Talking About The HVAC Market, And What It's Like Running A Blue Collar Business!

Welcome to the HVAC Guy live show. We are live at five. If you're here, it's five o'clock. Thank you for joining me today. I intend to talk about some specific problems we are having in the industry. Basically, competing with people who may be unlicensed or low-balling bids for their own reasons. I think you'll enjoy the commentary. This is one place where I'll let my opinions be known And so do the people in the comments. So join me, we're planning to have a good time. Hey guys, once again, welcome to the HVAC Guy live podcast. I invited a couple people to come on today, but it seems like I just can't get organized enough to invite them, you know, like three or four days ahead of time. So y'all forgive me for not having a guest today. I still intend and hope to have a good show for you. First of all, let me mention the, um... The store in the corner, that is my Amazon store. The stuff that y'all see me using throughout the day in my videos, I try to put in that store right there. And yesterday, I just dropped a new educational video for people wanting to start and run a small business that is for members only. There should be a link in the description. Enough of that. Now let's get to it. I, um, if y'all can see my shirt, or maybe you can't, I am. I'm a Mandalorian fan, and I'm a big fan of Grogu. I don't know if that says a lot about me or not. There was somebody in the comments just a little while ago who mentioned that the AC topic is trending big in the news in Europe. There's a reason for that. They have made our national news, our world news, for topping 100 degrees in places where some people don't have air conditioning at all. And if they do, it's not adequate for that temperature. Um, yeah, that was pretty hot for, for, um, like Paris or something like that. That is, that's really hot. I feel for you guys there. That happens here in the U.S. sometimes, like for the Pacific Northwest. Some of those places up there do not have air conditioning because it never really, I shouldn't say never, but it doesn't get hot, um, like it does down here frequently. So, um, when it does get hot, the people suffer. All right, Vincent. Vincent, you said you were in Europe or you said the topic was trending in Europe. Where are you? Uh, but before I get too deep into the comments, one of the things that I think I wanted to complain about is basically people working without a license and taking jobs from licensed contractors and... No, it's not immigrants that are taking our jobs. It's our neighbors who don't have a condition, their contractor's license, don't have to pay insurance, don't have to pay workers comp, don't have to pay rent on a building. They don't have to pay higher insurance for a work vehicle. They don't have to carry general liability. None of that. And sometimes we get outbid by these guys. It's unfortunate because There are people paying them that, Y'all forgive me if the camera's moving around. I don't have control over that. At least I don't know how to. Some of the people that are paying these guys that are either working on the side or working as a contractor when legally they're not, they should know better. And it's really frustrating. For legitimate contractors like myself who have gone through the trouble to get a license, make sure we have really good insurance, it's very frustrating. It makes it hard for legitimate people to run a business when somebody's coming along behind and, Riley's in the room, when somebody's coming along behind and just underbidding the job. And that's not all. That's not the only problem. that we're facing, but it is a big one, especially for companies like mine. I have in the past, not so much anymore, I have in the past relied heavily on like rental companies and I'm finding that many of them, not all of them, in town there are at least three really good ones that are good about paying the right people and not trying to haggle you down on your price and respecting my But there are some of them who just want the lowest price no matter what. And the lowest price no matter what is almost never a good idea. Yeah, those are the guys. It's really frustrating. I'll give you an example. There's this one company I've been doing business with for over 10 years, doing quality work, installs, cutting them deals. And they would send me a good portion of their business. And then... All of a sudden, I'm not getting any installs from them and not as many service repairs. Those, and I've come to find out that they're giving those jobs to unlicensed contractors or, for example, maybe qualified, but somebody who cannot pull a permit. So they have to do it on the weekend, which means to me they're unlicensed. And it's just like cutting the throat of my business when I've been relying on people People like that and all of a sudden. They don't care. They got a better price. So, yeah, I've actually started looking elsewhere for the majority of my business. And some of that I actually talked about in that lesson I did for this week's members. And that was on Facebook marketing. I put together some things on Facebook marketing every once in a while. I get results. They're not always fantastic results, but I get calls, and it doesn't cost a lot of money. Well, Kenneth, here's what you get. I'll be honest. You kind of get tired of cleaning up the mess that somebody else did when you gave them a price to do it right. Prime example. Prime example. We have, is that Francisco in the comments there? Hello, Francisco. I'll give you a prime example. Person right next to me in my shop, my business is in a complex of businesses, and the warehouse next to mine has a mechanic shop. They're actually the mechanic shop for a used car dealership down the road. And I quoted the landlord a price on changing out the air conditioner. 