Recommended Sources

Our recommended sources section – front page right hand column, ’bout halfway down. If you are thinking about an instrument or tool investment or purchase, the people listed in this section are the ones to see.

The few that you will eventually find in this section are not a matter of my own opinion but rather a consensus of many technicians who have dealt with them in the past. Strong service and support ethics are critical components of any orginization you will see in the section – or they would not be there. We look for sources that have roots in the trade, if we wanted to link you to a salesman that has no clue about what they are selling, what it does or how it does it, we could have listed 90% of the wholesalers in the trade there – but they aren’t.

Reasonable pricing, exceptional service and support and an understanding of the mechanics and applications of the tools and instruments used in the trade, that’s the price of the ticket to ride in the Recommended Sources section. You won’t find many, but the ones that are there – bank on ‘em. 

The HVAC PROTech.com® TECHniques™ 2008 Symposium

The HVAC PROTech® TECHniques™ 2008 Symposium is officially in the books. This years focus was Digital Refrigeration and system commissioning and was held just outside Cleveland, Ohio at the beautiful and comprehensive HVAC/R labs at the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center.

The Symposium available exclusively to members of HVAC PROTech.com® was led by Jim Bergmann and special guest Bill Spohn. The event was sponsored by TRUTech Tools™, Testo®, HVACe3™ and Digi-Cool® Industries. The Symposium was a combination educational and social event and we fully expect this to be an annual tradition available to site members.

 The 2009 Symposium will obviously have a different focus than the 2008 Digital Refrigeration Symposium and we would like to expand the available number of registrations that we can accept and still maintain an effective learning environment. The Symposium was provided at no cost to site members, with the exception of their travel and lodging, which was also arranged at group rates.

Join the only site by the technician – for the technician. Maybe we’ll see you there next year.

J/B® Announces DM-2™ Intelligent Manifold Revisions for 2008

Our award winning Digital Manifold, the DM2, gets a face lift for 2008.  All of the capabilities that you have come to expect like 32 built-in refrigerants, automatic calculation of superheat and subcooling temperatures, conversion into other scales, and pressure readings, are kept intact.  We have made the 2008 version sleeker and more durable.  The DM-2 is now on the sleek, lightweight aluminum Zeppelin manifold body.  The display has been updated with a more easy to use face and the digital components are protected by a heavy duty rubber boot which can be retro-fitted to earlier DM-2 models.  Included in the product launch is a four-valve version with all of the same characteristics of the DM-2 model, but made for a four-valve Zeppelin manfiold body. 

The largest Digital Manifold Gauge Knowledge Base on the Internet. HVAC PROTech.com®  http://www.hvacprotech.com

The Second Generation DM-2™ mounted on the Zeppelin™ 4 valve configuration manifold w/ 3/8″ port:

  

  

Stargate SG3000™ Coming to HVAC PROTech.com® FieldTest Lineup « Digital Zeus™ HVAC Tool & Instruments Journal

Stargate SG3000™ Coming to HVAC PROTech.com® FieldTest Lineup « Digital Zeus™ HVAC Tool & Instruments Journal

Stargate SG3000™ Coming to HVAC PROTech.com® FieldTest Lineup

Winner of the ACHR NEWS® 2005 Dealer Design Award, the SG3000™ – contrary to popular misconception is not a new instrument. It’s technology is fully patented. With over 2 years of research and development invested in it’s refinement.

Now the rubber is going to meet the road. Stargate International will be providing the SG3000™ to the HVAC PROTech.com® Exclusive FieldTest and Evaluation Trials. You will learn more about the instrument, more about the OEM and more about it’s field application suitability here than anywhere else on the internet, and it won’t cost you a dime to do it.

Our members are provided the instrument to use on site – in the field for two weeks and they author evaluations – good and bad – provide images and video clips of the instrument in application and under field conditions. Learn about and understand the instruments before you buy them – only at HVAC PROTech.com®

If you are not familiar yet with the SG3000™ – watch the clips below. Then join and participate in our member FieldTests yourself.

 

Review the SG3000™ User’s Guide in Zeus’ Black Box, right hand column lower section of the page.

