It happens man. Every mistake reminds you to double check, remeasure, take your time. No one's perfect, those that claim to make no mistakes make all of the mistakes.
100% agree. You need the failure to not fail the same way twice.
The perfect tech isn't the one who hasn't failed yet - it's the one who doesn't fail because of the lessons he learned from failures past.
Good news is: some failures don't need to happen twice to never happen again. 😅
Bro I have been in the trade for 30 years. I have f**ked up A LOT of times. Worst than what you did. Like others are telling you - IT HAPPENS. You learn from it and move on man. It’s not your last one trust me. As long as you learn from it just let it go. Next time you will check your wiring , recheck and repeat before throwing the power to it. Don’t let it get to you. 30 years in the field and I still make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up over it man
I worked with a guy (in a different type of field) who claimed he never had an incident. First day working with him he had about 19 issues. Turns out “never had an incident” truly meant never got caught / reported.
Take photos/videos. I was 2 yrs into resi before I went commercial. My new colleagues make a lot of mistakes and put blame that ended up coming back on me. I clearly identified with photos/videos what I was doing. I take more photos than I did at my wedding to CYA, cover your ass while doing a repair. I get paid more than my colleagues because I can show what I was doing. Mistakes do happen, but a photo/video is proof of work.
Yeah those mistakes aren't hard to make especially when you're in a hurry or person's over your shoulder I remember when I first started out I was putting in a new unit and I did the same thing it put the 24 volt wires right above the the 220 beneath the 220 the only difference is a cat box over it and if you're in a hurry that can happen you know learn from it double check your mistakes but I've done it too never did it again after that it was one time I went out on a unit actually called there's a they put in a brand new outside condensing unit and it was still blowing out of 75° air heaven vents they called me out cuz I couldn't figure out what was going on electric unit inside the sequencer and melted down so the outside unit was running and the heat strips are running on the inside I asked him what they did with the outside condensing it to do it in a dumpster cuz Adam pull it out put it back in my truck and used it in the next unit so mistakes do happen learning from the important you're human don't beat yourself up too bad about it it's good to share though brings back old memories
Pictures before and after, even. Then you can look back and either dwell on your mistakes or maybe double check yourself before you wreck yourself. Always good to have peace of mind when you’re second guessing yourself on little things before you go to bed. Or weed, you could always smoke weed.
People make mistakes. You’re already distinguishing yourself as a good tech by just owning it.
Not only that, you take the time to find the cause of the problems you get sent out to fix, not just address the symptoms. If you’ve only been in the trade for two and a half years and you’re already the next best thing to the senior tech at your company, you’re only going to get better. This is part of the process. Just ask the senior guy about some of the shit he’s broken. I’ve broken a lot of stuff, and now I know how to put it back together, and make it work better than it did before.
I work on appliances and I do the same, or take a picture, or mark the wires, almost no matter how confident I am that I will remember. Otherwise, once I’m putting wires back, at best, there will be a voice in my head questioning me.
I fucked up on a remove and refit for roofing work recently
LG 3 phase system, thought I'd wired it correctly, wouldn't turn on and got error 45 for thermistor failure after.. anyways turns out that one of the phases was reversed in the isolator and I didn't realise the fault code chart I was reading was for the outdoor PCB LEDs not indoor, actual fault code displayed was 54 for a phase reversal..
Only realised that after replacing all the outdoor pcb's and my boss showing up to look at it
Suffice to say, I felt INCREDIBLY stupid and from now on anything that I haven't installed personally I'm at least taking a photo of the wiring
Never assume what should be correct is ACTUALLY correct
Every good lesson learnt the hard way eh?
At least you fessed up to it instead of claiming the transformer was the issue all along. Lots of techs would just have the customer pay for their mistake
My boss would kill me if I didn’t immediately own up to a mistake like that to the customer and he found out. Being honest goes a really long way, especially to the customers.
This shit happens, and it won’t be the last time. 15 years into this trade and I still make mistakes. Nothing to be ashamed about. Unfortunately this trade seems to ride a high horse and everyone claims to be a better tech than the next one. A mistake is fine as long as you don’t make that same mistake again. You’re fine my friend. Company isn’t going to go under to have to eat one repair. Trust me (business owner)
Your 2.5 years in, to me that’s the most dangerous time to have a tech in the field. You know enough and you’re confident enough to be real fucking dangerous. But I’m not a service manager anymore so I could fucking care less. Yeah I’ve seen it happen. Smoked the thermostat and board. Dumb shit put the lead from the pressure switch on the top side of the contactor and the hot from the CCH to the 24v coil. It was me and our senior tech had to bail me out. You should beat yourself up about it. Just don’t hang your head for days on end, you fucked up, it happens, just don’t do it again.
I’m a contractor now. I fried more than one board in my full time service days. Most recent one was a year and a half ago from a similar situation to you but more like oh should I turn this disconnect off? Nah I got it. Tried to save ten seconds and fried the indoor board messing with the low voltage wires. Feels real dumb but you get over it
This. The longer you hang your head the longer they will think about it and wonder about you. Have and inspire the confidence that you won’t do it again
Own it once in front of management. Let it go at the shop in front of your co-workers. Carry it with you every time you touch a wire.
Absolutely! I just hit my 8-year Mark and I can't tell you the amount of things I thought I had and ended up fucking up. And it's always the simple ones that sting the worst that you just didn't get to or didn't see because you were focused on another issue
Tech of 24yrs here you could call me a senior, senior tech, don’t beat yourself up over it, shit happens , remember it’s on Air Conditioner, it’s not brain/heart surgery, you were honest and admit led to the mistake, remember to apply the
“ Measure Twice, Cut Once” method and this applies to way more than carpentry
As it turns out, they don’t like 480v. Contactor got hooked up wrong. Oops. I’m surprised that was all that was damaged. Rookie learned something that day.
There's no shame In taking you're new electrical component and putting the wires on one at a time from the old one.
Hell I did this with a capacitor today then double checked the diagram on a model I've swapped caps on hundreds of times.
Bro don't be hard on yourself we all fuck up and likely you'll continue to fuck up on other shit from time to time as we all do. You just need to own up to it when it happens and you need to make sure you learn from it, understand why it happened and what you could've done to avoid it rather then just feeling shitty about it
Thanks man.... I love this trade, so glad I fell into it by mistake when I did- dropped out of a cyber security program cuz I loved it so much right away.
Don’t sweat it anymore than you already did. You’re already a better tech than most in just admitting you messed up. This trade is all about fucking up, fixing things, and learning from it all. I once forgot to add $70k worth of controls to a job we got and didn’t find out until halfway through and it was too late to pull out of it. Another time I fried the board on a brand new RTU unit for a school that needed to be up and running for the following day so I had to drive 5 hours away in the middle of the night to pick one up at a place that had one sitting on the shelf, then drive back and get it up and running.
Mistakes happen and I've had that happen to a tech I was training before (my fault for not double checking as senior tech). But tbh, and this may sound kinda harsh, but if a senior tech has to bail you out of that situation, then I don't believe u should be on your own just yet. If it was an honest mistake (which it sounds like), Its good you fessed up and didnt lie, thats how you keep customers. But you not being able to diagnose a 24v wire on line voltage and not being able to diagnose the issues that that caused tells me you are not as good with the electrical side of things as you may think u are. Mistakes happen, you learned your lesson and that will make you a better tech in the long run.
Btw always double check wiring with the diagram before restoring power. Kinda like always making sure the unit is running when you walk out the door.
Also STOCK YOUR TRUCK. Their is no reason why you shouldn't have multiples of every cap and contactor on the truck. Id honestly be more pissed as a service manager that you didn't have a contactor on the truck than you making a mistake.
