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Started By
Message
HVAC getting all kinds of nonsense from company that installed it
Posted on 7/11/25 at 1:11 pm
Posted on 7/11/25 at 1:11 pm
so we have the 'dirty sock' smell coming from the floor registers.
at first i thought it was dirty ducts
then someone on here said maybe mold on the outside compressor evaporator coils
so dude came out and we went down to the crawl space together..turns out our house is built into the side of a hill so the crawl space is 3/4 underground.
ducts (solid metal) were COVERED with water droplets and it definitely smelled icky down there.
then dude found i have 2 UV lights (1 is burned out) to help kill nasty things.
then he found a big-arse hospital grade filter box (his words) and even though the unit was put in in 2023, i had no idea this was down there or how to change it so i paid him $200 to take out the old one (WHICH WAS BLACK). found the identical filter on amzon for $50 so i went ahead & bought an extra. supposdely you only change this out once a year and this negates the need for one in the house; i'm just going to keep a cheap washable green filter on that.
ANYWAY
he said i needed to
1. encapsulate the entire space first
2. then install a 'commercial grade dehumidifier'
3. once the humidity was out, assess the taped seams for damage/loose connections that are sucking in crawl space air into the ducts and see if the ductwork can be saved or have to be replaced
4. have the ducts cleaned
5. replace both UV lights ($600)
6. replace the crawlspace filter (which I had him do)
*****
so thats some bullshite aint it? in the end i was leaving for florida the next day so i picked up a $200 wifi dehumidifier at costco in the crawl space and ran a line into the sump pump drain.
i watched it drop from 84% humidity to 50% over the course of a week and at the moment that's the only thing i've done.
what are your thoughts? i can't believe this system is less than 3 years old and already having this many issues. what where they thinking when they installed it? that it doesn't rain or the ground doesn't get wet in nashville in the summer?
fyi its a 4 ton unit and cools both upstairs and downstairs.
at first i thought it was dirty ducts
then someone on here said maybe mold on the outside compressor evaporator coils
so dude came out and we went down to the crawl space together..turns out our house is built into the side of a hill so the crawl space is 3/4 underground.
ducts (solid metal) were COVERED with water droplets and it definitely smelled icky down there.
then dude found i have 2 UV lights (1 is burned out) to help kill nasty things.
then he found a big-arse hospital grade filter box (his words) and even though the unit was put in in 2023, i had no idea this was down there or how to change it so i paid him $200 to take out the old one (WHICH WAS BLACK). found the identical filter on amzon for $50 so i went ahead & bought an extra. supposdely you only change this out once a year and this negates the need for one in the house; i'm just going to keep a cheap washable green filter on that.
ANYWAY
he said i needed to
1. encapsulate the entire space first
2. then install a 'commercial grade dehumidifier'
3. once the humidity was out, assess the taped seams for damage/loose connections that are sucking in crawl space air into the ducts and see if the ductwork can be saved or have to be replaced
4. have the ducts cleaned
5. replace both UV lights ($600)
6. replace the crawlspace filter (which I had him do)
*****
so thats some bullshite aint it? in the end i was leaving for florida the next day so i picked up a $200 wifi dehumidifier at costco in the crawl space and ran a line into the sump pump drain.
i watched it drop from 84% humidity to 50% over the course of a week and at the moment that's the only thing i've done.
what are your thoughts? i can't believe this system is less than 3 years old and already having this many issues. what where they thinking when they installed it? that it doesn't rain or the ground doesn't get wet in nashville in the summer?
fyi its a 4 ton unit and cools both upstairs and downstairs.
