Top 15 Best HVAC Tools Under 30 Dollars

hey guys Jay here with word of advice TV and in this video I would like to go over 15 fantastic tools that every technician repair guy handyman or do-it-yourselfer should have in their tool bag I previously made another video of 10 best HVAC tools and that video got a lot of feedback and in the comments section I got a lot of comments of awesome tools that I missed in that video so hopefully in this video a lot of those tools that I missed will be covered and before we begin this video I just want to point out that I am NOT sponsored to promote any of these products these are just simply tools that are very well-liked in the repair community and just a lot of the tools that I have myself in my tool bag that I just simply really liked all right so let's start out with tool number one and in my previous video a lot of people were impressed that I did not include this tool in that video that's why I'm including this one first on the list and that is a dual sided or reversible malko flip bit this thing is amazing if you don't have it you should get one immediately so as it sounds like you can flip the bit and it has two of the most common sizes in any industry pretty much for the hex screws you have the 5/16 and you have the quarter-inch and they're even color-coded you got the yellow and the red so they're reversible or you can flip them a lot of air conditioners or furnaces they'll have bolts screws 5/16 and quarter-inch just kind of mixed in together so having a bit like this does really save time and it's a lot more convenient instead of having to switch different bits every time and another cool thing about this is that when you take it off all the shavings and debris and dirt and whatever else gets in there you can just simply brush it off and that's it so unlike conventional bits or nut drivers where everything gets stuck inside there and you have to try to scrape out as much of it as you can on these malko flip bits when you take the thing off you can really easily clean it so basically whoever invented this this is a total genius this thing is great I believe everybody should have one so as you're drawing along in your day if you need the other side you flip it over and voila you got their sign so these things are great I lose them all the time though just like any of my other drill bits so if you're gonna order them I suggest getting at least a set of two they have different sets they have a set of five ten fifteen they have two longer ones just whatever you need them for but this flipping part of it is the best part so definitely something that every tool bag should have a set of two of these guys will cost you about 13 bucks on Amazon okay and moving on to tool number two we have my favorite pliers of all time I think everybody should have a pair of these and that is the nip expires and what makes these things so wonderful besides the fact that they're very easy to adjust on by the way before I forget there's two different kinds they have an epic swith a button where you press the button and then you can adjust it and then they have the nupoc Slyke this where it just slides real easy I would definitely recommend getting these because the one with the button it constantly gets stuck as you're trying to move it around whereas this one you could almost just adjust them with one hand so what makes these things so great is the offset jaw which makes it almost like a mix of a channel lock and a pipe wrench so it drabs on two pipes really well and besides that I just use them like regular angled pliers as well for hose clamps and for other stuff so these things are wonderful and just about every HVAC technician I know has a pair of these nip expires on Amazon they're about twenty-two bucks but I think they're very well worth the 22 bucks and moving on to tool number three we have the Yui eye pocket thermometer so that's this thing right here as you can see the bottom of it is magnetic that's one of my favorite parts and I've had plenty of these probe thermometers in the past different styles including the uei foldable thermometer and just off brands of pretty much the same thing and out of all of them I like this one the most it's simple easy to use and it doesn't break nearly as often as those other ones unfortunately for me this is thermometer number eight I've had a lot of these and the biggest reason for getting a new one is because I simply accidentally leave it as a souvenir in a cussed summers home in the ductwork or wherever I was measuring the temperature since they're magnetic and they stick they're very easy to forget so lately what I've been doing is I've been unsheathing it this thing right here and then this sheath or whatever to cover I throw it in the doorway or under steps or wherever I'm gonna be leaving so what I'm leaving I see that thing and I pick it up and if I didn't retrieve my thermometer this works as a reminder for me to go back and get it but these things are wonderful and I usually get them as a pair one for the return duct and one for the supply duct as I'm measuring the temp right or detent drop and they work very well the quality is good the battery does last a very long time but once it does die you can replace it so it's a very nice probe thermometer