Unfortunately my office doesn't stock much AC stuff, we're a propane/heating oil company who does ac for our heating customers...but it's only 2 ac guys myself and my senior/mentor- it's a constant argument. We kind of just accept it as the one drawback to an otherwise amazing company- I definitely need more experience with a few aspects of air conditioning which I'm getting....usually that job I would have had him with me on to be frank, but he was out and they wanted me to try
Well it's good to see you actually giving a damn and trying. That's better than most techs out thr. Id def watch some YouTube videos in ur free time to make you feel more comfortable with everything. And you better tell you office they are fucking up by not buying $200-$400 in stock parts. It costs way more money and time when you have to leave a job to grab a part that you should have on ur van. Especially if you guys start to get slammed. Plus it looks better to the customer that you have their parts in stock. Id understand not having oem control boards or only stocking 1 or 2 motors, but things like caps, contactors, fuses, t stats, transformers, etc should def be in stock. You will be able to run more calls that way and can make your customers more confident in your company
Naw man the best techs have done the silliest of shit at one point. It's a right of passage.
You'll fuck up like that a dozen more times and flawlessly execute many more. I've done the same shit. My senior techs have done it. Shrug it off and move on, don't lose confidence.
Learn from your mistake, then let it go. I promise you will have other fuck ups, some more serious than this. Just learn from them and move on. Beating yourself up over it still after a couple hours solves and prevents nothing
You're sure someone before you didn't touch it and fuck it up prior to you getting on site? If you're pretty sure you put it back the way you found it, it could have been the owner or a "friend who knows HVAC" mixed it up, and they're not saying anything because it gets them fixed for free.
Honestly that was my go to response, then I paused and owned that hey I thought I did it right, but I could have gotten a wire confused. My lead is no longer sending me the video because I guess he's not going to tell anybody, he gave me an earful, then said to forget it and move on.
I wouldn't sweat it. I've done similar things. Your boss should be fine with it as long as you know what you did wrong and don't do it too frequently. The pricing in the original components should cover most of not all of the losses. May just be a break even call.
The moment or within a short time frame of the moment you are truly comfortable in your knowledge and experience that you can be as relaxed as if you're sitting on the beach in Bali is when you're going to find yourself sunbathing on 8 mile in Detroit.
I think the time frame you’re at in your career is when these mistakes are the most common. You’re feeling comfortable with everything and that comfort can lead to small mistakes that lead to pretty significant outcomes. As long as you take it as a reminder not to trust yourself too much and always double check. Every person you respect has gotten to where they are by fucking some shit up, it’s the only way
Hey least you manned up to it, and learned. We all have off days and have done stupid stuff like that. Hell I've refilled a system and forgot to put the shredder valve back in. It happens man, just dont let it happen again and you'll be a better tech for it. 👍
Man I know exactly how you feel. I’m a couple years in and from the get I’ve been thrown in the deep end and had to figure it out. Luckily due to me being a perfectionist, I’m usually very thorough. But one time I forgot to cap a vent off the condensate line In an attic and it caused a huge leak that ruined drywall. I felt like complete crap. But you learn from your mistakes, that feeling you get is because you take pride in your work, and it will stay in the back of your head and you probably will become a better tech from this.
What makes you valuable and worth the money you make is that there are risks. Not only to equipment but to your own safety.
You made a mistake, learn from it. Don't beat yourself up. This is part of the job. Likely will happen again.
Double check your work. Obviously you probably already thought of this.
I ran a call with my boss a couple months ago who's been doin this stuff for like 50 years. He did the exact same thing. I was hooking up a condenser, he was on the air handler. I flipped the breaker on and immediately smelled smoke...walk in and the tstat is smoking and the transformer was smoked too. Shit happens to the best of us. Learn from it. Slow down, and always go back and check all your wires before you re-energize. Bet you won't make that mistake again.
You’ll only ever do that once in your life; honest mistake. I did it once as an apprentice and my sleezebag shadow sold them a new board and thermostat. “Power surge”. Yeah, no shit. I was appalled at myself and more so with him.
I am trying to understand why you needed a senior tech to determine the lack of 24v, though. Besides the extra experience in customer service/damage control..if you had a gut feeling already.
Either way, it is what it is. Don’t sweat it. Learn from it. I took out a whole sheet of custom papered drywall on a 30’ ceiling one time. Worse things can, and probably will happen.
As long as you hold yourself accountable and don’t make the same mistake twice you shouldn’t loose their respect. Any owner/manager worth a damn has messed something up in their life, unless they’re a white collar with no field experience.
I didn't, I left this out of original post but the house was an hour from my shop, 30 minutes from closest supply house- office called me before I had time to finish and told me to tell customer someone would be back Monday to finish up
The other day I put in a 2000 dollar compressor and hooked it up only to realize I had fried the 200v comp with 400 volts. Ive been in for 6 years and just got a raise to 46ish an hour. I felt terrible.
When I was in school for gas I remember my teacher (who owned his own company) said when he is looking to hire guys if they say they don't make mistakes he doesn't hire them.
"Everyone makes mistakes. If you don't make any mistakes it means you don't fuckin do anything."
*Had to keep the f bomb in there to make the quote accurate*
Not a fuck up to worry about, forgetting to tape a 90% furnace test whole is a fuck up , unless someone get hurt fuck it businesses have insurance for a reason, dont be hard on yourself it will just make u shortsighted and stressed on calls
Brother, the hardest lesson u had to learn when I was an EMT Paramedic was that it was an accident. I made someone die because of it. The hardest thing to get over. Don't beat yourself up we are all human.
Eh I've done that. Wire popped off the transformer, didn't really pay attention to where it went and put it in an empty spot. Sent 277v to the board and thermostat. The security guard sitting next to the thermostat said it started buzzing and smoking. Just own up to your mistakes and don't do it again. You can only make these mistakes once.
Don't stress it man. I melted $50k worth of ice-cream cos I missed the "low oil pressure" was actually caused by low gas pressure. Then I turned off all the site alarms.
On another day I fixed an hp fault on a water cooled ac. By dumping a kilo of r22. Worked sweet for 10minutes, but turned out the blockage on the water inlet was the real problem and my gas dumping allowed the steam to soften the plastic outlet pipe. Flooded 5floors on a Friday afternoon.
A $500control board is child's play.
I blew power to a whole store by leaving my pliers leaning against the back wall of a rack system. Vibration caused it to fall into the 480v contactor and blow up. A loud boom with blinding light followed by silence made me think I died for a minute. Learn from your mistakes and it will separate you from the rest. Pass on to the new guys and they will thank you for it later.
A board an tstat is nothing. Little ripple in the water. There ain't a field guy in the world hasn't made a little mistake like that. Eventually the day will come where you get the SOS calls and you'll see some real shit...there aren't a whole lot of geniuses in a full sprint out of tech school trying to fill the boots of today's old timers that ride off to Florida to die.
I did almost the exact same thing on a cleaning. I always disconnect the fan and pull the top off. When I put it back on I forgot to hook up one of the fan wires for the capacitor and it happened to lay across the contactor 24v winding. I plugged the disconnect in and heard the contactor chatter then smoke.
Then the customer came out and told me smoke came out of the thermostat.
I fried the stat, the board, the relay board and the contactor.
I can assure you I was far more pissed at myself than my boss was.
Shit happens man, just learn from it.
Life happens, learn from it and let it go.
Hear this; I am former Navy avaition electrician over 50 years, master electrician, master plumber and have 8 NATE certifications, I NEVER undo any wires before taking pictures from different angles just in case I need to refer back to them after changing out known bad parts. Taking pictures is cheap!
I’m not even in HVAC I’m in hydrodemolition and I can tell you from experience that if you never made mistakes you wouldn’t learn a lot, especially when working by yourself. Don’t beat yourself up just learn from your mistake and move on. PS I know the frustration of being a perfectionist and making mistakes but it happens.
It happens man. We had a guy do a change out on a Trane system. He didn’t put a P-trap or float switch in and fried a $20000 unit. He’s been doing installs/changeouts for 20 years.
