Talking With Jake From Koolin With Krauss

What is going on, huh? Dude, I'm talking, you just pulled it together at the last second. That's good. Yeah, you see me scrambling, I'm like, shoot, Magoots, brother. I didn't know. Dude, it's good to see you, man. I miss hanging out with you. Hey, you know we're always open. Okay, okay. Oh, that says it all. My man. My man. We keep in touch. We keep in touch. You know that. Texting all the time, yeah? Yeah, buddy. Okay. What you got? So I got to ask, you got weight equipment there in the back. Do you actually use those weights? Tell me. Yeah. Of course, man. Dude, so long story short, I used to be in shape. I'm in shape now. But if you look back at my older videos, and I'll show you this photo I was going through. Would you say I'm a shape now? I'm a shape. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And I was like, man, I would see myself. I'm like, man, getting all like, you can't tell, right? Like, to me, but like, I'll send you this photo later. And I was like, I got to get in shape. But every time I would start working out, I'd get hurt. I swear to you. Like, I tore my bicep once. I got a herniated disc in my back, and those get aggravated. I got dang tennis elbow, you know. And, uh... It just was always a problem. And then, again, so I ended up getting this thing here, and I was on a roll. Dude, I was like 205, got down to 182, and then I threw my back out again. And then I just freaking, you know what I mean? So I just got back into it about two weeks ago. But, yes, that equipment gets used about five days a week. Does anything other than the bench get used? Brother, this is a complete functional trainer, okay? I got a landmine attachment over there. I got cable crossovers. This is a Smith machine, so, you know, it helps a little bit of reduction on the... The weights there, I think it's like a 35-pound, so it's like 10-pound difference. But no, it's got a leg press thing. I lay on my back, do my leg press, do my squats. I can do flies. It's great. It's good. All right. One of the things I want to start off with, I'm going to ask you the same question I ask about everybody. Tell me your story about how you got into trades. What were you doing before, and how did you get into HVAC? Do you want the long-winded out answer or just like a quick synopsis? You want footnotes? What do you want? Tell me the whole story. What's up? I don't know it. I don't think I've ever heard of it. All right. I was born September 12, 1990. Thank you. Which one do you want? What? Alright, so roughly 2010, okay. I'm working, I'm 19, 20. I'm working at a place with adults with disabilities. I was there for about two years. Thank And I was like, all right, this ain't my jam. I enjoyed it, but it just wasn't going to be my career. I ended up joining the military. That didn't pan out. I did not fulfill my contract, had some heart issues. So that got put on the books, came back to work with adults with disabilities. you. I was with a girl at the time, and by a girl at the time, it is now my wife. Prior to me leaving, got back, of course, I'm all horned up, so we had a kid, all right, practically immediately. And then as soon as I'm having the kid, my dad says, I always say it like this, and I apologize, but this is how my dad talks. Son, you need a career. And he did HVAC, so he got me in line with what he did. This was back in 2011. Eleven, um... I worked there for about two years. I didn't take it serious, man. I should have. My dad is an intelligent, smart guy. He would rebuild boards, solder. Like, he's a G. I just was collecting the paycheck. I didn't give a ----. Anyways, I ended up leaving there because the paychecks at that place started bouncing. I had a family to raise, so I went through the paces for a while. I worked at a CNC machine shop that worked on Harleys. Thank you. Injection blow mold. I worked at UPS in Gettysburg. Had a couple odds and ends jobs. What else? So then around 2016, I got on board with the guy that used to work at that first company, started his own company and strictly duct, duck work, metal duck work on commercial spaces. So big boy stuff, you know, master metal. I always called myself, I love sheet metal, but that's what I did. I just did duck work. And then I got an opportunity at another place. In which they were around since 1902. They only owned and operated. Fantastic place. They're still probably around, rocking and rolling. This was in Maryland. Um, I lied my way in. I'm like, yeah, dude, I know what I'm doing. I've been doing this for years. I didn't know ----, dude. Okay. Did not know a thing. This was about 2017, 2018. Okay. But I get in, end up becoming a really good installer. I would say, um, from what the other guys told me, like one of my other guys, he's like the sales guys was like, I only want you to do my installs. So take that for what it's worth. I was like, okay, cool. I really had some craftsmanship. I cared how my stuff looked, wanted it to work right. That's when I started to... I told you this was going to be a long, drawn-out answer. Thank you, sir. Invest in myself. I had a... One of my senior techs there, man, I remember I was working at like, it