Semi-OT: Air Conditioner Question

A fellow I went to K-12 school with, and who has remained a friend over the years, is a Lennox dealer. The advice he gave me over the years is merely an echo of what you've just said. Go with installation and service. FWIW, he recommend Lennox's 2-stage high SEER unit for me to get installed in a home we're thinking of buying. For my existing house, he recommended any 13 SEER box and TXV coil.

Nonny

Reply to
Nonnymus
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Where the coolant is leaking is not known. This is both the second compressor and the second AC guy.

Reply to
Dan Coby

Chances are it's in a wall. Unfortunately not uncommon. The leak leads to your bad compressors. Ed is right, if the guy who replaced the unit made no effort to effort to insure there was no other source of a leak, no matter what brand unit you put in you still have the original problem.

Your other choice is to have the unit checked twice a year to keep it from running low .. around here that would cost you an extra $300 to $400 a year in service/refrigerant costs.

Reply to
Swingman

My 13 year old truck does not seem to put out the super cold AC anymore, so I stopped in a vehicle AC place to get an idea of the cost to top up the refrigerant. 'Bout passed out, $150-200 and UP. Decided there aren't enough really hot days around here for that, but it sure beats $30 a Month!

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

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The one we have would have been installed in 1988

Thanks for the input Andy. Rheem was the least expensive unit quoted, so I have been a little leery about going with the cheapest system, but I haven't seen anything yet that would indicate that it is either less capable or less durable than the more expensive Carrier.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

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I think you have it right there. In researching this, I'm finding that for every opinion, there is an equal but opposite opinion about whatever brand I'm looking at. I.e.: "American Standard sucks, it's the worst. My unit is noisy and breaks every season" "American Standard is great, my unit has been in since the stone age and I've never had moment's trouble" "Rheem sucks, it's the worst. My unit is noisy and breaks every season" "Rheem is great, my unit has been in since the stone age and I've never had moment's trouble" "Carrier sucks, it's the worst. My unit is noisy and breaks every season" "Carrier is great, my unit has been in since the stone age and I've never had moment's trouble"

Only objective thing I've found so far is that Carrier apparently has had problems with condenser coils that rust out. These are coils that were meant to be submerged in condensed water that were rusting out. From what I can tell, Carrier has since come out with rust-protected coils.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

The common thread in all your "examples" is the age of the unit. The ones that have been in since the stone age, without exception, will have been made when engineers, not accountants and stock price, made the design decisions. Although a lot of the older stuff is not quite as efficient, it generally is a LOT more reliable!!!!

As for the statement that "the major difference in central air brand names is the installation ..." I'll forcefully argue that - because there are dealers/installers that will do exactly the same install on an expensive top of the line carrier as they will on the cheapest American Standard - and that goes both ways.

And I've NEVER seen steel coils in any air conditioner - so "rusting out" is not an issue on the coils.

The later aluminum coils do tend to be a lot more fragile than either the older aluminum ones or the even older copper ones.

Reply to
clare

... snip

That comment was based on the following: , "Used a reputable builder and HVAC installer 5 years ago on new home installation of Carrier Puron system. Almost 5 years to the day, the coolant leaked out due to rusting evaporator coil. Unbelievable! A manufactured part that is supposed to be wet most of the time rusts through. That, folks, is poor design and cutting costs at the manufacturing end, not poor installation. My repairman said he has had to replace dozens of these coils in the last few years. Carrier is supposedly proud of their new "Rust-proof" coil -- which mine should have been in the first place. This explains about 80% of the dissatisfied comments I have read about Carrier tonight. If yours is still under warranty, insist on having your rusty coil replaced with the rust- proof model, otherwise you will certainly be replacing it again in short order "

There are are several similar comments on this set of pages that give similar experiences.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

snake it through the ducts and

e "real" ducts

completely disconnected

the Fall, given the heat in the

Andy

Call RiteWay Ventilating. They can do the duct thing. Ask for Rick.

Delay any hot task you are able to until at least October. Try 5 minutes on the hot roof miday to see why. And the attic will be tougher. The ductwork redo is toughest. Unless you would like your house cut up.

Bob AZ

Reply to
Bob AZ

"Dan Coby" wrote

I hope the third guy is better.

The AC in one of my cars stopped working under warranty. Dealer fixed it, but two weeks later, same problem. Fixed it again, but lasted only four days. Fixed again but did not even last two miles. I turned around and went back. I had the dealership owner, service manager, and the tech that did the repair outside looking at my car. They all said they could not find the leak. Then, I asked, "did you check the evaporator?" The reply was "oh, they NEVER leak". You can guess the rest of the story.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

A 1997 vehicle should use R134 refrigerant. You can buy a can for about $11.00 at most any auto parts store and a simple fill hose for about the same. Lots of places carry a kit with a can and the hose combined for $20 or so.