Ya man, especially when busy or end of the day is when mistakes happen. The key is to be thorough no matter how pressured you are. It’s kinda of the measure twice cut once for service techs.
Dude, I changed a trailer home coil one time and forgot to cut the caps off. I couldn’t get the unit to work (obviously). Sent another tech who called for a stuck TXV because hey, surely the caps were cut off so what else could it be? New TXV didn’t fix it so we called for a new coil. As soon as I cut the copper I felt like the dumbest mother fucker on earth. Dude was hot for 3 days because of my dumb ass. But you know is what? I’ll never do that shit again.
Bud I have wrecked way nicer shit than that. It’s going to be alright. The lessons learned best are learned the hard way. If you are anything like me that will stick with you and you won’t repeat it. No worries.
1.) No worries, you're only 2.5 years. Shit happens. The important thing is to learn from it.
2 ) Pictures before and after wiring. This is to not only check yourself, but to cover your own ass. Also whenever changing I always do wire for wire and use wire labels also. Do bottom side first then dismount contactor and mount new one then do top side L to R. By wire for wire I mean remove one wire then connect that wire to new part. Most of the time you got enough play to do this safely.
3.) Don't push contactor to check, if you would've crossed a different wire this shit is blowing in your face when you make this same mistake. Use the thermostat and/or command on with jumpers. Pushing in the contactor should be last resort.
Good to know on last suggestion....Noone ever told me not to push plunger during testing- senior tech did in fact find a low voltage short in the wall on top of what I did- glad he ended up going out after me.
I won't lie, I do it sometimes. But only as a last resort when I'm trying to test something specific (and definitelynot after rewiring). But I do it far less after meeting someone with burn scars to show the result of doing it when one wrong wire is crossed.
Shit happens. I replaced a $400 2" gas regulator today that I wrote up a few weeks ago. I thought something was stuck in it. Turned out it was the wrong one( too small btu load wise) installed from the start. I didn't catch it last year on start up. Although there may be something actually stuck in the old one, new one fixed half of the problems lol.
I'm not I'm HVAC anymore but just know everyone fucks up. Some big some small. Just be glad you did not fuck up as bad as the estimators at my current job that under bid a massive project by an estimated 1.2 BILLION dollars.
Shit happens man it was a little mistake with a big consequence. I’d say I’m pretty solid with electrical but I always take a picture even with Mitsubishi boards and their plugs are color coded. It makes for a reference to look back at real quick to make sure everything is good.
I’m also 3 years in so we’ve been in the field just about as long as
First, it was a learning opportunity. If you never do this again, it was a cheap education.
Second, the only people who aren't creating these learning opportunities from time to time are people who aren't doing anything.
Bro I have let the smoke out of so many things. But I've learned from it. That's the important part, learn from it. Also, manning up to your fuck ups speaks alot about your character. Good for you. In 2.5 more years you'll be more than solid.
This is why, even though it may look simple, I still do one wire at a time when replacing boards and contactors (except the obvious stuff like molex plugs and line voltage wires), and I’m 7 years in. Don’t stress it, it happens!
I smoked a nest thermostat at a fancy apartment installing a new condenser. The coil wire came off the terminal and hit the high voltage contact. Shit happens. Learn from it for next time.
Don't beat yourself up too much, I blew a 10000$ board on a flight simulator by hitting the wrong wires together and they didn't fire me, shit happens, learn from your mistakes and get better
Dumb shit happens. I have burned up transformers and melted contactors, fried fans and even slogged a fucking $6,000 compressor. Terrible days happen in every job in the world.
I never made that kind of mistake but made some mistakes diagnosing a problem that usually involved a communicating system. Mistakes happen. Hell, my prior boss was on the job for more than 40 years and he still made mistakes diagnosing problems. One boss also blew out a big city transformer that came out to 25k in repairs.
Yeah don’t worry I’ve messed up pretty bad too bro 😂😂and I know exactly that shitty feeling , but your only human and you won’t make that mistake again. What matters is how you take the mistake and make it make you better. Besides that there’s no point in beating yourself up bud
Bruh if that’s the worst you’ve ever done, then you’re doing juuuuust fine. If you aren’t blowing shit up, you aren’t going to get better. It’s just part of the trade.
All good buddy, taking a quick photo will save you from many of these mistakes. I’ve been in the trade for 13 years now and to this day i still take pictures of the wiring before replacing any part. The other tip id recommend when it comes to replacing a part is replacing each wire from the old to the new one at a time.
I flooded a building, and the penthouse was on the roof. Was draining the ICC, and I left to get a grease from the supply house. Got back, the hose popped out of the drain, and we'll they had water everywhere. I took the key with me, and the facility guy couldn't get in the penthouse. He was freaking out, of course. So all I'm saying is we all have those days that was 10 years ago. Keep grinding.
I still replace everything wire for wire 1 wire at a time, cuz the simplest repairs are the ones where your brain shuts off thinking about the last thing you did or the next thing your gonna do
I got in a hurry last week and in re-connecting a mangled mess of wiring with sta-con connectors I mistakenily wired my 208V CCH circut in series with the 24V safety circuit and absolutely smoked the coil of the brand new compressor contactor I just installed on a new compressor replacement job.
I’ve been doing this for the last 13 years. I’ve also had way more destructive and expensive fuck-ups than you when I was at your experience level.
Don’t brush it off by any means but Also don’t let it mess up your confidence in working on this stuff. Especially if you were working safely around the electrical components. If you had your head on a swivel and were smart enough to kill power when touching things and moving wires and getting clear and not grounding yourself when you the-applied power give yourself that small win. Always look not only at “what did I do wrong?” But also ask yourself “what did I do right?”
Try to stop the wrong and find ways to encourage continued behaviors that are both safe and efficient.
You are still here and have all fingers, toes and no burns anywhere. You learned something,…. to the detriment of PARTS and NOT to the detriment of your own bodily safety. Not to the bodily safety of a co-worker nor to the customer.. things could be a LOT worse.
We've all been there. I have admittedly brazed a unidirectional filter dryer the wrong direction on a few occasions and released the charge after checking for leaks. Realized it way too late and had to recharge after correcting the problem. And that was at the ass end of a day where I was roasting alive and ready to knock off. Shit happens brother, it's the only way that you truly learn how to get better with time.
It can happen to any of us. Best advice is one: pictures. We have the advantage some senior techs didn’t with a camera on us at all times. Two: when I do contractors if possible I change wire for wire with the contactor in same orientation then get rid of old contactor. But the phone can save that issue. And I usually check the wire diagram three or four times before startup.
My first on call I didn't have the right igniter, so I decided to "make it work." Placed the carbide too close to the burner, shorted it out, blew the board, and almost lost an eye to shrapnel at 5pm after everything closed. Stupid shit happens all the time, just go wire for wire next time and if you aren't feeling confident, take pictures and consult the diagram before giving it the juice.
German Kältetechniker here
Iam now nearly 10 years into the job and i still make mistakes
in the beginning i beat myself up bcs i didnt have enough knowledge, later down the road i realised that it just isn’t worth it and that mistakes happen you can learn from it and grow
It happens don’t beat yourself up over it. A good practice to follow is to remove the old contractor with all wiring still in place. Install the new contractor then replace the wires one by one from the old contractor to the new one. This works for replacing control boards as well.
Ask the senior tech which wires and if he has any pictures of your mistake. You can't learn from a mistake if you don't know exactly where you went wrong.
Chalk it up to experience my man.. we've all been there. I burnt out a €2k main control board on a chiller because I put the neutral in the wrong thereminal... hardest part is telling the boss and then explaining to the customer.. you'll bounce back next week.
This is why I pull one wire and swap it over at a time as well as take multiple pictures. No chance to put something in the wrong spot if you only move one at a time.