was like midnight, dude, and we had to drill this hole through some freaking granite tile through a house because the guy who sold the job didn't give a ----. Anyways, and he's like, yo, just drill the hole. I'm like, F you, Charlie. I'll come beat your ass because he called. He's like, anyways, super great guy. He is the one who said, you know what? Why don't you give a ---- about yourself? Invest in yourself. And, you know, at first I was real hot-headed, young and dumb. I'm like, you know what? He's right, though. Okay. And then, fast forward 2020, moved to Florida. I think I'm a wizard at HVAC. I never did a service call in my life. Again, lied my way into saying, hey, I'm a great guy. Fake it till you make it, okay? Got my first gig down here. I couldn't change a capacitor in 2020, bro. I didn't even know, okay? I was just like, YouTube. Yeah, YouTube was my best friend. I've only done service for four years, really, at this point. And so... I didn't like the direction of that company, so I moved to another company in which I really started to get my footing at the end of 2020. So I got into my own truck around September. Remember, um... I would say around 2021 is when I was like, you know what? This is my passion. This is my drive. Started really investing in myself, time on YouTube, watching and reading books, you know, like HVAC School, Craig, you know, Migliaccio, all those things. Really educational stuff. Ty Brenneman. And then, um... Fast forward, I got really, at least to my extent, felt really confident in how I performed at work. Came across this opportunity at where I am now. Again, this is not my business that I started. It was a business that was acquired by a partner of mine, a buddy, and I ran the show. And basically from 2020... From 2020 to now, it's all been self-taught. So if you guys watch my videos or anything, they're not going to be the prettiest or best because I'm still learning trial by error as I'm out in the field. But sometimes the lessons you learn doing it, learning on the job, are the lessons that stick. If you have to figure out they're on the job, you're probably going to remember it next time. Dude, sorry. Sorry, everybody. But so that leads me to where I am now. And perfect example of what you just said was I was actually at a job this week and I changed a compressor. That's what I actually did a video on it when a compressor was wrong. Anyways, the customer's calling. They're like, it's just making a loud noise. And I'm getting out my go. It's mechanical because pressures are great. Great. The issue was bad humidity issues in the house. They said that's gone. It's just the noise. And it's this train and it's going. woong woong woong I remember I used to be a big train guy at the last company I was at. Took off that side panel where the true suction is, pulled that discharge line off that coil, sound was gone. You know what I mean? But that comes down to being in the field. You know what I mean? It took me a minute, but it was just readjusting the way that copper was off that muffler, you know what I mean, off that discharge line. And it went away, and they came out. They're like, is that thing even running? I'm like, dude, yeah. You know what I mean? That could also cause a leak if it's vibrating like that. Slow your roll. Okay. It wasn't at that point. It was just, that's what I know from trains right there. It's just they compact everything in that side compartment where the reversing valve is. And, you know, probably when I was putting the compressor in, you know, shifted probably a piece of that copper or something. I just readjusted it. You know what I'm saying? That's cool. Yeah. But that's my long-winded story. How long did that take, dude? The show's almost over. No. No, no, no. Well, there's a lot of people that watch that are interested in getting in the trades and people who are interested in starting a business. So that's one of the questions I like to ask. Because most people don't get out of high school and say, hey, I want to be an HVAC tech. We kind of stumble into it. Most of us do, except for Tim DiStasio. He knew from the start that's what he wanted to be. You know what I mean? But most of us, we started doing something else. Yeah, so even, you know, I go back to a line of my grandfather was, you know, back in the day, plumbing and heating went hand in hand, right? So that's what the two, plumbing and, you get what I'm saying. And then eventually air conditioning came into the fold. So we had Krauss Mechanical up in Baltimore, and that's what my family ran. That was my grandfather, and then my dad took it. Once my grandfather passed away, my dad ran it for a little while, F this. It's better just to work for somebody else. And, you know, it was always in my blood, but my parents were divorced, so it wasn't like I saw my dad working on air conditioners all the time. But, yeah, it was definitely something I'm glad that I was brought into, and I wouldn't see my life in any type of fashion. It would be some sort of blue-collar trade-related gig if they asked me, what would you do outside of this now, outside of playing football or something, you know? Yeah. I happen to love what