Bless Your Heart
What Your HVAC Technician Really Means
There are things HVAC technicians say.
And then there are things HVAC technicians mean.
We’re professionals. We work in people’s homes. We’re supposed to be polite, patient and respectful. That’s exactly how it should be.
But every tradesperson has had that conversation.
The one where you’re smiling and nodding while the professional words coming out of your mouth are very different from the words bouncing around inside your head.
Usually, the internal version can be summarized in three simple words:
Bless your heart.
So, in the interest of transparency, here’s a little translation guide.
And we’ll start with the job that inspired this article.
“Unfortunately, This Is How We Have to Do It.”
What we really mean:
I’ve done this several dozen times. Please don’t make us learn the same lesson again.
We were replacing an air-conditioning system in a downstairs condo.
Everything was being replaced, including the copper refrigerant lines.
Normally, no big deal.
Except these refrigerant lines traveled roughly 20 feet underneath the building through a 4-inch PVC chase.
And they weren’t alone.
Inside that same 4-inch pipe were our customer’s refrigerant lines, the upstairs neighbor’s refrigerant lines, both PVC condensate drains and low-voltage wiring.
If you’re an HVAC technician reading this, you just made a face.
Yes.
It’s exactly as much fun as it sounds.
I’ve done several dozen of these over the years.
There’s no magic trick.
The method I’ve found that works is pretty simple:
Don’t throw away the path you already have.
Braze the new copper onto the existing copper and carefully use the old tubing to pull the new tubing through one line at a time.
It’s still miserable.
But it works.
Then the Upstairs Neighbor Got Involved
Our customer’s lines shared the chase with the upstairs neighbor’s lines.
My customer asked a really good question:
“Would it be easier if we replaced hers at the same time?”
Absolutely.
It would make the entire job easier.
Then he did something incredibly generous.
He offered to pay for hers.
There was nothing wrong with the upstairs neighbor’s refrigerant lines. They didn’t need to be replaced.
But since both sets occupied the same tiny chase, replacing both at the same time would allow us to coordinate everything instead of fighting around one existing lineset.
She initially agreed.
Perfect.
Then her son got involved.
Her son was apparently a lawyer and was concerned that she didn’t have a “contract” with us and that allowing us to replace her refrigerant lines might somehow affect the warranty she had with her HVAC company.
Fair enough.
So she called her HVAC company.
Their recommendation was apparently that they replace her refrigerant lines instead.
Also fair enough.
Now we had two HVAC companies replacing two sets of refrigerant lines through the same 4-inch chase.
We just needed to coordinate.
Except somewhere during the next 24 hours, something remarkable happened.
The day before, she had perfectly good refrigerant lines and was going to let us replace them for free because her downstairs neighbor had generously offered to pay for them.
The next day, after talking to her HVAC company…
She had become an expert on pulling refrigerant lines through a 4-inch PVC chase.
“My Guys Said You’re Wrong.”
I explained how we intended to get our new copper through.
Use the existing copper.
Braze onto it.
Pull the new tubing through one line at a time.
She informed me that her guys said that wasn’t the correct way to do it.
And then came the credential.
“I’m a college professor.”
Cool.
What I actually said was something polite and professional.
What I desperately wanted to say was:
“That’s awesome. Have you ever pulled 20 feet of copper refrigerant tubing underneath a condominium through a 4-inch PVC chase containing another refrigerant lineset, two condensate drains and low-voltage wiring?”
No?
Then maybe sit this one out.
Bless your heart.
And listen, being a college professor is impressive.
I couldn’t do it.
I’ve never taught a college course in my life.
Which is exactly why, if I ever find myself sitting in the back of one of your classes, I promise I won’t raise my hand halfway through the lecture and announce:
“Actually, Professor, my guys said you’re doing this wrong.”
You handle the syllabus.
I’ll handle the refrigerant lines.
Deal?
