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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 11, 2022 15:29:16 GMT -5
Unit crapped out again. Long story short it was a stuck contactor causing freeze up. Local HVAC wanted to charge me $500!. I unstuck it. Replacement part (should I need it) is about $16. (Single pole, 24v, 30 amp).
What a racket.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jun 11, 2022 16:17:17 GMT -5
Unit crapped out again. Long story short it was a stuck contactor causing freeze up. Local HVAC wanted to charge me $500!. I unstuck it. Replacement part (should I need it) is about $16. (Single pole, 24v, 30 amp). What a racket. I’m glad you have the knowledge and ability to fix it yourself? |
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 11, 2022 17:04:55 GMT -5
Unit crapped out again. Long story short it was a stuck contactor causing freeze up. Local HVAC wanted to charge me $500!. I unstuck it. Replacement part (should I need it) is about $16. (Single pole, 24v, 30 amp). What a racket. I’m glad you have the knowledge and ability to fix it yourself? Once I understood what the problem was I was able to reason it out. I had a hunch the part wasn't $500 and that it could possibly be freed up. The replacement process doesn't seem like anything complicated. Connectors and screws. |
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Post by rickyguitar on Jun 11, 2022 18:29:34 GMT -5
A good A/C guy is really a blessing. Doing it yourself is better.
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Post by bluzcat on Jun 11, 2022 19:41:38 GMT -5
About a week ago I needed the fan motor on my outside unit replaced. HVAC guy came back today and cleaned out my inside unit blower fan and duct work where the blower motor lives. It was absolutely disgusting. We haven’t been in the house quite two years and he said it looked like it hadn’t been done in quite a while. Inside unit was built in 1984 so I know I’m on borrowed time, but I want to squeeze every bit of life we can out of it.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jun 11, 2022 19:59:57 GMT -5
Very happy that mine is still running. I suppose we’ll see if it lasts the summer, i.e. if they were correct about what was leaking.
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Post by roly on Jun 12, 2022 4:18:28 GMT -5
Our air comes pre conditioned.
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Post by budg on Jun 13, 2022 9:31:17 GMT -5
Unit crapped out again. Long story short it was a stuck contactor causing freeze up. Local HVAC wanted to charge me $500!. I unstuck it. Replacement part (should I need it) is about $16. (Single pole, 24v, 30 amp). What a racket. What exactly was he charging you for at that price? Seems extremely high unless there was more that they were lookin at , like “ what caused the contactor to freeze up to begin with”? I wonder if there was damage caused to the compressor when the freeze up of welded contact happened. |
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 13, 2022 10:24:14 GMT -5
What exactly was he charging you for at that price? Seems extremely high unless there was more that they were lookin at , like “ what caused the contactor to freeze up to begin with”? I wonder if there was damage caused to the compressor when the freeze up of welded contact happened. I honestly think the guy was deliberately trying to discourage me from having him do the repair, knowing that I had a home warranty. He didn't give me anything in writing but confidently said the replacement of just the contactor would be $500. He made no effort to free it up but didn't charge me for the call. He also pointed out that the start and and run capacitors were bad just by visual inspection. the plastic plunger on the contactor just seemed seized up. I hit it with a little deoxit and freed it with some needle nose, working perfectly for now. The start cap is leaking, the run cap looks fine and has already been replaced based on date. I was told by the previous tech that the cap for the handler blower was weak. Knowing that I plan on an extended vacation this summer I ordered all 4; contactor and 3 caps. $100. I'll replace them all since this system is 17 years old and hang on to the old ones just in case. |
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Post by budg on Jun 13, 2022 11:14:14 GMT -5
That’s terrible . The proper thing would have been to use a megohm meter to check the compressor and check the capacitors with an ohm meter to see if they’re good and replace the contactor . Fire it up and see if everything is ok . Advise if it’s not. Whole thing start to finish shouldn’t be more than an hour and half if they had the contactor on their truck , which they probably did. I’m glad i never did residential . I did commercial and industrial hvac for the factory . A lot of hacks in the residential field especially .
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 16, 2022 13:48:57 GMT -5
Replaced the contactor, start cap/relay, blower cap on handler, all looking good. 🤞
I got a new run cap for the compressor on standby, the existing one looks good (by date it appears previously replaced). The new one has an extra terminal called CPT (compressor protection terminal) that I'm uncertain what should be plugged in there. Don't want to push my luck without more info. Suspect it's one of the legs from the contactor.
I know enough to discharge caps before handling but I did take a 24v poke in the process (don't forget to also turn thermostat off when replacing the contactor)😃
All in all, about $100.
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Post by budg on Jun 16, 2022 16:43:24 GMT -5
That’s not a bad price. Good deal. I always kill the power at the disconnect at the outdoor unit . It’s closer and it kills the 240 volt too. All the tstat does is kill the 24 volt to the contactor.