I do. I came out of high school thinking I was going to be an engineer or something like that. And I actually think I'm much happier doing what I do now than I ever would have been as an engineer. Because, you know, I heard my dad's stories. He was a mechanical engineer and he longed to be out in the field working. And so I just think I love what I do. It's a great job. And we love what you do, Kurt, okay? Let me just tell you that, okay? Oh. I wouldn't want it any other way about being in the field, too, right? So, like, obviously, I got some of the operation aspect on the back end of things, running a business, understanding all that. But there's just something about getting your hands on your tools. And I don't get as dirty as you. I don't get in the trenches as deep as you do. But you get in some ----, bro. Let's just put it like that, right? Actually, you tried to tackle a ventilation fan on the roof the other day. Yeah, I wasn't like that. I told you my back's jacked, bro. Oh, bro. That's a greasy job to get into those things. They are nasty. Yeah. Yeah. This one, I mean, it didn't look particularly too, I guess maybe once I started dismantling it, it probably would have, but I needed a second set of hands to get on that bad boy. You know what I mean? Cause like, that's why if you, if you watch, I put, uh, my rope on there so I could pull the thing down. Cause one, it was just hot as hell. You know, they were down there The hood. Ah, empanadas. I like that. Yeah. Did you just call him empanadas? Oh, of course. Old Vic over there. I wouldn't say it was an epic fail whatsoever. I mean, one, it's a learning thing. Two, I wouldn't want to replace that and work on that ---- for... That's a $4,000 job just in labor to do one of those from how I've seen it be done. So in that retrospect, it would have been really nice. I quoted it for $2,500, but I wasn't, again, the way my back was and having to do that extra, I needed another set of hands, and now why not? On one almost just like that one time, my boss sent me to go change the bearings on this thing. Mm-hmm. Oh, my word. I was there all day long, and if I ever come across that ever again, I'm just going to... Quote them a whole new ventilation fan. I'm not going to change the bearings on this thing. That was a job. Oh, I believe it. Yeah, I ended up, got a lot of freaking super awesome feedback. Everybody's like, dude, just replace it with a power pack. Heads up, for that particular model, they don't make power packs, so I couldn't, would have loved to, because, again, I didn't know that from Jump Street. Anyways, the way I had seen it, I was like, all right, couple bolts here, pull that bad boy through. Nah, dude, there was like torsion screws in there that had the keyway and I didn't even have the proper hub, like the puller, you know, with the hooks. I don't have that type of puller. And now we know, again. Yeah, man. But like everybody did warn me, like, dude, at that rate, just replace it with a power pack or just get a whole new one. Yeah, just... Noted. And Adrian even told me, bro. I texted him like, hey, bro, how difficult? Because I watch videos. Everybody's doing the belt-driven ones and regular PSC ones. And they look super easy. I'm like, all right, well, this can't be too bad. You know what I mean? And on top of that, they're just nasty. They are nasty. Yeah. Yeah, they are nasty. I got to go return that, by the way. I just got my RMA. So, yeah. All right. You got a return to motor? Yeah, I got a return to motor. It's funny. They actually emailed us back. Someone else had gotten somehow our return label. And what did they say? They're like, it was returned with the wrong switch and the fan. I was like, I still have it. So somewhere along the lines, they had crossed it. Well, Victor, I delivered my share of pizzas as well. That was actually a very good high school job, delivering pizzas. Yo, you did deliver people. You had a wild journey, my friend. All right. Let's talk about how Kurt got into HVAC. We'll turn this thing around right on you, bro. You know, the first HVAC, it wasn't really HVAC. I was working on air conditioners and vehicles. Mm-hmm. I started working for a company that originally was converting R12 vehicles to R34A. Hmm. And, um, they just kept doing air conditioning work for vehicles and, yeah, I was, I was the grunt there. I was doing all the hard work while they're running around with, um, schematics telling me what to do. And you're just like. It was hard work and very tight, confined spaces. I mean, to change an evaporator coil, you have to disassemble the whole front of the. Nah. I mean, and sometimes you'd be shocked at the size of the air handler that is hiding behind the dash. It's huge. It's the size of a motor. And you're just like, no, sir. How long did you do that for? A grueling six months. All right. Got your feet wet. Yeah. I didn't like it. I didn't like it. And I picked up, well, my wife gave me a book on HVAC. And I read it cover to cover like two times. I'm like, I think I can go in and get a job. I know enough about this stuff now to do it. Let's go. I was kind of like you. I walked in. I know everything there is to know. Yeah, I was