26-year-old system, got a leaking evaporator coil, R22, just change it out. Four or five days later, I call him. I'm like, man, did he take care of you? He hired somebody that outbid me about $1,800, and first of all, I did not even give him the commercial price. I had reduced price equipment. I was just shocked that somebody could beat my price by that much, and it is a legitimate company, but here's the kicker. They may not be using I need to watch what I say. They are using very cheap labor. Let's put it that way. And they're undercutting a lot of businesses in town. And I'm not the only one that has complained about them. I don't get the point. Why would you do an install that is so cheap you don't make any money off of it? What's the point? And they're not the only company that's ever tried this. There's another company in downtown Leesburg that did the same thing. He would bid jobs so low, the owner of the company, that he couldn't pay, he couldn't afford to pay somebody to go out there and do it. And so he's got to go do it himself. I mean, and he runs a busy business. So it just, I don't get it. I mean, it's not like his business is growing super big because, I mean, if you're not making any money off of it, what's the point? But they do it. Let's check the comments real quick. Vincent. Vincent, I didn't mean to click on yours again, but aren't ACIQ systems custom made for Midea and Goodman now? I will tell you that ACIQ uses Midea, Goodman, sometimes ICP, Think. That's the vast majority of the stuff. Now, what I'm selling is made by Midea, at least the condensers are. And, uh... Quality products, I don't know that they're custom made, but they do have a different label for ACIQ, and ACIQ can give you a private label. Did not mean to get off on ACIQ. It is the same equipment that Francisco is saying here, made by Midea, that Carrier and Lennox and Cooper and Hunter are selling at a higher price. Especially the Carriers is like double the price, but it's It's the exact same thing, high-quality equipment. I really liked it. Let's say we're going to go back and catch some of the comments. All right. This is BLH3741. I have not proofread this. I have a friend in mountains of North Carolina has been told they need. Oh, okay. You're talking about heat strips. Been told he needs heat strips. I currently know nothing about ACIQ systems. I know Curtis does. Thanks, everyone. Now, it kind of depends on where you are, but some of the systems. the systems. The ACIQ is producing, can produce like 95 degree air all the way down to negative 22 degrees. So for a lot of the country, if your cooling load is not larger than your heating load, you probably don't need heat strips, if that makes any sense. Like for me down here in South Georgia, For example, we're usually running the air conditioner. Even when we're running the heat later on in the day, we might be running the air conditioner. What I mean to say is our load calculations are based on what I'm going to call heating load, or how much cooling we need to cool off a house. If I need 36,000 BTUs to cool off a house, that's more than enough to heat it up during the winter. If those numbers are not like that where you live, then maybe you might need heat strips. That's kind of what I'm trying to say. If it gets so cold that you need more heating than you needed cooling during the summer, yeah, you might need heat strips. I feel like I made it sound clear as mud, but that's basically why you might want heat strips in a heat pump like this. Down here, you don't need them. I do not need them. Thank you, Junior. Oh, and by the way, I do believe we are streaming on the Instagram. I don't know if those comments will show up here where I can highlight them. Go over there real quick. Yeah, we are on the Instagram. I see comments from Jerry, Andrew. Thank you guys for joining. I really do appreciate it. I actually tried to stream it in portrait instead of landscape on Instagram, and there's a way for me to do it with this software, but I wasn't able to do like the intro like I did, and maybe we'll get the kinks worked out on that, and I can do it in portrait. But yeah, the biggest complaint I have had recently is just losing those jobs to unlicensed contracts. Okay, Vincent, what are you talking about? He's talking about his Fujitsu. I can run my R410 Fujitsu in heat mode down to negative 10 degrees Celsius, 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and still get warm. How cold does it get at negative 10 degrees Celsius? That's about as cold as it gets around here. I mean, the coldest I think I have seen it down here in South Georgia is maybe 17 degrees Fahrenheit, which is right around that same amount. And, uh... I tell you, I put one of the ACIQ systems in for my neighbor and the delivery of the heat strips was delayed. I've been installing