HVAC Service Tech Goodies. Furnace, A/C Refrigeration Tips & Tricks. Whats the first steps in repairing a malfunctioning unit? 1. Learn the history of the system. What was repaired in the past, often it's related to the current problem. If the owner or his maintenance guy worked on it before you, it's possible they created numerous problems besides the original malfunction. 2.Take nothing for granted. Check everything, indoor sections, outdoor sections etc. Get a good overall view of it. 3. Try to find the cause of the malfunction. If you just replace a part without checking everything, it may go bad again. Then you get to go back and fix it for free. Take your time on the first service call. Don't be in a hurry. 4. Make sure you have the proper diagnostic tools with you. Gauges, a reliable volt meter, etc. are mandatory. 5. Know your limitations but don't give up until you give it "the old college try". You may surprise yourself. Once you fix something by  figuring it out the next time you see it it's "cake".  If you give up too easy all the time you will never learn anything. Experience is everything and books can only go so far. 6. Don't be discouraged. Everyone runs into things that are hard to correct on the first try. The more you work on things the more confident you will become until you are an old pro. 7. Don't act like you know everything, no matter how long you have been in the business. You can learn something new every day if you want to. The industries are always changing also. Being confident is not being cocky. 8. Be safe at all times. Shut off equipment and lock it out if necessary. Protect your eyes, ears and beautiful face, you ain't getting another one. 9. After work, or when you are falling asleep at night, go over the problems you ran into that day. Sometimes a light bulb will go off and help you solve them. Don't needlessly worry though, it doesn't help. 10. Sometimes you will succeed, sometimes you will fail. Deal with it and learn from it or get a job selling hot dogs.    Furnace Tips. a. Take no chances with these babies. Someone's health and well being are at stake. Don't jump out safety controls for even 1 cold night to get the heat on. If you do you may have firemen, doctors and lawyers calling you. b. Check obvious things, filter, vents open, return open, fuse and wire connections tight. Once you work on something you are responsible for everything in it. It may not be true but appears that way to most customers. c. Check the heat anticipator setting in the thermostat. It is overlooked by many and can cause all kinds of problems. Use a micro-amp meter. d. A good blue flame on gas burners is important. Yellow, dancing, roll out flames require immediate repair or unit replacement. It could be a cracked heat exchanger. e. Check the flu and chimney if appropriate. Birds, leaves and other surprising artifacts need to cleaned out. All chimneys should have a clean-out somewhere, find it. f. If the unit has a  pilot flame, make sure it is large enough to heat up the safety device. A thermocouple  should almost glow red from being immersed in the pilot. g. When you are done, run the unit through several complete cycles. Test all functions. h. Replace all screws and panels, they are there for a reason. i. Don't alter the design with generic parts that are not right for the application, more lawyers. j. I have nothing against lawyers, I have many relatives who are lawyers. However, as a business, you are very liabel to lawsuits in this "sue happy" world. Ask Ronald Mcdonald. HOT WATER HEAT Hot water heating can be gas fired, electric, oil, coal, and on nuclear submarines, nuclear reactors are used. If your neighbor has a nuclear reactor in his house I suggest you move. I think there is some cheap land to be had at Three Mile Island. Seriously, hot water heat is one of the best forms of heat. It is quiet, consistant and efficient. It costs more to install than ductwork and you can't pop air conditioning on it but for heating only applications, it is the best. Better than steam. 1. The system water pressure regulator comes preset at 12lbs.In larger homes you may want to increase it by screwing the regulator screw in a little. I would not go any higher than 20lbs because when the water get heated up the pressure will go up somewhat also. 2. The relief valve normally comes set at 30lb. It opens at pressures higher than that to prevent the vessel from rupturing. So as you can see, most residential systems can operate at between 15-25 lbs. of pressure. Not too many need to be near the 30 lb. limit. 