Then Apparently We Were Late
Our installation was scheduled for 10:00 AM.
Our job had already been scheduled.
The upstairs neighbor didn’t even have a refrigerant-line replacement scheduled when this whole thing started.
Her involvement came after our installation was already planned.
Her HVAC company then decided they could come out at 8:00 AM to replace her lines.
Fine.
Except the upstairs neighbor was irritated that we weren’t also there at 8:00 AM.
She told me we should have met her guys there.
I’m thinking:
Why?
We have a scheduled job.
At 10:00.
Your guys didn’t even have a job here until after ours was scheduled.
Why exactly would we rearrange our entire schedule because another HVAC company decided they wanted to show up two hours earlier?
We didn’t say that, of course.
We’re professionals.
Bless your heart.
Sometimes You Should Listen to the Guy Holding the Tools
There’s another important detail about trying to get two new sets of refrigerant lines through an already packed 4-inch chase:
It’s easier to be first.
Once one new lineset occupies that limited space, the second one gets harder.
Her guys got started.
At some point, they wanted us to remove our existing refrigerant lines and the condensate drain so they’d have more room to get theirs through.
There was one small problem.
I NEEDED OUR OLD COPPER.
That was my pull!
How the heck am I supposed to use the old refrigerant lines to pull the new refrigerant lines through if I remove the old refrigerant lines first?
I explained this.
And one of their technicians immediately said:
“I KNEW we needed to use the old ones!”
I almost died.
Because the technician actually doing the work understood exactly what I was talking about.
Apparently, their supervisor had instructed them to remove their old copper completely.
And I’m not knocking those technicians.
Not at all.
Those guys worked their asses off.
They were trying to accomplish a genuinely miserable job using the plan they’d been given.
One of the guys holding the tools had even looked at the situation and reached the same conclusion we had.
Sometimes there’s a difference between how a plan looks from an air-conditioned office…
…and how it looks when you’re underneath a condo trying to get copper through 20 feet of packed 4-inch PVC in Florida.
8:00 AM to Jeopardy!
They removed their existing copper.
Then they started trying to get the new copper through.
And they worked.
And worked.
And worked.
Morning became afternoon.
Afternoon became evening.
They had started around 8:00 AM.
By the time they were roughly finished, Jeopardy! was getting ready to come on.
Again:
I’m not making fun of those technicians.
This is a nightmare job.
That’s the point.
They worked hard.
They eventually got it done.
They just took a different path to get there.
Then It Was Our Turn
We came back the following day.
We knew exactly what kind of job we were walking into because…
We’ve done this before.
So we prepared for it.
Tent.
Fans.
Lots of water.
Then we got to work.
And the upstairs neighbor watched us.
Closely.
We were smiling.
Laughing.
Talking to each other.
Communicating.
One person feeding.
One person pulling.
Stop.
Adjust.
Back up.
Change the angle.
Go.
Stop again.
Pull.
Feed.
Go.
Nobody was panicking.
Nobody was screaming.
Nobody was blaming the pipe.
Everybody knew what we were trying to accomplish and what the other person needed.
After roughly an hour of some legitimately hard work:
Our new copper was through.
We continued with the installation, finished everything, pulled a great vacuum and completed the entire system replacement in roughly four hours.
Apparently, watching this did not improve the upstairs neighbor’s mood.
She had spent significantly more money having her refrigerant lines replaced.
Then she watched us show up the following day, set up our little tent, laugh and joke with each other, get our copper through and efficiently complete the installation exactly the way we’d said we were going to do it.
And somehow, some of that frustration ended up directed toward our customer.
You remember him.
The guy who originally offered to pay to replace her refrigerant lines.
You really can’t make this stuff up.
We Know a Thing or Two
Farmers Insurance has that famous line:
“We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”
For the trades, I’d change one word:
We know a thing or two because we’ve DONE a thing or two.
That’s experience.
It doesn’t mean we’re smarter than you.
