I, Holden Shambruger aka HVACTIME, have built this academy as a structured plan to take techs who are interested in working on chillers to being fully self sufficient in daily chiller service tasks.
This is accomplished through,
Free Service Course
Chiller Questions Answered (CQA)
Online Chiller Certification Course
In-person Hands On Training
Chiller Service Training Program
Each of the above options create a path for any tech with basic HVAC fundamentals to become competent.
I have tested this process through years of professional training to create a complete technician.
Free Service Course: https://chilleracademy.com/p/free-chiller-training
This course provides techs who are interested in chillers but have limited exposure a place to see what daily service is like. This is a collection of field service calls and trainings I filmed over a 7 year period of my career as a chiller tech. This course is not built to be completed in its entirety. It is intended to provide a lot of value and gauge genuine interest in chillers before investing in further training. When ready, the next steps from this course is enrolling in my Online Chiller Certification Course and my Chiller Questions Answered portal.
Chiller Questions Answered (CQA): https://chilleracademy.com/p/chiller-questions-answered
This is a live interactive event I host weekly on YouTube. In the CQA portal techs can review previous streams and submit questions for upcoming streams. I prioritize these questions before covering question in the stream chat. Questions are open from covering basic principles, chiller/plant specific procedures, or career advice. Streams are on YouTube on my HVACTIME channel, Monday's at 11am central time. For techs still deciding on a chiller career or getting live feedback on their certification course questions, this can get them taken care of. The next step from this program is enrolling or engaging in my Online Chiller Certification Course.
Online Chiller Certification Course: https://chilleracademy.com/p/intro-to-chillers
This course is for techs who have basic HVAC training on split system's and RTU’s. Tech's will complete this program with a comprehensive understanding of what a chiller is, air cooled, water cooled, scroll, reciprocating, screw, centrifugal, hydronic's, plants, pumps, controls, motor drives, mag bearings, cooling towers, and tools. This is a 23 module program with over 200 video lessons. Each enrollment is 12 months access with the ability to take a 100 question written exam that is hand graded to show competency of material to receive a certificate. Upon nearing completion or completing the course material, tech's should attend a Hands On In-person training with me for chiller service principles and practices.
In-person Hands On Training: email me [email protected]
This training is for techs that have fundamental understanding of chillers and terms. They do not have to have any hands on chiller experience. If techs do not have fundamentals of chillers, then they should first go through my Online Chiller Certification Course. Techs will finish this training understanding basic service practices and troubleshooting for scroll, reciprocating, screw, and centrifugal chillers with hands on discussion of compressors. Techs will also learn push/pull refrigerant transfer, pressure testing, evacuation, refrigerant oil separation, and refrigerant moisture clean up through hands on lab exercises. After completing this training, techs should enroll in the Chiller Service Training Program for guides on applying their training to field service tasks.
Chiller Service Training Program: https://chilleracademy.com/p/chiller-service-training
This program is for service techs who have an understanding of chiller fundamentals and are working on chillers in the field on some level, including as simple as maintenance focused tasks only. If the tech is not working on chillers and/or does not have chiller fundamentals, then it is best to start with my Online Chiller Certification Course and go through an In-person Hands On Training. My service training program provides the tech with a library of service procedures including low & high pressure water cooled recovery, air cooled recovery, pressure testing, evacuation, charging, and a variety of troubleshooting scenarios. This program is intended to be used like a guide book where they reference the procedure they need per their circumstances. This program provides techs with needed directions and reduces support load on senior techs and management. Tech's will complete this 12 month program with confidence and muscle memory of repeated tasks.
It has been my experience that the first several years of a young techs journey is where they get discouraged or overwhelmed, resulting in needing excessive support or giving up entirely. This roadmap gets young techs past this phase to self sufficiency and confidence. Once techs begin to feel confidence in their daily tasks, they become very motivated to excel moving forward. Through traditional methods, this process took 5 to 10 years for most techs. My system is designed to achieve this in 2 to 3 years consistently.
