Best Of
Taco After Dark Goes LIVE – July 23 at 7PM EST
From our friends at Taco:
Taco After Dark LIVE – Summer Training Series
We’re reimagining training the Taco way—real talk, real installs, and real connection.
The all-new Taco After Dark: Summer Series kicks off
Wednesday, July 23 at 7 PM EST
Streaming LIVE on Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube
Featuring Taco Trainers:
John Barba @John_Barba
Dave Holdorf @Dave H_2
Jason Kockx
On the Agenda:
- Pix From the Field sneak peek
- Real-time Q&A + audience chat
- Insightful slides—served with stories and humor
- Giveaways (👀 we’re looking at you, 007e)
No registration. No barriers. Just hydronic pros sharing real-world insight and having some fun. Click here for all of the details.
Re: 3 and 1 1/2 ton finally done
I put 10% in mine back in CT and then was a little miffed to see that the water temp never went below 40
I'll Fix It, Honey.
I've been working at a house where the husband is a mathematician/engineer. He was always the one that did the plumbing and electrical repairs in the house. He even did the work to repair any heating system problems. As he got older, fewer things got fixed. Slowly, the Honeywell zone valves stopped working and eventually, there was no heat in the house. The husband is now in a memory care facility and his wife has decided that she wants heat, so she called they only person - still alive - that worked on their system in the past - me.
I've replaced all the zone valves only to find out that none of the thermostats communicate with the controls in the boiler room. I suspect rats chewing through the wiring as they had a longtime vermin problem and I've replaced the old thermostats with Honeywell RedLINK wireless units.
All the old thermostats still work as does the transformer relay. They are so beautiful and I can't bring myself to throw any of them away.
Re: HTP Boiler humidity dislike + Error Code 11
^^ ^^ This!
Apparently, the plumber that you hired has lead you to believe that the WATER side of the heat exchanger needed cleaning. This was a mistake as that is rarely the case and it would not cause an ignition issue.
As stated, the FIRE side of the heat exchanger needs to be chemically cleaned as that heat exchanger is very prone to fouling due to the aluminum fins in it.
Ironman
Re: Single Zone mini- labor grabber
When I realized that my son was not interested in taking over the family business, I made a deal with one of my employees. I would pay him his regular wage. what he was worth based on his experience. I would pay him 1/2 again as much that would be deposited in a escrow account. No records of that money as his income. Just $$$ sitting there. As it turns out I would retire in 20 years and he would have enough in the escrow account to buy me out and I would use that $$$ towards my retirement. (if the money ever got to a point where the tax folks would want to know about it, I would get the tax accountant and trust lawyers involved, but that never happened.) After 5 years of loyal service there comes this woman in his life and he moved to Florida. He forfeited that money when he quit. Nothing in writing yet so no harm no fowl.
We are still friendly.
About 15 years later I got a drunk dial from him in Florida. We talked for a while and at the end of the conversation he said: "If I had stayed in New Jersey, I would own your company today". We both laughed about it.
My brother had trouble selling his business when he wanted to retire. If he made better plans he could have been compensated more.
I would still be in business if I didn't end up with this disability that put me in this wheelchair, but I got lucky, Twice. In 2017 I offered to buy out a competitor that has a large customer base in beach front condos in a wealthy barrier island rresort community. Lots of service contracts. Lots or customers that can afford to pay. Good income stream. I offered to pay him his 7 figure asking price which included $100,000 in inventory on the books.
When he thought he has a sucker on his hands, he didn't accept and said that he had $80,000 in inventory that he just purchase for the upcoming season, so the price would be higher. When I showed him the original offer included $100,000 for the inventory from the previous years "due diligence" company books inspection, I said that is $20,000 less so my offer would be 20,000 lower… so he bailed.
I was then diagnosed with the incurable disability that would result with me confined to a wheelchair in the future. So the following year he asked again of I was still interested…. too late, you snooze you lose.
The second stroke of luck was a fuel oil dealer/HVAC/Plumbing contractor decided to stop delivering fuel oil, and his son wanted to expand the HVAC business to the next county (where I was located). Since a majority of my customers were oil heated homes with several different fuel dealers that I was also friendly with, I could not sell to a company that also operated a fuel deliver truck. But all the other competitors sisn't want any oil heat customer. I knew these plumbers from different trade shows and training classes for over 20 years and thought highly of them. so when they stoped selling oil and wanted to expand, I was able to sell them my service contracts inventore and rolling stock for a nice retirement fund amount. The stars were all aligned for me. (Except for the wheelchair thing)
I guess I am relating this story to you Gary, so you can prepare for your retirement in the event you don't have someone already lined up to take over when you get old like me. LOL
It is good to have the small business folks like us, just to keep the big mega companies from monopolizing the trades and keep the pricing reasonable…. Big business = big overhead = big pricing. Small business = small overhead = reasonable pricing. But don't under cut yourself. You should be able to charge what you are worth and make a nice living.
Re: Prevent mold in mini-split heads
it gets clammy when it is not super hot!
Does @clammy know about this?
Re: Prevent mold in mini-split heads
I was amazed as how much mold can be inside of a minisplit wall hung air handler after just a few years. I purchased several kits and had a flat rate to power wash a minisplit indoor wall unit to remove the mold. The sprayer and the kit with bib and 5 gal bucket made me some $$$ when I was doing this for a living. I find this is the best way to get all the mold from the nooks and crannies in the coil, drain pan, blower housing and blower wheel. They look like new when done properly. Bib & Bucket kit. Sprayer sold separately. sometimes I used the pump bottle with the cleaning chemical and water. Other times I used a portable pressure washer on really bad systems.
Re: 3 and 1 1/2 ton finally done
Ed yes we yanked the old propane boiler, the Scrap guy did his thing with it
GW
Re: I'm getting solar panels. I'll let you know how it goes in this discussion thread.
Yes I would consider it, but the removal of the incentive in December definitely pushed me over the line in this case.
After the incentives are gone, the price will reduce, so I still may have done it anyway since philosophically I am aligned with solar power and since electricity cost is really going up here in NJ.
I sense a little scorn in your wording regarding incentives. To that I would say there are tax incentives for farming, for fossil fuel production, having children, and innumerable other things so I don't feel guilty at all about taking some of MY tax money back. Thank you!
3 and 1 1/2 ton finally done
it always amazes me how much time these Geothermal jobs soak up. Anyways, we put the button on this one today.
we mixed some hard stuff, 15%. I felt like I was in a Breaking Bad skit for a moment. I filled the little 1 gallon jug 20 times. 1 gallon per 5 1/2 gallons of water.
till next time 😀
GW