Big Name Chiller Manufacturers Don't Give A Shit About Their Customers.
I had a problem on an air cooled screw chiller that the factory could have helped me with if they had answered one simple question, but they wouldn't.
I expended every resource I had.
I read every published manual, and paged through every service bulletin for this chiller on this manufacturers website, I narrowed the problem down to a failed bleed resistor on a speed drive for the compressor.
I checked the resistance value of the bleed resistors, and one was different from the other, but neither were shorted, or open.
So, I decided to call the manufacturer.
I waited on the phone for over an hour. When the factory support finally answered the phone, I asked the question. "What is the resistance value for the bleed resistors in the speed drive".
Instead of answering this simple question, he told me that I'm not qualified, and how I need to be factory trained. I proceeded to inform him that I have a lot of experience on compressor speed drives, and hold a variety of factory certifications for more complicated equipment when I used to work for another manufacturer. That didn't matter, I then proceeded to ask how I can get the certification.
He said that they don't offer the training to chiller technicians from other companies, and that only their chiller technicians can take the training.
I have had lots of really bad experiences with different manufacturers in the past, but this was the turning point where I realized that the big name manufactures only care about growing their service business through monopolizing the industry, and they really don't care about their customers, or the end user.
At the end of the conversation he said he could send a technician out to verify my findings, but it would be 2 days.
This is not what I considered good customer service so I ended up buying both of the resistors and got the chiller online for the customer the same day.
I know chiller technicians, engineers, controls guys, and customers from all over the world that face these issues when working with large name chiller manufacturers. We are building a place for men to teach each other and help each other learn so we can change the course of the industry.
"The Chiller Guys" Facebook Group
One of the ways we believe we can achieve this is through the use of a support group. In this group, guys from all over the world can come together and teach each other all of the ins and outs of the chiller industry, network, seek advice, and help each other grow their careers in the chiller industry.
Help Us Change The Industry.
The vision for the platform is to have the following:
A place where guys can share knowledge freely and help each other learn without getting put down, or made to feel dumb for not knowing something.
A massive pool of literature for guys to pull from when they are on the job if they need to find information.
Educational classes and videos to teach guys everything about chillers like:
Chiller basics, Chiller controls, logging a Chiller, how chillers work, how to diagnose chillers, how to overhaul chillers, and all other things chiller related.
With these things we believe we can take someone who has never touched a chiller to a level where they can start taking service calls and be successful for their customers.
This platform will be operational in the summer of 2024 to the spring of 2025, depending on how much help we can get along the way.
We cant do it alone, and we are prepared and willing to stand and work our asses off to build this for all of our benefit. The more people we have helping the faster we can build it. If you guys have knowledge you would like to share, and want to help us create the training, and classes, shoot me an email and we will all work together to build this.
We also have some things we made for technicians looking to get into chillers that is filled with valuable information in our "products" page. Every dollar we make is going right back into getting this platform stood up.