HVAC field in Phx metro

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by ILikeEveryone

So there are jobs out there for mature, reliable and experienced HVAC technicians? I'm talking about with larger companies, not self-employed. $10 an hour for an honest and experienced HVAC mechanic is a slap in the face. Anyone can replace parts/units, but not everyone can diagnose and fix almost any brand that isn't fubar. My husband can. Feedback?

$10 is a slap in the face for most jobs. Sadly, that is the reality out here. I'm still not sure if I will attend RSI for that very reason. Why spend 9 months learning a trade and take out a loan for $18k when I'll make less than I make now for a much harder job. I know I could move elsewhere but I've only been here since July and would like to stick around. Four states in 3 years has left me tired. I want to stay put.

[khuntrevor]

Good for you, Bondurant. It's a student loan mill. Most of the units are up on roofs, so you would either need to get up at 3am, or bake. If you fell just one time, your life may never be the same.

My brother's idea for a start-up company was to buy a good power washer. You could charge people what HD charges to rent the thing and you could do the work for them.

I saw a guy who only cleaned dryer vents--thought that was pretty clever.

[ILikeEveryone]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

The hvac companies make more money with inexperienced techs that can stretch a 15 minute repair into 3 (billable) hours & replace multiple components instead of just the bad one. It is what it is... incompetence = profit.

$10/hr seems low for a real professional but if that's what they're offering, it's no wonder the "hacks" rule the roost.

If your hubby can read a schematic & follow a service manual, perhaps it's time to look at transferring those skills to another trade - i.e. appliance repair, industrial automation service, even automotive service.

Very few people can actually follow a schematic & reconcile what they see on a schematic into what is actually built. It's valuable knowledge, even if at this point in time, his chosen trade doesn't value it.

In a word, YES to everything. He was an automotive mechanic many years ago before everything was completely computerized.

[ILikeEveryone]

Originally Posted by Desertspiritsteve

A neighbor called me in tears about a year ago because she had a service tech from Ace there, and he wanted to put a hard start on the compressor. He wanted $300. for this part. He wanted her to buy a service contract for $500. and the hard start would be free. I went round and round with the tech and he left in a huff. I told the neighbor to call Carrier. If she had put the hard start on her almost brand new unit, it would have voided the warranty. It turns out that the service techs work on a commission and sell all the stuff they can to unknowing customers. I see that this company does a lot of advertising on channel 3's web page.

Unfortunately, this happens everywhere, and while I don't want to say it's the norm, it seems like most techs nowadays are there to sell or replace, not to repair because of the money/commission factor mentioned. Some places even will have $ amounts worth of sales/repairs that each tech must bring in on a monthly basis on their trucks. And every month they have sales meetings with each tech's ranking to go over "the numbers" and the sales goals. I'm saying some places, not all. My husband left a place because of this pressure to sell every customer whether they needed it or not. There are honest techs out there who know what they are doing. And yes, it seems like the companies that do the most TV advertising are the most unscrupulous. Like everything else, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

[ILikeEveryone]

Originally Posted by Bondurant

$10 is a slap in the face for most jobs. Sadly, that is the reality out here. I'm still not sure if I will attend RSI for that very reason. Why spend 9 months learning a trade and take out a loan for $18k when I'll make less than I make now for a much harder job. I know I could move elsewhere but I've only been here since July and would like to stick around. Four states in 3 years has left me tired. I want to stay put.

Okay, here's a stupid question. Are there not community colleges or tech schools that have the nine month HVAC training program for about 2K - 3K? That's an insane amount for an hvac training class. My husband retrained in 1998 for about 2K for the 9 month program through a NJ tech school, after his job/field disappeared.

[ILikeEveryone]

Originally Posted by khuntrevor

Good for you, Bondurant. It's a student loan mill. Most of the units are up on roofs, so you would either need to get up at 3am, or bake. If you fell just one time, your life may never be the same.

Yes. This is a job that is very hard on the body, and if you're not in good shape to begin with, forget it. I'm not saying you, just whomever decides to work at this career.

You will have a certain number of weeks on call, (if you are a service tech), and people will call you at all times of the night, some of them in a not too nice mood, using not too nice language.

