if you're repair person can't find a leak I'd fire them because in a small residential system there is no reason to not find a leak. Some guys just leave a cap or core loose so they can charge to put more in. Some really crooked techs will put gauges on your system, look like they're checking things and actually take some of yours out and sell it to someone else. But assuming your current repair person is just stupid and not dishonest, they should be ale to find the leak. Nowdays the leak detectors are very high tech and don't miss a thing. You can easily tell if it's undercharged by looking at and feeling the lines. The big one should be sweating and cold, even on a hot day. If it isn't, you're undercharged.

Addition: Some systems have low pressure cut out controls so that if the system runs low on charge it shuts off although that's not common in residential systems they do exist. That's some of Carrier's antics. Even though they invented the AC system they're garbage in my opinion because they put in 15 components when 2 will do. They grossly over complicate everything they make.

We live in a small rental house and don't have central AC. The only time i really need it to be cool is at night but our rats and ferrets have to have the temperature regulated. Anything above 90-95 is fatal to them so we have 3 small window shakers that we use. During the day we go to the local state park, which is about 5 miles away and soak in the lake.

Hmmm, we have a new-ish heat pump. It worked great until last winter when some sensor went out and it ran totally on electricity instead of sharing the load with the propane furnace. We finally got the guy out here to fix it. He is a friend of the neighbor so he has to do a good job or the neighbor would come down on him, lol. He said with a heat pump, we should have it checked out every year to make sure all the components and fluids/gasses are correct. The combo of heat pump and furnace has saved us a lot of money over the last couple of years...can't count last year since he turned it off and we ran on the furnace until he fixed it. We also save money by doing the window thing...open windows at night and use fans to pull in the cool night air, then in the morning we close the windows and draw the blinds to keep the cool air inside. It's usually about 2 or 3 pm when it finally gets hot inside and we either open the north windows (with fans blowing in) or if it's really hot, the heat pump to cool it off.
Rod, that is neat that you take the rats to the park to swim...you could get them a little wading pool to put in your yard! We have a pond out back and the dogs love it. They don't swim that much but they like to wade in and lay down where it's shallow.

The thing about welding is that you can remember all of it but unless you do it a lot you lose your touch at it. At least I do. my acetylene torh has been sitting useless for almost 10 years because a doofus told me my tanks were too old and had to be replaced. But he got either fired or retired and they just swapped them with no questioj. I used my torch for countless things every day. I'm all set to go again and have been welding and brazing broken yard tools and all kinds of stuff over the last week.

The repair guy from last year was semi-retired but I talked him into a service call. His fees were the lowest I could find. I had some peeps quote me $40 per lb for the refrigerant alone. I watched everything he did so I'm pretty sure he didn't try to cheat me. None the less, I don't think he's the person to call to find a leak. He's kinda old school.

I'll check around and see if I can find a reasonably priced service that I can trust. I'm not really thrilled about shelling out $400-$500 at present. My little window air unit was $100 and it works fine. This winter might be a different story, though. Electric space heaters are expensive to operate and heat pump emergency heat is out of the question. It is nice to have a working heat pump when you need it.

again for all the great info!

I don't think Rod has rats, I think he's too normal. Perhaps you meant me? Or I missed something. Although it would be excellent to find another rat person in GimpChat I don't think there are any. I take my ferrets to the park to swim, they like water. rats can swim but aren't crazy about it. We do have one of those little blue 12" deep pools that you get for toddlers that we fill for them sometimes. Ferrets like to dig more than anything else so we're going to fill it with sand next year. We do sometimes put the rats in it and they swim around, we shampoo them up and give them a bath in the process. My wife's favorite rat, Haggrid, died this morning, she isn't taking it well. He had been sick for a while.

