I Hate Central A/C

[Tahoe4Life]

Every year I have issues with it without fail. If its not compressor issues its water pouring out of the air handler at 3am on a Sunday morning when I can't get anyone to come to fix it for a few days.

Before I bought this condo 7 years ago I had a house with wall units though out the my house and I never had a issue with any of the units plus the compressor on those units stayed on the bulk
of the time in the summer. Those units in the house lasted for over 20 years. Those units were Friedrich and Kenmore.

Now this year I am watching 2 other condos in my building whose owners are up north for the summer and this morning when I went to check on their units both A/C units went belly up blowing nothing but hot air.

These A/C are all under 5 years old. I from allot of people all over Florida with issues every year with their central A/C. Those units in the condos are all Rheem units.

BTW when I called the repair guys to come over this morning they said they can't get anyone to come over till the end of next week due to so many people calling to get their Central A/C repaired.

 

[oilboy123]

That sounds so not right.......My Valley Girl English.

Is that for all brands?

 

[Bill in Utah]

I've had the same central unit for 10 years (built my home in 1998 and installed the A/C in 1999) with never a issue. Never had it repaired and there are days that it runs 20-30 mins per hour to keep the house @ 75 when its high 90's outside.

Not all A/C can be lumped into the same. There are units that work and have little to no issues.

Sounds like who ever "designed" the A/C systems in the condos you live in was clueless if they are having the problems you are describing.

Get someone who knows what they are doing and get the correct size (you do NOT want a oversized unit.. Bigger is NOT better) for the unit. They factor trees, window sizes, what direction the house faces, ETC before installing.

Take care and good luck!

Bill

 

[tig1]

My house is older and many years ago We added air to this house. I put a 25,000 BTU unit thru the wall in a good central location, and it has worked great. Replaced the AC two years ago with a much more efficient unit. Our house stays cooler for less money than all our friends.

 

[Tahoe4Life]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
I've had the same central unit for 10 years (built my home in 1998 and installed the A/C in 1999) with never a issue. Never had it repaired and there are days that it runs 20-30 mins per hour to keep the house @ 75 when its high 90's outside.

Not all A/C can be lumped into the same. There are units that work and have little to no issues.

Sounds like who ever "designed" the A/C systems in the condos you live in was clueless if they are having the problems you are describing.

Get someone who knows what they are doing and get the correct size (you do NOT want a oversized unit.. Bigger is NOT better) for the unit. They factor trees, window sizes, what direction the house faces, ETC before installing.

Take care and good luck!

Bill

These are 2 ton units. Don't forget these A/C units stay on all year long but work allot less in the winter. The most they stay on for is about 30 minutes to keep the temperature at 75 degrees unless you are on the top floor to which I am not. The top floor people say their A/C stays on for hours at a time when the sun is blasting away.

 

[Mr Nice]

We have a Carrier AC unit and it stays at 70 degrees during the day and 75 at night. Its about 10 years old and never had any problems with it. Unfortunately we use AC 365 days a year down here in south FL.

Do you enjoy living in a condo ?

 

[labman]

Our Bryant furnace and A/C were installed in 1995. So far a circuit board and recently the circuit breaker went flaky.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
We have a Carrier AC unit and it stays at 70 degrees during the day and 75 at night. Its about 10 years old and never had any problems with it. Unfortunately we use AC 365 days a year down here in south FL.




Why do you keep it so bleeping cold? The humidity? 78-79F is a common daytime AC temp around here. With reasonable humidity and ceiling fans it's comfortable and costs a boatload less than 70F.

70F inside just makes it feel more like you walked into an armpit when you do go outside.

Seems like in oppressively hot climates people like to live in freezers and in oppressively cold climates people like to live in saunas.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
70F inside just makes it feel more like you walked into an armpit when you do go outside.


I'm that way. It's my version of hitting your head with a hammer. When you stop the relief feels sooooooooo good.

 

[Julian]

What? And deny yourself the pleasure of impressing yourself?

I don't think you're playing with a full deck.

 

[Gary Allan]

..and the flowers on the wall ..that don't bother me at all.
Playing solitaire too long with a deck of 51..

Smoking cigarettes and watching ..Captain Kangaroo

don't tell me ..there's nothin to do..

 

[Julian]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJJW7EF5aVk

*bear hug*

 

[Kestas]

The problem could be that most of the unit is sitting outside, open to the elements. Near the coast, the salt air really does a number on anything that sits outside. It depends on what the failure mode is for your unit.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: XS650

Seems like in oppressively hot climates people like to live in freezers and in oppressively cold climates people like to live in saunas.


I know people that like to keep the AC at 70F and the heat at 75F. Same house, same person, different season.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: labman
Our Bryant furnace and A/C were installed in 1995. So far a circuit board and recently the circuit breaker went flaky.