them just in case something happens with the condenser. They can still have heat during the winter. That's really the only reason I'm installing them and my neighbor is really old. He's almost 100 years old. He likes it hot. He has two air conditioners and one of them doesn't work. I replaced the one that he uses back in the back of the house. So understand this air conditioner is doing double duty because half the house has no heating, had no heat strips. It got down to 17 degrees and it maintained 80 degrees back there where he lives. No problem whatsoever. Never flinched. And that to me is really nice. He never... The thing is, I do believe that they shut the blower off. If you don't have heat strips hooked up to it, the blower shuts off when it goes through defrost, so they never feel it blowing cold air. That's not an issue. All right, we got a comment from somebody else. Okay, Eddie Keenan. Let me see. Hey, Curtis, air conditioning is going to be a massive demand here in England after what we've just been through. It's the humidity. That's been mostly unbearable for 99% of us. Not used to it. Europe's frying. Europe has been in the news here recently because of the heat wave y'all are going through. I feel for you. I do. Honest truth is. For somebody in your situation, it would not hurt if you do not have air conditioning. For example, if you're in an apartment or if you have a house in the suburbs, I don't know your living situation, but something like a window unit, something that you don't need all the time. You know what I mean? There's some that are made that slip down and you can close your window most of the way. To me, it seems like it would be a better option than installing a whole central air system. Or maybe a mini split to just help maintain humidity and the temperature. I feel for you guys. I do. I know that most of the time it's just kind of overcast and kind of cool. This is not normal for y'all. And I really do feel for you. I'm just imagining living here in the middle of summer with no air conditioning. And those conditions around here, if people don't have air conditioning, people die. That's just the honest truth because our homes are not built to be lived in without air conditioning anymore. There was a time, but not anymore. In fact, there was a time when I was called to go to like an 80-year-old really big house, huge house, had like 12-foot ceilings, and they asked me to give them an estimate to supply heat and air to the house. I mean, this house is so old. It had an old coal-fired boiler underneath the house. Some of the old coal and the rust where it used to be was still there. Some of the piping was still there. This is an old building and the only kind of air conditioning, and it was a huge house, like 8,000 square feet. Huge. And maybe 4,000. I'm sorry. It was just huge. And the only kind of air conditioning it had ever had was a giant attic fan. And the only walls in the whole house that were insulated was the attic. So you can imagine my estimate to supply heat and air to a house like that was enormous ductwork. I was going to do furnace, air conditioners, three different systems. It was over 10 tons of air. Long time ago, but here's the deal. I spent probably two days drawing everything up, taking measurements and doing the estimate. And then they said, oh, I didn't know it was going to be that expensive and I didn't get the job. So that's the double-edged sword of giving a free estimate. I mean, I put a lot of work into that. Let me see. You know, the guys in, once again, there's a couple of guys in Europe over here in the comments. They're going through a lot. I hope it's cooling down for them by now. Let's take a question here. I've already ranted and raved about what my topic wanted to be. This looks like this is a question from Ahmad. I recently started in HVAC and I want to grow in the field right away. How can I professionally ask my employer if they can sponsor me for an official HVAC apprenticeship? I'm not real sure how it works where you live. For most companies here in the States, at least here in the South, there's not a lot of union jobs. So basically, once you get a job, you can request to be moved to a different department. If you show initiative and you show that you want to learn, maybe enroll in tech school and let them know, hey, I really want to be a technician. Or maybe I really want to be an installer because I'll be honest, there are some installers out there that make some good money, especially if they're really good at what they do. For me, though, the path was always trying to become a technician because that was the road to owning a business. Um, install. Installers, I think, well, they're not always going to install for somebody else. Because here in Georgia, you can legitimately have a business as an installer and work for whoever you want as a subcontractor, as long as that subcontractor is pulling permits for you. And you know what I mean? You just, you have to have the subcontractor pull permits and hire you. You just can't work on your own. So you can have your own business. It's just. A little different. It just seemed like the path for me was to become a technician. I worked as a duct man, then an installer. I didn't spend much time doing metal work or rain hoods and went straight to the service department. And I was there