Do you remember your first call?

[Workin4TheMan]

No, but I remember the call the woman returned from her bedroom, in a see through neglige, and asked me "So what do you think?"

I thought she had a great body....

I got married 5 days before.....

Had to "use the bathroom".

Love my wife, that was 14 years ago.

[canusayinsanity]

I had a call early on for no cool and coworker was with me, both us were rookies. Spent 2 hours trying to figure out problem, service had 3 legs 120v at rtu. Tested for shorts, everything. Called other techs and electrician, still couldn't get, was 9pm- well found out one fuse had dual element. Every time I checked there was 120v at both ends of fuse but didn't allow enough current to pass during compressor start up. Thats one I won't forget.
And yes who doesn't love tearing apart a unit only to find gas service shut down.

[canusayinsanity]

workin4theman
Damn I wish that would have happened to me when I was single... but I'm engaged now- oh well.

[drife678]

Got another lennox pulse of the street...... high fives everyone

[buzhall]

My first call I asked the woman to go turn the a/c on .she comes back and says ok it's on. 1 hour later I say well I dunno what's wrong can I see the t-stat? Go up and see that it was still off. Added some refrigerant and all ok, turned out a year later to be my first x-out .old unit was a fedders.

[jaypslugger]

when I ws a kid. Sent to a no cool (resi) for my first call. Find no 24v to contactor, trace it back to stat. As I'm removing the cover, H/O proudly states that it's only a year old & he did it himself. Tell him I'm very proud of him, then show him the broken wire jutting out from the "Y" terminal. Strip and re-attach the wire, do the cursory check and write up the invoice. When he sees the amount, he starts yelling "You're charging me $XX dollars to turn a screw???".

I replied, "Only charged $1 to turn the screw, charging you $XX-1 for knowing which screw to turn". He calls my boss screaming. My boss gets on the phone with me and, while trying not to laugh, tells me to lower the price by $X and get out of there.

Totally different attitude now. Aging 20 years does that to a guy.

[Steveo86]

they sent me to a "furnace cleaning" knowing it was no heat thankfully it was just the flame sensor lol

[meplumber]

when I ws a kid. Sent to a no cool (resi) for my first call. Find no 24v to contactor, trace it back to stat. As I'm removing the cover, H/O proudly states that it's only a year old & he did it himself. Tell him I'm very proud of him, then show him the broken wire jutting out from the "Y" terminal. Strip and re-attach the wire, do the cursory check and write up the invoice. When he sees the amount, he starts yelling "You're charging me $XX dollars to turn a screw???".

I replied, "Only charged $1 to turn the screw, charging you $XX-1 for knowing which screw to turn". He calls my boss screaming. My boss gets on the phone with me and, while trying not to laugh, tells me to lower the price by $X and get out of there.

Totally different attitude now. Aging 20 years does that to a guy.

Great answer to a stupid question. My favorite people in the world are over-confident homeowners and know-it-all facilities maintenance guys. They are good for business.

[mattt787]

i have set off the smokes in a nursing home and did not even know it i was cleaning a big blower when the fire chief came in and said what i was doing at least they under stood

[FrostyBeer]

when I ws a kid. Sent to a no cool (resi) for my first call. Find no 24v to contactor, trace it back to stat. As I'm removing the cover, H/O proudly states that it's only a year old & he did it himself. Tell him I'm very proud of him, then show him the broken wire jutting out from the "Y" terminal. Strip and re-attach the wire, do the cursory check and write up the invoice. When he sees the amount, he starts yelling "You're charging me $XX dollars to turn a screw???".

I replied, "Only charged $1 to turn the screw, charging you $XX-1 for knowing which screw to turn". He calls my boss screaming. My boss gets on the phone with me and, while trying not to laugh, tells me to lower the price by $X and get out of there.

Totally different attitude now. Aging 20 years does that to a guy.

Best answer because its the truth. Id love to say that to a few customers..

[Kevin_1963]

I don't remember my first call, but I remember my first big installation - only because I recently came upon it almost 20 years later.

We got a bid to install a new evap and condensing unit for a walk in cooler at a McDonalds. I had only done service work, never an install, so this was unusual for me. I was really green at knowing where even to start, but me and a goon helper just started chopping away and removing everything. But the new evap was larger and wouldn't fit where the old evap was, so I had to relocate it. BUT I also didn't have a hole saw to cut through the box to reroute the new copper - this was some heavy duty stainless - so I used the existing holes, put the trap there, and ran the copper inside the box about 6' to the new evap. Also ran the electric that way. By the time I was done, it was almost midnight and I can safely say the job looked like crap when I was done - but it worked.

I happened to get a service call there a few months ago and all it turned out to be was the customer accidently hit the breaker. But I'm looking at this, thinking, "damn, if that was me NOW, I'd be fired for that". However, it has been working great all those years, same compressor, same fans, etc.

[Kevin_1963]

And another thing: You know you've been around a long time when you're replacing equipment now that you replaced years ago - when it was new then. I remember putting in a Scotsman ice machine in this one restaurant. About 6 years later it changed owners and they wanted something else since the compressor died - so we put in a Manitowoc. Just recently I pulled that out and put in a Cornelius. They got 12 years out of the Manitowoc, too.

[blitz]

i was just looking up stuff on pulses and saw this thread. im 24 and have been working in hvac for 7 months and this is my first week of on call. haha my first call out this morning was on a lennox pulse and i had never even seen one run before. i found out just how big of a headache they are. they couldnt put the flame sensor and spark plug ina worse spot. but with the metal plate on over the inducer the unit would start and run for two seconds and kick off then retry and retry. i took the metal place off and it ran like a charm. embarassed to admit it took me forever to find that out. im going back with a guy with more experience monday to look at it again. just have the metal plate on loosely and it runs. i dont ever want to work on one of these again!

ummm you do need those metal plate cover on the pulse... it means prolly you have blocked intake/weak motor/dirty diaphragm. and u need the lennox tool kit for the pulse to work on it without pulling your hair off. you also need to pressure test those baby according to lennox manual. if it fails time to buy a new one.