It doesn’t mean we’re always right.
We’re definitely not always right.
More on that in a minute.
But when an experienced tradesperson makes a horrible job look relatively easy, understand what you’re actually watching.
You’re watching all the times it wasn’t easy.
You’re watching the job that took us all day 15 years ago.
You’re watching the copper we kinked.
You’re watching the pull that broke.
You’re watching the mistake we made once and never made again.
You’re watching the trick another technician taught us.
You’re watching hundreds — eventually thousands — of jobs slowly turn into experience.
The work didn’t suddenly become easy.
We just got better at doing hard things.
“The Other Guy Said Your Evaporator Coil Is Backwards.”
What we really mean:
Good news! He was wrong! You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars fixing something that isn’t broken!
You’d think this would be cause for celebration.
We once went to a home where another technician had told the homeowner that her evaporator coil had been installed backwards.
That’s a pretty big deal.
Correcting something like that could mean opening the refrigeration circuit, removing the coil, reconfiguring it, reinstalling everything, brazing it back together, pressure testing, evacuating the system and putting everything back into operation.
In other words:
Not cheap.
So I looked at it.
The system was installed horizontal left.
A lot of this equipment comes configured from the factory for one position and is designed to be converted for another approved orientation.
How do you know which way it’s supposed to go?
This is where we deploy one of the most advanced diagnostic tools available to the modern HVAC technician:
The friggin’ installation manual.
I pulled up the manufacturer’s instructions.
Found the horizontal-left configuration.
Looked at the diagrams.
Compared them to the equipment.
And…
It was installed correctly.
Fantastic!
Seriously.
This is GREAT NEWS.
That expensive problem someone told you existed?
It doesn’t exist.
No pulling the coil.
No cutting refrigerant lines.
No reinstalling anything.
No spending thousands of dollars correcting something that was already correct.
We’re done!
Except…
She kept arguing with me.
“Well, the other guy said it’s backwards.”
Yes.
I understand.
But at this point, you’re not really arguing with me anymore.
You’re arguing with the people who built it.
I have the manual.
Here’s the picture.
Here’s the approved configuration.
Here’s your equipment.
They match.
At some point, I wanted to hand her the manual and say:
“Ma’am, this is actually good news.”
You don’t owe us thousands of dollars.
Celebrate!
Go to dinner.
Buy a TV.
Put it in savings.
Do literally anything else with the money.
Your evaporator coil is fine.
Bless your heart.
Sometimes WE Are “The Other Guy”
And this is important.
We’re not telling that story because we’re smarter than the technician who looked at it before us.
Because sometimes…
WE are the other guy.
Sometimes we’re wrong.
Every technician who’s been doing this long enough has been wrong.
I’ve misdiagnosed things.
I’ve thought I knew what I was looking at and then discovered I didn’t.
I’ve had another technician show me something I missed.
That’s part of working in a trade that’s changing constantly.
Modern HVAC equipment isn’t getting simpler.
Variable-speed compressors.
Inverter boards.
Communicating controls.
Electronic expansion valves.
Different refrigerants.
Different installation requirements.
Different charging procedures.
Different control logic.
Different manufacturers doing things different ways.
Nobody knows all of it.
And the minute a technician decides he doesn’t need to learn anymore because he’s “been doing this for 20 years” is probably the exact moment he starts falling behind.
That’s why we work so hard to stay current.
That’s why we train.
That’s why we read service manuals.
That’s why we read installation manuals.
That’s why we look at manufacturer literature.
That’s why we verify things instead of relying entirely on:
“Well, I’ve always done it this way.”
Experience matters.
But so does humility.
Sometimes the smartest thing a technician can say is:
“I’m not sure. Let me look that up.”
That’s not weakness.
That’s a technician you should probably trust.
Because experience doesn’t mean knowing everything.
Experience means knowing enough to recognize when you don’t know something.
“I Understand What You’re Saying.”
