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HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

By: Bryan Orr
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HVAC School is the ever growing online source for real training topics for technicians in the Air-conditioning, Heating and Ventilation Fields. In the podcast, we will share recorded training, tech ride alongs, share challenging diagnostic scenarios. All to help make the industry, your company, and your truck a better place to be. Career Success Economics Personal Development Personal Success
Episodes
  • Refrigeration Pulse Valves - Short #288

    Refrigeration Pulse Valves - Short #288
    May 26 2026

    In this short podcast from the Bry-X stage of the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium, Matthew Taylor from Kalos Services introduces refrigeration pulse valves, which started as a solution for CO2 refrigeration systems and are now common in commercial refrigeration as a whole. He briefly explains how they work and describes their role in the refrigeration systems (and possibly commercial HVAC systems in the future!).

    Refrigeration systems have moved away from electronic expansion valves (EEVs), which have been adopted by residential HVAC systems only recently, and have been using pulse valves instead. Pulse valves are also electronic expansion devices with fewer parts than EEVs (which often have stepper motors and complex electronics) and lower failure rates as a result.

    Pulse valves have a pressure transducer and a temperature sensor that go on the suction line to calculate the superheat; these report to a controller that takes the data from those parts, calculates the superheat based on the refrigerant and programming, and controls the valve like an EEV. However, there are only two wires, and the controller turns the valve on or off (like a solenoid) instead of sending pulses out. Solenoids just open or close completely, but pulse valves have a port (oversized fixed orifice) through which liquid refrigerant passes; when the load changes, the controller merely sends power to open the valve when the load goes up and stops sending power to close the valve when the load goes down. The valve is open for a certain percentage, and the on/off function is open for that amount of time in a six-second duty cycle (and off for the remaining time); this is pulse-width modulation. They also work well with refrigerants that have glide.

    However, pulse valves have some challenges. They may have issues in cases where we have very long evaporators, as there are delays between what happens between the inlet and outlet. Having multiple, shorter evaporators is a common solution to this problem, and these designs are more efficient in general (especially when they can be used with efficient refrigerants that move slowly through the evaporator). Pulse valves also require a computer (though EEV ones are similar), and are less serviceable than other valves; some may require technicians to take the valve apart to take the screen out, which requires replacement O-rings and gaskets. They are also noisy enough for customers to hear them.

    Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool.

    Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.

    Subscribe to our podcast on your iPhone or Android.

    Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

    Check out our handy calculators here or on the HVAC School Mobile App for Apple and Android.
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    21 mins
  • Residential HVAC Install Process Improvement

