April 21, 2025 • 39 mins
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Learn more about Refrigeration Mentor Customized Technical Training Programs at www.refrigerationmentor.com/courses
In our milestone 300th episode of The Refrigeration Mentor podcast, we’re pleased to have regular guest Andrew Freeberg back to discuss the critical role of training and development in the refrigeration industry. We dive into our own personal stories and share practical advice for technicians at all levels for investing in continuous learning and structured training programs, instead of just trying to learn on the job. All of which will help you learn much faster, reduce job stress, make you a better technician on the spot at service calls and open the door for career and and income advancement. Thanks for helping us get to 300! Appreciate you listening, your shares, reviews, comments, and helping us uplift the refrigeration industry around the world.
In this episode, we discuss:
-Modern platforms for training and development
-Learning and teaching in the industry
-Field assignments and practical applications
-Identifying and solving issues
-The importance of training for safety
-Why training yourself helps the entire industry
-Online drip training vs. condensed live courses
-How many training programs (like Refrigeration Mentor) work
-Understanding order of operations
-Community-based learning
-Where to find hands-on experience
-Management's role in technician development
-Negotiating training payment with your company
Helpful Links & Resources:
Episode 250. Service Call Stories and Troubleshooting Tips with Andrew Freeburg
Episode 201. Removing the Fear of CO2 Refrigeration with Andrew Freeburg
Andrew Freeburg on LinkedIn
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Trevor (00:00):
This is our 300 episode and we're gonna dive into training and development. Super excited about this. Have my good friend Andrew Freeberg chatting about this. This is a special time we're continuing to grow. Help the industry out. Love this. Welcome to the Refrigeration Minter podcast. As always, love you guys coming to hang out. Listen each week definitely if you like the podcast, this is how more people find out about it. Just hit the like button on Apple or Spotify or even go to the my IG account and say, Hey, what's up? Really love that.
(00:01):
So if you haven't been in there or checked it out yet, it's refrigeration mentor.com/hub. And you can go in. It's a free community where we're helping. Refrigeration technicians out in the field. Level up. Learn a little bit. If you're looking to get better in your career , go going into a service manager.
So Andrew, what are some of the things you've been seeing out there today for like, training and education?
Today he's been to a lot of the programs and I'm learning so much from, but he took, taken some of the four week CO2 courses. He took six week CO2 courses. He is been involved in our design course CO2 course. So, and now you consistently see he actually moved. To a new location to work on more CO2 'cause he is driven and he wants to get to next level.
What are some of the big things in these trainings that really help you?
Andrew (00:05):
Oh, big. Yes. You gotta support you, you offer support more than just here, read this and you're on your own.
Those, those texts that do the quizzes and do the assignments and text and phone call or get into the community and participate. I see them getting, I see some getting raises. I've seen some getting new jobs. I see some becoming lead tech running teams of 50 or 60 technicians now within a year, a year and a half of taking a refrigeration mentor program.
I mean, honestly, that's what I recall too. You, you, a lot of technicians kind of just held their knowledge to themselves and not really wanted to share. And I never did understand that. And that's the whole reason why I really do what I do. I love sharing and teaching because I, how I feel is I, if I could teach you everything that I know.
Trevor (00:08):
I remember so many times sitting at a rack or a system and I just didn't know what to do. Like, what should I be looking and nothing's working, where do I start? And this is even after four or five years in the industry, sometimes going out and you see something new like, oh, there's a drive all of a sudden and all of a sudden you freeze up.
Andrew (00:09):
Boy, I mean that, that, like you said, every individual is different. But I'm telling you, the biggest impact on your career is learning. Spending 15 minutes. 15 minutes a day or , Monday through Friday on, on a subject that you don't know. It could be you walk into a rack or a system or a self-contained, whatever it may be.
You're like, what is going on here? So now what are you doing? You're scrolling, you're like, okay, what's this doing? What's that doing? , so you, you, you do that then. But what if you figured that out because you spent 15 minutes. Now you, you just start knocking calls out and you're like, okay, I know exactly what's going on.
So you have, , the first. The defrost initiation. Then you have say, if it's in CO2, it's an EV. So what does that EV do? Well, then it closes, okay, what else happens at that C? Anything happen? What I mean? So it closes and then all of a sudden, does it do a pump down? Well, how long is that pump out cycle?