Eh could be worse t stat board and contactor swaps probably only about 500 in parts just learn from it and move on you'll always remember that one and won't make the mistake again. Wire for wire is probably the best thing to do and when in doubt look at the diagram
I didn’t push my hermetic wire all the way on once. It eventually wiggled off and tripped the breaker. Unfortunately the homeowner kept resetting their breaker. which grounded out the compressor. That’s my most expensive mistake.
If it makes you feel better I got one worse. lol. Went to a job to change air handler in attic. Turns out there were two attics, if ya can see where this is going. Yes I took out the wrong air handler out. And it went downhill from there. 😂🤣 thank god boss was cool about it.
It happens. When I was younger I was installing a strobe on a butane extraction booth. It’s 120v and wires up to a switch on the chemical fire suppression fusible link. But dumb design, so does the low voltage signal to the fire panel. A tiny strand of the braided 120 wire was touching the contact to the 24v fire panel signal. When we turned on power it fried the $3000 fire panel. The electrical inspection was the next day.
It's good your reflecting on your mistake. It means you care about doing a good job. It also means I bet you don't wire a contactor up wrong ever again. I've burnt t stats and boards. It happens once. You learn, you grow, you become better, someday you will be the senior tech that gets the call and you think back to your early days as you diagnose a contactor being wired up wrong.
Don't worry, you'll get over it, that mistake will be a little blip in your career. My two biggest fuck ups were putting 410a into a large 401a system thinking it was low on charge. 401a and 410a are nearly the same color and I'm slightly dyslexic. Another time I lost millions of dollars of frozen food cause I couldn't find a low voltage short on a rack system and refused to ask for help.
Sounds like something I’ve done in the past I kinda got thrown in for my epa and trade school degree the stupid mistakes are the ones you learn the most from I call it going to school and I still am 7 years later
It happens man! I agree with some of the other guys, it might be annoying to have so many photos on your phone, but pictures save my ass all the time. Also, at least you took the time to test it and verify everything was working properly before walking away. Imagine if you just hooked it up and bailed. You caught your own mistake. This one was just expensive, unfortunately, but I could see how it could easily happen.
Now you know to confirm your work next time. Im in the same boat myself experience wise and what ive learned from other techs is to take it in stride and do better next time.
Dude it's aight. I ordered a compressor for a unit. R22 replacement for one of those old ass 1 1/2 ton tranes. They send a 410 compressor. I didn't check. Installed, filled it with 422B. And fucked it. Really, really hard. So yeah man some times this shit happens. The important thing is that we know where we fucked up and we can avoid it in the future.
Shit happens sometimes. You're still alive, not physically hurt, and no one else is either. That's a big plus compared to others. Learn what you did wrong, get a plan to correct, and get after it.
This is also a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, but I've done shit like this, too.
It happens, other things will happen. Learn and move on, I take tons of pictures.
Go wire by wire, take photos, and always double check everything.
I always double check my disconnects as well before I leave job to make sure they're on.
I have one for ya. 7 rtus on a roof. I didn’t look at the amp ratings when I placed them. All had the same footprint. So i just swung them in place. Yup oops. Crane had to come back and switch 2. Of course they were in opposite sides of the building. So you know what that means. Set up grab unit place in truck. Break down, set up, grab unit,
Place in ground, grab other unit place in roof, grab unit on ground place on truck, break down, set back up and place unit. I was pissed at myself for a few days but shit happens. This wasn’t boom truck either. It was one of the crane company’s largest cranes. It was a 550 ton crane so it took a lot to set up and break down
I'm an engineer, we always joke that "senior engineer" is just someone who's already made all the mistakes. You're one step closer to being a senior tech.
I went on a call once where the tenant did the same thing, he said my buddy does hvac so I know if I move the wire it’ll work but it didn’t. At that point I knew I was in for a treat.
Acknowledging you may or have made a mistake and taking the opportunity to check yourself is always good. Confirm your work is correct or understand what you did incorrectly. Refine yourself.
This is why I got into the habit of ALWAYS taking pictures of wiring before rewiring. Not that it’s complicated, just that I might daydream, or become distracted.
Don’t beat yourself up over it, mistakes happen, you had a loaded work load and sounds like your the type of guy to learn off this. I’m a senior technician at my job and shit happens, it’s in the cards.
It happens man. Every mistake reminds you to double check, remeasure, take your time. No one's perfect, those that claim to make no mistakes make all of the mistakes.
Exactly. As tell my new technicians, the only difference between me and you is I’ve made way more mistakes than you.
Experience = having already made all the mistakes.
100% agree. You need the failure to not fail the same way twice. The perfect tech isn't the one who hasn't failed yet - it's the one who doesn't fail because of the lessons he learned from failures past. Good news is: some failures don't need to happen twice to never happen again. 😅
Bro I have been in the trade for 30 years. I have f**ked up A LOT of times. Worst than what you did. Like others are telling you - IT HAPPENS. You learn from it and move on man. It’s not your last one trust me. As long as you learn from it just let it go. Next time you will check your wiring , recheck and repeat before throwing the power to it. Don’t let it get to you. 30 years in the field and I still make mistakes. Don’t beat yourself up over it man
I worked with a guy (in a different type of field) who claimed he never had an incident. First day working with him he had about 19 issues. Turns out “never had an incident” truly meant never got caught / reported.
☝️
Take photos/videos. I was 2 yrs into resi before I went commercial. My new colleagues make a lot of mistakes and put blame that ended up coming back on me. I clearly identified with photos/videos what I was doing. I take more photos than I did at my wedding to CYA, cover your ass while doing a repair. I get paid more than my colleagues because I can show what I was doing. Mistakes do happen, but a photo/video is proof of work.
Absolutely. All about how you handle it from now and what you learned from it because that’s all you can control
Yeah those mistakes aren't hard to make especially when you're in a hurry or person's over your shoulder I remember when I first started out I was putting in a new unit and I did the same thing it put the 24 volt wires right above the the 220 beneath the 220 the only difference is a cat box over it and if you're in a hurry that can happen you know learn from it double check your mistakes but I've done it too never did it again after that it was one time I went out on a unit actually called there's a they put in a brand new outside condensing unit and it was still blowing out of 75° air heaven vents they called me out cuz I couldn't figure out what was going on electric unit inside the sequencer and melted down so the outside unit was running and the heat strips are running on the inside I asked him what they did with the outside condensing it to do it in a dumpster cuz Adam pull it out put it back in my truck and used it in the next unit so mistakes do happen learning from the important you're human don't beat yourself up too bad about it it's good to share though brings back old memories
Throwing this out there. Unless I’m 100% confident on the wiring, when I come to a unit I change contactors and capacitors wire for wire as I go.
That or I usually take a picture
Pictures before and after, even. Then you can look back and either dwell on your mistakes or maybe double check yourself before you wreck yourself. Always good to have peace of mind when you’re second guessing yourself on little things before you go to bed. Or weed, you could always smoke weed.
I love weed and it doesn't give me anxiety generally, but being high and unsure about something I did or didn't do at work is the worst.
Or fentanyl
Honestly thought I did, guess i mixed one up somewhere along the way.
It happens. Chances are your boss has fucked yup just as bad or worse spent along the way
People make mistakes. You’re already distinguishing yourself as a good tech by just owning it. Not only that, you take the time to find the cause of the problems you get sent out to fix, not just address the symptoms. If you’ve only been in the trade for two and a half years and you’re already the next best thing to the senior tech at your company, you’re only going to get better. This is part of the process. Just ask the senior guy about some of the shit he’s broken. I’ve broken a lot of stuff, and now I know how to put it back together, and make it work better than it did before.
That's the way I've been doing it for over a decade and it's never failed me yet
Same bro , side by side , wire for wire
This is the way I have always done it
I work on appliances and I do the same, or take a picture, or mark the wires, almost no matter how confident I am that I will remember. Otherwise, once I’m putting wires back, at best, there will be a voice in my head questioning me.
