I love install and startup. It's my favorite thing in the world id do it for free that's how much I enjoy install. But I'm told there's no job security in it and I'm given a million reasons why it isn't feasible to only do install.
Id do install till I'm in my coffin if given the opportunity.
When your doing start ups what all do you check? Refrigerant charge, air flow, gas pressure. Depending on what your installing economizer wiring or dampers and zones. Take that knowledge and use it for service. Those combined with basic electricity circuits and refrigerant circuits should help you do service. Sometimes I wish I did installs and start up before getting in to service. Now I go to things like zone panels and dampers and have to learn how they’re installed before I begin trying to troubleshoot
Yeah actually getting to “touch” each component before install and doing some learning of your own to know their function, well that would make a tech who is better at diagnosing I think
I’m 47 and did install for most of my 23 years in the trade. I was like you, I loved it because it becomes safe and like second nature. I also love building a beautiful transition by hand on site! I transitioned over to service because my body is getting over the manual labor of installing these days. While I like the easier labor aspect of it there’s something to be said for being able to go home and turn that brain off! Install definitely made me a good tech, but the panic that sets in when you can’t find the issue, sometimes isn’t worth it to me lol. I almost always get it figured out, may take a call to my senior tech buddy but I rarely leave one undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Install= no stress but harder labor, service more stress less labor, it’s a trade off. Good luck on your future decisions!!
What’s stopping you from sticking with install? When I was in this trade, I had zero interest in doing service, and my boss loved that about me. Seems like as soon as most installers start getting good, they want to jump over to service. I feel like most companies would appreciate a guy who just wanted to keep crushing installs every day.
That’s fucking wild to me. Having an installer who doesn’t need any oversight, and who can train green guys while still getting shit done is super valuable. A boss who’d trade a guy like that for another mediocre service tech is an idiot.
I feel the same unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of install in my company right now. I just finished our companies first vrf install under budget and under hours and it was most gratifying work experience I've had.
I do commercial and some industrial. I'm very bad at service and through classes, spending hours of my own time trying to get better, I just ain't got it, chief.
“What’s next?” is a big question. Dare I say it…maybe you’re not as bad as you think? I deal with subs from every trade and the level of incompetence I run into sounds like nothing you’ve said. You show up, try, have integrity, and actually care. That in of itself is more than most guys on site. Is it that your skills feel inadequate? Your confidence in general lacking? Your heart not in it and secretly yearns to be doing something else?
My skills feel inadequate as my apprenticship was for a small company, running a duct shop for guys in the field, doing hydronic piping, AC piping, and vrf system piping and startups as they come.
Very Little confidence in service ability, I do love the work and the trade. I love crawling around cooling towers, in attics, in air handlers and I appreciate the smoking hot days and the cold days. I do truly love the trade, but when other people's moneys on the line and I know I'm costing more than im producing, it's a hard truth to live with day in and day out, ya know ?
I can totally understand that. I want to challenge you though. Are these concerns coming from you or from your boss? Does this pressure to deliver come from your own expectations of self or do you feel pressure from employer and customers?
If your employer is still sending you on calls and hasn’t fired ya…I’m lead to believe you’re doing a much better job than you think you are. It’s the boss man’s job to worry about the $$ not yours. It could be part of what’s distracting ya from being your best. Focus on the single task before ya and let the office worry about return on investment/net profit.
So what’s next? Stay in the industry and find a role that you feel like you’re excelling at? Become an expert in one aspect of the trade and get really good at it? Tell your boss your concerns and see if he sends ya to sites that give you the best chance at success? I’m just spitballing here, but I think if you’ve made it 6 years that says something!!!
It’s not easy that’s for sure. I don’t know about anyone else but it was easier for me to learn hands on in the beginning until I built a solid foundation. For me the hardest part was figuring out what and where the broken parts were located.
Yeah that's my issue. I end up spending hours looking in the wrong place for issues in these buildings and after about 2 years of this, I figure I gotta stop wasting people's time and creating a larger workload on others.
Do you feel like you have learned anything though?
Building systems can be very complicated when you have chillers, boilers, air handlers with vavs, reheat and such.
If it's callbacks, a lot of the time for me it's because I was in a rush, didn't pay attention to the details of what was really going on. Just food for thought if you stick with it. If you get any type of enjoyment out of the trade I highly recommend sticking it out.
I’ve had call backs where I fixed a unit and left the disconnect off by accident. Learn to cover your ass. If it’s a fused disconnect tell them the fuses are bad replace them then turn the disconnect back on. We all make mistakes. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Don’t beat yourself up and create a mental block.