Trevor (00:12):
You've been doing this for, for 18 years. What made the difference for you? Why is there a lot of technicians that don't understand the sequence of operation? I know I talked to a bunch of manufacturers, I've done it for years.
I mean, I'm still doing that today. There's so much stuff out here and getting a conversation going just like we are here. Matter of fact, I was just on a phone call talking about a digital compressor, a scroll compressor. I mean, so it's just, it's. It's talking about it, being curious is huge in trying to understand what's going on and, and then once, once you do, when you're trying to teach it, you need to know those steps.
Andrew (00:14):
Well, you, you you get a a session, a two hour session every every week. So then on top of that though, you go in into manuals and you're trying to figure out exactly how could be an order of operation or how this thing like like why is this? Light red and then it turns green, right? So you, you really start to dig deeper into how the system works.
Being better and we're better together.
Let's figure it out, what you're working on, throw it into the group chat, let's talk about it. Yeah. I love that. I love bringing, bring the, your, your, the racks that you guys work on into the conversation, and that's really just making, making you better.
Let's go look at that sequence of operation and figure it out for yourself while you're on a call. And I think that that's where I've seen so many technicians who came into the program and went and applied that. Like, how do you change a valve paper? I've never done it before. And I've seen lots of technicians learn the proper process on how to change a valve plate.
Is it right? Maybe, maybe not. So that's where, where your curriculum and how you, how you go through the process. It's like, okay, I got a green light. Well, that's good. Or is it bad? Right. So it's one of those things. It's, so it's just knowing what you're looking at, because if you don't, then how do if it's good?
I look back at that as, as one of my like whole wow calls, right? So, yeah, I, and it, and it wasn't even alarming. Nothing was alarming. Nothing was even triggering. Like there's a problem. This was just a regular maintenance on this rack, just checking things out. So, I went in and started going through the computer, checking everything.
The flash tank, it's gonna be right around 5 50, 600, something, , somewhere close to right around there. I think this one, it was actually right around five 10, if I remember right. Either way. He's like, and he just shakes his head like, no, no, no. I'm like okay, what is it? He's like, it's 800. I go, there's no way.
And why is it reading that? So my first thing is like, okay, what tells the compressor, the HPV, or excuse me, not the HPV, but the, flash gas bypass valve to open up to get that pressure down so we're not running well, it's a pressure transducer that's an input, right? And then, so I go and follow the pipes and I'm, boom, there's, there's my pressure transducer on that.
Six's 50. Yeah. Six 50. Yeah, that's right. Six 50. I'm like, man, there is something. Why did not those not go? So I followed the pipes go to where the pressure relief's at. It's not like it's valved off or anything. So I was like, there's a major problem here. So I order the valves, get 'em replaced, and then I started asking the questions, , Hey, why didn't, why?
Let's change it. But actually it's a transducer. But the biggest thing that you found out there was oil in the transducer. Why did it get oil? As well as that pressure relief needs to be changed. I. This is a part of our job as technicians is make sure that system is safe for the customer. Mm-hmm. And that's one of the things that we dive into all the time is the, the safety, how to safely charge a system, how to safely start a system up.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, honestly, you need to invest in yourself. That's what's gonna make. You better. And it's going to I mean save the customer and obviously the boss man some money too. But I'm telling you, if you invest in yourself, it's gonna make your life easier. And that's where, that's where the disconnect, I think might be, is where they don't see the value of investing your own time, your own money into yourself.
They, the technician pays outta their pocket, puts some skin in the game. They get the certificate, then they get, they get paid back plus, what I mean? Plus sometimes, like if you invest in it and those guy, those technicians for sure, hands down surpassing their lead technician. I see it time and time again.
And I know we talk about this all, all the time, especially in the program, you gotta go out and troubleshoot a system that's running properly. Go out and put your gauges on, write it down, all on the PNID or the electrical wiring diagram. And it's, it's the same thing as when we do electrical training.
Will I get another call on a Friday night? Because that call on Wednesday, I did. I didn't know if I really fixed it and stress me right out. ? And that's a lot of the things that I thought about when I was. 7, 6, 7, 8 years into the supermarket industry. And when I started learning and investing myself, and it did, does take a long time, but you can shorten the learning curve and I've seen that with you in CO2, like holy, , CO2 quite quickly, man.
