[Bassman]

Mine was in 1997. We got a call from the Titanic movie set in Baja California. They had eight or so units not cooling which included a couple of Bard wall hangers. He said the blower motors were bad. So I along with fuses, contactors, capacitors, and 1 jug of R22 I also got 2 double shaft blower motors.
You can't cross the border to work without a permit, which takes a while to get. So I used my personal truck with a cabover camper. Filled the camper with tools, parts, filters and freon and two of us headed for the border. We claimed we were going camping when questioned by the Mexican officials.
On the movie set our contact showed us the units that needed service. We started with the Bard units and found the blower motors were fine. It was the condenser fan motors that were bad. So we cut a shaft off on each motor used them for the condensers. We were able to get all the units fixed. When we were done the guy gave us a guided tour of the entire movie set. We didn't need any of the R22 but left it there so we didn't get busted for smuggling Freon into the US. Stopped for tacos and a margarita in Rosarito Beach before heading home. What a day!

 

[Zamoramax]

On that side(the fun calls). The best was for the guy that wrote the DOJ and homeland security codes. Guy had a fortress of a house and security staff out the wazoo. The toy I wanted to play with that they wouldn't let me even check out was the armored and turreted suburban. Or the DOJ building that had the police radio controls for norcal. They said if you screw up in here you could create a norcal radio blackout for first responders... oh joy. At least I was only in that room for half a day or so.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[BNME8EZ]

Mine wasn’t so much a single call but a customer. I hated going out there cause I knew I would get lost bro a long conversation I didn’t have time for, but yet at the same time I would learn so much ch from this guy you couldn’t help but go.

 

[junkhound]

Most interesting has to be repair done on a classified military ship in the north Pacific ocean. Cannot give any details on the system, but just getting there on the general's helicoptor flying along some of the Aleutian island chain an adventure in itself.

Got it fixed, a previous crew from the equipment mfg had botched the job by leaving FOD that caused subsequent problems and shutdowns.

45 or so years ago did some 'service calls' to Minuteman missile sites, kinda eerie working 6 feet from 3ea 600 kT warheads.

Always doubted the claims of some co-workers about residential calls and greeted by hot and horny single female, never anything even remotely close to that!

 

[Zamoramax]

Most interesting has to be repair done on a classified military ship in the north Pacific ocean. Cannot give any details on the system, but just getting there on the general's helicoptor flying along some of the Aleutian island chain an adventure in itself.

Got it fixed, a previous crew from the equipment mfg had botched the job by leaving FOD that caused subsequent problems and shutdowns.

45 or so years ago did some 'service calls' to Minuteman missile sites, kinda eerie working 6 feet from 3ea 600 kT warheads.

Always doubted the claims of some co-workers about residential calls and greeted by hot and horny single female, never anything even remotely close to that!

It happens. I've been beaved. Not worth loosing what I have or the headaches and heartaches that would ensue. But it does happen.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[R600a]

I have had some service calls with extremely flirty women but most of the time they were old enough to be my mom or grandma.

 

[JayMan7]

I have had some service calls with extremely flirty women but most of the time they were old enough to be my mom or grandma.

You attract those cougars! Good for you!

 

[JayMan7]

“Most interesting” doesn’t mean coolest…could also mean nastiest lol!

Buddy of mine took a service call in my hometown. There are areas that’re very rough. He gets to the door and can smell dog shit wafting out of the house.

This huge woman (not lady lol) answers the door and he looks in and sees dog shit all over the floor, which is bad, but then he looks down and sees she’s bare foot with a bunch of terds smashed between her toes

 

[ehsx]

“Most interesting” doesn’t mean coolest…could also mean nastiest lol!

Buddy of mine took a service call in my hometown. There are areas that’re very rough. He gets to the door and can smell dog shit wafting out of the house.

This huge woman (not lady lol) answers the door and he looks in and sees dog shit all over the floor, which is bad, but then he looks down and sees she’s bare foot with a bunch of terds smashed between her toes

“Run, forest run!”

 

[R600a]

You attract those cougars! Good for you!

Yes unfortunately I seem to. It's really creepy!

 

[Bazooka Joe]

Mentioned both here a few years back, the company I was working for at the time sent me out to a rich town with nice homes in a subdivision that we installed the HVAC Heat Pumps initially. This particular home owner had a twice yearly checkup/cleaning under a PM . The homeowner for a lack of a better description, especially the woman looked like sophisticated socialites. House had white shag rug/carpet and a pristine black piano in the living room.