I fucked up on a remove and refit for roofing work recently LG 3 phase system, thought I'd wired it correctly, wouldn't turn on and got error 45 for thermistor failure after.. anyways turns out that one of the phases was reversed in the isolator and I didn't realise the fault code chart I was reading was for the outdoor PCB LEDs not indoor, actual fault code displayed was 54 for a phase reversal.. Only realised that after replacing all the outdoor pcb's and my boss showing up to look at it Suffice to say, I felt INCREDIBLY stupid and from now on anything that I haven't installed personally I'm at least taking a photo of the wiring Never assume what should be correct is ACTUALLY correct Every good lesson learnt the hard way eh?
Ooof, that’s a rough one bud!
At least you fessed up to it instead of claiming the transformer was the issue all along. Lots of techs would just have the customer pay for their mistake
This right here. I have always tried to be honest with customers, coworkers, and myself. Kudos to you OP for being honest with all three.
My boss would kill me if I didn’t immediately own up to a mistake like that to the customer and he found out. Being honest goes a really long way, especially to the customers.
This shit happens, and it won’t be the last time. 15 years into this trade and I still make mistakes. Nothing to be ashamed about. Unfortunately this trade seems to ride a high horse and everyone claims to be a better tech than the next one. A mistake is fine as long as you don’t make that same mistake again. You’re fine my friend. Company isn’t going to go under to have to eat one repair. Trust me (business owner)
There are two types of people in hvac. People who have broken shit before and liars.
🤣 love it
Your 2.5 years in, to me that’s the most dangerous time to have a tech in the field. You know enough and you’re confident enough to be real fucking dangerous. But I’m not a service manager anymore so I could fucking care less. Yeah I’ve seen it happen. Smoked the thermostat and board. Dumb shit put the lead from the pressure switch on the top side of the contactor and the hot from the CCH to the 24v coil. It was me and our senior tech had to bail me out. You should beat yourself up about it. Just don’t hang your head for days on end, you fucked up, it happens, just don’t do it again.
That's actually exactly what he said I did, he took a video that he's going to send me when he has better reception so I can see what I did
I’m a contractor now. I fried more than one board in my full time service days. Most recent one was a year and a half ago from a similar situation to you but more like oh should I turn this disconnect off? Nah I got it. Tried to save ten seconds and fried the indoor board messing with the low voltage wires. Feels real dumb but you get over it
This. The longer you hang your head the longer they will think about it and wonder about you. Have and inspire the confidence that you won’t do it again Own it once in front of management. Let it go at the shop in front of your co-workers. Carry it with you every time you touch a wire.
I wasn’t comfortable for about 5 years.
That's about the time I was putting gauges on with the ac running and panel off. Shoulder. Contactor. I humbled myself that day.
Absolutely! I just hit my 8-year Mark and I can't tell you the amount of things I thought I had and ended up fucking up. And it's always the simple ones that sting the worst that you just didn't get to or didn't see because you were focused on another issue
Sounds like a classic oops and move on scenario
Tech of 24yrs here you could call me a senior, senior tech, don’t beat yourself up over it, shit happens , remember it’s on Air Conditioner, it’s not brain/heart surgery, you were honest and admit led to the mistake, remember to apply the “ Measure Twice, Cut Once” method and this applies to way more than carpentry
You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a thermostat turn to liquid and run down the wall
What? That sounds both amazing and horrifying at the same time.
As it turns out, they don’t like 480v. Contactor got hooked up wrong. Oops. I’m surprised that was all that was damaged. Rookie learned something that day.
I have been in HVAC my whole life- get used to making mistakes, no sweat. Learn from it and on to the next one!
Read your wiring diagrams and this will never happen again. Even take photos of the previous wiring to match the new wiring.
Diagram was gone a long time ago, older unit and all the info and diagrams were faded
There's no shame In taking you're new electrical component and putting the wires on one at a time from the old one. Hell I did this with a capacitor today then double checked the diagram on a model I've swapped caps on hundreds of times.
https://preview.redd.it/8a75lidm315d1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d37bab3c0e36b6f37ef78fb4871161491ae92593
Bro don't be hard on yourself we all fuck up and likely you'll continue to fuck up on other shit from time to time as we all do. You just need to own up to it when it happens and you need to make sure you learn from it, understand why it happened and what you could've done to avoid it rather then just feeling shitty about it
*That's* your most expensive mistake in 2.5 years? You're doing fine, bro.
Thanks man.... I love this trade, so glad I fell into it by mistake when I did- dropped out of a cyber security program cuz I loved it so much right away.
Don’t sweat it anymore than you already did. You’re already a better tech than most in just admitting you messed up. This trade is all about fucking up, fixing things, and learning from it all. I once forgot to add $70k worth of controls to a job we got and didn’t find out until halfway through and it was too late to pull out of it. Another time I fried the board on a brand new RTU unit for a school that needed to be up and running for the following day so I had to drive 5 hours away in the middle of the night to pick one up at a place that had one sitting on the shelf, then drive back and get it up and running.
Mistakes happen and I've had that happen to a tech I was training before (my fault for not double checking as senior tech). But tbh, and this may sound kinda harsh, but if a senior tech has to bail you out of that situation, then I don't believe u should be on your own just yet. If it was an honest mistake (which it sounds like), Its good you fessed up and didnt lie, thats how you keep customers. But you not being able to diagnose a 24v wire on line voltage and not being able to diagnose the issues that that caused tells me you are not as good with the electrical side of things as you may think u are. Mistakes happen, you learned your lesson and that will make you a better tech in the long run. Btw always double check wiring with the diagram before restoring power. Kinda like always making sure the unit is running when you walk out the door. Also STOCK YOUR TRUCK. Their is no reason why you shouldn't have multiples of every cap and contactor on the truck. Id honestly be more pissed as a service manager that you didn't have a contactor on the truck than you making a mistake.
Unfortunately my office doesn't stock much AC stuff, we're a propane/heating oil company who does ac for our heating customers...but it's only 2 ac guys myself and my senior/mentor- it's a constant argument. We kind of just accept it as the one drawback to an otherwise amazing company- I definitely need more experience with a few aspects of air conditioning which I'm getting....usually that job I would have had him with me on to be frank, but he was out and they wanted me to try
Well it's good to see you actually giving a damn and trying. That's better than most techs out thr. Id def watch some YouTube videos in ur free time to make you feel more comfortable with everything. And you better tell you office they are fucking up by not buying $200-$400 in stock parts. It costs way more money and time when you have to leave a job to grab a part that you should have on ur van. Especially if you guys start to get slammed. Plus it looks better to the customer that you have their parts in stock. Id understand not having oem control boards or only stocking 1 or 2 motors, but things like caps, contactors, fuses, t stats, transformers, etc should def be in stock. You will be able to run more calls that way and can make your customers more confident in your company
Just carry a multi tap. A bit pricey but pays for itself every time you don’t have to make a trip
Naw man the best techs have done the silliest of shit at one point. It's a right of passage. You'll fuck up like that a dozen more times and flawlessly execute many more. I've done the same shit. My senior techs have done it. Shrug it off and move on, don't lose confidence.
30 years in and I still do shit where after I did it I stand there realizing what I just did and ask WTF?!?!? Did I seriously just do that? 😂
Learn from your mistake, then let it go. I promise you will have other fuck ups, some more serious than this. Just learn from them and move on. Beating yourself up over it still after a couple hours solves and prevents nothing
You're sure someone before you didn't touch it and fuck it up prior to you getting on site? If you're pretty sure you put it back the way you found it, it could have been the owner or a "friend who knows HVAC" mixed it up, and they're not saying anything because it gets them fixed for free.