and it's the only one I get now on Amazon it's about 19 bucks and tool number four is a classic favorite and that is the Klein stubby six and one screwdriver so this thing works great and tight spaces it's very small gets into little spaces and of course the best part about it is that it's a six in one so it has a Phillips two sizes of Phillips on either end and the other side has the flat head also two sizes and when you take those out one side becomes a 5/16 nut-driver and the other one is a quarter-inch so it works very well for many applications especially in the HVAC field I used a stubby screwdriver quite a bit and just about every single HVAC technician that I know has one of these in their tool bag just because it's such a great tool on Amazon it's about ten bucks and I think is definitely worth getting if you don't already have one and the older brother of tool number four also happens to be a classic favorite and that is the eleven and one screwdriver so this is tool number five and there's more than one reason why this tool is so great I think just about all the technicians I know have this in their tool bag because this thing is just awesome to have so the fact that it's an eleven and one alone is great so both sides of these come out bit holders so you got these two right here there's two sizes of torque two sizes of Phillip flathead and square and aside from that you can take these bits out and you also have a 5/16 and a quarter-inch nut driver as well and the thing about these that I like the most is the fact that this screwdriver can really get you out of a bind sometimes and what I mean by that if I just take this bit out right here when you turn this thing into a nut driver quarter-inch for example right here I will try my best to film this but the walls of that nut driver are very thin on the screwdriver whereas the walls on a regular nut driver like this for example a quarter-inch the laws are thick so for example if you have to get to a screw and it has stuff around it sometimes this bulky spot right here does not fit in there and you can't take that screw out no matter how you pry in there in that case using one of these screwdrivers saves the day every time the walls are nice and thin so even if that screw is boxed in this thing will fit and get that screw out and I'm sure if there's any HVAC technicians watching this they know exactly what I'm talking about so you could be used for that and of course the main function is that is indeed eleven and one screw driver so instead of carrying around a bunch of screwdrivers of different kinds in your tool bag you just carry the one so this thing on Amazon is about 15 bucks which i think is a bargain this is well worth it if you don't have one already and tool number five is a very affordable soldering iron so of course every technician should have one of these I don't use mine very often that's why I just got a cheap one and it works just fine for whenever I need it just to solder some little connections on the back of a control board for example this one has worked great for me if I can get it untangled although who cares about the cord right okay so here's the Weller soldering iron and this thing is only 25 Watts gets up to about 750 degrees and for most solder it needs to be about 600 degrees to melt so getting up to 750 is just enough and what I like about this soldering iron is that it gets hot really quickly so I don't have to wait for a long time and it also has three LED lights on it when you plug it in they light up they're not that bright I usually end up using a flashlight anyway or if there's just good lighting I don't really care about the LED lights at all the main part is the soldering iron itself and it does work pretty good and this one right here also comes with a little holding bracket which you know this just kind of lays around I don't use it very often but I suppose once this is super hot you do want it to be away from the floor so you just set it down and let it cool off on the bracket so soldering iron even if it's not this one I definitely think every technician should have one in their tool bag this one right here on Amazon is about 12 bucks so it's very affordable and tool number seven is a long needlenose angled pliers these things really save the day when you need them I used to have two pairs unfortunately I left one as a souvenir at somebody's house so now I'm just stuck with this really long one which is okay because I used the long one more anyways so I still haven't ordered the short pair but they do come as a set or you can order them individually but these needlenose pliers are really handy once again in tight spaces where you can't get up straight needlenose in especially on host clamps on furnaces and other appliances these things work really great to get in there and grab a hose clamp that's in an awkward position and slide it over a hose if you need to I really enjoy having these things in my tool bag which is why they're part of this list and on Amazon these things will only set you back 11 bucks and tool number eight is a mini ratchet set which looks like this now this thing is really handy in tight spaces it's pretty much just a finger ratchet but this one at first I was kind of weirded out because you can't hear - ratchet