    Residential HVAC Install Process Improvement
    May 21 2026
    In this candid team meeting, Bryan — a founder of Kalos Services and a veteran of residential HVAC — gathers his install crew to have an honest conversation about what goes wrong on the job. With summer around the corner and the workload about to spike, Bryan circles back to his roots in residential HVAC to lead a round-table discussion on the pain points his technicians face every single day. Rather than pointing fingers, he opens the floor for every team member to voice the specific frustrations that slow down their installs, and what emerges is a surprisingly consistent list: size and clearance problems, missing small materials, incomplete job photos, and last-minute schedule changes that leave crews scrambling before they even pull out of the shop. Bryan draws on his own humble origins as a one-man operation hauling equipment on a Gladiator trailer — doing installs, service calls, and waste runs all in the same day — to remind his team that chaos is not inevitable; it is the byproduct of poor process. He is refreshingly self-aware, admitting that he was a very bad installer who routinely showed up with equipment that did not fit the space. That honesty sets the tone for the entire session: this is not a lecture about accountability, but a collaborative problem-solving conversation about building repeatable systems that prevent the same mistakes from happening over and over again. As Bryan frames it, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result — and right now, the team is living that cycle. The heart of the session focuses on a three-phase planning framework: what should be done the night before a job, what should happen at the shop before the crew leaves, and what needs to occur during the first 30 minutes on-site. Bryan emphasizes that skipping proper measurements and job photos should carry the same weight as failing an inspection or leaving a refrigerant leak — because the downstream cost is just as real. He breaks down the two categories of mistakes that are truly unacceptable for any installer: refrigerant leaks from improper brazing, and water leaks from poorly executed drain lines. No amount of clean workmanship makes up for either of those failures, and he walks the crew through the non-negotiable steps — pressure testing and bubble solution on every single joint — that prevent them. Bryan wraps up by tying individual preparation habits to the bigger picture of company growth. He acknowledges that last-minute installs and mid-job equipment runs may never fully disappear, but that investing 15 minutes the evening before and 30 minutes on arrival creates a compounding tipping point effect — over time, the crew gains back hours, reduces surprises, and frees up the time that matters most: commissioning the system properly. Checklists, he argues, are not about turning skilled tradespeople into robots; they are about transferring institutional knowledge to the next generation of technicians and ensuring that nothing critical gets overlooked, no matter how many times you have done the job before. Topics Covered Common install-day problems surfaced in a round-table with the install crewEquipment size and clearance issues — why measurements matter before the truck leaves the shopThe critical role of detailed job photos in preventing on-site surprisesMissing small materials (wire nuts, spray foam, surge protectors, breakers) and how to stock proactivelyScope and de-scope review: aligning the proposal with the homeowner before work beginsBryan's three-phase planning framework: the night before, at the shop, and on arrivalWhy refrigerant leaks and drain-line failures are the two non-negotiable mistakes to eliminatePressure testing and bubble solution as a standard, every-joint practiceThe role of checklists in training new technicians and preserving institutional knowledgeHandling last-minute installs and the logistics of getting equipment to the job siteCondenser access obstacles — bushes, parking, property layout — and how to communicate with homeownersFaulty or missing parts out of the box and strategies for catching them earlyPanel rework and surprise platform rebuilds: planning for the unexpectedHow improved preparation leads to better commissioning time at the end of every jobBuilding a culture of process over blame — poor planning is a system problem, not a people problem Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool. Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium. Subscribe to our podcast on your iPhone or Android. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Check out our handy calculators here or on the HVAC School Mobile App for Apple and Android.
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    33 mins
  • How to Teach Kids the Trades - Short #287

    How to Teach Kids the Trades - Short #287
    May 19 2026

    In this short podcast from the Bry-X stage of the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium, Ty Branaman and Leilani Orr talk about how to teach kids the trades. They share lessons they've learned from the GRIT Foundation and over their careers as trades and home educators. Their approaches have evolved over the years, and GRIT has also evolved quite a bit from its beginnings.

    Leilani and Ty have found that the Socratic method is great for getting students to think critically; instead of spoon-feeding answers, teachers ask the students "why" and "how" questions. In GRIT Camps, mentors are there to keep students safe and guide them when needed, but mentors ultimately let students make mistakes and figure things out on their own. Students often make leaky joints when they braze for the first time, but it's their first time holding torches and most of the tools used at GRIT Camp.

    Making mistakes is crucial to the learning process. The mistakes we (and the students) make with our own hands also stick with us more than being told how to do a task the right way. Then, when students struggle, we can ask if they want to know a shortcut; they give their mentors permission to show them the right way. This method builds curiosity, and it allows students to get excited about a career in the trades or realize that the trades aren't for them but still walk away with hands-on skills and a newfound respect for the trades.

    Many tradespeople take the trade skills they learned as children for granted, as many children nowadays don't develop the same hands-on skills. The GRIT Foundation has a course that teaches mentors to teach students those hands-on skills that already seem like second nature to them. Even so, the course is just a guide, not something that needs to be followed to the letter. Many of the concepts taught in the guide and that mentors use at GRIT Camp also apply to apprentices.

    Learn more about the GRIT Foundation at https://www.thegritfoundation.com/.

    Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool.

    Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.

    Subscribe to our podcast on your iPhone or Android.

    Subscribe to our YouTube channel.

    Check out our handy calculators here or on the HVAC School Mobile App for Apple and Android.
    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
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