This post was edited on 7/11/25 at 1:15 pm
7
Posted on 7/11/25 at 2:13 pm to CAD703X
quote:
what are your thoughts? i can't believe this system is less than 3 years old and already having this many issues
Thread on OT - 75% of the calls I get are on equipment 5yrs old or less
Posted on 7/11/25 at 2:18 pm to CAD703X
duct issues are common, especially “underground”. What he is suggesting sounds reasonable to me as far as scope is concerned
Posted on 7/11/25 at 7:21 pm to CAD703X
Is it more of a crawl space issue than an a/c issue? My crawl space is huge, but it has a fan that blows from in to out that I let run all the time. I know it pulls some air down through leaks in the spray foam from the 1st floor, but I don't care. It's always cool and dry down there. And it is encapsulated, though not perfectly because the retards that did it laid an uphill sheet over a downhill in 1 spot that I had to fix/rig. My downstairs a/c blower is in the crawl space, but all heat exchange happens outside at the unit. Ducts are flexible insulated, not metal.
Posted on 7/12/25 at 12:31 pm to calcotron
These ducts are 50 years old and square rigid metal unlike the ones at my previous homes which were round and insulated and connected to the underside of the floor via metal braces.
Posted on 7/12/25 at 2:30 pm to CAD703X
I’d keep running the dehumidifier and see if smell dissipates. How many ducts you have in there. If there is only one or two I would pop it off and check the inside to see if it’s moldy if it is I would just take them out, clean them then reattach and reseal. Duct sealant is like paint. Not hard to do and YouTube has tons of videos.
Posted on 7/12/25 at 2:44 pm to CAD703X
With your situation, encapsulating the crawl space and the dehumidifiers is of paramount importance.
You don't want any of that black mold making you and your family sick and ruining the investment of your house.
My house in WNC is built into the side of a hill and with encapsulation and dehumidifiers the humidity stays about 40% in the crawl space and we have no musty smells or mold. My cousin's house, built 25 years ago just a few miles away, smells awful of mold. His house is not encapsulated.
You don't want any of that black mold making you and your family sick and ruining the investment of your house.
My house in WNC is built into the side of a hill and with encapsulation and dehumidifiers the humidity stays about 40% in the crawl space and we have no musty smells or mold. My cousin's house, built 25 years ago just a few miles away, smells awful of mold. His house is not encapsulated.
Posted on 7/12/25 at 3:13 pm to ruzil
dirty sock syndrome is mold and bacteria growing on the evaporator coil... have it treated before you go making huge changes google link
Posted on 7/12/25 at 10:51 pm to CAD703X
If I am understanding correctly, I think any ductwork that is transporting cool air should be insulated so it doesn’t sweat. Sounds to me like he doesn’t know what’s going on, so he is just suggesting everything he can think of.
Posted on 7/13/25 at 6:40 am to brew400
quote:
dirty sock syndrome is mold and bacteria growing on the evaporator coil... have it treated before you go making huge changes
Evaporator coils are fairly easy to clean DIY. Just get coil cleaning brush and be gentle, and some coil cleaning solution.
If the humidity was 84% that definitely very high and likely a mold growing situation.
People freak and pay tons of money for killing mold. Remove the proper environment for growth and it will die and be fine over time. Clean it up where you can.
Posted on 7/13/25 at 7:12 am to baldona
Posted on 7/13/25 at 8:33 am to CAD703X
I know way less about duct work than other parts of HVAC systems but having flimsy metal parts underground under a vacuum doesn’t sit right with me.
I don’t think the guy is making stuff up or ripping you off and I almost always think that. It sounds more like this is just a very difficult situation to control.
I’d be almost tempted to mini split the entire house if the system weren’t so new. I don’t understand America’s obsession with central air now that we have the readily available technology for HVAC that is much more efficient, lower priced, and continuously customizable while being far less obstructive to the design and infrastructure of the home.
I don’t think the guy is making stuff up or ripping you off and I almost always think that. It sounds more like this is just a very difficult situation to control.
I’d be almost tempted to mini split the entire house if the system weren’t so new. I don’t understand America’s obsession with central air now that we have the readily available technology for HVAC that is much more efficient, lower priced, and continuously customizable while being far less obstructive to the design and infrastructure of the home.
Posted on 7/13/25 at 6:53 pm to CAD703X
What brand system do you have and how old is it?
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