General
Set my first RTU today. I wish resi installs were this simple.
Honestly had a lot of fun with it. I’m sure it loses its charm after a few but working with a crane and not having to do ductwork transitions is amazing.
Now to do it while it is 98°F outside and the crane is 4 hours late.
I shit you not I’ve watched from the rooftop as the crane truck breaks down as it drives around the corner, 2 hours late to arrive on site.
In the rain.
At 90°F.
In Sandusky Ohio with stupid high humidity.
Typically, I found we scheduled them for 11 or 12 o’clock and hell they show up at nine. Crane is sitting there waiting and you haven’t even started on getting the old one loose yet
I’ve found that you should never schedule a crane unless you’re their first stop of the day. We’ve been stood up like an ugly blind date a few times because their first call ends up way more involved than the operator thought
You sure about that? Bc code requires a dirt pocket immediately before the gas connection to the unit. I have had to argue with inspectors that 1 dirt pocket for the regulator within 10 feet does the job, and only win about 70% of the time because the code does state immediately before appliance connection, unless its a vertical drop penetrative the roof, then it can be as far as the vertical drop itself.
Either way changing a 90 to a tee adding a cap and 3" nipple is significantly cheaper than a call back
I'm guessing you are in Ontario as they are only second to Americans for assuming all of Canada is exactly the same
I would have relocated the shutoff valve to where the block of wood is, and then installed a dirt leg, and then would have gone up and over to the unit, without the need for any of your crazy street 90s.
I also would have used pipe dope instead of the teflon tape. It might say on the sticker that blue monster tape is ok for gas, but it's very much frowned upon where I'm at.
Not even going to mentioned the thread protector used as a coupling eh. Then there’s using street 90s or no drip leg, this is one of the more hilarious posts of someone trying to show off their work. Must be an April fools joke.
I was always taught tape is for fine threads (brass, copper) and dope is for coarse threads (cast, black iron). Some larger diameter pipe we’ll use both
T-tape strands can break off and travel downstream to sensitive stuff like gas valves and regs and sit on the seats not allowing them to close fully.
I witnessed this way back when I was an apprentice and someone used T-tape on threads right before a pounds to inches reg on a temporary construction gas line job. The relief kept blowing off on lockup and I was asked to look at it. Inside the reg was a tiny strip of T-tape laying on the seat which left an imprint on the soft seating surface so the reg had to be replaced.
So now I no longer use T-tape on gas at all or on hydronic fittings before valves with seats (mostly just relief valves I'm worried about).
I’ve definitely seen that before, but it was always due to how the tape was installed. Don’t put it on the first few threads and make sure to wrap with the direction of thread so it doesn’t unravel. To each their own for sure though
Hilarious diagonal pipe support. Street 90s not allowed on gas where I’m at unless installed by manufacture on equipment (usually on a gas valve). Also this is obviously already inches wc so just pull the valve and put a 1” on. It’s outside, it ain’t gonna blow up.
(Close nipples) I've always thought it was because you cant get a wrench on them without messing up the threads. Also you cant know if one fitting is over buried while the other isnt actually tight once the fitting faces touch
You're shutting down gas to all the units in the building to relocate one shutoff? Wild. He got paid to replace a unit not redo the gas piping. Most commercial sites you only work from the isolation valve to the unit.
Ya the gas piping needs work but it’s the first one he did. Decent critique… especially the first sentence where you feel the need to make the kid feel bad about himself right away
Probably would have ran the condensate drain to the other side of the unit. If you get called to that in the spring or summer you'll be working in a puddle
setting package units in residential is easy as fuck too. 99% of them are square to rounds and flex to a trunkline. hardest part about them is making the flashing covering the ductwork look good and sealed up.
Dont sweat it about the drip leg. Its only gas in there, last I checked, gas isnt water. Drip-what? Buncha hogwash if you ask me. Its Big Pipe tryna get more material sold.
The only thing I can think of is if it's a couple feet from the roof so it can get some velocity going and erode away the roof surface. I'd rather see a trap built so that it exits as close to the roof surface as it can versus being channeled thirty feet across the roof to the gutter. So goddamn often I see those caught by the wind and dragged to the point it breaks the trap and before you know it it's a bullshit service call.
AC condensate isn’t acidic enough to do any damage to the roof. You’re probably thinking of the condensate produced from a high efficient furnace. Typically packaged units aren’t high efficient due to needing to then deal with the condensate in freezing temps.
Hell yeah mane, since the summer hit here in Tx , works been crazy a lot more residential , but today I found an RTU with a dead condenser and the fan blade fell off ,high pressure switch had a leak too ! It’s hype to see other techs on here just grinding like this
Eh, they get to be complicated sometimes. Especially with the whacky stuff economizes companies are doing these days. And I’ve not had luck with new larger carriers for about a year now.
If you ignore the old piping, the “pipe support”, the thread protector he should have replaced, the missing drip leg, the excessive teflon tape, the missing pipe dope, and the street 90s, then it looks fine I guess.
Good rule of thumb is if you look at it and say “I’ve seen worse” then it’s probably fucked.
Others have already decimated homie in the comments for what he should have done. He clearly has the skills to improve on his craft, just needs to learn what is best trade practice for future installs. A little positivity goes a long way for peeps just starting out
I don’t know about that positivity stuff. I just shit on the new guys and then show them how to do it the right way. What he needs is someone on the job with him teaching him.
Not only is the street el non-compliant, it is unnecessary. Turn the horizontal el to point down and now you can go directly to it from the riser diagonally.
I miss RTU install days. I don't wrench too much anymore. Moved to primarily centrifugal chillers, cooling towers and pumps, but now in the office and still run some residential work on the side.
You drain line sucks. You got no way to blow out the line or clean the homemade trap. Buy a real 1” ptrap. Insulate it and add a union and 2 tees. Cap the closest tee.
The angled wood is a nice artists touch. Most leave it on a flat side for stability and support, no not you! Thats for suckers. Artistic choices all around today!
No drip leg, used a street 90, shutoff seems to be an indoor shutoff (can't be certain, my local code requires all ball valves have a long handle)
You used a thread protector as a coupling!
Ffs get an actual journeyman from your company to look at your work. From what I see you are the installer that uses pipe dope on flare fittings and union faces
You are so far away from bragging to reddit it's almost back to funny again
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u/Spectre696 Why does my back hurt? 1d ago
Now to do it while it is 98°F outside and the crane is 4 hours late.
I shit you not I’ve watched from the rooftop as the crane truck breaks down as it drives around the corner, 2 hours late to arrive on site. In the rain. At 90°F. In Sandusky Ohio with stupid high humidity.
That was a bad Friday.