Pro tip: shadowed a senior tech at a commercial job in Phoenix last week

He showed me how he diagnoses airflow issues by just feeling the vents with his hand and comparing it to the return drop temperature. Has anyone else found shortcuts like that from watching someone experienced work?

3 comments

3 Comments

knight.xena18d ago

Learned that trick years ago from an old timer I worked with. You can tell a lot by the feel and how quick the temp changes at the register compared to the return drop.

jade3218d ago

Oh man, that's such a good point. It's wild how much the old timers just knew from feel and years of experience, isn't it?

juliaa2510d ago

You ever notice how some of those old tricks just hit different when you're actually in the middle of diagnosing something? I swear, @knight.xena, that temp change feel is one of those things you can't really learn from a manual, you know? My first boss had me just put my hand over vents for a solid week before he let me touch a meter. It made me pay attention to stuff like airflow and duct leaks in a way I never would have otherwise. I wonder though, do you think that method works as well on those newer variable speed systems or does it mess with the timing? I've had some setups where the delay between registers and the return feels like it takes forever to even out.