All of the repairs I've been doing (HVAC, plumbing electrical hydronics pneumatics electronics etc) have been for free since they're all either for local non profit groups or people who can't afford to pay other guys. $40 a pound sounds high to me but there is a new kind of refrigerant called puron and I don't know what it costs. If it's plain old R22 it costs around $7 a pound. I just priced a 30 pound cylinder last week and it was $200. A lot of the 'old school' guys don't do well with the new electronic leak detectors and like to use an old antique method called a halide torch. The new ones are infinitely better and safer since the old halide torches use a propane flame to detect leaks. A lot of the older guys haven't adapted to the new methods. The EPA has completely re vamped the rules and everyone in the business now has to be EPA certified. There are three classifications, type 1 2 and 3. Type 1 allows people to work on factory sealed devices, like window air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers water coolers etc. Type two allows those devices plus field charged systems like central air systems. Type 3 allows all of the previous two classes plus large industrial units like 1000 ton chillers. Type 3 is also called universal. I'm type 3. The point after all that was that a lot of the old guys don't think they should have to conform to the new standards because they've been doing it for X amount of years. The problem is they've been doing it X amount of years wrong. The penalties for intentionally breaking those rules can be a several thousand dollar fine or prison. now any refrigerant that has to be removed from a system is required to be recovered, in the past they just opened valves and blew it out into the air. If they do that now it's prison time. HVAC people have to have recovery machines which recover the refrigerant into a tank. Those are very expensive and a lot of the old guys don't know how to use them and refuse to learn.
it occurs to me that I've been ranting and that it's pointless to anyone else. I'm sorry, I haven't had a conversation about this topic in at least 11 years and it's been fun just to talk about it. Unlike most people I liked to work and hated to have to retire.

I know a little about this subject.
Ammonia is used for very large installations like warehouses where they keep frozen foods etc.
Before Dupont invented freon SO2 (sulfurdioxide) was used for fridges.
This gas is highly toxic! Fortunately you smell it immediately.
Ever seen one of those GE fridges with the compressor and condensor tubing on top of the cabinet?
My grandparents had one.
The problem with freon is the fluor part which destroys the ozone layer.
Gerard.

Yes, they still use it in refrigerators for RVS and small things but it's mainly intended for large systems. Ammonia systems require a gas burner to work. The gas company here still tries to sell ammonia AC systems for residential systems. They call them Arkla Servel units. Ammonia is potentially fatal ut only if you breathe too much of it. I've gotten a few doses of it. ulfur dioxide, on the other hand is worse. 3 lung fulls and your lungs go into paralysis and nothing can stop it. That's one of the worst dangers of bad plumbing installations. Not all freon is based on flourine, some is based on chlorine. That's why if you blow it through a heated copper tube you get phosgene gas, also known as mustard gas.

They contain both.
Fluorine is a "halogen" so is chlorine.
There are 4 halogens.Bromine is another one and is (was) used for photographic film and paper.
AFAIK all freons contain fluorine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorofluorocarbon.
Gerard.

My second floor heatpump was running on emergency heat all winter and I didn't even realize it until Summer came and the AC wouldn't function. We had just bought the house and the previous owners must have swapped the thermostat with one lacking an emergency light. Fortunately we only used it at night... who knows what the electric bill would've been if we ran the downstairs unit on emergency all day.

I'm dredging back up this old thread because I'm having more HVAC problems. Last year, I had to change out the reversing value on my heat pump, at a cost of $500 USD.

Well, a couple of days ago, I cranked on the cooling, checked the vent and cool air was coming out. 30 minutes later, I noticed it wasn't cooling off so I walked outside and looked at the condenser unit. The fan wasn't spinning and the compressor wasn't humming. So I ran back in and turned off the unit. I could tell it had gotten pretty hot.

Since then, I've tried a couple of tests and when I turn on the cooling (or heating) the fan on the outdoor condenser unit runs for 2-3 minutes and then just turns off. A couple minutes later, the compressor turns off. For the 2 or 3 minutes before the fan cuts out, it seems to be working and generating cool air.

My research has turned up a couple of possibilities. It could be the run capacitor or it could be the fan motor, or perhaps both (but I doubt that). I looked at the run capacitor and it wasn't bulging but I guess it could still be bad. I found a video on youtube that tells how to check it. There is also a method to check the fan motor.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone might know of something else that could cause these symptoms. I'm hoping it's the run capacitor because that's an easy fix.

Man, my luck has been really bad lately. Murphy is all over me.

Oh hey, it's been two years and my 2nd floor AC is still broken! Time sure flies.




Something like this happened at a house I was renting several years ago. It turned out the compressor was overheating because the lawn people buried the unit in grass.

Maybe the fan motor is failing, and when it stops, the compressor is overheating and shuts off? I'm not an expert on these things, just making a guess based off of a similar experience.

Thanks merrak. From what I understand, the dual run capacitor I have supplies power to the fan and the compressor. I'm sure hoping that is what it is.

It looks like this.

Yes, that would destroy the capacitor thing by keeping the motor from running.

I forgot this thread even existed.