ready to quote. I was ready to start quoting typical pressures for R-22 and everything else. And I didn't know Jack. You know what I mean? I'm with you, bro. I'm still just winging it, you know? We just couldn't make it work. A buddy told me, he's like, dude, like 80% of this ---- is just communication. At least, you know, for us, you know, in residential, right? It's just communicating with the customer, understanding their problems. Because more than, I mean, it's not that difficult, right? There's some things that can be a little bit more, like, more, you know what I'm trying to say, difficult than. There's some very technical stuff out there, yeah. For sure, especially with the way everything's equipment's being manufactured now. But it's really just, you know, we're just customer relations sometimes. You know, we're therapists for people. Cool. I'm not a very good therapist, let's put it that way. Oh, no, man. I don't know man, I hear the way you talk to some of them customers when you walk up in there. Sometimes I don't have patience. Yeah, understood. You know what I mean? For example, I could change the battery in their smoke detector and be like, God, here we go. You know what? I see those comments. There's got to be. How many comments you think per video do you get of that? It's. Well, Kurt got a good customer today. No smoke detectors going off. They don't even got to have the smoke detectors and they still bring it up. I know it. But, you know, part of it, part of me is like, if these people can't take. The initiative to change the battery in their smoke detector, why am I going to do it for them? That's the part of me that doesn't have the patience coming through when I could change the battery and maybe make a little more money. I'm just thinking. You know what? I ain't going to lie to you, you know, we were living with a beeping smoke detector probably for like three, six months, dude, because eventually you just tune it out, or I just closed the door because it's on the other side of the house, and one of our friends came over, like, that smoke detector's still going off? Because I got some batteries in the car. Let me get you some batteries. I was like, I didn't even notice. You know, I went into one of my, to the office of one of the rental companies I worked in. Mm-hmm. And their smoke detector was going off. Leading by example. That's all they're doing, okay? You follow the leader. That's all. And my ears just start twitching. Yep. Yup. This ain't meant to be. Oh, those smoke detectors. And some of the places I go into sometimes are just so nasty. Oh. There was one that was so nasty recently. I got the job to replace the evaporator coil, but the day I showed up to do it, nobody would answer the door. And I just didn't follow up on it because I didn't want to go back. I mean, it was nasty. Dude, I feel you. You know, the bad thing for me is I use Jobber, right? And Jobber sends a text message to the customer to let them know I'm on the way. And, uh, you can tell when they read those things, it's like, damn it, should I hit this or should I just show up? You know what I'm saying? Because that, that same instance, you're like, you're hoping like. For example, the other day I went to one and the window was 12 to 4, but I got there at like 11:40 and they answered on their ring. They're like, oh, I texted you back through the message. I won't be there. And I was like, that's okay. I'll wait it out. But it's perfect prime example. You're like, well, maybe they just won't be here and I can leave. You know, I've got this, you know, I'm using HouseCall Pro and I'm not using the calendar on it. I really should, because it'll, it'll text them ahead of time. Let them know I've been assigned to it and all that good stuff. But I've just got this habit. I call the customer before I go out. Yeah. So, um, and if I can't get them on the phone, I don't go. Oh, okay. Because, I'm going to say, 60% of the time, these are tenants. Yep. I want to make sure they're home before I go. Yep. And because I don't want to do a wasted trip. And even the... The rental companies, they don't want me to do a wasted trip. So if they don't answer the phone, I might text them. If I don't hear something like in five minutes, I move on to the next. Yeah, no, totally concur. I learned from when I was at that company in Maryland, they were like, like, hey, because that's what we would do. We would always call the customer before we were on the way. And if we didn't get a call, I'd like just hit them up and like, hey, I didn't I didn't get a response. We're like, I'll just go ahead and head there anyways. Maybe they'll be there. You know what I mean? So like from that point, like... That's kind of, that was always what was kind of ingrained in me is just like head there. Um, but for the most part, like you said, uh, we just do the call through the voice answering system to call transfer and also do the text message. And then hopefully that way we, uh, can get a little bit of, um, scheduling on point. Right. You know, to let them know. Another cool thing is they can kind of track where I'm, I'm at, you know? Yeah. They can see you, your path on the way