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You may have wondered what tools the professionals you call for heating and AC repair are using in your house and on the equipment keeping you comfortable. Sure you can find most of the standard tools from your toolbox in their kits like hammers, screwdrivers, tape measures, staple guns, extension cords, cordless drills, wrenches, and pliers. You can find all of these at your local hardware stores but this isn’t what we’re here to talk about. The tools we’re talking about have limited usage and have specialized tasks in heating and AC repair that those professionals can’t live without.

Multimeter

A multimeter can go by many names and have various styles. It is also known as a multitester or a VOM, which stands for Volt-Ohm-Millammeter. These units are used as electronic measuring units that can test things such as voltage, current, and resistance in an electrical system. They are typically used in heating and AC repair to view the current electrical flow of your system and make sure it is working properly. These items have been around in one form or another since 1820 but modern machines can trace their origins to the 1920s with the rise of radio and vacuum tube electronics, attributed to a British Post Office engineer named Donald Macadie. These generally include either an analogue pin bar across a scale or a digital readout display and two connecting probes, one red for a positive charge and one black for a negative charge. Both are required to complete the circuit. These probes will be inserted along the electrical current being measured and a the readout will display data based on the current function selected on the device.

Thermometer

We’re not talking about the medical thermometer that you use to check your temperature when you are sick. There technical engineering thermometers are designed to read the temperature in the infrared light spectrum to get an accurate reading of the temperature coming off of an object or the air temperature. Your repair professional will use this tool by pointing the thermometer at the object they are trying to read and viewing the results. The device within the thermometer that gives the reading is called a thermopile, it absorbs infrared energy to calculate the temperature. The first known use of infrared technology was in 1884 by Austrian scientist Ludwig Boltzmann, with the first temperature based infrared use in 1892 by French chemist Henry Louis Le Chatelier and the first patent was in 1899 by American Everett Morse.

Manifold Gauge

A manifold gauge is used as a tool by heating and AC repair professionals to determine the pressure in lines somewhat similar to what you would use to check your tires on your car or bike. They use it to read pressure in the coolant lines and other closed circuit tubing in your system. The manifold gauge can trace its history back to 1738 when the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli discovered the kinetic theory that states that as speed of a fluid increases the pressure of that fluid decreases. The first use of a pressure gauge was actually the sphygmomanometer to measure blood pressure introduced by Austrian-Jewish scientist Samuel Siegfried Karl Ritter von Baschin 1896. The first modern vacuum pressure measurement was made by German physicist Marcello Pirani in 1906. These items have come a long way since their early days and continue to be expanded on. Most current manifold gauges have two dials and three colors of tubing depending on the application needed. The industry has done very well to standardize the sizes of connectors for testing to make it easier for repair professionals get their jobs done and the manifold gauges are color coded appropriately.

Tubing Cutter

Tube cutters are a lot less technical than the other specialized tools on this list but their place in the heating an AC repair business should not be overlooked. Pipe cutters are used to ensure that when a pipe, tube, or duct is cut it is done to the exact distance needed at the correct angle. This reduces the amount of waste and ensures a better fitting system. Although mostly used for plumbing, your Chattanooga, TN experts in heating and AC repair will use it to ensure that your cooling lines from your air conditioner are cut properly and if your house uses a boiler to heat that the lines running from the boiler are also set correctly

Hand Seamer

The hand seamer is actually a relatively small tool used in heating and AC repair to ensure that the sheet metal ducts are bent to the correct angle to fit together through your house, which means making appropriate bends to get around studs, pipes, and electrical components that may be in the way. Although these tools may look like a fancy set of pliers hand seamers ensure that the professionals can get your duct work bent properly without damaging it or injuring themselves, as sheet metal for ducts will be sharp.

Crimpers

The final specialized tool worth mentioning for heating and AC repair are crimpers. These can come in many types including hydraulic for pipes, or the more standard wire crimpers and usually have a ratchet action to make it easier to join the wires together or decrease the flow of the pipe. Crimping is just the act of joining two pieces of material together and depending on the application, is something that your heating and AC repair professional may use to connect two wires, especially if repair is needed to the electrical system.

These tools are meant to be handled by trained professionals, much like the trained professionals at Metro Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning out of Chattanooga, TN. Their expert services and competitive pricing will ensure that when you call for Heating and AC Repair the job at hand is done right. They’re available for emergencies 24 hours a day and can help you with all your plumbing and HVAC needs.