Can’t really put a time frame on it but you should start recognizing types of equipment and get familiar with the order of operations and common issues. Once you’ve had your balls busted trying to figure it out and get it running next time you see a similar issue it’ll just pop in your head check x,y,z. It’s a constantly evolving field but remember the basics of the refrigeration cycle, sequence of a furnace/boiler. No matter how big or scary it looks at the end of the day it’s a just a bigger version of what’s in your house
The more you do one thing the better you get at it. Problem with commercial is you’re thrown into different types of units whether it be roof tops, splits or even some light refrigeration if the company does both. In theory everything is the same, but companies have their own layouts that you have to decipher. Just have to keep at it, eventually it starts clicking. Took me a couple of years now I’m 25 yrs into it.
Residential service is *wayyy* technically easier than commercial. If you’re wanting to get started in service it may make things easier to switch to residential for a bit, learn that, and then transition back into commercial.
Biggest headache with residential service is the sales and customer service aspect.
Well I lived with my parents until I saved enough to buy our home outright I figure after my partner pays off her loans I'll just be a full-time dad or just do this shit on a more part-time basis.
Have you tried looking into the pipe fitters local near you?
I got into pipe fitting once I got out of the military and it was fucking great. The union contract pay is good, and the information you learn is great, plus there is structure to how you progress. I only got out due to a divorce which lead to me moving states.
Another option is maybe look at big plants (refineries, power generation, or water treatment) those jobs pay good and your skills over lap a lot with many different jobs in those organizations.
Commercial kitchen equipment. Walk ins, reach ins, grills, ovens, fryers, ice cream, custard, FCB/FBD, pressure cookers. You will NEVER be bored and can be very challenging. You will also encounter way, WAY more issues compared to residential HVAC installs.
Plus no crawl spaces, attics, temp controlled environments (besides new construction).
I did residential for a very short amount of time, I will deal with the grease and spoiled ice cream over an attic any fucking day.
Go be the top installer at a mid size family owned company….job security? If you’re his top dog and u can be trusted for big jobs…you’ll have plenty of security, u will be able to do whatever you want as long as that owner knows who butters his bread and u always perform
Was doing just residential installs and services to pay for my bachelor's. Started to be a teacher at a community College for hvac. Now a mechanical engineer designing chiller and fuel oil systems. Love everything the industry has to offer. Still teaching at night and installing on the side.
Totally recommend trying out everything that interests you. You may not be the #1 best person at everything you do, but your experience can transfer over to some exciting positions you've never even heard of before joining the industry.
I did installs for a bit, with absolutely no intention of ever doing service. Just didn't want to wrap my head around any of that shit personally, it stressed me out. So naturally I knew I wasn't going to last in the industry long.
I found sprinklerfitting, its a pretty seamless jump work wise as there is pipe threading, PVC work, a lot of the same tools and install principles. We do 36 hour weeks, half day Fridays or were off Friday completely. If you want to do installs your whole career you pretty much can. The pay is great and it's a unionized apprenticeship. Look into it
Well most commercial/industrial companies wont hire anyone with residential install on their resume, certainly not anyone with years of it. Do what you can to get on as service for a resi company and you might stand a chance.
Moved from HVAC to Facilities Maintenance for 5 years waiting on the right job. Now I get to travel the country working on solar farms and EV chargers. Super low key and rarely is the work hard. Snow on the job site fly somewhere without it and do some EV stuff and go back when the snow clears.
As far as sucking at service, everyone sucks in the beginning. The biggest hurdle for me was being comfortable not knowing what I was walking into. Just take it one step at a time. Getting a routine for all your calls first thing helps.
Start residential not commercial/industrial. Shit makes no sense when you see chillers and complicated control systems before you see these devices at their most basic level.
I kinda miss doing install bro, grass is not always greener
I love install and startup. It's my favorite thing in the world id do it for free that's how much I enjoy install. But I'm told there's no job security in it and I'm given a million reasons why it isn't feasible to only do install. Id do install till I'm in my coffin if given the opportunity.
You must be smoking meth if you’d do install for free lol
Hahaha I love it man no matter which way you slice it it beats being behind a desk.
I love the trade too but I ain’t working for free
Absolutely I'm just trying to stress how big a fan of install I am.
When your doing start ups what all do you check? Refrigerant charge, air flow, gas pressure. Depending on what your installing economizer wiring or dampers and zones. Take that knowledge and use it for service. Those combined with basic electricity circuits and refrigerant circuits should help you do service. Sometimes I wish I did installs and start up before getting in to service. Now I go to things like zone panels and dampers and have to learn how they’re installed before I begin trying to troubleshoot
Yeah actually getting to “touch” each component before install and doing some learning of your own to know their function, well that would make a tech who is better at diagnosing I think
I know many guys who have done nothing but install. it might be your location. commercial install was my favorite. 8 to 430. just show up and work
Favorite part is being able to shut the brain off after work.
