Split & Vrf Bashing is not a skill!

[hookster]

As our crazy busy season starts to wind down, and the subcontract headless chickens are still running around smashing in the far eastern money churners! I have to state the obvious again! :p

Selecting, installing and sizing an AC by W/m is not a skill! So why are you trying to charge high end prices? Sorry but please stop calling yourselves refrigeration engineers, Level 2 NVQ (not very qualified) does not give you the right to add engineer anywhere near your name!

Please follow the following steps below to realise that you are probably very expensive and under skilled.(Add Cowboy to your calling card)


You size your AC by W/m2
You believe 1 brand is superior to another!
You fail to complete the wiring correctly!, RTFM Guys!
you do not terminate wiring in cable glands and use terminal laces on your copper ends!
You do not use Low smoke, zero halogen cabling
Need me to explain why you need terminal ends on copper wiring!
You have refrigerant leaks!
You use Nitrogen to find your leaks!! (This is pressure test time not leak test time, competent skilled person should have good brazing skills 99.9999999% every time, this is what we train and retrain for???)
You have a leak on a flare nut! (Go slap yourself now!)
You use 9mm wall insulation
Your insulation is not complete and there are breaks in your vapour seal.
You break your vapour barrier with nylon cable tie's
You needed to google vapour seal
You do not support your pipework properly(here is a clue soft drawn less than 22mm, support every 1m or less)
You cant find your benders in your dirt box van!
Hacksaw is a pipe cutter!
Unistrut ends are cut skew!
Unistrut and thread bar ends are uncapped
You attempt to braze with a MAPP gas burner
You have never nitrogen purged your lines during brazing
You do not degrease and clean your joints prior to brazing (see 99.99999% of leak free joints!)
You have condensate leaks!
You do not fit condensate traps and rodding points
You do not support your condensate plastic pipe max every 1.2 m
You do not test your condensate run away with a minimum of 3L per indoor unit.
you don't do a commissioning sheet with all system pressures & temperatures available.
6 hours onsite and an hour lunch break plus numerous smoke breaks is a full days work!
You phone manufacturer technical help when trying to commission, so they can identify your faults over the phone.


Please feel free to add to this list, or take some of the items you find in your work and get rid of them. These are actual problems I have had this summer with contracted AC install work.

[Brian_UK]

Feel better now that is off your chest? ;)

It's a real shame the trade has headed that way, it's down to the bean counters I suppose.

[hookster]

:D Thanks Brian, feels great to actually state what I feel. I cant say I blame the bean counters but what the industry is producing, as the skills passed down through the journeyman seems to have gone by the wayside.
Training regimes are poor and bad habits seem to be the training norms.

[jonjon]

As our crazy busy season starts to wind down, and the subcontract headless chickens are still running around smashing in the far eastern money churners! I have to state the obvious again! :p

Selecting, installing and sizing an AC by W/m is not a skill! So why are you trying to charge high end prices? Sorry but please stop calling yourselves refrigeration engineers, Level 2 NVQ (not very qualified) does not give you the right to add engineer anywhere near your name!

Please follow the following steps below to realise that you are probably very expensive and under skilled.(Add Cowboy to your calling card)


You size your AC by W/m2
You believe 1 brand is superior to another!
You fail to complete the wiring correctly!, RTFM Guys!
you do not terminate wiring in cable glands and use terminal laces on your copper ends!
You do not use Low smoke, zero halogen cabling
Need me to explain why you need terminal ends on copper wiring!
You have refrigerant leaks!
You use Nitrogen to find your leaks!! (This is pressure test time not leak test time, competent skilled person should have good brazing skills 99.9999999% every time, this is what we train and retrain for???)
You have a leak on a flare nut! (Go slap yourself now!)
You use 9mm wall insulation
Your insulation is not complete and there are breaks in your vapour seal.
You break your vapour barrier with nylon cable tie's
You needed to google vapour seal
You do not support your pipework properly(here is a clue soft drawn less than 22mm, support every 1m or less)
You cant find your benders in your dirt box van!
Hacksaw is a pipe cutter!
Unistrut ends are cut skew!
Unistrut and thread bar ends are uncapped
You attempt to braze with a MAPP gas burner
You have never nitrogen purged your lines during brazing
You do not degrease and clean your joints prior to brazing (see 99.99999% of leak free joints!)
You have condensate leaks!
You do not fit condensate traps and rodding points
You do not support your condensate plastic pipe max every 1.2 m
You do not test your condensate run away with a minimum of 3L per indoor unit.
you don't do a commissioning sheet with all system pressures & temperatures available.
6 hours onsite and an hour lunch break plus numerous smoke breaks is a full days work!
You phone manufacturer technical help when trying to commission, so they can identify your faults over the phone.


Please feel free to add to this list, or take some of the items you find in your work and get rid of them. These are actual problems I have had this summer with contracted AC install work.


i agree hookster

but the training been given by the learn refrigeration in 3 days brigade is producing less then average people in the trade. Every other trade thinks they can install air con i have been to various jobs after sparkies /plumbers and diy dave have attempted to install on the cheap. Until the likes on hrp/climate etc stop selling units to every tom **** and harry its unfortunately going to continue, also on the training front apprentices are few and far between and having time to train them onsite when your under pressure due to time/money constraints (due to bean counters again).

[The Viking]

Oh Mr Hookster,
You have been listening in on my phone calls again, haven't you?

The scariest scenarios are when "experienced" "engineers" start argue with me in the training sessions, claiming that there is no benefit in purging with OFN whilst brazing or, my favourite, the LP gauge on their manifold is the only vacuum gauge needed. (I recently were on a site to assist during commissioning and the installation "engineer" insisted the system was under a good vacuum because his LP gauge was half way between 0 and the pin...)

Note: I only hold a manufacturer's training courses for experienced engineers, I do not train apprentices from scratch.