“I liked doing mechanical things, but I didn’t really like working on cars all that much,” he recalled. “Working for the car dealership, I saw an older guy who’d been working on cars all his life. I watched him laying on concrete floors in all kinds of awkward positions … he was barely getting around. I said, ‘Man, that’s not what I want to do when I’m his age.’ So I had a bright idea: Let’s try air conditioning again.”

He took a course at Lindsey-Cooper Refrigeration School in Irving, Texas, working during the week and attending class on Saturdays.

“I completed the course, and they said, ‘These people over here, they’re hiring,’ and bam — I was in it.”

He’s been in the industry for 20 years now, starting his current job at Kahn Mechanical Contractors in Dallas in 2005. There, he performs preventative maintenance services, and he troubleshoots, diagnoses, and repairs chilled water systems.

“I’m out and about in the field doing things all the time; it’s never at the same place every day,” Hulsey said. “It’s a little more fun than being in a shop working on cars. It’s usually something different: something to challenge you. I like fixing stuff and the rewarding feeling you get after fixing something and seeing it actually work, and the customer’s like ‘You’re a hero!’ Of course, you can’t let it go to your head, but it’s a good feeling.”

Ann Kahn, company president, said Hulsey is an excellent example of company values at Kahn Mechanical.

“What makes Chriss what he is, is his extreme integrity and reliability,” she said. “Chriss Hulsey is a competent and knowledgeable service technician who always remains calm in a crisis, assesses the situation, and makes repairs that ensure the least amount of customer downtime.”

Hulsey is always willing to share his knowledge with his co-workers, she added.

“Not just one time, but time and again, Chriss is the go-to resource for junior technicians when they have an issue they cannot resolve,” Kahn said. “No matter where or when, he is always there for them.”

Hulsey aims to help his co-workers become just as good of a technician as he is.

“When mentoring or teaching them something, I’ll tell them everything I can to help them along,” he said. “I don’t keep secrets about things I know because ‘I don’t want them to do better than me.’ I’d love for them to get to my level, so I can move up from what I’m doing. I like to teach them, help them out with their job, let them progress and make more money, and work on bigger things — so it’s not just ‘I’m stuck on a rooftop unit.’”

It’s good for the junior techs because they’re learning, according to Hulsey, and it frees him up to do other things he needs to do in his own job. Right now, he’s working as a senior service technician. In the future, he would like to become a service manager.

To nominate an HVACR technician for Tech of the Month, click here or email tedcraig@achrnews.com.

Publication date: 5/6/2019

Want more HVAC industry news and information? Join The NEWS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn today!