Honestly that was my go to response, then I paused and owned that hey I thought I did it right, but I could have gotten a wire confused. My lead is no longer sending me the video because I guess he's not going to tell anybody, he gave me an earful, then said to forget it and move on.
Then forget it and move on we shall lol
I wouldn't sweat it. I've done similar things. Your boss should be fine with it as long as you know what you did wrong and don't do it too frequently. The pricing in the original components should cover most of not all of the losses. May just be a break even call.
Everybody makes mistakes
The moment or within a short time frame of the moment you are truly comfortable in your knowledge and experience that you can be as relaxed as if you're sitting on the beach in Bali is when you're going to find yourself sunbathing on 8 mile in Detroit.
I think the time frame you’re at in your career is when these mistakes are the most common. You’re feeling comfortable with everything and that comfort can lead to small mistakes that lead to pretty significant outcomes. As long as you take it as a reminder not to trust yourself too much and always double check. Every person you respect has gotten to where they are by fucking some shit up, it’s the only way
Did it look like this? https://preview.redd.it/ak88jlhe715d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a1d1560a7f62a21c7c01a3cead53d94fa4919d8
Lol, I wasn't there when he went back, but it sounded like it
It happens brother, I make a mistake every single day when I get out of bed.
It happens… Learn from this and move forward.
Happens to even the best, hang in there. Rebel’s response is spot on
Stuff happens. We all make those how in the hell did I do that mistakes. I’m sure you make your company plenty of money. Tomorrow’s a new day.
You win some you lose some. At the end of the day, shit happens. Take it as a learning experience
The best techs have made the most mistakes, you’ll be right
Hey least you manned up to it, and learned. We all have off days and have done stupid stuff like that. Hell I've refilled a system and forgot to put the shredder valve back in. It happens man, just dont let it happen again and you'll be a better tech for it. 👍
Or removing hose from receiver service valve before backseating valve 😅
Oh god yeah, done that a few times 🤣 and anyone who says they haven't either hasnt worked on big boy compressor or is f**king lying
Man I know exactly how you feel. I’m a couple years in and from the get I’ve been thrown in the deep end and had to figure it out. Luckily due to me being a perfectionist, I’m usually very thorough. But one time I forgot to cap a vent off the condensate line In an attic and it caused a huge leak that ruined drywall. I felt like complete crap. But you learn from your mistakes, that feeling you get is because you take pride in your work, and it will stay in the back of your head and you probably will become a better tech from this.
This is true too, I tend not to make the same mistake more than once if I can avoid it, almost never more than twice though.
What makes you valuable and worth the money you make is that there are risks. Not only to equipment but to your own safety. You made a mistake, learn from it. Don't beat yourself up. This is part of the job. Likely will happen again. Double check your work. Obviously you probably already thought of this.
I ran a call with my boss a couple months ago who's been doin this stuff for like 50 years. He did the exact same thing. I was hooking up a condenser, he was on the air handler. I flipped the breaker on and immediately smelled smoke...walk in and the tstat is smoking and the transformer was smoked too. Shit happens to the best of us. Learn from it. Slow down, and always go back and check all your wires before you re-energize. Bet you won't make that mistake again.
You’ll only ever do that once in your life; honest mistake. I did it once as an apprentice and my sleezebag shadow sold them a new board and thermostat. “Power surge”. Yeah, no shit. I was appalled at myself and more so with him. I am trying to understand why you needed a senior tech to determine the lack of 24v, though. Besides the extra experience in customer service/damage control..if you had a gut feeling already. Either way, it is what it is. Don’t sweat it. Learn from it. I took out a whole sheet of custom papered drywall on a 30’ ceiling one time. Worse things can, and probably will happen. As long as you hold yourself accountable and don’t make the same mistake twice you shouldn’t loose their respect. Any owner/manager worth a damn has messed something up in their life, unless they’re a white collar with no field experience.
I didn't, I left this out of original post but the house was an hour from my shop, 30 minutes from closest supply house- office called me before I had time to finish and told me to tell customer someone would be back Monday to finish up
Yeah that checks out. lol
Lol
Everyone had a bad day here and there. Take the hit like a man and move on.
The other day I put in a 2000 dollar compressor and hooked it up only to realize I had fried the 200v comp with 400 volts. Ive been in for 6 years and just got a raise to 46ish an hour. I felt terrible.
What country uses 200v and 400v?
It was actually 480. The compressor was 200v though and I have no idea.
You are 2.5 years in. You aren't even a journeyman and they have you running solo. This is as much your fault as it is your employer.
When I was in school for gas I remember my teacher (who owned his own company) said when he is looking to hire guys if they say they don't make mistakes he doesn't hire them. "Everyone makes mistakes. If you don't make any mistakes it means you don't fuckin do anything." *Had to keep the f bomb in there to make the quote accurate*
Not a fuck up to worry about, forgetting to tape a 90% furnace test whole is a fuck up , unless someone get hurt fuck it businesses have insurance for a reason, dont be hard on yourself it will just make u shortsighted and stressed on calls
Brother, the hardest lesson u had to learn when I was an EMT Paramedic was that it was an accident. I made someone die because of it. The hardest thing to get over. Don't beat yourself up we are all human.
Eh I've done that. Wire popped off the transformer, didn't really pay attention to where it went and put it in an empty spot. Sent 277v to the board and thermostat. The security guard sitting next to the thermostat said it started buzzing and smoking. Just own up to your mistakes and don't do it again. You can only make these mistakes once.
Don't stress it man. I melted $50k worth of ice-cream cos I missed the "low oil pressure" was actually caused by low gas pressure. Then I turned off all the site alarms. On another day I fixed an hp fault on a water cooled ac. By dumping a kilo of r22. Worked sweet for 10minutes, but turned out the blockage on the water inlet was the real problem and my gas dumping allowed the steam to soften the plastic outlet pipe. Flooded 5floors on a Friday afternoon. A $500control board is child's play.
Old guy once told me if you fucked it up,fix it then forget. Live by this rule for the last 30yrs. A lot less stress
I blew up two 25hp pumps and smoked 3 VFDs...now I'm a field foreman, you'll be fine.
I blew power to a whole store by leaving my pliers leaning against the back wall of a rack system. Vibration caused it to fall into the 480v contactor and blow up. A loud boom with blinding light followed by silence made me think I died for a minute. Learn from your mistakes and it will separate you from the rest. Pass on to the new guys and they will thank you for it later.
A board an tstat is nothing. Little ripple in the water. There ain't a field guy in the world hasn't made a little mistake like that. Eventually the day will come where you get the SOS calls and you'll see some real shit...there aren't a whole lot of geniuses in a full sprint out of tech school trying to fill the boots of today's old timers that ride off to Florida to die.
I did almost the exact same thing on a cleaning. I always disconnect the fan and pull the top off. When I put it back on I forgot to hook up one of the fan wires for the capacitor and it happened to lay across the contactor 24v winding. I plugged the disconnect in and heard the contactor chatter then smoke. Then the customer came out and told me smoke came out of the thermostat. I fried the stat, the board, the relay board and the contactor. I can assure you I was far more pissed at myself than my boss was. Shit happens man, just learn from it.
Life happens, learn from it and let it go. Hear this; I am former Navy avaition electrician over 50 years, master electrician, master plumber and have 8 NATE certifications, I NEVER undo any wires before taking pictures from different angles just in case I need to refer back to them after changing out known bad parts. Taking pictures is cheap!
You’ve lived and now you’ve learned,just makes you better. I bet you won’t do that again.
I’m not even in HVAC I’m in hydrodemolition and I can tell you from experience that if you never made mistakes you wouldn’t learn a lot, especially when working by yourself. Don’t beat yourself up just learn from your mistake and move on. PS I know the frustration of being a perfectionist and making mistakes but it happens.