Was checking system out, then went to the basement where the Air Handler was located ( I was pretty happy coming here initially as the Air Handler could have been in a hot attic with no lights or flooring. ) I shut the running system off at the switch, and removed the panel, doing a visual, noticed the blower wheel lobes was caked up with debris. Used my finger to clean the lobes, rotating the wheel slowly to get to all the lobes clean of debris as best I could on both sides, then I put the panel back on and turned power back on. When I went upstairs I seen plumbs of dirt clouds particles coming out of the vents, I hurriedly turned off the power at the thermostat and looked around to see if owners seen the dirt particles coming out of the vents.

Sure enough the women picked up on it, and ran her fingers on that piano and coffee tables and started yelling at me for ( I suppose rightly so ) what I did, after belittling me and yelling at me she pointed to the front door and kicked me out of the house. Suffice to say she either cancelled the PM contract with us or the company sent another Tech. to do the future PM.

The other one that sticks in my mind, the company sent me out to a no heat call on a commercial building at a strip mall, with a bunch of identical same sizes package 4 or 5 ton RTU units in a long row on the roof. After slinging the ladder on the back side of the building started working on what I thought was the correct RTU, ended up making necessary repairs and was finishing up when I noticed another fiberglass ladder was being slinged up and extended and secured to the side of the roof near my ladder. Another Tech. from another company came to work on the Heat on the store next to the store I was working on.

He looked at me and said what are you doing? As far as I know thats the RTU for the store I’m suppose to work on, nobody told me they called another company? Suffice to say I was one RTU off, ( after walking to the edge of the front of the building roof and aligning myself to the store to the RTU ) I told the Tech. I made repairs on his unit, but you can check the RTU to what I determined what the problem was, then headed over to the RTU I was suppose to work on. Made necessary repairs on that unit, then went down and turned on the unit at t-stat to make sure 100% everything was OK. I thought about what I should do about the bill hours, but just filled in the bill with my hours and part used and went to the next service call.

Apparently the other Tech. told the store owner what happened, then apparently that store owner must have told the store owner that I was dispatched to. Come to find out my boss called me in the service department office several days later and said he had to credit a somewhat irate owner a certain amount of labor as I was working on the wrong unit initially for a little while. The service manager was pretty good about it and told me to be more careful next time. I did offer to reimburse the company the part that I used ( I think it was a bad high limit ) on the other RTU. :gah: I would not say I was a newbie at those times, but certainly I was not a seasoned long time HVAC/R Tech. Anyway, what are the odds of that happening?

 

[JayMan7]

Yes unfortunately I seem to. It's really creepy!

Nah bro take it as a compliment!

Man if I knew what I know now, I’d have been going after women in their 30s when I was in my 20s haha. Some of them are ridiculously WILD

 

[R600a]

Nah bro take it as a compliment!

Man if I knew what I know now, I’d have been going after women in their 30s when I was in my 20s haha. Some of them are ridiculously WILD

https://youtu.be/KOz1GEFU6rI

 

[2sac]

Wouldn't call it the most interesting but it was the strangest. I did work for a grocery store and he referred a bakery next door to us. I walk in the bakery and the guy says to me "Are you here to refill the penis juice"

"I'm here to fix the cooler"

"I think it needs penis juice"

Owner was a hippie wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and stoned out of his mind. The cooler in question was being used as a condenser for the moonshine he was making. It was a 2 door cooler that had 2 holes drilled in its side and copper pipe entering and exiting. Inside the cooler was a relatively tightly wound 7/8 copper coil about 5ft in height. The still was in the kitchen, pipes run thru the wall into the customer area and into the 2 door cooler and out again back to the kitchen where he was collecting his shine.

 

[R600a]

Wouldn't call it the most interesting but it was the strangest. I did work for a grocery store and he referred a bakery next door to us. I walk in the bakery and the guy says to me "Are you here to refill the penis juice"

"I'm here to fix the cooler"

"I think it needs penis juice"

Owner was a hippie wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and stoned out of his mind. The cooler in question was being used as a condenser for the moonshine he was making. It was a 2 door cooler that had 2 holes drilled in its side and copper pipe entering and exiting. Inside the cooler was a relatively tightly wound 7/8 copper coil about 5ft in height. The still was in the kitchen, pipes run thru the wall into the customer area and into the 2 door cooler and out again back to the kitchen where he was collecting his shine.

Did you get a sample? You know just to make sure the process is working correctly.

 

[2sac]

Did you get a sample? You know just to make sure the process is working correctly.

I did not. He was too freaky to trust. I've only had moonshine once in my life and I got it from someone here, who will remain nameless.

 

[Snapperhead]

I've told this story before ...

So I have a few gas stations that are ofcourse .... Indian owned , and they always tell their Indian friends about me.

