Regular Guest
Working as a small engine mechanic, someone said the backhoe/loader was hard to start. Looked at it and decided to change the + battery terminal clamp. Disconnected and began. Boss came out fairly quickly and asked if we were working on it. Yep . Satellite locator company had called as signal went down. Finished job and started ok.
Regular Guest
I have a stupid question:
If 14.7 psia = 0 psig = 29.92"hg... then why on a compound guage would it not go from 0 psig to 30"hg to 20 "hg to 10"hg and so on instead of 0 psig to 10"hg to 20"hg...ect?
Is this so we say 29.92"hg vacuum instead of -29.92"hg?
Professional Member*
The 29.92"hg is reffering to if you have a bowl of mercury and a glass tube over 30" long sealed at one end and you fill that tube with mercury, put your finger over the end, invert it so the open end is in the mercury bowl and release your finger the tube will have 29.92" of mercury standing in it at sealevel. As teh atmospheric pressure that is exerted on the surface of the HG in the bowl changes the hieght of the mecury in the tube will change. So it is actually refering to the vaccum at the top end of the tube, less vacuum less mercury in the tube.
I hope that helps.
Regular Guest
That does help.
Thank you.
Professional Member
Electricity is essential...Originally Posted by crymtide
Professional Member*
Had a call last week. No cool. It was 97deg out, inside office temp was 85. I checked Tstat, was set to 68, went on roof, where it was 115 deg, filters were clogged, I replaced, went back down, office was 85 still. But I noticed lobby was colder than the first time. So, I went back to office and I looked up. Register was closed. The doctor was getting too hot last winter so he closed it himself.... wow guy.
Professional Member
Don't know about stupid calls but definitely stupid customers.. Like the ones where u come in set ur tools down near the furnace or w.e it is ur working on and you make ur way back to the truck to get something and the customer says"omg it feels soo much better what did u do?" and you haven't even pulled the panel off yet?? Had my share of those
Professional Member
Worst one I been on was when I was doing residential service, a guy called said heat wasn't working right. I drove 60 miles and when walked in house the tstat read 88 in house, I asked the problem was he said I can't get the house above 88 without turning on the oven. He wanted 90 inside and ambient was around 30
Professional Member*
Just had one tonight. I get there and the guy asks what took so long. It's been 2hrs. No. Call came in little over an hour ago.
I go to the PTAC and find unit running but not blowing cold air. I install piercing valve and suction press is 5psi. Off its 150psi. Thinking either low or restricted. No frost. I start adding Freon. Suction line starts frosting at cap tube. I tell customer will be XXX dollars to repair. He starts getting upset. I repair cap tube and vacuum. I start charging and I hear the evap coil hissing. Damn. Evap coil is leaking. So unit was low. I tell HO that we'll have to quote repair.
He asks why I can't fix today or tell him how much more its going to cost. Cause its after 5pm. I'll have our dispatcher call you with a price. He says well she won't get me on the phone, she'll have to leave it on the voicemail. Ok.
I hand him my ticket to sign. I noted unit is down and needs evap coil. I didn't try and charge him yet since I didn't fix it. I tell him I left it open till we get it fixed. He says he won't sign cause its printed on it that I completed the work. Well that's not what it says or means. It says you agree to the work. I say fine you don't have to sign. I wasn't collecting for today anyway.
This is where its gets weird.
He asks me what if I replace the coil and it still doesn't work. I say I should work. The coils leaking and needs to be replaced. He asks same question. I say there is no reason why it wouldn't work. He says I'm gonna ask a third time what if you replace the coil and it still doesn't work. I'm dumbfounded. I say I don't know.
He replies, that's what I wanted you to say. What was so hard about that! I shouldn't have to ask 3 times to get a straight answer. I'm thinking I don't know is not a straight answer.
He mumbles something about not saying 4 words to him, yet I've talked to him the entire time. He the tells me to get out. No problem.
I call the boss and he said the receptionist said he sounded crazy and figured he probably wouldn't get paid.
Thanks for the heads up.
Professional Member*
I had that customer. Trying to heat is house to 85 or higher with a heatpump.
Professional Member
Technically, I didn't run the call, but...
- On call on a Sunday.
- Get a call from some old stroke.
"I smell smoke in my house."
"Why are you calling me?"
"What if it's my furnace?"
"CALL 911 AND GET THE F*CKING FIRE DEPARTMENT!"
"Oh, I didn't think of that..."
"Call them first when you smell smoke."
"I hope they don't make a big deal out of it..."
"Call them. Right NOW. Goodbye."
I called 911 myself two minutes later to make sure a fire co. *WAS* going to the house. Didn't trust the guy to get them there on his own.
Never called back. Clearly something else in the house was on fire.
Professional Member
I read this entire thread last nite and you guys made me lol a lot, and also miss my bedtime.