for within a couple different companies and there for like four or five years before I went out on my own. Let me see. I just briefly read this before I clicked on it. Sorry if you answered this previously, but what is your thought about people DIYing their system? I live in South Florida. Handler's in the garage. I DIY everything in my life and it doesn't look bad. Are you trying to say it doesn't look like it's hard to do? Honestly, if it's your own system, your own house, and you think you can do it, that's up to you, Thank you, man. It's real easy to make a bad mistake in HVAC. There's, I don't know, I would not recommend it. That is one, that's like rewiring your house electrically just because you probably can. Doesn't mean it's going to be a good idea and a professional's probably going to make it look a lot better. It's going to be safer. And then if your house burns down, hey, it ain't on you and insurance is going to cover it. I think I would hire a professional for HVAC, even if I thought I could do it. Just saying. I think it's a good idea, especially the install, especially that. We can get into the HVAC companies scamming people, and it happens to be a problem. My buddy Jake just did a video about HVAC companies scamming. So let me get into Mike Trader's comment right here. I'm in Florida, too. Started repairing my system 12 years ago because a local HVAC company started scamming me. Even replaced the compressor. It's a deep learning curve, and you need tools worth $2,000 to $3,000. It is unfortunate if you have to learn how to do HVAC work because the companies down there are all crooks. But, okay, first of all, if you're trying to do things right, like me, and I've got a buddy. has an air conditioning company. He has a similar mindset. Our mindset is to provide an excellent service that people don't mind paying for. And other companies are like, charge them all you can while you got them. And it's a completely different mindset. There's a problem with not just private equity companies milking their customers for everything everything that they can get. But it's that mindset that other companies that aren't private equity owned, it's like they drink the Kool-Aid. They see other companies making $20,000, $30,000 on an install, so they want to do it. Instead of providing an excellent service and an excellent product and making a customer for life, which you might be able to make many thousands of dollars off of. They want to make all the money up front, not just sell them a $20,000 system that they can buy for $2,500, but lock them into a contract that forces them to pay for it over the next 10 years and pay for all the repairs and pay for the service. And by the time the 10 years is up, they've paid $30,000 to $50,000. That's the reality of what some people are dealing with. To me, it's just a scam. It is an absolute scam. I try to give customers what they need, nothing they don't want, and be honest up front and just provide a good service. And to me, that has worked out well. I know of somebody who just recently tried to start a business in Florida and that mindset I'm telling you about basically got him ran out of town. So, the mindset of trying to make all your money up front and milk every customer for every penny you can get and advertise that you're the best might be good in the short run, but it is not good in the long run. Not at all. And this is from De Beers from Chicago. Love your videos. Every HVAC guy that showed up in my house wants to replace my entire unit. I watched a ton of your videos, swapped my blower, got my EPA 608, and charged my system. Good old R22s. Uh, the price of R22 is still high. Um, man, if you have a jug of it and you can fix your own system, that's a fix it. Quit charging it. In the long run, it's going to bleed you to death. I mean, I think a jug of R-22, you're talking about 30 pounds, and an R-22 jug is still close to like $700. So it's high. Well, Vincent, thank you very much. Vincent dropped a nice comment. He said, if you have an HVAC tech like Curtis, you basically hit gold. Yeah, tell the landlord where my shop is that. I'm sorry. I just feel like sometimes the system is rigged to benefit those who are crooked and the ones who are trying to do an honest job and do hard work. I think my complaint is with most of the landlords who think that they can get away with paying cheap and it's all going to be okay. It's all about the money. They're trying to save money. When you're trying to save money and you take the cheapest bid, the cheapest guy in town, it's going to cost you more. It is. It always does in the long run. I don't know why they can't learn that lesson. I did tell you there are a couple of companies in town that are happy to pay my price. They know I know what I'm talking about. So when I give them an estimate for a new new evaporator coil or something like that, they immediately send it to the owners and If I tell them, hey, the system's too old to be putting $3,000 or $4,000 in, you need to replace it, they listen to me. And those are really good customers. When you find them, you need to stick with them. Yes, there's some comments about the R410 prices going up. There was just like an easing in restrictions that I was hoping would bring prices down on the R410. I don't know, I hadn't bought it in a little while because I bought a ton