One day I get a call " My friend Raja told me you do good work , please come"

I show up at this Rental house where Im the only White guy around , open my truck door , and I hear what sounds like a leaf back pack blower but cannot see anybody

Hmm , thats odd , the sound seems to be coming from "Inside" the house

I enter , and I see 2 mattresses on the livingroom floor with piles of Clothes , Pizza boxes , Mc Donalds , Beer cans , you know the typical Poor peoples life style

I hear the sound of blower getting closer , its coming down the hall , and I now see this enormous brown cloud , like Billions of little brown specs flying and spinning through the air , and Im thinking ... hmm ....they must be doing some sort of badass construction back there because thats a ton of sawdust !

Dude now comes into sight and he turns off the blower to greet me

"Oh Hey you must be the AC guy ! "

Yep , thats me

"Sorry about the mess , but there were millions of cocka roaches everywhere and I wanted to clean them up before you got here"

insert long uncomfortable pause with my eyes big as golf balls ....

Ok , well let me grab some things from the truck

"Ok Great Im almost finished"

insert sounds of screetching tires ... seeya !

 

[Zamoramax]

I did not. He was too freaky to trust. I've only had moonshine once in my life and I got it from someone here, who will remain nameless.

I'm willing to cover S&H on anyone here that wants to send some this way. + gratuity. Lol

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[billygoat22]

had one grocery store with old equipment. put in new boiler. there were 20 +r-22 jugs piled up beside the buliding. I suppose they had a few leaks in the refers.


Did a pretty eventful Frank Floyd Wright house years ago:
One of service techs blew up a furnace in the house, vented the gas line so hard gas got sucked into the combustion air intake, blew the hx open. Job super saw the fire ball roll up beside house and checked, tech was lighting a cigarette after that surprise, "all the gas is gone now"

The masons were pulling stone facing on a retaining wall, found a noticeable yellower rock than the rest of stone, shaped like Va on the map. put the rock in the center of the wall because was cool looking rock. super saw it and said looked like ----. cust came by later and mason pointed it out, cust liked, super said "oh yeah, yeah, cool" I just laughed to myself walking by.

Figured out during lunch one day if all the indirect incandescent lights were all turned on at once, would need nearly 10 ton cooling to make up for it. Also figured (guesstimate based on kw and engine efficiency) the 50kw gen would need over 240000 btu to run, and that the 3/8 line was too small if run at 11" vs primary psi to a reg at the gen. later on super asked if I had a manometer, ("gen tech doesn't have one?") gen would idle but stall when load put on it. Had the 3/8 line reduced down to fit the 1 1/4" connection on gen, off secondary regulator 30' away.

20 yrs later got a home warranty call. was same house with new owner. 2 of the 4 hps were still there, one had been replaced less than yr before. all 4 furnaces still in place. told cust story of how the furnace flues were in the veneer of chimney to conceal the pipes from view under chimney cap, which I though was clever. Until I was standing with original owner and heard the inducer sound coming down flue into master bedroom. since first guy was nearly deaf didn't care. new owner had been pulling hair out trying to figure out where the noise was coming from.

What was likely hood would randomly get same guy on a service call as installed the machines originally?

 

[JayMan7]

Wouldn't call it the most interesting but it was the strangest. I did work for a grocery store and he referred a bakery next door to us. I walk in the bakery and the guy says to me "Are you here to refill the penis juice"

"I'm here to fix the cooler"

"I think it needs penis juice"

Owner was a hippie wearing a Grateful Dead shirt and stoned out of his mind. The cooler in question was being used as a condenser for the moonshine he was making. It was a 2 door cooler that had 2 holes drilled in its side and copper pipe entering and exiting. Inside the cooler was a relatively tightly wound 7/8 copper coil about 5ft in height. The still was in the kitchen, pipes run thru the wall into the customer area and into the 2 door cooler and out again back to the kitchen where he was collecting his shine.

Dude sounds like he hit it a bit too hard too often lol

BUT, funny thing is, I remember being judgy about substance abuse when I was younger. Like I vividly remember these commercial painters being stoned out of their mind EVERY day on the job site.

I got older and had kids, also did a bit of painting here and there. Then I thought to myself, holy shit, I can totally understand why some people need drugs on a daily basis lol!

Maybe that baler dude was a lost cause or maybe he needed to get into HVAC when he was young. If he built that still, sounds like he would have enjoyed working on machines more than baking cakes.

Sometimes I wonder if the entire world is just ass backwards. Just turning that corporate grindstone every week, round and round. Flooding money into corporations, many of which, are perfectly fine with killing people off and slave labor (lithium mines etc) as long as it doesn’t affect their reputation. Many of us work for better companies, but many Americans don’t.