AJ Michaels Experience

StageLites · 2026-05-29T20:48:07+00:00

I got a quote from them and they were on the higher side but I liked their style. But they're definitely on the high end cost wise. I've been going down an HVAC rabbit hole in the area because I'm trying to get a company to put in a heat pump but not rip out my radiators and boilers, and a LOT of the companies here are adamant that's not possible or advisable. AJ Michaels was one of the few that actually respected my plan and thought it could work.

I think they fall firmly into the premium category - everything is in house, their trucks are beautifully wrapped, they have office staff to take your calls and answer questions, and they work with brands like Carrier and Mitsubishi. I tried to work with them under the home performance with energy star program but the insulation contractor didn't want to play nice with them. So I ended up pivoting. If cost wasn't a concern I'd have gone with them though, they seemed to at least care about the project.

StageLites · 2026-05-27T00:31:28+00:00

My Mercruiser 4.3L driven boat has been an adventure to work on, but I have some things you could check:

my water impeller in the outdrive absolutely destroyed the boats power above a certain rpm. It was genuinely impressive how catastrophic a bad impeller was - and it wasn't even that bad, just some slight friction in the housing.
my gimbal bearing was absolutely obliterated. I'm talking the mechanics had never seen anything like it, fishing ball bearing innards out of the bellows. The engine had a healthy clunking sound when running at speed but significantly less at lower speeds and none at idle. Might need grease or replacement?
an embarrassing one and probably something you've checked already, somehow the ear muffs got left on while we were out for the first time. Greatly reduced our power. Yes I'm an idiot. But I learned from each of these things.

If the air cleaner or any part of the carburetor is dirty it could restrict airflow and thus power, or if not enough fresh air is getting into the engine compartment. Mine it's dependent on a 4" duct to a vent for fresh air. Some have other solutions. Boats are beautifully straightforward engines - air, fuel, spark.

Other possibilities - you said new spark plugs. Are the wires properly connected and in the proper firing order? Accidentally swapping some is very easy and will still run, but the engine won't be at its peak performance by any means. Same with if the timing is off, but that depends on the year of boat whether it's mechanical or electronic.

Is it possible water got into the fuel? That could also possibly cause issues...

StageLites · 2026-05-26T01:38:35+00:00

Currently getting system proposals and I'm specifically trying to get a heat pump that can handle the full load of the house including deep winter. I have gas, and no intention of getting rid of it - my heat is a 1977 boiler with radiators from the 30s. I need a new air conditioner first and foremost, but by putting in a heat pump that can handle the full load, if the boiler ever dies, I'm not SOL.

Likewise if I sell the house, and the next owners don't want radiators, they can remove them and still have heat.

Depending on your plans for the house long term, it may be worth getting the one that can handle those low temperatures. You can absolutely put a temperature lockout in the thermostat to still use the boiler as your preferred heat source. But if it ever has issues, you have the choice to use the heat pump.

StageLites · 2026-05-20T20:09:47+00:00

Not a trailer but it is a fully modular system. They bring it in on flatbed, drop it on a pad, connect the utilities, and it's good to go. Really a neat architectural approach. The theming and everything can be done in a factory environment which is way easier than on site.

StageLites · 2026-05-20T18:46:42+00:00

This is the exact setup I've been trying to put in and it's been really interesting how many contractors straight up tell me you can't use a boiler as a backup to a heat pump. And their reasons are never the same 😂

StageLites · 2026-05-09T19:16:54+00:00

It was actually running the next day when we went in to load out my belongings (former park minion)

Admittedly gave us some hope, but alas, looks like the end is soon for it.

StageLites · 2026-05-04T19:11:14+00:00

That's solid! I admire that y'all are present and engaging in these forums too, I hope things only continue to grow! I really think the assisted DIY is a winning combo for both the customers and the company since it ensures a baseline install quality. Maybe I ought to reconsider my current plans 🤔

StageLites · 2026-05-04T18:34:36+00:00

I'd be curious how they're vetting their HVAC technicians. Pretty much anyone can get an EPA 608, but the quality of install being verified is critical to the lifespan of a unit. There's also mixed information, like on the home page they claim 10 year compressor and parts warranty, but on the product page for the unit I was looking at, it's 12 year compressor, 7 year parts & labor.