What we really mean:
I heard every word. None of those words changed physics.
Your air conditioner doesn’t care what somebody on Facebook said.
It doesn’t care what your neighbor’s system does.
It doesn’t care what your cousin who “used to do HVAC” remembers from 1997.
And it especially doesn’t care what “your guy” says if your guy isn’t standing here looking at the equipment.
We’ll listen.
We’ll explain.
We’ll answer your questions.
But eventually we’re going to have to return to the laws of thermodynamics.
Bless your heart.
“That’s Certainly One Way of Doing It.”
What we really mean:
I would not do that.
Could it work?
Apparently.
Would I do it?
Nope.
But I’ve also been doing this long enough to know better than to say nobody has ever successfully done something differently than I would.
HVAC has a remarkable number of ways to accomplish the same thing.
Some are just considerably more entertaining to watch.
Bless your heart.
“The System Is Operating Normally.”
What we really mean:
Please stop staring at the thermostat.
It’s 97 degrees outside.
Your thermostat is set to 72.
Your house is 73.
Your air conditioner has been running for 45 minutes.
Your air conditioner has not betrayed you.
It’s August.
In Florida.
Bless your heart.
“We Can Definitely Take Another Look.”
What we really mean:
I’ve checked this three times.
I checked it.
Then I checked it again.
Then you asked if I was sure.
So I checked it a third time.
We have now achieved a level of verification normally reserved for NASA.
Yes.
I’m sure.
Probably.
Okay, now I’m going to check it one more time because you made me question myself.
Bless your heart.
“You Absolutely Can Get Another Opinion.”
What we really mean:
Seriously. Please do.
We encourage second opinions.
We offer them ourselves.
Another qualified technician might see something we missed.
They might have another solution.
They might know something we don’t.
That’s how this works.
What carries slightly less weight is:
“My neighbor said…”
“My handyman said…”
“My brother-in-law said…”
“A guy at work said…”
“I saw a video…”
“My cousin used to do refrigeration…”
Cool.
Have them come over.
We’ll wait.
Bless their hearts too.
“That’s Not Really How This Works.”
What we really mean:
You’ve accidentally crossed the line between asking us about HVAC and teaching us HVAC.
We LOVE questions.
Ask why we’re checking static pressure.
Ask why we’re measuring superheat and subcooling.
Ask why we’re pulling a vacuum.
Ask why we’re recommending a repair.
Ask us to show you the failed part.
Ask whether there’s another option.
Ask us how we know.
There’s an important difference between:
“Why do you have to do it that way?”
and:
“That’s not how you’re supposed to do it.”
One is a question.
The other might earn you a very quiet:
Bless your heart.
Seriously — Ask Questions
This article isn’t telling homeowners to shut up and let the HVAC guy do whatever he wants.
Absolutely not.
An informed customer is a good customer.
And frankly, our industry has earned some skepticism.
Ask us why.
Ask us how.
Ask us to show you the readings.
Ask us to show you the manual.
Ask whether something actually needs to be replaced.
Ask if there’s a less expensive option.
Get another opinion.
Hell, sometimes the second opinion might prove us wrong.
That’s okay.
We don’t want blind trust.
We want customers who understand what we’re doing.
But there’s a difference between asking a professional why they’re doing something and telling a professional how to do something you’ve never done.
Experience counts for something.
And if we make something difficult look easy, that doesn’t mean it was easy.
It means you’re watching the result of all the times it wasn’t.
We know a thing or two because we’ve DONE a thing or two.
We also know enough to occasionally open the friggin’ manual.
So ask your technician why.
Ask them to explain.
Ask them to verify.
And if they can show you exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing…
Maybe give them a chance to do it.
And if you still want to tell them they’re wrong because your guy said so…
Or because you’re a college professor…
We’ll remain professional.
We’ll smile.
We’ll nod.
We’ll probably say:
“I understand.”
And now you know what we really mean.