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This episode brought to you by Fieldpiece with the slogan, ""If we can't make it better for the technician in the field, then we don't do it".
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Alright everyone, thank you so much for joining us. We're hanging out at the 2024 National HVACR Education Conference, and I'm spending time with my good friend Tony Gonzalez from Fieldpiece.
How are you, sir? I am living the dream, Clifton. How are you doing? I am having the most amazing time. This place is such high energy.
So many new things to talk about, new equipment, new refrigerants, and we're going to spend some time talking about new tools and so many new people.
Oh my goodness, isn't that crazy? There's a large amount of people here at this conference this year, and it's great.
1200 is where we ended up. Isn't that nuts? It is nuts. It just shows how much people want to learn. Yeah.
I'm just thinking, how much longer can the South Point accommodate us if we keep on growing and all this and all that?
So that's a question that we're going to have to start talking about. So when we look at the growth over the last few years, it's probably time we start thinking about it.
It's definitely due. And I would love to see some hands more hands on classes. We've been talking about that.
Maybe some hands on competitions. And what we're going to talk about today is one of those kind of things that would be a phenomenal hands on competition.
So let's talk about how tools can expedite our jobs. Right.
So at the end of the day, we want a tool that's going to help us do our job easier, faster or better. Absolutely.
If it does not do that, then what is the point of using that tool? Yeah, I've not gained anything. Yeah, sure.
So one of the things that we've been thinking about is the way that we develop products is not starting with the tool first, but starting with what is the job to be done?
Like, what does the technician have to do? And then what are the pain points that they currently experience when they're doing that job? Right.
And so we've been given a lot of thought about flow when we're talking about system evacuation, refrigerant recovery.
And there's a few different ways you can help expedite those processes by increasing flow, like using larger diameter hoses, shorter length hoses on the recovery side,
really controlling the pressure temperature at the recovery cylinder is probably the biggest impact it can have with speeds and that.
But one of them also to help increase flow, minimize restrictions is to take out valve core. That's huge, man. It's absolutely huge.
Yeah, absolutely. And so this is a question that I did have, though. So we talk about this tool that many people use.
It's a valve core removal tool, right? Yeah. And what those were originally designed for was to replace a system course or broken course or listing course, broken course on a pressurized system.
Yes, absolutely. So my question to that is when did the industry realize, oh, hey, there's this added benefit that if we remove a core, not just to replace it, but during a service.
Yeah. When did that become, I guess, understood? Practice? Yeah, common practice.
I tell you what, not very long, at least from what I've seen in the field, right? You know, I've used valve core removals for 25 years, right?
This is my 25th year in the industry in the HVAC side. And so that was really all that I was taught to utilize it for.
It wasn't until I started teaching and I started having other people discussing using valve core removal tools for making things faster.
And I started doing that more on my own. So for me personally, I would say in the last five years or so.
And I'm sure there's people out there that have been saying, I've been doing this for 20 years. I hope so. But I've not ran into any of them.
So honestly, I would say it is very new to the industry and likely in the last five years to 10 years tops. Yeah.
I guess. And so it's getting to be more and more understood that I can pull a vacuum faster.
I can recover faster if I'm pulling the core, whether it's bad or not. If I'm pulling the core out.
Except one of the problems talking with many technicians is it's like a lot of times it's not a straightforward process just to take out the core.
You know, a lot of them have a fear of breaking the core or it just takes time because it takes multiple attempts for them to actually get the core out.
Like any anyone that use a valve core mobile tool and to try to remove a core has always played the game of did I get it?
I'm fishing for the core. I know that one. Exactly.
And so and so ever since these tools have been invented, there was no way that you can know that you got the Schrader or that you got the core unless you pulled out your under grabber.
You pull out the valve, all the way, and screw it off. True. And then you're doing your prayers. Is it actually there? Is it there?
Right. So like usually that takes multiple attempts. Yeah. And so there's there's many technicians that we talk to this like I just don't want to put the time into that when in reality, even if that was the case over the whole job, they would still save like three more times on it.
Absolutely. Right. But there are those sort of pain points. So we designed a set of valve core mobile tools that helps to make that process easier, faster and better.
Okay. Skimming through my brain here trying to think what would that be? Of course, I've seen the package so I can't.
You have seen the package.
All right. All right. All right. So so let's so what we're doing here. Yeah. So so first we'll start to address that issue of did I get the actual valve core without having to do it multiple times. Yeah. Right. Right.
So so so what we've incorporated into two of our valve core removal tools is a site glass. Oh gosh, that is crazy.
And so the site glass would do exactly what you think it would do is as you're pulling out the plunger from the tool, you can visually see whether or not you have that valve core attached to the grabber. Oh my gosh.