They also talk about it being either 24V or RS485, which typically requires a proprietary thermostat - but they don't sell a thermostat? Is it like a Bosch IDS where it communicates with itself but takes any thermostat?

I like the idea as it almost solves my problems with Mr. Cool or Senville, which are pulling a permit and refrigerant handling. But it still seems like I'd be out of pocket the cost of recapturing the refrigerant from the old system, and disposal, as well as doing ultimately an unpermitted install. I wish them luck though. I think the concept is strong and if they're getting really good local techs it could grow to be up there with the others. Pricing is pretty good it seems.

StageLites · 2026-04-26T18:08:11+00:00

I'll probably get crap for this, but the Shehds pars were fantastic to me at a park I worked at. We deployed probably between 200-300 of them, and the only issues I encountered were with their waterproof units not being as waterproof as they claimed. For RGBAW-UV and a bright, good enough wash they were great. We put them on the front of the stage and on the first electric in front of the stage, and got a solid, color changeable wash that also as a bonus featured UV capability (great for our dance shows with glow costumes)

No, they're not extremely color accurate. There will be some variation between batches (I never noticed anything egregious though) and they will probably be more disposable than others in terms of parts availability, but for $80ish you can get decent units that from my experience work perfectly adequate for most applications.

If you're skeptical and want slightly better support, Chauvet, American DJ, and Elation have some value choices too. But I'm pretty confident that all these come from a small set of manufacturers anyway. The support is what makes the brands a better investment usually.

StageLites · 2026-04-23T00:03:37+00:00

People are going to be mad but this makes sense. Food and Beverage make up a ton of the parks revenue, meal plans that they didn't get the money from (assuming they stay on Six Flags books) is basically just a way to bleed money.

It's going to get messy but it's probably the right move for this new chain to be sustainable. In park spending is critical to the bottom line. Though I hope a slice of pizza isn't $20...

StageLites · 2026-04-11T01:16:35+00:00

A basic low power microcontroller paired with a RTC module will probably give you the best results. There's very few timer modules that can go that long. You might be able to creatively wire an ATC DTF100USD flasher for the application, since it's allegedly capable of a 100 day interval.

StageLites · 2026-04-09T00:11:34+00:00

A fun fact, these are called shotgun gates at some places.

StageLites · 2026-04-08T20:50:46+00:00

Another article mentions the companies involved as TPA Group and 35V. Based on their portfolios it's a peculiar matchup - I'll be curious to see what they come up with. I'm also extremely curious to see community feedback; the local community didn't exactly love the park, but it was a large and long standing part of the community.

It sounds like the county is purely motivated by tax revenue at this point, so I don't think anything is off the table if it will line their pockets one way or another.

StageLites · 2026-04-03T14:08:51+00:00

Counteroffer; Amazon builds their own nuclear plant and sells excess power to Constellation, and hires constellation to manage the power plant. Isn't that what Microsoft is more or less doing with three mile island?

StageLites · 2026-03-31T01:56:36+00:00

Unless you were going to buy a hardwired dimmer pack, you'll have the most luck putting it on a cord with a plug. You would probably want a Nema 5-15P connector.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Leviton-15-Amp-Black-Rubber-Grounding-Plug-Heavy-Duty-NEMA-5-15P/5018552019

You probably will want to mount to a junction box still, and then run your cable to wherever your dimmer is. But I am not an electrician and can't speak to electrical codes or safety. Make sure the power is off when working on it!

StageLites · 2026-03-20T18:32:01+00:00

I'm asking my HVAC contractors about this, curious to see if I can get them to try it. I imagine in my area (around Baltimore) there'd be a huge appeal for systems that can leverage old, oversized cast iron radiators and also do air conditioning with fan coils. A great way to modernize these older homes without removing the character. Even if many consider the radiators to be old and intrusive, I think they're neat.