there. Right. Yeah. Yeah, so... You know, I haven't had too many issues where I show up and they're not there. I had one about a month ago. I was there, it was like 9:30, and rang the doorbell. I knocked first because, you know, what they say is it seems more friendlier because friends knock. Like, solicitors, ring the doorbell or whatever. So I knock, no answer, ring the doorbell, and it's a recording doorbell. Well, they ended up calling, like, five hours later saying I never showed up. I said, no, no, no, no, no. I take a picture of the front door, and then I back up before I leave and take a picture of my van in front of their house because I park on the street, and I put that in the profile, and then we forward that to the customer. Like, well, we never saw them. You know, I'm like, eh, well, at least I... You were there. I was there. And then again, guess what? Through our CRMs, we can geopin where we're at and send them our location at what time. Yeah, that's pretty swift. But, yeah, there's some good SOPs right there. Anything that backs you up and makes you look more professional, I'm all for it. Makes a small company look just as professional as a big company. I like that. Hell, yeah. That's why I grow my hair out, man, because, you know. It looks more professional. Dude, you look like the stereotypical, what you would expect to show up when you call the HVAC tech. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing now? No, I mean, you are what people are looking for. That's what I'm saying. So when I sell them a $20,000 system, brother, I'm like, you know what? You're taking it from the best, all right? Would this face lie to you? Thank you. I work on things, okay? I don't want to sell you this system. Trust me, I'd rather fix it, but you're going to pay. Speaking of selling systems today, I had to give a guy an estimate today because he had a leaking R410 coil on a 15-year-old system. Okay. And just finding coils these days is... Forget about it. R410. Mm-hmm. And then... The repair is so expensive, and it's 15 years old. I quoted him a new system. He's got a leaking coil, and now it's going to cost him like a little over $7,000 because he's going to have to get a new system. Yeah. Nah, man, that's generally when we get to a replacement repair option, it's that same exact scenario. It's like... You know, a Lennox or a Carrier, whoever. One, the coil's going to be ridiculously expensive. Then you've got to market it all. Plus, your labor, you're at a third of what a new unit maybe even half, including refrigerant. And what you just said there lined it up perfectly, though. It's like, it makes sense just to go with the new system. Yeah, get you a 10-year parts warranty. Just ride it out. And then when he finally agreed to do it, He started telling me that it just runs all the time. It feels humid in there. And I was like, well, we're going to fix that. So what you did is you gave him an extra ton, correct? No. That's going to fix all the problems. Oh, my God. And what I need to sell him is one of those shades that go over the condenser. On top of the shade, you need the mister. Mr. This guy's going to, it'll actually pay him back for what he's paying for the system in the first year. Did you know that? Remember that? And make it blow out 32 degree air. Without freezing. It's unbelievable what they're able to achieve these days. Oh, my God. I'm waiting for Tim D'Estasio to just rip him a new one on that. He just needs to stay on that guy's channel. Just take his 10, 15, 20-minute videos and just break them down. Dude, you would just goldmine this whole time. It's time. You know? I know. He is hilarious. His reactions on those videos is what gets me is when he goes. He's just like, well. Yeah. He came in on one of my comments on. That grounded compressor I had, it ran for two hours, and it was me, like, checking the terminals at the, you know, the control panel, so I'm just checking them there. I was like, all right, obviously, I'm going to go check at the compressor as well, but he's like, man, you need to go inside and check it at the compressor, and a lot of people were like, did you not watch the video? Because, and then he did respond, he's like, sorry, video cut off, you know what I mean? So, I was like. They clicked on something else as well. Because trust me. I don't want to put something out there that if Tim gets his hands on it, I don't want to be part of one of his videos. I basically let him know that I was saying, please don't roast me. I've got 1,800 videos out there. Please don't find one and roast me. You're going to find something, brother. I'm sure I've probably done something that is roast-worthy in all those videos. Tons, dude. I mean, I can't act like we're all perfect. We're not all saints, brother. Brother? Oh, man. I caught some heat in one of my recent videos because I didn't show myself protecting the wires in a metal pull-through. Are you... And these, I'm going to tell you, the keyboard warriors get fired up if you don't tell them you did something or if you don't show it. Yeah, dude, I had an issue for a while there. Like... If I'm doing the evaporator coil, like most of my work's going to be obviously