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Post by bluzcat on Jun 18, 2022 16:13:19 GMT -5
The past couple of weeks have seen some killer heat and humidity in my area. During the day my unit will only cool down to about 74°. It also feels a lot more humid in the house. We have a condensation pump and last summer I remember hearing it run quite a bit and this year not as much. The AC tech that came out last week declared it good considering its age. I’m not sure what else to do other than maybe buying a dehumidifier. I know 74° may seem cool to some but I seem recall last year I think we were able to get it down to about 72 or so if desired. I’m not so much wrapped up around what temperature it is than I am the fact that it still feels humid in the house at times.
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Post by budg on Jun 19, 2022 4:57:53 GMT -5
The past couple of weeks have seen some killer heat and humidity in my area. During the day my unit will only cool down to about 74°. It also feels a lot more humid in the house. We have a condensation pump and last summer I remember hearing it run quite a bit and this year not as much. The AC tech that came out last week declared it good considering its age. I’m not sure what else to do other than maybe buying a dehumidifier. I know 74° may seem cool to some but I seem recall last year I think we were able to get it down to about 72 or so if desired. I’m not so much wrapped up around what temperature it is than I am the fact that it still feels humid in the house at times. Something doesn’t sound right. It sounds like your tech may have missed something. I’d either call him back or call another company. Have you had your outside coil cleaned lately? If it is dirty it will cut the efficiency by quite a bit . Quite a few things can cause your unit to not cool properly . |
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 19, 2022 7:35:08 GMT -5
I'd pick up a cheap infrared temperature tester and measure the temperature coming out of a vent and compare it to the temp at a return. The spread would be telling.
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Post by budg on Jun 19, 2022 11:20:45 GMT -5
I'd pick up a cheap infrared temperature tester and measure the temperature coming out of a vent and compare it to the temp at a return. The spread would be telling. Agreed. You can get those at harbor freight for cheap. |
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Post by Leftee on Jun 19, 2022 11:27:20 GMT -5
I was in west TX last week. Dry heat my butt.
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Post by bluzcat on Jun 19, 2022 13:15:16 GMT -5
I'd pick up a cheap infrared temperature tester and measure the temperature coming out of a vent and compare it to the temp at a return. The spread would be telling. When the tech was here last Sat he did just that. About a 12 degree difference which he said was ideal. Today it is 78 and the humidity is low so it is cooling down with no issue. |
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Post by modbus on Jun 19, 2022 14:22:15 GMT -5
Last week we had a dew point over 80 degrees one day, nothing was working all that well then, including our AC. All the windows were fogged up with condensation on the outside, which I've never seen before in our house.
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Post by ninworks on Jun 29, 2022 6:55:58 GMT -5
Our AC has trouble keeping up when it gets over 80 degrees. It will run all day long without cycling and shuts off about 7PM. I'm going to clean the condenser coils on it today and then call a tech out to check the rest of the system. I have an 18 degree split between the intake and discharge so that's pretty good. I think I may have some duct work problems. All the ducts are under the floor in the crawl space. Any time I open the cellar door it is cooler under the house than I think it should be. I think the flex ducts may have a big leak somewhere. I need to have someone check that out as well. I'm too big and too old to be crawling around under there.
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Post by Auf Kiltre on Jun 29, 2022 7:37:19 GMT -5
Our AC has trouble keeping up when it gets over 80 degrees. It will run all day long without cycling and shuts off about 7PM. I'm going to clean the condenser coils on it today and then call a tech out to check the rest of the system. I have an 18 degree split between the intake and discharge so that's pretty good. I think I may have some duct work problems. All the ducts are under the floor in the crawl space. Any time I open the cellar door it is cooler under the house than I think it should be. I think the flex ducts may have a big leak somewhere. I need to have someone check that out as well. I'm too big and too old to be crawling around under there. Back in Florida we suddenly had very low air flow. I crawled in the attic and found the plenum (box attached to handler with duct work) detached. |
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Post by HenryJ on Jun 29, 2022 7:51:13 GMT -5
It was blazing hot where I live last week. It was hotter than our air conditioner could handle. We thought there was something wrong with the HVAC, so we called a guy out. He sprayed some water on the outside unit and told us to do that the next day and whenever the temperature was approaching 100 degrees F. So most of last week I hosed off the bottom of the AC unit and it worked better.
I had never heard of that technique for cooling off the system, but I saw a local TV news article about doing just that.
Then, the oh-so-welcome rains came later last week
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Post by RufusTeleStrat on Jun 29, 2022 12:00:58 GMT -5
They sell misting units to do just that to increase the temperature transfer efficiency.
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Post by budg on Jun 29, 2022 17:54:13 GMT -5
It was blazing hot where I live last week. It was hotter than our air conditioner could handle. We thought there was something wrong with the HVAC, so we called a guy out. He sprayed some water on the outside unit and told us to do that the next day and whenever the temperature was approaching 100 degrees F. So most of last week I hosed off the bottom of the AC unit and it worked better. I had never heard of that technique for cooling off the system, but I saw a local TV news article about doing just that. Then, the oh-so-welcome rains came later last week Yeah . Your dropping the condensing temp to increase your capacity . It gives it more room for the refrigerant to boil off in the evaporator. |
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