I have a York furnace and A/C installed in 1994 and thus far it's needed an ignitor and a fan capacitor.

Last weekend, I looked at an A/C unit that wasn't working for a friend of mine. Unbeknownst to me, he had a "professional" look at it. When I got there I heard the outdoor unit buzzing so I knew the contactor was getting it's 24VAC, so I checked the output of the contactor with the multimeter, 0V...something wrong with the contactor.

I took the meter probe and pushed down on the contactor and whaddya know, it fired right up and started working. Then I looked closer and saw the dead bug that was stuck in the contactor...yea, the problem was a BUG.

Told my friend we should go and get some contact cleaner from the auto parts store so I could clean the rest of the bug guts out of the contactor...when we got back the "professional" was there. I told him that the contactor was the problem. He left shortly after that..I cleaned the contactor and my friend removed the hard-start kit the "professional" had added, and I put it back together.

I later found out that the "professional" told my friend that he was going to have to replace the unit if a new capacitor and a hard-start kit didn't fix the problem--which they weren't because the problem was the contactor.

I also found out that the "professional" used a non-contact voltage detector to see if the contactor was working...only one little tiny problem with that..the contactor only breaks one side of the 240V circuit (and my experience with non-contact voltage detectors is that they give a lot of false positives).

So here we have a supposed "professional" (I've no doubt that he's a professional only in the sense that he charges money for his stupidity) about ready to condemn an outdoor unit because he's too incompetent to figure out what's actually wrong with it.

Anyone with basic electrical knowledge could have figured out what the problem with that unit was.

 

[Kestas]

Brian, I've taught myself automotive a/c repair, and can handle pretty much anything in the system, but I have yet to learn home a/c repair. I have the tools (e.g., vacuum pump, r12 manifold gauges), but don't know where to begin to bring myself up to speed on home a/c repair. Where do I start?... I'm guessing I should start by getting a shop manual for my particular unit? How did you learn? I'd like to save the big bucks that goes into paying a professional. All I need is the know-how.

 

[brianl703]

From my experience: if you have a good background in electrical troubleshooting, you'll be able to fix MOST of the problems with a home a/c or furnace...because most problems with those units are electrical (outside of a freon leak or a failed compressor, both of which are pretty rare). You'll find a wiring diagram inside the unit (usually on the access panel), if you need it.

What I've replaced on AC/furnace units thus far:

Fan relay (was sticking keeping the fan on)
Ignitor (cracked and wouldn't ignite)
Flame sensor (actually cleaned it with a brillow pad which fixed the problem)
Control board (twice on two different units--board totally dead both times)
Fan capacitor (twice on two different units--motor was buzzing on startup on one, other motor wouldn't start at all--tested with a capacitor checker to confirm it was bad before replacing)

All of these are basically electrical problems. The flame sensor failure was indicated by a flashing error code--many furnaces have an LED that will blink a certain number of times and pause repeatedly if something fails. The error codes are often listed on a sticker on the unit somewhere.

When my friend told me that his outdoor unit was not coming on, I suspected the contactor--just from experience knowing that contactors and relays often go bad over time in other applications. I'd never actually replaced a contactor in an AC unit before and this is the first time that I ever dealt with one that wasn't working on an AC unit...but I figured that they were not much different from the contactors and relays used in other applications and just as prone to fail.

So that is why I checked the output of the contactor first.

 

[duaneb9729]

Pick yourself up a book called "modern refrigeration"

no such thing as a shop manual for a home central air, but there really isnt much to them. depending on the age of the unit and the brand there are charging charts located in the electrical compartment.

if it talks about using the super heat method of charging google that and follow the instructions, that will work for all air conditioners that use that method

The other method is sub cooling, google that and follow the instructions you find, again its the same method for all units that use sub cooling as a charging method

 

[duaneb9729]

just so you know Brian the more you sand the flame sensor the more it will need sanding, when new they come treated with some sort of coating when new and it burns off over time and corrodes.

although its very quick and easy to clean and i have never done it more than once a year myself.

I do HVAC service and installation for a living, if i can help anyone ever, just pm me. I get a lot from this sight and would love to give back if i can.

its very common to find burned ants and bugs in the contactor and mice also! fun fun!

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: XS650
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
We have a Carrier AC unit and it stays at 70 degrees during the day and 75 at night. Its about 10 years old and never had any problems with it. Unfortunately we use AC 365 days a year down here in south FL.




Why do you keep it so bleeping cold? The humidity? 78-79F is a common daytime AC temp around here. With reasonable humidity and ceiling fans it's comfortable and costs a boatload less than 70F.

70F inside just makes it feel more like you walked into an armpit when you do go outside.

Seems like in oppressively hot climates people like to live in freezers and in oppressively cold climates people like to live in saunas.

It's his comfort that's important to him, not yours.