at the evaporator. I'm not going to be at the condenser. Like I wouldn't show that like I hooked up the nitrogen or something. I'm like, oh, oxidation, you're going to kill the coil compressor TXV. And I'd be like, so like for quite a bit there when I was doing it, I would just go take a quick video. Hey, hey guys, you nitrogen Nazis, I'm out here. I got it hooked up and then just go inside. You know what I mean? It's all right. But everybody's been pretty kosher, I will say. It's been pretty good, but, you know, you've got to think. Like, that video you did yesterday with the install, I mean, it was an hour long, but were you there for an hour, Kurt? Was that everything you did? No. You know, it's like... That was a four-hour job. It's like, do you want me to do the whole thing, guys? You know? And really, when I'm filming those, if y'all don't know, So, I'm editing with... The shutter button on my camera. Aaaaah. What I'm doing is I try to film the important part, shut it off. Mm-hmm. And that way, when I come home and I download all the videos, I just stick it all together and I don't have to edit so much. I do edit a little bit, but not much. I'm just basically taking all those videos, those short videos, sticking them together and putting a little transition in there. And that's it. Let it ride. And those long videos do well. Yeah, they do. That's the truth. The truth, my man. Somebody said nitrogen Nazis. Yeah, I was like, man, I got to coin that one. But I would. I'd be like, you know. Because they would. And so you'd see me in other videos. I would put like, flush, flush. It's like, oh, you didn't flush the line. I'm like, here I go again. So I'm doing an install video. Make sure you show you do the flushing. I was like, at the end of the day, guys. I also wire-nutted everything. I didn't show you that. I glued an elbow that I didn't show, but I showed you putting the female end in of the drain line. Didn't show you putting a thermostat on, the tie-downs, the panduits, you know what I mean? All kinds of stuff, man. Okay. Which dolly? In that video where I did the mobile home air conditioner, I didn't have a dolly. Okay. But people pointed out that there was a dolly holding the door open. Okay, the door was not open, and I didn't have access to the mobile home when I was doing the condenser, okay? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it showed up afterwards, opened the door, and there it was. So it's not like it was there the whole time. That's funny. I love it. But people were like, if only he had a dolly. I'm like, if I could just remember to load it on the... trailer, you know what I'm saying? Early in the morning, I'm trying to get out because I know it's going to be a four-hour job. Yeah. And I forget. Dude, I'm the same way. I'm like, I'll get to the job. I'm like, ----, did you guys bring it? Did you? You know, and it's literally just me. I'm like, and so you're just like, man, I'm going to tell you one time I had to do one of these Stinger package units. You know what I'm talking about? I don't. The Ring Dedicated Horizontal Package Units. Okay. We call them Stingers because they're high static. Okay. But they're long. They're not the square ones. It's the long package unit. We had to put that thing on a dolly, stand it up, and walk it through the backyard to get it to where we needed to get it. And man, let me tell you, that was a job. Oh boy, I believe it. That little dolly was not made for something like that. I put something heavy on mine, I forget which one, and it broke the welds on the bottom. I mean, it's a nice dolly, you know? I was like, yeah, it wasn't made for all that either. We abuse them, man. We abuse them. That's what we do to... All right, let me see what... We treat our tools like we treat our bodies. Oh, man. I'm going to pay for all this one day. I try to stay in decent shape, but... Like, I'm starting to feel it in my knees. Uh-oh. You look good, Gary. You be doing that push-ups and pull-ups. You got that calisthenic workout, don't you? I work out at Waffle House. Hey. Yay! All right, Jake. I tried to prepare you for this. This is towards the end of the show, so I'm going to ask you. What crazy stuff have you seen either in people's houses, in neighborhoods, as you're doing service work? Because I got a good story to tell. I want to hear yours first. All right. Well, you reminded me of a good one when you said that, was the bear. Okay, we got black bears here in Central Florida, okay? Doing some service work, and I see all these deer just kind of frolicking, right? Frolicking through the ding. Yeah, that's cool, man. And then I was working on a condenser. Luckily, this customer had a fence, but the bear was on the other side of the fence. Wait a minute. close to you? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, the dogs were barking, and she had German shepherds. And she was like... Yep, the bear's on the other side there. I'm like, all right, I'm just going to come in for a second. Is that okay? You got it. But these people, man, in that particular area, they treat these things like they're their babies. They've got names for them and everything. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing all that. No. I know being in Florida, uh, I haven't ran across any gators at the condensers or anything, but you know, I've, I've been in proximity of little, you know, retention ponds or whatever neighborhoods that, you know, you, you see them, snakes will get inside those condensers all the time. Um, I had a, a raccoon that had gotten inside the duct work and fell down and fried on the electric heater. Um, and possums. so it's all it's all critter related that that's that's my stuff and then obviously you got the the hoarders man you know the nasty oh man yeah um but that that's about it nothing nothing extreme like some guys that have really cool stories i just i got those all right i've been saving this story just for you jake all right i get called to a mobile home okay it's in a In a part where I'm still working right now. And, of course, I call ahead of time, but I called the lady of the house. She said, going over there, my boyfriend's there. And I said, would you please let him know I'm on the way? I don't want to surprise anybody. Well, that call never happened. I go knock on the door, and I don't know if you've noticed when I knock, I knock hard. I want people to know I'm there. You're like the police, brother. And this guy. Must have been 6'6", built like a Green Bay linebacker with tattoos and dreadlocks. Yeah. And he's opened the door and says, what do you want? You're like, uh, yeah, yeah. And in that moment, I kind of looked down and I noticed he's got an ankle monitor on. Nah, brother, that's jewelry. And I said, hey, y'all called about the air conditioner. I'm here to fix it. And his attitude changed like that. Oh, there we go. He was like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, come on in. And I take a step in the door, and I watch him. He runs straight to the air filter, yanks out the air filter, reaches in behind it, and pulls out an AR-15. Oh, boy, you're like. And I was like. Yes. I'm going to act like I didn't see that. Yeah. We're good here, right? We're good here. Trust me. I ain't going to tell nobody. Oh, man. But for a second there, I was like, I don't think I was supposed to see that. Yeah, yeah. He was like, ----. That's what it was. I thought it was going to go change the filter. I thought that's where we're leading down. But the AR kind of threw me off there. Yeah, I was like, whew. No doubt. He's like, yeah, we're good. We're good. Yeah, and I was thinking to myself, you know, that's probably not a good place to store it. It might get wet. Yeah. Well, what ended up being the problem? Oh, I don't even remember. I just have this visual, this giant of a man pulling out an AR-15 in front of me. Oh, man. That's funny. Well, I'm glad you're okay. We're here now, okay? Well, most of the time, even though you might be in a bad neighborhood, once they realize you're there to help them. Boom. You know what I mean? There's no animosity of any kind. You know, you're the best buddy. You're the guy they want to see. You're my guy, bro. Yeah. I love it. Well. Good story. I love it. I love it. Yeah, I don't have, I've heard numerous, countless, there's a guy who does crawl face confessions and stuff. I was like, I, you know, have had, ran across snakes and seen crazy snake skin and stuff like that. And, you know, it's not fun, but it's got to do it. Um, well, uh, I'm starting to get more experience with these R454 systems now. Mm-hmm. And I haven't had any serious problems with them. I have, like, that trailer one that I put in, I've got to go back and put in an A2L sensor. I have known this, but I couldn't find one locally. I just, I have to order one from Johnstone. Man, do you, with your codes and permitting, do the inspectors ask for anything different in your area? Because of A2L? Mm-hmm. Nope. Well, we got one, and they want to see it on pressure for an hour at the rated 450 PSI. So you got to timestamp your photos to be able to submit that it held pressure for an hour, and then they want the evacuation. They want to see your microns. So, dude, that's going to add. That's going to add. I just think just an hour there, say an hour and a half, two hours additional to an install. Wow. Yeah, we did one matter of fact. Let me see if I got the, if not, I'll send it to you later. But yeah, the inspectors, this is in Orange County, mind you. This is in Orlando. So they're a little bit more goofy. I heard stories of guys saying they had to wait till the next day. They had to stay on pressure overnight. You've got to be kidding me. Nah, man, they're ridiculous. Well, I do have one inspector that has this certain requirement that really pisses me off. He wants you to do the install and then come back on his time to be there to inspect it. So you've got to coordinate with the homeowner, with him, and take time out of your day, maybe two days later, to inspect it. That's, you're just like, oh, okay, buddy. Let's see. I'm trying to find. ASHRAE 15.2, section two, name type, the refrigerant piping system shall be tested in accordance to the manufacturer, da, da, da. After completing vacuum, one system is at 500. It's asking for 500 microns from the thing. The gauge shall not rise. You