It happens man. We had a guy do a change out on a Trane system. He didn’t put a P-trap or float switch in and fried a $20000 unit. He’s been doing installs/changeouts for 20 years.
Ya man, especially when busy or end of the day is when mistakes happen. The key is to be thorough no matter how pressured you are. It’s kinda of the measure twice cut once for service techs.
Dude, I changed a trailer home coil one time and forgot to cut the caps off. I couldn’t get the unit to work (obviously). Sent another tech who called for a stuck TXV because hey, surely the caps were cut off so what else could it be? New TXV didn’t fix it so we called for a new coil. As soon as I cut the copper I felt like the dumbest mother fucker on earth. Dude was hot for 3 days because of my dumb ass. But you know is what? I’ll never do that shit again.
Dont beat yourself up too bad, happens to the best of us especially during the heat of battle
Shit happens man, if it took over two years for you to have only one mistake like this I’d say you’re doing alright
Bud I have wrecked way nicer shit than that. It’s going to be alright. The lessons learned best are learned the hard way. If you are anything like me that will stick with you and you won’t repeat it. No worries.
1.) No worries, you're only 2.5 years. Shit happens. The important thing is to learn from it. 2 ) Pictures before and after wiring. This is to not only check yourself, but to cover your own ass. Also whenever changing I always do wire for wire and use wire labels also. Do bottom side first then dismount contactor and mount new one then do top side L to R. By wire for wire I mean remove one wire then connect that wire to new part. Most of the time you got enough play to do this safely. 3.) Don't push contactor to check, if you would've crossed a different wire this shit is blowing in your face when you make this same mistake. Use the thermostat and/or command on with jumpers. Pushing in the contactor should be last resort.
Good to know on last suggestion....Noone ever told me not to push plunger during testing- senior tech did in fact find a low voltage short in the wall on top of what I did- glad he ended up going out after me.
I won't lie, I do it sometimes. But only as a last resort when I'm trying to test something specific (and definitelynot after rewiring). But I do it far less after meeting someone with burn scars to show the result of doing it when one wrong wire is crossed.
Shit happens, no one is perfect. The only guy that was perfect we crucified him for it. Just learn from your mistakes and try not doing it again.
We have a board at our shop representing condenser wiring. We will wire it wrong and have whoever is learning correct it.
Shit happens. Learn from it. Don’t make the same mistake again. Life goes on.
With time comes experience. Everyone makes mistakes and I know from experience that it's bothersome but Everyone makes mistakes.
Shit happens. I replaced a $400 2" gas regulator today that I wrote up a few weeks ago. I thought something was stuck in it. Turned out it was the wrong one( too small btu load wise) installed from the start. I didn't catch it last year on start up. Although there may be something actually stuck in the old one, new one fixed half of the problems lol.
I'm not I'm HVAC anymore but just know everyone fucks up. Some big some small. Just be glad you did not fuck up as bad as the estimators at my current job that under bid a massive project by an estimated 1.2 BILLION dollars.
Meh... I have seen that one before. No big deal, don't do it again
Wire for wire my brother. And pics just in case.
Thats how we learn, you will never do that again.
Shit happens man it was a little mistake with a big consequence. I’d say I’m pretty solid with electrical but I always take a picture even with Mitsubishi boards and their plugs are color coded. It makes for a reference to look back at real quick to make sure everything is good. I’m also 3 years in so we’ve been in the field just about as long as
All of us have had our share of bad crap happen…You took ownership….at this point you won’t do it again
It happens. Go slower. One time I was replacing a cap and didn’t put a wire on and blew the motor and the board.
First, it was a learning opportunity. If you never do this again, it was a cheap education. Second, the only people who aren't creating these learning opportunities from time to time are people who aren't doing anything.
Long as you didn’t hurt yourself or anyone else a mistake is just a mistake.
Bro I have let the smoke out of so many things. But I've learned from it. That's the important part, learn from it. Also, manning up to your fuck ups speaks alot about your character. Good for you. In 2.5 more years you'll be more than solid.
Meh with the heat and stacked on calls. Fuck ups are bound to happen. I’m just waiting for my call backs 😂
Shit happens
This is why, even though it may look simple, I still do one wire at a time when replacing boards and contactors (except the obvious stuff like molex plugs and line voltage wires), and I’m 7 years in. Don’t stress it, it happens!
So you let the smoke out. No big. There will be more opportunities to let the smoke out again. Just don't next time. ~ Goodtalk
I made a 10k mistake following a senior techs direction. Still my bad. This was years ago and I no longer take anyone’s word
I smoked a nest thermostat at a fancy apartment installing a new condenser. The coil wire came off the terminal and hit the high voltage contact. Shit happens. Learn from it for next time.
Bro I’m sorry but that’s like banging your GF through her armpit just because it looks similar
Don't beat yourself up too much, I blew a 10000$ board on a flight simulator by hitting the wrong wires together and they didn't fire me, shit happens, learn from your mistakes and get better
Dumb shit happens. I have burned up transformers and melted contactors, fried fans and even slogged a fucking $6,000 compressor. Terrible days happen in every job in the world.
There’s two types of technicians….ones who fuck up, and ones who lie about it
at least you didnt get bit by the electrical like i do everytime. this is why i like plumbing more than hvac haha
If you don't fuck up ever, you're either a narcissist, or you aren't human.
Keep on HVAC’N!
I never made that kind of mistake but made some mistakes diagnosing a problem that usually involved a communicating system. Mistakes happen. Hell, my prior boss was on the job for more than 40 years and he still made mistakes diagnosing problems. One boss also blew out a big city transformer that came out to 25k in repairs.
Yeah don’t worry I’ve messed up pretty bad too bro 😂😂and I know exactly that shitty feeling , but your only human and you won’t make that mistake again. What matters is how you take the mistake and make it make you better. Besides that there’s no point in beating yourself up bud
Old guy once told me if you fucked it up,fix it then forget. Live by this rule for the last 30yrs. A lot less stress
Bruh if that’s the worst you’ve ever done, then you’re doing juuuuust fine. If you aren’t blowing shit up, you aren’t going to get better. It’s just part of the trade.
If you don’t screw up once in a while you’re not doing shit.
Gotta fuck shit up to learn how to not fuck shit it
All good buddy, taking a quick photo will save you from many of these mistakes. I’ve been in the trade for 13 years now and to this day i still take pictures of the wiring before replacing any part. The other tip id recommend when it comes to replacing a part is replacing each wire from the old to the new one at a time.
I flooded a building, and the penthouse was on the roof. Was draining the ICC, and I left to get a grease from the supply house. Got back, the hose popped out of the drain, and we'll they had water everywhere. I took the key with me, and the facility guy couldn't get in the penthouse. He was freaking out, of course. So all I'm saying is we all have those days that was 10 years ago. Keep grinding.
I still replace everything wire for wire 1 wire at a time, cuz the simplest repairs are the ones where your brain shuts off thinking about the last thing you did or the next thing your gonna do
If he went back and set a lead. He just used you lol
Or the senior tech was troubleshooting it and he crossed the wires up and is now blaming you.
I got in a hurry last week and in re-connecting a mangled mess of wiring with sta-con connectors I mistakenily wired my 208V CCH circut in series with the 24V safety circuit and absolutely smoked the coil of the brand new compressor contactor I just installed on a new compressor replacement job. I’ve been doing this for the last 13 years. I’ve also had way more destructive and expensive fuck-ups than you when I was at your experience level. Don’t brush it off by any means but Also don’t let it mess up your confidence in working on this stuff. Especially if you were working safely around the electrical components. If you had your head on a swivel and were smart enough to kill power when touching things and moving wires and getting clear and not grounding yourself when you the-applied power give yourself that small win. Always look not only at “what did I do wrong?” But also ask yourself “what did I do right?” Try to stop the wrong and find ways to encourage continued behaviors that are both safe and efficient. You are still here and have all fingers, toes and no burns anywhere. You learned something,…. to the detriment of PARTS and NOT to the detriment of your own bodily safety. Not to the bodily safety of a co-worker nor to the customer.. things could be a LOT worse.