And so that's the benefit there. But in addition to that, you get the benefit of just having a site glass. So we have many technicians, many in the industry that are transitioning away from manifold and going into wireless probe. Right here. Absolutely. Right.
And so one of the things that you lose when you do that is you lose the site glass from your manifold. That's so true. Yeah. And so it's not like it's required to have a site class. Sure. Nice. Very nice to have.
I love to see what my refrigerator looks like. It tells me how my system was functioning internally. Right. And so now having the site glass in your VCRT not only lets you see the core, but now you get that visibility back to the refrigerator. Oh my gosh.
Such a simple thing. I mean, why didn't I think that? Yeah. You know what's funny? That's that's that's probably the most asked question I get when you when you show people these tools. Why didn't anybody think of this?
That's crazy because you look at it and go, oh, it's serving multiple purposes. I can see the core. I don't have to pull it all the way out. I'm hoping it's there. And then we're in about, okay, so now is it unthreaded and it's sitting in there. And if I open this valve back up, it's going to go shooting across this room.
And then we'll have refrigerant. So you actually get to visually see it. And then during the process, you're actually going to take a look at the refrigerant as it's passing through. Love it. Absolutely. I sold on that. Yeah. So so that's one of the innovations there.
Now, the other one here is you see that your typical valve core removal tool has a single ball valve. Yeah. Right. That stops the flow from from the system into your recovery cylinder or your hose or whatever.
However, when you're pulling a vacuum, measuring your microns at the system on a side port of the valve core removal tool is a pretty common thing. Absolutely.
You know, and so one of the difficulties of that is, you know, you connect your vacuum gauge to the side port of your typical valve core removal tool.
And, you know, you're pulling a vacuum on the system. And then when you're done, you want to isolate you blank off your tool here.
So now the micron gauge is reading what's at the system. Once you've proved that there's no leak or just whatever in the system, at some point, you're going to have to put refrigerant back into that list.
Right. And so now you're in a predicament of, well, I could either a just charge charge the system with refrigerant and expose my micron sensor to the positive charge.
If I have no other second ball valve or no other second tool that's onto that side here. Right.
Or I can while it's still before I charge it up, I can unscrew this from here. But the downside of that is there's a momentary time where you're here to system and you're opening the system and it's sucking moisture back into the system.
Absolutely you are. Right. So in order to prevent having to use a second tool, which makes your tool bigger and also introduces another leak.
Yeah, another leak. At least a couple of just incorporated a second ball valve into the side. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. Thank you.
So that now when you have your micron gauge here, when you're ready to charge back up, you just blank off that second ball valve and you're charging without any worries of contaminating your micron sensor or letting air moisture back into the system.
I would say probably 75% of the technicians that I encounter in the field had an additional ball valve on that side port. And so you just completely incorporated back into one device.
That's that's absolutely perfect for what we need. You know, this is something that means a lot to me.
When I'm teaching an evacuation on a system, I actually tend to do things kind of like it's in the book, but slightly different. So I believe in triple evacuation.
I believe in introducing nitrogen back in nitrogen factory. But I actually set my nitrogen up on my high side line and I set my vacuum pump on my low side line.
But then I actually introduced nitrogen into my system first and I purged my system through nitrogen. Then I pull a vacuum and I try to keep it as tight as possible by adding additional ball valves while I'm doing that, because I either have to use two separate ball valves or I'm going to pull my core tool out.
Because for me, I want to use my handle and I want to pull my core and I want to shut that off. And then if I'm pulling, if I'm pushing my nitrogen, I want to be able to open my side valve, introduce my nitrogen. But at the other end where my vacuum pump is, I want to be able to shut off my vacuum pump so that I'm not blowing nitrogen back through my oil chamber and through my pump assembly.
And I want to open a side valve so that I can now pressurize with nitrogen and then I can shut them off, come back and turn my vacuum pump on. So I'm never changing my process. I'm never opening my system between positive pressure with nitrogen and negative pressure on my vacuum.
And it's always difficult because I got to change things around and I always have to open and close valves or have that potential for leak and introduce air back into the system and any kind of moisture. So you're really doing what many technicians were already trying to do, now doing it with less leaks and adding a sight glass into the function because we removed it all from our manifold.
And you've you've solved my personal dilemmas and I love the idea.
Yeah, and you know people ask you know how come how come they'll be done this before? Short answer is I don't know. Because it seems like it's pretty intuitive.
But that's just a callback to how we think about developing our products, right? You know we develop solutions. That's how we look at it. If there's no problem, then there's no solution needed.
Yeah, so just trying to focus on what the job is. What does a technician need to do and how can we help them do that, right? Easier, faster or better.
