🚨 Warning: Spoilers Ahead! 🚨
Catch the HVAC National Championship Professionals on December 12th exclusively on CBS Sports Network!
Coming off the competition floor after his semifinal competition in the 2025 ServiceTitan HVAC National Championship in West Palm Beach, Fla., Alex Ivey was ecstatic.
The challenge, a diagnostic of a residential HVAC issue on simulators built by MeasureQuick, surprised the competitors because it was a first for the event. But it mimicked what Ivey does every day as an HVAC company owner in Ocean Springs, Miss.
“I really didn't expect it, but I was very prepared for the diagnostic,” Ivey said in that moment. “A lot of people know me online for doing installs, but troubleshooting is pretty easy for me. I guess we're going to find out, but I think it's pretty easy.”
But for Craig Childress of Peabody, Mass., the event’s two-time defending champion, a well-rounded technician who had also won the previous two Plumbing National Championships in the Elite Trades Championship Series, the emotions could not have been more different.
Unlike Ivey, Childress doesn’t do everyday diagnostics in his job at Boston University, where he’s a Master Plumber who does HVAC on the side.
And where Ivey said he was quickly able to diagnose what he identified as the main problem and start writing on his clipboard, the methodical Childress studied the numbers for a long while.
“I'd been waiting for this round to come because I know it was my weakest part of the industry,” Childress said afterward. “I am fully supportive of adding the diagnostic to the competition, because it’s part of what HVAC technicians do every day.
“It’s just not what I do.”
Childress, in that moment, wondered whether he’d advance to the final.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Standing nearby, Rachel Childress, Craig’s wife and biggest supporter—her shirt in West Palm Beach read “In Craig We Trust”—was having none of it.
“Have you met you?” she interjected after hearing Childress’ answer. “You’re Craig Childress!”
That moment, that emotion, that doubt, all were great reminders for every HVAC technician, national champion or not. There’s always some way to improve, even for the best in the industry.
There’s always something to learn.
‘Not overly complicated,’ but …
Childress, despite his initial hesitation, did advance to the final. So did Ivey.
After 7,000 total first-round tests, 42 second-round at-home kits completed by professionals, and the diagnostic challenge, they joined Dalton Kapke of Lincoln, Neb.; Denny Purdy of Lima, Ohio; and Pavilion, N.Y.’s Scott Savidge in the final, competing for a $40,000 first prize.
The final challenge involved installing all the refrigerant piping and condensate piping for a Trane HVAC unit, to specifications, in a 90-minute timeframe at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.
“I felt like this was a good competition because it wasn’t overly complicated,” said Chris Hunter, a ServiceTitan Industry Advisor and competition head judge. “It was like, let’s get in here and do what’s really done every day, and let’s see who can shine.”
The competition might have been straightforward, but that didn’t lessen the challenge.
“Man, it's tough,” Ivey said. “You're trying to make sure everything's perfect. It’s always unnerving with all the lights and the cameras, and (ETCS broadcaster) Chip Wade's a great guy, but he's coming up and asking a bunch of questions. So it puts a lot of pressure and a lot of stress on you.”
So does the clock. For a job an HVAC company would set aside four hours to do, the HVAC National Championship allotted 90 minutes.
Childress was done in about 50. But finishing the fastest with time as a tiebreaker isn’t always the winning strategy. Childress, again, had doubts. His stress wasn’t over.
There’s always something to learn.
A last-minute plot twist
The poster-sized scope of the project, the bible of the HVAC National Championship competition, was handed out just before the competitors took the floor for the final.
The measurement to set the equipment was there, including detailed specifications for setting the refrigerant piping and condensate piping.
Childress and the other finalists went to work.
“I made sure that offset measurement was correct, and I jumped in like I do anything else,” Childress said. “I felt confident in the plans and I looked at them a couple of times.
“Everything goes good, I do the condensate, I'm cleaning up and I'm just waiting for the time, just kind of hanging out.”
Then Rachel notices something from the other projects and mentions it to Childress.
“She’s like, ‘Hey, your piping is different than what everybody else has done,’" Childress said.
She was right. The other four competitors had done something one way, Childress another.
“I'm looking around, I'm like, ‘Oh, you’re right. This is crazy,’” he said. “Everything went perfect for me. But I was like, this could be it."
Spoiler alert: If you don’t want to know …
Ultimately, Childress hung on, winning his third consecutive ServiceTitan HVAC National Championship.
That title earned Childress $40,000. Ivey took home $15,000 for second, and Savidge won $10,000 for third place.
Childress said he couldn’t do what he does without Rachel.
“Having my wife in my corner is what allows me to do everything in life,” he said. “She’s always in my corner, always building me up. She's the support when I need the support, she's the shoulder when I need the shoulder, she's the push when I need the push, she's everything that I need and I'm so grateful to have her.”
Childress said her joy, and the joy of his children, made winning a third consecutive ServiceTitan HVAC National Championship “everything.”
Well, almost everything.
After what Childress described as an “incident” with his second-round plumbing kit, he didn’t advance to defend his two straight Plumbing National Championships.
He wants to rectify that in 2026.
“I’m looking forward to coming back, hopefully, for plumbing next year,” he said. “I was hoping to make it three and three and then maybe be done with it,” Childress said. “Maybe be part of it in a different way, but I don't know.
“I'll keep going until I get pushed out.”
But he’s determined that what pushes him out won’t have anything to do with HVAC diagnostics.
He’s already studying for that, refreshing knowledge he has but doesn’t use every day.
Because there’s always something to learn.
