Just Another One of Those Days!

[Bird]

I went to Home Depot this morning and before I got back, my wife called me on the cell phone to tell me the electricity just went off. So I called to report the outage, and fortunately, it was only a little over an hour before they had it fixed.

Then just before noon, I noticed a puddle under my pickup in the garage; automatic transmission fluid. The last time I let the dealer change oil & filter, I had the transmission flushed, too. I had checked it once and noticed it was overfilled. I wasn't too happy about that, but thought maybe it wasn't enough to hurt anything. Anyway, I went to the dealer and they said they took out about a quart and a half and cleaned everything under there and there's no damage. Of course, I've still got to finish cleaning the garage floor.

Then about 3 p.m., it seemed too warm in the house. I found the thermostat set for 77, the temperature showing 80, and the air-conditioner was not running. I checked and found the breakers OK, the reset button for the high pressure cut off was OK, so I turned the switch on the thermostat from "auto" to "on" and everything started working. However, the air coming from the vents was only 72 to 75 degrees (98 degrees outside). I called a service company I used once before and was told the earliest they could have anyone out here would be Tuesday (4 days), so I called another company and they had a young man out pretty soon. Freon level was good, amps being pulled was good, filter was clean, we turned it off, turned it back on, on Auto, it works, can't find anything wrong with it, but it just won't get as cold as I think it should, or as cold as it has been getting, so temperature went up to 81 in the house. It's a 10 year old Rheem heat pump. It's been running continuously now for the past 4 hours and has lowered the temperature in the house one degree.

If I have to replace the whole thing in the near future, what would you recommend? The young fellow who was here said he'd recommend an Amana for a total cost of $5,500.00 parts and labor.

[dex3361]

Just replaced my 20 year old rheem 3 ton heat pump last weekend. The Rheem was still working fine its just that it is 20 years old and the pan is about rusted though. I could only get 1 fellow to come and give me an estimate and for a 13 SEER Rheem he wanted $7200 to install. I could not belive it, it was just a swap and replace the lines(2 guys 8 hours). So I found an outfit that would sell me a 3 ton 14 SEER Goodman (Goodman makes Amana and Janitrol) for everything including a new lineset and a Thermostat for $3100 but I would have to install it. I would go with the 14 SEER in the Amana because it gets you the Copeland scroll compressor and they are supposed to have a longer life (Rheem uses the Copeland scroll compressor as well). I didnt have to buy gas because the unit comes precharged and I borrowed a vacuum pump. I also bought a set of guages for $80(included in the $3100 price that I quoted). The system that I have is a split system where the condensing unit sets outside and the evaporator sets inside with copper lines between them.

[texbaylea]

Bird

You did not mention it but did you change the filter and you could also clean up inside the air handler. Is it belt driven or direct drive? might have a problem there. Does the air flow seem like it was before?

I have an old system (electric heat) that I am thinking about replacing with a heat pump system. I am amazed at the prices but I think a lot of them have gone out of business so less competition.

Vernon

[Bird]

Vernon, my current HVAC has one of those monstrous Aprilaire 2200 filters and I watched the young fellow pull it out and look around inside the evaporator coils. This kind of filter is only supposed to need changing once a year and I change it every September.

[DIRTROAD]

BIRD, Check on getting a new AC unit through your power company. Around here they will give discounts and incentives for upgrading old out of date equipment. I would imagine that they would have to have competitive pricing as well, Just a thought!!

[jinman]

Bird, it seems you are not having the luck I had earlier this week. It just sounds like you may have a plugged dryer or something similar. I believe your air temperature coming out of your evaporator should be in the 60s. Is it possible you have a leak in your ducting and are drawing in hot attic air. It's been 103.6 here for the last hour, and my house is very cool with my 4 ton York heat pump. During the day we set the temperature at 80. With our ceiling fans, that's perfect. If I set the thermostat to 75, it will drop the temperature in a hurry. My outside unit is on the east side of my house, so it is shaded in the afternoon. I don't think your Rheem should be having trouble with cooling your house. How many tons is your unit?

[Bird]

Yeah, Jim, something ain't right, but I'm not sure what. Our little house is only 1295 sq. ft. and this Rheem has always kept it cool in the past. The thermostat always shows a little higher temperature than the actual temperature but I don't know of any way to adjust that. Anyway, I've been just leaving it set on 77 and it's always actually been cooler. But yesterday I set it on 76 and it ran continuously for hours. It caught up and shut off sometime during the night, so at 5:30 this morning, the thermostat was set on 76 and it showed to be 76 and it was not running. It did not appear to need it, but even so, I washed out the condensor coils this morning about 6:30 and reset the thermostat for 77. For awhile this moring, it was cycling normally and the house was staying plenty cool, but now this afternoon, it's running continously. The thermostat shows the temperature to be 82, although my more accurate thermometer shows 78. NWS says it's 101 outside. So with ceiling fans running, it isn't too bad, but I don't think it's right either. I've forgotten and not sure now, but I think this is a 3.5 ton unit.

[Marlowe]

I'm not sure Bird but it sounds to me like the young fellow missed something. I'm betting that the air flow into the coils is hampered by some kind of blockage even though the filter is changed regularly.

[Bird]

Marlowe, I agree that maybe he missed something, but I'll have to admit, if he did, I sure don't know what it could be. The volume of air coming out of the vents "feels" normal; just not as cold as I think it should be.

[Marlowe]

Last year I pulled my unit apart and cleaned the coils on the intake side to the unit. It looked like a couple of the dogs had been sucked into the unit from all the dog hair on those coils. Funny thing is that the air flow from the vents had just become what I would notice to be less than it was. What alerted me to the fact that they needed to be cleaned was the ice that was building up on the piping outside. I figured that ice was a bad sign when it was in the nineties outside.

I don't know why but this reminds me of a time a few years ago when a relay went bad on my mom's unit. I pulled the relay and went to the parts house to get another one. The fellow at the counter told me he wasn't supposed to sell these parts to a homeowner. I told him that if I wasn't a home owner I wouldn't need it. He sold me the part. I understand where he was coming from though. Untrained people are part of the problem with respect to freon being released into the atmosphere. I got my freon handling license many years ago, and mostly all it took was the twenty dollar fee for the class.