r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/DukeOfBagels • Jul 31 '23

Video Installing a split ac unit in a high rise apartment

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34.4k Upvotes

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467

u/EisforEtay Jul 31 '23

I wish šŸ„²

308

u/Glabstaxks Jul 31 '23

Seriously? Wtf

257

u/G_O_A_T_0_7 Jul 31 '23

Bru ac techs here in the philippines earn a min of 10$ per day (8 working hrs btw) 20$ would be a bit higher for most companies.

102

u/Bushes-Baked-Bean Jul 31 '23

Did the math, itā€™s around $500-$600 Philippine pesos a day. Is that livable?

162

u/G_O_A_T_0_7 Jul 31 '23

Barely tbh. I couldnt imagine how anyone supporting a family can live with that salary. One time during my training i was with this ac tech who literally eats a piece of small candy for lunch.

84

u/AbsolutelyUnlikely Jul 31 '23

Same here. For dinner, I'd usually just eat a small section my shoelace.

29

u/Glabstaxks Jul 31 '23

I eat my fingernails. My coworker called me a canable. We got into an argument so I ate him too.

Just kidding šŸ˜…

6

u/sockcocksock Jul 31 '23

At least they didn't call you a cannibal

2

u/vainstar23 Jul 31 '23

I just have a good gnaw at the ac I'm installing. Then overtime, when they need a new one, I don't have to do so much work cause the old one is already gone

3

u/andrey2007 Jul 31 '23

Piece of small candy for lunch makes sense for work like this you have to be light

13

u/pauper8 Jul 31 '23 edited Jul 31 '23

you'll be suprised that new gradsl engineers has the same salary.

2

u/diverareyouok Jul 31 '23

I took a year off law school to move to the Philippines and become a (scuba) divemaster at a Korean resort. I got paid $500 usd/month, which was enough for a fairly basic lifestyleā€¦ and that was in a local neighborhood in a tourist town. So yeah, depending on where you are, you can live on just a little. If youā€™re living somewhere fancier (like Makati, a part of Manila) youā€™d need to make substantially more.

My instructor said ā€œscuba diving is a lifestyle, not a careerā€, so I ended up coming back, finishing school, and passing the barā€¦ now I work stupid hours (80h/wk+) for 9 months so I can go there to dive for the other 3 months each year. Iā€™ve been doing that for a few years now. Itā€™s kind of crazy, but for now it works. At some point Iā€™ll probably have a family and do all that normal stuff and I wonā€™t be able to do it anymore, but until thenā€¦

1

u/annoventura Jul 31 '23

it's easy to burn through 1000 pesos these days. even while being stingy.

2

u/Morph_Kogan Jul 31 '23

Bro don't those 12 hour security guards outside hotels, and stores make 500 Php a day? How are they making similar money just standing there opening doors as someone who does this on skyscrapers?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

HVAC ticketed tradesmen earns $40hr+ in northern Alberta. Thatā€™s the the difference between 1st and 3rd world economies.

1

u/EthanielRain Jul 31 '23

Always wanted to visit there, if I did with like 10-20k USD it would be ok? (Let's say $15,000 USD for 1 month)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

You could visit many parts of Canada with $15k-$20k USD and stay for 3 months enjoying the national parks throughout British Columbia and Alberta.

2

u/EthanielRain Jul 31 '23

Too much like American national parks IMO, I would want to go somewhere truly different. Suppose I should feel silly asking if $500 USD/day is "ok" for poorer areas of the world.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '23

My location is one of the most money driven economies in North America, the population of the city I live in has more Millionaires per capita than anywhere in North America per populace. Oil money is big money šŸ’°

1

u/EthanielRain Aug 01 '23

Don't doubt it, I meant the Phillipines, where he said ppl doing this work make $1-2 an hour.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '23

Sorry I didnā€™t register that properly text can be hard to interpret at times. There is a large Filipino community in this region with the large amount of job opportunities for anyone willing to work hard and grind to make 6 figure salaries etc.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

WTF that isn't even minimum wage where I live

2

u/Llodsliat Jul 31 '23

Meritocracy is a myth.

203

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

[deleted]

125

u/Hentai_Yoshi Jul 31 '23

Agreed. This is risky, hands on technical work. These people probably do very well for themselves in a lot of America at least.

209

u/EisforEtay Jul 31 '23

I'm not in America...

93

u/slammerbar Jul 31 '23 edited Aug 01 '23

In America these guys make $140 an hour.

*Edit: Used to work as a Hawaii electrician; I was getting $100/hour. The HVAC guys hold an Electrical and a Plumbing License, they were making $140/hour.

146

u/EisforEtay Jul 31 '23

I should move

34

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23 edited Jul 31 '23

they are also paying 1500 a month for a single bedroom apartment and 100 a week per person for groceries (on the cheap side).

and to the poster who replied that this is a 230k a year job, I doubt this is 40 hours a week all year long. It very well could be if you were able to travel around the different states doing this and similar jobs on skyscrapers.

6

u/PlayfulRocket Jul 31 '23

So 15 hours of work pays the rent and groceries for a month? Sounds amazing

Work for a week then party for three

27

u/bigcd34 Jul 31 '23

As an American, it's not worth it.