I can relate to the thermostats not on or on fan only, doors off, etc. I've seen several. The funniest I've had was just this year, and was more strange than funny. I've done the refer on a liquor store for the last 15 years or so. It's about 25 minutes away in another town. Twice this year I've stopped in to say hi and ask if everything was running ok, and the lady that owns the store asked me how I got there so fast, as she had just called and left me a message. I dunno, I'm just that good I guess. :shrug:
The worst I've ever had: Customer calls and needs a resi freezer fixed as they have ordered a half beef custom cut and they needed to pick it up. I get there and the freezer is outside... first warning sign. I open the the lid on the chest freezer and the smell nearly knocks me down. There is a biology experiment gone badly wrong in there. The freezer had quit and the customer never bothered to clean the mess out, but expected me to do it. No thanks, no charge, goodbye.
This has happened twice and I hope it never happens again.
Professional Member
I called my last customer of the night to let her know I was on my way to her house(it was an hour drive from where i was at). She picks up the phone balling her lungs out saying its like a sauna in here and I needed to hurry up. Yea it was hot that day, a typical North Carolina summer day. I finally pull up to her house and she comes out wearing a freaking jean jacket and long Lycra pants. I tried so hard not to say anything. She shut her unit off cause it wasn't cooling her double wide down. I go inside and was blown away, she was a hoarder. And not just any hoarder, she was a trash hoarder. Every vent in the house had garbage on it. I was pretty mad that i drove straight there, i was finally gonna eat some lunch at 7 pm plus I still had an hour drive back to the house.
Bad Email Address
I went to a call 2 months ago for a "whooshing sound" that the customer thought was water leaking in his attic. I arrived[ sunday morning ] and the house was dead silent so I naturally heard this faint sound. I walked up this loft area to the attic where the sound was coming from, looked inside and the was no furnace or fan coil. I came back out and heard the sound perfectly, looked down at a rock shaped speaker where the noise was coming from, so I put it to my ear and it was some type of weird radio static. So I turned off his radio for him. The guy was so embarassed but I still had to charge him. Everyone laughed for weeks after that one!!!!
Banned
hmm I have allot..
Had a guy want me to do a capacity test on his NEW air conditioner he bought on a Sunday afternoon because he felt that since HE paid thousands of dollars for a new on he should be able to get his tstat to drop down to 65 degree's when its 95 outside with 100 percent humidity
I POLITELY told him to eat a bag of dicks..
system was running fine when I arrived to the EMERGENCY call on Sunday evening.
all my stupid calls are either during the weekend or late night. Had a 75 year old lady call dispatch on a Saturday, or Sunday it was one of those days saying her Air conditioner was not working. So I go out there and here is this old lady in a robe escourting me to her damn Alarm control panal on the wall and low and behold I am looking at a flashing message, it says CHECK AC.....
I politely tell the old lady to call her alarm service.
Got stiffed on that call by the way.
allot of dehumidistats set to #$# percent no cool calls.. Where you go there and turn the damn nob to ON, and just admire the ignorance...
Professional Member
Emergency No Cool Call at 8pm, Drove 2hrs to get there. I arrive Home is 60 inside.
"So your AC is working?"
"Yes but it runs for 15 minutes than shuts off for 30 minutes no matter how low I turn down the thermostat"
Go out side and what do I find?? An OFF PEAK SAVER SWITCH
SON OF A #$&**
Regular Guest
1am during a Minnesota winter I get a call I know is over an hour away so I try to diagnose over the phone. Everything checks out. The customer repeatedly says I just got my propane filled not to long ago. I drive out and walk to the propane tank though crotch deep snow...you guessed it, empty! Aaaaargh! How long ago did you fill it? "Oh only about 2 months ago."
Regular Guest
Service call for no cooling on a system we installed the previous year.
Me: "How often to you change your filter?"
customer: "filter?"
Regular Guest
After hours call back. Totally irate customer yelling on the phone claiming I'm incompetent because his system stopped running a couple of hours after my repair that morning. I drive to the house to find the furnace switch that was hidden behind a box on a shelf turned off accidentally when the customer placed the box there. No apology from the customer but I did get a $20 tip after charging him my after hours diagnostic fee. Doh!
Professional Member
Go to a call for carbon monoxide alarm. Search for a couple hours getting high readings on my meter. Not coming from water heater or furnace but levels are high in the basement. Go into crawl space entrance in basement levels start climbing. Further in I go the higher they go. Get to the end of the crawl at the wall 250 ppm. Wtf, no equipment in there, no flue pipes nothing that could produce carbon monoxide. Hmm what's on the other side of this wall. The garage. Go out there readings are even higher. Turns out the lady was warming her car up in the garage for 15 minutes every morning with the door closed. I thought her husband was gonna kill her when they got the bill.
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