sound this is a gearless ratchet so I'm not sure what the science behind it is but it works well I haven't had any problems with it here's the little you turn it to switch between clockwise and counterclockwise and it works like a clock I mainly got this because of the set itself it comes with all of these bits so it has three different sizes of the Phillips 2 flat heads it has three different sizes of hex and two torques so for close quarters this thing is really great for example you would take out one of the small bits put it in and then if you're behind some burner box or if you're in an appliance and you have very little space you could get in there and all you gotta do is just spin the wheel and get that screw out so it works really slick and it also comes with an extension if you ever need it and once in a long time you do need the extension but you can use any extension with a hex adapter on it put it in and reach back or behind or from the side and get your screw out it also comes with a little socket set I really wish this wasn't metric I mean optimally it would be nice if this was you know quarter inch 3/8 and 5/16 which all HVAC guys primarily use but unfortunately this is metric 8 millimetre 10 millimeter 12 millimeter which also comes in handy once in a long time but I really wish it was the other stuff but that's okay cuz mainly I got it for all of these bits and for the mini ratchet and I think it's a good addition to any tool bag you can get one of these sets on Amazon for around 18 bucks but before I got this set right here what I used to use was just a Titan finger ratchet quarter inch and this one you can actually hear ratchet and it kind of sounds nice to the ear that ratcheting sound I don't know what what it is about it but it just sounds nice to ratchet and of course this one you can change direction as well and the only downside is that comes with a square so you have to put an adapter on it to some quick change adapter then you put on any socket you want or any bit you want and once again same thing as this one except this one's gearless if you have a little finger ratchet that you can get into tight spaces with so I've been using this one up until now but for now I think I'll start using this and see how it goes or at least for all of these weird sized bits and for tool number 9 we have a non-contact voltage pen I always carry one of these in my pocket sometimes my meter is not always available I don't have the tool bag next to me so having one of these in my pocket really saves me some time so checking high voltage or low voltage this thing goes from 10 volts to a thousand volts and through the years I came to a conclusion that voltage pens which brand you have doesn't really matter I had Cline I think this is my third voltage pen either I lose them sometimes I don't leave them as a souvenir or they break but I've been using the generic style this one right here is about 15 bucks on Amazon and it works great I like that it's simple you just have the power button hit and hold it it automatically starts with low sensitivity which means I think it was 40 volts and up so if you want low voltage you just hit the other button which is for the flashlight it has a little built-in flashlight or for more sensitivity basically high sensitivity and of course this is not a tutorial on this voltage pen so if you do get a voltage pen just look at the manual see how to use it so here's my little flashlight but I think a voltage friend is definitely good to have and every technician should have one in their tool bag or preferably in their pocket and usually these things take to triple-a batteries so voltage pen is a must this one right here that I have that I use I've been having good luck with it is about 15 bucks on Amazon and for tool number 10 we have a step drill bit set the first one of these that I've ever bought in Home Depot which was probably I don't know seven eight years ago I think I bought one of these for about 65 bucks which was very expensive but since then I have come to realize that for almost all applications you don't need a step drill bit set or a step drill bit that will chew through an inch of Steel you really don't need anything that heavy-duty these things right here is more than enough I've been using step drill bit set like this for quite a few years now and they've been working great the purpose of them is pretty obvious instead of carrying a drill bit set box you know with the different drills you just have a step drill bit that you can use for all the different sizes so this set right here it comes in three different sizes the sizes range from 1/8 to 3/4 inch I think that a good tool bag should have a step drill bit in it this set right here can be found on Amazon for about 12 bucks and tool number 11 is another tool that I always keep in my pocket when I'm at work and that is a pocket small inspection mirror or a slim telescoping inspection mirror this thing is really nice I mean my favorite part about this is that it's so small and it fits in tight close quarters the same thing as the magnetic grabber that I featured in my previous video very slim and small so both of these along with other stuff I keep in my pockets at all times so I have a lot of stuff in my pocket here in my pocket