Reply to
Larry W

Well! The evaporator is way too hard to get to to check. ;~(

Reply to
Leon

Bob AZ wrote: :> Do you know anyone in Tucson who has a camera on a long cable that could snake it through the ducts and :> inspect them for leaks?  We're concerned about both the integrity of the "real" ducts :> at the joints, and the shape of the flex duct (one pice of which we found completely disconnected :> a year ago). :>

:> And our regular HVAC guy is happy to redo all the ductwork, but not until the Fall, given the heat in the :> attic.  Is this what I'd expect froom any HVAC guy?

: Andy

: Call RiteWay Ventilating. They can do the duct thing. Ask for Rick.

: Delay any hot task you are able to until at least October. Try 5 : minutes on the hot roof miday to see why. And the attic will be : tougher. The ductwork redo is toughest. Unless you would like your : house cut up.

: Bob AZ

His request to wait seemed perfectly reasonable to me -- I've been on the roof, and also in my attic, in midsummer, and I can't imagine lasting more than a few minutes in the latter. But a couple of locals scoffed and said I need a new duct guy, so thanks for the confirmation that he (and I) are being reasonable.

Part of the pressure is that in addition ot replcing the ductwork, he'll be replumbing the house -- we had a nasty flood due to a burst pipe in the attic last month, and the rest of it isn't in any better condition. I'll just pray it holds till cooler weather!

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

On Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:46:28 -0700, Mark & Juanita wrote the following:

Interesting. Both my salesman and installer were leery of the new Puron systems 8 years ago (due to performance issues, not reliability) so I had the R-22(?) system installed at their suggestion. Yes, I know it will take an entire redo when this one breaks, but by that time, it will be worth it. I used to use R-12 back in the day, installing systems in brand new trucks in Phoenix one summer. Aiyeeeeeeeeeeeee!

-- It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. -- Kin Hubbard

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Do you have metal pipes, perhaps rusting pipes? There is a fix other than repiping and generally comes with a warranty that far out lasts a repipe warranty. It is MUCH less expensive, takes Much less time, and in my father's case you would never know thhe plumbers were there those 3 days.

My dad's galvanized pipes were rusting and leaking and I was sure it was only a matter of time before I had to go in and make more repairs.

Enter, Epoxy coating inside the pipes.

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is probably some one locally that can do this for you also.

Reply to
Leon

Did you ever read up in any "trades" magazines as to why the refrigerants were mandated to be phased out for the so called "better version"? Talk about politics. When I was in the automotive business years ago our trades publication that we subscribed to spelled it all out. Apparently DuPont was about to have its Freon patent run out and would no longer have the market cornered, so to speak. So they came out with a replacement refrigerant that they would have the patent on again. They sold it to our government leaders as being better for the environment, the ozone layer. That as it may be, it is worse for human contact. If it was not going to be as harmful to the ozone layer why do they want it to all be recaptured when working on a system rather than let it go free as was done with R-12?

This was the precursor to the global warming fad and now the climate change fad.

Reply to
Leon

On Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:25:05 -0500, "Leon" wrote the following:

No, I was out of it by that time, though I knew it was all leftist bullshit and politics. Unilateral replacement of R-12 doesn't fix a problem they think we have.

Right, it was a part of the expanded eco-terrorism which has risen to accepted (by leftists) political form in the world today. Fukkemall.

-- It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. -- Kin Hubbard

Reply to
Larry Jaques

Tips for working in the attic during the summer:

  1. Put a water sprinkler on the roof. This makes a HUGE difference.
  2. Disconnect one of the A/C ducts and use it to cool the attic. Don't forget to reconnect it when done.
  3. Start at 3:00 a.m. (You've got to use lights anyway, what diff does being dark outside make?).
Reply to
HeyBub

THANKS!

Reply to
Lobby Dosser

--------------------------------- You have a truck using 134A.

I have had similar problems with a 99 Toyota P/U.

Each time a leaking "Schrader valve".

There are four (4) of them and sooner or later they all leak.

These days they are not expensive (China import), maybe $10/ea, but you're looking at somewhere around $50/lb for 134A.

I've never been hit for more than about $80 in the past.

It all depends on how much 134A you need.

If you don't take care of it, you could lose the compressor which is major $.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

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