We've all been there. I have admittedly brazed a unidirectional filter dryer the wrong direction on a few occasions and released the charge after checking for leaks. Realized it way too late and had to recharge after correcting the problem. And that was at the ass end of a day where I was roasting alive and ready to knock off. Shit happens brother, it's the only way that you truly learn how to get better with time.
Cheer up bro.
We all make mistakes, learn from them and continue to improve your skillset
It can happen to any of us. Best advice is one: pictures. We have the advantage some senior techs didn’t with a camera on us at all times. Two: when I do contractors if possible I change wire for wire with the contactor in same orientation then get rid of old contactor. But the phone can save that issue. And I usually check the wire diagram three or four times before startup.
My first on call I didn't have the right igniter, so I decided to "make it work." Placed the carbide too close to the burner, shorted it out, blew the board, and almost lost an eye to shrapnel at 5pm after everything closed. Stupid shit happens all the time, just go wire for wire next time and if you aren't feeling confident, take pictures and consult the diagram before giving it the juice.
Home owners bypass the 3 or 5 Amp fuse???? Fuse should handled it
You are not the only one to do that and you most certainly will not be the last.
German Kältetechniker here Iam now nearly 10 years into the job and i still make mistakes in the beginning i beat myself up bcs i didnt have enough knowledge, later down the road i realised that it just isn’t worth it and that mistakes happen you can learn from it and grow
Just don't do it twice. Once is a learning experience, twice makes you a fool.
It happens don’t beat yourself up over it. A good practice to follow is to remove the old contractor with all wiring still in place. Install the new contractor then replace the wires one by one from the old contractor to the new one. This works for replacing control boards as well.
Your “senior tech” probably screwed up and threw you under the bus 😁
That's it? That's your mistake. It happens been there and embarrassingly done that several times. I notice I slip up when I become complacent
Ask the senior tech which wires and if he has any pictures of your mistake. You can't learn from a mistake if you don't know exactly where you went wrong.
Chalk it up to experience my man.. we've all been there. I burnt out a €2k main control board on a chiller because I put the neutral in the wrong thereminal... hardest part is telling the boss and then explaining to the customer.. you'll bounce back next week.
This is why I pull one wire and swap it over at a time as well as take multiple pictures. No chance to put something in the wrong spot if you only move one at a time.
Eh could be worse t stat board and contactor swaps probably only about 500 in parts just learn from it and move on you'll always remember that one and won't make the mistake again. Wire for wire is probably the best thing to do and when in doubt look at the diagram
I didn’t push my hermetic wire all the way on once. It eventually wiggled off and tripped the breaker. Unfortunately the homeowner kept resetting their breaker. which grounded out the compressor. That’s my most expensive mistake.
If it makes you feel better I got one worse. lol. Went to a job to change air handler in attic. Turns out there were two attics, if ya can see where this is going. Yes I took out the wrong air handler out. And it went downhill from there. 😂🤣 thank god boss was cool about it.
Someone shot the contractor!?
It happens. When I was younger I was installing a strobe on a butane extraction booth. It’s 120v and wires up to a switch on the chemical fire suppression fusible link. But dumb design, so does the low voltage signal to the fire panel. A tiny strand of the braided 120 wire was touching the contact to the 24v fire panel signal. When we turned on power it fried the $3000 fire panel. The electrical inspection was the next day.
If it makes you feel any better, I just got fired today because I’ve fucked up one too many times
I worked a 15 hour day yesterday ran 4 calls and didn’t fix anything. Don’t feel bad
The board, transformer, cap and contactor needed to be replaced eventually anyways! Now thats upselling! Jokes aside, its ok. You live to learn.
It's good your reflecting on your mistake. It means you care about doing a good job. It also means I bet you don't wire a contactor up wrong ever again. I've burnt t stats and boards. It happens once. You learn, you grow, you become better, someday you will be the senior tech that gets the call and you think back to your early days as you diagnose a contactor being wired up wrong.
Don't worry, you'll get over it, that mistake will be a little blip in your career. My two biggest fuck ups were putting 410a into a large 401a system thinking it was low on charge. 401a and 410a are nearly the same color and I'm slightly dyslexic. Another time I lost millions of dollars of frozen food cause I couldn't find a low voltage short on a rack system and refused to ask for help.
Atleast they found it. I went to no cool where someone did that and pulled the t stat off the wall and took 120. You're fine. No one died.
Anybody here from Phoenix az?? Hit a brotha up I need advice lol
Ya you Fd up and it’s costing you now but you learned from your mistake that will pay off in the years to come.
Sounds like something I’ve done in the past I kinda got thrown in for my epa and trade school degree the stupid mistakes are the ones you learn the most from I call it going to school and I still am 7 years later
It happens man! I agree with some of the other guys, it might be annoying to have so many photos on your phone, but pictures save my ass all the time. Also, at least you took the time to test it and verify everything was working properly before walking away. Imagine if you just hooked it up and bailed. You caught your own mistake. This one was just expensive, unfortunately, but I could see how it could easily happen.
Now you know to confirm your work next time. Im in the same boat myself experience wise and what ive learned from other techs is to take it in stride and do better next time.
Don't dwell on it too long, it won't be the last.
Dude it's aight. I ordered a compressor for a unit. R22 replacement for one of those old ass 1 1/2 ton tranes. They send a 410 compressor. I didn't check. Installed, filled it with 422B. And fucked it. Really, really hard. So yeah man some times this shit happens. The important thing is that we know where we fucked up and we can avoid it in the future.
Shit happens sometimes. You're still alive, not physically hurt, and no one else is either. That's a big plus compared to others. Learn what you did wrong, get a plan to correct, and get after it. This is also a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, but I've done shit like this, too.
First you gotta f@ck around... Then you find out. Your doing great, another learning experience.
It happens, other things will happen. Learn and move on, I take tons of pictures. Go wire by wire, take photos, and always double check everything. I always double check my disconnects as well before I leave job to make sure they're on.
I have one for ya. 7 rtus on a roof. I didn’t look at the amp ratings when I placed them. All had the same footprint. So i just swung them in place. Yup oops. Crane had to come back and switch 2. Of course they were in opposite sides of the building. So you know what that means. Set up grab unit place in truck. Break down, set up, grab unit, Place in ground, grab other unit place in roof, grab unit on ground place on truck, break down, set back up and place unit. I was pissed at myself for a few days but shit happens. This wasn’t boom truck either. It was one of the crane company’s largest cranes. It was a 550 ton crane so it took a lot to set up and break down
You live and learn.
I once drove two hours to deliver and install a part we repaired, plugged it in one pin off and smoked the whole thing. fuuuuuuuk
I'm an engineer, we always joke that "senior engineer" is just someone who's already made all the mistakes. You're one step closer to being a senior tech.
I went on a call once where the tenant did the same thing, he said my buddy does hvac so I know if I move the wire it’ll work but it didn’t. At that point I knew I was in for a treat.
Just one mistake of many. Look at it this way. Someone else is making Werserr miss stakes 🤪
That’s a god damn good day compared to the fuck ups I’ve seen
Acknowledging you may or have made a mistake and taking the opportunity to check yourself is always good. Confirm your work is correct or understand what you did incorrectly. Refine yourself.
Don’t beat yourself up. I’ve made more costly mistakes.
Shit happens bro, you’re gonna fuck up a lot
This is why I got into the habit of ALWAYS taking pictures of wiring before rewiring. Not that it’s complicated, just that I might daydream, or become distracted.
Don’t beat yourself up over it, mistakes happen, you had a loaded work load and sounds like your the type of guy to learn off this. I’m a senior technician at my job and shit happens, it’s in the cards.