on my pants and also you know my magnetic or not magnetic the alligator jumpers as a necklace I'm always loaded with stuff that's just on hand that I can grab so having small little things like this really helps big inspection mirrors are nice to have so you can see more like this for example but the problem with them is they're so bulky that in a lot of tight spaces you can't even cram this thing in there so in cases like that I just pull out this little mirror which is always readily available in my pocket and I can easily reach tight little spaces with it so if you don't have one of these yet I highly recommend getting one it's only about 4 bucks on Amazon and tool number 12 is a mini skill screw gun which looks like this these things are great they fit in the tool bag really easy because you can stand them up like this although it is only a 4 volt screw gun so it's not meant to drill things it's meant for just taking out screws and putting screws back in so it's light duty but for most applications you can use this pretty much on a daily basis so it's a mini screw if either comes like this or there's a button up on top that you press says twist you press it and it becomes a regular little screw gun like this with the trigger and everything it also comes with a little drill bit set I already have a ton of drill bits but I guess some more won't hurt because I do lose them quite a bit okay put that in there let's say we need a Phillips put a Phillips in there as well it's just a slick little screw gun it's very simple it just has clockwise counter clockwise then the twist button and the trigger and that's it so we can twist it go like that and this straight feature right here where it can be straight like that also helps out in tight spaces sometimes you can't get a gun like this for example you can't get it in somewhere because this part is always in the way and I mean look at the size difference from this one to this one let me twist it this Milwaukee is considered a small screw gun - this thing is tiny when you take this out so you can see it's a lot smaller than this fill watching so of course fits in a tool bag much better especially if you make it straight and like I was saying in tight spaces having it straight like that can help you get into tighter or deeper spaces using it this way instead of a traditional gun style it comes with a built-in rechargeable battery and it comes with a charger that you can recharge it with so it's just a micro SD charger you charge it back up and this thing usually lasts quite a while before you have to charge it up but I like that it comes with just a regular charger you can even use your phone charger to charge this thing so this thing works great I really enjoy it and I got one of these because my co-workers just about half of them I think have one of these in fact some of them have really tiny ones that just fit in your hand and it acts from a twisting motion so if you twist your hand to the right it starts spinning to the right and if you twist your hand to the left it starts praying to the left now it's really small fits in your hand I didn't want to get one that small I tried them out they weren't that good and they're pretty weak too this one's a little bit stronger and it just feels I don't know more firm in your hand so I would recommend this this thing is great I enjoy it it's a fun little toy and you can get in amazon for just about 30 bucks next up we have tool number 13 and that is a furnace interlock or a furnace door switch clip this is made by sub Co and it works on most furnace door clips and this thing is really handy if you have a lot of furnaces in your future especially if you're doing maintenance on them tuneups a lot of times for some of those checks you have to have the door switch taped or somehow blocked by a magnet or something else these things work really slick I got one just because I got tired of taping the door switches and this particular door clip if you align it in different ways it works on just about any furnace door switches I did have a couple that it didn't work on but for the most part it does lock all of those doors which is pretty nicely they also have an alligator style door switch Locker so this door switch is not mandatory of course but it is a fun little tool to have if you're tired of taping those furnace door switches and on Amazon one of these runs at about 17 bucks next up we have tool number 14 and it's going to be very similar to this tool but not quite this thing right here this is a refrigeration wrench which I think everybody should have as well especially if you're an HVAC technician this is mainly for King valves and service valves on the air conditioner outside this little adapter is very handy for that but also just in case you don't know and you're a service technician this little adapter works very well on furnace gas valves as well to take that little port nut out these things work really slick for that the ratcheting wrench but I am sidetracking tool number 14 is actually the Cline offset wrench so it kind of looks like that one but it's not it's just a ratcheting wrench that's offset one side is quarter-inch and the other one is 5/16 once again the two most common sizes and this thing works really good once again in tight