Trevor (00:28):
Yeah, that's, , refrigeration mentor.com/hub. Go check it out. It's free to sign up. I think one of the biggest thing that I've been teaching technician, 'cause a lot of the course can be quite pricey, right?
They don't do the quizzes. They don't do the assignments. They're, what I mean? So if, if you're a technician out there. I've, I've had this strategy with so many technicians from low ticket courses to really high tens of thousands of dollars of tickets of courses by being like, all if you invest in, if I invest in this course will you pay it when I get the certificate?
To help technicians out there. And, and then I talk with contractors too, is like, you gotta talk with your, your team. I think this is one of the big things that when I'm working with management and leadership teams is like, you gotta have skin in the game too. Not just paying for the, not just paying for the course is like following up with the guys asking if they're learning.
They, they get to the next level. So it's, 'cause sometimes I see, oh, it's the technicians. They don't wanna learn. But sometimes it's the management as well, not investing in their guys, they're just paying for, that's not investing in your guys. It's actually having that conversation, which I've seen, I've talked to companies where they lost that as they got bigger and bigger.
We shouldn't be all out on our own trying to figure stuff out. No way. I'm a huge fan of, of being together and we all learn together. We're all gonna learn, be better together. That's just how it is. As far as going as far as your manager saying, Hey. Getting involved in it a hundred percent.
Well, if you don't train 'em and they stay, it's gonna cost you even more money and time and frustration. And if they, if they do leave, then there has to be something. It might be pay. It might be culture, it might be, , the team that they're working on, maybe it's management, maybe it is their technicians.
And it's the same with the supermarket course where it's more on the HFC side. It's like, Trevor, the calls that I used to get for like defrauds differential valves or, or these certain calls on, the controller's not working, or multiflex board or whatever it is. It's like, I'm not getting those calls as much and how much does that help your business?
Yeah. Yeah. I, I love that.
So now if I ever get 'em that rack again, or any, , ones that are exactly the same, I'm not gonna have that question. So to me, I just gained knowledge for myself and I help the customer out. I help the company out, and if anybody calls me up and says, Hey. I don't understand this. Now I have that resource to come back to and say, oh yeah, this is how this system works.
Andrew (00:37):
Yeah. I mean. I get it. I understand it. Eight years into the trade, but what? I'm been 20 and I know there's guys that have even been in the trade longer.
Well, what if there's a way that you could actually save that oil, dump it into the reservoir? Not drain hardly next to any of that oil. Pull the screen out, clean it, throw it back in, and then fire it all back up. Get that oil and not lose a drop of oil. What if I could tell you there's a way, so there's always a way, there's different ways, right?
If you're new into the industry or if you're doing it for 10 or 15 years, there's always something new to learn from somewhere from a different part of the world. Just like Andrew Andrews brings so much value to refrigeration Manager. Super appreciate you, Andrew, and look forward to the next time we do a podcast, brother.
This is our 300 episode and we're gonna dive into training and development. Super excited about this. Have my good friend Andrew Freeberg chatting about this. This is a special time we're continuing to grow. Help the industry out. Love this. Welcome to the Refrigeration Minter podcast. As always, love you guys coming to hang out. Listen each week definitely if you like the podcast, this is how more people find out about it. Just hit the like button on Apple or Spotify or even go to the my IG account and say, Hey, what's up? Really love that.
(00:01):
So if you haven't been in there or checked it out yet, it's refrigeration mentor.com/hub. And you can go in. It's a free community where we're helping. Refrigeration technicians out in the field. Level up. Learn a little bit. If you're looking to get better in your career , go going into a service manager.
So Andrew, what are some of the things you've been seeing out there today for like, training and education?
Today he's been to a lot of the programs and I'm learning so much from, but he took, taken some of the four week CO2 courses. He took six week CO2 courses. He is been involved in our design course CO2 course. So, and now you consistently see he actually moved. To a new location to work on more CO2 'cause he is driven and he wants to get to next level.
What are some of the big things in these trainings that really help you?
Andrew (00:05):
Oh, big. Yes. You gotta support you, you offer support more than just here, read this and you're on your own.
Those, those texts that do the quizzes and do the assignments and text and phone call or get into the community and participate. I see them getting, I see some getting raises. I've seen some getting new jobs. I see some becoming lead tech running teams of 50 or 60 technicians now within a year, a year and a half of taking a refrigeration mentor program.