of it last year and I'm still using it, but I do try to monitor the price. Freeze the heat. Carlos is in the house. Are you seeing more HVAC competitors now compared to a couple of years ago? In Florida, the competition is brutal. Not really. I mean, honest truth is I don't pay attention to the competition I'm a magician because... I, I see their work and I just, I don't know that I used to pay attention when I was in the yellow pages, I would look at all the listings and all the different listings and the big companies and stuff. And, and, and in all honesty, I was trying to be a big company for a long time, but that's just not where it's at. Not for me. I am, I'm going to keep my business small one, One, maybe two people. Maybe if I feel like I start needing help physically. I'm not going to try to grow the company again. That was a mistake. That was a mistake. All right, this is a regulation that is also here in the US. Yes. I think some things have changed. Vincent said, in Europe, new systems with 410 can't be sold anymore. They need to be R32. Only installed base and some don't sell. Okay, the EU regulation is very similar to what we have here in the United States. For a long, for the last couple of years, we haven't been able to, is it, has it been two years? We haven't been able to buy R410 systems. Y'all forgive me, I can't remember how long it has been. The years kind of start to blend together and we couldn't even. They couldn't manufacture or sell the old R410 stuff until recently there's been a change in regulation. They could at least sell the R410 stock that they have, which has been helpful, which has been helpful a little bit because it's specifically for me when it comes to Mobile home coils, I have been having a really hard time finding R410 specific coils. And in one case, I had to change the whole system. This was right when the regulation came through. The mobile home coil makers weren't even making TXVs or selling TXVs that I could convert a coil with. I can buy that stuff now, but for a while there, it was a mess. I, um, yeah, it was difficult. I'm going to put this comment up here. This fellow says he can get an R-22 refrigerant for $320, 30-pound jug. If somebody offered me something like that, I would have to ask, where'd you get it? I'm just saying. There's a lot going on in the world right now, from earthquakes to heat waves to, um, Part of the country is underwater. Other parts of it are burning. Here, we were a little bit worried about flooding. Where I live right here is on the river. I am between two different hydroelectric dams, so the water level is supposedly tightly controlled, but this area has flooded twice. So I've been keeping a close eye on the weather. Actually, um... We've had a lot of rain. If y'all see me looking to the side, I'm looking at the comments. In the last, I would say, six weeks, two months, I think it was May, was one of the wettest months on record for this part of Georgia. And I've been keeping a close eye on the river level. And we've been doing pretty good. It's just you hope and pray the Corps of Engineers are going to do their job and do it right and be on top of things. You just happen to know that twice they made severe mistakes that caused a lot of damage in this area. Wait a minute. Xavier is in the house. I will let you know that I invited him to come on the show today. He may have been working. Like I said, I happened to wait until the last minute to invite somebody on. I kind of wanted his perspective. I think he's in North Georgia. Yeah, maybe next time we can plan ahead and try to get him on the show. I do want to mention, hold on a second, I prepared something for y'all. Here it is. I do convert these live shows into podcasts, and sometimes I have some great guests on the show. And I know you can find them on Apple Podcasts and many other platforms that show podcasts. streamed them. I've actually been trying to find a good podcast to help me learn about ham radio stuff, and everyone I click on is talking about everything except what you need to do to become a licensed ham radio operator. Guys, this young lady that y'all see me showing on the screen here, that is Penny over at ACIQ. The other day, I did a mostly on Instagram post where I was messing with Siri I was using a really strong southern accent and told Siri to call Penny over at ACIQ. And Siri understood me. Somebody in the comments thought the whole video was fake. It was meant to be funny, but the video was not fake. That was real, and that's who I was calling right there. I enjoy having some fun with videos sometimes. I'm going to make a recurring segment of checking messages. I have some funny ideas come across my head sometimes and yeah it's a blast. If y'all haven't seen my checking messages videos on Instagram there's some funny ones. Xavier you know something I tried to find your YouTube channel there's a there's a link in Instagram and I had trouble finding it. So I will look again I'm looking at this right here and it It looks like it's going to be easy for me to find. Uh, and Benny says that really was her that answered. It was, that was one of those calls where like, Hey, I didn't really want anything. I was just making a funny video. Uh, if, if y'all get, get the chance to meet the people over at ACIQ, it's, it's worth it. Um, it's yes. Other companies may