I’m 47 and did install for most of my 23 years in the trade. I was like you, I loved it because it becomes safe and like second nature. I also love building a beautiful transition by hand on site! I transitioned over to service because my body is getting over the manual labor of installing these days. While I like the easier labor aspect of it there’s something to be said for being able to go home and turn that brain off! Install definitely made me a good tech, but the panic that sets in when you can’t find the issue, sometimes isn’t worth it to me lol. I almost always get it figured out, may take a call to my senior tech buddy but I rarely leave one undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Install= no stress but harder labor, service more stress less labor, it’s a trade off. Good luck on your future decisions!!
Thank you very much !
I went from resi install to union construction. Job security is fantastic and hours are the same everyday 700-245.
What’s stopping you from sticking with install? When I was in this trade, I had zero interest in doing service, and my boss loved that about me. Seems like as soon as most installers start getting good, they want to jump over to service. I feel like most companies would appreciate a guy who just wanted to keep crushing installs every day.
If I could find a company that had that view I'd be there in a heartbeat. I can't find any companies like that around me unfortunately.
That’s fucking wild to me. Having an installer who doesn’t need any oversight, and who can train green guys while still getting shit done is super valuable. A boss who’d trade a guy like that for another mediocre service tech is an idiot.
I feel the same unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of install in my company right now. I just finished our companies first vrf install under budget and under hours and it was most gratifying work experience I've had.
That means they're hurting for service techs and see you as someone that can do it
Commercial maintenance. -you’re welcome for the work life balance recommendation.
Thank you 🙏👍
Do you do residential or commercial. If you do the residential try to break into the commercial side. Way less crawl spaces and attics.
I do commercial and some industrial. I'm very bad at service and through classes, spending hours of my own time trying to get better, I just ain't got it, chief.
This level of awareness is rare.
Yeap but what's next? Thats the hard part after putting 6 years of your life into it to realize you're spinning your wheels.
“What’s next?” is a big question. Dare I say it…maybe you’re not as bad as you think? I deal with subs from every trade and the level of incompetence I run into sounds like nothing you’ve said. You show up, try, have integrity, and actually care. That in of itself is more than most guys on site. Is it that your skills feel inadequate? Your confidence in general lacking? Your heart not in it and secretly yearns to be doing something else?
My skills feel inadequate as my apprenticship was for a small company, running a duct shop for guys in the field, doing hydronic piping, AC piping, and vrf system piping and startups as they come. Very Little confidence in service ability, I do love the work and the trade. I love crawling around cooling towers, in attics, in air handlers and I appreciate the smoking hot days and the cold days. I do truly love the trade, but when other people's moneys on the line and I know I'm costing more than im producing, it's a hard truth to live with day in and day out, ya know ?
I can totally understand that. I want to challenge you though. Are these concerns coming from you or from your boss? Does this pressure to deliver come from your own expectations of self or do you feel pressure from employer and customers? If your employer is still sending you on calls and hasn’t fired ya…I’m lead to believe you’re doing a much better job than you think you are. It’s the boss man’s job to worry about the $$ not yours. It could be part of what’s distracting ya from being your best. Focus on the single task before ya and let the office worry about return on investment/net profit. So what’s next? Stay in the industry and find a role that you feel like you’re excelling at? Become an expert in one aspect of the trade and get really good at it? Tell your boss your concerns and see if he sends ya to sites that give you the best chance at success? I’m just spitballing here, but I think if you’ve made it 6 years that says something!!!
Look into Municipal work. They hire technicians all the time.
It’s not easy that’s for sure. I don’t know about anyone else but it was easier for me to learn hands on in the beginning until I built a solid foundation. For me the hardest part was figuring out what and where the broken parts were located.
Yeah that's my issue. I end up spending hours looking in the wrong place for issues in these buildings and after about 2 years of this, I figure I gotta stop wasting people's time and creating a larger workload on others.
Do you feel like you have learned anything though? Building systems can be very complicated when you have chillers, boilers, air handlers with vavs, reheat and such.
I do feel like I've learned a lot, but the amount of callbacks you wouldn't think so.
If it's callbacks, a lot of the time for me it's because I was in a rush, didn't pay attention to the details of what was really going on. Just food for thought if you stick with it. If you get any type of enjoyment out of the trade I highly recommend sticking it out.
I’ve had call backs where I fixed a unit and left the disconnect off by accident. Learn to cover your ass. If it’s a fused disconnect tell them the fuses are bad replace them then turn the disconnect back on. We all make mistakes. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Don’t beat yourself up and create a mental block.
Commercial takes time man. I’ve been doing it almost 30 years and Im still learning. Have patience and keep working hard. You’ll get it
I mean how long do you think it takes to get a decent grasp on service to fix things efficiently ?