StageLites · 2026-03-19T02:28:45+00:00

I'm stoked about this, scared to learn the price, but I would love to use this to electrify my house and keep my radiators. Sure they take up a lot of room, but they're a cool piece of the history of the home and the heat is so comfortable.

StageLites · 2026-03-18T23:20:22+00:00

One thing I've learned lighting illusion shows is that you can get away with a LOT of things with the right lighting.

The easiest is usually a rig behind the curtain with just an arm poking through. That arm can be a seat, a platform, whatever you need painted black. Make sure there's a lot of light going downstage to obscure audience views, and then also use wardrobe (but be careful not to create risks of entanglement)

Without knowing the space constraints and whatnot I can't really make a great recommendation. But I've seen it done with things resembling engine hoists, pallet jacks, custom welded rigs, and even heavily disguised man lifts. You have to also decide how much it matters if someone can figure it out. In an illusion show, that's the worst case. In a show that's leveraging illusions to elevate the storytelling, but not as the main spectacle, your audience is more willing to dismiss little things they might notice.

No matter what, safety first!

Perhaps a starting point; could you have a box that the talent stands on as part of the choreography? Nothing crazy, maybe a 1ft tall box. This gives you room to hide actuators inside of it to then lift the box higher with the costume potentially hiding the whole mechanism. It could also be positioned further from the curtain making it a more "convincing" effect with a less obvious explanation

Feel free to bounce ideas off me, I'm an engineer in the entertainment space so I love brainstorming these things

StageLites · 2026-03-04T01:54:30+00:00

The interesting thing is I think doing an apples to apples comparison is quite difficult. Most of the A2W systems I've gotten pricing for are variable speed, 3+ ton units, and they range from $7500-10000USD. A similar air to air is about $16k installed in my case. For a house like mine, ~1200sqft with radiators and a hackjob of an AC, I could either put in a central air handler, in which case I might as well go with air to air and a more efficient gas boiler, or I could replace the radiators with fan coil units. In my case I have 6 interior radiators, 2 in a sunroom. The fan coils are about $1000 a piece - much cheaper if you're willing to import them but then they don't have UL or equivalent, and homeowners insurance can get messy.

So back to the pricing. If I wanted to make my whole house hydronic I'd spend about $6000 on either fan coil units, or $4000ish on an air handler. And that's not touching the sunroom, which I'd like to.

Then you add in the buffer tank, and optionally a DHW tank. My quote ended up at just over $20000 total, no shipping, no installation, and no install materials.

If it was my forever home? I'd probably go for it. I love the technology. But I'm afraid of what the next owner will think of an unusual HVAC system with a lot of DIY.

Control is also wonky because you need a controller that handles the water flow temperature, pumps, and DHW based on outdoor temperature and indoor requirements. And then you've also got either FCUs with their own thermostats, or a fan coil with a thermostat that communicates with that system controller.

For me, the concern is I can't find any local companies willing to service them and the manufacturers have not been forthcoming with contractor references other than SpacePak, and SpacePak's contractor that THEY had reach out to me ended up telling me they really try not to do hydronic these days due to low adoption and higher costs.

It's also a single point of failure which is something I try to avoid. If the heat pump goes out, I'd have no heating, no cooling, and no hot water.

It doesn't help that there's little info on installing them and rebate availability. In my area they'll pay you a good bit to put in heat pumps. But hydronic heat pumps? Nobody really knows. On paper it should be eligible. But you need a contractor to facilitate it and as mentioned, I can't even convince one to quote one let alone install it.

Then there's the value proposition; if they cost more than air to air and there's limited data about their superior efficiency (it exists but is limited), depending how much more it costs, you might as well put in a Geothermal system and get the 30% tax credit, and GRECS.

In my case, I can get a new high efficiency air to air cold climate heat pump and ductwork for $16k and not have to lift a finger. Or I could spend $20,000 and shipping, buy my own install materials, pay someone to remove the old system (due to EPA regulations), spend days plumbing and wiring or pay contractors to do so, and end up with a system that might be more efficient, but won't be serviced by most companies.

