Air conditioner woes

[Raul-02]

Well the new Cap did the trick I got it yesterday, took a couple of minutes to swap out and VIOLA the thing is running fine.

The sole common denominator amongst our leaking coils is R-410A refrigerant."

Well, There is one other common denominator. Super thin materials. Everyone is pushing for thinner and thinner walled heat exchanger coils those things have an awful lot of work done on them and a heck of a lot of E-Beam welding. Pin holes are almost guaranteed to be a common problem.

 

[5030]

Dried propane has a much better thermal transfer rate than the non Freon refrigerants used today but it is quite expensive. I topped up my tractor with dried propane this spring as it's 100% compatible with all existing refrigerants. Don't really notice any difference in 'cool ability' over 134 but I didn't recharge the system, just added some.

 

[Sigarms]

Well the new Cap did the trick I got it yesterday, took a couple of minutes to swap out and VIOLA the thing is running fine.

At the end of the day, the original HVAC company that came out was basically trying to screw you over for $1,600 for a basic condenser fan motor and then up-sell you to a new complete system that you could finance.

Now, get into the high SEER inverter outdoor units, and some of those condenser fan motors are not cheap.

These companies (who came out to you) give the good guys in business a bad name.

A decent HVAC company IMO would charge between $300 to $500 (depending on the condenser motor, and a capacitor replacement would be mandatory) plus or minus the diagnostic rate if they do the service work. They would also offer you a service agreement that would enable them to come annually to your house as well as offer discounts if you signed up with them to be a customer of theirs. A GOOD HVAC company would also offer a written warranty with any service work they did which should cover any future issues on any warranty work they performed for a time period.

Right now, my old auto mechanic was bought out by a sales group in the large town down the road (all new mechanics in this shop now). I've taken them to the better BBB, they've been slow to respond to the BBB, and after talking to the owner of this "auto group", I'm familiar with his type in my industry, he's known as a shyster IMO. I have no doubt that I will be taking him to small claims court (which I've never done before as I don't complain that much IMO when I pay for work that I expect to fix the issue). That said, I understand that all who work on or sell cars are not shysters. All who service or sell HVAC are not shysters as well IMO.

 

[Oaktree]

A decent HVAC company IMO would charge between $300 to $500 (depending on the condenser motor, and a capacitor replacement would be mandatory) plus or minus the diagnostic rate if they do the service work. They would also offer you a service agreement that would enable them to come annually to your house as well as offer discounts if you signed up with them to be a customer of theirs. A GOOD HVAC company would also offer a written warranty with any service work they did which should cover any future issues on any warranty work they performed for a time period.

Is it just a regional thing, or are the majority of HVAC outfits hacks? When I was still working I had a miserable time finding a company that would provide consistent service. The bigger companies had some good techs, but you didn't always get someone who knew what they were doing. Lots of smaller or one man shows where they'd cob something together to make it "work" long enough for them to get out of the building, but not much longer.
Maybe less of a problem in bigger cities or in the south where A/C is more of a necessity than a convenience?

 

[Sigarms]

Is it just a regional thing, or are the majority of HVAC outfits hacks? When I was still working I had a miserable time finding a company that would provide consistent service. The bigger companies had some good techs, but you didn't always get someone who knew what they were doing. Lots of smaller or one man shows where they'd cob something together to make it "work" long enough for them to get out of the building, but not much longer.
Maybe less of a problem in bigger cities or in the south where A/C is more of a necessity than a convenience?

Don't want to find a hack, find someone NATE certified. Some will argue NATE is nothing more than a money racket, however, at the end of the day, it is a national standard testing organization who takes their tests very seriously.

That said, some really smart guys are not NATE certified.

The other issue is, with any trade, you can have a owner who is GREAT at what he does, but he builds his business up to large that there is no longer any "quality control" for the people hired.

Generally, if a company is certain of their service work, they will stand behind that work for a certain amount of time, even if you are a new customer.

The issue with find a great "one man show" who knows his stuff is he can only do so many installs or service calls in a week, let alone run the business.

 

[JethroB]

Whatever it is in 2025, it will be LP based, that was pretty much confirmed a couple of years ago (have to remember, couple of years ago, the target date was 2023).

I have the sneaky suspicion that compression fittings will be surging down the road for copper connections for AC units in 2025 LOL

Industrial users have ammonia based refrigeration systems. Is that a No-no in other applications like residential? Former employers had to account for every gallon purchased I recall to EPA/EPD and explain why we needed it. (System expansion or ammonia losses because of leaks.) Everyone knew when there was a leak! Great for a stuffy nose.

 

[newbury]

Always replace the capacitor with the motor as a capacitor is $10 or less. Always keep a spare capacitor on hand for every fan as they are cheap and they often go at the worst possible time. A spare relay will also keep you from being down long for not much money. A set of gauges and a $25 multi-meter with temp probe and you can diagnose most all your hvac problems with a little youtubing. Of course to be legal go take the refrigerant handling test it is easy and the cost is not bad like $80 per year which you would spend on a tech coming and doing basic start of season checks/cleaning.

Or keep a close relative who is licensed and likes to visit!

<snip>
It’s like the ice skating rink closed forever because the cost to switch to a modern refrigerant and all that entailed would never pencil out.

For decades all our ice skating rinks closed when they thawed in the spring. And reopened the next winter.

 

[kenmac]

I got a personal use deal from a manufacturer on a 16 SEER two stage variable speed system that kind of gave me an excuse to want to change it out (never had a two stage compressor in my own home). I can also now say from personal experience that a multi stage with variable speed airflow doesn't have the impact on your humidity levels as a dedicated whole house dehumidifier would have (which is another reason why I wanted to try it).

I've got a AC unit down in the basement that hasn't worked the last 3 years, and now that my father has passed (he lived down there) I'm wanting to try a Bosch inverter and dual fuel it with the old Trane gas furnace and see what it does for heat. I think I could justify it because I'm on LP and it ain't cheap. I know old people, no way would I put in a heat pump for my dad for heat when he was used to a boiler for heat up north LOL

well, I can say coming from a home in the city with gas heat, to the country total elect. I was skeptical when I installed the VRF system.
I never have felt cold with this system. You didn't know it was elect, you would think it was gas heat

 

[5030]

well, I can say coming from a home in the city with gas heat, to the country total elect. I was skeptical when I installed the VRF system.
I never have felt cold with this system. You didn't know it was elect, you would think it was gas heat

Up here in the cold north, you'd have to be rich to heat with electricity.

 

[kenmac]

Up here in the cold north, you'd have to be rich to heat with electricity.

well, it really is a toss up here. They using natural gas fired turbines to generate electricity.
Also using a VRF system vs a standard HP helps