Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Pulling down to <500 microns on 100' of lineset in <2 minutes at 010
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Yup. Straddled the knuckle on RLS which creates the deformed copper 010
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Guys who say they see plenty of leaks on propress systems be like 100
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Got an email from my son's chem teacher because he was competing with his friend to see who could handle acid on their hand the longest. Realistically that one is 100% on me. I doubt he even knows it's against any sort of rules 081
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Just spent an hour with Bill Spohn on the building and HVAC science podcast. Should be out in a couple weeks. It's going to be much weirder than my first appearance which was already quite weird 040
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 22/09/20261) it short circuits whenever the air handler is off by cycling dry air into its own inlet. Whereas standalone dehumdifiers run continuously 2) When the AC is running, the dehumidifer supply reduces humidity on the AC coil which reduces its dehumidification capacity 000
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Back in 2002 Armin Rudd observed that standalone dehumidifiers worked better than ducted. I remember when this study dropped and it only took 24 years to figure out why. Ducted dehumidification fails because 100
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/09/2026We drafted a marketing postcard and one of my employees thought it would be funny to write "we only poop using bidets" in an edit and wrote "make sure to proofread this" in the email. So now we have 1200 postcards that say we only poop in bidets 191
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Yes, I should have been more clear there Installers not understanding basics is fairly common to HVAC unfortunately 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/20263) in many systems the pumping station is the dominant energy input so 2-3xing the pump duty cycle is a really big deal All of this has hardened my position that I will never install a residential gshp. But if you have one and are nice I'll probably help you fix it 060
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/20262) the loops are way below the ground and shouldn't really freeze even with water but they've accidentally frozen the ground due to insufficient liquid flow or undersized the bore holes. GSHPs main benefit is constant ground temp. Whoops 270
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/20261) the loop should be water-tight and glycol filled. I suspect they're auto filling with water that diluted the glycol because they have leaks 140
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I was talking with a ground source heat pump installer about a pump control problem I had and he said "oh we just set them to run constantly, otherwise they freeze." There are so many layers to how bad this is 160
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I mean the tonneau cover was sort of a tell tbh 000
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Overall agree that this seems somewhat likely btw. It's not dissimilar to how I use gpt now when it's easier for me to have something in my ear vs look up eg torque specs chart 010
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 15/09/2026I can't speak to what they'll be building but even when people today are physically guided (not uncommon to literally hold someone's hand to show them movement) It's difficult to get movement patterns dialed. Nomenclature also problematic 110
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Today I was in my buddy's truck that has a tonneau cover so I checked inside some tool bags that were sitting on the rear seats and it was just different types of lotions. Swear to god 130
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Did a 10 round open mat yesterday at a gym one of my buddies opened. It was fun but then this morning we were drilling throws and I got accidentally launched into the stratosphere. It's probably been 8 to 10 months since my last day completely off running or rolling, but it's starting to feel close 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026I think this would be a trickier transition than what many people believe for the trades 120
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 04/09/2026A surprising thing I'm finding is that when dehumidifiers are ducted into AC systems they usually have 2 independent failure modes, both of which render them nearly useless 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/09/2026This dude's water bill went from 3k gallons/month to 200k and the water company suggested putting dye in the toilet tank to check for a leaky flapper. He used 4.7 gallons/minute for the month of July, I don't think that's going to be it 040
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/08/2026I think it's possible independent testing could make things worse in some cases. On some level what's lacking is deep knowledge, and independent verifiers tend to have broad but superficial knowledge. Those videos you guys send me of building inspectors are rife with inspector errors 030
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Many people believe that we could significantly reduce construction defects via increased independent verification, but I think this is totally overblown. Most problems aren't driven by misaligned incentives, information assymetry or whatever. It's largely a competence problem 160
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/08/2026If you're a tech consider carrying spare electric panel cover screws on your truck. They're often missing, and also somewhat important. You'll probably be taking plenty of panel covers off anyway 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 24/08/2026When my daughter wears this outfit in public I'll sometimes turn to her and act startled and people immediately know I've mistaken her for a bear 031
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I know of one other (semi-retired) GC in our market capable of doing literally any skilled site task. And I wouldn't even say the remainder are highly competent at emailing or typing, let alone have a deep understanding of building 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 21/08/2026GCs traditionally had strong carpentry backgrounds, and often donned tools where it was more efficient than instructing others, or due to production pressure 110
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I wish there were a way to measure, but it feels like construction projects have substantially increased their ratio of words to output, which is probably not a good trend. 120
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/08/2026For sure! Crowning studs on walls with cabinets probably makes sense, but might be generally overkill 000
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Here a Japanese carpenter corrects an apprentice for placing a stud upside down because the leaves would face the wrong way 130
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/08/2026North American platform framing continues to beat prefab partly because we don't worry if 2x4s are upside down. Countries where carpenters maintain inefficient site building practices probably tend to lose more ground to prefab 150
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Buy this table and I'll throw in the George Clinton memoir 000
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 19/08/2026There's a pervasive urban legend that a contractor can't use the word mold to describe mold. So almost everyone in HVAC uses terms like "biological growth" because synonyms are a brilliant loophole for evading fake laws 060
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 16/08/2026People often confuse dehumidifiers with humidifiers and then imply that I'm pedantic for correcting them, but it actually seems important given they have intuitive names and opposite functions 060
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Oh that's nothing. One of my clients had an HVAC contractor pack asbestos pipe insulation in the return plenum to reduce noise 030
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Asbestos kitchen exhaust piped through heat/cool duct return 110
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 09/08/2026A sentence I could do without is when people or companies say they "went into crisis mode". It feels like the great majority of the time whatever mode they were in can be inferred from context clues vs a formal declaration 010
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 09/08/2026I sometimes worry about my daughter going off to college with the interpersonal habits of a construction worker. Eg loudly double-slapping the body of a vehicle to indicate safe clearance for driver departure 030
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 06/08/2026If you guys need me I'll be fixing remedial building construction errors in one of the highest income zip codes in the country 120
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 03/08/2026The wires at the sawmill won't stop touching. It's like they can't keep their hands off each other 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026They don't really enforce that for the bathroom 220
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026Modifying the opening size on a handful of windows takes me longer than framing the entire room with the same quantity of windows 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026Over the course of both my carpentry and HVAC career probably 90% of my work has been renovation or repair of existing homes. People often don't fully grasp the level of difficulty these entail relative to new construction 151
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026On balance tape measure clips have probably been net negative because they give people the illusion they can do real work with a tape clipped to their pants and no tool belt 020
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Tilt/turn tend to not have flanges, but yes water holdout on top and sides, drainage (untaped flange and sill dam) at bottom! 010
Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Working on a fun little euro tilt/turn window installation this week. I'll try to remember to take pics and videos. A lot of people end up with replacement style windows which imo are complete garbage. It's not much more difficult to install quality windows with good water management 150