or awkward spaces so for example if you have like a furnace cabinet burners and there's a screw underneath that you need to get to sometimes those screws can be really hard to get to but with an offset wrench like this you can slide it in and just ratchet away take that screw out this thing works very slick and if you don't have one yet in your tool bag I think it's a great addition to any tool bag this thing runs at about 16 bucks on Amazon and last but not least we have tool number fifteen ten years guess what it is I'll give you a hint it's highly recommended by highly experienced technicians that have over 20 years of experience and potentially have bad knees tool number 15 is indeed a kneeling pad so all the older guys that have bad knees definitely push for kneeling pads all my senior texts that have taught me or mentored me always told being kneeling pads knee pads kneeling pads especially if you're on concrete in fact all my teachers that had six or eight master licenses when I was going to school most of them were going to school as a teacher not because they didn't want to work anymore but because they either had bad elbows or bad knees from being out in the trade so all of them highly recommended kneeling pads and this kneeling pad right here I never use I bought it and just laze around collecting dust that's not because I don't use a kneeling pad it's simply because I use a big kneeling pad these big kneeling pads are wonderful to have I will not go back to a small one after using this one the handle is a bonus you can just grab it with your tool bag and this kneeling pad you never slide off of it you know your knees don't go off of it or your legs don't go off of it you completely fit on the whole thing so you're not getting wet or muddy or anything or dusty and also what's really nice about this particular kneeling pad it does not absorb water so it does not get soaked if you put it on a wet surface so far this is my favorite kneeling pad that I found and this thing can be bought on Amazon for about 20 bucks oh and did I mention that I have an honorable mention whenever I'm working on somebody's furnace and I'm not having much luck figuring it out I've been there for a while and I still can't narrow the problem at that point I like to take a step back and take a little break and if the cat's been watching me for the last 20 minutes giving me the evil eye I like to drive the cat wild while I'm at it and to do that I use these laser pointers right here so I got the green laser pointer I got a red laser pointer and I used to have a violet I've had these for a couple of years already but the violet one broke down so now I have these two and I like to keep at least one of them in my pocket at all times in case I come across a cat that I wanna tease or Drive up the wall so these things are fun to have to mess with other people's cats and once in a while I'll actually use them for something useful like if something's high up in the ceiling I could just tell the customer see that right there that leak spot yep that's what I'm looking at or the returned grill or whatever once in a while I use it as like a presentation laser pointer as well but in most cases is just for the cat and the cost of driving the cat up the wall with a set of laser pointers like this will cost you about 19 bucks on Amazon well guys and that is all the tools I had to share with you today hopefully you saw some good stuff some good tools that you can add to your own tool bag or maybe you already had a lot of the stuff in your tool bag and if you have any further suggestions of great tools under 30 bucks please let us know in the comments below maybe I'll add those to my tool bag as well as always thank you so much for watching this video don't forget to mash that like button on the way out and we'll see you next time and if you're still here and not in the comments section below I've got Sun chips so let's say you have Sun chips you have people sitting around the table you want to share your chips to do that you want to pour two chips into a bowl but the problem is you don't have any kind of dishes or bowls that you can pour the chips in if you just open the bag like this and just put the chips down then it kind of becomes a little bit of a hassle people have to spin the bag around to get the chips out some people will feel awkward to take the bag away so they're not even gonna take any chips so to fix that problem all you got to do is make a little bowl out of the chip bag itself I have to do that all you got to do is this right here you're basically tucking the bag in on itself and voila problem solved you've got your stand and your chip bowl all in one [Music]

Channel: Word of Advice TV

Views: 63,344

Rating: 4.8989525 out of 5

Keywords: hvac tools, hvac service bag, hvac service tools, hvac service tool bag, best hvac tools, best hvac tools to have, top hvac tools, top 10 hvac tools, hvac service truck, hvac tool belt, hvac tool puch, hvac tools of the trade, hvac tools name, hvac tools name list, ac service tech, hvac school, hvac tools must have, must have hvac tools, hvacr too bag, hvacr tools, hvacr videos, hvacr vlogger, word of advice tv, best hvac tools 2020

Id: kQjAreD8CuY

Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 11 2019