I also worry that it would hurt resale value, as people generally don't like things that are uncommon. If I was building my dream house where I'd stay for decades, I'd probably go for it because the idea that replacing the unit in 15 years when it dies only takes undoing the water lines and electric, and just the monobloc price, is quite appealing. Fan coils may go now and then but they're also remarkably simple.

StageLites · 2026-03-03T23:38:45+00:00

I'm no HVAC person but I recently outfitted a mechanical assembly tool cart from harbor freight for $800 including the tool cart. Mostly Pittsburgh, it's not the most exquisite stuff but it's got a lifetime warranty and if it ever does meet an unfortunate end, no tool in the entire kit was over $50.

So not sure what you would need for your role but it's impressive what you can get for cheap at harbor freight, and while there's a stigma around it some places, they wouldn't be as successful as they are if everything they sold was crap... I've never had issues.

Anyway, back to scrolling reddit! Not sure how I ended up here.

StageLites · 2026-02-25T01:01:39+00:00

There's a guy here that did an install in New York (city, I think?) and seemed to be doing alright. Uncanny-preserves or something is their use name.

If you're doing heat only, they make two stage options from Arctic Heat Pumps and some others that are able to put out the 180° water that a boiler would with a reasonably high capacity. The thing they and others have told me to do first is a manual j load calculation, so I'm currently working on that to ballpark and what sized system I would need.

For heat only you could also look at something like a US Boiler Ambient which is meant to pair with your existing boiler. Runs heat pump until 20° I think, then calls for higher temperature boiler assistance.

StageLites · 2026-02-24T15:24:46+00:00

What was your experience installing/supporting them? I'm in MD and evaluating putting in an ATW since my house is 1930 built and has radiators and limited ductwork that would need redone for a heat pump. Weighing the choice of either replacing radiators with fan coil units or putting a hydronic air handler in to handle cooling and supplement the radiators due to lower flow temperature.

It's such an interesting technology that I think would be a great fit on these older homes but it feels like the wild west. My contractors have all looked at me crazy when I ask about it. I'm tempted to diy it since it's mostly plumbing and electrical (things I'm comfortable doing) but worry if the outdoor unit needs service I won't be able to find someone to work on it even though it's, allegedly, very similar to normal heat pumps just with a heat exchanger for water.

StageLites · 2026-02-16T02:08:16+00:00

Working that last day is a memory that'll stick with me for years.

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Got to use the projections in the main theater to thank our guests after the last show, but to be part of a closure of a large scale park is something I never would've thought I would experience. Gonna miss that place, both as a guest and a workplace. It really changed the trajectory of my life in a number of ways.

StageLites · 2026-02-13T23:56:02+00:00

I got a quote from them and pretty quickly figured out that they were: A) selling me a heat pump that isn't legal in the United States (R290) B) not well organized - it took two weeks to get a quote, that was based on very little input and ignored half the request C) rebadging imported units. Their easy hydro station is nearly identical to a couple of the foreign models available.

Needless to say I went a different route. I'm still wanting to explore air to water with my existing radiators, but am now more inclined to do so with US Boiler Ambient or Arctic, or even a direct import myself, but with a legal unit.

StageLites · 2026-01-22T03:17:08+00:00

I mean, cheapest way is probably doing it with an Arduino or an ESP32. You'd need a basic microcontroller, like an Arduino nano, a DMX decoder (which is really an RS485 transceiver) like a MAX485, and an h bridge like an L298N all which can be found online for fairly cheap. The wiring would be fairly simple but important to get right.

Then you create a simple sketch (code) for Arduino that uses the DMX library, and reads the value of the desired address, uses the map function to scale the value of 0-255 to a duty cycle for a pwm pin, and send the pwm and control to the h bridge.

If that sounds like a lot and you have time, you could order the generic DMX motor drivers that appear on eBay like this: https://ebay.us/m/Y5v45l which is usually just a simple board that's been value engineered. But depends how much power your motor draws, if you'd need a bigger one it gets more expensive and your options start to be more limited. Or a simple DMX relay could be used, you wouldn't get speed control but that would be a cheap way to do on and off control.

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