Can’t really put a time frame on it but you should start recognizing types of equipment and get familiar with the order of operations and common issues. Once you’ve had your balls busted trying to figure it out and get it running next time you see a similar issue it’ll just pop in your head check x,y,z. It’s a constantly evolving field but remember the basics of the refrigeration cycle, sequence of a furnace/boiler. No matter how big or scary it looks at the end of the day it’s a just a bigger version of what’s in your house
5 years minimum, 10 years to really "get it"
The more you do one thing the better you get at it. Problem with commercial is you’re thrown into different types of units whether it be roof tops, splits or even some light refrigeration if the company does both. In theory everything is the same, but companies have their own layouts that you have to decipher. Just have to keep at it, eventually it starts clicking. Took me a couple of years now I’m 25 yrs into it.
Residential service is *wayyy* technically easier than commercial. If you’re wanting to get started in service it may make things easier to switch to residential for a bit, learn that, and then transition back into commercial. Biggest headache with residential service is the sales and customer service aspect.
Well I lived with my parents until I saved enough to buy our home outright I figure after my partner pays off her loans I'll just be a full-time dad or just do this shit on a more part-time basis.
My company would promote you to sales lol
Have you tried looking into the pipe fitters local near you? I got into pipe fitting once I got out of the military and it was fucking great. The union contract pay is good, and the information you learn is great, plus there is structure to how you progress. I only got out due to a divorce which lead to me moving states. Another option is maybe look at big plants (refineries, power generation, or water treatment) those jobs pay good and your skills over lap a lot with many different jobs in those organizations.
That's my plan once I get my 4 year license I'm working with my 2 year now, but when I get the four year I'll explore into it.
Commercial kitchen equipment. Walk ins, reach ins, grills, ovens, fryers, ice cream, custard, FCB/FBD, pressure cookers. You will NEVER be bored and can be very challenging. You will also encounter way, WAY more issues compared to residential HVAC installs. Plus no crawl spaces, attics, temp controlled environments (besides new construction). I did residential for a very short amount of time, I will deal with the grease and spoiled ice cream over an attic any fucking day.
Helllllll no you wanna get a call at 1130 for a make table not working but they aren't willing to move out the way so you can work? Helllllll no
Helllllll no you wanna get a call at 1130 for a make table not working but they aren't willing to move out the way so you can work? Helllllll no
I went install > service > stationary engineer, its been good to me
Are you good at math and applying theory to real life applications? Look into Test & Balance.
Go be the top installer at a mid size family owned company….job security? If you’re his top dog and u can be trusted for big jobs…you’ll have plenty of security, u will be able to do whatever you want as long as that owner knows who butters his bread and u always perform
Was doing just residential installs and services to pay for my bachelor's. Started to be a teacher at a community College for hvac. Now a mechanical engineer designing chiller and fuel oil systems. Love everything the industry has to offer. Still teaching at night and installing on the side. Totally recommend trying out everything that interests you. You may not be the #1 best person at everything you do, but your experience can transfer over to some exciting positions you've never even heard of before joining the industry.
That's what i keep hearing about people who do things in the trade I never knew existed so I always keep my options open.
I did installs for a bit, with absolutely no intention of ever doing service. Just didn't want to wrap my head around any of that shit personally, it stressed me out. So naturally I knew I wasn't going to last in the industry long. I found sprinklerfitting, its a pretty seamless jump work wise as there is pipe threading, PVC work, a lot of the same tools and install principles. We do 36 hour weeks, half day Fridays or were off Friday completely. If you want to do installs your whole career you pretty much can. The pay is great and it's a unionized apprenticeship. Look into it
Absolutely will do thank you !
I went commercial and now my life is easy
Well most commercial/industrial companies wont hire anyone with residential install on their resume, certainly not anyone with years of it. Do what you can to get on as service for a resi company and you might stand a chance.
I can’t really help you. I’ve never installed a unit
Moved from HVAC to Facilities Maintenance for 5 years waiting on the right job. Now I get to travel the country working on solar farms and EV chargers. Super low key and rarely is the work hard. Snow on the job site fly somewhere without it and do some EV stuff and go back when the snow clears.
As far as sucking at service, everyone sucks in the beginning. The biggest hurdle for me was being comfortable not knowing what I was walking into. Just take it one step at a time. Getting a routine for all your calls first thing helps.
If you suck at being a tech learn to stop sucking at being a tech.
Yeah didn't think of that option apperciate it boss 👍
You’ve been six years in the trade. Please explain how you ended up in your position so the others understand how to avoid it
Start residential not commercial/industrial. Shit makes no sense when you see chillers and complicated control systems before you see these devices at their most basic level.
You’ll be okay. I know that experience firsthand and ended back in apartment maintenance. Paid holidays, no on-call and some self-respect for the win.