If you can't find the time to do it right, you'll never find the time to do it twice.

Think about this Golden Rule the next time you're tempted to take a shortcut. Manufacturers print those instructions for a reason, and if you choose to ignore them, you're probably going to get a callback or two...or three. Got time for callbacks?

Never do work for your relatives, your church or your synagogue. These jobs will never work.

You know why?

1. You do these jobs for free, or for next to no money, and

2. You're working for the people who are most likely to break your chops and drive you nuts when the slightest thing goes wrong. And by the way, this is the reason why most heating professionals have the worst imaginable heating systems in their own homes and offices.

On most days, the urge to oversize is greater than the sex drive.

Like the first Golden Rule, this one is also genetic. Most heating professionals are born with this recessive gene that mutates and expands like microwave popcorn whenever it's time to do a heat loss calculation or size a boiler, burner or circulator.

Just when you think you've got it all figured out...you don't.

Most of us learn everything we need to know during the first five years we're in the business. The next five years, we spend believing we know it all, and telling anyone who will listen how smart we are, and what an idiot the boss is. If we stick around beyond ten years, however, we begin to realize we're actually as dumb as rocks.

Mother Nature makes no allowances for ignorance or budgets.

You have my permission to quote this one the next time you're speaking to the board members of a cooperative apartment building.

The problem and the solution are rarely in the same room. Get out of the boiler room and be nosey.

This is especially true of steam heating systems. Steam likes to play a slight-of-hand game with you. It sends you running one way when the real cause of the problem is the other way. If you hear a noise on the second floor, look in the basement for the answer. If the condensate isn't returning to the boiler, wander out into the piping system because that's probably where you'll find your answer. Again, look to the system, not just the symptoms.

The best tools a troubleshooter can carry are a very bright flashlight and a very open mind.

Do you ever figure out what's wrong with the job before you even get there? You make up your mind while you're still in your truck, and then you set out to prove you're right, even though you may be wrong. Bright flashlights can help you look, but only if you're willing to see.

High pressure goes to low pressure...always.

This is what makes steam flow from the boiler to the radiators. It's also what makes hot water turn this way or that every time it encounters a tee.

If there's not enough pressure difference between two points, the fluid or gas (whether it's steam or hot air) won't move, and you'll wind up with a no-heat call.

One in-coming phone call will always generate a minimum of five out-going phone calls.

If you'd actually like to accomplish something during the course of a day, never pick up the telephone, especially if you're on your way out the door. Touch that phone and you will never see the light of day.

When troubleshooting, always round up the usual suspects: air, dirt and improper piping.