioning Tech, having a two pole in an insulator with a rare earth magnet - ‘ contaminating ‘ sensor added after the discharge would catch and short out the sensor and help with self - destructing compressor , and pressure switches and sitting on ‘ threshold ‘ of not tripping to help with pressure warnings , I’ve had including , blockages , but I’m surprised even with a sump
Reed switch level switch would help , even on a budget system , but even adding a contaminant sensor would shut the system down before condemning the condenser and having to flush meters - feet of lines and time added , with the fluid and nitrogen , etc,,,
By the way , your a Extremely intelligent, very experienced Tech and I’ve learn’t sooooo much , and I’m very thankful for your post , Godbless you and I’ve Subscribed and looking forward to your tool post suggested, take care and Merry Christmas 🎄🎄 have a safe thanksgiving, from Australia 🇦🇺.
Been noticing the same lately lennox units as well that have freezestats but no low pressure . I always quote it in to any repair i do on the unit
You might have a fail, low pressure switch for the oil to leave the compressor. Let's say the filter get clogged. It turn into a solid ice pressure drop. Really low run for a long time or leaving the compressor. Compressor went lower on oil to dangerous levels so my recommendation check the low pressure control on the unit. Make sure it's working. Make sure it have a time delay in case the unit go low on gas or the filter plug on the evaporator pressure drop low, the unit will short cycle
Anikin Skywalker hates sand. Awesome video.😊
When that filter hit the roofing i laughed so hard im sorry 😂
High pressure, low pressure, no pressure. This place has got it going on.
I know what it's like to work on the roof in high heat, I start as the sun comes up [means driving to the job in the dark] and stop by 11-12 noon done for the day. I just had a thought to bring a garden hose up there and maybe a pedestal fan and then keep drenching yourself to stay cool. [I know that you would have to run the hose a bit every time you use it to get the cool water from below.]
saw a place in the middle east that put up many vertical poles around the edge of the roof then hung strips of canvas that blocked a lot of sand from blowing on the roof
You are a master of cutting these compressors!
Definitely dead from this summer. Not sure how different it would be without humidity. Florida humidity is no joke. Great video 👍🏾
This last weekend on call in AL was 99+ with 80% humidity. I feel for ya. I could tell by your speech that it was rough up there. I love all the videos. Keep it up. We all learn from you.
99°F with 80% relative humidity in AL?! Wow! That is a dew point of 91.7°F. (So therefore your morning low temps was in the low 90s?!?) I live in neighboring Florida and it’s never been nearly that humid. To put this into perspective, the highest humidity ever recorded on Earth was on July 8, 2003 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The dew point was 95°F. It was 108°F with 68% humidity. The heat index under these conditions was 178°F. With the 99°F temps you experienced along with 80% humidity made it feel like 153°F. With ACs not working, there would have been mass fatalities.
You need to do a deal where you own the air-conditioning and you charge a monthly rental fee. That way you can fix what ever you like when ever you want. Also you can service them properly in time making you money.
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.
Play Darude, Sandstorm.
Lucas dialogue at its finest.
just subed.... watched one of your vids some how and you started poping up here and there... love the breakdown of the things you do weather its what your working on or talking to the customer. what sold me was you literally cutting up the compressors and finding the problem.. you obviously love this stuff man.. and thats ba af.. and im learning something new....fd
Thanks man, glad you enjoy the videos
EXCELLENT VIDEO SIR!
The sand will tend to imbed in the belts and quickly grind out grooves in pulleys. What a hostile environment! On top of everything else.
Dude, nice job! This summer has been a hot, humid pain in the ass. I work on the east coast and July was a record setting month. Way worse than last year... It sucks you installed new compressors and you might have to re do the entire evaporator... At first I thought the building lost a phase when you said the units went down at the same time. Great entertaining video. Keep it up!
Great video ! appreciate U working in these high ambient conditions. Normally when I watch ur videos and u have a problem with the compressor U usually check the oil level at the sight,by measuring the amount.
You got over 100° in your house? Come on, you're one of the most famous AC technicians here on YT 😂 Besides that, your videos are really oddly satisfying even for viewers like me who will never see one of those units up close in real life. The skills to analyse such a malfunction on kit that someone else has installed and you don't have any record on how (and if at all) that stuff has seen any maintenance is just beyond me but really great to see there's people like you whose default answer is not 'yeah, that stuff is toast I would buy it all new'. Keep the videos coming, love them!
Im just a laymen that like watching your videos and learning about different things. Can someone explain to me what usually keeps the oil in the compressor vs what happened here. I know he tries to explain it at 43:30 but I dont quite get what changed to allow oil to leave the compressor.
LOVE the forensics!
Sometimes a couple of soaked terry cloth rags will pull that heat off the compressor like I heat sink. Had to do that when I had no access to a hose bibb
Man those cut compressors are really cool, would love to get one….
Random Joe with random question. There's a college behind my place and their AC and similar equipment has this high-pitch noise all the time, almost like a flat-line high pitch noise. Is that normal, what can those people check to reduce this sound which goes on for days and makes my life miserable? Is that an electrical issue? They have equipment similar to what I see in this video, except longer and bigger, plus a huge shiny metal duct with an pump on top. Any clue appreciated. This has been going on for years now.
I feel ya on being beat down, and worn out this summer. We've had a help wanted ad online for 6 months, and not one applicant, so we've been working overtime, plus 2 weeks on call, 2 weeks off call, all summer.