make their products overseas or something. But this is an American company. The people that work there are just like you and me, going out, trying to make a living, and have a good time at it, and trying to do a good job. Up there near Dayton, Ohio, if I'm not mistaken, it's Vandalia, Ohio, on the outskirts of Dayton. Not far from the Dayton airport. I think it was like 15 minutes or something. Good people up there. And that's one of the reasons that I have decided. To just stick with them. They are possibly going to be opening a store in Georgia at their, forgive me the name of the town, Northwest Georgia. I don't remember the name of the town, Northwest Georgia. I think they're going to be opening a store hopefully this year. And for people that want to sell ACIQ products, and hey, if you want to be a dealer, there's a link in the description. Opening a store to me is a big deal because then here in Georgia and the surrounding areas, we are going to have a store with somebody working behind the counter that we can call and say, hey, I need this part. Or can you help me look up this? I need this part on this particular model. Can you get it to me overnight? I'm already having to do that with a lot of different companies because I'm in the middle of the sticks. We have no train or American Standard dealer here. We have no Lennox dealer here. We have no York dealer here. The nearest Amana dealer is 90 minutes away. So I have to order stuff overnighted or next day all the time, all the time. And so just having the convenience of a store, and it's going to be here in our state. I hope it's going to be this year. Oh, it's in Dalton. That just adds a level of convenience for me and really the whole southern area around North Georgia. It just adds a level of convenience. They're going to do the same thing in Vandalia, Ohio, and I hope they're going to continue to do that and maybe branch out into individual branches. That would be phenomenal. I was just reading the comments here. There was a comment about the ACIQ here. Hello, Curtis. Love your videos. When you order your units from ACIQ, what all does it come with? All right. They have, if you're a dealer with them, you can get in on their portal. You can look up whatever system you want. You can look it up by heat pump system. You can look it up by condenser, air handler. And when you pick a system beneath it, there are options for pad, Heat strips, thermostat. drain pans, there's all kinds of stuff that come listed underneath it and you can select the options that you want. You can put it over there in your cart and then go review your cart. I will admit it was it's a little bit confusing to know that when you add something on the page and then you add it to your cart. I keep having to go to my cart and verify that it's there. What I do is I And then I click on see what's included, and then I know that it's in my cart. So they do offer a lot of stuff. I mean, just regular HVAC stuff sometimes, just like float switches, surge protectors. So their good prices include some of that stuff. So, yeah. I really like the ACIQ stuff. For me, it has been an answer to the kind of equipment that I have been wanting to sell. An inverter-driven heat pump that doesn't need heat strips. And then they have the air handlers that are dual voltage. You can run them on 120 volts or 240, and they don't need heat strips. That's a phenomenal option for people who want to get rid of gas heat. I love it. I wish companies. Had embraced this kind of technology a long, long time ago, and it's finally here. Hey, we've got Jack of all, master of none. He likes the ACIQ products too. I do. I really do like them. And I'm not just saying, I'm not trying to, I'm not getting paid to say it. Let's put it that way. Yes, on their website, they do have a lot of products and parts. In fact, you can probably find a whole lot more stuff on their website. And, Penny, will you let them know if the website is available to anybody or do you have to be a dealer registered with you to get to the portal and have access to what I see? Because I'm not real sure about that. I do know that there has been a focus in the past where they would sell to just about anybody. I am of the understanding that they're going to shift their focus more towards contractors and promote the portal. So sign up to be a dealer. through the link that's in the description if you're watching this on on youtube and they already got great pricing um first order you get gold pricing um oh so only deal gold pricing is really good pricing only dealers get the portal access so sign up to be a dealer why not okay Hey, W.B. Bryan's 8616. Um, it looks like you're watching this on YouTube. I did put links in the description to, to click on, to sign up, to be a dealer. Um, there's a place where you can just buy and there's a link where you can become a dealer. Um, that's one way to contact them. And yes, it doesn't cost you anything to be a dealer. So I didn't mean to just get on the ACIQ, but the conversation kind of, kind of went there and got us. I'm probably going to cut it short. Maybe we can get Xavier on for the next show. I would like that. Or if he can't, maybe I can find a guest just as good as him. So, y'all, thanks for watching. I'm probably going to cut it short so I can go watch Europe slowly catch on fire on the news. Thank you.