Oh my gosh, Tony. I'm sold, man. That is such a cool tool. And I love new tools and technologies. But if it's something that saves me a lot of time, I'm 100% better.
Yeah, very on top. I love that. And what's also great about the whole family. So there's three of them, right? There's the VC1, which is most traditional style.
Then the VC1G, which brings in the sight glass. And then the VC2G, which brings in the sight glass and the second ball valve.
Now what's nice is all three are vacuum rated down to 20 microns. A2O compatible, if that's something that the technician needs. Looking for specifically. Yep.
But also what's really nice is this fitting right here actually comes off on the unit side. On the unit side, right? So the female flare fitting that connects to your quarter inch service port.
This detaches from your tool and you can screw on a 5 16 inch for your mini. I don't have to have two sets of them now. You don't need two sets of them anymore.
Or you don't have to screw on an adapter on top of your current quarter inch. That makes it too longer. Absolutely.
And so all three give you the ability to have a swappable fittings between quarter inch and 5 16 on the female flare unit side of the valve core mobile tool.
Reducing my amount of tools that I need to have around. And so now I can buy the better tool. I can buy the VC3G.
And utilize it on both traditional systems. All in one sweet package. Thank you.
These are the kind of things that we love to see because I think about how many technicians out there have been buying extra valves and building, basically building out their core removal tools into a functional device.
And now we've got it in one body. In one body. Absolutely. When did it hit the market? They're actually starting to ship in a week, I believe.
Yeah. So very, very soon. There's already huge demand. So go to your local wholesaler. Go and put in your order.
If they want more information about these tools or any of our tools, they can go to failpiece.com.
If they want more A2L tool related information, they could also go to failpiece.com and just ensure that they have the tools that they need in order to start working on their newer systems with these A2L refrigerants coming in.
And they are shipping so much faster than even I anticipated. I knew we would have equipment by third quarter. A lot of people say, no, we're not going to see it till first quarter next year.
So I actually just talked to ATSA for, I can't say which manufacturer, and they're anticipating seeing equipment by next quarter, unitary split systems.
And many of our manufacturers are saying definitely by third quarter of this year. I've only had a couple of them saying that they're not going to be launching until first quarter 25.
So we're going to have a lot of A2L equipment hit in the industry in a very, very short period of time.
Yeah. And just because they're not shipping yet, I was talking with one of the OEMs and they were talking to a group of their contractors of, you know, contractors don't just plan out projects one week in advance.
No, they are months in advance. So like they're already telling their contractors in Q4 of last year that, you know, look at your long term projects in 2024, your like multifamily Big Light project, and just know that you're probably going to have to be incorporating A2L into these projects.
So like this is something that they need to start thinking about now, not just, you know, when they actually come in.
That's really what the, I think the focus of this conference has been about so far is everyone coming to the industry with what they have to help the industry not be prepared for things that are coming, like to be prepared now.
Get ready for this. We are going through, we're going through a technological transition and a refrigerant transition at the same time.
And we all have a lot to just prepare for. So anything that's going to help be more universal and save time, that's really what we're all about.
That's the way to go.
All right. So you've got to be busy for training right now.
Yes. So, so fortunately, it's not just myself.
I have a great team of three trainers that are based in different parts of the country. And as a team, we go out and we work directly with wholesalers. We work directly with contractors and we, and we set up trainings that are not sales pitches.
They're actual technical hands on best practices on how to do certain parts of the job. Right.
For example, like, you know, Phil Pease knows, or people know that Phil Pease, we have vacuum pumps, right? We don't have a vacuum pump class. We have a system evacuation.
Right. So we're teaching the best practices on how to pull a vacuum, how to make it faster. So regardless of what vacuum pump a person in our class uses, they're going to benefit from the class and they're going to be able to do their job, you know, faster.
Absolutely. And so that's, you know, pretty much what we do. But yes, right now, this is the very busy time for training everywhere. I'm sure it's very busy for you all as well.
Yeah, it is. But it's, you know, it's an enjoyable thing to be a part of that. So how can people find out about training resources from Phil Pease?
Yeah, so there's a couple ways. One, they can go to PhilPease.com and go to our training section on the website. They could also go directly to Phil Pease University, which is our online learning resource, you know, where they can get technical application based trainings on how to do different aspects of their job, easier, faster, better, and how to let technology and modern tools help them achieve that.
That's the name of the game, man. That's it. All right. Well, Tony Gonzalez, thank you so much for joining us. And I look forward to stopping by the booth, seeing what all we got going on and make sure to check them out if you're hanging out here at the conference.
We'll be here for a couple more days just learning about all the transitions in our industry.
It's been a pleasure. Thanks, Cliff. Thanks, man.