3. Water temperature is set around 150-180. You need to maintain a higher water temp for baseboards that radiators. I never like to set it above 150 for radiators just for safetys sake. If I can by with 140 I'll use that, it depends. Some baseboard systems need to be 180 or higher in order to heat the house. Remember if it is set higher that 200 you get close to making steam. Most temp limits stop at 200. 4. Pump couplings don't last forever. I really like those newer, compact pumps. Quiet, easy to install, economical and low maintenance. 5. Anytime you work on an older system and have to drain it, check the water regulator. If it is old, then replace it at the same time and save yourself a lot of aggrivation. 6. Baseboard heating often requires shut offs and drain valves in every loop. They should be piped in down by the boiler itself. By closing the shut off valve and opening the drain valve right above it, you can purge all the air out of that portion of the piping. Some baseboards also have bleed valves and require a key. 7. Radiators need bleed ports on them mounted at the top to remove all the air. 8. Sometimes, especially in older houses, air can get trapped in up and down piping configurations. It can be hard to get out and will stop the circulation of water and  heat to that area as well. Be careful how you pipe in new boilers and avoid upward loops that can trap air. 9. Zone valves are used to control heat to various areas of a house. They often require special thermostats and controls, like an additional transformer. If you have too much heat on one of these systems but the valve seems to be moving, probably the inside is rotted out and the valve needs replaced. They also tend to leak after a while. 10. Expansion tanks take up the extra pressure as the water is heated up. Newer compact ones use a diaphragm design and can be pumped up if needed. Older tanks should have a couple gallons drained out every few years or so. Some need drained every year. 11.An empty house in the winter time needs to be "winterized". If it has hot water heat make sure all the rads or baseboards are completely drained. Unless you like sprinklers in your house. 12. A dual pressure control, one that has a regulator and a safety relief valve, will not serve as a proper safety relief valve. They must be installed on the boiler proper and sized by btu rating as well as pipe size. 13. Safety relief valves need to be piped down near the floor, a few inches up. The pipe size can not be reduced Steam Used widely in commercial applications, it is very rarely used in residential systems anymore. Like water, it can be heated by gas, oil , coal, plutonium, hmmm well maybe not plutonium. Steam pressures run only around a few pounds, almost never more than 5lbs. It is consistant heat but can be noisy and require a lot of maintenance. 1. Some older systems have manual valves to let more water into the boiler. So, you have to go down every week in the winter and check it. 2. Checking the water level is done by observing the sight glass. It should start out at about 2/3 full and vary slightly depending on many variables. 3. Electric or float type water feeder valves are great but they tend to flood the system once in a while. They also have to be cleaned periodically. 4. Low water cut-offs are a must. They prevent the gas, oil or whatever from coming on if the water in the boiler gets below a safe level. A "dry fire" can crack the heat exchanger and be very dangerous too. They need to be flushed often and cleaned yearly. 5. Banging is usually caused by hot steam hitting cold water somewhere in the system. It is very hard to correct. 6. Traps are used to close off the various radiators, they open when the condensed water on them cools. this lets the water return to the boiler. 7. Speaking of which, piping must be sloped back to the boiler. If you have a 2 pipe system, the return needs to be sloped, if it's one pipe, well you get the picture. 8. 2 pipe systems are often converted over to hot water. 9. Individual radiators can be controlled with manual type thermostats. 10. Usually steam relief valves are set at 15 lbs.   OIL I'm sorry, but I hate oil fired heat. It is dirty, expensive and smells. If you work on it you stink like kerosene for the rest of the day and well into the night. yeechh 1. The fuel oil filter needs changed every year and also check the  electrodes for proper spacing. Some servicemen used to use a quarter to adjust it. 2. The barometric damper also needs to be adjusted. 3. Pumps are either set up for one pipe or two pipe systems. You need to plug up an opening on one pipe systems. 4. Poor piping may lead to numerous trip outs of the burner because the pump will lose it's prime, especially when the oil tank is below ground. 5. Nozzels get filled with sediment and need changed often, use the proper size. 6. Thats enough on oil for now. Check out Bacharach industries for test kits and good info on oil!