I mean, honestly, that's what I recall too. You, you, a lot of technicians kind of just held their knowledge to themselves and not really wanted to share. And I never did understand that. And that's the whole reason why I really do what I do. I love sharing and teaching because I, how I feel is I, if I could teach you everything that I know.
Trevor (00:08):
I remember so many times sitting at a rack or a system and I just didn't know what to do. Like, what should I be looking and nothing's working, where do I start? And this is even after four or five years in the industry, sometimes going out and you see something new like, oh, there's a drive all of a sudden and all of a sudden you freeze up.
Andrew (00:09):
Boy, I mean that, that, like you said, every individual is different. But I'm telling you, the biggest impact on your career is learning. Spending 15 minutes. 15 minutes a day or , Monday through Friday on, on a subject that you don't know. It could be you walk into a rack or a system or a self-contained, whatever it may be.
You're like, what is going on here? So now what are you doing? You're scrolling, you're like, okay, what's this doing? What's that doing? , so you, you, you do that then. But what if you figured that out because you spent 15 minutes. Now you, you just start knocking calls out and you're like, okay, I know exactly what's going on.
So you have, , the first. The defrost initiation. Then you have say, if it's in CO2, it's an EV. So what does that EV do? Well, then it closes, okay, what else happens at that C? Anything happen? What I mean? So it closes and then all of a sudden, does it do a pump down? Well, how long is that pump out cycle?
Trevor (00:12):
You've been doing this for, for 18 years. What made the difference for you? Why is there a lot of technicians that don't understand the sequence of operation? I know I talked to a bunch of manufacturers, I've done it for years.
I mean, I'm still doing that today. There's so much stuff out here and getting a conversation going just like we are here. Matter of fact, I was just on a phone call talking about a digital compressor, a scroll compressor. I mean, so it's just, it's. It's talking about it, being curious is huge in trying to understand what's going on and, and then once, once you do, when you're trying to teach it, you need to know those steps.
Andrew (00:14):
Well, you, you you get a a session, a two hour session every every week. So then on top of that though, you go in into manuals and you're trying to figure out exactly how could be an order of operation or how this thing like like why is this? Light red and then it turns green, right? So you, you really start to dig deeper into how the system works.
Being better and we're better together.
Let's figure it out, what you're working on, throw it into the group chat, let's talk about it. Yeah. I love that. I love bringing, bring the, your, your, the racks that you guys work on into the conversation, and that's really just making, making you better.
Let's go look at that sequence of operation and figure it out for yourself while you're on a call. And I think that that's where I've seen so many technicians who came into the program and went and applied that. Like, how do you change a valve paper? I've never done it before. And I've seen lots of technicians learn the proper process on how to change a valve plate.
Is it right? Maybe, maybe not. So that's where, where your curriculum and how you, how you go through the process. It's like, okay, I got a green light. Well, that's good. Or is it bad? Right. So it's one of those things. It's, so it's just knowing what you're looking at, because if you don't, then how do if it's good?
I look back at that as, as one of my like whole wow calls, right? So, yeah, I, and it, and it wasn't even alarming. Nothing was alarming. Nothing was even triggering. Like there's a problem. This was just a regular maintenance on this rack, just checking things out. So, I went in and started going through the computer, checking everything.
The flash tank, it's gonna be right around 5 50, 600, something, , somewhere close to right around there. I think this one, it was actually right around five 10, if I remember right. Either way. He's like, and he just shakes his head like, no, no, no. I'm like okay, what is it? He's like, it's 800. I go, there's no way.
And why is it reading that? So my first thing is like, okay, what tells the compressor, the HPV, or excuse me, not the HPV, but the, flash gas bypass valve to open up to get that pressure down so we're not running well, it's a pressure transducer that's an input, right? And then, so I go and follow the pipes and I'm, boom, there's, there's my pressure transducer on that.
Six's 50. Yeah. Six 50. Yeah, that's right. Six 50. I'm like, man, there is something. Why did not those not go? So I followed the pipes go to where the pressure relief's at. It's not like it's valved off or anything. So I was like, there's a major problem here. So I order the valves, get 'em replaced, and then I started asking the questions, , Hey, why didn't, why?