Digi-Cool® DRSA™ 1100 Two Years Later « Digital Zeus™ HVAC Tool & Instruments Journal

Digi-Cool® DRSA™ 1100 Two Years Later « Digital Zeus™ HVAC Tool & Instruments Journal

Digital Manifold Gauge | Digitial Refrigeration System Analyzer

Digi-Cool® DRSA™ 1100 Two Years Later

The Predator [Digi-Cool® DRSA™ 1100] Two Years Later

The Predator thread has finally gotten some age on it – on the back side of two years now and I thought what the hell? Let’s do an update on it. One of the big, big stumbling blocks that kept and still keeps alot of the technician’s I talk with from transitioning from analog to digital is simply time. They just had not been in the field long enough to make the guys that were interested in them spend the money, and given the history of the DMG, that was a legitimate concern.

The DRSA kinda reminds me of the singers, or movie stars that seem to pop up out of no where – to us that’s exactly what it seems like an over night success, but if you listen to most of those that seem to be over night hits the thing we find out is that they really are not over night successes, most have been trudging along in anonymity for many many years.

The 1100 that was dubbed the Predator here, was the second generation in the DRSA family, the first was the BTD, also shown in this thread and prior to that the BTD prototype [refer to our interview with Lockhart, also 2 years old now], went through 20+ years of development and design refinement so to say that the Predator has made it to the two year old mark, in the grand scheme is really rather trivial. This instrument didn’t just show up 2, 3 or 5 years ago it has not been an overnight success.

But for the purposes of this little update this particular set, the 1100 has just about made it 2 years relatively unscathed.

I should say I was probably one of the most skeptical when it came to the DMG’s that are on the market right now. I did a really serious research into these gauges (which incidentally, not alot of the guys know this but this research actually led to the development and concept of the PROTech Forums, that we all love so much or not ;0)), I researched what was then the Testo first generation 523 and 556 and I researched the DRSA BTD and 1100, the BTD powerhead was still available then. I decided on the 1100, obviously. A whole lot of the reasoning behind the decision to go with DC was the fact that they were concieved and designed by a brother technican. And the fact that you could literally nearly any time of the day or night pick the phone up and call this guy – and get an answer, or at the very least a return call in a very short time what a concept, actual product support. I liked the design better and the fact that I could adapt it to whichever manifold I might take the notion to adapt it to, and it’s been on a few.

I’ve never looked back in regret on my decision to make this purchase – not once. The 1100 has without an ounce of exaggeration been through way more abuse and punishment than anyone else would likely ever even think about exposing them to. I fully expected them to fail. I fully expected to be able to come back onto this site and say see, the analog manifold gauge cannot be digitized. I was wrong.

When I first got this set I babied it like most women do a newborn – quite literally. I cleared out a special spot for it in the van – I only used it on warm days, I never got it out in the rain, I only used it in special circumstances for special customers. After about a month or so of doing this, I said screw this noise. I don’t know if the new wore off, or if I just got tired of baby sitting them either way I decided this things can either work in the same conditions and environments that I do or the guy that sold them to me can buy them back.

They lost their special spot in the van, they hang where I hang my rooftop ropes, my chains and cables, they hang next to my fish tape and sometimes like the analogs did they lie on the floor. They’ve been left in the rain – literally left in the rain by accident, hanging on an RTU until I discovered they were missing quite a while later. They’ve endured a 60 mph ride hanging from my ladder rack – and in the rain to boot. They’ve sat in the batter’s box in a 120°F penthouse boiler room until I got back to get them and the rest of my tools to hook them up to a 60 ton RTU in sub-zero ambients and they’ve done it without display distortion -I’ve got Fluke’s that won’t do that my friends. The DRSA goes from 3 ton split resi equipment to the chiller room to verify OEM pressure instrumentation without missing a beat.

I’ve since gotten the DRSA 1200 and will also be getting the upgrade package for it to bring it up to the capabilities of the 1250 powerhead. This is an investment that has paid for itself on more than one occassion. And for what it’s worth, you notice that I mentioned the DRSA in the same paragraph as the Fluke? It was not by mistake. This is a DMG that will achieve the same level of reputation for quality and performance that Fluke enjoys with their DMM’s, I have absolutely no doubt of that. BTW, in case you were wondering, I still have the 1100 and still use it everyday.