can't get above 1,500. Where's the time for the pressure test? Yeah, it's in there, though. They want an hour on that pressure test, man. And then they want at least 10 minutes of decay. And if you got... And if it's a rough job, you may be there for nine hours doing an install or something. Yeah, dude. You know, it's... I don't know. I don't know. In Florida, are you still using duct board on your installations? Oh, yeah, man. I know. I'm not a fan of it either. But, I mean, you got to think, bro. A lot of our stuff is in garages and attics, right? So, and the envelopes aren't very good. I mean, building code, I think, here is probably one of the worst, you know, I would assume A lot of states. They just sweat, rush through. Now, back in the day, back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, I've seen metal duct work, and it was wrapped in that, like, asbestos stuff, and it's still holding strong. I'm not a fan of the duct board and spaghetti junction, you know what I mean? Wait a minute. All right, Zay, what's your question? No, I mean, I'm... No! I was going to say, because Zay's from Louisiana, right? Somebody asked me the other day if I was from Louisiana. I'm like... No, I'm from Maryland. You know, I could... Someone else also said, like, Alabama. Come on, be proud of that. I'm from Maryland. No, I mean, I get down in Maryland. I represent the squad, you know. But, you know, now I'm here. Wait a minute, there was somebody else I noticed from Maryland. I don't Gil. Gil. Yeah, Gil's from Maryland. Shout out to the squad. Yeah, Gil's good people, man. know I can get down on my boy. What do you got? if you Yeah, I mean, I thought most of them. Wait a minute. All right. What's your questions? What are we installing? can Yeah. Oh, my word. I tell you, that last one I just did, it was so rough. hear I'm like. That mobile home one? Yeah, that one. me. I wanted to ask. I've never done like a mobile home, so I see you did the condenser. Do you just swap the evaporator? Is that all you do? You can on those. Like the one I just did, that's basically changing the air conditioner. You're leaving the air handler, the blower, and the heat strips. Okay. But in this case, I need to go back and put on that A2L sensor. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I saw you were just in there. I was like, because I used to see John Israel, because I guess it's framed into the closet or wherever they put it. Uh-huh. So I'm getting better with them. They've been a lot more functional. That's what we use. We use Rude, right? That's our primary. Uh, manufacturer and outside of those first couple we did, it's gotten a lot better with the four 54, uh, aside from, you know, now these other regulations we have to deal with in my market and the extended amount of time when you're charging a system. Cause you know, you gotta, you gotta let that thing run boy. Yeah. And that's, so think about that. Plus, I mean, you can do all this other stuff when you're doing your vacuum and pressure testing thing, but golly. That slows you down, and then you've got to charge it. That's another hour. It takes a little while. I noticed on the one I did the other day, superheat and subcooling, it took a long time for that to settle down and get to where it looked like I didn't need to add anything. It just takes more time than what I'm used to. I don't know if it's. . . Fractionation happening and it just has to get all mixed back up or something. I don't know, but it does take a while. For sure, which is annoying. What should we call it? What was I going to say? I haven't had to buy any 454 in a while. Is that still an issue? Is it still expensive? It's still expensive. It's just not as expensive. It's still like in the $600 range. Oh, okay. It still came down. Yeah, last time I got it, it was like $850. I want to say. Yeah. You know, I bought a half a pallet of .410 at the beginning of the year. I'm still working on that same half a pallet. Yeah, for sure. You'll be set. I saw, what did I see? I went to a carrier, man. They had a lot in my area. I have to take a picture of some .410A equipment that they still had. Really yeah, dude. It was I mean it was up in a hundred. I mean I say a lot I mean it was hundreds and there might have been a thousand skew on there somewhere I was like damn we still got at this point. It's a pilot within the month. You know what within 30 days I'm going to take a few days. Damn, okay Hello, Alan from the Philippines. Alan! Shout out. Thanks for dropping in Philippines. Good morning, by the way Oh, my God. It's past my bedtime. Yeah, it is. You've got to make sure you get your warm glass of milk, too, Kurt. Put some Bengay on my joints. Load it up, man. I hope you will come back and be a frequent guest. Dude, I'm always ready. Just hit me up. Give me a call. Shoot me a text. I'm here for it. All right. Well, guys, we're going to go ahead and call it a night. All right, so, um... Thanks for dropping in. I don't know if we can get hand gestures. Come on. Come on on this one. Ain't happening. Not today. Damn. So, um, y'all, thank you for dropping in. I enjoyed the show. Thank you for coming along. Jake, stick around while this ends.