Let's change it. But actually it's a transducer. But the biggest thing that you found out there was oil in the transducer. Why did it get oil? As well as that pressure relief needs to be changed. I. This is a part of our job as technicians is make sure that system is safe for the customer. Mm-hmm. And that's one of the things that we dive into all the time is the, the safety, how to safely charge a system, how to safely start a system up.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, honestly, you need to invest in yourself. That's what's gonna make. You better. And it's going to I mean save the customer and obviously the boss man some money too. But I'm telling you, if you invest in yourself, it's gonna make your life easier. And that's where, that's where the disconnect, I think might be, is where they don't see the value of investing your own time, your own money into yourself.
They, the technician pays outta their pocket, puts some skin in the game. They get the certificate, then they get, they get paid back plus, what I mean? Plus sometimes, like if you invest in it and those guy, those technicians for sure, hands down surpassing their lead technician. I see it time and time again.
And I know we talk about this all, all the time, especially in the program, you gotta go out and troubleshoot a system that's running properly. Go out and put your gauges on, write it down, all on the PNID or the electrical wiring diagram. And it's, it's the same thing as when we do electrical training.
Will I get another call on a Friday night? Because that call on Wednesday, I did. I didn't know if I really fixed it and stress me right out. ? And that's a lot of the things that I thought about when I was. 7, 6, 7, 8 years into the supermarket industry. And when I started learning and investing myself, and it did, does take a long time, but you can shorten the learning curve and I've seen that with you in CO2, like holy, , CO2 quite quickly, man.
Trevor (00:28):
Yeah, that's, , refrigeration mentor.com/hub. Go check it out. It's free to sign up. I think one of the biggest thing that I've been teaching technician, 'cause a lot of the course can be quite pricey, right?
They don't do the quizzes. They don't do the assignments. They're, what I mean? So if, if you're a technician out there. I've, I've had this strategy with so many technicians from low ticket courses to really high tens of thousands of dollars of tickets of courses by being like, all if you invest in, if I invest in this course will you pay it when I get the certificate?
To help technicians out there. And, and then I talk with contractors too, is like, you gotta talk with your, your team. I think this is one of the big things that when I'm working with management and leadership teams is like, you gotta have skin in the game too. Not just paying for the, not just paying for the course is like following up with the guys asking if they're learning.
They, they get to the next level. So it's, 'cause sometimes I see, oh, it's the technicians. They don't wanna learn. But sometimes it's the management as well, not investing in their guys, they're just paying for, that's not investing in your guys. It's actually having that conversation, which I've seen, I've talked to companies where they lost that as they got bigger and bigger.
We shouldn't be all out on our own trying to figure stuff out. No way. I'm a huge fan of, of being together and we all learn together. We're all gonna learn, be better together. That's just how it is. As far as going as far as your manager saying, Hey. Getting involved in it a hundred percent.
Well, if you don't train 'em and they stay, it's gonna cost you even more money and time and frustration. And if they, if they do leave, then there has to be something. It might be pay. It might be culture, it might be, , the team that they're working on, maybe it's management, maybe it is their technicians.
And it's the same with the supermarket course where it's more on the HFC side. It's like, Trevor, the calls that I used to get for like defrauds differential valves or, or these certain calls on, the controller's not working, or multiflex board or whatever it is. It's like, I'm not getting those calls as much and how much does that help your business?
Yeah. Yeah. I, I love that.
So now if I ever get 'em that rack again, or any, , ones that are exactly the same, I'm not gonna have that question. So to me, I just gained knowledge for myself and I help the customer out. I help the company out, and if anybody calls me up and says, Hey. I don't understand this. Now I have that resource to come back to and say, oh yeah, this is how this system works.
Andrew (00:37):
Yeah. I mean. I get it. I understand it. Eight years into the trade, but what? I'm been 20 and I know there's guys that have even been in the trade longer.
Well, what if there's a way that you could actually save that oil, dump it into the reservoir? Not drain hardly next to any of that oil. Pull the screen out, clean it, throw it back in, and then fire it all back up. Get that oil and not lose a drop of oil. What if I could tell you there's a way, so there's always a way, there's different ways, right?
If you're new into the industry or if you're doing it for 10 or 15 years, there's always something new to learn from somewhere from a different part of the world. Just like Andrew Andrews brings so much value to refrigeration Manager. Super appreciate you, Andrew, and look forward to the next time we do a podcast, brother.
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