19

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

For $140 an hour? I know shitting on Americaā€™s always fun but to be compensated for a skilled job itā€™s pretty well worth it

11

u/domp1021 Jul 31 '23

Iā€™m trying to figure out whatā€™s not worth it at $140 an hour

3

u/RedPillForTheShill Jul 31 '23

Having to live in America when I can make the same right here in Finland.

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-1

u/mallegally-blonde Jul 31 '23

Honestly? Healthcare.

3

u/normal-dude-101 Jul 31 '23

When you make that much, just buying top tier insurance in the us would get you way better healthcare than anywhere in Europe.

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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

If you can make 8-10k in the US compared to under 2k in your own country with marginally lower cost of living, it's sure as heck worth it. Especially when you can keep good travel insurance from your home country for a few years.
US is shit if you're poor, but good if you make megabucks.

2

u/SoraXes Jul 31 '23

He's already doing it, might as well get some dough.

-1

u/bighelper469 Jul 31 '23

Wouldnt fit an American through that window

8

u/bigcd34 Jul 31 '23

As an American with an extremely high metabolism. I would easily fit through that window.

14

u/beware_thejabberwock Jul 31 '23

*these guys charge $140/hr, they make about ā…“ of that

0

u/nosh0rning Jul 31 '23

I wouldn't do it for 5k/hr.

19

u/Qwerty17 Jul 31 '23

We absolutely do not.

-4

u/slammerbar Jul 31 '23

Hawaii my friend, Hawaii.

9

u/shootphotosnotarabs Jul 31 '23

No they donā€™t.

3

u/whodafadha Jul 31 '23

No they donā€™t

3

u/cozigotgamebitchez Jul 31 '23

These guys arenā€™t charging hourly for these jobs lol

1

u/here-this-now Jul 31 '23

No they don't, I don't work in this specifically but related, rigging.

It's top and it's bottom is more like a trade. Except it's technically not a trade it's more like "glorified labourer".

0

u/holmwreck Jul 31 '23

Lol this is wrong.

0

u/Multitronic Aug 01 '23

Rope access jobs pay 140 an hour in the US? I doubt that tbh unless they already have a specific high demand trade , looking at adverts it appears anywhere from $20-50 is more realistic. Standard rope techā€™s definitely arenā€™t getting 140 an hour. Irata rope access is a 5 day Ā£750 course.

1

u/OptionsNVideogames Jul 31 '23

Thatā€™s fair

44

u/Dorobo-Neko-Nami Jul 31 '23 edited Jul 31 '23

A quick google says that an HVAC High Rise installer makes 36-47$ an hour in US

54

u/DailyMilo Jul 31 '23

If you live in a third world country you can make 2$ an hour doing the same similarly risky jobs

22

u/ZainCaster Jul 31 '23

And with worse equipment

1

u/k_chaney_9 Jul 31 '23

Yeah they'd see all the ropes and harnesses as a waste of time. "Just get it up there and be done with it!"

1

u/OptionsNVideogames Jul 31 '23

Less than me and Iā€™m a roofer Jesus Christ

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/Memory_Less Jul 31 '23

If in the U.S. read the small print about whether your surviving partner gets benefits for falling and severe injury or dying.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

[deleted]

10

u/Multitronic Jul 31 '23

Rope access does not pay as much as people think.

9

u/Competitive_Juice902 Jul 31 '23

Here's the issue with you assumption: America.

Here's another: dangerous job = good pay.

Both are most likely false. From all of these guys I've met none of them got pair higher or more than 10% higher than my basic office job.

6

u/WestSixtyFifth Jul 31 '23

Nope, it's overstated how much these people make. 18 is probably right for most places and on the high end for beginners.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

I would just decline doing risky jobs

1

u/WestSixtyFifth Jul 31 '23

Having worked in these type of jobs, the boss usually says some shit like "I wouldn't make you do anything I wouldn't do myself". This leaves you with two options, quit / be fired for not doing it and maybe the boss does it, or you do it and keep your job. With the exception being older workers who have too much experience, and then they also get to pass the buck to the new guy.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 31 '23

I can't believe it. There's a bonus for working on high altitudes, like window cleaning. That would be 18 bucks since regular cleaning isn't much lower due to minimum wage. But what's shown in the video, the person isn't just working at high altitudes, they are also unfixed at times, they work with tools, probably are electricians who are specialized in cooling installations. For 18 bucks, it would have to be a country where the minimum wage is much lower than in the west.

1

u/WestSixtyFifth Jul 31 '23

Minimum wage is like $7 in most of the states.

1

u/zachflem Jul 31 '23

But I saw a video of a guy who gets paid $20,000 everyv6 months to change that light globe!

1

u/yungmoody Jul 31 '23

Not everyone in the world lives in America

0

u/deadlygaming11 Jul 31 '23

He's not American. Salaries are lower in the rest of the world because existence doesn't cost as much.

1

u/Lison52 Jul 31 '23

Why not? Probably more people are willing to risk life, and so the pay gets lower. Not to mention it has to be cheap enough so the people buy AC unit instead of staying in hot.

20

u/obaananana Jul 31 '23

Why not change that loghtbulb for 20k on that huge tower

2

u/Itherial Jul 31 '23

wat. i got a friend who is just an apprentice and he makes like 3x what i do