I'm in Connecticut and we just had our first heat wave,,,,,,95 but our humidity is around 80+ % so I was melting but I do hydrate. Lots of luck to you.
As soon as you said "I hate sand" I was like "DAMN YOU MAKING ME SAY ITS COARSE AND GETS EVERYWHERE!" and I even did it outloud I'm kinda triggered by that lol
I thought that was a Lara Croft quote .
New to your channel, and I find your vids most interesting and informative 👍
You should get a mounted camera, i think it would be interesting seeing while you work and you dont have to take so much time moving cameras
Induction motor for the condenser. Three-phase put in a timer reversing the polarity removing the sand. Let's say every 4 hours or every 6 hours you still going to be able to do your service allowing the customer to save out of the money
We have that down here in Houston BAD. 80 plus humidity and 95 plus degree days.
It will knock you out quick.
Hey man EGO makes a portable fan/mister. This would work perfectly in that climate to keep you from stroking….. from the heat.
One of those roof top units should have a little 8 inch opening where it will blow out cold air so you can get some reprieve when needed.
Not going to go through all the comments to see if this is brought up, but just make it a practice after you pull out a compressor to simply roll it over and pour the remaining oil left in the compressor out of the suction port into a small bucket on your refer scale. Here, by weight, you can determine what is left in the compressor and make an educated guess what is out in the system. Then you can do the same with your new compressor (if it is shipped with oil), gently pour out the difference in weight from your new compressor and you can be fairly confident you are not going to over log the system. Crappy part is when you show up and find someone has already replaced the compressor once or twice before and you are the sloppy third or fourth guy in line and if you're not thinking oil management and the guys before were not, then you can only imagine the nightmare you are getting married with in that system. Just what I do on everything from small recips to multi-cylinder semi's when it comes to replacing a compressor.
Couple things.. 1)from engineering standpoint, when is a filter change needed? when the pressure drop across it exceeds a spec, or if the media itself has reached a degradation point. What you point out is correct, that every time there is a dust or sandstorm, the filters need immediate change. The 60 day or 180 day filter-change-as-PM is just a generally safe catchall, where the media degradation might be more like 4 years, and can generally be ignored. It usually comes up only if a system is offline for many years. In this case, from an engineer's perspective, I suggest a visual inspection no less than every 60 days of the filter and condensers, plus after every noticeable sand or dust storm. A better solution would be a system that monitors high/low pressure values and has warning LEDs on the control, but this isn't NASA.
2) That oil might have 90% leaked out. Its being misted and over a month could have dissipated much more than you would think. It would hinge more on the design than I can tell from this video. Think about how many quarts of oil a car can leak when there is only a ounce left on the car to see. It may all be below, but maybe not. Also a compressor can be designed to handle this much excess, but I have no idea if it is here. In this particular, your "expertise" is growing.
3) Expertise imho, has two parts: experience, and relational structure of componential wisdom. Notably, academic study builds the second, and allows someone to recognize things on first encounter. However experience in practice provides the leaves of a tree of wisdom. Becoming an expert then, requires a measure of both, so you "don't know what you don't know", and so you have branches of understanding for those leaves to bud on. Only the right kind of person can ever become an expert. Many people get school and life experience and still aren't very good at what they do. They overcome and achieve anyway through soft/people skills.
4) Finally, within any HVAC system, the low side pressure is related to the load at the moment, meaning the temperature of the evaporator itself. I can't remember why that came up. If you absolutely must get the low side down to move to the next step, or prevent some imminent failure, or to test some high-low trip switch, slow the airflow over the evaporator by blocking the intake partly with cardboard. Less air, less load, colder evap, lower pressure. Usually a dead system comes on to 200-500% normal demand, and sometimes that is outside design specs (shouldn't be but lots of bad techs/dying systems out there).
I loved this video and cringe at people with RW skill saying "I'm no expert". That's how we have another silent generation here, and fools running for congress. Anyone could claim with modest experience to be an expert at something, and
I just had 2 thoughts that may help with keeping your body temp in check. Makita makes fan cooling jackets, I have one that had titanium in the fabric to block UV, granted I live near Buffalo and it's a completely different climate, at least with a wicking shirt under the fan coat I get some benefit from evaporative cooling.
Or maybe some kind of liquid cooling vest using a bucket with ice water circulating to aid in recovery. Being in the extreme elements like that and on a roof top is so much more taxing than most people will ever know. Stay safe.
those fan jackets are super popular in Japan, you see construction workers and contractors wear them everywhere in the summer. they really do work to a point.
doesn't this makita jacket blow the hell out of your lower back? your kidneys won't thank you.
@@Nyarly_Relyeh that's what I thought at first but it inflates the entire jacket and vents around the waste neck and wrists, so it's more like wearing a 5mph breeze all over. And with wicking shirts it does a good job of evaporating sweat all over. I found that the version with the ice packs on the shoulder blades just felt weird pressure always sliding around, so I haven't used it with the ice packs. Granted the environment where I use it is near Buffalo so 80-90°F and high humidity. So the relative milage in Arizona or Texas may be different.
I am in NW Arkansas and I wish we had humidity like yours. Humidity is a greater factor than heat when working outdoors. We visited White Sands and it was 96. It felt like 76 back home. It was comfortable. I had a job starting at 9:00am. By 12 it was 96, but humidity is double yours. I don't do afternoons and evenings when it gets this bad. I'm a farrier, not HVAC.
Awesome job. 👍
I live in Phoenix and work outside, yes I’m way past done with this heat!