If you are fair-skinned (DH is dark skinned), if you don't use sunscreen, expect skin cancer sooner or later. And yes, I worry about skin cancer even with darker skin.

You will be in crawl spaces (tight crawl spaces/attic spaces) and you will occasionally run into all different kinds of critters in those spaces.

If you work for certain companies, you may be expected to meet a $ sales/service quota for your truck. You may be pressured to sell rather than make an honest repair.

When we lived in the North, DH was out on calls even when there was a snowstorm, on icy rooftops with howling winds and snowy conditions.

In NC, we experience a lot of heat accompanied by humidity. DH thinks AZ dry heat would be better. I say not necessarily so.

Once DH was simply stepping down from a ladder and twisted his leg, landed the wrong way and broke his ankle. Once when we lived in the North, he fell off a house roof. Luckily, there had been a horrendous snowstorm and he did not get hurt. Another time, he was working on a commercial unit and had put the open/unassembled panel above his head, (he thought securely on an upper ledge), and the panel swung back down and one of the screws hit his nose (narrowly missing his eye) and he had to have stitches. Geez, the more I think about this, the less I want him to do this anymore. My point being, maybe you want to find a company who will let you do a ride along with one of their techs so you can get a feel for what they do daily before you invest such a large amount of money. Good luck.

[greendesert]

I had a few good experiences with HVAC techs but mostly bad ones. Obviously the OP is not interested in being self employed, which I think is probably the only way anyone is going to make decent money in that field.
I had this idiot (with a company that advertised at HomeDepot) come to my house to diagnose one of my AC units. First, he was rude... he seemed to have a problem with the fact that I was interested in watching him and understanding how the unit works and why it's bad. Then he tells me that the transformer on the unit is bad. OK, so I ask him if he has one on him and how much the part will cost... answer: $280 for a "universal" (generic) one.... Then he told me the relays are bad too... aha... I poked around with the meter (I'm an electrical engineer as well, I just don't have refrigerant training) and I could tell he was BSing about the relays, there was nothing wrong with them. At that point I told him to get lost. I paid him the service charge, but I told him I wouldn't buy his insanely priced part. There are several places in the valley that will sell parts to the public, you just have to know them. I bought a decent transformer (not the cheapest one) for $30 and replaced it myself and the unit has been humming along for over a year now.
The rep from the company kept calling me after that asking if I want them to service my units, and I told him I'll never ever do business with them. He asked me why, and I told him because he tried to sell me that part at 10 times the price. I understand double or triple price, but 10 times - that's robbery in my book. He laughed... fine... he won't be laughing much longer since I've posted a review on him online. I bet a lot of people will read that.

Thanks for that info about how to get a refrigerant handling card. I might look into that. honestly, I simply don't trust the techs anymore. There was an older guy that was fairly honest, and he was ok, but I didn't appreciate the fact that he charged me for the time it took him to drive to the warehouse to buy a capacitor. Seems to me that's one of the parts he should have on him.

[jwest09]

Originally Posted by Bondurant

$10 is a slap in the face for most jobs. Sadly, that is the reality out here. I'm still not sure if I will attend RSI for that very reason. Why spend 9 months learning a trade and take out a loan for $18k when I'll make less than I make now for a much harder job. I know I could move elsewhere but I've only been here since July and would like to stick around. Four states in 3 years has left me tired. I want to stay put.

RSI teaches this trade in a nice comfortable indoor environment. If you get a job, and get out in the field, its much different. You will be climbing ladders, up two stories at times, and working some days on a roof out in 100+ degrees hot temps., with no shade. It is physically demanding hard work with low pay. You have to be good at climbing ladders, working in heat, and not afraid of heights.
When it comes to this trade, you can't beat good old fashion "on the job training", instead of trade school.
A RSI graduate.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by jwest09

When it comes to this trade, you can't beat good old fashion "on the job training", instead of trade school.
A RSI graduate.

That's the kicker. On the job training no longer exists. No one is willing to train anymore. I'm not talking about just trades either. We're in very depressing times right now. Getting your foot in the door in any field is almost impossible.

[k1221n]

I was looking into it myself, did hvac about 12 years ago before I stumbled into the auto biz, I believe glendale comunity college offers a course.