Hard Lessons w/ Roman, Tim D., Nathan O. and ELK
HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
Bryan Orr
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Join industry veterans Tim De Stasio, Roman Baugh, Eric Kaiser, and Nathan Orr as they share their most memorable HVAC lessons learned the HARD WAY. This unfiltered conversation from the 7th Annual HVAC/R Training Symposium reveals the real stories behind costly errors, dangerous situations, and valuable HVAC training moments that shaped their careers.
What You'll Learn:
- Critical refrigerant handling mistakes and their consequences
- Combustion safety lessons that could save lives
- Chemical safety protocols every technician must know
- Equipment installation errors and how to avoid them
- Real-world troubleshooting failures and solutions
From seized compressors and ruptured refrigerant lines to dangerous gas leaks and combustion incidents, these HVAC professionals hold nothing back. Each story comes with crucial HVAC/R lessons that can help you avoid making the same mistakes.
Whether you're a seasoned technician or just starting your HVAC career, these hard-earned insights will help you work safer, smarter, and more professionally.
Remember: The best lessons are often learned the HARD WAY by others. Learn from these experiences so you don't have to repeat them!
Have a question that you want us to answer on the podcast? Submit your questions at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool.
Purchase your tickets or learn more about the 7th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/symposium.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Heidi ho there, neighbor. This is the HVAC school podcast. I'm Brian. This is another episode from the symposium with some of my favorite people talking about hard lessons learned in this trade, in the HVACR trade with Roman Baugh, Tim Dostasio, Nathan Orr, and the one and only Elk, otherwise known as Eric Kaiser from True Tech Tools. |
| 0:26.9 | Great conversation, but before we get to it, we want to thank our great sponsors. |
| 0:31.7 | Carrier and Carrier.com. I've been a carrier dealer dealer for many years. Carrier has their new green speed extreme, super high |
| 0:40.2 | efficiency heat pumps out on the market now. Find out more by going to Carrier.com. |
| 0:46.3 | Refrigeration technologies at refrigetec.com. Navack and Navak Global.com and the breakfree power tube bender model NTB7L. |
| 0:59.7 | Seriously, this thing is really great, bends even large-sized tubing up to 7-8s OD. |
| 1:05.1 | Find out more at TrueTech Tools.com. |
| 1:07.5 | Use the offer code get schooled for a great discount at checkout. |
| 1:13.6 | Santa Fe and Santa Fe and Santa Fe dehumidifiers. They're changing the dehumidifier reliability game with their brand new, |
| 1:16.6 | peace of mind warranty program. |
| 1:19.6 | Cutting edge, HVAC technology doesn't cut it if it isn't reliable. |
| 1:23.6 | So Santa Fe's warranty program comes with a five-year complete replacement coverage and an extra year for parts. |
| 1:31.4 | So I'm glad at our business, KALOS, we can offer a product line with so much confidence and support behind it, |
| 1:37.9 | and I would encourage you to consider doing the same. |
| 1:40.5 | To learn more, visit HVACR school.com slash Santa Fe. That's HVACR school.com |
| 1:46.5 | slash Santa Fe. |
| 1:50.7 | So welcome, guys, gentlemen, ladies. Who are you talking about? I don't know. It's the seventh |
| 1:56.6 | annual symposium. I don't see any gentlemen sitting at this table. Do you? Yeah, no, I don't. That's why I invited Nathan, but it's the only gentleman that I know about it. I'm so fancy. I have an old-timey mustache tattooed on my finger. I invited you gentlemen here. So I was talking to Eric the other day about problems and issues that we've created money, that we've lost clients that have sued us. No, I'm just kidding. |
| 2:17.7 | We're not talking about that. No, we don't talk about that. |
| 2:20.1 | Want to swap some stories. So everybody here has had some great experiences over the years where we |
| 2:25.9 | have made mistakes that just we felt like idiots afterwards. So I'm looking at you, Nathan. |
| 2:31.5 | No. But I wanted to kick this off with just we've all been doing doing this. How long have you been to this, Eric? 21, 22 years this year? Okay. Nathan? Yeah, I mean, it's probably about the same 21, one year or something like that. Depends what counts. We'll round up. Sam, what about yourself? 25 plus. See, I'm the youngest. got the old man at night 19 years in it so again |
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